The Testament Of Shadows
The Testament of Shadows was a turgid religious text setting out the revelation of the purpose of the Dark Domains as explained by the Shadow Sucker known as the Envoy, who acted as a messenger of the Ancient and Glorious to the cult, the Justice of the Shadows during the Age of Shadows.
Purpose
The Testament of Shadows claims to transmit divine knowledge from the Power of Universal Justice, a hitherto unknown entity tasked with bringing justice to the entire Discontinuum. There is no independent evidence that any such Power exists and almost all later scholars (and the Stability Council) consider it a fiction invented to provide spurious authority to the supposed revelations in the rest of the work.
The aim is to provide an explanation for the Planar Conformation and a reason why the Hylacon Gates should be destroyed which goes beyond the simple incitement to obedience through fear with which the Shadow Suckers started. As such, the Testament of Shadows provides a spiritual gloss to defend the otherwise indefensible.
Document Structure
Clauses
The Testament of Shadows is divided into four sections
On the Injustice of the World
On the Failure of Natural Justice
On the Blessings of Unnatural Justice
On the Duties of the Just
On the Injustice of the World
The first part is a very long, and by all accounts dreary, complaint against the many historic and contemorary reasons to be dissatisfied with life. Why do the rich take everything without earning it and blame the poor for their poverty? Why is there meaningless suffering due to illness? Why death and mourning? These perennial questions deserve a thoughtful response and of course they have been discussed by many authors before and since, but the Testament of Shadows is designed not to grapple with the issues but simply to invoke the misery of them and build up a sense of despair and hopelessness.
On the Failure of Natural Justice
Why human attempts to rectify the injustices of Magicians' End have always failed and always will.
On the Blessings of Unnatural Justice
How the Shadow Suckers revelations of ultimate fear are a gateway to the oblivion the perceptive soul needs and desires. Why in the absence of natural justice on Magicians' End, external forces must bring unnatural justice to the world.
This section of the book is the most mystical, introducing the notion of a benign power which has the purpose of putting whole worlds out of their misery by expunging consciousness and/or liberating weak species such as humanity that cannot tolerate injustice by replacing them with the justice of the shadows. It is explained here that the Ancient and Glorious came to perform exactly such a service after the Planar Conformation and that denying them their role by sealing them in the Dark Domains behind the Hylacon Gates was the true blasphemy that must be reversed.
On the Duties of the Just
How only those that read these words and count themselves members of the Justice of the Shadows can call themselves Just. What the Just must do in the service of supernatural spiritual aid. Why the release of the Ancient and Glorious would bring succour to the world.
So since we cannot have natural justice, let us bring unnatural justice into the world! Let us tear the gates down for the Ancient and Glorious to fulfil their great purpose! Let Darkness Cleanse the World!
Historical Details
Public Reaction
The discovery of a copy of the Testament Of Shadows in 4612 APC was a significant turning point in the history of the Age of Shadows. Although at first there was a great deal of fear, the knowledge that there were human agents of the Dark Domains, actively co-operating with the Shadow Suckers changed the perception of the nature and purpose of the entities that had managed to bypass the barrier of the Hylacon Gates. Politicians started to seriously engaged with the problem and to organise their response on a formal footing, seeking more active countermeasures than the Purifiers Guild had offered hitherto. Although none of this stopped the eventual rise of the Shadowlands it did stimulate the actions that would ultimately lead to their downfall.
Legacy
The Testament of Shadows may have provided some solace for the unfortunates who were compelled into membership of the Justice of the Shadows through exposure to Shadow Suckers and cultists. It was circulated widely in the Shadowlands in the final centuries of the fourth millennium but elsewhere it was reviled and after the fall of the Shadowlands, most copies were burnt in an orgy of celebration. It is now quite hard to find surviving examples which are only of interest to scholars.
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