This is part of a series of posts on about an old D&D campaign world called Malbeth.
Go to the Ruins of Malbeth: Introduction post or to The Ruins of Malbeth: Religion, Part 1: Animism
Dualism is baked into D&D and its source material from swords & sorcery fiction. It’s what gives us the original alignments: Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic, and seen expanded with the inclusion of the good-evil axis as well as the law-chaos one.
I decided to deviate some from that, and use the Feywild and the Shadowfell as the opposing forces. I explained this in the player’s guide:
The dualists of Malbeth believe that the Feywild and the Shadowfell are more than echoes of the Material Plane; they are, instead, dual forces that bring the Material Plane into existence. For Malbeth’s dualists the Feywild is a realm of perpetual dawn. They regard the Feywild as the source of potentiality and becomingness that creates existence. The Shadowfell, on the other hand, is regarded as a dark, bleak realm that is the source of corruption and destructive forces, a warped and twisted dark parody of the Material Plane. While the Feywild is free neither from death nor from evil, the Shadowfell is home to little good and the source of undeath.
The dualists of Malbeth often refer to the Feywild as the Coming Dawn and the Growing Light, and they often refer to the Shadowfell as the Never-ending Darkness, the Shadow Realm, or, simply, the Shadow.
All but a few of Malbeth’s dualists, regardless of alignment or race, worship the power of Shadowfell, but instead see it as a threat that must be resisted and contained.
Using that as the basic framework for dualism, I imagined the divine caster classes along the following lines.
- Clerics: Dualist clerics who serve the source of the Feywild may be of any alignment and choose from any of the following divine domains: knowledge, life, light, nature, tempest, trickery, and war. Dualist clerics of the Shadowfell are always evil and affiliated with the divine domain of death.
- Druids: Circle of the Moon druids are dualists who draw their power from the verdant powers of Feywild.
- Paladins, Oath of the Ancients: Oath of the Ancients paladins are dualists who draw their power form the Feywild. Because of their commitment to Light, paladins who take the Oath of the Ancients must be good. While there is no “Order of the Ancients,” paladins who take the Oath of the Ancients are trained by and affiliated with some order, be it one connected to a temple or religious order dedicated to the Feywild, an order of druids of the Circle of the Moon, a special military unit, etc.
- Paladins, Oath of Vengeance: While extremely rare, dualist paladins who take the Oath of Vengeance are lone individuals whose deep commitment to destroy the forces of the Shadowfell channels the power of the Feywild. Most such paladins start by seeking vengeance against a particular target such as a vampire, a pack of ghouls, or dark cleric or necromancer whose undead servants have brought harm to the would-be paladin. Once the initial vengeance has been meted out, an Oath of Vengeance paladin may retire, losing all divine powers (and becoming a fighter with the champion archetype if appropriate), or continue their war against the Shadowfell. Oath of Vengeance paladins are most commonly neutral or lawful neutral in alignment, although some may be neutral good, chaotic good, lawful evil, or neutral evil.
- Shadow Knights: Shadow Knights are Paladins who serve the Shadowfell. Some Shadow Knights are fallen paladins who had once sworn the Oath of the Ancients; other Shadow Knights begin seeking to serve the Shadowfell and swearing the Oath of Shadow. Shadow Knights are considered Oathbreakers. They are evil in alignment and are granted control of the undead (channel divinity).
In the next Ruins of Malbeth post I’ll take up Malbeth’s pantheon, the third pillar of Malbeth’s religion: The pantheon.