Dark Moon Wards: Shadow-speakers

When the moon hangs black in the sky, the wards grow ironclad and shields secrets that the daylight would scorch. It's in this sacred darkness that whispers from ancient shadows reveal fragments of forbidden maps and secrets that could unravel empires. Or forge new ones.

You've been chosen, reader, because you've sought the edges of imagination, where light fears to tread. This post hides a warded truth just for you: the lore of the Shadow-speakers from my fantasy world of Spinalis.

Recently, I asked X, Threads, and thefantasy.pub a question:

To which I received one response (at the time of writing this):

One Fantasy Fact Swap later and I'm on a kick about the shadows of my world... So let me tease you with secrets from the abyssal south, where ice-veiled peaks hide frozen rivers and canyons.

Inspired by shadows in Glen Cook's Black Company series, my shadows aren't mere absences of light but living entities, eternal spies, and keepers of forgotten knowledge that are trapped in the icy southern wilds, away from lethal sunlight.

Shadows are formless. They slip through the material plane like Peter Pan's shadow, traversing under doors without issue. They hoard eons of secrets, spying on winds and stars, and on rare occasions trade secrets and omens with mortals.

Such mortals are known as shadow-speakers, mystics in the south who commune with the shadows and act as conduits for the denizens of darkness.

Shadow-speakers are always people who were born with some degree of magical ability, but many did not know they possessed the talent until their inner light drew a shadow to them like a moth to a flame. Such initial encounters often kill the shadow-speaker, but those that survive discover the extent of their magical ability.

In most cases there is not much a shadow wants. An immortal being with immense knowledge and a hunger for souls usually only wants those two things, and unless the speaker can provide one or both to the shadow, the shadow is either very bored with its eternal life or it is getting what it wants from the speaker.

While shadows can be killed with magic or light, it is still uncertain if they reproduce or exactly where they came from (shadows do not seem to believe mortals can compensate them with enough souls for such knowledge) but it is known that shadows that have lingered in Spinalis since the world's first dawn.

But here is where things can get political: If someone has the talent and bravery to speak with shadows and allows shadows to use them as conduits, it is assumed that the Shadow-speaker has access to those secrets.

Societies usually revere or fear them. Upper-class patrons pay shadow-speakers fortunes for espionage to discover the misdeeds of ranking officials' forbidden sins, or knowledge on the populace' temperament. Scholars reward speakers well for revealing clues leading to ancient artifacts or evidence of lost history. Many commoners employ shadow-speakers simply to provide them with omens.

In fact, most assume that shadow-speakers often employ a retinue of shadows that do their bidding on a regular basis, or at least the best shadow-speakers claim they have amassed a silent army of shadows. Whether that is a ploy to garner power or not, it is difficult to tell.

The Ritual

The ritual begins in utter darkness. The speaker enters an often red-lacquered box (a nod to warded coffins in folklore, symbolizing rebirth through peril) and is chained to their seat for safety, as shadows can control motor skills if the speaker is caught off guard or if they willingly allow the shadow to control them.

Once inside, they chant invocations in a tongue of whispers, allowing a shadow to slip into their body. The host's eyes glow with ethereal light, either yellow or red, while their voice rasps with ancient timbre. Communication between the speaker and the shadow isn't verbal; it's a fusion of minds.

In that state, the speaker can commune with the shadow or allow the shadow to take control entirely so that their lips may be used to speak with the speaker's client directly...

That is what happens in the prologue chapter of my work in progress: an astrologist discovers a new star and seeks the help of shadows to discover its meaning and origin.

If you could learn one thing from the shadows, what would it be?