The barrier between the Shadow World and the Daylight World is breaking down on many fronts. Laws of nature and physics can no longer be counted upon. What better time to start a Shadow World campaign?
Before Deismaar, the "Shadow World" was a realm of faerie that paralleled Cerilia known as the Spirit World. This was the home of the halflings, who frequently travelled between the two worlds — he
nce the name halfling, since
they were half of this world and half of another. Ths Spirit World world
was inhabited by many beings unlike humans. Spirits of many kinds,
tricksters, malevolent, and benign, all dwelled in a world where natural
laws like those in our world did not exist.
Unlike Cerilia the Shadow World was mutable in nature, rivers could change course in moments, mountains rise or fall overnight, days could pass in mere moments or travellers could spend months exploring the shadow world and re-enter Cerilia mere moments after they had left. This mutability was called the seeming, experts note that although the seeming changes from moment to moment, and can reputedly be 'disbelieved' into reversion to a previous change, it is at all times real - a pasture that becomes a lake can drown someone if they try to walk over it rather than swim for example.
Certain beings, typically those with strong minds, could shape the Shadow-world to their whim, or at least anticipate its changes. Of all the gods, Azrai was by far the most able at shaping the shadow world, it is said in some elder texts that he was a creation of the shadow world itself, formed from the nightmares of the gods as they rested after shaping the world. Whatever the truth of the matter it is clear from the surviving religious texts of Azrai that a major aim of his war against the other gods was to merge Cerilia and the shadow world ‘so that he might perfect the forms of the peoples of Cerilia’. It was this aim that caused most elves to break their alliance with Azrai at Deismaar, not, as some Anuirean scholars of the time suggested, recognition of the nobility of the human spirit.
When Azrai's physical form was destroyed at Deismaar, some small part of his soul survived in the ethereal realm of spirit which the halflings inhabited. This was at first no more than an evil taint; Azrai was not conscious, and for all intents and purposes did not exist as a self-aware entity at this time. He was only the memory of evil, but that proved to be enough to corrupt the halfling's idyllic realm.
Over the course of the three or four centuries immediately after Deismaar, Azrai's spirit spread throughout the spirit world, much like a drop of oil spreading a corrupt sheen over the surface of a lake. This evil grew more and more powerful, until finally it gained the ability to manifest a physical form once again. This was the Usurper or the Cold Rider, a malign will given body and form in the spirit world. His increasing presence twisted the spirit world into the Shadow World, and the halflings left.
For the next few centuries, the halflings' migration continued as the Shadow World worsened. At this point, the Cold Rider was still a figure of mystery and ill will — not consciously malevolent, but more of a harbinger of evil to come. He became a "Flying Dutchman" of the Shadow World; appearing at random times, drawn to extremes of evil or good, leaving doom in his wake.
In the last four or five centuries, the Cold Rider has come to understand that he is the direct heir of Azrai's evil, and as he has grown stronger, more and more of Azrai's personality, powers, and memories are reappearing.
The Shadow World is separated from Cerilia by a barrier called the Evanescence, this can usually only be pierced by certain spells or by halflings however the barrier is thin in places such as the province of Sideath near Tuarhievel and in the Battle Fens of Vosgaard. The barrier also seems weaker in places frequented by the undead, and places where there has been great suffering and death.
Unlike Cerilia the Shadow World was mutable in nature, rivers could change course in moments, mountains rise or fall overnight, days could pass in mere moments or travellers could spend months exploring the shadow world and re-enter Cerilia mere moments after they had left. This mutability was called the seeming, experts note that although the seeming changes from moment to moment, and can reputedly be 'disbelieved' into reversion to a previous change, it is at all times real - a pasture that becomes a lake can drown someone if they try to walk over it rather than swim for example.
Certain beings, typically those with strong minds, could shape the Shadow-world to their whim, or at least anticipate its changes. Of all the gods, Azrai was by far the most able at shaping the shadow world, it is said in some elder texts that he was a creation of the shadow world itself, formed from the nightmares of the gods as they rested after shaping the world. Whatever the truth of the matter it is clear from the surviving religious texts of Azrai that a major aim of his war against the other gods was to merge Cerilia and the shadow world ‘so that he might perfect the forms of the peoples of Cerilia’. It was this aim that caused most elves to break their alliance with Azrai at Deismaar, not, as some Anuirean scholars of the time suggested, recognition of the nobility of the human spirit.
When Azrai's physical form was destroyed at Deismaar, some small part of his soul survived in the ethereal realm of spirit which the halflings inhabited. This was at first no more than an evil taint; Azrai was not conscious, and for all intents and purposes did not exist as a self-aware entity at this time. He was only the memory of evil, but that proved to be enough to corrupt the halfling's idyllic realm.
Over the course of the three or four centuries immediately after Deismaar, Azrai's spirit spread throughout the spirit world, much like a drop of oil spreading a corrupt sheen over the surface of a lake. This evil grew more and more powerful, until finally it gained the ability to manifest a physical form once again. This was the Usurper or the Cold Rider, a malign will given body and form in the spirit world. His increasing presence twisted the spirit world into the Shadow World, and the halflings left.
For the next few centuries, the halflings' migration continued as the Shadow World worsened. At this point, the Cold Rider was still a figure of mystery and ill will — not consciously malevolent, but more of a harbinger of evil to come. He became a "Flying Dutchman" of the Shadow World; appearing at random times, drawn to extremes of evil or good, leaving doom in his wake.
In the last four or five centuries, the Cold Rider has come to understand that he is the direct heir of Azrai's evil, and as he has grown stronger, more and more of Azrai's personality, powers, and memories are reappearing.
The Shadow World is separated from Cerilia by a barrier called the Evanescence, this can usually only be pierced by certain spells or by halflings however the barrier is thin in places such as the province of Sideath near Tuarhievel and in the Battle Fens of Vosgaard. The barrier also seems weaker in places frequented by the undead, and places where there has been great suffering and death.
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