Shadow Folk

The shadow folk descend from a prior attempt at creating a mortal race, known as the First Humans now. Because of the actions of one of them, the whole race was cursed and cast into the Shadowfell. They adapted to their new envronment quickly, impacted by their curse and by the magical influence of the Shadowfell, magically morphing into humanoid shadows.

An Ancient Curse

During the time of the War of Shadows, mortals roamed far and wide, and grew powerful in their mastery of magic. One mage among them, whose name and individuality was erased from history, attempted to lift himself above even the mightiest of gods, and was struck down. His species was cast into the Shadowfell and placed with a curse of darkness, that slowly transformed them.

As those first humans lived in that melancholy and dreary landscape, they transformed into beings of shadow. Their bodies retained their shape, but became inky black except for glowing white eyes. To quell any ambition that might repeat the events of the first shadow folk, the gods cursed them to be incapable of having a name. Any attempts to give names or nicknames to a shadow folk will magically become stuck in one's throat or enchant the listeners with mind-altering magic so that they don't understand. A Shadow Folk party member would, for example, only be able to be referred to as "The shadow folk we have been traveling with."

Life without Color

All shadow folk appear very similar to each other on account of their monochrome pallete. They are incapable of reproducing with any creatures other than their own kind. Their nature is so morphed that even a shadow folk that accidentally wanders back to a realm with color cannot see it, permanently seeing only in black, white, and gray.

In the Shadowfell, the shadow folk are a nomadic people, constantly wandering, which is how they occasionally end up on the material plane or feywild. They do not have set roles, as they cannot express individuality in the typical way s per their curse. As a result they are a spontaneous, yet mellow, people. The person who leads in any given situation is just the one who happens to take action first.

Shadow Folk Traits

Shadow Folk have a number of abilities that reflect their curse and adaptation to life in the Shadowfell.

Ability Score Increase. Two ability scores of your choice increase by 1 (Both can be in the same ability score if you so choose).

Age. A shadow folk reaches adulthood in their late teens, and lives about a century and a half.

Alignment. Their mellow and understated nature means that most shadow folk are neutral at least in some capacity.

Size. Shadow folk are similar in size to humans, with equally proportional builds. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Muted Darkvision. Born to a world of shadow, you have excellent vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You cannot discern colors at all, and can only perceive the world in shades of gray, no matter how lit a place may be.

People of Twilight. You gain proficiency in the History and Stealth skills.

Trance. Due to the lack of a natural day-night cycle in the Shadowfell, you do not need to sleep, instead meditating deeply for 4 hours a day. You can "dream" in a similar manner to a human, and doing this gains the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.

Curse of Anonymity. You are magically prevented from taking a unique name or nickname, through a magical curse that enchants your race and those around you who might refer to you in the specific.

Ill Premonition. Shadow folk are a race that poor fortune seems to surround like a swarm of flies. Whenever a creature within 30 feet of you that you see rolls a 20 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check or saving throw, you may force them to reroll the dice and use the new roll. You can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

Languages. You can speak read and write Old Common and one extra language of your choice. Old Common is a version of typical Common that did not develop in the same way that the language did over the time between the exile of the shadow folk and the present day. A speaker of one type of Common can understand the other, but each sounds off and grammatically awkward to the other.





Credit: Tomek Pietrzyk