HISTORY:

After the First War, a bishop from Lordaeron, began to delve into workings of the orc necrolytes who had poured through the Dark Portal and desecrated their hallowed dead.

While at first this was done in order to provide Azeroth with the knowledge it needed to fight against such dark magic, the bishop's studies over the years became increasingly obsessed with finding out why such dark energies existed at all, and why she began to see the ebb and flow of such energies in the world around her. She began preaching about the necessity of balance between dark and light, but after her death, her books were locked away in the Kirin Tor's vaults in Dalaran.

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The cult was created through the (re)discovery of the teachings of the bishop  by Forsaken priests in Lordaeron after the capture and refurbishing of the Undercity. 

They teach that one must first know the light before one can know the dark.

Followers of the Forgotten Shadows generally do not practice openly, and not all members are Forsaken, although they formed the cult. Within the last few years, the number of non-Forsaken (and non-Horde) members within the cult has grown sharply, making the Cult open to members of all factions.