SETUP
Put 3 on your starting board: 2 in the highest-numbered Jungle and 1 in land #5
PLAY STYLE
Good at causing Fear and picking off lone Explorers and Towns, containing the Invaders. Not so good at massive damage - may need to rely on allies to handle thoroughly colonized lands. The ability to boost Range gives more flexibility to Range 0 Powers, and can be important in larger games.
COMPLEXITY
Shadows Flicker Like Flame Official FAQ Entries
SPECIAL RULES
SHADOWS OF THE DAHANWhenever you use a Power, you may pay 1 Energy to target a land with regardless of the Power's Range. (Power Cards or your Innate Powers.)
SUMMARY OF POWERS
The Dahan say, "If the long shadows of sunset stretching beside you begin to shift and flicker like tongues of hungry fire, do not run. That will only feed your fear, and whet the shadows' appetite."
This spirit invokes an instinctive fear in humans, perhaps because it doesn't think at all like humans do - it's more alien-minded than most. Until a few generations ago, the Dahan carefully propitiated it only at a distance, steering as clear as they could. But during the Years of The Relentless Sun, it shaded large swaths of the Island, averting catastrophe; since then, many Dahan have been willing to carefully - and cautiously - heed its words, feeling they have a debt they ought to try to repay.
A spirit of darkness and fire, of the alien and unnatural just out of vision around the corner. Its mindset is even more non-human than most Spirits', and it's somewhat dangerous just to be around; the only reason the Dahan have anything to do with it is out of a sense of reciprocity for a great favor it did them some generations ago. Its darkness works in ways not intuitive to humans; it may engulf a single person or an entire city, and it can act at great distance by reaching through the shadows of the Dahan. While not a spirit of fear, all of its Powers cause some amount of Fear due to their unnerving effects.
Spirits corresponding directly to natural features make instinctive sense to human minds: "the spirit of this river here", or "a spirit of stormy wind" are straightforward and easy to grasp. Some spirits are more inscrutable, such as the Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds, or harder to perceive, such as the Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island. And then there are others still whose nature simply does not mesh well with humanity's view of the universe, such as Shadows Flicker Like Flame. It is the shadow of a candleflame; a fire that withers what it touches rather than igniting it; the dark silhouette of a tree cast across the ground which, when you step on it, turns out to be a pit of ink-black otherspace. Its form is as fluid as smoke, rising up from any shadow lying on the ground. Shadows Flicker Like Flame does not seem to represent any natural phenomenon known outside of itself, but is associated with shade, transformation, shadows given life, unnatural spaces, and engulfing dark. While it is not a spirit of terror per se, it evokes a primal fear in humans, both due to its associations and the alienness of its nature. It seems to honor its bargains, but it thinks along strange lines... and when it's near, you're never entirely sure that you won't just vanish.
Overall:
Specific cards:
Overall: Shadows has several abilities which shine in a larger game, reaching through others (Spirit or Dahan) to affect the fight all the way across the island. In a smaller game, those will be less important - but the consistent Fear it generates will be more significant. (Earning a Fear Card requires 4 Fear/player, so in smaller games each Spirit's Fear has a higher proportional impact.)
Shadows Flicker Like Flame/Antistone's Opening[1]
Shadows Flicker Like Flame/Phantaskippy's Guide[2]
During each Phase, you may move 1 of your to an adjacent land, or to a land with anywhere on the island.
You may treat each available to you as being , or vice versa. (Choose during each Action for each / you have.) You may discard or Forget Powers that grant to pay for Choice Events, and vice versa.
The first time each Action would destroy your , you may Push 1 of those instead of destroying it.
Bonus space: Fire (or Moon)
When you add during Growth, you may also add 1 in that land.
When your is Destroyed, if Invaders are present, 1 per Destroyed there.
Once per turn, you may ignore Range.(This can be during Growth or for a Power - anything for which there's a Range arrow or the word "Range" is used. It affects a single Action of yours.)
There are no rulings at this time.