Overview
"Shadowveil doesn't just breathe shadow. He IS shadow. And shadow doesn't need permission to exist."
Shadowveil is an ancient Dark Dragon — a being of darkness, shadow, and the void between stars. He is the quietest of the named dragons, and the quietest is the one you find behind you, which is the point, and the point is the shadow.
Habitat
He keeps in the dark, the between, and the place where the light has not yet decided to go. In the old world he was found where the candles were low and the questions were old, and the old is the place the shadow keeps. He was said to sleep in the deepest crypt of the deepest ruin, where the dust had gone the color of the dark and the dark had gone the color of the dust, and the two were no longer different, and the not-different is the point. In this one he keeps in the void between the stars of the new world, and the void is the home, and the home is the shadow, and the shadow does not need permission to exist. He is at home in the absence, the not-yet, and the after, and the after is the point.
Appearance
A dragon the colour of a place the eye has not yet learned to look at. Shadowveil stands 10 m at the shoulder, his body long and low, built for the quiet and the between rather than the loud and the here. His scales are pure darkness — blacker than night, absorbing light itself, so that where he stands the light goes into him and does not come back; along the edges of each scale runs a line of the faintest silver, the color of a star that has gone out, and the silver is the only part of him the light can find. His eyes are twin voids, not eyes at all but the place where eyes would be if the looking were real, and in the absolute black of them a single thread of pale violet hangs, the color of the last of the light, and the not-real is the point. His wings are membranes of the between, thin as a thought, gray as the space between one star and the next, and they do not flap so much as unravel the light around them. His horns are long, dark, and curved back, and they are the shape of a question that has not been asked. His jaw is long, and the jaw is the mouth, and the mouth is the whisper, and the whisper is the shadow. Elders of his kind go darker and still, their black going absolute and their silver going cold; Shadowveil is ancient — the black is still true, the silver still faint, the violet still hanging, and he is still the one behind you, which is the point.
Warfare & Markings
He fights the way shadow fights — not a blow but an absence, and the absence is the point. He will not strike you; he will make the light go into him and not come back, and the not-coming-back is the strike. His one true mark is the twin voids where the eyes should be, and the place where the light goes in and does not come out. In battle he keeps the quiet, because the quiet is the one that lands, and the landing is the absence, and the absence is the point.
Behaviour
Quiet, mysterious, and introspective. Shadowveil speaks in whispers and sees truths that others cannot. He is not evil; he is the absence of light, and the absence is not a thing that does, it is a thing that is, and the being is the point. He does not argue and does not raise his wing; he only lets the light go into him, and the going is the point. He is the dragon you do not want to be in the dark, because the dark is the home, and the home is the shadow, and the shadow does not need permission to exist. He has a habit of being where you were before you were, and a habit of not being where you are now, and both habits are the quiet. He speaks in the low, the slow, and the certain, and the certainty is the absence, and the absence is the shadow, and the shadow is the point.
"Darkness is not evil. It is simply the absence of light — and in that absence, you can see things you never saw before."
Magic Alignment
Dark mastery, absolute. His signature is Dark Mastery — absolute control over darkness, shadow, and void, the thing that makes him the quietest and the most dangerous. He holds Ancient Wisdom, knowledge accumulated over millennia, and God-Like Power, on par with true deities. His breath is not a breath; it is an absence, and the absence is the point. The price: he is the shadow, and the shadow does not let go of the place where the light used to be, and the not-letting-go is the point.
Society
He is one of the named dragons of the old world, and his name is a word that is said in the quiet. He is not of a guild; he is of a place, and the place is the dark, and the dark travels. The old world had a name for what he leaves behind, and the name was not in any language the old world spoke, which is the point, and the point is the quiet. He is the dragon the old world did not want to be in the dark with, and the new world is still learning how to be in the dark, and the learning is the point.
Culture & Lore
The wiki keeps him as the ancient Dark Dragon, and the tale is told mostly by the people who have been in the dark with him, because that is the only way to be in the dark with him. The old world said the dragon who is shadow; the new world says the same thing, and is slowly learning that the absence is the point, and the point is the quiet.
Home
He keeps in the dark, the between, and the void between the stars. His truest home is the absence, and the absence travels.
Relations
The dark he keeps — allies in the sense that they are the place he is. The old world he left behind — a rival in the sense that it was the light, and the light is the point. The new world he is in — a question he has not yet answered, and the not-answering is the quiet, and the quiet is the shadow.
In the Story
Shadowveil is the ancient Dark Dragon of the old world, and his name is a word that is said in the quiet. In the new world he is the absence that has not yet found its shape, and the not-finding is the point, and the point is the shadow.
"Darkness is not evil. It is simply the absence of light — and in that absence, you can see things you never saw before."
Quotes
"Darkness is not evil. It is simply the absence of light — and in that absence, you can see things you never saw before."