Wraith vs. Shadows

[ItchyDani3l]

I'm kind of confused about the purposes of the wraiths and the shadows. Not from a gameplay point of view, but like the Lore and stuff. Admittedly I'm only in the second area of the game, but it piques my interest.

Here's my 2 theories so far:
-Wraiths were saved and will go to heaven (hence the white aura) and shadows are are not saved (sinners) and are going to hell (black aura).
OR
-Wraiths are people who died of some natural cause i.e. sickness, accident. Shadows are people who died from some unnatural cause (gunshot wound, other murder).

Any thoughts?
If the actual cause is revealed later in the game, please don't spoil. :) I'm just curious

[Farel]

I just finished the game and as far as I remember there was no explanation on the difference betweens Wraiths and Shadows.

From my experiences I think both your theories are wrong though.

• The idea that Wraiths are basically good guys and Shadows are bad guys doesn't quite fit to some of the characters you meet. There are nice and awful people in both categories.
  
• The cause of death theory has the same problem: Their are murder victims in both categories.

I can't really tell what the reason behind some people being Wraiths and others being Shadows is, but there are certain differences you find when talking to them:

Wraiths:

• Know their own name
  
• Remember only fragments of past events and need you help to make sense of them
  
• Seem rather lost when you find them in the wilds and will return to their Fort
  
• Stay at the same place and never disappear

Shadows:

• Can't remember their name
  
• Remember events more clearly and will pretty much just tell you "That's what happened"
  
• Disappear if you don't currently need them

From a gameplay perspective that means that Wraiths are basically NPCs, who need your help with certain problems, while Shadows are more like "living evidence" (kinda like a video recording of events).
My guess is that Wraiths still know where they are, but have incomplete memories about the events before their death, while Shadows strongly remember their death but somewhat forgot who they were until you remember them. So Wraiths might be closer to a living person with amnesia, who wants to find out what happened to them, while Shadows are more like an image (or a shadow) of past events. A living record other people can read.
Also their might be a connection between Wraiths and Shadows. You get your "quests" by talking to Wraiths and the corresponding Shadows will only appear after that and will help you solve the case, so maybe Shadows are always connected to a certain Wraith. And what keeps the Shadows from getting rest is not their own suffering, but the one of the correpsonding Wraith.

That's just a theory though.

[ItchyDani3l]

I'd just like to explain that I discovered the difference between wraiths and shadows. However it is somewhat of a SPOILER, but I will keep is as vague as possible.

SHADOWS were any people who were already dead BEFORE the "disaster" happened.
SPOILER: When Tabitha was set on fire and and corrupted the whole land

WRAITHS were any people who were STILL ALIVE when the "disaster" happened.

I know, it's actually not as complex as I thought, but it's interesting to know the difference.

[BarbaricGenie]

Originally posted by ItchyDani3l:

I'd just like to explain that I discovered the difference between wraiths and shadows. However it is somewhat of a SPOILER, but I will keep is as vague as possible.

SHADOWS were any people who were already dead BEFORE the "disaster" happened.
SPOILER: When Tabitha was set on fire and and corrupted the whole land

WRAITHS were any people who were STILL ALIVE when the "disaster" happened.

I know, it's actually not as complex as I thought, but it's interesting to know the difference.

I hate u.
But I guess it isn't much of a surprise.