The following quote is taking from The Divine Comedy.
Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain: Through me among the people lost for aye. Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd: To rear me was the task of power divine, Supremest wisdom, and primeval love. Before me things create were none, save things; Eternal, and eternal I endure. All hope abandon ye who enter here.'
Do you think that quote adequately describes the Shadowfell? I want to do something sneaky in my shared world, and give our players a single page from a very old book, with the above quote being the only thing that is legible on it, along with a depiction an enormous hall that sucks in all light and life. Crushing and tormenting it. Twisting it into something far more base and monstrous as it moves through the gates at the end of the great long hall of ancient black stone, and into the Shadowfell. I don't want to tell the players that it refers to the Shadowfell; however, I want them to work it out from scattered clues and bits of lore, and when they Google it and find out that it is a reference to the gates of hell from; The Divine Comedy, I want them to think that it refers to that place.
I want them to believe right up until the very end when they step through the gate to fight the final boss and realise that they are not in Hell, but the Shadowfell.
So, what do you guys think, does this quote resonate with a description of the Shadowfell, or could it only be hell in all its glory?
I think I'd draw the conclusion it was to do with the 9 hells more than the shadowfell.
I might go for somehting like this (The Spirits of the Dead by Edger Allen Poe):
Thy soul shall find itself alone 'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone -- Not one, of all the crowd, to pry Into thine hour of secrecy: Be silent in that solitude Which is not loneliness -- for then The spirits of the dead who stood In life before thee are again In death around thee -- and their will Shall then overshadow thee: be still.
For the night -- tho' clear -- shall frown -- And the stars shall look not down, From their high thrones in the Heaven, With light like Hope to mortals given -- But their red orbs, without beam, To thy weariness shall seem As a burning and a fever Which would cling to thee for ever :
Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish -- Now are visions ne'er to vanish -- From thy spirit shall they pass No more -- like dew-drop from the grass:
The breeze -- the breath of God -- is still -- And the mist upon the hill Shadowy -- shadowy -- yet unbroken, Is a symbol and a token -- How it hangs upon the trees, A mystery of mysteries! --
The following quote is taking from The Divine Comedy.
Do you think that quote adequately describes the Shadowfell? I want to do something sneaky in my shared world, and give our players a single page from a very old book, with the above quote being the only thing that is legible on it, along with a depiction an enormous hall that sucks in all light and life. Crushing and tormenting it. Twisting it into something far more base and monstrous as it moves through the gates at the end of the great long hall of ancient black stone, and into the Shadowfell. I don't want to tell the players that it refers to the Shadowfell; however, I want them to work it out from scattered clues and bits of lore, and when they Google it and find out that it is a reference to the gates of hell from; The Divine Comedy, I want them to think that it refers to that place.
I want them to believe right up until the very end when they step through the gate to fight the final boss and realise that they are not in Hell, but the Shadowfell.
So, what do you guys think, does this quote resonate with a description of the Shadowfell, or could it only be hell in all its glory?
Cheers
Foxes
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I think I'd draw the conclusion it was to do with the 9 hells more than the shadowfell.
I might go for somehting like this (The Spirits of the Dead by Edger Allen Poe):
Thy soul shall find itself alone
'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone --
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy:
Be silent in that solitude
Which is not loneliness -- for then
The spirits of the dead who stood
In life before thee are again
In death around thee -- and their will
Shall then overshadow thee: be still.
For the night -- tho' clear -- shall frown --
And the stars shall look not down,
From their high thrones in the Heaven,
With light like Hope to mortals given --
But their red orbs, without beam,
To thy weariness shall seem
As a burning and a fever
Which would cling to thee for ever :
Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish --
Now are visions ne'er to vanish --
From thy spirit shall they pass
No more -- like dew-drop from the grass:
The breeze -- the breath of God -- is still --
And the mist upon the hill
Shadowy -- shadowy -- yet unbroken,
Is a symbol and a token --
How it hangs upon the trees,
A mystery of mysteries! --