The Shadow Weave
During the course of her eternal war with the goddess Selune, the goddess Shar created the Shadow Weave in response to Selune’s creation of Mystra and the birth of the Weave. If the Weave is a loose mesh permeating reality, the Shadow Weave is the pattern formed by the negative space between the Weave’s strands. It provides an alternative conduit and methodology for casting spells.
Shar, being the goddess of secrets, has mostly kept the secret of the Shadow Weave to herself. Over the millennia some mortals, mainly her servants, have been allowed to discover the Shadow Weave or have stumbled across it in their researches.
Shadow Weave users enjoy several advantages. First, they ignore disruptions in the Weave. A Shadow Weave effect works normally in a dead magic or wild magic zone. (An antimagic field, which blocks the flow of magic, remains effective against Shadow Weave magic, as does spell resistance.) Skilled Shadow Weave users are able to cast spells that are extraordinarily difficult for Weave users to perceive, counter, or dispel.
Shadow Weave users also suffer some disadvantages. First, Shar has full control over the Shadow Weave and can isolate any creature from it or silence it entirely without any harm to herself. Second, the secrets of the Shadow Weave are disquieting and injurious to the mortal mind. Without assistance from Shar, a Shadow Weave user loses a bit of his or her mind. Third, while the Weave serves equally well for any kind of spell, the Shadow Weave is best for spells that sap life or muddle the mind and senses, and is unsuited to spells that manipulate energy or matter—and cannot support any spell that produces light.
Shadow Weave Magic ItemsMagic items created by those who use the Shadow Weave are rare and dangerous. Only the clergy of Shar and Shar’s few arcane devotees create any number of Shadow Weave items. Shadow adepts unallied to Shar’s church are rare and reclusive enough that only a handful of magic items are manufactured as Shadow Weave items.
Shadow Weave items are nearly identical to items created by Weave users, but the differences are profound.
Spell-like effects generated from Shadow Weave items have the same benefits and limitations that a Shadow Weave spellcaster has: Effects from the schools of Enchantment, Illusion, and Necromancy gain a +1 bonus on their save DCs and a +1 bonus on caster level checks to overcome spell resistance. The same benefits apply to effects with the darkness designator. Effects from the schools of Evocation and Transmutation have their caster levels reduced by one (though their costs are based on the original caster level). The reduced caster level affects the spell’s range, duration, damage, and any other level-dependent variables the effect might have. The effect’s save DC is reduced by -1 and caster level checks to overcome spell resistance suffer a -1 penalty. The DC to dispel Evocation or Transmutation effects from a Shadow Weave item is 11 + the reduced caster level. In general, Shadow Weave users do not bother to create items that include Evocation or Transmutation effects.
Shadow Weave items cannot generate effects with the light designator.
Shadow Weave items can pose a serious danger to users who are not familiar with the mysteries of the Shadow Weave. Activating a Shadow Weave item through spell completion, spell trigger, or command word deals 1d4 points of temporary Wisdom damage to the user unless the user has the Shadow Weave magic feat. A use-activated Shadow Weave item deals 1 point of temporary Wisdom damage the first time it is used each day unless the user has the Shadow Weave magic feat. If the item functions continuously, the temporary Wisdom damage occurs at dusk each day or when the user takes off or puts aside the item, whichever comes first.
FRCS, pgs. 57-58Shar and Her Greatest SecretShar, the dark-tressed deity of darkness and secrets, has nursed a grudge against her sister Selune and their daughter Mystra since the dawn of creation. While her battles with Selune have been both grand and subtle, her vengeance against Mystra has been brewing so long and so coolly that most don’t realize it exists. Yet sages of divine lore categorize her as “the ruler over pains hidden but not forgotten, bitterness carefully nurtured away from the light and from others, and quiet revenge for any slight, no matter how old.” With this as her legacy, it should be no surprise that Shar would seek recompense from Mystra, but none thought she would do it in the manner she has chosen.
The Shadow WeaveBecause she knows that striking directly against Mystra at this time is foolish and dangerous, Shar chose an indirect method to combat her traitorous daughter. If Mystra is the source of all magic on Faerun, making every mortal spellcaster beholden to her to some extent, it would be possible to steal away some of that power and the associated worship by creating another source of magic that was under Shar’s control and whose practitioners would have to be beholden to her if they wished to survive its use unscathed.
Shar studied the Weave and used her own energy in remote parts of the world to experiment on it, eventually coming to understand how it worked and duplicating its effects with her own subtle and dark creation. Eventually this experiment grew to encompass the entire globe, although none knew of its existence. This creation is the Shadow Weave, a dark and distorted copy of the true Weave that enhances the magic of shadows, enchantment, necromancy, and illusion. With the Shadow Weave, Shar hopes to draw evil-inclined spellcasters to her flock, especially since those are the kind of people who would avoid paying homage to the good-aligned Mystra anyway. While the Shadow Weave has existed for quite some time, only recently has its use begun to spread rapidly and its power become known to many.
With people drawn to her faith and her source of magic rather than that of the normal Weave, Shar hopes to draw power away from Mystra so that the Lady of Mysteries is reduced to the power of an intermediate or lesser deity, at which point Shar might be able to force Mystra to serve her or destroy her outright. With Mystra subservient or gone, Shar would be able to attack Selune, using her complete control over magic to slaughter large numbers of the Moon Maiden’s worshipers, weakening her eternal rival to such an extent that Shar would finally be victorious.
Philosophy and WorshipersShar is a newcomer to the powers of magic and has not established a firm platform for her followers who worship this aspect of her. Her primary goals are the acquisition of new followers, mainly by tempting them with the power offered by the Shadow Weave. She tries to have those who turn to the Shadow Weave choose her as a patron, and in return for this she soothes the pain of the mental damage caused by drawing upon her dark secret. Shar is careful to avoid tempting divine casters to take this last step, since she has no desire to create more enemies when she sees her moment of victory over Mystra and Selune on the horizon. It is possible that Shar and another deity might make arrangements for a special follower to gain Shar’s blessing without having to choose her as a patron; such agreements usually involve an extra quest for Shar and one for the character’s actual patron as well.
Shar is particularly fond of seducing sorcerers and wizards known to train many apprentices, for such mages tend to produce young mages who also rely upon the Shadow Weave. She also enjoys corrupting those who manufacture magic items, particularly prolific crafters such as enclave Red Wizards, for their items are Shadow Weave items, which encourage every person who handles them to turn to the Shadow Weave.
Magic of Faerun, pgs. 6-7The Shadow Weave - ContinuedThe Shadow Weave is the space between the stands of the Weave, the gaps in the spider’s web, the Bubbles of air trapped in the waters of the ocean. It reaches everywhere the Weave does, and more, for the Shadow Weave is not subject to Mystra’s laws or state of well being. If Mystra were to die and the Weave collapse, the Shadow Weave would persist.
Users of the Shadow Weave are not subject to wild magic areas or dead magic areas in the Weave, for they draw upon another source of power. It might be possible for dead or wild magic areas to form in the Shadow Weave, but that would require great magical force to be expended against it, such as the death of a deity who uses the Shadow Weave or the destruction of an artifact or mythal created with the Shadow Weave. No such events are known. Should these events come to pass, the effects would be similar to a Weave user in an area of wild or dead magic, except that a Shadow Weave user would be affected and a normal Weave caster would not.
A creature that uses the Shadow Weave cannot cast spells with the light designator or activate spell completion or spell trigger items with the light designator. Any attempt to do so is a standard action and produces no effect, just as if the user were attempting to cast a spell within an antimagic field.
An antimagic field negates all magic within its area, so it does affect a user of the Shadow Weave. Likewise, Shadow Weave spells do not bypass spell resistance, although users of the Shadow Weave get a bonus on level checks to overcome spell resistance when casting spells of the schools of Enchantment, Illusion, and Necromancy.
Magic of Faerun, pg. 10Shar’s Church and the Shadow WeaveThe Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting details the origins of the Shadow Weave and the effects on characters who learn to harness its power. The Sharran church naturally makes use of the Shadow Weave, though not universally. The secrets of the Shadow Weave are among the Sharran’s most closely guarded secrets. The Lady of Loss has retained many of the Shadow Weave’s most potent aspects for herself, and she doles out its lesser capabilities to those among her faithful whom she deems worthy.
From time to time, Shar imparts to her priests her desire to eliminate a particular spellcaster who is using the Shadow Weave. The victims of her animosity are not normally wizards or sorcerers who have stumbled onto information about the Shadow Weave unintentionally, but those who have learned to access it through research or trial and error. Many of these spellcasters do not use their Shadow Weave talents in a way that is pleasing to Shar. Some of them, horrified at what they have discovered, actually have the temerity to attempt to restore their magic to its normal, Weave-using status. Sharran clerics also sometimes ask their deity if a particular individual using the Shadow Weave meets with her approval, to which the deity responds that until she indicates that she desires that person’s death, her priests are to ignore his activities. Aeron Morieth (N male half-elf Wiz13/Sha3) of Chessenta is one such mage, and though the Sharrans keep a close watch on his activities, Shar has expressly forbidden her worshipers to approach him in any way.
A small faction of Sharran clergy advocates the elimination of any being that acquired knowledge of the Shadow through any means other than becoming a member of Shar’s church. The members of this faction view those wizards and sorcerers who stumble on Shadow Weave information accidentally as threats to the church’s security. Who knows, they reason, to whom these blundering dolts might impart these deep secrets? Some representatives of this faction have recently taken to hiring unscrupulous adventurers to destroy such individuals under the pretense of some other crime or slight. Shar herself unquestionably is aware of this faction and its activities, but to date she has not taken steps to rein them in.
Lords of Darkness, pg. 123Shadow Weave Magic – the featShadow Weave Magic [General]
You have disovered the dark and dangerous secret of the Shadow Weave.
Prerequisite: Wisdom 13+ or patron deity Shar.
Benefit: From now on, your spells tap the Shadow Weave instead of the Weave. You also can activate magic items that use the Shadow Weave without taking damage.
Add a +1 bonus to the DC for all saving throws of spells you cast from the schools of Enchantment, Illusion, and Necromancy, and spells with the darkness descriptor. You get a +1 bonus on caster level checks to overcome spell resistance for these schools and spells.
The Shadow Weave proves less than optimal for effects involving energy or matter. Your effective caster level for spells you cast from the schools of Evocation or Transmutation (except spells with the darkness descriptor) is reduced by one. (First-level Shadow Weave users cannot cast spells from these schools.) The reduced caster level affects the spell’s range, duration, damage, and any other level-dependent variables the spell might have, including dispel checks against you.
You can no longer cast spells with the light descriptor, no matter what your level is. Such spells automatically fail. Your ability to use magic items that produce light effects is also limited—you cannot invoke an item’s light power if the item’s activation method is spell trigger or spell completion.
From now on, any magic item you create is a Shadow Weave item.
Special: Knowledge of the Shadow Weave has a price. When you acquire this feat, your Wisdom score is immediately reduced by 2 points. If this loss or any future Wisdom loss reduces your Wisdom score to less than 13, you still have the feat. (This is an exception to the general rule governing feats with prerequisites.)
Restorative spells (such as restoration or greater restoration) do not reverse the Wisdom loss. You can, however, strike a deal with Shar, the goddess who holds sway over the Shadow Weave, to regain your lost Wisdom. You must receive an atonement spell from a cleric of Shar. Sharran clerics require the subject to complete a dangerous quest before receiving the atonement, and afterward you must choose her as your patron. (The usual quest is to destroy a follower of Selune whose level is at least as high as yours.) If you later change your patron, you immediately suffer the Wisdom loss. If you take Shar back again as your patron deity, it is not regained.
FRCS, pg. 37Shadow Weave Magic - the feat (continued)You have discovered the dangerous secret of the Shadow Weave.
Prerequisite: WIS 15 or patron deity Shar.
Benefit: From now on, your spells tap the Shadow Weave instead of the Weave. You can also activate magic items that use the Shadow Weave without taking damage.
The saving throw for every spell you cast from the schools of enchantment, illusion, and necromancy increases by +1. You also get a +1 bonus on caster level checks to overcome spell resistance with spells from these schools.
The Shadow Weave proves less than optimal for effects involving energy or matter. Your effective caster level for spells you cast from the schools of evocation or transmutation (except spells with the darkness descriptor) is reduced by one. A 1st-level Shadow Weave user cannot cast spells from these schools at all.
You can no longer cast spells with the light descriptor. No matter what school they are from, such spells automatically fail. Your ability to use magic items that produce light effects is also limited—you cannot invoke an item’s light power if its activation method is spell completion or spell trigger.
From now on, any magic item you create is a Shadow Weave item.
Player’s Guide to Faerun 3.5, pg. 43
