Factions
Humans: Humans are as they seem, normal everyday people who inhabit the Earth. They go about their lives unaware of the dark hour, and are food for those who lurk within it. During the dark hour, normal humans are transformed into coffin like objects. Shadows will attempt to lure a human out of their coffin to devour them. Any human killed within the dark hour, will fall into a coma once the Dark Hour has passed, one they will never wake from. Humans are able to become aware of the Dark Hour, by coming into contact with a shadow and surviving a process known as "Awakening", since humans rarely survive a shadow attack however, this is rare.
Shadows: Shadows are essentially born from humans. They are born from the negative feelings and emotions, the darkness that lives in the world and people's hearts. Every person has a shadow within them, and it usually only is able to take personified form within this dark hour. Many humans who are killed during the dark hour, are killed by their own inner shadow, also refered to as their own inner demon who seeks to become the "true identity" and the only one. Once the human is killed, their inner shadow is freed from them and able to act of its own will. While connected to their human side, these shadows look like the mirror image of their human counterpart, with the exception of yellow eyes. After the human side dies, usually they will evolve and become distorted and inhuman like other shadows. A person's indivdual inner shadow can not be killed, for as long as there is darkness within their heart, the shadow will continue to come back.
Once their human side is killed however and they act indipendantly of their host, they are able to be killed as are other shadows who are not connected to a human at all. The shadows are led by a self proclaimed "Ruler of Shadow", which is believed to have once been a human's shadow as well. Shadows can take on various forms, from simple animal forms, to human like or to more demonic like. They all essentially are dark in nature and have powers and abilities that reflect as such. They are driven by their darkness and the natural impulse to feed. Lesser shadows are more ferral in nature, and are more consumed by this, while more evolved and stronger willed shadows are better able to control themselves. Strong-willed Shadows attract lesser Shadows, which later create stronger Shadows, the more they feed, the more they grow and get stronger.
Humans Able To Experience The Dark Hour: There are those who are able to experience the dark hour. Thse people remain normal and aware/allert, when all other humans turn into coffins. They retain their memories from the dark hour as well, where normal humans have no recolection of the time. These beings have been graced with abilities due to their "awakening", which has essentially awakened their inner power and awareness. They are the only ones able to fight the shadows, and their abilities are typically reflective of their inner soul and heart. If one of these beings are killed in the Dark Hour, it transfers over to the normal world. Meaning, they do not fall into a coma like normal humans, they would appear as they are after being killed within the Dark Hour. Their inner shadows tend to reflect their awakening, and become stronger as well and more determined to end their ties and existance with one another.