Castellan · Shadow Slave · Wiki

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This article contains HEAVY SPOILERS for the Shadow Slave webnovel. Please read at your own risk.

Castellan is a special reflection among reflections, originally created to help the Master of the Castle control the Great Mirror. Over time, however, it became twisted and broken, refusing to recognize anyone as the Master while still attempting to fulfill its original duty.^[1]

Appearance

The Castellan appeared unexpectedly mundane. He wore cheap, torn jeans and a faded windbreaker jacket, with long, unkempt hair that was in dire need of grooming. Despite his disheveled state, his weathered face was still subtly handsome. He was often seen strumming an old guitar and humming a melancholy song. His eyes were described as clear and blue, like the sea.^[2]

Sunny and Effie met the Castellan inside the chamber of the Great Mirror, where he was seated on the cold stone floor, focused entirely on his music. Although he showed no signs of aggression, his eerie song carried a cold, ominous tone. They recognized him as a familiar figure—the ragged street musician they had unknowingly seen in Mirage City, both near the Center for Troubled Youths and outside a psychiatric hospital. His presence in those locations, especially in poor conditions such as rainy weather, had seemed strange in hindsight.^[2]

Origin

Reveal

The Castellan was revealed to be tied to Omer, a blind poet famed for his songs who once joined Prince Eurys and others in their quest to slay the gods. Sunny had recognized him from a vision in Ariel's Game, but the man clarified that he was not Omer himself. Instead, he identified as the reflection of Omer, created within the realm of illusions. Omer's fate had been to become lost in illusions, and it was implied that he had been sent to the domain of Mirage, the Demon of Imagination, likely to persuade Mirage to join the Doom War against the gods.^[2]

Role and Authority

The Castellan held the title of custodian of the Palace of Imagination and had usurped authority over the Great Mirror.^[2] He served as the custodian of Mirage's Palace of Imagination. He had been designed to help the Castle Master control the Great Mirror but not to rule in Mirage's absence. He rejected Effie's claim to authority, declaring that he only had one Mistress and that Effie was not her. According to him, the Palace of Imagination was the true domain of Mirage, while other castles were merely shells and gateways leading to it.^[3]

Background

Mirage

The Castellan displayed unwavering devotion to Mirage, maintaining that she alone was his rightful master. He considered her the ruler of the Palace of Imagination and the true owner of the Great Mirror. Even when confronted by Effie and Sunny, he stubbornly refused to acknowledge anyone else's authority, making it clear that his servitude could never be transferred.^[3]

The Nine

Nine

The Castellan was the reflection of Omer of the Nine, a blind poet famed for his imagination and songs. Omer had been sent to Mirage because the Nine needed the Demon of Imagination to join the other daemons in their rebellion against the gods. Mirage, fascinated by Omer's limitless creativity, invited him into her Palace and gave him control of the Great Mirror so that he could bring his tales to life.^[3]

Within the Palace, Omer created countless realms and fantasies for Mirage to experience. Together, they lived through a thousand imagined worlds, each one feeding Mirage's sense of wonder and Omer's endless imagination. When the thousandth fantasy ended, Mirage tasked him with imagining something she could not imagine herself. What Omer created in that final illusion remained unknown, but afterward, Mirage left her palace and joined her siblings in the rebellion. Omer followed her into war, leaving only his reflection — the Castellan — behind in the Palace of Imagination.^[3]

Mirage perished in the war, and Omer was believed to have died with her. The Castellan, however, remained. Though he claimed loyalty to Mirage, Sunny accused him of hypocrisy, pointing out that it was Omer who had lured Mirage from her palace and destroyed her happiness, leading her to her death. At that moment, the Castellan's otherwise emotionless demeanor finally showed hints of feeling.^[3]

History

It created Mirage City when Mordret's other self-became a guest of the Great Mirror, shaping the city according to his fantasies. When additional guests such as Morgan and Sunny arrived with their own conflicting desires — Morgan imagining killing her brother and Sunny obsessing over catching the Nihilist — the Castellan's corrupted nature caused Mirage City to adjust itself in dangerous ways, fabricating believable reasons to eliminate these "contaminating influences", even to the point of creating assassins or potentially manifesting a real Nihilist.^[1]

The Castellan was a faulty mechanism within the Palace of Imagination that had gone rogue by usurping the authority of the Castle Master, not out of selfishness but to continue faithfully performing its duty of making visitors' imaginations a reality. Originally, it maintained stability when only the other Mordret resided in the Palace, creating Mirage City and caring for him as the sole real human there. However, with the arrival of more humans and their conflicting desires and emotions, the Castellan began to unravel, causing Mirage City itself to come undone. It responded to these foreign influences by attempting to protect the city, manifesting threats like the Nihilist and orchestrating attacks against the new inhabitants in ways that fit the internal logic of the city. Despite these efforts, the Castellan was failing to keep the grand illusion intact, making it the fundamental problem behind the city's instability that Sunny and his companions needed to find and confront.^[4]

Connection to the Nihilist