Shadowfell

The Shadowfell, also known as the Plane of Shadow, is a planar twin of the mortal realm.
==Description==
The Shadowfell is the dark echo of the mortal world, a twilight realm that exists 'on the other side' of the world and its earthly denizens. It is a darker, more ominous form of the mortal world and thrums with a strange and unexpected power. This plane is the destination of souls loosed from their bodies. It is the domain of the dead, the final stage of the soul's journey before moving on the unknown. Light is muted here, only scattering half as far as one would expect it to. For all of its dismal reputation, the Shadowfell does have bright spots where those who fight against the malaise and chill live almost ordinary lives.
While the Feywild exaggerates the splendor of the mortal realm, the Shadowfell recreates landmarks, peoples, and places as if they were born from half-remembered nightmares or perverted by fear and doubt. A range of old, rugged mountains in the mortal world might appear jagged, like a row of teeth, or melted, like wet sand spilled from a child's hand. Roads and pathways wind through the lands in the same general direction as those from the natural world, but carry travelers into dangers, through stretches of haunted countryside, or to the brink of an unexpected chasm. Communities correspond to those in the natural world, but they too are tainted duplicates. What might be a metropolis in the mortal world is an undead-infested ruin in the Shadowfell. An isolated hamlet could be reflected in the shadowy plane as a city under the tyrannical rule of a cruel vampire. A stronghold nestled in a mountain pass might manifest a fortified gateway, plugging a hole to the Shadowdark.
A common misconception about the Plane of Shadow is that it is permanently dark. Contrary to the myths, this place features both day and night. However, the sun is usually hidden behind clouds, low on the horizon, or pale and weak, seemingly unable to warm the realm. The moon also shines here, though it does so with a dull orange glow of a harvest orb. The plane is no warmer or colder than the mortal world, but has a constant sense of coolness, an uneasy chill in the joints and the dampness of the hair, persists even in the face of a bonfire. It gets worse at night, when each breath sends out a plume of mist, and a rime of frost settles across the ground. 
Perhaps the most insidious effect the Shadowfell has is a mental one. Those who travel the plane pay a heavy emotional price. It begins with a banked enthusiasm, a quenching of the fires of optimism beneath the heavy weight of sadness. Failure seems assured, hoplessness dogs every step. Depression wraps its claws around the heart. Although this melancholy in no way interferes with the ability to attain one's objectives, each day is a trial of resolve. Travelers must ever steel their hearts against the powerful presence of sorrow.
==Inhabitants==
*Dark Ones were creatures born into the feeble light at the dawn of creation, and are possibly the oldest race in the Shadowfell. Alone in the gloom, they were confused until the death giants arrived. The dark ones saw their creators in the giants, and entered their service in order to find a sense of purpose. Since the fall of the death giant cities, many dark ones have created homelands in the Shadowdark. Dark Ones are loyal to themselves and themselves alone.
*Death Giants dwell in the ruins of their once-great cities, gorging on the souls of their slaves. They were once ordinary giants who came to the Shadowfell, believing that they should be the masters of all that they surveyed. They enslaved many of the plane's creatures and set them to work on their cities. Not long after the cities were finished, the giants started to fade from existence. To prevent this, they consumed the souls of their slaves, but this process corrupted them into what they are today.
*Nightwalkers are beings formed of shadow and possessed of an incomparable maliciousness. They roam the Shadowfell killing mortals and shadow creatures alike, then using evil rituals to restore them to a mockery of life known as bodaks. Nightwalkers can trace their origins back to a group of poweful, disembodied souls that refused to pass on. They used the supernatural energies of the plane to forge new bodies out of shadow. Nightwalkers hate the sorrowsworn, and most are loyal to Vecna.
*Shadar-Kai were once a human tribe from the mortal world that feared death. They turned to the Raven Queen, who showed them that death's inevitability was something to embrace, and promised to protect their spirits after death. Knowing this, the Shadar-Kai relocated to the Shadowfell and built sombre cities throughout the plane. They have become people of extreme emotions and incredible appetities to overcome the malaise of the plane, with some reveling in pain and others in mastery of fighting.
*Shadowborn are natural mortals who live in the Shadowfell. Their settlements can provide a haven of sorts from the dangers of this dark plane. Second and third generations of humans, elves, halflings, and other folk live almost normal lives in the shadow. They raise families, run businesses, mount expeditions into the unknown, and trade with other settlements. However, the shadowborn settlements almost always have a dark underbelly. One may have trouble keeping the dead from rising, while another's citizens may be unable to die of old age.
*Sorrowsworn are custodians of death created by the Raven Queen from the souls of powerful shadar-kai. They have no capacity for mercy, and fling themselves at death giants, nightwalkers, and other terrible denizens whose presence contaminates the plane. They do not build or live in cities or towns. Instead, they stalk ancient ruins and battlefields in search of undead abominations and lost souls which they can free.
*Undead are very commonly found all over the Shadowfell. Some were created by cultists of Orcus, necromancers, and clerics of dark gods who abandoned their creations once they were finished. Others create themselves, such as the ghosts of those who refuse to move on and the spirits of horrific murderers known as devourers. Others retain their sentience, such as vampires and liches that carve out baronies in the Shadowfell's depths, or death knights that plot destruction against the living and their kingdoms.
==Locales==
*Darklands are the places in the Shadowfell where the supernatural shadow magic is strongest. These are reflections of the mortal world, but are instead unique manifestations of gloom. These desolate lands leech life and vigor from the living. Colour pales further in their vicinity - everything seems to be a shade of grey. Most darklands are unstable and short lived, but some are permanent. Living creatures killed in one rises as a zombie shortly after their death.
*Gloomwrought, the City of Midnight, is the Shadowfell's largest city. It is a dismal, crowded seaport with a population of around 12,600. A vast peat bog, called the Skins, spreads out to all sides, stretching inland for miles. The only easy way to cross it is by paying one of the few dark ones who work as ferrymen. To hedge out unwanted dangers from the land and sea, a massive black wall encircles the city. Stone limbs, hands, feet, and even faces cover the macabre wall. The cityscape is a jumble of buildings piled one on top of another, with the occasional tower thrusting out of the heap to waver in the air. The structures are built with the same dark stone as the walls, complete with the staring faces and headless torsos. The city constantly shifts and changes, as if alive. New buildings sprout from uncertain depths, twisting up and out of the mass of low-lying rooms and corridors to form a new tower. Months later, the spire collapses into a heap of rubble. Nobody is sure who is behind these changes, but they are mostly blamed on the Keepers (strange, pale-skinned humanoids that seem constantly busy inspecting the structures of the city and talking to each other in strange, clicking voices). The city is ruled by Prince Rolan the Deathless, a sombre human nobleman. Gloomwrought is also home to the Tenebrous Cabal, an institution which educates novices in the arts of shadow magic. Its founders and members include the dark wizard Evard, Maikedhon, Gorm the Hidden, and the demilich Acererak.
*Letherna is the realm of the Raven Queen. Grey pines, heavy with snow, mark the edge of this land. As one progresses deeper into the forest, silvery ghosts can be seen racing across the darkened sky like falling stars towards a distant range of ice-capped mountains. The closer one comes to Letherna, the more defined these spirits become, until they coalesce into a swirling maelstrom of souls above the Raven Queen's citadel. The goddess' palace is a fortress nestled amongst the highest peaks of the jagged mountain range. Towers thrust up from the maze of walls and graceful bridges. It is through the citadel's gates that the grim procession of spirits descend, summoned to learn their final fates.
*Moil, the City that Waits, is the embodiment of the perils of dealing with demon princes. In ages past, Moil was a city in the mortal world that was ruled by a cult of Orcus. They bought the Demon Prince of the Undead's favour with mortal sacrifices and hideous ceremonies with the dead. The Moilians became ever stronger and wealthier, until they grew sickened by their excesses. They tore down the temples and statues set up in the demon prince's honour and turned to Pelor in the hopes of purifying their souls. Engraged at their faithlessness, Orcus seized the city and flung it into the deepest depths of the Shadowfell. When the citizens faded away, they left behind the empty city as an elaborate monument to their folly.
*The Plain of Sighting Stones is the largest of the Shadowfell's few deserts. Although the sun is not intense, the dead land punishes travelers with its desolation, its lack of water, and its fierce dust storms. The ever-present wind alters the sandy terrain at its whim, making navigation treacherous. Dry oases stand in this desert like bleached skeletons, heartbreaking in their lost promise. A nomadic tribe of shadowborn humans called the Zamar-Sha are the undisputed masters of the region. They are as likely to torment and kill those who enter their lands as to ignore them. These nomads are terrifying enemies when stirred to war.
*The Shadowdark is the Shadowfell's answer to the Underdark. This pitch-black expanse features labyrinthine tunnels, vaulted chambers, and subterranean seas. One constant in the Shadowdark is the cold, which becomes more unbearable the deeper one travels. Aberrant horrors such as illithids, aboleths, and other creatures born of the Far Realm's influence hold vast sections of the Shadowfell's bowels. Forgotten kingdoms of the undead are also prevalent. Endless tales are told about great catacombs infested with zombies, dark cities overrun by wights, and fleshy slicks of discarded body parts awakened into near-sentience by powerful magic. Most who return from the Shadowdark are changed forever by their harrowing descent.
Category:World Backstory
Category:Miscellaneous Lore