Faded

Denizens of the Gloom, the Faded are a race of fey-like humanoids with mastery over the shadows. While the origins of the Faded are not always clear, Many agree that the Faded were banished to the Surreal when they dealt in a form of outsider magic that twists light into darkness. For this reason, many Faded have a natural hatred of Icae and her followers.

Physical Characteristics

Faded generally look like humans or elves, although their time in the Gloom has left their skins pale and their pupils watered out. Faded that live in the Gloom make their clothes out of shadowsilk, harvested and spun from the magical darkness within the Gloom. Faded Shadowsilk is largely regarded as the best shadowsilk money can buy. Faded that live elsewhere typically adopt dark clothing or black and white color schemes.

Mental Characteristics

Faded are often known for their cruelty and malice, but they are also very loyal to those who they deem as family. No matter how severe an argument between Faded of the same clan, they are still almost certain to have each other's backs in times of need. Faded are often very goal-oriented, and have little regard for others as a result.

Cultural Differences

Most Faded embraced their inner darkness, which manifests itself in their innate magic, but some have instead adopted the teachings of Icae and broken away from the other Faded. Wanting to atone for the transgressions of their ancestors, these Faded find their way back to the Material Reality, where they work in service of Icae, stamping out Outsider magic where they find it. The Faded of the Gloom have a distrust of light. When it was discovered that a powerful light spell was made using the tears of the Kingka, They set out to exterminate the race, nearly succeeding.

Civilization and Culture

Major Organizations

Faded, like most surreal denizens, often make allegiances with the various courts of the Surreal. The most common court for faded to join is the Ouroboros court.

Common Myths and Legends

A popular origin mythos for the Faded is the tale of the renegades. Next to unknown in the Material Reality, even by the most traveled scholars and studious sages, the story is nevertheless fairly common amongst the researchers of the gloom. Long before the Great Flood, when dragons and elves roamed argent, a certain sect of elves began to chafe under dragon rule. Struggle as they might, faced with the awesome power of dragonkind, their choices were to submit, or die; their only advantage, numbers, meant nothing in the face of an ancient dragon's breath. With no other recourse, these elves, who called themselves the Bright Elves to represent the bright future they worked for, turned to powers beyond the dragons and even the gods; the unfathomable depths of the Outside. Over hundreds of years, the bright elves worked tirelessly in secret, developing profane magic that could stretch into the cosmic abyss and bring back power that could free them from tyranny. Somehow, the Bright Elves failed, and exactly how changes from retelling to retelling. One retelling states the Bright Elves were consumed by the very powers they invoked. Another states the dragons were able to repel the Outside incursion, and supplant the Bright Elves. Another states the gods directly intervened and all but wiped out the Bright Elves. Another says the Bright Elves were never truly defeated, and that the power they summoned lays dormant somewhere out of sight from divine and draconic alike. One thing is consistent; the driving force was a representative of the moon, either a great lunar wyrm with the power to rival divinity, or a divine agent of Icae herself. No matter the truth, the Bright Elves were banished to the Gloom by their own fellow elves, who sought to prove their innocence to the victors - the gods or the dragons, depending on the retelling. There, they became known as the Faded, as the future they fought for faded from their view. On the material plane, the elves denounced them as renegades, and threw themselves into a greater demonstration of subservience in order to avoid the ire of the victors, or perhaps out of genuine disdain for the horrors the Bright Elves committed. As the legend goes, only by renouncing their profane origins can a faded return to the material plane; should they not repent, the reality itself will abjure them back to their home, one way or another.

Lifespan

200 years

Average Height

5 to 7 feet tall

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Most faded have pale pink or albino skin, though a few have skin-tones that range from ebony to near-pitch black. Legend tells that these darker faded are unusually apt practitioners of shadow magic. There is a slight pattern to darker skin tones and more advanced shadow magic, but whether it is hereditary or a cultural placebo enforced by the strange magic of the Surreal itself is unknown.

Geographic Distribution