The Nightlanders

Little is known about these living shadows, the fear of the things in the dark. They may or may not have been previous victims of the Empty City — if they are, they aren't telling. The Nightlanders are creatures of order. They will reorganize objects, furniture, and people. They can reorder a persons mind to their liking or rigidly order a person's body (to the point of snapping their neck).

They manifest in a number of different ways. Sometimes only the voices that whisper at the back of your mind, but other manifestations include shadows that speak and move separately from your own, possessing and manipulating your shadow to move independently, humanoid forms with dark skin and burning eyes, or even as moving pictures within a bloodstained book of Grimm tales.

Not much is known about these terrors, but what little is known is terrifying. They are meticulous, they are dangerous, and they are demanding. Their games are paramount, and god forbid you deny them or disobey an order. They take body parts, organs, loved ones, blood and pain as their "punishments". Their games can last entire lifetimes, and many good men have gone mad from the psychological torture they dole out.

The symptoms of a Nightlander victim vary. OCD ticks, delays in social interaction as they consider how best to fulfill the "role" they've been assigned, gaze avoidance, fragmented sentence structures, fear of the dark, twitching, and self-mutilation are common. Victims of the Nightlanders are often in a constant state of fear and paranoia, and tend to try to leave messages in the things they write and say.

Morse code, odd "proxy-like" capitalizations in random letters of their words, and diaries hidden in plain sight have been passed on in the attempt to escape their torment.