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ren-c-leyn · 2 years

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Happy WBW, Ren! Inspired by the Fel - the Shade-kin as race were created by a ritual? How did that happen? Also with Fel being so dangerous and hostile, why do they keep living there? @writingonesdreams

Happy World Building Wednesday to you too, Dreams! Sooo, you'll be happy. You get a ramble too! (I love the Shade-kin and The Fel.) So, I hope your chair is comfy over there.

yes, the Shade-kin, the Shadow (another race of people), and some types of monsters were all formed from the same ritual.

I think I touched on this briefly for another wbw ask awhile back, but because The Shackles of Time's world is so old, there are many different eras of magic, each of which saw the rise and fall of several magic traditions. With scholars and adventurers delving more and more into the ruins of the past, some of these traditions get rediscovered out of context.

That ritual was one such magic.

Mages can be reckless, and a particularly reckless mage decided that yes, yes he was going to try out this ancient magic ritual he found in the ruins of one of the lost cities without knowing anything about the tradition it comes from or what it's purpose was using his translation that he couldn't be 100% sure about because the original was written in a dead language. It required several mages to perform, and they performed it more than once because they were idiots.

Why would a reasonable person do any of that? I don't know, probably obsession or ambition, but they did it. And they got slightly different results each time. In that the people it was used on either turned into Shade-kin, Shadow, or... something else. Usually wraith-like creatures, sometimes the subjects just dissolved into shadows, and sometimes they'd turn into something not quite any of the above.

He deduced that it was some kind of necromancy mixed with other magics, but hadn't quite pinned it down so he kept tweaking with the ritual to see if he could find it's true purpose. He didn't get the chance. They got one result that ended the experiments... by ending everyone's lives. The Shade-kin and Shadow were able to escape... along with their more monstrous kin. The Shade-kin and Shadow both believe that that creature is still out there somewhere, stalking the darkness, and both pass on the story of their creation onto their children to prepare them for if the day should come they cross paths with it.

The Shade-kin and Shadow weren't really welcome back into society, at least, not in the way they were before. Mages were creepily interested in them, common people were scared of them, there were monsters that looked a lot like them terrorizing innocent people, and it was getting tense so they left to go find their own places. The Shade-kin found The Fel. No one else wanted it, because it is dangerous, so they made it theirs. The Shadow found a place I haven't named, yet, that is a cavern system full of glowing crystals and the remains of an abandoned dragon's nest.

It has, however, gotten easier for them both to deal with the outside world over the years as perceptions of them changed and the magic in their bloodlines faded. They're no longer the monsters waiting for you to let your guard down, no longer associated with their more monstrous kin. Many outsiders do not even know of their origins anymore. However, the current generations of Shade-kin and Shadow are weaker than the originals as they mixed with other races and adapted to their environments.

Thanks for stopping by! I had a lot of fun with this one ^^ I hope you have a lovely day/evening.

#world building wednesday #The Shackles of Time

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