First appearance: Skypiercer Part 2
The Shadowlands are the corner of The Void that even the Void finds unsettling. Once the realm of The Shadow King, they are a land of ash plains, whispering wind and bottomless chasms, where light seems to give up before it can cross the air. Nobody has ever mapped the whole of it. Heroes have marched in on a rescue mission, and the Deathmatches have staged at least one fight there, much to the Grandmaster’s displeasure. In her words: “I always hated this place anyway.”
Description
Vythorn, the future Arbiter, once summed the place up in one line: “This is a land of shadows where fears become real.” When he and Elusia first arrived, they found a dead forest that moved as though it were conscious, poisonous fog, obsidian scorpions and spiders, and shadow creatures that had been spreading for years under the Shadow King’s rule. The Dread Fortress loomed on the horizon, a rock shaped like an orc skull with a broken tusk and blazing eyes, visible whichever way they turned.
Later visitors described a landscape that barely makes sense. Dark ashen plains, twisted landscapes and rock outcroppings give way to “nothingness, openings that go down to unknown depths.” Twisted brambles rise out of craggy grey and dark-purple earth. A howling gale grasps at cloaks and fur “like cold shivering claws,” and it carries faint murmurs, screams and scornful sneers. The air smells like “a basement that hasn’t been opened in far too long… somebody definitely died here long, long ago.” The darkness there is often magical, though not everywhere. Just before the trip, Asena had worried that lately darkness had been “darker than dark.”
At the heart of the region, according to tales, stands a great spiked castle, “almost an obelisk.” Its shadow falls across the land the way the Dread Fortress can be seen from everywhere in the Void. Smaller strongholds are scattered toward the center, and there is at least one mausoleum. Creatures native to the region include vampiric kobolds, “horrifying little monstrosities” with a taste for blood.
Other parts of the Shadowlands are wetter and stranger. The Deathmatch arena there was full of thick, musty, cold black fog that clung to everything. The rock underfoot was squishy, pale plants grew among the puddles, and a river ran with eels. It was called “a monster in and of itself.” The land can also drain the mind. Lyrus warned that “even within its smoke and shadows, your own thoughts may betray you.”
History
Skypiercer Part 2
In Skypiercer Part 2, Vythorn brought Elusia back into the Void, and they landed in a dead forest in the Shadowlands. It was during the Shadow King’s reign. Chaos storms, the source of magic in the Void, raged out of control, and a jagged tower in view was pointed out as the Shadow King’s former home.
Fate of the Faithful
Centuries later, the Faithful went looking for the missing Ralzamon in Coriander Society — Fate of the Faithful Part 4 (A Crossover). Lyrus explained to the visiting Coriander Society that the Shadowlands were “a section of the void particularly dangerous and unknown, even in this unknown place.” He noted that the Arbiter had pulled its night creatures to his aid “once or twice” and had “an affinity for the darker shadows.” The Faithful had sent envoys there several times: “Some have returned, some haven’t.”
The scholar Lawrence and The Seer used divination to find Ralzamon. The Seer came out of it completely fine and baffled: “It’s just a bit of divination. I don’t understand what the big deal is.” Lawrence came out with blood trickling from his ear, having had to “pierce through a mental fortress and the inherent draining effects of the Shadowlands.” His vision placed Ralzamon in a small stronghold near the great spire’s shadow. It was “floating. Isolated by a rift,” guarded by towers, weapons and sentries, and lit by “an eerie, unearthly light emanating from beneath.”
Before the jump, Lyrus gave a final warning:
“The Shadowlands are, once again, a hostile place. It was the realm of the once-known Shadow King who ruled over the Void for a time. Many creatures and constructs await you there, and even within its smoke and shadows, your own thoughts may betray you.”
Then he stabbed both his swords into the air and ripped open a portal. The Shadowlands claimed a victim soon after. A mind witness seized Weebo with a telekinetic ray, floated it out over the abyss and let go. All Asena could do was cry out, “No, Weebo!”
In Coriander Society — Fate of the Faithful Part 5 (A Crossover), the party reached the keep. Their ally Circe, Master of Magitek, used her shrinking ray in reverse to make Lyrus huge. The stealthy approach failed, and a huge battle broke out. Lyrus cut down a Draconic Death Knight, “one of the Arbiter’s elite servants.” With its dying breath, the knight unleashed a massive explosion of infernal flame that left Lyrus near death. Meanwhile, the rift beneath the fort drew in vampiric kobolds, which came crawling up the walls hungry for blood.
Severed Limbs
In S3E7 — Severed Limbs — Cress v Chedrick McDougan, the Arbiter opened a portal billowing black fog. “Grandmaster, I think you’ll like this location,” he said. She did not. When he mused that he was “thinking about building a shrine to you here in the Shadowlands,” she cut him off: “No. No, you know I hate this place… As soon as this battle’s over, we’re leaving.”
Her patience ran out mid-fight. A ghast had joined the battle, so she declared, “I banish this shadow creature from my arena.” She drew her oath bow and pinned the creature’s heart to the ground, and it dissipated. Then she ordered Cress and Chedrick McDougan to “show me what you are worth.”
When the fight was over, she held out her hand to Chedrick. He threw a water bottle that hit her in the face. “Fine. Have it your way. I always hated this place anyway,” she said. “I gift you your wish, but I’m going to leave you here in this place.” She clapped, and everyone was suddenly back in the kitchen, everyone except Chedrick, who was left behind in the Shadowlands.
Later mentions
While planning the next season in the Season 3 finale, the Arbiter grumbled that the arenas were “always… a haunted forest, the Shadowlands, a snowy mountain,” and floated the idea of a vacation Deathmatch instead.
In S4E11 — Beatdown — Sprinkles v Nigel, the Grandmaster asked the Shadow King whether he had ever actually travelled the land he ruled. He shrugged it off: “I’ve been to the Shadowlands and Prexmarin and not too far beyond that. Why would I?… There’s nothing out there.”
In S6 Ep4 — Tip to Tip - Part 1 (TTRPG One Shot), Thea went missing. The Arbiter checked the tracker he kept on her, after first smacking the tablet (“Fucking Stuart. This thing never works.”). It placed her at the mausoleum, “all the way over in the Shadowlands.” He was certain she would never have gone there alone, “especially not on Deathmatch Day. She loves the Deathmatches.” He concluded she had been kidnapped.
Notable Figures
- The Shadow King: its former ruler, whose old home stood there.
- The Arbiter: has “an affinity for the darker shadows” and has drawn the region’s creatures to his aid.
- Ralzamon: held in a floating keep in the Shadowlands during Fate of the Faithful.
- Lyrus: opened the portal there and fought the Draconic Death Knight.
- Chedrick McDougan: left behind in the Shadowlands by the Grandmaster.