The tale of Lady Damasu is often a tale told by the mothers of the Sanctuary to their young. Her being and story originates from the Southern Icefield, on the heights of the Cloudscrape Crags.
In times of war, Damasu and her clan worked as guides, as the bitter heights made for a peaceful path if one could brave the ice. Even dragons who were born being battered by harsh winds would grow exhausted of braving the crags, but for Damasu and her company, it made up for itself in food, gold, gems, and power.
Power was the point of it all, but clients don't like it when one is upfront with these things, so the Neilhods hid this behind their motto, "Finding safe journeys along dangerous paths". A motto is said, but never learned. Before their trek, Damasu met with her clients, a 'clan' of five. They were on the run from a larger clan, their crime being that they heard something vital at the wrong place and at the wrong time. A backstory isn't needed for the Neilhods' services, Damasu thought, but she supposed having shared them would make sure guides didn't lose their empathy during a trek — as if empathy was the main thing driving them. The payment was enough as is.
Damasu set off with her clients on a stinging hoary night. After doing this many treks, Damasu had learned certain paths, remembering them like the back of her paws. On that trek, everything had gone as expected. When the trek was nearing its end, the rising sun piercing through the gusts of snow, Damasu turned and paused, expecting payment. The eldest of the clan revealed that they had no payment which they could give, at least not anything of physical worth. They knew they could not afford the Neilhods' services, but for their clanmates' longevity they could not risk staying at their home any longer.
The clan's condition would be understandable, their backstory would've given them grounds to use her services for free. The trek back would be manageable with or without payment, Damasu had figured out the tricks to each path she had memorized, and yet, she felt a burning feeling within her chest and a ferocity in her claws. Without thinking, Damasu snapped at the elder, demanding some sort of payment, knowing they'd have nothing to give up except their own clothing. The ferocity had spread itself from her paws up to her shoulders, urging her to do something. Damasu pushed the elder. They stumbled back, falling over onto a deep slope on the path. While they were close to escaping the oppressive snows the Cloudscrape Crags are known for, the travelers were still quite high up in the mountains. If the elder fell, they'd surely die. One dragon tried to rescue the elder, while the other two retaliated, verbally snapping back at Damasu.
Ferocity turned into panic as Damasu tried to flee the scene, but the two dragons pursued her. Having no strength to fight, the best way to rid of the two would be to lose them in the snow. Taking advantage of their vigor in the moment, Damasu fled back from where the travelers had come from. The snow would blind her pursuers, and possibly finish them off if they weren't lucky enough. The chase coming to an end lifted a weight from Damasu's heart, but something else would grow there instead.
As Damasu tried to find her way back home, her mind was plagued by thoughts of the clan and the elder. She tried to silence the thoughts under layers of rationalizing and what-ifs, but pondering whether or not any of those dragons survived the experience they just went through and whether or not they'd tell of Damasu resulted in her losing track of where she was going. She'd wander in the direction she thought the next landmarks would be, but when nothing was where she expected it to be, she realized she was lost. Still determined to live, Damasu wandered the Crags, hoping she'd stumble across the same miracle those dragons would need to escape the storm. When the hail around her had visibly darkened, Damasu resorted to crying into the falling snow, but no one heard.
Her will to live was fading, the cold had numbed her paws, and the frost was eating into the webbing of her wings. Damasu found shelter in a mountain-side cave and slept there for the night. As she slumbered, a darkness continued to grow in her heart, swelling out of her chest and around her body. When she woke up, she was no longer herself.
A Shade had grown in her heart, and her loss of vigilance during her slumber allowed it to grow and grow, until it stripped Damasu away of her draconic features and more importantly, her mind. The Shade she had become, whilst having an innate craving for life energy, dares not adventure out of the cave where she died, perhaps due to the cave being the last place of safety that she remembers. The Neilhods do not still exist today, but plenty of other clans offering the same services have taken their place. The fabled cave where Damasu turned into Shade is along one of many paths taken to get to one side of the Crags to the other. Travellers who pass Damasu's cave sometimes report they've heard a dragon crying out for rescue, echoing from deep within.