City of Shadows
| City of Shadows | |
|---|---|
 | |
| History | |
| Founded on | Lat-Nam, Terisiare, Dominaria |
| Active | From the earliest part of the Dark Age |
| Status | Became part of the School of the Unseen |
| Membership | |
| Founded by | Drafna and other members of the Third Path |
| Notable members | Sima, Jodah, Shannan |
| Races | Humans |
| Associated Colors | |
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The City of Shadows was a hidden settlement and school of magic-users in the Dark Age on the western part of Terisiare on the plane Dominaria, the heir of the fallen College of Lat-Nam and the scattered Third Path.[1]
History
Origin
The origin of the City of Shadows is mysterious - who built it or when they did so is not known to history. Although there is no mention of the city during the Brothers' War, its location in remote, unnamed mountains near the western shore of Terisiare would isolate it from the action of the war.
After the Fall of the College of Lat-Nam, Drafna and other surviving members of the Third Path, who were not willing to give up the concept of a magic school, while also seeing the need to hide from the Church of Tal and its ilk, founded the City of Shadows. The school began in secrecy, hidden from the world and repelling would-be invaders through magical means. It grew over the years but remained a city of shadows. On occasion, members of the group passed into the wider continent of Terisiare, looking for old artifacts from the time of the Brothers' War, knowledge of lost spells, and talented spellcasting individuals. This is how Sima, a member of the school, met her future husband Jodah.[1]
Rivalry
The City of Shadows became a counterpoint to the Conclave of Mages, which was located in the northern part of the continent. It attracted mages of various backgrounds, but like the College of Lat-Nam before it, its island location led to a primary focus on the use of blue mana. It was seen as a much more orderly and scholarly school in comparison to the Conclave, which had a much less hierarchical and more disorganized system of learning. After the fall of the Conclave at the hands of Lord Ith, the surviving mages, including Jodah and Shannan all traveled to the City of Shadows, making it the sole remaining school of magic on Terisiare.[1]
School of the Unseen
Although the school, eventually adapting the term the School of the Unseen, survived through the Dark Age undetected by the Church of Tal,[1] the oncoming Ice Age would send a giant spur of ice through the strait of Lat-Nam, forcing the mages to move the School of the Unseen to a new location, south and west of the original landmass of Lat-Nam, beyond the ice.[2][3]
Dark Legacy
 | This section may be ignored or contradicted by later stories. |
At some point during the Dark Age, the City of Shadows was visited by the scholar Vervamon, his captain Maeveen O'Donagh, her lieutenants Quopomma and Iro, as well as the sorcerer Coernn and the rest of his men and Maeveen's soldiers. The city at that time appeared as a dark and foreboding place, apparently abandoned. At night, the traveling party had wild, prophetic dreams, most of which were terrifying and insanity-causing, while a few like Vervamon and Quopomma had positive dreams. The party abandoned the city the next day.
Canonicity of the city's location
The Dark Legacy is an early story, and its representation may no longer be canon. It is known that the City of Shadows had many ways of hiding from the merciless light of the Church of Tal, and the terrible dreams and foreboding appearance of the city may well have been magical means for the city's inhabitants to deter intruders. However, the city's location seems to be directly contradicted in the canon stories the Gathering Dark and the Eternal Ice. These two stories both state that the City of Shadows was located in Lat-Nam, while the Dark Legacy story places the City of Shadows in some unnamed mountains a few days inland from the northwestern coast of Terisiare, on the other side of the Lat-Nam straits. Either there were two different entities named the City of Shadows, or the city was magically moved across the Lat-Nam Straits at some point during the Dark Age (after Vervamon's visit but before Sima's lifetime) - or it may simply be that the location of the city has been effectively retconned.
In-game references
- Represented in: