Shadow Digital

Art commissioned from @kiwi-kamikaze

Warrior Left to the Void

Shadow/Time Type

Original Media: The Chaos Zone
(first appeared in 2020)

Shadow Digital

Story

The story begins about a decade before The Chaos Zone even began, in a much smaller world. His original identity was “Shadow Man“, a robot with ninja-like powers.

This is about the extent of what he knew and experienced before the world he came from was lost to time, leaving Shadow Man abandoned in a realm called “The Void”, filled with remnants of abandoned worlds, including Shadow Man’s own. With nothing to do for years but wander the lands, Shadow Man’s appearance began to slowly change to resemble parts of the abandoned worlds he was surrounded by.

Eventually, through means unknown, the robot stumbled into the much more lively world of the Chaos Zone itself, and ended up getting acquainted with locals such as Dyna Man and Dark Elf. By this point, “Shadow Man” decided to abandon his old name, dubbing himself “Shadow Digital” after the world he lost so long ago.

While initially presenting himself with an air of mystery and solemness, as Shadow Digital opened up to others, he showed a very different side to himself: He tries to be quiet and level-headed, that’s for sure, but he panics easily under pressure, and he’s got some childish habits; rumor has it when he sleeps, he holds his hood like a baby blanket.

Abilities

Shadow Blade

The user throws a shuriken at the opponent, dealing damage, and hindering the opponent’s attack power, defense, or speed (depending on which of the three is the strongest).

Shadow/Cutter Type

Shadow Blade image is from Mega Man 3 (video game, NES, 1990).

Temporal Blade

Shadow Digital throws a shuriken-esque projectile with points in the shapes of clock hands.

Time/Cutter Type

Cyclone Mirage

Shadow Digital summons a spiral of darkness, with a shadowy tornado in the center that can suck in opponents, dealing heavy damage and boosting Shadow Digital’s power if it hits.

Shadow/Wind Type

Image is from Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories (video game, 2007).

Lethal Frame

Shadow Digital stops time and unleashes a flurry of slices on the opponent, who isn’t affected until after time resumes again.

Time/Cutter Type

Blade Line

Shadow Digital manipulates the space in front of him, slicing through targets. Covers a large distance.

Cutter/Laser Type

Fate Spinner

A pair of clock hands (minute and hour) materialize around Shadow Digital and rotate wildly, dealing rapid damage to those in range. The hour hand has less range, but is stronger.

Time/Swift Type

Cyber Crossswipe

The user slashes their weapons in an X formation, unleashing waves of digital energy.

Space/Cutter Type

Voice

General Description

Teenager; tries to sound casual and “cool” most of the time, but doesn’t hide his feelings

Behind the Scenes

Me saying Shadow Digital is originally from Chaos Zone at the top of the page is more me simplifying the truth: his original form of “Shadow Man” originates from the 1990 video game Mega Man 3, and the “lost world” he briefly lived in before falling into the Void was a brief roleplay that I invented and participated in around the late 2000s-early 2010s. The reason the section about the “lost world” is so brief is because I genuinely have almost nothing to work off of besides the basics; not only was the roleplay abandoned after only a small back-and-forth between Shadow Man and another character, the website the roleplay was on – “Digital Calvin and Hobbes”, a fan site mostly focused on the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes – went offline.

The idea of Shadow Digital’s current form, in turn, was me being inspired by the idea of a character from a lost roleplay somehow finding their way into the ongoing roleplay of The Chaos Zone, and incorporating elements of hypothetical roleplays from my childhood into his design as a sort of amalgamation of (what I perceived to be) roleplaying in the 2000s:

His hooded cape is meant to be a hybrid of Shadow Man’s helmet shape and the hooded cloaks certain characters from the Kingdom Hearts video game series wore; the cloaked characters seemed to be especially popular in the 2000s.
The patterns on his torso and arms were loosely inspired by a character from the 2008 video game Pokémon Platinum Version, one of many games part of the Pokémon franchise.
The shape of his legs was inspired by the shoes worn by the character “Sonic the Hedgehog” in the 2001 video game Sonic Adventure 2; Sonic the Hedgehog has always had a strong fan community.
The belt around his waist (more specially an obi) was inspired by various Japanese animated television series popular around the 2000s, where certain characters wore similar belts or even just had notable colored lines in their clothing around the same waist area; the inspiration especially came from the 2009 Dragon Ball Z Kai TV series and the 2002 Naruto TV series.

Shadow Digital’s more childish habits were inspired by my own age when I first wrote Shadow Man on the “Digital Calvin and Hobbes” website; I figured it’d make sense for a character invented when I was so young to retain some of those youthful traits, and it made for an amusing contrast to his dark appearance.

I really enjoy Shadow Digital, not just as an experiment in re-inventing a character whose history was tied to my own life, but as a character in the setting of Chaos Zone in his own right.