Shadows of the Void: Amon's Void-born legions

The Shadows of the Void, also known as Void Shades, Terrazine Shadows, or simply Void entities, were beings created from the energies of the Void that emulated organisms and technology from the material universe. The fallen xel'naga Amon made regular use of these shades in the later stages of the End War, sending them against Zeratul on Atrias, against Alarak and the Daelaam on Slayn, and finally against the combined armies of terran, protoss, and zerg that pursued him into the Void to destroy him.

Nature and sustenance#

The Shadows of the Void were not natural creatures of the material universe. They were shaped from Void energies into imitations of living beings and machines, taking on the forms of protoss warriors, terran soldiers and vehicles, or zerg strains depending on the forces arrayed against them. A shadow required an energy source to sustain its existence. In the material universe, terrazine of sufficient quality was enough to hold a shade together, though such entities never reached their full potential so far from their native dimension. Within the Void itself, where the energies that birthed them were limitless, the shades were far more powerful, matching the full strength of the beings they copied.

The shadows shared a common vulnerability with their master's kind. The celestial energies of the xel'naga could unravel them, a weakness that would prove decisive in the last hours of the End War. The same shadow essence that formed the shades also underpinned larger manifestations of the Void, including the chasms, rifts, corruptions, shards, slivers, and crystals from which new shadows poured, as well as the massive oblivion, rampage, and torment constructs that Amon raised in his own defense.

The Temple of Erris#

The Shadows of the Void first appeared in the Temple of Erris on Atrias. There, Dark Prelate Zeratul had come seeking the Void catalyst, and from the Void a voice like that of Tassadar told him that the Keystone would usher him unto hope. Amon then manifested in the wreckage of the catalyst, killed many of Zeratul's troops with his powers, and began summoning shadows of the Void along with a number of hybrid to slay the prelate, setting the temple to collapse around them.

These first shades took the forms of protoss warriors exclusively, but they did not possess the full strength of the templar they imitated, for they were far from their natural environment. Zeratul evaded the shadows, the hybrid, and the pursuing Tal'darim as the temple came down. Praetor Talis and her forces sacrificed themselves to hold the last stretch of the temple, buying Zeratul the time he needed to escape before the structure collapsed entirely.

The terrazine mists of Slayn#

The shadows appeared again on Slayn, the chasm riddled homeworld of the Tal'darim, when First Ascendant Alarak and the Daelaam moved to eliminate the Guardians of Ma'lash. At intervals, mists of terrazine rose from the chasms of Slayn, and the gas thinned the barrier between the material universe and the Void. Each time the fog rolled in, shadows swarmed the Daelaam positions, and each time the mist lifted, the assault broke off.

Unlike the shades of Atrias, the shadows of Slayn emulated forces drawn from all three of the great powers of the Koprulu Sector, wearing the shapes of terran, protoss, and zerg alike. As on Atrias, however, they fought at less than their full strength, sustained by the terrazine but starved of the deeper energies of their home dimension. Alarak and the Daelaam weathered the assaults and destroyed the Guardians of Ma'lash.

The defense of Aiur#

When the Daelaam returned to reclaim Aiur, Amon set shadows of full strength to defend the enormous host body his followers had grown for him. These shades spawned from Void shards, crystalline intrusions that transformed the ground around them into an environment closer to that of the Void itself. The shards damaged everything near them and projected a shield over Amon's host form, so that no attack could reach the body while they endured.

The combined forces of the Daelaam assaulted the shards one by one and destroyed them, stopping the shadows from spawning and stripping away the protection they gave to Amon's host. With the shards broken, the protoss cast Amon's essence out of the material universe and back into the Void.

Into the Void#

Amon could not be permanently slain in the material universe, and so the war followed him home. Through the portal at Ulnar, Raynor's Raiders, the Zerg Swarm, and the Daelaam, led by the Spear of Adun, entered the Void to destroy him. Here the shadows fought in their own element at last. Fully powered shades fell upon the allied fleet and began tearing the ships apart, yet the allies pushed on toward a psionic voice that called to them from deeper within the dark dimension.

The voice led them to Emil Narud, Amon's shapeshifting servant, who sent shadows spawned from Void rifts to bar their path. The allied forces destroyed the Void corruptions feeding the assault, and with each corruption lost the shadows thinned, until Narud himself was destroyed.

The shadows then turned on Sarah Kerrigan. As the last pure xel'naga, Ouros, channeled his essence into her to remake her as a xel'naga, Amon hurled his shades against her from every direction, along with Void thrashers, to break the transfer. The allied forces, led by Commander Jim Raynor, Hierarch Artanis, and Broodmother Zagara, formed a defensive ring around her and held the shadows off. Raynor reinforced the faltering lines until Kerrigan completed the transfer and absorbed the xel'naga's power, releasing a blast of energy that destroyed every attacking shadow in the area.

The fall of Amon#

Amon continued to spend his void entities freely to the end of the war. When he attempted to awaken a voidshade hybrid, his forces were augmented with shadows that protected the void slivers channeling energy into the temple where the creature was being summoned. Allied commanders overcame the shadows, destroyed the slivers, and bombarded the hybrid before it could rise.

In the final battle, the three factions, led by an ascended Kerrigan, found Amon on a platform shrouded behind void crystals and screened by his shades. Shadows spawned endlessly from void chasms torn into the platform, wounds in the dark dimension that could be closed for a time but never permanently sealed. As the chasms and the void crystals shielding Amon came under attack, he raised void constructs to defend himself and ripped the very ground from beneath the allied lines. The allied forces destroyed the crystals all the same, and with his defenses spent, Kerrigan personally slew Amon. The master of the shadows was gone, killed in the one dimension where a xel'naga could truly die, and the End War was over.