The Shadow Pillars are a form of “Instant Action” and play a major part of the lore of the server.
Shadow Pillars can be found all over the world and each of them have a 100% chance to spawn Monsters, and then random lower percentage chances for item drops or Shadow Token Drops (Skillrunes)
All shadow pillars are categorized into three categories: Lessor, “normal” (no prefix) and Greater.
Each category determines the strength of the 100% opponent spawn it creates when activated.
To activate a Shadow Pillar a toll must be paid, often it is a portion of your life, as well as some regs.
Furthermore many Shadow Pillars offer a very low percentage chance of some rare opportunity or item.
Some Pillars transport you into a rare taming enclosure nearby, some spawn a rare boss, some spawn a rare pet you can tame, and so forth.
The moral of the story is: Its worth cheking out the tooltip of all Shadow Pillars, some give great rewards at low costs.