Shadow Queen

The Shadow Queen is an ancient demon and the final boss of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Apparently, Hooktail, Bonetail, and Gloomtail, were pets of the Shadow Queen.

Legend has it that the Shadow Queen simply appeared one day and waged war against the city where Rogueport now stands and the surrounding areas. With her army of demons and monsters the Shadow Queens domination of the planet was assured, but complication in her plans arose when four warriors fought against her forces and though they were only four they had unbelievable power and were a threat to the Shadow Queen and her demonic hordes. One fourth of the old city is the Palace of Shadow. Over the years it became rich with treasure stolen from all over the world.

The Shadow Queen created the Crystal Stars to hold the essence of the heavens. She put them across the land to exert her influence. One of the castles built to contain a star is Hooktail Castle. The four legendary warriors seeing the stars as both a her strength and weakness managed to, through great difficulty obtain them and use them against her.

The stars raw power destroyed the Shadow Queen's body. The warriors then used the stars to seal the Shadow Queen in a crypt, but before the Queen was completely sealed in she used what was left of her power to place a curse on the warriors, which would activate when the warriors let go of the Crystal Stars. The curse would trap the warriors in black chests for all eternity.



Years passed and the warriors, the Shadow Queen and their great battle faded into being nothing more than a legend. 1000 years passed and the seal on the palace door began to fade and the Shadow Queens agents, the Shadow Sirens knew the time to release their queen would soon come. The Shadow Sirens joined the cult of the X-Nauts and Beldam, the head Shadow Sirens, managed to convince the X-Nauts master Sir Grodus to seek out the Crystal Stars and use them to release the Shadow Queen. Grodus who hoped to rule the world thought by releasing the Shadow Queen he would be able to control her and use her to fulfill his dream.

Attempting to collect the stars the X-Nauts were foiled at every turn by the hero Mario and his friends. Eventually Mario after defeating Grodus's second in command Lord Crump and shutting down the X-Naut base, managed to claim the last Crystal Star and went after Grodus who along with a kidnapped Princess Peach had entered the Palace of Shadow. Eventually after making his way through the palace traps Mario encountered and battled Grodus. When Grodus was defeated he chose not to accept it and used the Princess as a hostage, it was only with the intervention of Bowser was Peach saved from harm. Unfortunately Bowser engaged Mario in battle along with his assistant Kammy Koopa, this distracted Mario long enough for Grodus to escape with Peach to the Queen's chamber. After Mario defeated Bowser and Kammy he went after Grodus and cornered him in the chamber, there it was revealed why Grodus needed the Princess. It seemed the Shadow Queen needed a body to be revived fully and Grodus planned to use Peach as the Queen's host body.



Summoning the Queen, Grodus presented her with Peach whom she then possessed. Grodus thinking the Queen was under his control ordered her to destroy Mario, the Queen insulted by Grodus thinking her to be a slave blew apart his body and flung his head to who knows where. She then attacked Mario and proved to be too strong for Mario to hurt and was about to destroy him when the Crystal Stars reappeared and went back to the area where Mario had gained them each. The friends who Mario had made along the way encouraged him with their pleasant thoughts. This distracted the Shadow Queen long enough for Peach to gain momentary control so she could give Mario all her power. Reenergized Mario could now harm the Shadow Queen and after a lengthy battle, managed to reseal the demon to whence she came.

During the middle of the fight, the Shadow Queen will become invincible. None of Mario's party attacks will do any damage. All Mario can do is survive until the crystal stars come out. Then Peach will give up the last bit of her power to help him.