Year 46

Took long enough, and sometimes it never seemed like it was going to happen, but you've finally restored Dendrin's temple. Restoring it wasn't easy either, especially not one as big and in such disrepair like Dendrin's. The surprising thing is you've not only restored it in appearance, but in use as well.

The one of the first difficult things was getting the stone. Delerg isn't exactly flush with rock quarries. The second difficult thing was getting help to restore it in the first place. The shadows might be great warriors and have more knowledge than the average peasant, but nobody in your ranks is a laborer or into masonry. Obviously outside help was necessary.

Fortunately since the fall of the Empire, Delerg had once again become a quiet place with no "leader." Most of the inhabitants were content to go about their simple lives like they once did before the Empire. When you arrived in Sinkhole, to ask around for workers to try to restore the temple, some couldn't volunteer fast enough to help.

This need to help you, was a combination of a few things. The most important one being that Delerg was always shadow friendly. The Empire may have ruled it for a while, but the respect that its people had for the shadows was always greater. The shadows after all were once the main protectors of the area before the Empire.

Combining this with the fact that the shadows were the main ones who helped influence so much rebellion and caused the destruction of the Empire, it was only natural that you were as warmly embraced like you were. Good thing too, because you certainly didn't have the coin to pay the workers in the first place!

As the temple was slowly being restored, more people started flocking to your aid. Some of these were old rebels that the shadows lost contact with when you started consolidating your forces in Rask. They remember you though and offer help in any way their skills allow.

While you were always a little surprised by how much free help you were always willing to get, what surprised you more is how little you really needed to do to get it. These people had no one telling them what to do or how to live anymore, and yet a lot of them seemed to be in a big hurry for that to change by becoming Dendrin worshippers! You understand gratitude, but to willingly surrender a portion of your earnings and time to serve an invisible being that you had no proof existed, while some guy claiming to be his "representative" tell you how you should live seemed like a step backwards for them at least. For you though, it was all beneficial as eventually some of these devoted souls wanted to become full-fledged shadows. Naturally you accepted them into your ranks provided they could pass through the testing.

Right now things have been better for you than they have ever been. You've got a nice restored temple, a fair sized congregation, the ranks of the shadows are slowly starting to grow again and most importantly you haven't had to deal with any problems with the new eternals (Now known as the Shadow Blades) ever since they all went through the ritual. Dendrin was true to his word on that, just like you were true to yours by restoring his temple.

Still, even after directly helping you, you still can't bring yourself to "worship" Dendrin. Not really. Part of you feels like it was the least he could've done after all the stuff in the past he's put you through. Another of part of you feels as if you've "repaid the debt" by restoring the temple.

He's probably granted you more power as you've noticed your magical abilities becoming superior to everyone else's and it taking much less effort, but again you still feel no sense of "awe" in Dendrin that would cause you to willingly worship him as a god.

To you, he's a very powerful being that is a whimsical ally at best. You've come to realize that he is probably deserving of your respect in regard to his power and you always keep that in mind when up keeping the charade of his religion. Perhaps it is enough, or at least it'll have to be since you don't see yourself changing your mind on the matter anytime soon, especially when you've been trying to figure out what your next big course of action should be.

The problem with a lack of conflict is that you find yourself very bored. Even in Rask, the monotony was broken up with the occasional giant or ogre attack. Here in Delerg there are no such great dangers surprisingly enough. Most dangerous swamp beasts prefer to stick to their own stomping grounds which all seem to be away from your part of the swamp and Sul-monkeys aren't a threat so much as they're an occasional annoyance when large groups of them decide to use the temple roof as a mating area! The last time you had any true conflict was when General Ackerson's men ambushed you and part of you hasn't forgotten that incident. From what you know, he's still in power and sometimes you'd like to change that just on principle.

Quala is still an area in a power struggle between competing warlords, but so far there have been no attempt by any of them to expand into Delerg, probably because there isn't much here in the first place save for swamp. Not to mention there are most likely trickles of news coming in about the return of the shadows to Delerg. Most of the warlords being ex-Empire probably would like to get some sort of revenge, but know that their losses would be considerable if they even attempted such a thing, so you are left alone.

Talia and Cyrus seem to be content with how things are now, why can't you be? Funny that you were concerned about the new eternals being restless and getting themselves into trouble, while here you are considering starting a fight because your bored with peace! The only real reason you can think of is petty revenge on General Ackerson and that's not a very good one even if you could easily tell everyone that Dendrin told you all to go kill him.

In your moment of introspection, you take another look at what you've accomplished. You went from being a lone unbeliever practically trapped in an organization that was determined to overthrow an enemy several times larger than itself to the victorious leader of said organization, which is now thriving under your watch.

You probably could defeat Ackerson, but at what cost? Last you heard he has thousands of men at his command still and that includes a few battle mages. The shadows may be growing slowly, but that's just it, slowly. You don't have anywhere near the numbers to start raising armies. Sure, you have the entire support of probably all of Delerg, but that doesn't mean much in the scheme of things if most of the people aren't warriors. You kill Ackerson and take his territory then what? You hold it? How long can that last with the numbers you'd have left? You doubt if the people of Quala would be as supportive, if anything they probably blame the shadows for the miserable warring state they live in now. This doesn't even factor in the OTHER warlords in the area. They may all decide to gang up on you and if you're in any sort of weakened condition they may even press their attack into Delerg itself.

No, the risk doesn't seem worth it compared to the petty gain. The shadows have never been about conquest and they probably shouldn't start now. However, that doesn't mean you should stay idle. Peace is fine, but perhaps there is a way of initiating conflict without actually doing it.

It occurs to you that the warlords of Quala won't always be fighting. Eventually one of them is going to win or manage to unite the area in some way. When that happens then Delerg might be in potential danger, so it would be in your best interest to make sure that doesn't happen. Keep Quala weak and disorganized while keeping Delerg the opposite.

You start sending in shadows into Quala to get a good idea of what the situation is there, but not to actually do anything yet. Theo is mostly in charge of this due to his previous experience of working extensively in the region during the Empire war. Eventually after a couple months you have all the information you really need and ready to put the second part of your plan into action, which is to keep the region destabilized. This is going to include sabotage, misdirection, more spying, and assassinations, all those things that play on the strengths of the shadows.

"I like it. So when do we start assassinating people?" Cyrus remarks causing Draven to chuckle.
"Well, we probably should decide who needs it first. Some of the leaders sound so incompetent that it might be better if we left them in charge." Talia adds.
"Shouldn't we have some sort of plan before doing this?" Yvette asks.
"We do have a plan, I just explained it." You say not understanding why she would ask such a question.
"I…think what my wife means is should we not have a greater plan other than sewing chaos. I do not presume to disagree with your reasons Shadow Master, but I do believe that causing discord for the sake of doing it might seem a bit…well…short term." Theo says.
"So you believe that we should actually take territory? I explained why I believe that would be a problem."
"No, no, I agree that we shouldn't be marching armies into Quala, I guess what I mean is perhaps this would also be a good time to launch an aggressive campaign of converting unbelievers. You know send our better speakers to some of the smaller villages that are unhappy with life under the warlords and telling them how Dendrin can release them from such misery. Given enough time, we would have so many converted that we wouldn't have to worry about raising an army or Quala ever being a threat because most of the population would all be believers in Dendrin."

An interesting suggestion from Theo and one you weren't really expecting from him. He also mentions he could get back in contact with some of the old rebels he knows are still living in Quala to help more directly as well.

You council and Blades (New Shadow Structure)

Since the new eternals all went through "proper" shadow indoctrination, they've all been a lot calmer. Still killers of course, but at least now you haven't seen any signs of them acting unstable.

Besides you, Cyrus and Talia, they are probably still the best warriors you have though, so you decided to still keep them a bit separate from the rest of the "rank and file" by naming them the Shadow Blades. They seem to like the designation. There are a few "normal" shadows in the Blades as well since anyone can be one if they're skilled enough. While the Eternals still tend to see Talia as their "mother" Cyrus and Draven are the ones who mostly send them out on patrols or missions nowadays. Talia's learned to let go of her "children" a bit.

The other main reason for the creation of the Blades is due to the fact that a lot of the shadows have families now or are attempting to start on such. Seeing as you don't do a lot of warring nowadays, you figure it would be all right to relax the need for everyone to be on constant alert all the time. All shadows are still required to upkeep their martial and magic skills though.

The other change you decided on was to create a council of sorts. As Shadow Master your word goes (Or Dendrin's "Word" as they all sometimes believe) but you've been trying to become more inclusive in some of the decision making mainly because some of the more menial tasks or administrative duties are a bore to you and it helps if you don't have to do it all by yourself. (Bad enough you've got to keep up on all the shadow lore, fortunately you let Talia handle some of that)

So far the Shadow Council is made up of you, Talia, Cyrus, Draven, Yvette and Theo. Three Eternals, three humans and one of those pairings is one of each. You believe it's pretty equal all things considered.