There was once an Absolute Being that created two powerful races, the Rulers, and the Monarchs. The Rulers were creatures of creation, the Monarchs were creatures of destruction. Due to their natures, they waged war on each other for centuries. Eventually, With the destruction of the last Monarch, the Rulers found out that the Absolute Being had made the Rulers and Monarchs to fight each other for his own amusement. Angered and filled with grief from the gruesome war, the Rulers banded together and killed the Absolute Being. Only one out of the Rulers was still loyal to the Absolute Being and tried to protect it against the angered Rulers. Unfortunately despite his effort, he was outnumbered and killed.

While within the shadowy void of death this Ruler realized that the Absolute Being had planted a fragment inside of it's most faithful servant, as a contingency for when everything went wrong. A powerful and terrifying power capable of ending everything. True power over Death. Realizing that his faith and sacrifice had been nothing more than a final pawn for the Absolute Being game and amusement was too much. With this final betrayal, the rulers mind shattered and was corrupted; becoming the first Shadow Monarch. Consumed by the fragment and corrupted, he went out to kill the Rulers who had betrayed the Absolute Being. After succeeding, he wandered death for eternity until drawn to a mortal connected to death. Appearing before them he passed his power to a mortal to do with as they saw fit before finally dispersing within death. YOU are that Mortal.

Character Creation

As you shape your character into a Shadow Monarch, contemplate the mysterious origins of your newfound powers and the enigmatic void that resides within you. Unaware of the Absolute Being's manipulations or the Rulers' existence, your mortal self grapples with the dark forces that have chosen you as their vessel. Are you driven by an innate sense of curiosity, seeking to understand and harness the shadowy powers within, or are you thrust into a destiny you never asked for?

QUICK BUILD

To swiftly embody the essence of a Shadow Monarch, prioritize Dexterity as your highest ability score. This enhances your agility and stealth, because you are a general that fights with his shadows. Intelligence should follow, reflecting the arcane nature of your powers. As third highest should be strength. Choose as Race the Variant Human option. Allocate the Variant Human feat to Dual Wielder, showcasing your proficiency in wielding two weapons simultaneously. Apply the feat's Ability Score Increase of +1 to Dexterity and +1 to Intelligence, further enhancing your finesse and mastery over the arcane. These choices amplify your capacity to manipulate shadows and command the forces of life and death with unparalleled skill. Secondly choose the Haunted One background.

Immense Strenght

You gain this feature at lvl 3.
The Shadows-Powers within you empowers your Strenght and makes it difficult to overpower you with strenght.
You gain proficiency of Strenght Saving Throws and Strenght Attacks

Immense Speed

You gain this feature at lvl 3.
The Power of Shadows inside you boost your speed extremly.
You gain 10 feet of movement.

On lvl 9, it increases again with 5 feet. Same on lvl 13 and 17.

Immense Speed lvl 1

lvl 1 = +10 feet walking speed

Immense Speed lvl 2

lvl 2 = +15 feet walking speed

Immense Speed lvl 3

lvl 3 = +20 feet walking speed

Immense Speed lvl MAX

lvl MAX = +25 feet walking speed

Shadow Exttraction

Starting at 3nd level, you can resurrect the shadows of fallen creatures and keep them as soldiers to fight under your control. As an action, you can attempt to extract the shadow of a creature within 30 feet of you that has been dead for no longer than a day, and that is not a construct or inorganic creature. Each Soul you extract will become a soldier that you can control. The shape of the summoned creature is the same as when they were alive, but the color is ink black with shadowy wisps rising from its body, and eyes that glow with eldritch blue light. Their base HP and armor class will be represented in the chart below. The attack of your summon is based on the summons unrestricted attack from when it lived. Your summon has any abilities it had while it lived and cannot be turned against you.

Using your action, you can extract the soul of the creature, within a day of its death, you can only successfully extract a soul twice per long rest.

The way to extract a soul is by rolling based on the creature's CR rating relative to your level + 5. This will be the DC.

Roll a d20 and add your Intelligence modifier for the Check.

You have 3 attempts when extracting a soul if you fail the first attempt the dc for the next roll increases by 5 and the attempt after increases by 10 instead of 5. If you fail the third attempt you gain 1 level of exhaustion. You cannot extract the soul of a creature who's CR rating is three times greater than your level. Additionally, you cannot extract the souls of anything that would have either a god or entity protecting their souls (I.E warlocks who have made pacts with their patrons or loyal clerics and paladins following the will of their god).

After the extraction a shadow roll 1d100(00-99) to decide the level of the shadow. If you wish to level up a shadow without sharing battle experience, you must sacrifice one shadow per level. The higher level the sacrifice, the more exp the shadow gains.

Shadows of grand marshal level can keep original armor class if it is higher than 13.
Shadows of general rank and up are immune to non-magical damage. 
Shadows of commander rank and up can communicate with you.
Shadows of general rank and up can communicate with others.
Shadows of elite knight rank and downwards have an intlligence and wisdom stat of 1.
The AC can be raised max to 20, except the AC was already 20 or higher. Then the AC stays the same whatever rank it achieves.
1-19=1st, 20-40=2nd, 41-49=3rd, 50-59=4th, 60-68=5th, 69-75=6th, 76-81=7th, 82-86=8th, 87-91=9th, 92-96=10th, 97-100=11th.

oacwwa = original armor class when was alive

Grades	HP	Armor Class
1st-Normal	25% of original	oacwwa
2nd-Infantry	35% of original	oacwwa
3rd-Elite	50% of original	oacwwa
4th-Knight	60% of original	oacwwa + 1
5th-Elite Knight	75% of original	oacwwa  + 1
6th-Commander	85% of original	oacwwa  + 1
7th-Colonel	100% of original	oacwwa  + 2
8th-General	110% of original	oacwwa  + 2
9th-Major General	125% of original	oacwwa  + 3
10th-Marshal	135% of original	oacwwa  + 3
11th-Grand Marshal	150% of original	oacwwa  + 4

Shadow Preservation

You can store a number of soldiers equal to to 1.5 times your level rounded down. Once extracted the soul will immediately be stored in your shadow, if there is no room you must choose to release a stored soldier into smoke or forfeit the new soul. 

You can only preserve the shadows you got per Shadow Extraction. You can add the shadows in your inventory as custom item with the needed Informations in the description: Rank(Look at Shadow Extraction), Race, HP, Armor Class, Stats(when alive and the actual(intelligence and wisdom)), Immunities, weapon(used while alive) and cantrips(used while alive).

Shadow Summon

You gain this feature at lvl 3.
You can summon a shadow from the inventory as an action.

Its innitiative is at the end of the Summoners Turn. It follows all orders.

The Shadow has the same abilities like it was alive, except leveled spells. The shadow can only use Cantrips.

When the character is incapitated or dead, the shadow dissappears completly.

When being lvl 5 it increases to 2 Shadows per summon. At lvl 10 to 3 Shadows and at lvl 15 to 4 Shadows.

Shadow Summon

You can summon a shadow from the inventory as an action.

Its innitiative is at the end of the Summoners Turn. It follows all orders.

The Shadow has the same abilities like it was alive, except leveled spells. The shadow can only use Cantrips.

When the character is incapitated or dead, the shadow dissappears back to the inventory.

When being lvl 5 it increases to 2 Shadows per summon. At lvl 10 to 3 Shadows and at lvl 15 to 4 Shadows.

Bloodlust

You gain this feature at lvl 3.
You can use it 3 Times per Longrest. The Duration is 2 minutes.
Everyone that starts his turn inside10 feet of you or walkes into that radius needs to make an Charisma Saving Throw of DC 10 + CHA modifier.
When failing you will have the status fear against this character.

Shadow Armor Creation

You gain this feature at lvl 3.
By concentrating your powers around yourself, you can generate jet-black armor onto his body for 2 minutes.
- You get +3 on your AC twice per long rest.
- You get non magical attack resistance.
- You get the weakness against radiant damage

You can use this spell twice per long rest.

Soldier Enhancement

 You gain this feature at lvl 3.

If you wish to level up a shadow , you must sacrifice one shadow per level of the same grade or higher.

Grades	HP	Armor Class
1st-Normal	25% of original	10
2nd-Infantry	35% of original	11
3rd-Elite	50% of original	12
4th-Knight	60% of original	13
5th-Elite Knight	75% of original	14
6th-Commander	85% of original	15
7th-Colonel	100% of original	16
8th-General	110% of original	17
9th-Major General	125% of original	18
10th-Marshal	135% of original	19
11th-Grand Marshal	150% of original	20

 

Quicksilver

You gain this feature at lvl 9.
For 1 Minute your walking speed will be increased by a third and when you dont provoke any opportunity attacks.
You can use this only once per Long Rest.

Detoxification

You gain this feature at lvl 9.
You get immunity towards any poison and being poisoned.

Dominator's Touch

You gain this feature at lvl 9.
As an bonus action you can attract an item up to the weight 80 lbs to your hands. 

Shadow Exchange

You gain this feature at lvl 13.

As an bonus action you can exchange position with an shadow you control. You can use this twice a long rest.

Monarch's Domain

You gain this feature at lvl 13.

All land in an radius of 50 feet around you gets covered in shadows and it appears pitch black. All shadows within this land get following features:
- +2 on attack throws
- +2 on saving throws
- 1d4 recieving damage reduction
- 1d4 more doing more damage
- the shadows cannot be destroyed eternally anymore for the duration of this feature. (Can still die, but not for eternal.)
- after the shadow hits 0 hitpoints, you add it to the inventory. It cant be summoned till the next long rest is completed.

You can use this domain once per day.

Acausality

Because of the long exposure to the soul of deads and using th epower of death you now transcended time.
You cant die of old age anymore.

Astralization

You gain this feature at lvl 17.
You can use this feature once per 2 weeks.

You transform yourself for 2 minutes into a true monarch. The forms looks like shown in the picture downwards.
This form stay activated as long as you make an melee attack on an enemy.

In this form you the following features:

- immunity against non-magical attacks
- immunity against necromatic damage
- weakness against radiant damage
- damage reduction of 1d8
- damage output increase of 1d8
- your size increases to 16 ft and your size now is huge
- you can fly up to 5 feat off the ground.
- the shadows cannot be destroyed eternally anymore for the duration of this feature. (Can still die, but not for eternal.)
- after the shadow hits 0 hitpoints, you add it to the inventory. It cant be summoned till the next long rest is completed.