Covenant of Twilight

The Covenant of the Twilight is the title of a book Vanden du Argentfort found in the library of the Zauviir Family's Shadebourne home, tucked inside another plain leather tome, as well as the name of secret order from the Underdark founded many centuries ago. The book is written in undercommon and was partially translated by Vanden, and later transcribed whilst Astra read the contents aloud using a language comprehension spell.

### History

The history of the Covenant is uncovered in the translation of the book:

The Covenant of the Twilight is an order forged in the Mystsworn empire - a regional word for the Underdark - on a date that roughly translates to Year 3 of the Age of War. The dwarves and drow of the Mystsworn lived in a tyrannical society run by rulers of the Nine Houses of the Colony. These rulers were powerful magi, worshippers of Lolth, Zehir and Torog. The people of the Mystsworn region were oppressed by way of dark gifts of blood magic bestowed upon the rulers, which they used to control, manipulate and inflict pain, as well as summoning infernal and abyssal allies and raising the dead to do their bidding.

The colony houses exerted total control, restricting the use of magic to any of the citizenry, ensuring their rule could not be challenged. These dark beings goaded their worshippers to worse deeds, revelling in the pain caused on their citizens. For hundreds of years, the people of the Mystsworn world lived like this. Any attempt to fight back was met with swift and cruel punishment, and knowledge of the surface ‘Overworld’ was kept to the colony rulers.

The book speaks of a hero who shifted the tides of tyranny.

A young drow by the name of Aurean Esilrae captured a High Magi of House Syldar and dragged him out in front of the people he had tortured during his rule. The magi would not plead or beg, only assuring the people that once he was free, a wicked fate would find each and every one of them. Esilrae knew not to run the risk and he slew the Magi in front of the crowd, who then burned the body to ash right there in the city square.

As the body of the Magi burnt, the corrupted arcane essence of his soul intertwined with the smoke, circling in the cave. The fumes of this umbra reached the lungs of the people, coursed through their blood, corrupting and changing them forever - the people found magic within themselves, and with it, the power to fight back and overthrow the house. In these caves far below the surface, illuminated by the twilight quartz, the Covenant was founded: an order to fight back against the evil overlords and their minions, who would seek to control, manipulate, torture and kill them with sorcery. The Covenant saw the irony, in that to defeat their enemies, they had to accept a little of their enemies’ darkness in themselves.

In the space of ten years, the Covenant swelled. They toppled the Colonies who had kept them down for so long and burst forward into the Overworld, seeking a new life. Over time the need for the Covenant faded and their numbers dwindled. Their rituals became forgotten, but stories and tales remained.

The book goes on to speak of a Crucible rite, with encrypted codes on the location of their sacred places. It is packed with information on spells, although the components are unlike any seen in spells before - it speaks of umbra, of arcane essence and wielding the strength of defeated foes, and of fortifying the body against arcane power. And most importantly, it stresses three principles of the Covenant:

* No mage should wield their power to harm good people.
* All evil, be it arcane users, fiends, undead or otherwise, should be put to rest.
* The silent shall never again submit.

### Trivia

* The symbol of the Covenant appears to be a dagger shrouded in smoke, found on the book cover and also embellished onto the armour of a fallen drow in a cavern of the Underdark found under the city of Velathra.
* The order opposes the dark pantheon of Lolth, Zehir and Torog, as discussed in the book and seen on a desecrated altar of Lolth, graffitied with the words 'never again will we submit'.
* In translating the book, Vanden seems to have been able to practice a number of spells from it. In *Eye of the Storm*, Cassian and Sariel find him practicing the spell *Detect Magic* from the instructions in the book, and he later uses it to learn how to cast *Alarm*.