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'''Shadow Person''', AKA Shadow People, Shadow Man, Shadow Figure, Shadow Being, Black Mass, Shadow, Shade, etc.

Origin: American Folklore

==Description==
[[File:Shadowpeople.png|200px|thumb|right|Shadow Person]]


A Shadow Person (also known as a shadow figure, shadow being or black mass) is the perception of a patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure, and interpreted as the presence of a spirit or other entity by believers in the paranormal or supernatural. Shadow People are usually described as looking like dark shadows, differing from ordinary shadows in that they have depth, and tend to move in ways that seem out of sync with ordinary space-time, such as moving unnaturally slowly, or having quick, jerky movements, with the ability to move through solid objects (such as walls or doors), move from the physical space of rooms into the reflected space of mirrors (and vice-versa), etc.; many observers report being able to see Shadow People only from their peripheral vision as a dark shape darting into hiding "from the corner of the eye", and sometimes observers report seeing Shadow People hiding in shadows or dark closets, or peeking around corners or objects behind which they seem to be hiding.

The figures are generally humanoid in shape, usually very tall (over six and a half feet) and usually slender (often unnaturally so compared to actual human figures); observers have reported a variety of forms that Shadow People might take, with some common themes being hooded and/or cloaked shadow figures, shadow figures wearing hats, shadow figures of vague form (such as if they might be covered in sheets of cloth) or wearing long coats, shadow figures with glowing eyes (usually red, but sometimes green or other colours), demonic variations from the human outline (including grotesque deformities or abnormalities of proportions such as long arms or fingers, or even horns, claws, wings, etc.), etc. Some Shadow "People" - sometimes called "Black Masses" - may not have a humanoid shape at all, being amorphous or cloud-like in form, as if they are losing their humanoid shape, or perhaps as if they are not actually humanoid in shape at all - indeed, Shadow People are reported to be accomplished shape-shifters and may only be temporarily assuming a humanoid shape for the purpose of interacting with human beings. Sometimes, Shadow "People" may take the form of shadowy animals, such as legendary Black Dogs of ill omen, or the [[Wampus (race)]].

Shadow People may generally seem to have a malignant aura or negative energy to them, but their exact motivation and nature are mysterious. Shadow People have a limited ability to interact with our world - such as psychically attacking human beings - but often seem instead to be limited to watching our world, if the Shadow Person even expresses any interest in our world at all. Sometimes, Shadow People may not even seem to have any known reason to be in our world - they may simply be passing through on their way to some other universe, or perhaps they are temporary visitors or explorers in this world. More often, they seem to be observers in our world, lurking in rooms or following people and watching them. Shadow People are sometimes believed to be harbingers or omens of significant events or of deaths which the beings may be here to warn us of, or perhaps merely to observe, or by some accounts cause. Shadow People may be messengers sent from other worlds or other dimensions to communicate imperfectly with human beings. Shadow People may follow victims, subjects for study, targets for their messages or warnings, or other people from location to location, but often they are instead tied to a particular location - such as a specific building or even room - usually for unknown reasons, perhaps because they cannot stray very far from the portal they use to enter our world.

According to some beliefs, Shadow People are negative alien entities inhabiting a parallel universe (see the [[Astral Plane]] and [[Other Side]]) who can sometimes be perceived in our world; other beliefs hold Shadow People to be [[Ghost]]s - "Shades" - which haunt the living. Shadow People are alternatively sometimes assumed to be the Astral Bodies of Dreamers - from our world, or others such as the [[Dreamlands]] - who may not even be aware that they are remotely viewing physical locations in our world as they Dream.

Sometimes, Shadow People are linked with [[Vampire]]s or [[Hag]]s or [[Hag|Nightmare]]s, which may attack helpless victims of Sleep Paralysis by sitting or laying on top of the sleeper and choking, suffocating, or draining life-force, spirit, or other essence away from the victim, or feeding on the fear, anxiety, and distress that they cause to us. Shadow People are reportedly able to otherwise psychically attack people or interact with this world, for example with psychokinesis - and may thus be identified as [[Djinn]]i, [[Elemental]]s, [[Poltergeist]]s, [[Demon]]s, etc.

Compare and contrast to Lovecraft's [[Nightgaunt]]s.

==Keeper Notes==


* Some alternative identities of Shadow People might include:
** [[Nightgaunt]]s
** [[Men in Black]]
** [[Witch]]es and [[Wizard]]s astrally projecting from the [[Dreamlands]], the [[Daylands|Earth]], or from alien worlds; alternatively, spells cast by witches and wizards
** [[Ghost]]s, [[Poltergeist]]s
** [[Elemental]]s
** [[Elemental#Aeiirii_and_Saiitii|Aeiirii and/or Saiitii]]
** [[Demon]]s, Imps, and [[Rat-Thing|Familiar Spirits]]
** [[Cat#Faerie_Cats|Faerie-Cats]], Cath-Shee, Wampus-Cats, Hell-Hounds, Black Dogs, or other shadowy animal forms
** [[MothMan]]

==Associated Mythos Elements==
* setting: [[Folk Mythos]]

==References==

[[Category:Races]]
[[Category:FolkMythos]]

@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
-=== as Other Entities ===
+=== As Other Entities ===
 Sometimes, Shadow People have also been linked with [[Vampire]]s or [[Hag]]s or [[Hag|Nightmare]]s, which may attack helpless victims of Sleep Paralysis by sitting or laying on top of the sleeper and choking, suffocating, or draining life-force, spirit, or other essence away from the victim, or feeding on the fear, anxiety, and distress that they cause to us.  Shadow People are reportedly able to otherwise psychically attack people or interact with this world, for example with psychokinesis - and may thus be identified as [[Djinn]]i, [[Elemental]]s, [[Poltergeist]]s, [[Demon]]s, etc.
@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 Very similar as well to [[Spectral Hunter]]s, which were formerly human cultists whose spirits have been bound to the material plane as demonic, shadowy guardians, assassins, etc., and distinguished by a more malevolent and violent presence, and by being bound to a specific location or tome.
 ==Keeper Notes==

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 Shadow People may generally seem to have a malignant aura or negative energy to them, but their exact motivation and nature are mysterious.  Shadow People have a limited ability to interact with our world - such as psychically attacking human beings - but often seem instead to be limited to watching our world, if the Shadow Person even expresses any interest in our world at all.  Sometimes, Shadow People may not even seem to have any known reason to be in our world - they may simply be passing through on their way to some other universe, or perhaps they are temporary visitors or explorers in this world.  More often, they seem to be observers in our world, lurking in rooms or following people and watching them.  Shadow People are sometimes believed to be harbingers or omens of significant events or of deaths which the beings may be here to warn us of, or perhaps merely to observe, or by some accounts cause.  Shadow People may be messengers sent from other worlds or other dimensions to communicate imperfectly with human beings.  Shadow People may follow victims, subjects for study, targets for their messages or warnings, or other people from location to location, but often they are instead tied to a particular location - such as a specific building or even room - usually for unknown reasons, perhaps because they cannot stray very far from the portal they use to enter our world.
 === As Tulpa, Elemental, or Astral Beings ===
@@ Line 26: / Line 32: @@
 Summon and Bind spells have also been met with mixed success and sometimes violent reactions, leading to speculation that Shadow People may simply be toying with human wizards who try to interact with them, though the famous Mystic, The [[Great Garibaldi]], with his apprentices, have long claimed that there may be multiple "species" of beings from different worlds with different properties which have been collectively called "Shadow People", with spells working better on some species than others.

@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 === The Stockrooms ===
-The Stockrooms are a strange borderland on the edge of reality, which has been known to be inhabited by Shadow People.  See [[Talk:Shadow_Person|Stockrooms]] on the Discussion page for further details.
+The Stockrooms are a strange borderland on the edge of reality, which has been known to be inhabited by Shadow People, and may be their place of origin.  The Stockrooms are a seemingly endless construct of randomly-connected open rooms, corridors, staircases, and closets, mostly empty and featureless aside from their damp yellow carpeting and mouldering yellow wallpaper.  See [[The Stockrooms]] further details.
@@ Line 80: / Line 70: @@
 [[Category:Races]]
 [[Category:FolkMythos]]
 __NOTOC__

@@ Line 40: / Line 40: @@
 Because Shadow People are the most frequently-reported inhabitants of the Stockrooms, explorers of the realm speculate that Shadow People may originate tere, though there is little definite proof of this.
-Other types of beings have been encountered in the Stockrooms besides Shadow People, including [[Dimensional Shamblers]], [[Hound of Tindalos|Hounds of Tindalos]], [[Zoog]]s, and other, stranger beings.
+The Stockrooms reportedly border on other [[Seven Planes|Other Dimensions and Worlds]], especially on the [[Astral Plane]], [[Other World|Other Side]], and [[Dreamlands]].  Other types of beings have been encountered in the Stockrooms besides Shadow People, including [[Dimensional Shamblers]], [[Hound of Tindalos|Hounds of Tindalos]], [[Zoog]]s, and other, stranger beings.  Various [[Elemental]]s, [[Spirit]]s and [[Ghost]]s, "[[Demon]]s", and other strange entities might also haunt some of the most desolate corners of the Stockrooms as well.
@@ Line 72: / Line 72: @@
 * setting:  [[Folk Mythos]]
 * location:  The Stockrooms (see above)

@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 Inside the Stockrooms, exits are difficult to locate; when doors are encountered, they lead to more of the same, bland corridors, or sometimes stairwells to other, darker, stranger levels, storage rooms with mysterious contents, and sometimes dimly-lit rooms containing Shadow People or other, even stranger beings.  Shadow People often seem to be "stuck" in the rooms, until accidentally or deliberately freed by explorers, for example by leaving the door open, or sometimes by inviting the Shadow People to leave, or summoning them from the rooms, or other means - the rules for binding and releasing these Shadow People seem to be arbitrary and inconsistent, and it is uncertain whether the Shadow People are truly bound to their rooms, and if the rituals for freeing them actually work, or if the Shadow People choose to leave on their own, mysterious motives when some subjective criteria is met to catch their attention and motivate them to leave.  Once "freed", the Shadow People may pursue human investigators, or follow them out of the Stockrooms out of curiosity, or simply wander free, leading the investigator deeper into the Stockrooms for mysterious purposes of their own.  It may be that investigators lost to the Stockrooms have been taken by pursuing Shadow People, though no one has ever seen a lost investigator again to prove this or any other theory.
-Because Shadow People are the most frequently-reported inhabitants of the Stockrooms, explorers of the realm speculate that Shadow People may originate from the Stockrooms, though there is little definite proof of this.  Other types of beings have been encountered in the Stockrooms besides Shadow People, including [[Dimensional Shamblers]], [[Hound of Tindalos|Hounds of Tindalos]], [[Zoog]]s, and other, stranger beings.
+Because Shadow People are the most frequently-reported inhabitants of the Stockrooms, explorers of the realm speculate that Shadow People may originate tere, though there is little definite proof of this.
@@ Line 45: / Line 47: @@
 Sometimes, Shadow People have also been linked with [[Vampire]]s or [[Hag]]s or [[Hag|Nightmare]]s, which may attack helpless victims of Sleep Paralysis by sitting or laying on top of the sleeper and choking, suffocating, or draining life-force, spirit, or other essence away from the victim, or feeding on the fear, anxiety, and distress that they cause to us.  Shadow People are reportedly able to otherwise psychically attack people or interact with this world, for example with psychokinesis - and may thus be identified as [[Djinn]]i, [[Elemental]]s, [[Poltergeist]]s, [[Demon]]s, etc.
-Compare and contrast to Lovecraft's [[Nightgaunt]]s.
+Compare and contrast to Lovecraft's [[Nightgaunt]]s, which have a physical presence, and can grab and carry or "tickle" human victims.
@@ Line 58: / Line 62: @@
 ** [[Ghost]]s, [[Poltergeist]]s
 ** [[Elemental]]s
 ** [[Elemental#Aeiirii_and_Saiitii|Aeiirii and/or Saiitii]]
 ** [[Demon]]s, Imps, and [[Rat-Thing|Familiar Spirits]]
@@ Line 74: / Line 79: @@
 [[Category:Races]]
 [[Category:FolkMythos]]

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 Shadow People may generally seem to have a malignant aura or negative energy to them, but their exact motivation and nature are mysterious.  Shadow People have a limited ability to interact with our world - such as psychically attacking human beings - but often seem instead to be limited to watching our world, if the Shadow Person even expresses any interest in our world at all.  Sometimes, Shadow People may not even seem to have any known reason to be in our world - they may simply be passing through on their way to some other universe, or perhaps they are temporary visitors or explorers in this world.  More often, they seem to be observers in our world, lurking in rooms or following people and watching them.  Shadow People are sometimes believed to be harbingers or omens of significant events or of deaths which the beings may be here to warn us of, or perhaps merely to observe, or by some accounts cause.  Shadow People may be messengers sent from other worlds or other dimensions to communicate imperfectly with human beings.  Shadow People may follow victims, subjects for study, targets for their messages or warnings, or other people from location to location, but often they are instead tied to a particular location - such as a specific building or even room - usually for unknown reasons, perhaps because they cannot stray very far from the portal they use to enter our world.
 According to some beliefs, Shadow People are negative alien entities inhabiting a parallel universe (see the [[Astral Plane]] and [[Other Side]]) who can sometimes be perceived in our world; other beliefs hold Shadow People to be [[Ghost]]s - "Shades" - which haunt the living.  Shadow People are alternatively sometimes assumed to be the Astral Bodies of Dreamers - from our world, or others such as the [[Dreamlands]] - who may not even be aware that they are remotely viewing physical locations in our world as they Dream.
-Sometimes, Shadow People are linked with [[Vampire]]s or [[Hag]]s or [[Hag|Nightmare]]s, which may attack helpless victims of Sleep Paralysis by sitting or laying on top of the sleeper and choking, suffocating, or draining life-force, spirit, or other essence away from the victim, or feeding on the fear, anxiety, and distress that they cause to us.  Shadow People are reportedly able to otherwise psychically attack people or interact with this world, for example with psychokinesis - and may thus be identified as [[Djinn]]i, [[Elemental]]s, [[Poltergeist]]s, [[Demon]]s, etc.
+Shadow People closely resemble, and may be identical with, certain shadowy Elemental entities known as [[Elemental#Aeiirii_and_Saiitii|Tulpa, Aeiirii, or Saiitii]]:  animated figments or shells created through an act of will or imagination on the [[Astral Plane]], from which they might evolve a form of intelligence and descend to the [[Material Plane]] to explore and experience life as if they were material beings, sometimes taking the form of specific living beings whom they might try to imitate and replace as [[Doppelganger]]s, with mixed results.
 Compare and contrast to Lovecraft's [[Nightgaunt]]s.
@@ Line 42: / Line 66: @@
 ==Associated Mythos Elements==
 * setting:  [[Folk Mythos]]

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 </blockquote>-->
-A Shadow Person (also known as a shadow figure, shadow being or black mass) is the perception of a patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure, and interpreted as the presence of a spirit or other entity by believers in the paranormal or supernatural.  Shadow People are usually described as looking like dark shadows, differing from ordinary shadows in that they have depth, and tend to move in ways that seem out of sync with ordinary space-time, such as moving unnaturally slowly, or having quick, jerky movements, with the ability to move through solid objects (such as walls or doors), move from the physical space of rooms into the reflected space of mirrors (and vice-versa), etc.; many observers report being able to see Shadow People only from their peripheral vision as a dark shape darting into hiding "from the corner of the eye", and sometimes observers report seeing Shadow People hiding in shadows or dark closets, or peeking around corners or objects behind which they seem to be hiding.
+A Shadow Person (also known as a shadow figure, shadow being or black mass) is the perception of a patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure, and interpreted as the presence of a spirit or other entity by believers in the paranormal or supernatural.  Shadow People are usually described as looking like dark shadows, differing from ordinary shadows in that they have depth, and tend to move in ways that seem out of sync with ordinary space-time, such as moving unnaturally slowly, or having quick, jerky movements, with the ability to move through solid objects (such as walls or doors), move from the physical space of rooms into the reflected space of mirrors (and vice-versa), etc.  Many observers report being able to see Shadow People only from their peripheral vision as a dark shape darting into hiding "from the corner of the eye", and sometimes observers report seeing Shadow People hiding in shadows or dark closets, or peeking around corners or objects behind which they seem to be hiding.
 The figures are generally humanoid in shape, usually very tall (over six and a half feet) and usually slender (often unnaturally so compared to actual human figures); observers have reported a variety of forms that Shadow People might take, with some common themes being hooded and/or cloaked shadow figures, shadow figures wearing hats, shadow figures of vague form (such as if they might be covered in sheets of cloth) or wearing long coats, shadow figures with glowing eyes (usually red, but sometimes green or other colours), demonic variations from the human outline (including grotesque deformities or abnormalities of proportions such as long arms or fingers, or even horns, claws, wings, etc.), etc.  Some Shadow "People" - sometimes called "Black Masses" - may not have a humanoid shape at all, being amorphous or cloud-like in form, as if they are losing their humanoid shape, or perhaps as if they are not actually humanoid in shape at all - indeed, Shadow People are reported to be accomplished shape-shifters and may only be temporarily assuming a humanoid shape for the purpose of interacting with human beings.  Sometimes, Shadow "People" may take the form of shadowy animals, such as legendary Black Dogs of ill omen, or the [[Wampus (race)]].

@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 ** [[Demon]]s, Imps, and [[Rat-Thing|Familiar Spirits]]
 ** [[Cat#Faerie_Cats|Faerie-Cats]], Cath-Shee, Wampus-Cats, Hell-Hounds, Black Dogs, or other shadowy animal forms
-** [[MothMan]]
+** [[Mothman]]