Shadow

Every living being has a soul and shadow within it, remnants of the magic from Zyxus and the Absinthe Stone. Each are tightly bundled together with celestial and chthonic energy, where they remain bound until death, on which they unravel and float away. The shadow travels down to the Nethereal Plane, where it may be brought to the under planes, or can choose to remain as a shade, a sort of counterpart to ghosts.

Those who stay are at risk of being summoned back to the world and bound to the will of wizards in a process known as confinement. Although shadows are not inherently evil (they used to be part of a person!), those which stay on the Nethereal Plane are often turned bitter, either through enslavement by wizards, or proximity to the power of the Absinthe Stone.

However, those who travel to the Under Planes are all but guaranteed to be corrupted. First escorted by shadow hounds to Hades, they are left for eternity to either wander, or join the ranks of Hell or Tartarus, becoming a devil or demon respectively. Power is a scarce commodity in the Under Planes, but it is plentiful for those who have it.