"Land of Shadow"

This book, somewhat recently written by a learned person, describes a realm referred to as 'the Shadowfell'.   Several passages provide further detail:   "... it is a land of blackened, broken stone and ground. Distant mountainscapes of jagged crags, like teeth across the horizon. The sky itself is black and shadowed, like it is perpetually amidst a distant forest fire, and where there is grey in the sky, there are roiling thunder clouds with flashes of lightning. Most bizarrely, it is a dark echo of our world in many ways. The landscape seems the same - forests in places we know turn to twisted, dead graves for trees, cities resemble ancient ruins. But I have been through different bridges to the Fell in the world, and in each, the more you travel from the entry point, the more impossible it becomes to map anything more."   "... it is a plane of negative energy. Life finds itself sapped away amidst its gloomy skies. The mysteries of the worlds beyond the prime are complicated and rely on the knowledge of the ancients, who once travelled freely between them. Yet this world, I believe, has bridges between the prime and the Fell; such is the only explanation for how I have travelled there naturally, through the veil in the Vault, for example."   "...There is both a positive and negative field of energy that perminates and surrounds all of creation, and it is the Shadowfell that is closest to the negative portion of this energy. I theorise that it would be possible to portal to the farthest reaches of the multiverse where there is nothing but this energy, yet to do so would certainly kill any living thing instantly. This negative energy, nonetheless, claws at the living who come to the Fell. It takes, and takes, draining all that flourishes within them, their minds, their bodies, all slowly decays away. Until finally, life leaves the living, and is replaced by undeath."   "...The negative energy that grips the Fell inhabits and reanimates those who fall in its realm. Perhaps this offers some small hint at the nature of the curses that lead to the rise of undead in our world. Nevertheless, the Fell is filled with such creatures and those that I have seen within I would document within this tome."   "...Beyond the negative energy, a different power lurks across this bleak land. Umbral power, or 'shadow magic' as some might call it, seems to be something different and perhaps additional component of the Fell. Perhaps it is something that some being harnessed and controlled in this place... perhaps this is where shadow magic originates from. All the same, its presence is felt here. Shadows move sometimes independently. Sometimes they take dark forms and move about unseen."   "... I am uncertain how the Shadowfell influences the fate of the souls of the dead - old lore would suppose that souls travel to whatever god they bind themselves to, forcefully or otherwise, after death. But as undeath grips the Fell, I perhaps now believe that it is only in the places where the Fell breaches or crosses over with the prime that it corrupts and curses those who fall into death's embrace."   "...A great castle of sorts is wreathed in this dark power. I saw it on all of the occasions where I made visits to the Fell, but like the rest of the realm, it is ever moving and changing its position. Some who know me, who follow me, whisper of entering. But my life will not be forsaken for that place."   "... In the lore and older beliefs of the ancients, the Shadowfell is referred to as having a 'lord' of sorts; perhaps a god, or demon, or some powerful being? From my experience, it is a lawless and wild place. If there is a lord... they have yet to present themselves to delvers such as myself."   "... Vampires are one such creature that I, unfortunately, know to spawn from the Fell. Yet so much has already been written about these princes of undeath that to describe them further would be to waste ink. What I do discover, however, is how the umbral powers of the Fell alters those vampires who fall here. An Umbral Vampires is what I call such spawn. Are they truly vampires? I am not sure. In their 'natural' development, they seem to arise from those who fall victim to the curse of vampirism, but who then fall into the raw embrace of umbral powers that surge about this place. There is more to be written on these creatures... yet there is one who, naturally, knows a great deal more than myself."