Dunamez

"One that moves through life, never dying, but never really living either"

- A Dunamez to Demurral

The Dunamez are the tertiary antagonists of the horror-fantasy book Shadowmancer.

Origins
Once God had made Heaven, Earth and all His angels, He ordered humanity be worshipped first. Pyratheon protested, saying humans were greedy, and Pyratheon began a war in Heaven which ended up with him being banished to Hell, awaiting his return. Many angels were unsatisfied with God's plans, and they joined Pyratheon. These would become Fallen angels, demons, aka the Dunamez.

The Dunamez turned from being angelic beings of light to demonic beings of darkness; they became like transparent shadows, living dark energy, and their mouths were full of fangs and they glinted as they moved. Because of their hideous true forms they could only move with possession, they needed to possess a human in order to interact with their human followers.

In the book
Two Dunamez appear in different occasions, once after Raphah has made a spell of light magic work and again when Pyratheon is about to return. These two ones seem to enjoy delivering bad news.

Blythe's Dunamez
A man named Blyhe Skerry was drunk and unsure of whether what he had seen (of a deaf child being able to talk and hear again) was a hallucination or really magic. Blythe was one of the slavers in the mines Demurral owned, and Blythe was already full of hate for everyone and against Raphah the new slave. So, sensing his wrath, a Dunamez who had been waiting outside crept into the mead hall, as a living shadow, and slipped into Blythe's body, possessing the man. Blythe woke up, and tried to scream as he was possessed but he was rendered helpless. The Dunamez inside him quickly took control, sensing the weak nature of the man, and he selected a knife which he held in the man's coat. The Dunamez then pretended to go back to sleep, where it really shared its thoughts with Blythe, tormenting him with all the victims it had made go insane.

The Dunamez then followed Consitt and Blake, the other two slavers, to the mines, where they prepared Raphah for the slavery. However, the Dunamez taunted Raphah, because he already knew Blythe was possessed, and Raphah knew Blythe was innocent. Raphah told the Dunamez to let the man go, but it put up a good verbal fight, saying humans don't deserve any rights because "They turned their backs on God just like we did." The Dunamez then mocked Raphah more and said couldn't he go into someone else. Raphah suddenly exorcized the Dunamez who was torn out of Blythe in a surge of light. The demon was chained in light and cowered before Raphah, who told him to begone back to Hell, which it had to obey.

Farrell's Dunamez
Captain Farrell, a disgraced Dragoon official, had had enough of Jacob Crane the pirate, and wanted him dead, so, sensing his wrath, a Glashan approached him, and, pretending he was Elizabeth, Farrell's girlfriend, revealed his true form to him. The Glashan invited the Dunamez accompanying it into Farrell, and the shadow stepped into the man, choking him.

The possessed Farrell paid a visit to Demurral, who wanted to know where the Keruvim statue was and where the release of Satan would happen. The Dunamez used Farrell's mouth and body through the meeting. He ordered whisky, and Demurral noticed a change in Farrell, saying he was more cocky than usual and not whinging about being blown up. Demurral was delighted to finally meet a demon, and he asked the Dunamez about power and what it was like to not be human, but the Dunamez, lying, said he really wanted to feel what humans feel, which is why he possessed people, when in reality, the Dunamez wanted to destroy as many innocent humans and damn them all to Hell. After his talk with Demurral, the Dunamez said he could hear Beadle the servant being attacked by a Glashan. Demurral went to help, and the Dunamez sarcastically said about Demurral's sword being dangerous for him. The sadistic Dunamez watched as the Glashan punched Demurral unconscious and ran out of the house.

The Dunamez later attended the release of Pyratheon and was around to witness his master being free. Its unknown what happened to him later. He may have abandoned Farrell, or still be using his body.

Trivia
The Dumamez's description is identical to the Shadow People.