Shadow Walker

♫ Figure in black, which points at me... ♫

Some characters like hiding in shadows; Shadow Walkers take that a step further and use them as portals.

Descriptions of this travel often involve the character entering a "shadow world" where they are able to travel further and faster than in the real world. A walker's ability to perceive and influence the real world from this shadow world (and vice versa) varies.

For obvious reasons, this is a technique usually employed by evil or at least morally ambiguous characters.

Occasionally characters are able to create their own shadows to do this, rather than using existing ones.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Ayakashi Triangle: Jinyo are made of shadowy matter and are occasionally shown to teleport in and out of vortex of darkness they can make at will.
• Berserk: Rakshas seems to be able to pull this off... or maybe he's just THAT good at sneaking around.
• Black Clover: Nacht uses Shadow Magic, able to move himself and whatever he touches from one shadow to another. He can hide in a shadow and drag enemies into it. He uses his magic to bring the Clover Kingdom's special assault force to raid the Spade Kingdom castle.
• Bleach: In the Thousand Year Blood War arc, it is eventually revealed that the Vandenreich had been hiding in a parallel world inside Soul Society's shadows.
• Descendants of Darkness: Seiichirou Tatsumi's power is manipulating shadows as a means of transport and as a weapon.
• Fairy Tail: Rogue Cheney of Sabertooth as this as part of his Shadow Dragon Slayer magic. Unlike most examples though, he's actually a Nice Guy. His potential future self though... Gajeel and Sting gain similar powers from eating Rogue's shadow magic and unlocking Iron Shadow Dragon Mode and White Shadow Dragon Mode respectively.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind: Polpo's Stand Black Sabbath has the ability to vanish into shadows. But it does have a key limitation: it can only move from one shadow to another where they intersect, rather than teleporting between them. It can be defeated by exposing it to direct light with no shadows to hide in.
• Mega Man Megamix: Shadow Man is outfitted with a scientific variation of this trope. He is equipped with a teleportation device that lets him warp through shadows via a sensor that looks for areas with an absence of light as potential destinations.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Teleportation magic works by sending the user through their element in some way. Dark magic uses shadows (as Evangeline demonstrates at the end of the Kyoto Arc).
• One Piece: A variation. Gecko Moria can detach his shadow which can move freely far away from him. He can then teleport to switch places with it. This is used to reach great distances safely as well as acting as decoy.
• Puella Magi Tart Magica: Riz Hawkwood's magical girl abilities are heavily based on shadows, including using shadows to teleport to an opponent or friend instantly, and can even pull fellow magical girls into it to have a short, strategic talk.
• Psychic Squad: Nai can teleport herself or somebody else using an existing shadow.
• 3×3 Eyes: Elora can move across the magic shadow she cast and even wrap herself in a monstrous form of darkness.
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: The skill Shadow Motion allows the user to warp between shadows and is frequently used by resident Stealth Expert Souei.
• Xanadu (Storyverse): In "Slinx", after being transformed into the titular feline creature, the main character gains the ability to "shadowdash", diving into one shadow to appear out of another some distance away.
• Yaiba: Dark the Kishin of Darkness can project a long shadow from his sword which acts as quicksand, sucking people into a dimension of sheer darkness. He can also perform a variant called "Dark Tunnel" which allows Onimaru to move his armies across Japan with ease.

Comic Books

• The DCU:
  • Nightshade from Captain Atom, Suicide Squad and Shadowpact has this as one of the many shadow-related abilities she inherited from her mother, who hails from the Land of Nightshades.
  • The Shade, an ally of Starman, can also do this via his connection to the Shadowlands (whether a connection exists between this and the above-mentioned Land of Nightshades is unknown). A future version of the character was able to use this ability to time travel.
  • Acrata, a Mexican superhero who first appeared in Superman, has the ability to teleport whenever in shadow using an ancient Mayan symbol which represents the night.
• Marvel Universe:
  • Cloak and Dagger (Marvel Comics): Cloak can teleport himself and others through the dimension of darkness he has access to.
  • New Warriors: Silhouette can transport through shadow.
  • X-Men:
    • For a period of time, after her life was saved by something weird and shadowy, Psylocke gained the ability to hop through shadows.
    • Nightcrawler both teleports and becomes invisible when in shadows, but unlike many examples, he doesn't have to be in the latter to do the former.

Fan Works

• Blood and Revolution: Bakura teleports this way. Because he's a chaos demon, the results are unpredictable and sometimes amusing.
• Child of the Storm: In Ghosts of the Past, the Red Room has an Agent Petrovna, a Darkforce manipulator who is, among other things, capable of this. Unusually, however, she's actually one of the moral members of the team from what little we see of her.
• Destiny Intertwined: Shadow dragons can dive into their own shadows in order to move intangibly for a short distance. On the one hand, this makes them invulnerable until they pop back into physical space; on the other, they're also blind and deaf until they do so.
• A Different Lesson: Heian Chao is able to use his dark chi to transport his spirit-form through the shadows. This allows him to cover days worth of distance in a few seconds, and even act in two places at once.
• Dungeon Keeper Ami has dark mistresses and Umbra, one of Keeper Mercury's youmas, being able to teleport and hide in the shadows using this technique.
• Loki: Agent of Doomgard gave us the Loki of Nutopia. Fortunately her range with this power was just a few yards at best.
• Ojamajo Doremi: Rise of the Shadows: The main antagonists, a group of living shadows, have this power so long as they use the shadow of an inanimate object or a light being. They use this to go from their world to ours almost instantaneously, and they can drag others with them if they choose. They cannot use themselves for this, though.

Films

• Ninja Assassin: This is a skill employed by the ninja, which allows them to slaughter a Europol tactical team in a confined space. Later on, though, the good guys learn and burst into the ninjas' fortress with armored vehicles and turn on floodlights that prevent the ninjas from using this trope, then open up with assault rifles. The protagonist also learns this trick during his fight with his Evil Mentor, something said mentor was using moments before.
• Pan's Labyrinth: The novelization explains that the Faun's ability to teleport involves merging with shadows.

Gamebooks

• So Far: Stepping into shadows is how the player character travels to different worlds.

Literature

• anachronauts makes it a part of the Winterhound power package, limited to shadows within visible range.
• Black Legion: Daemoness Gyre can use shadows to walk through walls and travel along short distances.
• The Camp Half-Blood Series: Shadow travel is an ability innate to creatures of the Underworld or children of Underworld deities. This includes children of Hades/Pluto, like Nico di Angelo, as well as hellhounds (like Percy's dog, Mrs. O'Leary). However, this power can drain the user a lot (case in point, the first time Nico used it he passed out for a whole week) and can only be used a couple of times per day, preferably at night. Hades himself is implied to have this power too; his helmet lets him physically become darkness and thus be anywhere that darkness exists. He could be watching you right now...
• Cradle Series: This is one of the signature abilities of Akura Malice, the so-called Queen of Shadows, the greatest Shadow artist in the world. Note that any form of teleportation is extremely difficult in this world, but Malice makes it slightly easier on herself by using shadows as gateways. Her grand-daughter, Akura Charity, is also fond of this, but she's also fond of seemingly teleporting through a shadow when she's actually turned invisible and stayed where she is to spy on people.
• The Fallen Moon: Skandar's magic is the ability to travel quickly and invisibly between places by passing through a "shadow world". The Night God's favour allows Arenadd to share this ability. In the sequel trilogy Saeddryn is also granted this power. In addition to ease of travel, it is used for advantages during fights, and for assassinations.
• In Book Two of Heralds Of Rhimn Navaeli discovers a new way to wield Silamir’s domain. By slipping into shadows, she can travel between places using the void. She can carry other people with her too, but not many at a time, and between the lack of air and the chill, it’s not a comfortable experience for her passengers.
• Horus Heresy: Some Raven Guard can "wraith-slip" and travel through shadows, unseen by regular people.
• Kingdoms of Dust: Melantha can use her magic to bypass physical objects through shadows.
• The Name of the Wind: Haliax uses the shadows that cling to him as part of his Chandrian power to transport the others away from Kvothe's destroyed caravan when something notices them — just in time to stop Kvothe from being killed too.
• Night Watch (Series): The Others are able to enter the Twilight by entering their shadow. The more powerful Others are able to go to the deeper levels of the Twilight by locating their shadow and stepping into it on each subsequent level, which gets progressively harder. Time flows differently in the Twilight compared to the normal world, so an Other can appear to have teleported, when all he actually does is enter the Twilight, walk to the destination, and exit the Twilight.
• October Daye: Cait Sidhe, cat shapechangers, can walk the Shadow Roads, a frigidly cold and pitch black space that can be used as a shortcut between any two shadows close enough to their kingdom. Their king, Tybalt, can take other people along for the ride, though doing so is extremely draining over long distances. The Shadow Roads are also the best place to kill a King of Cats, as their ability to recover from death won't work there.
• Of Fire and Stars: In the sequel Tristan, a Zumordan trainee guardian, can shadow walk. This involves traversing the shadowlands, a pitch black place. Because it's easier to move near where the dead lie, shadow walking usually occurs near them, so while inside a traveler can hear their voices, saying how they died and what their souls leaving the body felt like. Dennaleia of course finds it very unsettling going with him as a result.
• Pale: Abraham Musser can walk through shadows using a trick he stole from a serial killer; he claims unclaimed shadows as part of his personal demesne, allowing him to step between any two sets of shadow as if it were the same place.
• A Practical Guide to Evil: The drow base their entire culture on the use of "Night" (and also murder). One of the more common tricks is to turn into/ slink into a puddle of darkness and re-emerge later - for example to dodge an attack. Some drow, like members of the Longstrider-Cabal, take this one step further and use the Night for long-distance travel.
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Some Necromancers can learn to Shadow Walk which lets them teleport up to two kilometres.
• The Spirit Thief: Nico can travel through shadows far faster than she can walk through the material world, though doing so puts her at higher risk of being overwhelmed by the Master. The effect, when she does it, is akin to teleportation.
• Villains by Necessity: Sam, which turns out to be very useful in his work. This involves travelling into a shadow world which is entered or exited through shadows, though it doesn't appear to make travel any faster, just easier getting into otherwise inaccessible places. It's stated there used to be others-apparently they all went into the shadow world one by one, though, and never returned... Naturally, the assassins decided it was best to stop teaching it after that. It seems this was due to being addictive magic, since Sam grows more and more unable to stand being in the normal world after he starts using it, though this is implied to be the fault of him wearing Valerie's dark portal (which is what enabled him to shadowslip in the first place. Once he gives it back, he isn't able to travel through shadows again until the Darkgate reopens)..
• The Wheel of Time: Myrddaal are stated to have this ability, though it's never clarified what constitutes adequate shadow or how far they can move. No one knows how they do it either, even the creatures themselves. The ability is seldom shown within the books, but is enough of a threat that Borderland cities keep their streets lit throughout the night by law to keep them out, as well as a similar law that everyone must keep their heads uncovered, since Myrddraal have very distinctive faces.
• Whateley Universe: Nacht, who as an infant was dipped in the Erebos, which led to her absorbing a variety of shadow and darkness powers, including teleporation using shadows.
  • The first Nightgaunt was a superhero who used Power Gems which gave him the ability to teleport via shadows. He was murdered by the second Nightgaunt, who used them to become a supervillain in the service of The Necromancer. He in turn was cold-cocked by Vamp (when she was uncovered as The Mole in the Necromancer's organization), who took the gems for her own and dumped him at a police station.
• Wild Cards: Moonchild, one of Captain Trips' multiple identities, has this ability, and refers to it as "walking in shadows".

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Basic D&D supplement The Book of Marvelous Magic: A creature wearing the Shadow Cape can travel up to 360 feet from one shadow to another three times per day.
  • The 2nd Edition spell Shadow Walk allows the caster and any creatures he/she touched to partially enter the Plane of Shadow. This allows them to move at a speed of seven miles per ten minutes (42 miles per hour) with regard to the Prime Material Plane. When the journey is completed, they can return to the Prime Material Plane at the desired location.
  • 2nd Edition supplement DM Options: High Level Campaigns: Thieves of level 16+ can learn the skill Shadow Flight. If it's very shadowy, the thief can Dimension Door (teleport) up to 360 yards to another shadowy area once per hour.
  • In 3rd Edition (and systems derived from it, like Pathfinder) the Shadowdancer Prestige Class gains the ability to teleport between two shadows for a set amount of feet per day at higher levels.
  • The 3.5 Shadowcaster class has four mysteries (their spell equivalents) for this (being shadowcasters, usually bringing their own shadow from the Plane of Shadow), from flickering around on the battlefield, to teleporting a distance in sight, over going to other planes via the Plane of Shadow to Shadow Walk but faster and with the possibility to arrive exactly where you want.
  • In 5th Edition, shadow monks and shadow sorcerers can teleport up to 60 and 120 feet respectively while in darkness or dimly lit areas.
  • La Notte Eterna, a 3rd party setting for D&D 5e: At 6th level, Chosen of Darkness can teleport at will as long as both they and their target location are in shadow.
• Princess: The Hopeful: The Shadow Step Caligo grants servants of darkness this power, allowing them to teleport from one unlit area (defined as too dark to read) and reappearing instantly in another within line of sight. The Calignes Nowhere Untouched (enter the Dark World from any dimly lit area rather than needing a Tainted Place) and Dark Ascension (exit the Dark World into any dimly lit area rather than needing a Tainted Place) can also be combined to produce a similar effect, trading the range limit for the necessity to move through the Dark World to get from one place to another.
• Vampire: The Masquerade: The "Shadowstep" power of the Obtenebration Discipline wielded by Clan Lasombra is the ability to teleport from shadow to shadow.
• Warhammer 40,000. Drukhari Mandrakes live in an alternate dimension that allows them to teleport out of any shadow. Any. Shadow.

Toys

• BIONICLE: Shadow Stealer can use shadows to move great distances. Umarak from the reboot can do the same.

Video Games

• Aragami: The "Shadow Leap" ability allows the player to teleport using shadowed areas.
• Dauntless: The Behemoth Riftstalker combines this trope with Thinking Up Portals to teleport all over the battlefield using shadowy rifts. This only applies while it is aether-charged ^note It starts aether-charged and it never wears off unless it is forcibly interrupted, which is basically all the time.
• Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup: Followers of Dithmenos gain the ability to step into the shadows of any creature within their shadowy aura, effectively teleporting right next to their target.
• Kingdom Hearts: Many characters, in particular the members of Organization XIII, are able to conjure Dark portals to walk through corridors of Darkness, accessing any place very fast.
• League of Legends: The ninja Zed can detach from his shadow and switch places with it. His disciple and second in command Kayn can outright walk through walls via shadows, and the power grows stronger if he wins his conflict for dominance with the Darkin Rhaast.
• The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon: Cynder's basic "Shadow Breath" attack has her leaping in her own shadow to move under the enemies or certain gates as long as the button is held, and then attack from below with either claws or by jumping out, sending all nearby foes flying around. Her secondary fire, ironically, is a proper Breath Weapon made of asphyxiating black fire.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Agahnim can sink into his shadow and move it about the room before resurfacing. In his second fight he splits his shadow into three and has intangible clones of himself pop out of the other two to hurl additional projectiles at you.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games: The boss of the Moonlit Grotto teleports around its arena, appearing directly behind the player in a puddle of shadow and disappearing if you turn to face it. How fortunate that the dungeon's item allows you to bounce seeds off walls.
• Overwatch: Reaper's Shadow Step ability is a straightforward example of teleportation through shadows.
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: The Shadow Sirens are all able to teleport by sinking into their shadows. Unfortunately, Vivian's ability to do this gets gets reduced to simply hiding in her shadow when she joins Mario's side.
• Prodigal: One of the first items you get is the Dread Hand, which allows you to reset Oran's position in the room, warp between statues, or have him go back to outside his house when used in the overworld. However, outside of gameplay Oran also uses it to teleport home at the end of most dungeons (except for when he's trapped in an icy cave for some reason), and the Hand also acts on its own if he is knocked out. It later gets upgraded with an eyeball that allows you to create a shadow copy of Oran that he can switch places with, which is useful for certain puzzles. These are actually pieces of Veritus, the God of Shadow.
• Trials of Mana: The ninja can do this as one of their techniques. This includes Hawkeye as well as Bil and Ben (and the latter two are quite prone to doing it, too).

Visual Novels

• Spirit Hunter: NG: While she's weak to light, Kubitarou has an advantage in darkness where she can use it to teleport closer to her victim. This is how she's able to sneak up on them despite her huge figure.

Webcomics

• The Order of the Stick: Parodied. When a Shadowdancer shows up, his powers are mostly useless because the comic doesn't have shading. He and his partner are later able to escape because an explosion is dramatic enough to warrant a shadow as they flee from it.
• Parimetra: Adrienne, aka Shade, can turn into a shadow and teleport. She uses it to fight and just to get around.
• Roommates: The Erlkönig can use shadows like this. He is also one of those who can cast their own shadows.
• Yokoka's Quest: Copycat is able to disappear into and appear from the shadows, and invisibly spy on Mao from them. He can also travel between shadows, including travelling to and from the Darkness Clan, and was able to take Mao and Kalliv along with him while doing so.

Western Animation

• Jackie Chan Adventures: The Shadowkhan, a tribe of magic ninjas (among other things), can use shadows as dimensional doors.
• Ninjago: The Elemental Master of Shadow, Shade, can teleport between places through the shadows and turn into a shadow himself.
• Monkie Kid: Macaque does this often-even performing a Teleportation rescue at one point. He can also turn into a shadow and move quickly on floors/walls.
• Skeleton Warriors: Grimskull uses shadows to teleport wherever he wants. It's shown in the 4th episode that the shadows are linked by a bizarre, trippy "shadow dimension" full of strange, alien terrain, which explains Grimskull's difficulties in navigating between shadows at first.

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