Character Classes | Creatures | Deities | Playable Races
Campaign Settings: Dragonlance | Eberron (Dragonmarked Houses | Religions | Nations) | Forgotten Realms (Gods | Factions | The Legend of Drizzt) | Greyhawk (Deities) | Planescape (Factions | Races) | Ravenloft (Darklords | The Carnival | The Kargatane of Vallaki | Fraternity of Shadows | Great Families of the Core | Faiths) | Spelljammer
From the Ravenloft setting of Dungeons & Dragons, a secret society of illusionists that originated out of the University of Il Aluk in Darkon, the Fraternity may be the most educated group in all the realms about the true nature of the world they live in; only Strahd and Azalin could hope to have greater individual knowledge of the demiplane's secrets. Having noticed the broad similarities between how the world is shaped and their own illusion magics, they have become convinced that they can eventually learn how to usurp the Dark Powers and take control over the fabric of the demiplane's reality for themselves.
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Shared tropes
- Author Avatar: Like the Vallaki Kargatane, the group was developed by fans, and the characters were author avatars for the group who eventually took over as the chief producer of Ravenloft netbooks after the Kargatane dissolved. The eventual shifts in membership are reflected in the ongoing metaplot of the netbooks.
- Fantastic Racism: Made horrifically clear in their introductory article in the 2002 issue of the Undead Sea Scrolls; the Fraternity's beliefs essentially paint everyone who isn't a member of their society as semi-intelligent animals that they can manipulate, alter or dispose of as they see fit.
- Also, the Fraternity is strongly human-dominated and there is a significant prejudice against admitting demihuman members.
- Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Their disdain for necromantic magic is actually a reflection of the fact that, traditionally, Illusion and Necromancy were held as anathema schools to each other; in 2nd and 3rd edition, a wizard who specialised in one couldn't make use of spells from the other, though this trait was lost in 3.5.
- Also, their disdain is justified with In-Universe observations that necromancy seems to be particularly prone to attracting the attention of "The Watchers in the Dark"; in the meta-game, necromancy is the only magical school where any spell provokes a path-to-damnation-inducing Dark Powers Check upon being cast, meaning necromancers have an unfairly high chance of ultimately being turned into monsters.
- Master of Illusion: Skill with using illusion magic is absolutely essential to even be considered for membership in the Fraternity, and most of their members are full-fledged illusionists.
- Neutral Evil: Most members of the Fraternity will be this, and this is justified because their In-Universe philosophical and moral outlooks most strongly appeal to, and encourage them to recruit, individuals of this alignment.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Touched upon; the Fraternity has a very strong "old boy's club" inclination, which means they are nearly as prejudiced against female members as they are against demihuman ones. This is purely due to tradition rather than active enmity towards women.
- Small Name, Big Ego: As Meredoth points out as part of his spectacular trash-talk during his write-up, they're a bunch of piranhas chittering to themselves about how they could totally take on a Great White Shark if they wanted to. When faced with real big fish, like himself, they scamper away to lick their wounds, and their dreams of taking on the Dark Powers that have even thwarted beings more powerful than Meredoth are ludicrous. However, this trope is zigzagged in that, at the end of the day, this does not mean they aren't monstrously capable of ruining lives and hurting people in the pursuit of their overblown ambitions.
- Unequal Rites: The Fraternity abhors the use of necromancy, and renouncing its study is one of the few laws that members are expected to uphold. The reasoning is surprisingly reasonable, on practical and philosophical grounds. On the practical grounds, they have realised that necromancers seem to more readily gain the attention of "The Watchers in the Dark", making them a danger to be around, especially given the Fraternity's goals. note On a philosophical grounds, the necromancy school's perceived focus on the body is seen as running counter to the Fraternity's emphasis on the importance of the mind, which illusion and enchantment magics support.
- Likewise, the Fraternity's membership tends to look down on transmuters, and, to a lesser extent, conjurers and evokers, on philosophical grounds; these mages are seen as being too focused on gross matter rather than the subtle complexities of the mind.
Dr. Dhurban Ananda
A Sri Rajian Professor of Ancient Languages at the Great University of Tvashtri in Sri Raja, "Dhurban" was originally born to humble origins as a farmer's son named Jamal. Orphaned at a young age, he impressed a Sri Rajian professor, Shakhan Ananda, with his intelligence and skill by breaking into the man's house. Shakhan forged a birth certificate and adopted Jamal as his own, naming him Dhurban. Shakhan trained Dhurban, eventually introducing him to both illusion magic and ultimately the Fraternity of Shadows. He eventually attempted to steal the legendary Ravana's Bane, but his evil heart made him easy prey to the cursed crossbow bolt's influence; he has become increasingly less human and more rakshasa, something cemented by his murdering his stepfather and his brothers to secure the bolt for himself. Ironically, he then lost it to the monks who guard the weapon, and now he has become obsessed with retrieving it.
- Body Horror: His true form is a horrifically awkward looking amalgamation of human and feline traits.
- Cat Folk: Like all Rakshasa, he looks like a demonic humanoid tiger.
- Demonic Possession: Transposition, actually; having been exposed to the rakshasa spirit haunting Ravana's Bane, Dhurban's acts of evil are causing him to slowly transform into a rakshasa himself. He has currently reached the 4th stage, meaning he's more fiend than human now.
- Freudian Excuse: Invoked; the fact that two of his sisters were sacrificed to Kali when he was young has been deliberately brought up by Ravana's Bane in order to "explain" his growing compulsion to use it to kill Arijani.
- I'm a Humanitarian: After his transposition began, he developed an increasingly strong appetite for human flesh.
- Mark of the Supernatural: In his true form, his left eye is a sickly yellow cat's eye, whilst his right eye remains a brilliant emerald green human's eye.
- Recruited from the Gutter: He was an eight year old street beggar and petty thief when Shakhan adopted him.
- Self-Made Orphan: Murdered his adoptive step-father and his biological brothers, eating them both, in order to have Ravana's Bane all to himself.
Professor Victor Hazan
Professor of Philosophy and Numbers at the University of Richemulot. Beloved by his students because of his caustic sense of humor, willingness to poke fun at himself and his superiors, ability to keep up with youthful slang, and tendency to take the entire class with him to spend an afternoon lazily fishing and talking about philosophy about once or twice or year. These same traits infuriate his superiors at the university, of course.
- Affably Evil: He can seem like a really fun guy to hang around with, and his students consider him one of the coolest professors. He's no less malicious and wicked than the rest of the Fraternity at heart, though.
- Serious Business: Fishing. He's devoted to it, and will even blow off official work just to enjoy himself fishing.
Gabrek Krakul
A Voros exile who seeks to gain power as a wizard so he can destroy the Boyar of Vorostokov, who murdered his father.
Kristoff Lutemmi
A descendant of a cursed clan from northern Darkon who are only able to assume human form during winter, spending the rest of the year as lifeless statues. Freed from his curse by the Fraternity, he now eagerly serves their cause, even as his relative, likewise freed from the curse by ownership of the magical blade Winterdamsel, has joined the Midway Haven and seeks to oppose Kristoff's evil.
Professor Erik van Rijn
A transmuter born in the Amsterdam of the Gothic Earth and accidentally drawn into Ravenloft. He seeks immortality, and this combined with his mutual prejudice with the Fraternity's membership eventually lead him to betray them.
- Necromancer: Although his specialty is transmutational magic and alchemy, he eventually turned to necromancy in pursuit of immortality, ultimately becoming a lich as part of his betrayal of the Fraternity.
- Token Evil Teammate: Manages to be this to an already-evil organization by betraying them for greater power.
Ambrose Skully
A former barrister turned vice-driven fiend and a successful author of macabre tales and dark poetry, Ambrose is a vicious, profane, vulgar, misogynistic and racist little creep. A malevolent gnome, he is one of the few demihumans to have clawed their way into the Fraternity.
- The Alcoholic: Ambrose is addicted to a lot of vices, but glutting himself on spirits is first and foremost. It eventually reached the point where he would tap the specimen jars the Fraternity keeps in its labs to drink the pickling alcohol, at which point the Fraternity forced him to partner up with Socko in an effort to dry him out.
- Depraved Dwarf: Gnome, actually, but he still fits the spirit of the trope by being shriveled, stunted and twisted in both body and mind.
- Evil Is Petty: He relishes any excuse to exercise power over others, no matter how insignificantly or pointlessly.
- Freudian Excuse: Being a gnome in the demiplane of dread, where he suffers from Fantastic Racism, is subtly hinted as being part of the reason he's turned into such a little monster.
- Jerkass: Beyond just being evil, Ambrose is just a little rat bastard, unpleasant to be around by anyone's standards.
- Mr. Vice Guy: Ambrose is driven entirely by his many lusts and vices.
Doctor Anthony Reuland
A tiefling wizard of distant Tepestani lineage, Reuland's main interet in the Fraternity is expanding his understanding of arcane secrets and lore. Fearful his infernal progenitor may be coming to "harvest" him soon, he has become all the more driven to amass as much power as he possibly can.
Drusilla
A female vampire originally hailing from the Dublin of Gothic Earth, Drusilla was transformed by her sire because he hoped to exploit her talent for the Second Sight. Instead, her oracular magic and her vampiric curse mixed together in unexpected ways, leaving her dangerously insane. After centuries of depredations, she found herself swallowed by the mists after eviscerating a band of would-be vampire killers.
- Expy: She's pretty much a shameless rip-off of the crazy female vampire of the same name from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Insane Equals Violent: Her tendency to randomly butcher and murder people is just given the handwave that "she's crazy".
Socko
In the dark depths below the surface of the Core, a lonely caliban sought an end to its misery by inventing a companion for itself with the only medium it had; a discarded sock that it made into a sock puppet named "Socko". Brought to life as a unique form of Doll Golem by some twisted whim of the Dark Powers, Socko eventually proved so verbally abusive and cruel that its creator abandoned it, preferring endless solitude to another moment in its presence. Socko might have ended its existence there, had it not been salvaged by a beggar, which eventually led to it being retrieved by Ambrose Skully. Avoiding dissection through sheer luck, Socko has been rendered something of an honorary member of the Fraternity.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Socko is forced to let his partners live because he's pretty much helpless without a host body to puppeteer.
- Clothes Make the Maniac: Socko has the unique ability to grant powers to anyone willing to put him on their arm, but he invariably tries to seize control over their body in the process.
- Jerkass: When you can make someone who has spent their entire life alone in the darkness beneath the earth decide that they'd rather go back to being alone forever than put up with you one moment longer, you are one grade-A asshole.
- Puppeteer Parasite: His unique power allows him to steal the bodies of those who're wearing him, so long as he remains on their arm.
