The Veil Walkers

Background: Veil Walkers

If your character was born and raised in Dark Syde, you can choose this background instead of those listed in the Ultra Modern 5 Redux rulebook.

You grew up in the shadowy world of the Veil Walkers, where order is enforced not through strength of arms but with subtlety, cunning, and a silent blade. From a young age, you were trained to be vigilant, to move unseen, and to eliminate threats before they could destabilize the camp. Your role is to protect Dark Syde’s fragile peace by enforcing the laws set by the Covenant Council, often working behind the scenes to ensure safety and stability. The Walkers have taught you that the greater good sometimes requires difficult choices, and you’ve learned to value efficiency and results over sentimentality. Whether you excel in tracking, infiltration, or silent elimination, you are the unseen protector of the settlement’s fragile harmony.

• Skill Proficiencies: Stealth and Insight
• Languages: One language of your choice
• Equipment: May purchase any equipment in the Ultra Modern 5 Redux sourcebook with a total value of 500 credits or less.
• Renown 1 and Rank 1 with the Veil Walkers.

Feature: Shadow’s Edge

Your training allows you to move through the world unseen. Once per long rest, you can reroll any Stealth or Insight check. This does not count as having advantage, and you must take the new roll. You may choose to reroll the die after knowing whether the roll succeeded or not.

Suggested Characteristics

Members of the Veil Walkers are calculating, pragmatic, and disciplined. They operate with efficiency and precision, prioritizing the stability of Dark Syde above all else. While they are loyal to the Covenant Council, their autonomy often places them in morally gray territory, where hard decisions must be made. Some view them as ruthless, but they see themselves as necessary, sacrificing their own comfort and morality to maintain peace.

Contacts

As a Veil Walker, you are part of an intricate network of informants, scouts, and operatives. While trust is hard-earned, your connections often serve as vital resources. Roll twice on the Veil Walkers Contacts table (for an ally and a rival) and once on the Non-Walkers Contacts table.

Structure

Rank and Renown: Veil Walkers

The Veil Walkers operate through a meritocratic and shadowed hierarchy rooted in strategy, precision, and loyalty. Members are recognized not by titles, but by their ability to maintain order through subtlety, leverage intelligence, and accomplish missions that preserve Dark Syde's fragile peace. Each rank signifies a rise in responsibility, skill, and influence within the faction.

Rank 1: Initiate

• Prerequisite: Renown 1 with the Veil Walkers, Stealth +2

As an Initiate, you are introduced to the clandestine ways of the Veil Walkers. Your training is focused on honing your stealth, intuition, and ability to eliminate threats before they even materialize. You are expected to assist in reconnaissance missions, follow orders from higher-ranking Walkers, and learn the art of maintaining the balance within Dark Syde. Initiates are valued for their sharp minds, resourcefulness, and unwavering loyalty.

• Gain access to the Veil Walkers' Shadow Network, allowing you to communicate covertly with faction members and gather intelligence from across Dark Syde.
• Receive a Veil Walker's Emblem, symbolizing your membership and marking you as one who operates from the shadows.
• You are paid 7 credits a month for your services.
• You are provided a Poisoner’s kit.
• When you make a damage roll that deals poison damage, it ignores resistance to poison damage.
• You can apply poison to a weapon or piece of ammunition as a bonus action, instead of an action.
• You gain proficiency with the poisoner’s kit if you don’t already have it. With one hour of work using a poisoner’s kit and expending 50 gp worth of materials, you can create a number of doses of potent poison equal to your proficiency bonus. Once applied to a weapon or piece of ammunition, the poison retains its potency for 1 minute or until you hit with the weapon or ammunition. When a creature takes damage from the coated weapon or ammunition, that creature must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 2d8 poison damage and become poisoned until the end of your next turn.

Rank 2: Warden

• Prerequisite: Rank 1, Renown 5 with the Veil Walkers, Stealth +4

Wardens are the enforcers who uphold the Veil Walkers' silent justice. They track down and neutralize threats to Dark Syde’s order, whether internal or external. Your role is one of authority within the shadows, managing key covert operations, coordinating with allies, and overseeing the safety of the settlement. Wardens are expected to be tactical masterminds who can solve complex problems with precision.

• You are paid 15 credits a month for your services.
• You can purchase Poisons .
• You gain proficiency in nature if you are not already.
• Ability to form and manage a team of 1d4 Operatives (using the Common Person stat block with Stealth +2), assisting with surveillance and sabotage operations.

Rank 3: Sentinel

• Prerequisite: Rank 2, Renown 10 with the Veil Walkers, Stealth +6

Sentinels are the masterminds behind the most critical operations, balancing power and discretion. You manage and direct larger-scale missions to safeguard Dark Syde from its most dangerous threats. Sentinels are trusted with high-value targets, key intelligence, and leading strategic maneuvers to ensure the safety and stability of the settlement. Your influence grows as you make decisive, high-stakes moves.

• You are paid 30 credits a month for your services.
• You can purchase Poisons for 10% less than the listed price.
• +2 bonus to Nature skill.
• Ability to form and manage a team of 2d4 Operatives (using the Common Person stat block with Stealth +4), assisting with surveillance and sabotage operations.

Rank 4: Shade

• Prerequisite: Rank 3, Renown 15 with the Veil Walkers, Stealth +8

Shades are the architects of the Veil Walkers' dominance, shaping the faction’s strategies and executing high-risk, high-reward operations that can change the course of Dark Syde’s future. Your actions can sway the balance of power within the settlement, and your role is often that of an unseen hand in political or economic shifts. Shades work in the shadows, securing rare resources and targeting threats that could destabilize Dark Syde's peace.

• You are paid 60 credits a month for your services.
• You can purchase Poisons for 20% less than the listed price.
• +2 bonus to Nature skill. (in addition to previous bonuses)
• Ability to form and manage a team of 3d4 Operatives (using the Common Person stat block with Stealth +6), assisting with surveillance and sabotage operations.

Rank 5: Nightmaster

• Prerequisite: Rank 4, Renown 25 with the Veil Walkers, Stealth +10

Nightmasters are the titans of the Veil Walkers, shaping the faction’s destiny and ensuring its continued dominance. You oversee large-scale operations, directing covert campaigns that ensure the survival and supremacy of Dark Syde. Nightmasters have unparalleled influence within the faction, and their word can determine the fate of entire factions or political movements. Your legacy will either maintain or redefine the Veil Walkers' grip on power.

• You are paid 120 credits a month for your services.
• You can purchase Poisons for 30% less than the listed price.
• +2 bonus to Nature skill. (in addition to previous bonuses)
• Ability to form and manage a team of 4d4 Operatives (using the Common Person stat block with Stealth +8), assisting with surveillance and sabotage operations.

Rank 6: Shadowlord

• Prerequisite: Rank 5, Renown 50 with the Veil Walkers, Stealth +12

Shadowlords are the highest echelon within the Veil Walkers, shaping the vision of the faction for generations to come. You control the faction's most influential assets and direct its most ambitious covert operations. As a Shadowlord, you are tasked with securing Dark Syde’s future by influencing its most powerful leaders and entities. You stand as a silent ruler, and your actions will echo through the settlement for years to come.

• You are paid 240 credits a month for your services.
• You can purchase Poisons for 40% less than the listed price.
• +2 bonus to Nature skill. (in addition to previous bonuses)
• Ability to form and manage a team of 5d4 Operatives (using the Common Person stat block with Stealth +10), assisting with surveillance and sabotage operations.
• Participate directly in decisions regarding the direction of the Veil Walkers and Dark Syde’s future.

Note: There is no single leader for this faction, rather the Shadowlords govern the faction as a group. Everyone of this rank is given the ability to vote on major issues and make decisions for the faction.

In Shadows We Shape, In Silence We Rule

You step into the dimly lit alley, the shadows clinging to the edges of the walls like a living thing. A figure stands at the far end, barely visible in the half-light, their presence more felt than seen. As you approach, the air seems to thicken, and the quiet hum of the camp fades into an almost suffocating silence. The Veil Walker’s eyes meet yours—cold, calculating, and sharp with the weight of countless decisions made in darkness. They speak in a voice so low it barely reaches your ears, yet every word cuts through the air with precision. “I’ve been watching you,” they say, a statement rather than a greeting. “Your actions, your choices. You don’t belong in the light, and neither do I. Let’s see if you have what it takes to survive in the shadows.” With that, they turn, disappearing into the dark as quickly as they appeared, leaving behind a promise—one you can’t decide whether to trust or fear.

The Veil Walkers are the unseen hand that keeps order within the chaotic expanse of Dark Syde. Known for their precision, discipline, and discretion, they serve as the camp's enforcers, ensuring the settlement's safety and stability from the shadows. This elusive faction of spies, scouts, and assassins operates as the watchful guardians of Dark Syde, answering to the Covenant Council but given broad autonomy to manage security as they see fit. While their methods are shrouded in mystery, the results are undeniable—crimes are swiftly addressed, threats are neutralized, and tensions within the camp are kept from boiling over. To the residents of Dark Syde, the Veil Walkers are both a shield and a sword: protectors of peace and relentless pursuers of justice, no matter how grim the path to achieve it may be.

Veil Walkers Characters

Alignment: Often Neutral, frequently Lawful
Suggested Races: Any
Suggested Classes: Infiltrator, Marshal, Sniper
Suggested Archetypes: Recon Intelligence, Pathfinder, Cleaner
Suggested Ladders: Runner, Suvivor

You might enjoy playing a character who belongs to the Veil Walkers if one or more of the following statements are true:

• You want to play a character who thrives in the shadows, excelling at espionage, stealth, and decisive action.
• You’re intrigued by a character who values precision, discipline, and maintaining order through covert methods.
• You enjoy exploring the moral ambiguities of enforcing justice while operating outside the public eye.
• You want to embody the sharp edge of law enforcement, rooting out threats and ensuring the safety of your community through any means necessary.

Type

Political, Faction / Party

Alternative Names

The Veil

Demonym

Walker

Location

The Dark Syde

Related Species

• Human
• The Awakened
• The Others

Related Historical Events

• 61 SE
  The Veil Walkers

In silence, we move; in shadows, we act. The world sees only what we allow it to.

— Xirael Moonshade, Veil Walker Strategist

We are the forgotten ones, the whispers between breaths, and the last line of defense against chaos. We exist because the world needs to forget.

— Aroth Shadeweaver, Veil Walker Commander

Fear the quiet. Fear the ones who speak only when needed, and act before they're seen. We are the true force behind the curtain.

— Selena Nocturne, Veil Walker Operative

You stand in the shadows, waiting, as the faint flicker of torchlight casts elongated shadows across the walls. A figure emerges from the darkness, moving with the kind of grace that suggests they are part of it, rather than simply navigating through it. Their cloak is made of dark, shifting fabric, almost blending with the night itself, and the soft whisper of their boots on the stone floor is the only sound that reaches your ears. They stop before you, their face partially obscured by a hood, but their piercing eyes—glowing faintly with a cold blue light—stare into yours, as though they can see through every layer of deception you’ve ever crafted. There’s something unnerving about their stillness, like they are not waiting for your words, but for your thoughts to reveal themselves.

The air around them feels charged, tense with hidden power, and their voice, when they speak, is low, almost melodic—yet sharp as a knife. “You were not meant to find me,” they say, their words deliberate, measured, as though they already know your purpose. "But now that you have, you will learn that the shadows are not just for hiding. They are for controlling." Every word drips with confidence, and something about their presence makes you feel as though you are no longer in control of this encounter. A chill runs down your spine, and though you stand in their presence, it’s as if you’re the one being watched, the one being studied, as if they already know everything about you.