Shadar-kai (fey)

Shadar-kai, also called shadow fey, were a species of bitter, malicious fey whose very souls were cursed by shadow, even as they were masters of shadowy magics. The shadow curse, as they called it, dominated their society as they sought to evade it, for it slowly drew their very souls into the Plane of Shadows.

"There are no shadows in this world save those that serve the will of the shadar-kai."

- Sallan Kath-Moran, shadar-kai adept

Description
Shadar-kai were graceful, slender humanoids slightly taller on average than humans, but weighing some less than a human of equivalent size. They were typically covered in tattoos, decorative scars, and piercings. The shadows cast in the folds of their clothes seemed darker than normal, and they could seemingly fade from sight just by stepping into a shadow.

Personality
The shadow fey were bitter and desperate to escape the shadow curse that would fill their hearts with cold emptiness. The pain caused by even temporary solutions left them vicious, and each generation was more and more willing to commit cruel and violent acts. The emptiness that filled their hearts nonetheless meant that most eventually gave in and retreated to the Plane of Shadows.

Despite their hatred of other peoples, shadar-kai were savagely loyal to each other, like traumatize children clinging to their brethren, but instead of the tenderness that other peoples might show, they developed masochistic relationships with each other.

Abilities
Shadar-kai were naturally very sneaky, capable of hiding in seemingly plain sight so long as there were shadows. Though they lacked darkvision, they possessed a superior form of low-light vision.

Shadar-kai had a natural affinity for shadow and illusion magic. Many shadar-kai trained as rogues, assassins, and shadowdancers. More cunning individual became shadow mages, wizards who focused on illusion and shadow magics; some went on to train as shadow adepts, daggerspell mages, or shadowmind mages.

Shadow curse
The shadow curse dominated shadar-kai society. They lived in debilitating fear of it and the Plane of Shadows. Each time they failed to fully hold it off, a piece of their soul was lost to the Plane of Shadows, leaving the shadar-kai weakened; such losses could build up over time and eventually force the shadar-kai to go to the Plane of Shadows, which alleviated the symptons but did not restore the pieces of soul. On the Plane of Shadows, greater restoration could restore a shadar-kai's soul; on the Material plane, only wish or miracle could do so.

Combat
Shadar-kai preferred to use light weapons suited to their grace and agility. In particular, the spiked chain was adopted as their weapon of choice, acting as both a tool and a symbol of their "crusade" against the mortal races; they delighted in its versatility in meting out a variety of painful deaths.

They were subtle and deceptive, preferring to steal without being seen and to attack when necessary from ambushes. Combing cunning and stealth, they would repeatedly appear to launch surprise attacks and then quickly vanish into shadows, slowly dropping their enemies one by one over a series of such ambushes. However, if they ran into an enemy that managed to leverage the weakness of the shadow curse against them- for being dazed, stunned, staggered, or knocked unconscious weakened them to it- they would flee in a heartbeat.

Society
The shadar-kai were never numerous, with a only few small and hidden cities at the height of their power, and after the shadow curse took hold those cities soon became elegant half-ruins. Cut into the sides of cliffs or rising as slender towers in deep forests, these cities were inhabited only by older and more crazed shadow fey, mageocracies ruled by powerful illusionists and protected by illusion and shadow magic, as well as band of shadar-kai scouts with trained shadow mastiffs.

Other shadar-kai lived in a more predatory society, living in small groups of not more than fifty individuals, on the edges of cities established by other peoples. No city could keep out a band of determined shadar-kai, for such places were always full of shadows. These small groups of spies, assassins, and spellcasters, typically led by skilled shadow mages, searched for any way to break the shadow curse.

Shadar-kai were extremely long-lived, possibly even immortal. While only a very few, if any, remained that remembered the ritual that caused their curse, there were many that had heard the story first hand from their ancestors.

Items
Shadar-kai made several different magical items to strengthen themselves or help stave off the shadow curse. The gal-ralan was a common item devised by the last of the shadow mages; essentially a wearable cold iron torture device, it weaken their health but strengthened their ability to fight off the shadow curse. Shadar-kai also made blackstone runes and night extract for their own purposes, and were known to make use of shadowlight oil.

To help fight off the shadow curse, shadar-kai were known to use magic items such as cloaks of resistance, periapts of wisdom, various ioun stones, and similar items that bolstered their wisdom.

Relationships
Shadow fey only allied with humanoids when it served some greater purpose, or so they could eventually betray and kill them. They were known to train shadow mastiffs and shadow asps, as well as other beasts of shadow. Darkweavers, shadow demons, and shadow dragons were known to enslave shadar-kai, at least for some time.

While shadar-kai still honored their people and their courts, most other fey treated them as pariahs for what they had done, trying to alter the world as much as they had sought. Only redcaps willingly worked with the vengeful shadar-kai. They sometimes made alliances with other evil fey, usually for the purposes of deceiving or infiltrating populations of good humanoids.

Despite their shared environments and reliance on shadows, shadow fey and dark ones had a violent hatred for each other. While in dark ones it seemed to stem from jealousy and their isolationism, in shadar-kai the grudge was much deeper. Scholars theorized that the shadar-kai's hatred was caused by some new knowledge of the future, the dark ones' own strange connection to the Plane of Shadows, or, perhaps, that the dark ones' unknown origin might be the mortal champions who once thwarted the shadow mages' ritual so long ago.

History
In the early days of the world, shadar-kai lived like any other fey, bound to peace and to nature, with joy and light in their hearts; though even then, they were of shadows, for they had always wielded strange influence and held secrets of the Plane of Shadow. Yet as mortal people rose to civilization, some of the greatest shadar-kai mages saw in the swirling tides of that plane a prophetic vision, foretelling the pillaging of nature by those mortals.

Some amongst the shadar-kai called for a strike against the mortals in order to prevent this from coming to pass, but the shadow fey were not particularly numerous, and could not through guile or force change the course of things. Thus, a new solution was found.

Using their innate power of shadow and potent magical skills, they sought- and, perhaps, found- a way to darken the world. They made a pact with some dark power of the Plane of Shadows, and a hundred of their spellcasters, each a master of ancient and mighty magicks, joined together to perform a ritual that would irrevocably bind the Material plane and the Plane of Shadows together. And with this new eternal twilight, the shadow fey's bond with shadow and long-practiced rituals would grant them mastery over their environment, allowing them to forever ensure the sanctity of nature.

However, the ritual did not go as planned, for not even the shadow fey could the dangers lurking in the shadows. When the ritual was cast, the masters of spells looked into the shadows and found that their species would be the shadow-plane's conduit into the material world. The ritual would bind the Plane of Shadows to the souls of the shadar-kai, the ritual creating a nexus of power on the Planes as the very essence of the shadar-kai became an anchor to pull first the nexus, and then the whole dark plane into the material world.

Yet, there were those who opposed the shadow fey: heroes of that primitive age, servants of long-forgotten orders, and outsiders who sought to protect what their masters had created. They fought their way past countless shadow fey guardians, they found the nexus on the Plane of Shadow and at the height of the ritual, made a great sacrifice of their own, interrupting the ritual. The resultant backlash was titanic, killing countless shadar-kai and scattering the rest, and scouring both planes of any sign of the mortal champions and the shadow fey mages.

But, while the planes remained separate, the tie between the Plane of Shadows and the shadow fey was not undone, rather, the pull was reversed, becoming shadowy chains that forever tried to pull their souls into the realm they had sought to enslave.

Notable Shadow Fey

 * Thieraven, Maurran, and Sithierel, a group of shadar-kai working with Sharran cultists at the Lost Refuge.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave