Founding Place:
First practiced in the elven city of Fal’addas some 800 years ago or rather the surrounding regions until it was discovered. It has since been banned and all mention of it covered up or hidden away. Now it is actively practiced in Engima City, a Tundra elf stronghold in Southern Eretejva.

Main Disciplines:
Shadowcalling, Shadow Shield, Shadowcraft
For the strengths and weaknesses of the shadowcrafted beings see here: Shadowkin. They will be referenced below. All shadowcrafted creations are servants of Eleth first and foremost.

Sub Disciplines:
Shadon Language, Shadow Sight, Shadow Slip

Summary
Shadowmancy is the art of shaping shadow, using shadow to be your eyes and ears, or blinding others using shadow. Its patron god Eleth has a strong influence on it, and most dedicate themselves to the god while learning it. Some do not, but inevitably those who do not worship Eleth directly end up bargaining with his servants for their abilities.

Initiate:

Those at the Initiate level have been surfaced, that is they have been marked by a mortal hand. They have gone through the initial training in the art of secrets and begun learning shadon, the language of lies and deceit.

Initiate Abilities

Shadon Language: The Initiate learns to speak to Shadowkin, Shadowmen and Shadow Kineth. They may get glimpses of what nearby Shadowkin see in the same room but this will be hard to discern and hard to control. They do however understand shadowkin innately and begin to feel their presence when nearby.

Shadow Slip: An initiate has a certain affinity for hiding, this grows as their attunement to the shadow grows. It is not magical so much as an adjustment to how shadows work, where they are likely to be and how much you can rely on them to block the line of slight

Acolyte:

Those who have been marked by a shadowkin of Eleth are considered acolytes. This is not a surface mark, it runs through the core of their being, and means they have given up a small token part of themselves to do so. This usually comes in the form of feeling poisoned, and weak for a day or two. Most will have lost a few years of their life, given up a small bit of endurance or feel ill for a much longer period, it affects each differently. The sacrifice shows their commitment to the practice and the god.

Acolyte Abilities

Shadow Sight: An acolyte can see through the eyes of nearby shadowmen to a range of about twenty meters. They cannot hear sounds, and the picture they see is usually in black and white.

Shadow Crafting: An acolyte can begin to craft shadowmen from the shadow of a host. Robbing them of it while the shadow craft exists and giving it life instead. One or two at most per host are done. Whether the host is willing or not, the host must remain still or be bound for this to work. Those shadowcrafted will be of the same size as the host, and have the same form only are completely shadow and noncorporeal. The process for an acolyte takes about five days of concentration and focus, to claim the shadow as his own.

Shadowmen are most useful as spies and as large distractions, or to terrorize a group. They work best in groups, and an acolyte requires eye contact with their creations else they will begin to fade, this process takes ten days. The host will be without a shadow while the shadowman exists and to maintain their creation, the acolyte will need to trade their own essence. This is called the shadeblight by outsiders or the tempering by the faithful. It is swapping a small amount of shadow for the practitioner's life, not giving life up completely, but an exchange of energies.

For all shadow crafts, the hosts will always know when their shadow is when its within 200 meters of them. The most sensitive to magical energies may be able to track them across an entire city.

Shadow Slip: An acolyte begins to master shadows around them, not just know the best ones to use. They seem to know exactly where they need to be and the right second to move to another area to avoid sight. It might even be said the shadows start to aid them to remain unseen, but they don't have conscious control over this.

Adept

Adepts have spent years growing their shadowside. They are often practiced liars and gifted in claiming secrets. There is no formal ceremony to become adept but there is a certain attunement that needs to take place over time. Working with rather than against the shadows, learning how they operate, think and move.

Adept Abilities

Shadow Sight: Focusing. At an adept level, it is possible for the adept to see to a range of 100 meters what the nearby shadowkin see, they can hear to an extended range of 20 meters which doesn't affect their hearing much unless the practitioner is otherwise naturally deaf for some reason. The pictures shadow sight offers have more color to them than at acolyte, but they are naturally darker.

Shadow Crafting: An adept can craft full shadowkin, which are partially noncorporeal beings, able to fight but far better spies. They hit with half the strength of a normal being their size, and take half the damage, meaning it takes a while to kill them and they can be a pain to be rid of. However, they make cunning spies, able to shift their form and get through cracks in doorways or windows, they also are capable of intelligence and speech. Like shadow men, full shadowkin are crafted by taking the shadow of a host, at most one per host and maintained by the shadow crafter. This process takes about two hours and can be uncomfortable. They can exist longer without their shadowcrafter nearby giving their own essence, lasting about 1 full year before fading to nothing.

Shadow Calling [Minor]:
Here Shadowblind comes into effect. At adept level, light natural light may be dimmed over a small 20-meter area. Magical light is much harder to dim as that is being consciously created. However magical sources of light left behind may be affected to a lesser extent. This allows shadowkin to traverse dangerous terrain for example or move albeit with difficulty in direct daylight.

Shadow Shield [Minor]: Condensing the shadow, a minor shadow shield will deflect light projectiles or weapons, not the physical nature of them, but the light itself over a small handheld area, perhaps the size of a small shield. Small amounts of bright magic will be absorbed by the shield and some of it nullified, neutral-toned or darker looking magics will not be affected, perhaps withstanding two good hits. These shadow shapes usually only last a short amount of time, ten minutes at most and may be given to a crafted shadowkin. In a bright area, this power is much harder to manifest but will sustain itself if initially done outside of the light in preparation to face it.

Shadow Slip: Here the shadows become alive around an adept if they need them, they fold around the adept and allow unseen movement through a dim area. Subtle use is often best but obscuring and obvious is possible if identity just needs to be hidden or arrows avoided. This doesn't protect the shadow caller from damage, only identification or observation by others.

Master

Masters are one with silence. They have become the unknowable engima they sort to create. This takes decades if not hundreds of years of vigorous training and practice.

Mastery Abilities

Shadow Sight: A Master can see the sights of shadowkin at nearby cities, though this takes focus and distracts them greatly, they can hear sounds from shadowkin up to 200 meters away. The vision they receive is still darker than usual but they are adjusted to seeing in that darkness as if the shadowkin did. It doesn't affect their regular vision, only when they use their shadowkin to see for them.

Shadow Crafting: The Master is able to craft Shadow Kineth, these require several minutes to shape and a small portion of his own blood. They are liable to kill or wound the host they are crafted from depending on how careful the caster is, and can be maintained even without their shadowcrafter for a number of years. They are highly intelligent, make formidable fighters as they retain most of the host's strength while still being harder to kill. They are just as wounded by light and fire however. They can form extra limbs over a few minutes, able to hold other shapes with their bodies for longer. The smaller the change to their form the longer they can hold it, a few days for an extra arm but just an hour for halving their size for example. Finally Shadow Kineth can and do break free of their host's control to follow the calling of Eleth if it is elsewhere, sometimes returning when they are done.

Shadow Calling [Major]: Able to dim the light to a medium-sized 100 meter area, or completely blacken it within 20 meters, making twenty meters especially deadly for stronger shadowkin who can blend with the shadows. A master is able to dampen magical sources of light even those actively engaged by a caster, he cannot completely extinguish them but he can nullify their illumination to bring a more neutral level of light to the room, rather than a bright shining spark for example.

Shadow Shield [Major]: Condensing the shadow to a dense black nothingness, light, fire and sometimes other magics can be absorbed in the form of a small to large shield. As before the brighter the magics the more likely this is, at a major level this can last several blasts. This shield can be given to a shadowkin to protect it. It is possible to attempt more than one shield, but each version will weaken the available shadow to work with, making it less reliable or hardy. In bright areas, this power is much harder to manifest, though it can sustain itself if brought in from elsewhere in preparation and will do so for several hours.

Short Term Effects:

Temporary Blindness. If the magic is overused, the vision of the user will slowly fade. With each level of mastery, more can be attempted but too much will slowly dim the world to black for the user. At extreme usage, the practitioner may lose his hearing, sense of touch or even become engulfed in a black cloud. These effects will reverse themselves as the user is exposed to light sources and stops using shadowmancy to recover.

Long Term Effects:

Tempering and Shade Blight.
This is the price for using shadowmancy long term. It is called tempering by the faithful as their bodies hone to their craft, it is called a blight by those who know of it and still scorn the practice. It is completely unavoidable and irreversible. It can, however, be covered up with illusionary magics or just very copious use of makeup.

At early stages, this comes as a darkening of the eyes, or a slight off-color to the skin, black flickers at the nails or on the palms. As the years or decades go by the skin grows visibly darker, the eyes visibly blacker, and the skin takes on a darker hue. Eventually for the especially long-lived, parts of the body may be covered in a smokey like blackness across the surface of the skin, it's still solid and acts as skin but has a distinctly cloudy look to it. The eyes of those centuries into the shadowcraft may have gone completely black, and their skin very dark, they may even hide their faces in shadow semi-permanently, though this is their choice to dim light rather than an effect.

Social effects.
As mentioned briefly shadowmancy is banned in Fal’addas and only known to its leaders at all. While most shadowmancers would not openly reveal their craft, as it goes against their nature to hide secrets and stop the spread of knowledge, some shadowmancers are hunted elsewhere but little is known at this point. This lack of knowledge is in no small part the work of the agents of the shadow court at the Engima and the Tundra elves themselves. The less that is known the better for all who practice this craft.