Editing SHADOW (section)

== History ==

Wehrmacht Intelligence General Wilhelm Kantor was an immortal Thule magic practicing sorcerer.  He had existed since Ancient Egypt as Tan-Aktor, using the powers of body-switching to continue his immortal life.  Thus, SHADOW has existed in some form since Biblical times.  Previous incarnations of SHADOW have included The Assassins, The Black Templars, Chinese Legalists, The Thuggee, The Noddist Zealots, and The Secret Order of Set.


He arranged for the rise of the National Socialist Party to power in hopes of creating an immortal occult ruled fascist power.  Unfortunately, Adolf Hitler's focus on eugenics and Pan-Germanism thwarted Wilhelm's efforts and he ended up betraying the entirety of the Axis war effort to the communists.


Hitler's ''suicide'' was Wilhelm's parting gift.  Wilhelm had earlier failed to assassinate Hitler and become Fuhrer.


Moving his best scientists and soldiers to the West, Wilhelm Kantor proceeded to switch bodies and began usurping control over the KGB while his agents gradually infiltrated the government.  Through the use of mind control spells and psychics, Wilhelm Kantor manipulated both superpowers into carrying out research into the paranormal while dumping massive amounts of funding into a network of spies and saboteurs that he controlled.  The United States, seeking a top man to the (wrongly) believed communist conspiracy spreading through the world, named him '''Overshadow.'''


http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f350/Willowhugger/Halt%20Evil%20Doer/General_Venom.jpg


During the Cold War, he acted as a 'third side' as he played both super-powers against one another and became a nuclear power relatively early.  A.E.G.I.S. was formed by President Kennedy to fight him, which resulted in Overshadow having him assassinated.  Likewise, Overshadow's agents were involved in the assassination of Martin Luther King as they hoped to trigger a race war that could be exploited.


Overshadow wasn't responsible for the rise of the House Un-American Activities Committee but he certainly profited strongly from the group's paranoia.  The Red Scare allowed SHADOW agents to rise to strong positions in the government by advocating radical Anti-Communist Rhetoric and some suggested J. Edgar Hoover fell under SHADOW sway due to blackmailing him over his fey activities.  It was, however, due to Overshadow's pressure that the HUAC went after the Freedom League and other American icons so vehemently.  This, thankfully, resulted in the end of their careers.


The Cold War was not all fun and games for SHADOW though.  James Steed, Britain's Number One Secret Agent, successfully destroyed numerous Shadow facilities and killed several members of the PENUMBRA (Shadow's Inner Council).  Likewise, Jack Simmons (a.k.a. The Patriot) and his Howling Commandos became a perpetual thorn in the side of the organization.  Overshadow was actually killed several times by Jack Simmons but the man failed to realize he was facing a single man rather than a series of successive leaders.


Overshadow successfully conquered the United States for a brief time when they managed to make an alliance with Richard Milhouse Nixon in order to secure SHADOW's ideals (Nixon, for his part, believed he was making an alliance that would guarantee the end of the Soviet Union's dominance over the world).  Unfortunately, AEGIS successfully rounded up most of the SHADOW sympathetic agents around Nixon before forcing him to resign.


Since the 1980s, SHADOW has mostly been devoted to smaller scale conflicts and attempting to conquer the world through corporate terrorism and slow erosion of American civil liberties.  While our world provides a ripe feeding ground for SHADOW's envisioned police-state paradise, it's a little more difficult in this world.  Nevertheless, they continue never ending streams of terrorist attacks and fostering brushfire wars to force the United States and other nations to become more totalitarian (fostering their own agents in power who are the heads of reactionary parties).