Shadow Demons

The Shadow Demons hail from the Void- a realm within the Outer Darkness where only emptiness exists. Think of a great nothingness. Eleanora reached into the Void, and tore pieces of it into our world, giving the emptiness a rudimentary consciousness, not unlike a alchemist’s golem. The Shadow Demons, while not intelligent, served their purpose, and during her lifetime, they stopped the occasional witch hunter that had tracked Eleanora to her tower. However, after her death, they were left to their own devices. During the day, they are harmless, and are invisible to mortals except those few that can see the spirit world. However, at night, they can interact with the physical world, and that is when they are dangerous. Now, they scurry about the woods every night, seeking any human foolish enough to enter their territory to claim the mortal flesh as their own! If they possess a human, that person degrades into a Shadow Corpse, a shambling dead body that partakes in dark debauchery every night. Many victims on Ghost Nook Island can be traced to the Shadow Demons, rather than The Anax, for he hunts only on Halloween, and the rest of their year, the dark forest belongs- to them!

The Shadow Demons that lurk about The Haunted Woods were conjured by Eleanora Blackwood to keep her territory free of uninvited guests. After Eleanora died, the creatures remained trapped in the woods, forever stuck in the physical realm. While the demons, themselves, are technically demonic entities- having never been physical, the Shadow Corpses are physical indeed. The demons insinuate their essences into the bodies of mortals, controlling their minds and bodies. The person within slowly diminishes until their soul is little more than an iota. The demons, having not been physical, do not understand concepts such as arms and legs, but they desire to ‘feel’. Pleasure or pain, it makes no difference, everything is erotic to them! The humans they possess die, but rot at a much slower rate, and become little more than shambling zombies. When the bodies become too decrepit, the demon within will seek out new prey to possess. Fighting a single Shadow Corpse would be rather easy, but the creatures fill the woods. They only rise at night, and like vampires, they burn to ash in sunlight. Therefore, before the sun rises each morning, they make shallow graves to hide from the daylight.