D&D General Elves are to the Feywild as ______ are to the Shadowfell?

[Guang]

Thank you for all of the replies! There are so many things I hadn't thought of.

Which cosmology is your game using, @Guang ?

I do have some definite ideas about the plane of shadow. Less afterlife and more dreary dark reflection, with people going about their lives as best they can despite the darkness, despair, and monsters telling them what to do.

Birthright Halflings

Halflings seem to be harmless, good-natured folk, but they harbor hidden secrets. Most people assume that the name halfling refers to their stature, but only a handful know the truth. Halflings were once creatures who could pass freely between Aebrynis and the Spirit World.....Halflings can pierce the barrier that separates Cerilia from the Shadow Land by concentrating. This allows them to detect evil, detect undead, or detect necromantic magic with a high degree of reliability. Exceptional halflings can develop this ability to allow them to enter and exit the shadow world in places where the barriers between worlds are thin. Halflings avoid revealing these abilities to people they don't trust.

I love the idea! Not for halflings though. Once halflings are mostly cannibal lifeshapers, or dino-riders, or world-stepping masters of shadow, it's really hard to get the down-to-earth community of the Shire feel back again. (Which I'd like to keep some of) I'm also imagining how terrifying Gollum would be if he could reappear suddenly after disappearing into a world of shadow.

I could imagine some "civilized" ghouls who trade for "food" with a city above them. And as to the planar connection isn't that where their undead qualities come from?

Dhamfir works well too.

Wraiths

Vryloka, the kin you are looking for is the Vryloka!

"Have you been working out?" might be thr scariest thing my undead neighbor might say to me. Working out how graveyards work when they are also larders and restaurants brings many changes to society as well. Same problem as with vampires.

Except for the vampire touched, dhampir, vryloka. Great stories can be told of individuals from these ancestries, but not sure I want a half dozen families of Blades to be a normal neighborhood to find in each new town.

Descended from humans trapped on the Shadow Plane, fetchlings are creatures of darkness and light intertwined.

I had forgotten about Fetchlings. Paizo's answer to Shadar-Kai, without the piercings and sado-masochism to keep from fading away. I really like what they've done with them in PF2e/lost omens. They seemed far too niche in the first edition, but now - a few slight changes, and you have a functioning society with a reason for being in the Prime Material, not too scary if a few families move into town, while being of value when it comes to recognizing and knowing how to deal with things of Shadow.

 

[Tonguez]

Birthright Halflings

Halflings seem to be harmless, good-natured folk, but they harbor hidden secrets. Most people assume that the name halfling refers to their stature, but only a handful know the truth. Halflings were once creatures who could pass freely between Aebrynis and the Spirit World. In the early years of the Anuire Empire a darkness arose in the Spirit World (now called the Shadow World) and halflings made Aebrynis their permanent home.

Cerilian halflings stand about 3'6" tall and resemble small humans. They tend to be plump, and are fond of creature comforts. Halflings can pierce the barrier that separates Cerilia from the Shadow Land by concentrating. This allows them to detect evil, detect undead, or detect necromantic magic with a high degree of reliability. Exceptional halflings can develop this ability to allow them to enter and exit the shadow world in places where the barriers between worlds are thin. Halflings avoid revealing these abilities to people they don't trust.

Yes, Cerilian halflings are my favourite halflings

 

[MNblockhead]

"Have you been working out?" might be thr scariest thing my undead neighbor might say to me. Working out how graveyards work when they are also larders and restaurants brings many changes to society as well. Same problem as with vampires.

Yeah, in many D&D settings where undead are relatively common--at least to the point where many people have witnessed them and where most people accept and fear their existence, I would think cremation would be the dominant way those fantasy cultures would dispose of their dead.

 

[Voadam]

Yeah, in many D&D settings where undead are relatively common--at least to the point where many people have witnessed them and where most people accept and fear their existence, I would think cremation would be the dominant way those fantasy cultures would dispose of their dead.

That might depend, do you prefer to defend against walking corpses or incorporeal undead? Is holy ground burial a better all around deterrent to undead animation? Cremation gets rid of most bodies, but there are a lot of incorporeal undead who do not need bodies and might rise because of the lack of one.

Also, does the world have ash wraiths?

"Vengeful undead whose bodies were cremated against their wishes, ash wraiths despise the living and seek to immolate those who wronged them." (d20 Urban Arcana)

 

[Werehamster]

That might depend, do you prefer to defend against walking corpses or incorporeal undead? Is holy ground burial a better all around deterrent to undead animation? Cremation gets rid of most bodies, but there are a lot of incorporeal undead who do not need bodies and might rise because of the lack of one.

Also, does the world have ash wraiths?

"Vengeful undead whose bodies were cremated against their wishes, ash wraiths despise the living and seek to immolate those who wronged them." (d20 Urban Arcana)

I haven't

Elves (and their various relations) can serve a Prime Material community as a natural bridge to the Feywild, both attracting otherplanar threats and having wisdom on how to deal with them. At least that's one way of looking at how a contingent of elves (or Eladrin, or even half-elves) living in an "elven quarter" might change a town.

Is there an ancestry (in any edition) that might naturally fall into a similar role when it comes to the Shadowfell? Vampires would seem a logical choice, as would Shadar-Kai, but neither is easily made part of a community (Welcome to Vampire town! Those of you with rare bloodtypes may want to apply this tincture of garlic before entering).
Help pls?

I haven't read every single reply so my apologies if this is redundant, but in place of a race you may want to consider an organization.

I've been really working on connecting the Prime Material Plane with Shadowfell over the last few days and have been reading as much as I can on it...including the thread discussing a potential ongoing war between Vecna and The Raven Queen. I have two organizations in my campaign that fit as a Prime Material arm of each side of the war. The Brokerage (one of the organizations) transacts in the currency of information and secrets, and are present in just about every town larger than the smallest villages. They are the agents of the Prime Material plane assisting The Raven Queen and her Shadar-Kai agents in keeping the steady influx of memories/secrets flowing. Because of their close affiliation with Shadar-Kai and The Raven Queen, it can easily put them in a position of authority on the Shadowfell and it's denizens.

This can also be a way to get the party into the Shadowfell with the aid of either the organization or the Shadar-Kai. There are a myriad of reasons to have the party need to go there...and this opens a lot of ways to make that happen.

Just something I've been working on, and will be fleshing out over the coming weeks.

 

[Guang]

.....but in place of a race you may want to consider an organization.

I've been really working on connecting the Prime Material Plane with Shadowfell over the last few days and have been reading as much as I can on it...including the thread discussing a potential ongoing war between Vecna and The Raven Queen.

I like your Prime Material branches of each side of the war idea. Lots of plot hooks.

My own Shadowfell is somewhat......different, so needed an ancestry rather than an organization.

 

[Steven K]

I like your Prime Material branches of each side of the war idea. Lots of plot hooks.

My own Shadowfell is somewhat......different, so needed an ancestry rather than an organization.

How many do you need? If it's just a handful of NPCs you could make a couple of different family blood lines associated with the Shadowfell in some way, have some secret society / organisation / clan / tribe / noble house aesthetics for all or each group.