Shadow Force

The Shadow Force is a mysterious cult said to have singlehandedly caused the Demon Wars. They worship Vaskus despite their god being long dead. They believe that by returning Erudite to a time of chaos, they will be able to resurrect Vaskus and gain his favor, hoping to be spared by his inevitable reckoning upon all of creation.

The Shadow Force makes heavy use of Deep Ekati, a form of ekati believed to be the corpse of Vaskus. Deep Ekati is said to drive one mad in its presence as many claim to hear incoherent, sinister whispering in their heads. However, the Shadow Force has claimed to have deciphered these whispers as a series of instructions that Vaskus left behind after his death during the Shattering.

When the Shadow Force was defeated during the Demon Wars, the remaining holdouts fled to Swen to form a successor group called the Serpent's Fang. They would begin secret research into blue sap, attempting to find another way to bring back their god - this time in the form of Antithesis. They had to bide their time for centuries - until the Maximum Chronomancy Date to avoid the possibility of being thwarted by fate itself.