The Shadows (Dakor)

Tyrian Dakor, an ascendant himself, founded the Dakoran Empire during the war against the elves. Where previously humans had little access to high magic, Tyrian gathered many together and taught them powerful magecraft, believing it would keep humanity safe and save them from the elves. However, Tyrian recognized the inherent danger in such power and felt that ascendants should not be left to rule. As such, he abandoned the throne himself and disappeared, leaving behind him a set of rules regarding how the empire should be governed. It was a merit-based society which could never be governed by any immortals or churches. One of his acts, as magecraft became so powerful, was to create an organization called the Shadows.

The Shadows were originally taken as an offshoot of the Su-Lan faith, a priesthood of assassins. Tyrian Dakor ultimately repurposed the order into a group of magehunters and Ascendant assassins, responsible for keeping the excess of the Mages in check within the Empire. Although it started as a religious group, it was slowly weaned away from the Goddess and turned into a tool of the Dakor Empire.

As they drifted further apart from the church, they ceased to be a religious order at all, now largely a secular power. However, many continue to pay homage to the Goddess of Death. The small shrine dedicated to Su-Lan in the capital city of Dakor has become something of a safe place for the Shadows, and surreptitiously they often visit to pay their respects and offer a token coin.