The Shadowspawn In The Wheel Of Time Explained
Now that "The Wheel of Time" Season 1 has ended, with a Season 2 already on the way, it wouldn't exactly be surprising if fans were left with a lot of unanswered questions. After all, the show is based on a particularly dense 14-book epic fantasy series of the same name by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. The first season of "The Wheel of Time" did an admirable job of stopping and using exposition to world build, but there's only so much ground an epic like this can cover in eight episodes while trying to balance a storyline.
In fact, while Season 1 of "The Wheel of Time" focused on the mystery surrounding the Dragon Reborn, it did not spend a lot of time telling casual viewers exactly who the antagonistic Shadowspawn are. It would make sense for the show to save some revelations for later, as the series dives deeper into the mythology of the world, as well as that of the villainous Dark One. Still, the book series has a lot of information to draw from when it comes to the topic of Shadowspawn.
The Shadowspawn serve the Dark One
In "The Wheel of Time" novels, the Shadowspawn is essentially an all-encompassing term that describes all of the beings and creatures that serve the Dark One. These include creatures fans have already seen on the show, such as Trollocs and Myrddraals. Others will surely make their debut in future "The Wheel of Time" seasons. As far as how these Shadowspawn were created, one has to look to the past.
In the Age of Legends, a time period that saw the combination of magic and advanced technology, artificial life called constructs were made (per Comic Years). The Shadowspawn specifically were created by Aginor, who serves as one of the powerful servants of the Dark One known as the Forsaken. Aginor created these creatures despite there being laws during the Age of Legends prohibiting genetically altered constructs above the intelligence level of a plant. At the time the story begins, the Shadowspawn are specifically designed to obey all of the Forsaken.
Once again, "The Wheel of Time" may have made its name as a fantasy epic, but there's a lot of science fiction elements hiding in the shadows(pawn).