Shadowweaver

Weavers of the energy of true shadow who can create cloaks and other clothing out of the night, special nets and whips of darkness, and control the shadows to occlude, obfuscate, and blind.

Weaving

To weave true shadow, one must be able to sense it. To find a shadow is one thing; to find a true shadow is another. Sensing true shadow is to sense the essence of that which is hidden. Nightgaunts have this power naturally, but others must learn it through intensive sensory deprivation and meditation.

Deprivation and Meditation

Sensory deprivation means all senses, mundane and magical. Complete and total deprivation requires extensive effort, usually in specially built chambers or via use of existing materials made of true shadow. While in this state, one must meditate on one's own loss of sensation until one feels the absence as a tangible thing. This requires significant awareness and patience.

Shadows

Once someone can sense true shadows, they can interact with it in any form of darkness or shadow around them, including their own shadows. This is a vital step - they must engage with their own shadow and find the essence within it. This requires trapping the shadow in a box of light (usually just a lot of candles properly positioned), then meditating such that one can feel it and speak to it. This shadowspeech allow the weaver to insert their own consciousness into the essence within their own shadow. Once this is done, their shadow may be sent to capture true shadow to bring back to them.

Shadowweave

Shadowweave is the resultant fabric of woven shadows, which is crafted from the true shadow captured by one's own shadow.

Needles

Needles must be made of proper materials in order to be able to sew shadows:

• Bone: any kind of bone will work, but bones of beings attuned to true shadow or spirits works best.
• Silver: common silver is the most common material used.
• Moonstone: any lunar stone that isn't too reflective will work.
• Sinawery: lunar metal that is part of the night.
• Oneirium: dream metal that is part of the night.
• Nightwood: wood from night trees works extremely well.
• Spirit oak: wood from spirit oaks is also very effective.
• Arktanite: meteorite stone from the moons.
• Ballaman wood: lunar trees are not quite as good as night wood, but still very helpful.
• Cnezhi: shadowy stone of Shadowdeep.
• Awilixum: metallic true shadow is the most potent material.
• Manju: tide jewels used by yokai.
• Hiriwa: the silver of life is not quite as potent as regular silver, but still works.
• Quickcopper: the mysterious liquid metal, if one can form a needle from it, works very well.
• Grusellus: the metal of nightmares is part of the night, but does not always work.
• Living hiriwa: see common hiriwa.
• Tse'elim: wood from these shade trees is potent but rare and not worth the effort of finding when night wood works so well.
• Mictlanium: the metal of the Nether Realm has potent spiritual energy.
• Zhenyin: "true silver" is supposedly better even than awilixum, but this is hard to prove as it is so rare.
• Muktaphalam: a unique navaratna pearl.
• Goneda: a unique navaratna hessonite.

Looms

Needles are attached to spindles and looms, machines made from night wood and silver in order to work the shadowweave.

Cloaks

Cloaks made of shadowweave make the user unseeable in even the faintest shadow (not counting their own shadow). If well made, they can also allow the wearer to shadowwalk, shadowsend, or shadowspeak. The best ones can, when wrapped around a foe, allow for the devouring power to be used.

Clothing

General clothing made of shadowweave has less potency, but will give major stealth bonuses and specific variations may have other powers:

• Boots or shoes: shadowwalking
• Masks or hoods: shadowspeech
• Gloves: blinding or shadowslashing
• Shirts or tunics: shadowsending

Nets

Shadowweave nets can, if made and used properly, employ shadow-devouring powers.

Whips

Whips made of shadowweave are very difficult to dodge and employ shadowslashing powers.

Powers

These are the ways in which shadows may be wielded:

Occlusion

The power of true shadow to close up or encase something and thereby hide it. Occlusion is done by covering something with true shadow.

Obfuscation

The power to render something unclear, unintelligble, imperceptible. This is a much more complete version of occlusion.

Blinding

To cause a target to go blind is the simplest attack done with shadows.

Shadowwalking

To walk through shadows means to move quickly from one shadow to another, connected, shadow. There is risk here, as when one does this, they move through the edges of the Spirit Realm, leaving themselves vulnerable to spirits and loss of their body or identity.

Shadowsending

To send one's shadow out is a form of astral projection that allows one's shadow to move nearly instantly through darkness to anywhere darkness touches, but if the shadow is prevented from returning, one slowly but surely loses all sense of self, all powers, all memory, and eventually their soul.

Shadowspeech

To speak to shadows or through shadows is to speak to spirits, souls, or the hidden.

Shadowslash

A shadowslash causes metaphysical damage, can repel light of any form (including esoteric lights such as gossamer light, lhair, euphotonia, ma'dhahabi, and the bright), put targets to sleep, or remove their shadow.

Devouring

Devouring is the power of true shadow to completely absorb a target, erasing them from existance from that moment onward, making people forget them eventually.

Shadowlessness

Shadowlessness causes one to slowly but surely lose all sense of self, all powers, all memory, and eventually their soul.

Spirits

True shadow is closely connected to spirit energy and allows users to interact with, sense, speak to, and otherwise engage with spirits.

Variations

Variations and specializations include

• Dark seeker: those who use their powers over shadow to observe and investigate.
• Dark surgeon: those who stitch wounds with true shadow to heal metaphysical injuries, erasing trauma.
• Ghoggnat: those who specialize as shadowsending messengers.
• Laegoll: those who weave shadows into the gardens of Shadowdeep.
• Mmao'ail: those who make shadowweave puppets to create incredible silhouette animation and puppetry.
• Obscuranalyst: those who use true shadow to protect information and analyze spiritual and metaphysical data.
• Obscurologer: those who study obscurology, the science of darkness, to complement their shadowweaving.
• P'oa'uat: those who speak oral histories, poems, and music from the dark, in shadowspeech. Dark bards.
• Rngoic: those who use their shadowweaving to spy on others.
• Rth'lash: those who use their needles to etch true shadow drawings into stone or embroider them into existing fabrics.
• Yithlarsth: those who write the script of the silent language of the nightgaunts with true shadow.

Related Occupations

Other users of true shadow include

• Ebonguard: the nightgaunt warriors who guard the Spirit Gate.
• Lzs'hau: tenebriants who keep bats.
• Maemd: the jungle witches of northeastern Dabusen who wield true shadow and other energies, live in elephant graveyards, and ride elephants. They include dek phuhying and hying chra as other stages of their craft.
• Mibogorlaru: a nightgaunt elder.
• Night Witch: nightwyrders who are snipers and pilots in war.
• Night Watch: polyesoteric vigilantes who protect women.
• Nightwyrder: those who wield true shadow (and other aethers) via the lore.
• Nyulhlumos: a conduit to the Dark, a warrior-priest of the nightgaunts.
• Obscurographer: those who use obscurographs to take photos with true shadow.
• Poporcorb: zoanthropic witche swho can turn into ravens.
• Quánjí shǒu: the tai chi shadow boxers of Unbul.
• Tenebriant: javelin-wielding warriors of true shadow, usually night gaunts, who are not elite enough to be Ebonguards or who choose not to be.

Persecution

Those rare places who are aware enough of shadowweavers to address them officially are either aligned with them or diametrically opposed to them. The latter heavily persecute them, though usually in secret.

Skills

Some common skills include

• Weaving
• Sewing
• Stitching
• Writing
• Hunting
• Meditation
• Spiritspeaking
• Espionage

Stats

PRO -1
ATH -1
STR -1
AWA +6
WIL +1
STH +9
PRS -1