Shadow Army+White Mantle=Shadow Mantle?

On a recent trip into the Fissure of Woe with some guild mates, I was placed in charge of the Tower of Strength. When killing the Shadow Lord from inside, I noticed that the Shadow Mesmers attacking me appeared to have White Mantle symbols emblazoned upon the back of their necks. Should this lead me to believe that all members of the Shadow Army are merely the lost, tormented souls of the White Mantle, who we so ruthlessly slay on a daily basis?

Clearly adding the symbol to these creatures was a conscious design choice, rather than mere coincidence, so what can we take from this? Any theories on the true origin of the Shadow Army?


The White Mantle banner, as displayed on Guild Wars Wiki.


The White Mantle symbol, as displayed on the clothing of Shadow Mesmers.

It might be possible that the shadow army were fallen individuals that have renounced the 5 gods. If you look carefully the shadow army models are modified white mantle models (mainly warrior and elementalist)

It seems more likely the me that the Dev team cut corners. As the above post mentioned, the models are simply darkened White Mantle.
I'm pretty sure the White Mantle emblem is around in a few other places too; I seem to recall it being in Ascalon.

idk that seems like a fairly obvious thing to go left unnoticed by the team

You got me thinking on a weird idea - its said when we die we go to the mists and uw - tyrians are not the only sentient life but it seems like the gods only allow humans ( and maybe a few other species ) into uw etc.
Its all possible that the shadow army is made up of beings that menzies either converted or with abbadons help ( remember menzies and abba team up ) along with shiro.
Or like suggested its the devs being lazy with foe skins.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild...chanics#Models

Linsey confirms it's lazy devs.

There armor sets look like they might be the same but in if you look closely the only thing they did was darken the armor and add some spikes to them.

As Artisan Archer pointed out, it was said that there is no connection between the two groups. They just recolored and added spikes - as mrseasonsalt said.