Shadow has always been the cousin of fear. Within the darkness, monsters dwell, plans are hatched, and enemies strike with fang and dagger and dark magic. But some embrace the shadow, gain power from it, and dance within its shifting dark.
A true shadowdancer is a creature who flits on the edge of light and darkness. Moving amid the inky blackness, shadowdancers are spies, assassins, infiltrators, and emissaries. Some shadowdancers use their relationship with the dark for good, while others embrace the primordial night, its terror, and its betrayal.
Regardless of the reason why someone embraces the shadows, the shadows embrace that person in turn, gradually transforming them into something inky, nebulous, and mysterious.
Shadowdancers were those who used innate ability rather than arcane magic to harness the power of shadow magic.[3] The term also referred to monks that followed the Way of Shadow, who were sometimes also called ninjas.[1] Always existing in the place where light and darkness met, shadowdancers were enigmatic and dangerous. Despite the connotations between darkness and evil, many shadowdancers used their abilities for good. Shadowdancers drew upon the power of the shadows to attain stealth techniques that rivaled those of rogues. As they became more experienced, some shadowdancers even learned to command the shadows to do their bidding.[2]
Culture
Monks affiliated with the Dark Moon heresy usually trained in the Way of Shadow, following the organization's philosophy that only darkness and loss could bring true wisdom.[4]
Abilities
Monks of the Way of Shadow learned to harness their ki to cast certain spells, such as darkness, darkvision, minor illusion, pass without trace, and silence.[1]
The affinity with shadows granted shadowdancers the ability to hide from sight, even if closely watched, as long as they were within 10 feet (3 meters) of shadows,[2] becoming effectively invisible if in a dimly lit or dark area.[1] They could also travel through the shadows, teleporting from one shadow to another in a way similar to the dimension door spell.[1] As they became more experienced, the distance they could travel grew longer.[2]
Some shadowdancers could create silent, illusory images from shadows. More powerful shadowdancers could in addition call upon a shadow, which behave much like a druid's companion, even sharing its summoner's worldview. As the shadowdancer became more powerful, the shadow companion likewise became a more potent force.[2]
Civilized folk have always feared the night, barring themselves behind doors or comforting themselves with bonfires when the shadows grow long, rightfully wary of the creatures that prowl the darkness. Yet long ago, some learned that the best way to conquer an enemy is to embrace it. These were the first shadowdancers.
Shadowdancers exist in the boundary between light and darkness, where they weave together the shadows to become half-seen artists of deception. Unbound by any specified morality or traditional code, shadowdancers encompass a wide variety of adventuring types who have seen the value of the dark. Spellcasters use their abilities to safely cast spells from hiding and then move quickly away, while classes devoted to hand-to-hand combat enjoy the ability to attack foes with the element of surprise. Some even take the name of their kind quite literally, becoming eerie and mysterious performers and dancers, though more often the temptation presented by their talents with deception and infiltration causes shadowdancers to turn to lives of thievery.
Role: Shadowdancers adventure for a wide variety of reasons. Many adventuring parties find shadowdancers valuable members of their teams due to their incredible stealth and ability to surprise enemies with lightning-quick attacks where they’re least expected. For this reason, their services are often sought out by those groups in need of scouts or spies.
Alignment: Because of their nature as visually duplicitous tricksters, shadowdancers do not fit comfortably into the lawful category, as many use their talents to avoid the eyes of legitimate authority. Yet though they are allies of darkness, shadowdancers are neither inherently evil nor predisposed to good. To them, the darkness is simply the darkness, without any of the usual moral connotations made by the unenlightened.
Call of Shadows
The shadows call out to a potential shadowdancer in a myriad of ways. Often it starts with fear—fear of the dark, fear of enemies, or an underlying uncontrolled anxiety and the desire to gain power over the darkness. Many potential shadowdancers hear the shadows whisper in their heads. First dismissed as some perverse trick of the mind, the whispers can seem to ebb and wane, but a true calling becomes more lucid and more compelling.
In some shadow-infused lands in the Pathfinder setting, particularly Nidal, Ustalav, and even Cheliax, organizations search for and recruit those called by the shadows, eager to transform them into spies and assassins. But the call can come to any creature anywhere. It's just a question of whether the creature heeds the call and forms a pact with the shadows.
Though it is hard to convince many folks otherwise, given the fearsome reputations of shadowdancers working for dark powers and cabals, there is nothing intrinsically evil about embracing the shadows. Darkness is amoral but not without its champions for good and even law, though it is true that such shadowdancers are few and far between.
