Shadow as a "power source"?

[Therise]

Okay, help me out here. I'm trying to understand why, in some games, shadow is considered a "power source". I fully get arcane, divine, even things like "negative energy plane" as power sources, but shadow?

BTW, I'm asking here rather than on another site because people there think any questioning of design is a sin against all that's holy or something and immediately go on the offensive. So I'm not asking this to be difficult or even to complain about a specific game, but I honestly don't get it.

Shadow is just what happens when a light source is blocked. Even in the medieval world, they knew that much. How can it possibly be a "source" for anything when it's a passive effect itself? Help me understand the intent, or at least how others perceive this game element.

 

[pemerton]

The intent is that Shadow is not just what happens when a light source is blocked, but is actually a "metaphysical" component of the cosmos (ie in medieval terms, shadow is more than just the privation of light). This is reflected in the cosmology, which includes the Shadowfell as a distinct plane (see the discussion of the creation of the world in the 4e DMG). And it is reflected in the existence of creatures which, while shadows, are active and not merely passive things (eg various insubstantial undead, the shadows in MM3, etc).

 

[Shemeska]

I don't claim to fully understand "power source" as an abstract rules element from 4e, but as a metaphysical substance unto itself, it can be viewed in a variety of ways as something other than "an absence of light".

For instance, traditional D&D's usage of there being a "Plane of Shadow" overlapping the Prime Material Plane, you might view shadow not as the absence of light but as a warped reflection of the Prime. Similarly, the Pathfinder version has Shadow as a warped, mocking imitation of the Material plane by the Negative Energy Plane.

You might also for instance view shadow as not the absence of light, but some underlying layer of reality that's revealed when light no longer blocks and obscures it, like groundwater leaching up to fill a hole when a layer of hard earth is removed.

 

[Pentius]

The problem, OP, is that you think of Shadow as merely an absence of light. Viewed in strict scientific form, no power source makes sense. Earth is but minerals. Fire but a chemical reaction taking place. Light is but waves of radiation.

But power sources are not scientific. They are thematic. Think on shadow, think on darkness. The shadow power source is not what happens when a physical object blocks the flow of light to one specific area, it is the fear of the dark you felt as a child, but in the game world it is given fangs and suddenly children are no fools for fearing it. It is greed, it is revenge, it is death, given power beyond that which a simple concept wields in our reality. The shadow power source is that which drives men to evil, that which lies beyond the veil of death.

That idea is the power, not the mere absence of light.

 

[Rechan]

Notice that you've never seen a God/Goddess of the night/shadows who is just "Deity of the absense of light". Their portfolio is appropriately thematic.

In the case of a power source of shadow, the portfolio is taken broader, away from a god, and applied to a Plane of existence or an existing energy that exists within the world. So it's a lot like channeling Hell (or the Abyss or Far Realms/madness) - not necessarily dependent on ONE POWERFUL INDIVIDUAL to hand out the power, but the force in and of itself.

Shadow is used metaphorically for an energy that encompasses "darker" things. Stealth, assassins, lightless cold, death, secrets, lies, fear, dark copies of living things, etc.

 

[On Puget Sound]

It's Zelazny's fault.

 

[Jhaelen]

Shadow is just what happens when a light source is blocked. Even in the medieval world, they knew that much.

Who is 'they'? Your typical peasant? Not really.

Have you ever heard about stories of 'stealing someone's shadow'? There's plenty ob mystical connotations that go far beyond light/dark.

Besides the power source is basically used synonymous with 'Darkness' and called 'Shadow' because in 4e the 'Negative Energy Plane' is called the 'Shadowfell'.

 

[Therise]

You know, having been trained as a scientist, I think it is rather difficult for me to see shadow as a metaphysical theme. And in turn, it's harder for me to see it as a power source. It's far easier, oddly enough, for me to accept something truly mythical like "arcane" as a power source.

Thanks, you've given me a lot to think on, everyone. In terms of world-building, I have to decide if I really want to take the step of going down this road. I think a part of me, even though all of this stuff is imaginary, prefers to have a (relatively) high level of scientific realism - even in my medieval fantasy.

 

[Therise]

...Besides the power source is basically used synonymous with 'Darkness' and called 'Shadow' because in 4e the 'Negative Energy Plane' is called the 'Shadowfell'.

Is it truly the case that the old 3E "Negative Energy Plane" is the same thing as the Shadowfell?

I thought that the old "plane of shadow" (or demiplane, whatever it was... don't have my old books handy) became the Shadowfell in 4E.

 

[Therise]

Notice that you've never seen a God/Goddess of the night/shadows who is just "Deity of the absense of light". Their portfolio is appropriately thematic.

In the case of a power source of shadow, the portfolio is taken broader, away from a god, and applied to a Plane of existence or an existing energy that exists within the world. So it's a lot like channeling Hell (or the Abyss or Far Realms/madness) - not necessarily dependent on ONE POWERFUL INDIVIDUAL to hand out the power, but the force in and of itself.

Shadow is used metaphorically for an energy that encompasses "darker" things. Stealth, assassins, lightless cold, death, secrets, lies, fear, dark copies of living things, etc.

Prior to 4E, this is a lot like how I viewed the Forgotten Realms deity "Shar" (goddess of shadow, secrets, etc). I've played for decades in that setting, but as the DM I generally took the approach that Shar was the "negative energy plane" goddess and that her sister Selune was the "positive energy goddess" - so despite what various cultures on Faerun believed, they respectively represented destruction and creation. There was more to it than this, but that's the general approach that I took.

In 4E, though, and perhaps this gets to the crux of the issue for me, they rearranged the cosmology and created these "power sources" which really dramatically change the "reality" of things. I suppose I can still say that what Faerunians believe about the world/planes is still just their best effort at trying to understand things, and they're not completely right.