I have been surrounded by shadows all my life. It isn’t painful. Instead, it feels like a warm blanket that wraps around me, cloaking my heart and soul. I take in the world around me, including everyone’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and release the outline as my façade. I can be anyone I want to, for I have no form except for that of the others. I am the shadow and the shadow is me. Heck, it’s even my name. Somehow, my personality hasn’t crumbled over the past few years of taking in everyone’s thoughts and feelings. I still happen to be the casual, realistically optimistic, hyperactive college student that I had grown attached to since I was dropped into this universe as a 7-year-old. I have no memories from before then because I didn’t exist, and I don’t know why I know that, but that is probably a part of the rules of this world. I have been in this world for 12 years, and I still find things that surprise me.

            The rules of this world are pretty simple. Everyone comes to this world at the age of 7 with an understanding of the basic academic subjects, a comprehensive knowledge of our biology, and what sex is (we still have to be of age in this world, 18, to have sex of course). We also all have an element, concept, idea, or object we embody as a part of us. These embodiments determine our names as well. The only things we can’t do in this world, are talk about or show off our abilities to other people, unless a fight breaks out, or we gain permission from this world to break the rules. No one can die either, so this world gets pretty crazy at times.

Surprisingly, I have lived in this world since it came into existence, and boy, was it boring. Everyone was 7 and it was just a savannah for miles and miles. We all knew the rules of this world, but since we couldn’t use our powers in front of others unless there was a fight, or the world said we could, we couldn’t build anything. Eventually, some of the stronger “concepts”, that’s what we call people with concept-based powers, figured out how to make stuff by artificially creating fights. When they were finally able to make some cover (it was a hill, they made a hill), they had the “world-builders”, that is the designation for people who have abilities related to creation such as: buildings, tools, weapons, appliances, technology, etc., build several expansive cities. They also got the “shapers”, this is the class of people with abilities that embody life and creation, and they are able to manipulate their creations at will, (note: this category tends to work in tandem with the world-builders or “builders”), to create forests, food, animals, and weather. The world was starting to take form, and eventually, more concepts and ideas would show up.

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Before then, it is important I address a few things. First, there is a handful of ability-users (this is what I will call the people of this world when speaking indiscriminately) that this world allows to use abilities at all times. They are fairly simple concepts usually, like the Sun, the Moon, the Star Set (I say set because I have only met a few and they live beyond the sky, not to mention there are too many of them to count), and the Planets. However, there are two specific ability-users that are very important to this world. They are the Writer, and the Editor. They write the entire history of this world as it happens and have some foresight into future events. They are also the ones you speak to if you wish to know this world’s history, and if you just fell out of the sky. They are also the ones that say whether or not an ability-user is allowed to die. This brings me to the other character I wanted to mention, my best friend, Death. If he wants to kill someone, and believe me he does, he has to engage them in a fight, the world has to approve of his intentions, and both the writer and editor have to agree that this world doesn’t need that ability. When someone dies, everything they created, and ever resembled is removed from this world. All that remains of them is their pages written by the writer, and the memories of all the ability-users.

I should probably explain a few more categories as well. There are “elementals”, “emotions”, “travelers”, and many others that I will explain as they appear. Elementals are obviously the group I am a part of. Emotions are the mental expressions of people (they are also really nasty in a fight, ever had someone “kill” you with kindness?). Travelers… well they travel, more on them later.

There is one last thing I would like to mention before I finish this prologue. This is a catalogue of the events to come, and sometimes it will be from my perspective, and sometimes the Writer’s perspective. This journal is meant for me to catalogue my thoughts on this world, how to help the people in it, and, hopefully, find someone in this world I can share it with. It usually won’t be structured like this, with long info dumps, and it will consist of mostly dialogue with a bit of world-building sprinkled throughout. Most of the information after this prologue of sorts will mainly be conveyed through the dialogue, and it will be up to whoever reads this to figure out the details, but I will still help from time to time. I hope whoever finds this story one day will enjoy it. I know I can’t really die in this world, but I still feel like it is appropriate to leave this for someone in the future. I hope you enjoy my story.