The Shade

The Shade is one of the layers of the World, an interdimensional place made of Vibration or Dream that separates the Waking World (the physical world of the living, made out of Matter) and the Eternal Night (Death, which is made out of Void), protecting both realms from each other.

The Shade in the Common Faith
The finality of the Shade differs according to the interpretation of the several strands of the Common Faith. In Carteret, following the tradition of the Chant, it's believed that the Shade is a spiritual place humans can visit if they are skilled enough as bards. Visiting the Shade is called crossing the Veil, and the Veil is thinner in areas with strong Vibration, such as the heart of the forest. Bards must retreat to the Shade to meditate, recharge energies, heal or cast spells. There they can also interact with spirits and demons and enter possession agreements with them.

Carteretians and Denvornians agree that all souls must pass through the Shade on their way to the Eternal Night, but the way they do it is different. In Carteret, souls may linger in the Shade if they have unfinished business in the Waking World, transforming into spirits or demons, depending on the nature of their intentions. There, they await a live bard that agrees to be possessed by the spirit in order to carry it into the Waking World. Only after reaching their purpose the dead may pass onto the Eternal Night in peace. This understandment of the Shade is also the predominant one in Lansing.

Denvornians, however, see the Shade as some sort of limbo where the Virtues, the Gods, live, and judge the souls of the dead. Only when a soul has been deemed virtuous it's allowed to pass on to the Eternal Night to find peace and eventually be reborn; on the contrary, souls must linger in the Shade to atone for their sins, acting upon the Waking World through 'chance'. Denvornians believe the Shade is not only the domain of the dead, it is the domain of the restless and the wicked dead, making it a dangerous and unholy place - therefore justifying the prohibition put upon magic and the Chant.

Much like Denvornians, Erenfordians also believe in the Shade as a repository for wicked souls. However, not all souls pass through the Shade on their way to the Eternal Night, some of them going directly to the Eternal Night, which is believed to be "paradise", and the Shade, "hell". Erenfordians do not believe dead souls can act upon the Waking World, either by possession or by chance - nor that living people can visit the Shade. Judgement of souls happens with the act of death, as the actions of the person in life define ultimately their fate after death. Souls trapped in the Shade may, however, be redeemed through good deeds or payments made to the Church in their name by their living descendants. This understandment of the Shade is also the predominant one in Kightsbridge.

The Shade as a place
The Shade appears differently to each person. It's considered gauche among bards to discuss how the Shade appears to them, although bards can invite each other to each other's Shades.

To Karl of Carteret, initially it appeared as a buzzing nothingness of white, with a shallow stream of smoke-like liquid running at his heels, motivating him to refer to it as his 'whitespace'. He was later told by a projection of his brother Brent that due to Karl's limited magic education, he had only been able to visit the 'threshold' of the Shade, which had been enough to allow him to cast spells but it had also been the reason he had never seen a spirit before. Brent reveals that his Shade takes the form of the winter garden with the koy pond at the Royal Halls where their mother's greenhouse was located. Clara's greenhouse is also the form Seth's Shade takes.

Xhevon of Emer's Shade appears to look like her office at the Silent City.

When Bastian of Denvorn briefly visits the Shade between the Third and Fourth Scrolls, it takes the form of a deserted beach like the ones in the southern Meridional Islands.