Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Shadow Magic

Bionic Jellyfish·9/29/2017, 7:00:55 AM·4 votes·973 views

Let's discuss Shadow Magic, what it is, and where it can go. To start, I'll list the known spells/abilities as shown by our shadow magicians, and , and my thoughts.

Shadow Clones: create a shadow clone of oneself that can attack with the magician's weapons. Zed seems to be better at this than Kayn, because kayn does not use shadow clones until he gets to his Shadow Assassin form, and even then, they are only up for a second. Zed can summon his for five seconds and make up to two, not to mention switch places with them.

Shadow Portal: Creates a portal of shadow that can physical objects can pass through. Currently, Zed is the only known shadow magician that can make a portal, and he only uses it during his death animation. As a result, not much is known about this.

Wall Walking: Kinda self explanatory. when used, can walk though walls. Oddly enough, Zed never uses this skill, both in game and in cinematics. This may be because it was thought of after Wild Magic (The last cinematic Zed appeared in). But Kayn does. This opens up a lot of questions, at least from a lore standpoint. Did Kayn pioneer this skill himself? or is it viewed as a lower level skill and that's why Zed never uses it? We may never know.

Death Mark: Zed's ultimate. he dashes behind the target, making a shadow clone at the location of the cast. he also marks the target and after three seconds, a percentage of damage inflicted is inflicted again. This is easily Zed's most powerful spell.

Umbral Trespass is oddly similar to Zed's ultimate. It is referenced multiple times in _The Blade of _Millennia, __ Kayn's short story. Personally, I think Kayn does not just go inside the person, he goes into their shadow. The name Umbral Trespass implies this, as umbral is Latin for shadow. Also, he goes into noxian shadows during his short story.

Where could shadow magic go with the powers listed here? What could be other spell/abilities stemming from shadow magic? Let's discuss.

5 Comments

Epicurus9/29/2017, 8:31:46 AM2 votes

Fairly comprehensive list, but allow me to point a few particulars.

Firstly, don't assume that the in-game details of these abilities match their lore versions. Wall-walking does not necessarily heal, death mark does not necessarily multiply damage. The different durations of shadow clones may relate to the relative skills of the two assassins, or it just might be a result of the game mechanics.

Zed may be fully capable of wall-walking. However he would be severely overloaded if he did this in game, and it would be weird to have a cinematic that shows a different Zed to the in-game version. Thus, we never see him do it. Similarly, Kayn may have a more comprehensive control of Shadow Clones than first appears.

Kayn (and probably Zed) can also dissipate into shadow to cross distances quickly. He uses this ability in the Blade of Millenia:

Kayn dissolved into tendrils of pure darkness and darted across the cobbled road, reforming in front of his victim.

Also in that story, Kayn materialises in one of his victim's personal shadows. Maybe he was just wall walking underground, or maybe this a new ability.

In the Death Mark animation Zed's death mark seems to involve sending a shadow inside his victim via the eyes and mouth, similar to Umbral Trespass. So I think you are right in that these abilities are related.

One last thing about Shadow Magic is that there seems to be a bit of soul-trapping involved. We see this with Zed's ultimate passive, and also in Xayah's story, the Puboe Prison Break:

“Your soul will serve me forever,” he (an acaloyte) grunts. I can feel the shadow magic bound up in his blade, the essence of every life it has taken.

Similarly, the Wild Magic cinematic depicts Zed trapping the life force of the area in that big glowy thing in his temple, which is then released when Xayah destroyed it.

GreenLore9/29/2017, 1:45:15 PM2 votes

Overall I think the biggest key aspect of shadow magic is the ability to absorb the essence of your victim to make yourself stronger. Zed has an ability that allows him to steal AD from his victims,Kayn gathers essence for his transformation and we saw a guy in the xayah color story who empowered his sword with the essence of his victims.

So all in all I think shadow magic can do a lot of things,but this might be the foundation for the magic,hence why it was forbidden in the first place.

Mystery Ghost9/29/2017, 10:05:42 AM1 votes

Black Mage has the best Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy XIV

Nintendo 3DS9/29/2017, 11:25:20 AM1 votes

Always assumed that whatever Kayn can do, Zed knows it too. He is the Master of Shadow and first one to open and learn the box techniques and Kayn is his best student so it safe to assume anything Kayn learned do come from Zed. But imagine Zed walking walls in game ? He would be way too OP. The gameplay never directly show what the champions are capable of. Or else that game would be such a huge mess. It easy to view Zed as being able to walk through walls and such. He seems to bend the shadows to his will completely, and Kayn is learning this just as well. I always viewed Umbrall Trespass as a lower form of Death Mark. They both go "inside" their target (through their shadow perhaps) but while Death Mark explode later and deal damage, its not really Kayn ultimate that does the damage, and he needs to hit his target before being able to activate said ult. To me, it really sounds like Umbrall Trespass is a (maybe personnalised) version of Death Mark that has been fully mastered yet.

Note that base Kayn isn't shown using shadows but Shadow Assassin Kayn does, as he is supposed to be a more proeffecient Kayn. I suppose one of the reasons Kayn does not use shadow magic is because it be terribly impratical to combine with Rhaast size. (he would need to be quick, silent and swift and you can't really do this with a huge scynthe, be it Riot tries to make it or not)

Also wanna add to this list of skill that Zed seems to have the ability to steal other champion's shadow (his passive with bonus AD from last kill by ult. Interpreted as he stole the shadow of his target). I don't really know what it does precisely.

Also as mentionned above the Order of Shadows is quite invovled by "soul bonding" magic too as seen in XayahRakan lores and cinematics. So maybe yes, it is in fact the deal of "shadow stealing". Steal a soul through a shadow. They are really strong...No wonder these techniques were forbidden.

Zed use of the shadow portal upon death and respawn (explained by Rito as "he tries to escape death") makes me wonder if Zed even has a soul at all. Could be possible he actually doesn't, since 1. He is oddly capable to escape death through shadow magic and 2. The acolythes keep and use the souls of their target/fellows practionners. So perhaps once a shadow practionner dies its soul merge with the shadow themselves and can be used later by others practionners. Could be logical that Zed himself traded his own soul against the shadow, now refering to him being really an actual shadow and not much human anymore. I think Kayn isn't a this point, and may actually get spared of this fate.

Woops, i spoke too much and write "shadows" a ton here. I'm just in love with these champs, ah!

Hope it helps ~