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| “ | I did well! One life for another. You hear me, Guardian of the Orb? I did all this for you! Now, once more, withdraw your shadow from my domain! | „ |
| ~ Daniel after performing a warding ritual. |
The Shadow is the main antagonist of the Amnesia video game series.
It's known as the mysterious "Guardian of the Orbs", which appears in the game as an unseen force chasing Daniel relentlessly, with no way of being fought or stopped.
The Shadow is the most enigmatic entity in the Amnesia series, remaining so throughout the series. The true nature, identity, patterns of disposition and even morality of The Shadow are never fully revealed.
History[]
Keeping with the sense of mystery, the origins of The Shadow - including who it was, what it was or how it was brought into existence before becoming the dark form it is now, is never explained. There are, however, many in-game universe theories and loosely-stitched together speculation that may hint to The Shadow's identity.
The most definite trait of The Shadow is the need for it to guard the mysterious orbs that reside in any respective resting places. The Orbs are ancient, mysterious spheres that contain supernatural powers, and are connected to the plot of every Amnesia game to date. The connection (and the reasoning behind it) between The Shadow and the Orbs are another unexplained phenomenon.
The exact era of The Shadow and the Orbs being prominent is not known, but what's known for sure is that they existed centuries and millennia before the events of the first game. Given the past in-game events, it can be assumed that they've both been prominent since at least 300 AD. Before the fall of Mithraic faith, knowledge of using the power of the Orbs was known to humans, but nearly completely lost after the fall of said faith. There was only one character in the first game that was able to use the power of the Orbs without fully incurring the wrath of The Shadow, which was Johann Weyer. He could keep The Shadow away from him, but couldn't control the actions of it.
Before the events of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Daniel, the main protagonist of the first game, was on an expedition in Algiers. He took one of the Orbs from the Tomb of Tin Hinan, which incurred The Shadow's relentless wrath. Daniel was able to survive for a long time running from The Shadow, though the latter had killed nearly every single person between itself and Daniel, due to The Shadow's immeasurable wrath in getting the Orb back.
Centuries before Daniel's expedition, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa had also acquired an Orb sometime in the 16th century, which of course angered The Shadow. Agrippa attempted to escape The Shadow for as long as he could, but The Shadow ultimately caught up with him, and suffocated Agrippa without killing him, but left him unconscious. The Shadow simply took back the Orb Agrippa had. Agrippa then awoke in a different location, and although thankful he was alive, he never stopped fearing for The Shadow's possible return.
Daniel then sought the help of Alexander of Brennenburg, as he knew how to perform rituals that could ward off The Shadow. Doing this can buy someone time before The Shadow attacks someone again, but it couldn't completely destroy it. These rituals involved horrendous forms of torture, harvesting "vitae", a chemical created in living beings when feeling immense pain. Daniel, racked with guilt, drank an amnesia potion to forget the horrors of his actions, but wrote a note to himself reminding himself to kill Alexander out of revenge, and that The Shadow cannot be fought, but must be evaded for as long as possible. After this, the events of Amnesia: The Dark Descent begin.
Though Alexander is responsible for creating and controlling servant grunts, one of two of the most common enemies in the game, it is possible that the Brute variant is a by-product of The Shadow. Notes are found that creates a parallel between how The Shadow mutilates people, and the details of how at least one man named Wilhelm was suffering in mid-mutation.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent[]
Wherever The Shadow passes, it lets out an extremely loud and domineering roar, destroys anything in its path and leaves an organic fleshy residue behind it which is harmful to the touch. The Shadow is known to appear in certain areas of Brennenburg Castle, namely when Daniel makes progress throughout the castle. Sometimes it chases Daniel directly, forcing him to run. At the beginning of the game, it blocks the main entrance to the castle if Daniel tries to leave.
Due to the age of the castle, coupled with the fact that The Shadow has made many areas collapse, this forces Daniel to take alternative ways around, or come up with puzzle-solving solutions to bypass previously inaccessible areas. No matter where Daniel escapes in the castle, The Shadow is always close behind. Aside from leaving fleshy residue wherever it goes, it can also give direct chase to Daniel, killing him if it catches up.
When Daniel enters a cellar archive, The Shadow passes through the area and somehow manages to flood the entire area, allowing an invisible water-dwelling creature, the "Kaernk", to attack Daniel if he enters the water. When Daniel reaches the sewers, a dead servant grunt is seen, with The Shadow's fleshy residue surrounding the area, making it very likely The Shadow was the one that ripped the grunt apart.
When Daniel was using an elevator to descend further into the castle, The Shadow moved in and snapped the cables in the process, causing the elevator to collapse and nearly kill Daniel. As the game goes on, The Shadow's methods of catching up with Daniel become more aggressive. Alexander has stated that Daniel is "tainted" or "branded" by The Shadow, with the obvious factor in that being its never-ending pursuit of Daniel.
When Daniel is has gathered all Orb pieces, he is ambushed by many Gatherers, then thrown in prison at the commands of Alexander. The purpose of this is for Daniel to be a distraction for the approaching Shadow, giving Alexander plenty of time to use an Orb to create a portal so he can escape to the world he came from. If Daniel escapes his cell, The Shadow will initate an aggressive chase, but will cease once Daniel escapes the connecting hallway and returns to the Nave.
This is also shown at the final part of the game, where if Alexander opens a portal to his home world, Daniel will not be able to enter, due to being "marked" by The Shadow. Once Daniel makes it to the final area of the game, the Orb Chamber, the final actions of The Shadow are left up to the player.
Endings[]
The fate of Daniel, Alexander and how The Shadow chooses to deal with them are left up to the player:
Revenge Ending: Once Daniel reaches the Inner Sanctum, he can knock over the pylons needed for Alexander to finish his ritual, thus abruptly ending the ritual. The Shadow emerges in the room and kills Alexander, but spares Daniel. This is because The Shadow is appeased due to Daniel not only traveling the lengths he did, but stopping Alexander from abusing the Orb. The Shadow stops chasing Daniel, allowing him to leave. Its residue is also removed, showing that it left the castle as well.
Compassion Ending: Daniel must prepare a life-saving tonic for Agrippa. If Daniel feeds Agrippa the tonic and removes his head, Daniel must put the head in the portal that Alexander is trying to open. This disrupts Alexander's ritual, with The Shadow entering the room and killing both Alexander and Daniel, as The Shadow is still angry with Daniel for letting Alexander abuse the Orb's power. However, Daniel hears Agrippa's voice in the darkness, saying that "everything will be alright."
Bad Ending: Daniel enters the Inner Sanctum, but does absolutely nothing to halt Alexander's ritual. Once Alexander uses the Orb's power to escape to his home dimension, The Shadow angrily enters the Sanctum to punish Daniel for letting Alexander abuse the Orb's power. Before The Shadow consumes Daniel, it taunts him with the voices of those he tortured. The Shadow kills Daniel much more slow and torturously in this ending. Soon after, Daniel hears the disembodied voice of Alexander thanking him for his "sacrifice", and that Daniel "will be celebrated forever."
Prison Ending: This ending only occurs once Daniel is captured and thrown into the aforementioned prison. Similar to the previously mentioned bad ending, Daniel must remain in the prison cell until The Shadow consumes him. Once Daniel is consumed, Alexander thanks Daniel in the same way as the previous ending.
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs[]
In this indirect sequel taking place in 1899/1900, Orbs are mentioned and even seen toward the end of the game, though The Shadow itself is not seen nor mentioned. This could mean that The Shadow was somehow warded off from the areas seen in the game, or was simply active elsewhere. At the end of the game, two Orbs are seen powering the The Machine in some way, but the Orbs being used this way somehow did not incur the entity's vengeful nature.
Amnesia: Rebirth[]
The Shadow's residue in Amnesia: Rebirth.
The Shadow plays a significantly smaller role than in the first game, but is still a deadly threat. With the game taking place in 1937, The Shadow's presence still exists, and its residue can be encountered in this game, still being harmful to the touch. Tasi encounters The Shadow once in a large cistern.
At an unknown point in time, but before the events of Rebirth, The Shadow was able to enter the Other World and destroy a gateway into the world, simply known as "The Great Gate". This put the Other World in grave risk, and eventually led to the world dying out. This was caused by an apprentice alchemist named Kita, who contaminated the vitae extraction process with The Shadow's residue.
The Shadow's damage had not ended there, as its influence also infected the Other World's Ankhari stones. These stones are what Other World alchemists use to control the harvesters, but with The Shadow corrupting these stones, the alchmeists turned into wraiths, which are encountered by Tasi as an enemy. In one of the game's endings, Tasi can infect Empress Tihana's vitae supply system (which acts as her life support) with The Shadow's residue. Doing this will infest the system with even more residue, causing The Shadow to appear.
Amnesia: The Bunker[]
The Shadow approaching in Amnesia: The Bunker.
At the very end of the game, Henri Clément finds himself entering an ancient arena, still trying to escape the clutches of the Beast. If he falls into the bottomless depths below, the player can hear the Shadow's ghostly, echoed roar before Henry is killed by it. It is unknown why the Shadow is present here, nor why the Shadow specifically consumes those who fall into the depths, as it's noted that the Shadow normally pursues those who tamper with the Orbs.
In the Roman Tunnels, it can be seen that the Earth and the Other World are clashing in the form of a dimensional merge, as floating rocks (as well as the transformative water from that world) are seen scattered around the tunnels. It is possible that the Shadow's collapse of The Great Gate is connected to the Shadow being present in the Roman arena, as the Shadow might have jumped between worlds, using the clashing dimensions as a method of transporting to Earth.
Depending on the player's choice, a wooden walkway can be destroyed just as the Beast walks on it, or can be shot just as he's clutching onto a ledge, sending him to the depths, leaving his fate to be consumed by The Shadow.
Behavior[]
Though absolutely relentless and tenacious, there is a lot of confusion and ambiguity on the true morality of The Shadow. It is not known to attack others without reason, as it only does so when any Orbs belonging to it are stolen from it, or others attempt to abuse the power of said Orbs.
The actions of The Shadow range from being a vengeful anti-villain to being absolutely sadistic. For example, there are points in the original game where The Shadow will wait in curiosity to see what the player will do, or how far they can get. Yet at other times, The Shadow aggressively chases down Daniel, but stops this when Daniel reaches certain areas. It is unknown if this is meant to scare Daniel into making progress, or to actually kill him.
The Shadow is described as "sluggish", but there is some evidence to the contrary. The Shadow can lag behind the player, properly catch up to the player or even destroy an area ahead of the player to slow them down. One curious moment of The Shadow is when Daniel falls down a well in the Nave. This causes Daniel to be carried to a previously locked room, have The Shadow block one of the exits, yet soon unblock said exit to let Daniel leave. It is unknown if this The Shadow's way of taunting its victims.
At the end of the game, there is a possible flicker of benevolent nature in The Shadow, as if Daniel chooses to stop Alexander from abusing an Orb, The Shadow intentionally spares Daniel while killing only Alexander, due to being thankful that Orb was not used or destroyed. There is a core game mechanic of the player having sanity, which drops when disturbing events occur, but rises when making progress. The Shadow will roar at Daniel to sometimes bring his sanity down when it was just raised.
Trivia[]
- Depending on the player's actions, The Shadow can kill every antagonist in the series, with the exception of The Machine (and by extension, the Engineer) in Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, which was shut down by Oswald Mandus due to the latter sacrificing his life to do so.
External Links[]
- The Shadow at the Amnesia Wiki
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
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 Villains
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