The Shaod: The Blessing of Elantris. Respecting no class, race, or creed, the Shaod was once a blessing. An unsuspecting recipient would fall to sleep one night and awake the next morning to find themselves blessed by the glory of the shaod.

Cast off were the shackles of mortality, the limits of their human form. They would become beings of pure light, silver skinned Gods. They would leave their homes to move to Elantris, where they could live with the other fortunate people who had been blessed by the shaod. All desires were fulfilled, there was no sickness in Elantris, no pain, no hurt, all was beautiful…until the Reod.

Now the victims of the Shaod, lurk in the streets of the once great city of Elantris. Caught somewhere between life and death, the foul creatures live out an existence wrought of never-ending pain, and utter hopelessness. Not even death can provide an escape, for these pitiful creatures have come to the grim realization that, though the pain never ends, the candle continues to burn, threatening to engulf their very sanity in its eternal flame.