Tin Hanan/The Shadow (spoilers)

[Welsh cake]

Hi all, I've played Dark Descent a second time and this time paid more attention to the diary entries and notes found throughout the game. I'm trying to wrap my head around as to what exactly is this shadow entity that's chasing after Daniel. Granted it's your standard Lovecraftian horror that serves to drive the story forward, but I'm debunking that response on the grounds that its an excuse not to think. ^^ I want to be more constructive and find a positive ontology for it we can all agree upon. Unfortunately, I came across the following questions posed by events within the game and couldn't resolve them and I can only speculate at this point:

1. Is this Shadow entity really 'Tin Hanan' according to the game is translated to 'the Mother of Us All? Is it a god? A mere guardian? The will of the universe? Or simply just a shapeless monster?

2. Why didn't Shadow simply take back the orb from Daniel or kill him as soon as he left the burial grounds in Africa?

3. Why didn’t the Shadow make any attempt to harm or hound after Daniel directly in London? It consumes Brennenburg Castle in a matter of days/hours yet he spent almost an entire month in the Mayfair area of London – he was a sitting duck by all accounts yet came and left without incident.

4. Why was the Shadow content with murdering people Daniel was in contact with? Was it trying to prevent Daniel from learning too much about the orb?

5. Was it the Shadow that inspired Daniel to repair the broken orb through nightmares? Or was it nothing more than a bad dream?

6. Was it possible Alexander was the one who provoked and angered the Shadow when Daniel allowed him to tamper with its orb in a ritual, thereby deliberately turning it against Daniel? It was notably pissed off after whatever Alexander had done to it.

7. Is the shadow still following Daniel after the revenge ending?


Any thoughts on these issues raised would be much appreciated. ^^

[Redeemer]

1. Amnesia's writers left the idea of the "Shadow" purposely foggy. No one, not even the developers, know clearly what it is, although it's my belief that it is simply a knock-back effect from the universe created by the misuse of the orb, and is most likely not self-aware or even alive. Thus the answers that follow are my own opinion and should not be considered factual.

2. It tried, but the shadow is a slow and sluggish thing (although it seems to have picked up speed by the end of the game)

3. See number 2.

4. Like I said, I believe the shadow is just a recoiling universe that is trying to put itself back into order. It doesn't care who or what is in the way to its target, it just steamrolls everything it finds on the trail in an effort to find the stolen orb.

5. Apparently Daniel was awoken that night by a particularly frightening and exhausting nightmare before he was inspired to piece the orb back together. I believe the shadow, for whatever reason, was the thing that inspired him to repair the orb that night.

6. Not really. Daniel's the one who set the shadow off on a rampage. The blood rituals really did deter the shadow, although the cost for performing them would be that the shadow would ultimately grow stronger/faster. So Alexander did make the situation worse for Daniel, ultimately, but Daniel's the one who made the shadow mad to begin with.

7. No. After Daniel murders Alexander, the shadow leaves Daniel alone, because the blood rituals performed earlier have apparently been justified by Alexander's death, and the shadow has reclaimed the orb.

[LuckyBlackCatXIII]

Just wanted to note on some of Redeemer's answers:

6.) Also the fact that there is evidence left behind by Alexander that the baron had intended to bring Daniel with to his world [but because he was 'tainted by the Shadow' he couldn't bring him along. It's in one of his memory cylinders], so I doubt he would have aimed the Shadow after Daniel.

Also the blood rituals did not steer the Shadow away. That was just a lie Alexander told Daniel so that the archeologist would harvest Vitae for him, without knowing he was being manipulated.

7.) If you can see in Daniel's ending, all traces of the Shadow are gone as he makes his way back to the surface, so no, the Shadow is not still after him. It stops it's chase because your killing of Alexander somehow caused it to cease and desist.

[Welsh cake]

Thanks for thoughts and opinions on this, you have more insight than I so it maybe a short discussion. =)

4. Like I said, I believe the shadow is just a recoiling universe that is trying to put itself back into order. It doesn't care who or what is in the way to its target, it just steamrolls everything it finds on the trail in an effort to find the stolen orb.

Ah, so if all it really wants is the orb back when Alexander told Daniel not to dispose of his orb because in his words "he'd still be part of the path to the orb", was he lying there?

6. Not really. Daniel's the one who set the shadow off on a rampage. The blood rituals really did deter the shadow, although the cost for performing them would be that the shadow would ultimately grow stronger/faster. So Alexander did make the situation worse for Daniel, ultimately, but Daniel's the one who made the shadow mad to begin with.

That's reasonable, but why did it go straight after Alexander in the revenge ending and not try to harm Daniel? This is the thing, its behaviour or motives seem a bit foggy... if it really were after only the orb it would have ignored Daniel in the beginning of the game when he didn't have any of the pieces. Unless of course, as you say, it was the universe simply recoiling on itself, flattening anything in its path randomly.

7. No. After Daniel murders Alexander, the shadow leaves Daniel alone, because the blood rituals performed earlier have apparently been justified by Alexander's death, and the shadow has reclaimed the orb.

I didn't think screwing up the portal ritual killed Alexander, foiled his plans yes, but I'll have to watch the YouTube videos. I guess we can rule out the revenge ending then that Daniel is still "tainted" by the shadow (whatever that means). Though I wouldn't be surprised if it returns in an Amnesia sequel you reckon? After all it drives Daniel's story forward and helps pacing.

Also the blood rituals did not steer the Shadow away. That was just a lie Alexander told Daniel so that the archeologist would harvest Vitae for him, without knowing he was being manipulated.

LOL He just digs himself into a deeper hole. Daniel's character is not very bright is he?

7.) If you can see in Daniel's ending, all traces of the Shadow are gone as he makes his way back to the surface, so no, the Shadow is not still after him. It stops it's chase because your killing of Alexander somehow caused it to cease and desist.

That appears to be accurate unless its invisible, but what happened to Daniel's orb? I thought it disintegrated after it broke down the barrier, because our protagonist was supposedly "uninitiated" in using them?

[Solarn]

Alexander was the Shadow's target too, don't forget that. He not only had and extensively used an orb in the past, he also broke it. He'd been keeping the Shadow at bay for a long time already when he met Daniel. He was planning to make Daniel take the blame for both of them, it was his bad luck that in the revenge ending, it became him.

[LuckyBlackCatXIII]

7.) If you can see in Daniel's ending, all traces of the Shadow are gone as he makes his way back to the surface, so no, the Shadow is not still after him. It stops it's chase because your killing of Alexander somehow caused it to cease and desist.

That appears to be accurate unless its invisible, but what happened to Daniel's orb? I thought it disintegrated after it broke down the barrier, because our protagonist was supposedly "uninitiated" in using them?

First off I doubt there'd be any invisible Shadow activity, since we know the thing likes to make its presence well known with pulsating matter and goo. Second, if I remember correctly, the broken pieces of orb Daniel gathers from the Choir and Transept are from Agrippa's orb, as the chatterbox tells us in the Nave. I always assumed that orb 'collapsed on itself' after being used to open the barrier to the Inner Sanctum, where Alexander was with Daniel's orb being used to open the portal.

I could be completely wrong though, it's just a guess 9 u9

[Welsh cake]

@Solarn and LuckyBlackCatXIII

You both have valid points there, and I agree, but here's something I don't quite comprehend...

How is the ending where Daniel takes his revenge or where he saves Agrippa any different? Both screw up Alexander's escape bid, yet the Shadow will kill Daniel in the special ending regardless. Why is that?

[Solarn]

@Solarn and LuckyBlackCatXIII

You both have valid points there, and I agree, but here's something I don't quite comprehend...

How is the ending where Daniel takes his revenge or where he saves Agrippa any different? Both screw up Alexander's escape bid, yet the Shadow will kill Daniel in the special ending regardless. Why is that?

Possibly has something to do with Alexander's portal. In the revenge ending, it's destroyed, in the other two it opens and is used.

[vergilmaycry]

@Solarn and LuckyBlackCatXIII

You both have valid points there, and I agree, but here's something I don't quite comprehend...

How is the ending where Daniel takes his revenge or where he saves Agrippa any different? Both screw up Alexander's escape bid, yet the Shadow will kill Daniel in the special ending regardless. Why is that?

Possibly has something to do with Alexander's portal. In the revenge ending, it's destroyed, in the other two it opens and is used.

Also, we don't know for a fact that Daniel's dead. We know that he was injured by the shadow, but it's not clear whether he was dead or simply hallucinating when he heard Agrippa's voice in the last section of that ending. Agrippa could literally convincing Weyer to save Daniel (from death/damnation), or it could be Daniel's interpretation of Agrippa due to the pain of his injury. Although almost everyone who came into contact with the Shadow has died, perhaps by sacrificing Alexander (who trespassed far deeper into the Shadow's realm than Daniel did), Daniel was partially spared or simply injured and left to die. It depends on how you interpret the darkness with the specs of light.

[Welsh cake]

I suppose it all depends on how we interpret the ending, though why does Daniel hear the voices of the people he's murdered when the Shadow overcomes the inner sanctum? Has he lost his mind? Or did he really feed their lives/souls to the shadow to prolong his own life?