Musings about the nature of the Shadow Shard. There are tons of open questions so this is probably going to sound a lot more like a philisophical debate than a real guide - but here we go!
WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS!
I don't expect anyone to hold back in this topic for fear of spoiling and there's plenty TO spoil so, if you haven't done some of the Shard TFs yet, better go do them.
So anyway, I went through my old SS TF screenshots and consulted with NoFuture and came up with these musing. There's also been a lot of theory getting thrown around in various parts of these forums.
Interesting what Sara Moore says about kora fruit - not in her TF but in your first Kora Fruit mission. She states that Kora Fruit has been around since before the breaking of the world, that it grows off Kora vines which feed off Cascade red rivers [never mind we get all our missions in Firebase Zulu - ahem ;], and that the fruits draw in Rularuu. The Rularuu don't eat the fruit, they just guard it, so who knows what they want with it. I have a hunch that's why the Rularuu are in this world, though. They are there to farm Kora Fruit - or at least to ensalve the natives and make them farm the fruit.
Sara Moore calls the refugees in the Shadow Shard the "Peoples of Paragon." I really think the Shadow Shard is an alternate Paragon City. An odd one with red rivers, kora fruit, and no superheroes but Paragon none the less. They also seem to have a long past with the "Prince of Brass" (Nemesis) though I'm not clear on whether that's our Nemesis or a home grown one. There's indications that Rikti and the CoT have been there, too.
Old Fred's Book is most interesting. The madness broke the world around 20 years ago. It destroyed the seasons. The sun and moon vanished. I want to think that 'vanished' here just means hidden by the clouds and storms, but Ruladak was trapped in this world by the breaking - so this has got to be some sort of dimensional thing. "Old" Fred is, by the way, only 35 years old.
The Peoples of Paragon seem to speak English - you have no problem reading what one of the natives wrote back at the breaking of the world. Rularuu can speak it (as you can see just going there) but monuments are written in another tongue. Perhaps the Aspect's native language? I can't believe we would even have a hope of translating whatever language Rularuu thinks in.
Strange - in the third TF we find out (in a single clue) that the people were told that they should worship and obey Rularuu, but should not worship Rularuu. Boyd thinks maybe it means they should worship Rularuu god or philosophy but not the creatures of Rularuu themselves.
So the history I'm seeing is this:
Rularuu invade and enslave the Peoples of Paragon. If Kora Fruit wasn't there already, the Rularuu introduce it to the land and start farming it. The Aspects of Rularuu rule the land. (The region? The world? The dimension?)
Faathim doesn't like the situation or being part of Rularuu. When he started to feel the first portals from our world, he builds the Chantry 'out of thin air' and hides in it, breaking off his contact from the Rularuu overmind.
Ruladak, who controlls the Soldiers of Rularuu, tries to break the Chantry. According to Sara Moore in the second TF, the war between them 'breaks several islands'. That's real interesting to me - it makes me think the world was already a series of floating islands at this point.
Lanaruu, meanwhile, is going nuts. I can understand that - he's got a serious problem with authority and here he is part of a hive-being like the Rularuu. Lanaruu and his storm elementals are attacking everything. He also builds a fortress, the Storm Palace, but not to hide from the Rularuu overmind. Lanaruu's own growing insanity caused Rularuu to (at least mostly) disconnect.
Lanaruu "cast down" Ruladak in battle, whatever that means. Faathim (probably working with the native Peoples of Paragon) gets Ruladak entombed.
Lanaruu goes completely nuts and totally breaks the world, pulling it into another dimension. This also causes more disconnection from the Rularuu overmind.
I talk about the overmind a lot. I'm pretty sure the Rularuu are a being-of-many-beings kind of thing. Much like your body has living, individual cells. Rularuu isn't connected physically but through some psychic/mystic connection. I'm thinking the Rularuu "inducted" the Observers, Brutes, and Wisps while Natterlings are just made up of whatever is lying around. It could also be that Rularuu came from the Wisps as their psychic powers grew to the point of constant communication. Anyway, while the individual beings are normally dominated by the Rularuu overmind's will, they still do have their own free will. Not only are Faathim and Lanaruu acting individually, we also have a rogue wisp and brute buying enhancements from us out in the Shard itself.
The aspects of Rularuu were not always part of Rularuu. It seems they were killed (by Rularuu?) then the Rularuu resurrected them and made them part of the overmind. They look a lot like giant Wisps so maybe they are the ex-leaders of that race?
Loose Ends:
In the third TF when we find out the CoT is going to try and bind Faathim:
The idea of binding and capturing something like Faathim, it's mad. But they're talking like they've done it before.
Faathim the Not So Trustworthy? Azuria thinks Faathim isn't telling the whole truth. Justin, the TF3 contact, doesn't trust Faathim much, either.
What are the reflections!? They are all enemies that have come to the Shadow Shard before Portal Corps (Nemesis, CoT, Rikti, Crey) though the 5th Column/Council also shows up. There's really no mention of what they are, though. The newer Primus guide appearantly has an entry about another aspect of Rularuu that controls them but not what the purpose is. Perhaps to study them before invasion? Or is it just some alien thing we aren't going to understand? (Shades of Lem's _Solaris_)
Which breaking happened first? Lanaruu breaking the world or the Ruludak/Faathim fight? Lanaruu's breaking could have caused the whole region to be smashed into strange floating islands, then the R vs F fight could have broken them up a bit more. Or maybe this world was always floating islands. The R vs F fight broke the islands a bit more then Lanaruu's breaking ripped it out of its home dimension. It's difficult to tell, I think partly because it isn't easy for Faathim to distinguish himself from the other aspects.
The name - Shadow Shard. Shadow of what? Paragon City? The old world that the People of Paragon once lived in before the breaking?
