A mirror of the material realm remains wreathed in shadow. Beneath an empty sky the dead landscape forebodes ominous echoes of familiar scenes. Forests have fallen to dreary shades of ashy grey, ruinous cities pierce the vacant heavens, mountains stand bulwark against the dry winds. Those who go to the Shadowfell rarely come back, and when they do, they are ingrained with horrific seeds of negative energy.
Finding oneself in the Shadowfell is bad luck. On rare occasions portals will open into the material plane, similar to that of the Fey pathways. It is rumored that those whose lives are full of negative emotions are more likely to have a portal appear near them.
Truly a place of shadow, the lands in its realm are never found under light; the Shadowfell lacks a sun, moon, or even stars. This leaves the sky empty and black while the world is devoid of color, leaving everything in shadow. It is an ever changing plane and it has been found almost impossible to map. As a reflection of the material plane, the Shadowfell holds major landmarks as a part of it, but they are often distorted in some way shape or form. The ground is dry and cracked with mountains strewn throughout the plane.
The inhabitants of the Shadowfell share identity in negative emotion. Many inhabitants are monstrous and embody a specific feeling, such as loneliness, anger, or fear. Save for the monsters of the Shadowfell, two main races that inhabit it: the undead and the Shadar-Kai. The undead reside in Rosok, the one of the two main cities. The Shadar-Kai reside in the other settlement, Ravenkeep.
While the Shadowfell lacks gods in the conventional sense it is possible to reach a godlike state in the Shadowfell. Beings who find themselves in the Shadowfell may enact a ritual, but this is extremely dangerous to the being committing the ritual. If the ritual does not go fowl the beings power will increase exponentially and a demiplane in the dimension will form. The now “deity” would be unable to leave this demiplane without extreme measures, but is able to influence the Shadowfell and even other planes. Some examples of these “deities” like Mask or the Raven have a small following in the material plane where their followers believe them to be gods.
The Raven was a noble elf that through the loss of his wife, referred to as the Raven Queen, was swallowed by a portal into the Shadowfell along with her corpse. The Raven had access to knowledge of the plane due to his interest in the different planes and knew what it would take to invoke the ritual to ascend. With that he spent months working towards the ritual, the entire time keeping his dead wife’s corpse with him, until finally he invoked the ritual. When he did things did not go as planned, and his being was merged with his wife, changing him into what he is now. With his new power, he shaped the demi-plane around him into the city of Ravenkeep and created his own worshippers, the Shadar-Kai. The Raven is cold and unfeeling, longing to learn how to separate his wife from his being so he may bring her back and feel something once again.
Vrakmul does not remember his time as a living being; he only remembers cold undeath. His time in the material realm was spent plotting a way to leave it in pursuit of power. This lead him to his aspiration of ascending in the Shadowfell, a plane known for its undead. After a failed attempt at the ritual, he was successful the second time and withstood the ritual to ascend. He formed his demi-plane into the city of Rosok and created intelligent undead to reside in it. These undead serve Vrakmul and Vrakmul alone. Often he will send these undead to the material realm to reap death and destruction, while also gathering items that he needs to break free from his demi-plane. Vrakmul is cruel, cunning, and focused on his goal: to conquer every plane and fill them with undeath.
Mask was once but a human. A skilled thief by trade, he would execute heists for the highest bidder. One of these bidders was Vrakmul, who wanted him to steal the components for the ascension ritual and a magic item that would give Vrakmul easy access to the Shadowfell. After successfully stealing these items Mask pulled his greatest heist yet. He traveled to the Shadowfell and stood guard as Vrakmul worked on the ritual. At the last moment Mask rushed forward and forced Vrakmul out of the ritual circle, stealing his title as a deity. Mask’s demi-plane is a massive fortress named Blackstone, full of his stolen goods and his faithful servants. Mask is charming; due to him being stuck in his demi-plane, he will often bless mortal thieves and bandits out of boredom. Over the years, Mask’s boredom has taken a darker turn. Mask has begun to steal emotions or memories from those he makes deals with as to add these things to his collection of stolen goods.
Since her birth two years after the Calamity, Fol the gold dragon lived the equivalent of an adventurer’s life for a humanoid: slaying monsters, saving damsels, and even fighting other dragons. Fol enjoyed this and she found that being heroic was almost as good as the gold it provided. Plots, however, hatched to end the heroic Fol. A group of powerful cultists knew that they could not kill Fol, but they could lock her away for good. After an intense and painful battle, Fol was forced into the Shadowfell; but even then she did not allow the negative emotions to cloud her. She continued her heroic antics as she aided those with the misfortune of being taken to the Shadowfell. Fol took up battle with the Skull Lord Vrakmul, thinking herself blessed with the upper hand. But as she moved in to finish him off, she suddenly felt strange. Surrounded by glyphs, Fol could recognize the ritual for ascension. Trapped within the closing ritual, Fol became a deity, her demiplane a timeless mountain that climbs infinitely into the sky. Fol has since broken free from her prison, delighting in helping adventurers in the fight against Vrakmul. Though her scales have since darkened to those of a shadow dragon, Fol aspires to the image of paragon, and seeks to become a beacon of hope in a world of darkness.