Fane of Shadows

The Fane of Shadows is a temple that journeys the worlds on the currents of the secret Weave, in the fictional setting of the Forgotten Realms campaign in Dungeons & Dragons. The place has many names in many tongues, and is also known as the Temple of Night or the Umbral Shrine. Created by Shar, it serves as many dark gods of many worlds, and as a gift of the god of shadows to their faithful—a sanctuary that journeys through time and worlds. It also serves as a bastion/armory for the servants of the twilight. It is located within the Lightless Lake (The Moonmere) in the Gulthmere Forest, but it only materializes during a certain date at midnight, and stays only temporarily in each world for a short time. Upon its arrival onto Toril, the Fane appeared within the depths of the Lightless Lake in a diffuse, ochre light. The entirety of the temple is situated on an invisible platform encapsulated within a dome of air. The architecture includes black-veined columns, graceful arches, and thick pillars all crafted from marble, basalt, obsidian, or ebony. The Fane of Shadows is guarded by a host of shadows inside the courtyard area. They are only hostile to those not subservient to shadow. The courtyard contains a statue garden of hundreds of obsidian sculptures, all of them depicting the innumerable world's gods of shadow. Statues of Toril's deities of night and shadow, Shar and Mask, are among the collection. Beyond its doors it contains a long, wide hallway, the Grand Hall, filled with shadows and bathed in a low, green light. Painting and mosaics line the walls, while tables and pedestals are hidden inside alcoves along it. These alcoves usually hold an item of great power, one of the many gifts of shadow found within. Only one gift may be taken from the Fane of Shadows. A husky, female voice tries to persuade its guests in a perceived, familiar tongue into taking an item of power. The Grand Hall also contains the caretaker of the temple, who materializes from the shadows. He is an elderly man, with solid black eyes, and his duty is to serve his calling into the shadow. The hallway ends at a pair of double doors, which leads into the inner sanctum. The inner sanctum contains a skydome ceiling of black encrusted in gems, representing the night sky of the world in which it currently exists in. The inner sanctum itself has a polished slate floor inlaid with an amethyst border, and in its center lies a black sphere bordered in purple, Shar's symbol. A horsehoe-shaped altar lies in the center of the symbol on some kind of black crystalline substance, under an area of ceiling of the blackest black, depicting Shar's moon. It is underneath this symbol where a host receives the transforming energy of the greatest gifts offered by the Shadow Weave: the transformation into a shade. Black curtains line the walls of the inner sanctum, as well as a mosaic of the Weave Tap. Entrance into the Fane of Shadows requires either being adept in the Shadow Weave, or reverence to a god or goddess of shadow.

As seen in Paul S. Kemp's book, Twilight Falling, Erevis Cale is on a mission to stop the shadow adept, Vraggen, from taking the greatest gift from the Fane of Shadows and transforming into a shade. Vraggen's band of members (Azriim, Serrin, Dolgan) betray their comrade and kill him before the transformation into a shade occurs. Instead, they find and take the Weave Tap, a sapling with smooth, black bark, few gray leaves, and three oval, silver fruits, hidden behind the mosaic replica. Erevis Cale steps onto the altar to transform into a shade in order to prevent his death. In doing so, he gains the powers of immortality, regeneration, and agelessness. He also receives a tome of history and knowledge pertaining to his calling from the caretaker.