Idyllic whimsy and sinister shadows exist side by side in the fey realm of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor. This realm consists of opposing lands that twist together, their borders constantly in flux.
The land of Lorwyn teems with colorful creeks, bright meadows, verdant forests, and gentle hills. In its midst, denizens build cozy villages on endless summer days. Conversely, the land of Shadowmoor is steeped in foggy moors, jagged cliffs, treacherous bogs, and skeletal forests. Here, creatures cling to life within an oppressive gloom.
The magic of each land also influences its inhabitants, imparting aspects either playful or grim to creatures' appearances, personalities, and even memories. Those who hail from the realm of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor traverse it only at their own peril, risking the collapse of their own selves when they enter the opposing land.
Great adventure can still be found throughout Lorwyn-Shadowmoor. To visitors, the realm is an incredible place, where humans are alien and native species' outlooks are strange. The good-natured pranks of Lorwyn's bubbly creatures often ensnare visitors, while the unpredictable moods of Shadowmoor denizens can lead to violence.
A jaunt into the realm of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor might lead adventurers to hobnob with whimsical fairies, learn alchemy from goblin-like boggarts, or explore enlightenment with genasi-like flamekin. The risks to adventurers are real, but any foray into this realm could lead to the discovery of spectacular treasure not found elsewhere. The options for adventure here are limitless.
Using This Supplement
This product includes the tools you need to play Dungeons & Dragons adventures set in the realm of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor.
This introduction gives an overview of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor, details key features, and provides guidance on adventuring here. Although this introduction and chapter 1 are suitable for all players' eyes, the remainder of this supplement is intended for Dungeon Masters only.
The following is included:
1 provides tools for creating a character who originates from Lorwyn or Shadowmoor.
2 presents a gazetteer of locations in Lorwyn and Shadowmoor, along with adventure seeds tied to these places.
3 presents stat blocks for several creatures found in the realm of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor.
4 includes a map and adventures set in Lorwyn's Burrenton, a village established by the halfling-like kithkin.
The Idyllic Fields of Lorwyn
Every locale in Lorwyn teems with life and vivid colors. Eternal day reigns here; the sun moves across the sky from one horizon to the next, its light forever visible. Outside areas are always bathed in Bright Light.
Lives of Whimsy and Wandering
Lorwyn is home to elves, goblin-like boggarts, merfolk-like merrow, halfling-like kithkin, and genasi-like flamekin and rimekin. These peoples live peacefully in communities spread across the countryside, though old grudges and conflicts occasionally come to a head. (For more about the peoples of Lorwyn, see 1.)
Some denizens of Lorwyn prefer a nomadic life. Minute faeries flit from village to village causing mischief, while ancient treefolk travel to share their wisdom. Enormous giants seek new frontiers to explore, and friendly changelings, who can take on any guise, are considered harbingers of good luck. Meanwhile, unfathomable beings called incarnations of nature combine the forms of many creatures to embody abstract concepts. (See 3 for more about the creatures that inhabit Lorwyn.)
Lorwyn Denizen Characteristics
Spending significant time in Lorwyn magically imbues people with certain physical, mental, and personality traits. Lorwyn residents often sport bright-tinted hair or deep-hued eyes, and most prefer colorful clothing. Lorwyn's people furthermore tend toward optimism and look back on memories through a positive lens. Their personalities are capricious, playful, and devoid of malice.
Eirdu, Embodiment of the Sun
One of the most remarkable creatures in Lorwyn is Eirdu, a massive, pegasus-like being with six legs, a beaked head, and crimson fur that flows like flames from its mane and wings. The mysterious Eirdu avoids interactions with Lorwyn's people, though locals frequently witness Eirdu in flight, trailing the sun across the sky.
Most in Lorwyn consider Eirdu a spiritual symbol embodying the essence of their land. Some worship Eirdu as a god, believing that showing reverence to the magnificent creature brings a rejuvenating, lingering sense of contentment. Eirdu's adherents invoke its blessings with jingling bells and dancing feet. They believe that where there is joy, there is the warmth of the sun. To represent Eirdu in your game, use the Ancient Gold Dragon stat block.
The Sinister Wilds of Shadowmoor
Shadowmoor is a gloomy reflection of Lorwyn. Conditions are harsh, but despite the darkness and danger, its wilderness brims with life.
Perpetual night hangs over the realm; the moon crosses the horizon but never sets. Shadowmoor's lunar cycle is monthly, reflecting most Material Plane moons. Outside areas are in Dim Light, except during a new moon, when they are in Darkness.
Chaos Reigns
Shadowmoor is a place of chaos wholly suffused with wild magic. The land is ever shifting, with entire forests, moors, and bogs prone to swapping locations. As a result, no map remains up to date for long.
At your discretion, anywhere in Shadowmoor might be a wild magic zone (see the Dungeon Master's Guide ).
Insular and Suspicious Outlooks
Like in Lorwyn, Shadowmoor residents include elves, boggarts, merrow, kithkin, flamekin, and rimekin. However, these individuals tend to be more suspicious and insular than their Lorwyn counterparts. (For more about the peoples of Shadowmoor, see 1.)
Shadowmoor inhabitants are also more xenophobic than those of Lorwyn, and violent conflicts are more common. Chaotic, donkey-headed noggles steal from anyone they meet. Faeries, treefolk, and giants roam the land, but are generally crueler than their Lorwyn kin. Shadowmoor's wilderness is stalked by frightful creatures, including scarecrows, mimics, and horrifying incarnations of abstract ideas come to life. (For more about the monsters found in Shadowmoor, see 3.)
Shadowmoor Denizen Characteristics
Like Lorwyn, Shadowmoor magically influences those who spend significant time here. Residents tend toward desaturated colors. Their hair might be black, silver, or white, and their eyes could be a twilight hue. Many inhabitants prefer clothing in shades of black, deep blue, or rich purple. Shadowmoor denizens often see life through a stark lens of realism and even pessimism. They reflect on the past with melancholy and grim acceptance. The worst intentions are generally assumed, and hostility easily blooms.
Isilu, Embodiment of the Moon
Isilu, often considered a symbol of Shadowmoor, is an enormous, dragon-like creature with six legs and wings that trail billowing, void-like plumes. Similar to its Lorwyn counterpart, Eirdu, Isilu avoids interactions with Shadowmoor's denizens. Those who look carefully might spy Isilu along Shadowmoor's horizon, its neck rising majestically to showcase a head that looks like a floating moon.
Many Shadowmoor residents worship Isilu as a god, claiming they feel Isilu's bolstering presence in calm silences and gentle chills in the air. The faithful believe Isilu provides them with wisdom they wouldn't otherwise possess. Isilu's adherents invoke its blessings with contemplation at sites marked by standing stones. They believe that where there is quiet, there is the moon's inspiration. To represent Isilu in your game, use the Ancient Black Dragon stat block.
Eclipsed Realms
The boundaries between Lorwyn and Shadowmoor are clear, either shining with brilliant light or cloaked in deep shadow. Some border regions, however, are liminal spaces known as eclipsed realms. These strange places are wrapped in iridescent, colorful fog. Day and night happen at the same time.
Eclipsed realms are bathed in an eerie, gleaming twilight that never turns to night or brightens into day. The moon and sun are overlaid near the horizon, neither moving; as a result, the land is bathed in Dim Light. Eclipsed realms range in size from a few square feet to several square miles. They are uninhabited but often contain natural features like forests, mountains, and rolling plains.
Those who travel into eclipsed realms are influenced by both Lorwyn and Shadowmoor. Travelers from Lorwyn begin to take on aspects associated with Shadowmoor and vice versa, as the effects of both lands struggle for dominance.
Becoming a Calciform Creature
The eclipsed realms might not look dangerous, but they are among the most perilous places in Lorwyn-Shadowmoor. Individuals in an eclipsed realm endure the ongoing clash of opposing magical forces. This contradiction saps travelers of emotions and eventually of their will to live. A creature that stays in eclipsed realms too long turns into a "calciform creature," or a barely living, emotionless husk who eventually gains the Petrified condition. Use this effect to establish a ticking clock for characters who linger in eclipsed realms.
At your discretion, characters who linger in eclipsed realms might lose access to their class features before they gain the Petrified condition. Once characters leave eclipsed realms, any abilities they lost are immediately restored and they no longer have the Petrified condition. Characters possessing either a Reliquary of Dawn or a Reliquary of Twilight, both described x, are immune to these effects.
Traversing Lorwyn-Shadowmoor
The borders of Lorwyn and Shadowmoor are mostly set. However, they can change for myriad unexpected reasons. Sometimes, boundary shifts are caused by notable births or deaths. Other times, boundaries shift for no reason at all.
Boundaries usually shift slowly, giving people time to pack their belongings and move before their land is subsumed. However, a sudden boundary shift can subject people, settlements, and landmasses to the transformational effects of the counterpart realm.
Transformed Lands
A boundary shift immediately changes a location's appearance and features to match its new land. A pastoral Lorwyn village nestled in lush, rolling hills might be transformed into a walled fort with spikes surrounding each dwelling. A withered, weedy field in Shadowmoor might become a meadow of bright, colorful flowers in Lorwyn.
Effects on Inhabitants
People from Lorwyn-Shadowmoor undergo an immediate change when they travel between lands. Adventurers who traverse great distances are especially likely to move from Lorwyn to Shadowmoor and vice versa.
Eventide and Morningtide
The supernatural effects of crossing from Lorwyn to Shadowmoor are collectively called Eventide, while similar effects of crossing from Shadowmoor to Lorwyn are collectively called Morningtide. Individuals native to other realms don't experience these instantaneous effects.
When a creature from Lorwyn crosses into Shadowmoor, it instantly takes on its Shadowmoor aspect, changing in both appearance and personality. The creature retains only dim, distorted memories of its time in Lorwyn. When a creature native to Shadowmoor crosses into Lorwyn, it takes on its Lorwyn aspect and its memories similarly change.
Each person's Shadowmoor and Lorwyn aspects are unique, and they typically reflect each other in opposite ways.
Preventing Transformation
Sages in the realm of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor have devised magical talismans called reliquaries to prevent the effects of Eventide and Morningtide.
Lorwyn-Shadowmoor's History
Until a few decades ago, Lorwyn-Shadowmoor existed either wholly as Lorwyn or Shadowmoor, never both simultaneously. The ruler of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor was a powerful faerie queen named Oona. Every three hundred years, an event known as the Great Aurora transformed the realm from one version to the other, shifting all lands and people into their opposing aspects. Individuals lost their memories of both the previous world and their prior existence.
Oona controlled these auroras and used the cycles to keep other species ignorant and easily controlled. Eventually, a coalition of heroes learned of Oona's malevolence and ultimately killed her. After Oona's defeat, the Lorwyn and Shadowmoor aspects of the realm clashed.
During this period of chaos, the aspects of the realm's lands and people changed erratically. Once Eirdu and Isilu came into existence, the lands slowly stabilized. Then, about two years ago, destructive, machinelike creatures called Phyrexians invaded, aiming to assimilate Lorwyn-Shadowmoor's people. The fight against the Phyrexians was bloody, but after months of intense battle, the armies of Lorwyn and guerrilla fighters of Shadowmoor prevailed and drove the invaders from the realm.
A tentative peace has since settled upon the realm. Most communities, however, are still weakened from losses suffered during the war. Heroes must arise from Lorwyn-Shadowmoor's people to help the populace navigate and prosper in this new dual reality.