Shadow Court
Enigma City
Betrayal of Oath
Khiiral Keyneiros
Tamnaeth Entoris
Ahshala Meriel Ralokian
Estimated: 425 Shadowmancers and Retainers.
Sittekar - Hidden
Alliria - Hidden
Elbion - Hidden
Teth - Hidden
Many Informants in other locations.
The Shadow Court is a guild that represents all Shadowmancy and related disciplines such as Shadon Incantations. Largely based in Engima City at the Grey Citadel, they have numerous smaller cells or a network of informants that operate in the outside world, these are usually smaller in number and don't know much themselves, so they can reveal little if captured. The guild is most directly concerned with preventing the secrets of shadowmancy from being widely known, as well as exploring and controlling the different related magical disciplines that are being discovered as a result of their practice.
- Name: The Shadow Court
- Group Type: Guild
- Size: 400 - 500 Members
- Alignment: Neutral Evil
Hierarchy
Three Representatives of the Shadow Court are on the Circle of Thorns, the ruling body of Enigma City, sometimes these are given the title of Betrayer by one of Eleth's aspectii or their prophets. Usually, those below them are Masters of the Shadowmancy craft, of which few are ever allowed to reach. Adepts make up the next rank, Acolytes, Initiates, then their uninitiated agents, and eventually their retainers taken from unaffiliated sources. Slaves are of course plentiful but not counted in the organization's number.
Training to be a Shadowmancer is grueling, and full of tests, pitfalls, difficult tasks, and backstabbing. This is why the shadow court is the way it is, that said those that survive it are formidable in their own right. Their network of informants and agents is quite impressive actually, and the main source of their power overseas.
Agents when they want to be recognized or frame others, to confuse rivals or other agents, will use the symbol of a golden elven crown on a black shadowy figure.
Training to be a Shadowmancer is grueling, and full of tests, pitfalls, difficult tasks, and backstabbing. This is why the shadow court is the way it is, that said those that survive it are formidable in their own right. Their network of informants and agents is quite impressive actually, and the main source of their power overseas.
Agents when they want to be recognized or frame others, to confuse rivals or other agents, will use the symbol of a golden elven crown on a black shadowy figure.
Rules
Betrayal, Assassinations, and Assassinae, (the Assassination of Assassins), are all tools used by the court to advance their positions, both internally and externally. All tools of betrayal and what other cultures see as crimes are widely used against political opponents, with the exception of things like theft which is punished harshly in enigma city. The same if not more applies when controlling Shadowmancy outside of Engima.
Intent
To control all Shadowmancy, related disciplines, and knowledge of them.
To advance Eleth's goals and spread its domain subtly.
To study and understand the Forsaken.
To amass political power and control over key organizations, usually those you wouldn't expect. For example a gardener in a noble's estate, a peddler of goods on the street corner, or a messenger carrying missives.
Prevention is seen as vastly superior to cleaning up an exposed secret. Clean-up usually falls to the blind mind order instead.
To advance Eleth's goals and spread its domain subtly.
To study and understand the Forsaken.
To amass political power and control over key organizations, usually those you wouldn't expect. For example a gardener in a noble's estate, a peddler of goods on the street corner, or a messenger carrying missives.
Prevention is seen as vastly superior to cleaning up an exposed secret. Clean-up usually falls to the blind mind order instead.
Background
The Shadow court was founded in the early days of Engima city, after fleeing the elven persecution in Fal’addas around 500 years ago, where their works were hunted and banned as being unnatural. It helped shape how they operated making secrecy of utmost importance, and working in layers of lies, many cloaks to hide parts of the truth.
The first of the powerful organizations in the circle of thorns, it is lied that Eleth speaks directly to the Shadow court leadership, Eleth's Aspectii or prophets would never do something so mundane as tell you what to do. Eleth is about the unknown, surprises, half-truths, and misdirection, those that are devoted to the god are supposed to embody these concepts. There is an old saying, a predictable initiate is never one for long, either soon dead or reformed.
Conflict with the tome keepers cannot be understated, the two groups loath each other and yet balance each other out. While the tome keepers focus on confusing and even wiping knowledge as a preventative measure, the court prefers to destroy original texts too but keeps them as an echo in Shadon, so only they will fully understand or translate it. The Tome Keepers see this as a threat naturally and a possible weakness, while the Shadow Court sees it as a necessity.
You can think of their organization as layers of deception, that require ciphers to unlock parts and then piece together the truth, both about how they operate but also what they are concealing. It is a mystery to challenge them, and one they will keep rearranging to frustrate your search.
As an example, the informants that deal with them know them incorrectly and usually have several misconceptions. Perhaps by an alternative name, thinks they are aligned with different organizations, thinks they are a smaller part of larger unrelated organizations. They never know who they are working for, and usually have three layers of deception in the way of finding out, at a minimum they would be working for a friend, of a friend, of a friend. Quiet often for example an informant would be given a task that was completely worthless to the shadow court, just to throw them off track, and of course, they will be killed without a second thought if they ever were a problem.
Lore
Despite its tendency toward betrayal, the shadow court is reasonably stable as an organization. It pays what it says it will to those who it employs, a necessity of keeping a stable network of informants, mercenaries, and agents. This much predictability at least is tolerated as a sacrifice for keeping the network functioning. A great many slaves are also purchased, and perhaps of all the organizations in Engima, it goes through most of them at an alarming rate.
Shadon is their primary method of communication, where no sentence is what it seems, and most of their dealings or any contracts are written in Shadon. Though contracts is an interesting choice of words for an organization that is dedicated to the art of lying or masking the truth beneath layers of deception.
References
An Enrciling Enigma Begins: Ritual Preparations
Whisper Hearts Black Divinity: Initial mention