The Justice of the Shadows
The Justice of the Shadows was a cult which operated during the Age of Shadows in the service of the Ancient and Glorious from the Dark Domains. Initially working in secret, it eventually went on to claim public power and openly declared its malign agenda to destroy the Hylacon Gates and liberate the Dark Domains.
The cult is thought to have been founded in 4487 APC, but there is some uncertainty since records from those early days are sparse and we must rely on external circumstantial evidence to date their origin. Their rise to power was slow and not without many setbacks but by 4828 APC they were strong enough to openly claim territory in the south east of Tinturbean when they took control of Cynran and they successfully fought to expand that territory in the following two hundred years.
Their public power was broken in 5146 APC after the Holy Battle of Oroth and any hope they might have had of continuing in secret was utterly crushed following the imposition of the Limit Protectorate in 5149 APC which continued a ruthless purge to mop up any final hidden members, wiping the organisation out once and for all.
Structure
A short period of chaotic behaviour in the first few months, was brought to a close when the Shadow Sucker Envoy appointed Zacharius Pitton to be the Darkest Umbral and gave him sole authority to supervise recruitment. Sometime near the beginning of the 46th century, he assembled an inner council called the Eclipsed. As the Justice of the Shadows grew, the membership and power of the Eclipsed grew with it.
The Envoy communicated almost exclusively with the Darkest Umbral, who relayed the will of the Ancient and Glorious to the cult, but officers of the Eclipsed were also summoned to meet the Envoy from time to time.
After their initial induction, ordinary frightened members of the cult were hardly ever sent to the Shadow Suckers again (much to their relief) and if they were it was usually for disciplinary reasons and did not end well for them.
Culture
The Justice of the Shadows ruled through fear, and not just any fear but a supernatural level of terror brought by the Envoy of the Shadow Suckers. Their true masters were the Ancient and Glorious in the Dark Domains and the Shadow Suckers only served as mediators, since they had the ability to escape the limits imposed by the Hylacon Gates. Because the Ancient and Glorious did not have a good understanding of human psychology on Magicians' End they made many mistakes, including (at least in the early stages) an over reliance on frightening their servants which was counterproductive. They learned to be more subtle in later years.
In 4592 APC, Leif Wurther circulated the first secret copies of the Testament Of Shadows which was an attempt to justify the goals of the Justice of the Shadows. By giving the members a canonical work of reference he hoped to help them manage their fears and achieve some sort of accommodation with the dreadful cult that none of them had volunteered to join. In the long run the book can be considered a sort of success, but it was the discovery of a copy in Quarowl that led to the exposure of the group in 4612 APC.
Public Agenda
The Justice of the Shadows did not openly declare their public agenda until 4828 APC when they took control of Cynran, but it had been an open secret for a century or more before that time and the only thing that surprised their enemies was the presentation and propoganda which accompanied the brazen admission when it came.
The goal of the cult was the destruction of the Hylacon Gates from the outside, to liberate the denizens of the Dark Domains so that they could fight for full control over Magicians' End.
History
The first Shadow Suckers escaped from the Dark Domains towards the end of the 43rd century APC, at the beginning of the Age of Shadows and almost immediately after the collapse of the Second Popular Ascendancy. Although they are not directly connected, these two closely ocurring events together mark the end of one era and the start of the next. Over the following two hundred years, the inhabitants of Magicians' End would become uncomfortably aware of the dangers the Shadow Suckers posed and many would fall victim to them. However, thanks to the work of the mage Aldebaran Smith in the early 44th century, ways and means of dealing with an infestation were found and humans had learned to live with the threat.
Sometime before 4487 APC, however, a new variant of Shadow Sucker began to appear with a more subtle approach towards its victims. Trained and programmed by the Ancient and Glorious, these new Shadow Suckers allowed their victims to walk "free" but imprinted with a deadly desire to recruit more victims in secret. The first person to fall before this sinister new technique was Zacharius Pitton, the man who became the founder of the Justice of the Shadows.
It took a long time for the world to realise that something even more sinister was happening with the Shadow Suckers than the frankly already horrifying reputation they held. It was hard to believe that anyone would willingly trick others into joining them as servants of the shadows by exposing them to the full terror of a close encounter with the malignant supernatural entities. Yet that was exactly what was happening. And bit by bit, Zacharius Pitton assembled the nucleus of the Justice of the Shadows.
The cult existed in some form for more than six hundred and fifty years and did not always operate in the same way. To understand its profound effects on the history of Magicians' End we can usefully split that time into three phases.
The Justice of the Shadows Recruiting by DMFW with Midjourney
| Period | Name | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| 4487 APC to 4612 APC | Covert Operations | The cult operated in secret at this time. The puppet masters in the Dark Domains were learning how to control their minions and made many mistakes in the early years. The focus was on growing the movement but progress was patchy and there were frequent setbacks. |
| 4612 APC to 4828 APC | Projects and Persecution | Exposed to the world, the cult finally faced systematic opposition. Still operating secretly there were some serious attempts to carry out the will of the Ancient and Glorious but no significant successes. |
| 4828 APC to 5146 APC | Shadowlands | After seizing power in Cynran, the cult proclaimed itself openly and defiantly. The nation of the Shadowlands now mobilised military forces and engaged in a long period of political struggle with its neighbours, finally conquering Oroth in 5135 APC. Preparations for a decisive assault on the Hylacon Gates were very far advanced when the Shadowlands were invaded from the north by forces loyal to the Cities Under Grace and the fleet destroyed at the Holy Battle of Oroth in 5146 APC. |
Disbandment
The Justice of the Shadows was violently dismantled in 5146 after the Holy Battle of Oroth. It never achieved the goal its masters had set for it to liberate the denizens of the Dark Domains, but nevertheless it did do enormous damage to Magicians' End, weakening the Hylacon Gates, terrorising civil society on three continents and perhaps most critically, inadvertently opening the way for Prince Rygarde to launch the extra-dimensional invasion of the realm that would result in the imposition of the Limit Protectorate in 5149 APC, an event that finally brought an end to the Age of Shadows.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
Let Darkness Cleanse the World
4487 APC - 5146 APC
Type
Religious, Cult
Ruling Organization
Leader Title
Founders
Subsidiary Organizations
Permeated Organizations
Related Ranks & Titles
Notable Members
Related Species
Zacharius Pitton Portrait by DMFW with Midjourney
The Testament of Shadows by DMFW with Midjourney
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