Over two thousand years ago, the ruler of a Netherese flying city transported his entire city onto the Plane of Shadow in order to explore that dim and perilous plane. For thousands of years, the City of Shade was lost to human knowledge, but in 1372 DR it abruptly returned to Faerûn above the Dire Wood. Today it soars above the deserts of Anauroch, land that was once a fertile part of the Empire of Netheril. Why the Netherese — now known as the Shadovars — returned, and what they are planning, are two mysteries that trouble the rulers of every nation in Faerûn. Most fear that solving these vital riddles will provide them with answers they will not care to hear. Until then, the Shadovars scheme in secret, their true goals a mystery to all but their ruler, the High Prince Telamont, and his twelve sons, the Princes of Shade.
Not all Shadovars are shades. The Princes of Shade decide who is to be given such a blessing, and they are stingy with their favours, careful to only empower those who are sure to be loyal to them and their causes. Prospective candidates are stringently tested for ability, loyalty and resourcefulness.
Shades look just like normal humanoids, although their skin is grey to inky black, as are their eyes. They are thinner than most humans, and they prefer to dress in dark-hued clothes or armour. Human Shadovars are never made into shades until after they have reached the age of majority. There are no such things as young shades, and shades who marry produce normal offspring.
Shades have extraordinarily long lifespans. By trading some portion of their souls for the stuff of shadow, they extend their lifespans tenfold.
History: While the City of Shade was trapped in the Plane of Shadow for the past two millennia, the High Prince, most powerful wizard in the city, struck upon a means of transforming himself and his most loyal followers into creatures of shadow. This granted them near-immortality and an incredible array of powers — as long as they were shrouded in some kind of darkness.
Since the return of the City of Shade to Faerûn, the High Prince has pursued a mysterious agenda that few outside the Princes of Shade understand. Some things are clear, however, like the fact that the High Prince intends to exterminate the phaerimm who still remain in Anauroch after all these years. This crusade even caused the High Prince to lend his city’s power to aid the people of Evereska in defeating a recent phaerimm invasion, granting the elvish community a strange bedfellow indeed. With the routing of the phaerimm, of course, the alliance ended, and the Shadovars have returned to their stand-offish ways.
Outlook: Shades live to serve the High Prince and their fellow Shadovars. Most have grown up in the City of Shade as loyal champions of the High Prince’s regime. While individual shades may have personal agendas, few conflict with the purposes of Shade’s rulers, since disobedient or disloyal Shadovars are not likely to have been transformed into shades in the first place.
Shades consider themselves superior to all non-shades around them. After all, that’s what they’ve been raised to believe from birth. Only the most worthy Shadovars are chosen to become shades. Most shades go adventuring only at the behest of their superiors. They are normally given specific orders about what they are to do on such missions. Shades rarely share their true reasons for adventuring with any non-Shadovar allies they may temporarily make. They do not trust those outside Shade, and any relationships they strike up with strangers are sure to be temporary.
Society: Life in the City of Shade fits into a strictly controlled hierarchy. The High Prince sits at the top of the hierarchy’s pyramid, with his sons — the Twelve Princes of Shade — right below him. Beneath them, the arcanists (Shadovar sorcerers and wizards) stand, with the military next down in importance. At the base of the pyramid, there are four levels of commoners. In descending order, these are the crafters (skilled labourers), the merchants (those who distribute necessary goods throughout the City of Shade and import and export needed materials), the servants (those who work as personal servants to people above them), and the slaves (who do the worst of the society’s grunt work).
At the age of ascension (13 years old), every citizen is tutored in basic spellcraft and subjected to a battery of tests to determine how his skills can best serve the City of Shade. Then, at the age of majority (18 years old) each person embarks upon the job for which he was trained. Unless the person suddenly displays a new aptitude, he works at his designated career until the day he dies.
Those citizens who prove to be especially important and loyal are transformed into shades. This is one of the greatest honours a Shadovar can receive. Only a small percentage of Shadovars are transformed, and commoners and low-ranking military officers are never chosen for transformation.
Outside the City of Shade, most shades keep to themselves. They may travel singly or in small groups, but any alliances they make with non-Shadovars — which are rare — are sure to be alliances of convenience. Only a Prince of Shade or a Shadovar officer of captain’s rank or higher can leave the City of Shade without an escort, and such a person had better have a defensible reason for doing so.
Language: Netherese is the language of the City of Shade, and all Shadovar speak it. Those who deal with other Faerûnians or frequently travel outside the city often speak Common and whatever other languages they might find convenient.
All shades are literate, except for barbarians (not that any Shadovars could be considered barbarians).
Magic: Most Shadovar spellcasters are arcanists (sorcerers or wizards). They normally specialize in the schools of Evocation and Necromancy, although they are free to choose any school or none at all.
One favourite tactic of shade spellcasters is to cast a darkness spell — or any other spell that causes darkness or shadows — on themselves. They then have access to their full range of shade powers.
Spellcasting Tradition: Shadovar arcanists have at least two racial spells particular to their people: handfang and shadow canopy.
Religion: All Shadovars worship Shar as their patron. No other deities have churches within the City of Shade. The people of Shade worshipped this ancient goddess even before they ventured into the Plane of Shadow. Since then, they have learned to rely upon her like no other. All other churches or chapels in the City of Shade have long since been converted over to the worship of Shar. Still, shade clerics are more loyal to the High Prince than to Shar herself. Their worship of her is a means to an end.
Relations: Shadovars of all stripes do not have much contact with non-Shadovars, and so have little if any specific prejudices about them, whether good or bad. They think of other peoples as inferior, to someday be subjugated by the triumphant High Prince. However, all Shadovars have an especially cold and dark place in their hearts for their ancient foes: the phaerimm. Shadovars are willing to go to great lengths to cause the phaerimm trouble and — preferably — death.
Equipment: A shade’s favoured weapons are determined by his base race. To most Faerûnians, the weapons and equipment of most Shadovars look oddly dated. After all, until recently they were cut off from the rest of the world for over two thousand years. Shades often wear ornate breastplates and carry similarly designed ranseurs. They also like aerial cavalry and have domesticated dire bats as mounts.
Animals and Pets: Shadovars don’t raise animals in the City of Shade; there’s simply no room. They gather their food by either paying for it or taking it. There are few if any pets in their society — caring for such creatures is not considered an efficient use of the city’s limited resources.
Regions: Shadovar
As creatures of the Plane of Shadow, shades are considered to be of the outsider type. Shades must be of a non-good alignment.
All shades have the following powers when within shadows or darkness. In well-lit surroundings (daylight or the radius of a daylight spell) none of these powers function.
• Ability Scores: A shade’s Constitution and Charisma scores increase by +2.
• Speed: Increases by 20 ft. (or 15 ft., if the character wears medium or heavy armour).
• Armour Class: The shade gains a +4 deflection bonus to AC.
• Attacks and Damage: The shade gains a +2 competence bonus on attacks and damage.
• Saves: The shade gains a +4 luck bonus on all saving throws.
• Skills: The character gains a +4 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks, and a +8 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks. He does not suffer skill check penalties due to darkness.
• Control Light (Sp): The shade can decrease the levels of light within a 100-foot radius by a factor of 10% per level. For characters and creatures dependent on light to see, this decreases the effective range of vision for them by the same percentage. For each 25% decrease in light, anyone within the area gains a +1 circumstance bonus on Hide checks.
• Fast Healing 2.
• Invisibility (Sp): The shade can use this ability once per round as a sorcerer of his level.
• Shadesight (Sp): The shade has 60-foot darkvision. He can see normally through any darkness effects but not through fog, invisibility, obscurement and so on.
• Shadow Image (Sp): Three times per day, the shade can use this spell-like ability (similar to the mirror image spell) as a sorcerer of his level. This creates 1d4 figments of the shade, +1 per three levels.
• Shadow Stride (Sp): As often as once every 2 rounds, a shade of 8th level or higher can vanish from his current location and reappear in any shadowy area within 300 feet. This is a move-equivalent action.
• Shadow Travel (Sp): If the shade is 12th level or higher, then he can use teleport without error to reach a shadowy locale on the same world or plane shift to access the Plane of Shadows. A shade can shadow travel once per day.
• Spell Resistance: 11 + character level.
• Level Adjustment: +4. Shades are more powerful and gain levels more slowly than the common races of Faerûn. Their many bonuses and powers are hindered only by the fact that they do not work in bright light. Shadovars do not create shades from characters who are less than 5th level.
Source: Races of Faerûn (Page 147)
The following statistics are applicable for Shades created from Humans.
Your character can be either male or female.
Every player character starts as an adult. You can choose or randomly generate your character’s age. If you choose it, it must be at least the minimum age for the character’s race and class (see Table: Starting Ages). Your character’s minimum starting age is the adulthood age of his or her race plus the number of dice indicated in the entry corresponding to the character’s race and class on Table: Starting Ages.
Alternatively, refer to Table: Starting Ages and roll dice to determine how old your character is.
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 years | +1d4 (16—19) years | +1d6 (16—21) years | +2d6 (17—27) years |
1 This category includes barbarians, rogues and sorcerers.
2 This category includes bards, fighters, paladins and rangers.
3 This category includes clerics, druids, monks and wizards.
With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his or her mental ability scores increase (see Table: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.
| Middle Age1 | Old Age2 | Venerable3 | Maximum Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 300 years | 450 years | 600 years | +6d% years |
1 -1 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
2 -2 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
3 -3 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
When a character reaches venerable age, the DM secretly rolls his or her maximum age, which is the number from the Venerable column on Table: Aging Effects plus the result of the dice roll indicated on the Maximum Age column on that table, and records the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his or her maximum age dies of old age at some time during the following year, as determined by the DM.
The maximum ages are for player characters. Most people in the world at large die from pestilence, accidents, infections or violence before getting to venerable age.
Choose your character’s height and weight from the ranges mentioned in the appropriate race description or from the ranges found on Table: Height and Weight. Think about what your character’s abilities might say about his or her height and weight. A weak but agile character may be thin. A strong and tough character may be tall or just heavy.
Alternatively, roll randomly for your character’s height and weight on Table: Height and Weight. The dice roll given in the Height Modifier column determines the character’s extra height beyond the base height. That same number multiplied by the dice roll or quantity given in the Weight Modifier column determines the character’s extra weight beyond the base weight.
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 4’ 10" | +2d10 (5’ 0"—6’ 6") | 120 lbs. | ×2d4 (124—280 lbs.) |
| Female | 4’ 5" | +2d10 (4’ 7"—6’ 1") | 85 lbs. | ×2d4 (89—245 lbs.) |
Source: Player’s Handbook (Page 109), Races of Faerûn (Page 147)