Jack o'Shadows

But what will become of my tomes? Someone must find them, surely. Everything I’ve learned cannot be lost with me. Much like the long-lost secrets I’ve been seeking, my tomes will eventually be prised from my skeleton.
Still, I’m not dead yet, and I owe it to the whatever future researcher is fortunate enough to find these tomes to fill them with as many secrets as I can. Therefore, I will go on seeking, and I will write up until my final moment.

-This article is excerpted from a doomed researcher's Compendium of Secrets, one of Sof Sator's Fabled Compendiums. It contains uncommon, forbidden, or even dangerous knowledge-

I came across a duplicate of one of my own tomes stashed in the corner of a relic vault in Idylmir, which I had entered illicitly in the middle of the night. The duplicate was so convincing that I set my hand on it to pick it up, wondering how the relic-gathere had robbed me, but was given pause by the warmth on the cover. The heat of the Deadlands can penetrate any part of Idylmir, but this was not a natural heat. Something awaited inside of this book. With suspicion at the front of my mind, I realized I still had in my possessionmy own version of this tome, that this was not the tome to which I had dedicated so many gathered secrets, but that it was a different book entirely. And yet there was my name upon its cover, the title I had written in years past, even the marks my talons had left when I'd caught it from falling once.
As a reasonable being whose life is based on investigation and fact-gathering, I'd seen more than a few myths prove true, but I'd never thought the ghost tales of Jack o'Shadow's cursed tomes would be one of them. But after I warded myself with a spell of the ancient Aquil (recorded in another of my tomes; a particularly potent spell not often cast in the past few millennia) I took the risk of opening the book, and there I found the iconic words written in a hauntinngly beautiful hand: "You've opened the book, and now it's too late." I felt the curse upon the pages crash against my wards, dropped the book, and fled.
I would come back for it later, once I felt I'd slipped the hungry grip of the curse upon those pages, for it would be immoral to leave such a dangerous object on the floor for someone to stumble upon, though I now had my suspicions about why I was able to enter the vault so easily in the first place. Asking around the following morning, I learned that the relic-collector who own the vault had died of mysterious circumstances the day before. No doubt claimed by the book left by Jack o'Shadows, which the relic-collector had assumed to be something I'd dropped while passing through. Irony of ironies, for I would have happily let the collector peruse and even transcribe from my book if only he'd asked. But, in mistaking my book for some thing worthy of covetting, worthy of locking away in a vault, he had doomed himself.
More haunting than this, however, was to realize that not only was Jack o'Shadows an extant being, but that he was present, that he was aware of me, and that he was happy to use my reputation as bait to trap the unwary. Sitting in the open-air market of Idylmir, the great wheels of the city turning above and beneath me, the heat rising off the Deadlands far below, I felt suddenly like I had been tricked into being accessory to some crime. I have no intention of continuing to serve the needs of such a horrible being, so I began to research.
Today, it has been several months of reading and querying, and I can open this tome to write these words.
Jack o'Shadows exists, and is actively even now creating cursed books to trap those who seek knowledge. He is perhaps simply a serial killer in possession of unusually potent curses, or he is perhaps some supernatural entity as old as the myths portray. Herein I write some things that might be true about him.
-Vali Neyr
1048 CR

History

Myths disagree on the origins of Jack o'Shadows, as well as on what, exactly, he is. The oldest historical myths of this figure arose only in recent centuries, though they describe a being that has existed since before the beginning of the Calendar of Revan, indeed perhaps before history was first recorded by modern socities of Anthrals, Termins, and En. The fact that recorded myths only arise in recent history does not discount these myths; the sheer power of the curses placed on Jack o'Shadow's tomes does not exist in modern magics. I myself am capable of wielding ancient magic if I can learn it sufficiently, so it is possible that Jack o'Shadows likewise has learned magic of historic potency, but it is equally possible that Jack o'Shadows is utilizing magic from historic experience. There is no way to disprove such narratives. Mythological origins place Jack o'Shadows alternatively as an anthral sorcerer or an othrizen sorcerer, as a person cursed with magic, or as a non-mortal entity of various forms. Prominent among non-mortal origins are the myth of Jack o'Shadows as a once-divine servant left behind by the departure of his divine master (either abandoned because of his wickedness, or driven to wickedness by his abandonment), as well as the myth of Jack o'Shadows as a masterless spirit inherently connected to the study of magic or history, being a kind of academic or artistic muse whose intent have become twisted. Possible motivations ascribed to any form of this being include a resentment for magical knowledge in the hands of mortals, a desire to see certain stories perpetuated and others forgotten, a kind of twisted artistic whim, or simply vaillainy for its own sake.
Regardless of any of the above, it is true that Jack o'Shadows creates cursed tomes and diguises them such that they will be opened by the unsuspecting. These books are not given mundane guises to target everyone, but are instead given the guise of lofty, rare, and ancient books, so that they will be found by academics, trasure-hunters, relic-collectors, or seekeers of rare and forbidden knowledge. Besides the book that I found myself, I have been able to confirm the existence of five others. One, for instance, is on display among the treasured relics of the palace of the Golden Reef. One was found be a group of trasure hunters under the employ of Revan, but was lost before it could be delivered to the Termins. Three others were wisely destroyed by those who found them.
What I have done with mine, I will not here record, for I must first confirm that it has reached its intended recipient. Hopefully, this person will be able to glean more knowledge from it than I have, or perhaps even devise a countermeasure for the curse upon it. At the very least, I hope that she is able to safely read its contents and transcribe them. Though, knowing her, she will not share this freely.
What is known from those who have been able to transcribe the tomes is that they seem to be anthologies of story and myth, as told by Jack o'Shadows himself. These are not, however, his own stories, but tales of history and myth which he has happened across and chosen to record. For that reason, there may be a great deal of knowledge to be gained from his books, especially if he is as ancient as the myths imply.

Language

Surprisingly enough, there is something to be said here, for Jack o'Shadows seems to write almost exlusively in Satorian. This would not be a surprise if one were to consider that his goal is to trap as many readers as possible, and so it makes sense that he would write in the common language proliferated by Sof Sator's trade continent-spanning trade union. But the nuance is this: he writes in the most common variant of modern Satorian, even though muths place his origins prior to its advent. If the myths are true, Jack o'Shadow's native tongue would more likely be Jei-Satorian, predating the fall of Jeimr millennia past. However, in two different transcripts which include Jack o'Shadow's attempts to write Jei-Satorian script, the penmanship of the glyphs and clumsy an unfamiliar, and the language itself rife with amateur errors. Similar mistakes exist in attempts to write in the less-spoken languages of Revash (now spoken only by academics of Arun and sorcerers of Nor Sator) and the languages of the Rhyqir diaspora.
Has Jack o'Shadows simply forgotten his original language? If he is so capable of adapting to modern Satorian, why not then to languages like Revash or Rhyqir. In theory, Jack o'Shadows would have lived through historical periods where Revash and Rhyqir, as well as other now-rare languages, were much more common than any version of Satorian. Yet no historical evidence exists of hiim writing in these languages.
Put simply, evidence suggests that Jack o'Shadows came into existence much more recently than the myths would suggest. And he has no great talent for learning and implementing multiple languages.

Physical Description

The presumed masculinity of Jack o'Shadows is not above question. Myths of this villain revolve almost exclusively around the cursed objects he creates, and very rarely feature the character himself. Even in stories where Jack o'Shadows is clearly present -- my own, for instance -- he is unseen, often having only just passed through, or moving just ahead of a story that revolves around victims and witnesses (much more rarely, survivors). It is only very rarely that Jack o'Shadows has anything to say about himself, and in these passages never describes his gender, species, age, or other identifying characteristics.
This all the more, for there is no guarantee that Jack o'Shadows is a single being, has not been passed on from one to another, or is not in fact a cabal of similarly abominable minds.

Examplar Preamble

Whether as a heckling murderer or a gloating trickster, Jack o'Shadows finds it appropriate to begin his cursed tomes with explanatory preambles like the following:

You've opened the book, and now it's too late. Yes, yes, horror of horrors, all of your fears have become real! You thought you'd found something really good this time, didn't you? You saw the fine, well-aged spine of an old tome and thought you'd found an artifact of a lost library or one of those displaced compendiums of secret knowledge. But, no, you found this instead, and as soon as you read the first word the curse took hold. Yes, it's true. You're dying. Right now, you're already dying. Isn't that terrible? But isn't it also a little bit funny? Yes, it is, I promise. It's funny! You picked up a book and now you're dying! Have a laugh. You might as well, for you haven't long now.

There, wasn't that good? Do you feel better? Now, as long as you've already opened the book, you might as well keep reading. I do have recorded here some of the best, most terrible kinds of knowledge in the world. There are so many things inside this book worth dying for. Oh, but don't try to transcribe any of it, because that makes the curse worse, and it can be worse. It can be so much worse.

When you're done, please put the book back so that the next unluky soul can find it right where it's meant to be. Try not to die too close to the book, please. It might ruin the surprise for the next lucky truth-seeker.

Species

Unknown

Age

Uknown

Descriptors

None confirmed