The Children of the Shadow are a secretive religion of folks that worship Shadow itself.

Their philosophy of life is fairly simple. Shadow is the interplay of darkness and light. It is a mixture of the two and does not exist without both of them. So it is with just about everything: without both darkness and light, one is incomplete. Balance is everything to them.

They strongly believe in the right to privacy.

The following is something players should know, but not their characters, at least in most cases.

Witches are quite common in the general membership of this religion, as they're accepted and afforded the privacy they desire. Some few are also priests.

Their priests are an interesting lot. They claim to be standing in for their god, so they dress in dark clothes and hide their faces, going to great lengths to obscure their identities. They want others to see their god, instead of the priest. It is sometimes difficult to determine if you're speaking to the same priest you did yesterday, especially since they never speak louder than a whisper. They're normally referred to as Son or Daughter of Shadow when one is trying to get their attention.

This is a lonely existence and many bear the Loner Disadvantage.

They can remove their priestly garb, speak normally and use their real name, but are then nothing more than a believer of the faith. They lose their powers for the duration, but this doesn't violate their vows if they make the change in private.

From time to time, their families determine that they are a priest, simply because it is nearly impossible to keep such a secret. Since they did not reveal their identity, but it was instead figured out, this is acceptable. They normally swear their families to secrecy. This is effectively a Secret Identity, but is subsumed into the value of their first Vow.

They require the following Disadvantages: Vow (“Never reveal identity”) [-10] and Vow (“Never speak louder than a whisper”) [-5]. If they break either vow, they immediately lose their powers until they can perform the appropriate penance.

In addition, they occasionally gain the Lifebane Disadvantage, as their bodies can become charged with powerful shadow energy.

These priests always gain the following Advantages: Dark Vision (Color Vision, +20%) and True Faith. The following are optional Advantages, but are quite common: Blessed, Healing, Magery (with the proper priestly modifiers), and Shadow Form. Others are possible, but less likely. All of these have the Divine power modifier and a -5% Pact connected to their required Disadvantages. Fanaticism can be taken and the Pact value adjusted accordingly.

They may purchase the Masked Perk (see p. PU2:14 or p. Sup30) and walk about without a full mask.

They also have Clerical Investment, without the modifiers.

The form of True Faith they use works on things that go bump in the night: undead, creatures of darkness and bogey men. It also works on trespassers, such as thieves in the midst of breaking and entering. This ability to repel trespassers has made it quite easy for the Children of the Shadow to keep their places of worship private.

The masks and veils that these priests wear function as holy symbols for any purpose that needs one.