Shadole

Creatures native to Alter-Mana. Shadoles are undead creatures akin to ghosts. The Elementalist faith holds that if an individual is ripped from the cycle of birth and rebirth, they are reborn as a Shadole and forced to dwell in the Underworld. Many Shadoles, however, walk freely throughout Alter-Mana, though their populations tend to be concentrated in Mindas and Bucca.

Shadoles can take one of two forms. During the first several years of its "life," a Shadole resembles a small, nondescript creature with horizontal stripes of black, blue or dark red. Its general appearance is as a stitched sock-doll, with button-like eyes and seams running down their sides. It retains this embryonic appearance until it begins to regain memories of its previous incarnation, thus learning more about who it was before its death. As it regains more and more of its memories, its appearance slowly changes, as it takes on more of its previous incarnation's features until, at last, the seams of the embryonic form burst and the spirit of the dead person emerges -- reborn (sort of), but very incomplete.

Most Shadoles (once they remember themselves) tend to be obsessed with missions of redemption, seeking to be brought back into the embrace of Mana and allowed to reincarnate again as a living being. They believe that by working towards good that they can impress the Goddess and be forgiven for whatever sin it was that cursed them to their unliving fates. Some Shadoles, however, turn to selfish acts and commit great evil during their existences, such as those Shadoles who served in the armies of the Three Evils during the War of Threes.