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Class: characters
Name: Shades
Brief: “Shade” is a slang term used to describe people who live primarily below the surface.
Detailed: Overwolders are cruel. That is the motto of those who inhabit the sublayers, and it is a motto born out and built upon continually by the actions of those who call the surface home. Though “shades” have borne this abuse since they first took up residence in the cheaper, more cramped sublayers, they have done nothing to deserve or cause any of it. “Shades”, as they are often referred to, are humans like any others. They bear no special deformities and are not a separate race of people. They have merely chosen to live below the Earth’s surface. Still, shades are beaten by certain surface gangs, and hostility between the shades and the overwolders sometimes flares. The fights are not caused by misunderstanding or forgotten feuds, but by simple prejudices against those who are different.
If shades were to have any sort of identifying marks, it would lie in their ghostly complexion. The upper sublayers have adequate lighting, and certain areas of these even have a practice of having yearly UV treatments to help correct or neutralize this condition, allowing them to travel more safely when they must venture above ground. This gives those living in the upper sublayers a more normalized skin tone, and this greatly increases their ability to mix with surfacers. In fact there are so few differences between the sublayer one shades and the overworlders that save for a few incredibly hostile parts of the world, they have no trouble going above ground for extended periods, and suffer little to no discrimination. Sublayer two enjoys a similar situation, though they are slightly whiter than their sublayer one brethren and do not enjoy quite as smooth of a blend with overworlders. However they too may travel freely between the sublayers and the surface with minimal troubles. It is when one’s origin is from sublayer three or lower that problems begin to arise. These troubles usually just come in the form of discrimination, but sometimes escalate to beating and killings. It all depends on the area of the world and the tolerance of it’s people.
The final important note about shades is that shades are not simply anyone who happens to have been underground at some point. The loose definition of a shade is one who was born underground and remained there until the age of twenty, or one who moved there after twenty and remained for more than five years. This is not to say that the ignorant and the cruel do not refer to residents of the sublayers as shades regardless of time spent there, but merely to point out what the technical definition of a shade is.
Shades tend to have slightly better nightvision and darkvision than others, but they are also more sensitive to sunlight and often squint when exposed to it over long periods of time. Shades who do not receive the UV treatments tend to burn easier from sun exposure than others as well, but there are no other inherent benefits or disadvantages to being a shade, beyond the social implications.