The Shades

The Shades are humanoid figures, looking like some cartoonish version of the Grim Reaper you'd see on the side of a Tavern; or at least the ones I used to frequent. They travel in packs, shrouded by mist formed above the sea; I can only imagine they typically prey upon ships. I speculate that, before sea travel, they stuck to small, close-together islands to avoid being faced by a population large enough to eradicate them. Either the Hinoda or the Motua islands seem like a good fit, plenty packed together, allowing them to pick off a few people on one island and then move to another. This likely stopped when colonisers or traders moved into these areas, these ships dragging these packs further and further into the sea. It would be more frequent than the time it would take for an island to replenish it's people, so they stayed there.

Given that neither of these food sources are frequent, I speculate that these creatures don't need to feed often, only doing so whenever is most convenient. Humanoids in general can eat without feeling hunger, so it makes sense that they could do the same, especially when it could be weeks between meals.

As implied by earlier statements, their prey is typically other humanoids, I have yet to see them prey on anything else. When the humanoid dies at the hands of a Shade, they too become a Shade, making it easy to replenish their numbers and overwhelm a ship. What they feed on, I speculate, is life. Their life was taken away from them, and so to make up for that absence, they get it from others, creating the same absence as them. Given that they continue feeding, I assume the amount of life they gain is a small amount. It is possible that what life they get flees them immediately, they do not have a vessel that can hold it, either theory is unethical to test in my opinion.

Despite their heinous actions against the crew of a ship I was on, I do feel a sympathy towards these creatures. We all want to hang on to life for as long as possible; that's why there's so much research into stabilised resurrection. We all only know of being conscious with life flowing through our blood, hopefully we never know the emptiness of being conscious without life. I believe they do. The instant a new shade is created, they are ready to attack the others surrounding them, what amount of pain is created in that instant that would drive them to do such things with no consideration for the people who had once been their friends? Only they can know.

I should state that sympathy does not mean endorsement, these Shades still try to kill whatever life they see and should be avoided.