Tenebrous

Tenebrous, The Shadow That Was

Tenebrous, once a powerful demon prince, offers dominion over darkness and death.

Legend: The great demon lord Orcus has long sought divinity. Some years ago, for a brief period, he actually attained it. Slain and resurrected by a surge of negative energy, the corpulent demon arose as the gaunt Tenebrous, a god of darkness and undeath. For a time he traveled the planes in this form, slaying other gods in his quest to gain more power. His ultimate goal was to reincarnate himself yet again because he wished to be a god as Orcus, not Tenebrous. Some say he was thwarted by a band of mortal heroes, but whatever the cause, his grand plan failed. Orcus did indeed rise again, but as the demon prince he once was, not as a god. True divinity can never fade completely. The tatters of godly power that Orcus shed remained intact. Less than a god but still divine, this bit of essence drifted in the void between planes until it once more coalesced into a bitter sentience. Thus, Tenebrous yet exists as a pale reflection of what he once was, a shadow of a shadow.

Special Requirement: You must draw Tenebrous’s seal at night or in an area of deep shadow with little or no daylight exposure.

Manifestation: Upon completion of the rite to summon Tenebrous, the summoner’s shadow shifts to fall across the seal. Even if the rite occurs in complete darkness, the shadow is visible as a darker spot in the blackness. Once the shadow crosses into the seal, an inky humanoid form—impossibly gaunt, holding its limbs at disjointed angles—rises from it. The voice of Tenebrous is a whisper in the wind, almost impossible to hear, yet laden with unmistakable meaning.

Sign: You seem to be standing in shadow even on the brightest day. Furthermore, your own shadow never extends more than a few feet from your body, even if the ambient light suggests that it should be much longer. This effect does not grant you concealment.

Influence: While influenced by Tenebrous, you are filled with a sense of detachment and an aching feeling of loss and abandonment. Tenebrous requires that you never be the first to act in combat. If your initiative check result is the highest, you must delay until someone else takes a turn.

Granted Abilities: Tenebrous grants you power over undead and shadows. He gives you the ability to chill your foes.

Deeper Darkness: You can cloak an area in shadows as though using the deeper darkness spell (caster level equals your effective binder level), with the following exceptions. The effect is always centered on you, it has an unlimited duration, and you can shift the range of the emanation (within the normal range) up or down 10 feet as a move action. You can suppress or activate this ability as a standard action.

See in Darkness: You can see perfectly through darkness of any kind, even that created by a deeper darkness spell (or your deeper darkness ability).

Touch of the Void: As a swift action, you can charge a melee attack or melee touch attack with cold energy. Your next melee attack deals an extra 1d8 points of cold damage, plus 1d8 points of cold damage for every four effective binder levels beyond 7th that you possess. When you attain an effective binder level of 11th, you can charge your weapon for an entire round. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Turn/Rebuke Undead: You can turn or rebuke undead as a cleric of your effective binder level. As with a cleric, you turn if you are good and rebuke if you are evil. If you are neutral, you choose whether to turn or rebuke upon binding with Tenebrous and cannot later change your mind. If you have the ability to turn or rebuke undead from other classes, your levels in those classes stack with your effective binder level for the purpose of determining your turning ability. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Vessel of Emptiness: You can use the flicker shadow magic mystery (see page 146) as a supernatural ability once per day. At 13th level, you can use this ability two times per day, and at 19th level, you can use it three times per day.