The Dread Domain, the Shadow Lands, the Umbral Veil. Most commonly called the Shadowfel, this plane is the second mirror plane of Rynn, and is widely regarded as a plane most foul and horrid. Steeped in near perpetual darkness, it cold, quiet, and most of all - abhorrent towards all things living. Nothing truly 'lives' in the Shadowfel, but merely survives, while the negative energy of the plane seeks to pull all such energy from those creatures through the River Styx to its final destination. Yet, despite the cruel and desolate nature of the realm, a few scattered populations have scrapped out a meager livelihood against the odds. While the reasons for these societies are varied, their existence speaks to the ever presence of hope, even in the darkest of all places.
The Shadowfel consists mostly of barren planes and desolate expanses marked only occasionally by forgotten ruins of some civilization whose names are even lost to time. Desolate canyons that harbor spirits and monsters not known to mortal souls and hollow gorges that lead to darkness so pure, one cannot find themselves. A sky perpetually overcast, shielding the land below fro all but the faintness touch of light or heat. Most of the time, a chill wind breezes through the land, broken only by the crags and cliffs. But every so often, Dread storms stalk the fields - blackened fronts of frigid gales and darkness seek to strip whatever life remains from their passing. In this realm, the shadow of death does not stalk the quiet corners of the land, but instead proudly stalks the realm, without sleep or satiation.
Beyond the shores of the Sea of Souls, only a few speculated islands are thought to exist besides the landmass that is the Dying Land. Names do little to properly convey the horror and despair such regions bring, yet some names persist. Among them, a few regions are named as follows:
Cities & Settlements
Much like bodies, the ruins of towns and cities sometimes find dark echoes that arise in the Shadowfel. Like the Faewyld, the Shadowfel is a land that changes over time. Still there are a few cities that manage to survive and resist the will of the realm to change and recycle them, as they would to any other body or mountainside. Much more than in any other plane, these cities and outposts are more than beacons of civilization, they are safe harbor and shelter from a world that seeks to destroy anything it can, given enough time. Their existence alone is a testament to the resilience of life, even in the slimmest of margins.
Regions of Terra Ulm
- Styx Basin
- Letherna
- Erestrania
- The Black Maze
- The Umbral Forge
- The Catacomb of Glimpses
- The Bone Forest
- The Shadowdark
- Ataxian Breach
- Night Gliave, the Pale Oasis
- Moil, the City that Waits
- Nex'Arcus, the Sky Wraith
- Serenis, Vengence's End
Features
As the Shadowfel is a reflection of the Material Plane, it shares many commonalities, though it is typically twisted in such a way that it may not be as recognizable. Crossing the plane is fairly easy and is much like walking through the Material Plane. As the Shadowfell is a reflection, you will often find forests or mountains in the same locations as the Material Plane, though their appearance can be far darker. Lush forests of the Material Plane may be dying swamps, home to sinister shadows and creatures attracted to your campfire. Or a castle that sits atop a mountain cliff may be reflected as the ruined halls sitting along a mountain line that resembles the wicked teeth of some horrifying creature.
Shadow Crossings
Traveling to the Shadowfel is fairly easy and there are many places where an adventurer can slip into the shadows and find themselves standing in this grim plane. The most common places to find these Shadow Crossings are in graveyards, battlefields, and in the bleak corners of crypts, though the crossings never last very long. It is as if the Shadowfel is boiling over, and the bubbles rise and burst into the Material Plane.
These crossings may last a day, hours or years though the moment that the sun touches on them they burn away and they never appear in the same locations. Many of these same crossings are one way, and once you arrive in the Shadowfel, you must find another way home. Sometimes these crossings will only expel shadow-creatures on to the Material Plane before closing. Many communities have been wiped out when a Shadow Crossing appeared in their graveyard, causing the dead to rise.
Lingering Spirits
As all souls first travel to the Shadowfel when they die, many of them can be found throughout this plane. While all souls must pass through Letherna before moving onto their afterlife, some refuse or resist that journey. Powerful souls that still have business on the Material Plane can resist that pull for a while, though those spirits grow mad and become a force of darkness and evil. Many adventurers may be called on in the Shadowfell to determine why a spirit is not yet at rest, and how they can help it pass on through the gates of Letherna.
Ambient Dread
The Shadowfel is not for the faint of heart, and even those bursting with bravery often find their willpower tested. For creatures still living, the realm feels like an oppressive weight or a hungry parasite - sapping away every bit of emotion or ambition. Beneath all of the terrors and dangers that reside in the plane, often the worst threat is shadowfel itself. Those who find themselves here often loose sense of their emotions, their memories, and even their identities. In effect - everything that defines what it means to be 'alive' is taken from you, till all that remains is the flesh.
Denizens & Factions
The Shadowfel is the primary home to monsters of death and decay, as well as the long-dead spirits of creatures unable or unwilling to pass on. Some few mortals of various make and mentality do call the Shadowfel home, though it is unlikely few of them hold any such fondness for it.
Orcus
The cultists for Orcus are working hard to destroy the Grave Queen and for Orcus to take her place. His plans for conquering the planes involves taking over the undead of the Shadowfel, and to that end, he must vanquish the Grave Queen.
Ashen Triumvirate
Once trusted lieutenants of Orcus, the Ashen Triumvirate are three powerful undead lords that broke their bond with Orcus and is apocryphal ambitions, and sought to build their own society, free of outside control. Despite their hatred of Orcus, their embrace of Undeath still makes them an enemy of the Graven Queen and her Sorrowsworn.
Nightwalkers
During the waning centuries of the Daemon Wars, Titanlords who first chased nascent daemons into the Shadowfel, and later remained as they lost a foothold on the lands of Rynn. Along with their thralls, the Titans still succumb to the melancholy of the plane, and like any other mortal, caused them to mutate and change. In a desperate bid for survival, these titans made a bargain with some long forgotten force from beyond the blackest veils of the Shadowfel, and became agents of death and unmaking.
Sorrowsworn
The dark warriors in service to the Graven Queen, these creatures are the perfect appearance of the Shadowfell. Dark and twisted, they seek only to purge the Shadowfell of creatures that don’t belong, like the Nightwalkers, Minions of Orcus, or Thralls of the Ashen Triumvirate.
Shadar-Kai
These creatures follow the Graven Queen and work to better themselves for her worship. They train relentlessly and have become a society of extreme emotions and incredible appetites. The Shadar-kai have built grim and sullen cities in the Shadowfel and are unafraid of death, for when they die the Raven Queen guides their souls not to death, but to new bodies where they are reborn.
Born from human ancestors that fled their home to escape the threat of Daemonic invasion, they arrived in the Shadowfel only to face a fate just as Grim. They pleaded with the Graven Queen to save them. She agreed to do so and taught them to not fear death, but rather that she would watch over their souls and protect them from the damnation of undeath. The Shadar-kai decided to remain in the Shadowfel where they truly began their worship of the Graven Queen in an attempt to join her powerful army of Sorrowsworn.
Comments