The Shadowmaster

Real Name: Oliver Crow
Villain Name: The Shadow Master
Title: The Ringmaster, The Devil’s Showman, The Shadow Duke
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Age: Unknown
Gender: Male
Race: Demonic shadow entity
Hair: Black
Eyes: White
Height: Variable
Weight: Variable
Blood type: N/A

Oliver Crow is a tall man, even without boosting his size, he stands at a good 7 feet tall. His entire mass either is, or is covered in shadow; concealing his identity entirely. His clothes are black and white, a striped boater jacket and a pair of simple slacks with shining shoes and a top hat with the only source of real color on his entire outfit, a purple band.

The Showman - Oliver Crow is a man who likes to put on a display. He will embellish and attract, display and degrade. He’s a man who needs to have the spotlight on him.

The Monster - Oliver is an extremely damaged individual, if the Showman wasn’t display of this enough. Oliver holds people in his possession, he keeps them so thoroughly entertained that they die in his realm. He then uses their souls as an audience for the rest of time.

The Master - Oliver has everything under control. Even when it seems like he doesn’t, he almost always has incorporated it into his plan.

Oliver watched the acrobats flip about, he watched the clowns fool about, and heard the elephants trumpet. Oliver loved every moment of it.

He told all of his friends, and they brushed him off. After all, when would the circus even return? It was expensive as well. No, they would not go. It was saddening to the man that those he loved would not partake in his newfound favorite show. In fact… He would just have to bring the circus to them.

He started his collection slowly. He picked up stray cats and dogs off the street, shoved them in cages in his basement. If they weren’t already suffering from some sort of interesting malady, he would create one. Shaving a cat and gluing feathers to it, planning to claim it as a baby griffin, or attempting to surgically attach lizard legs and bat wings to a snake.

Eventually though, this simply wasn’t enough. He needed human freaks, and he needed them to listen to him. Obviously, being a man of… Mostly meager means, he couldn’t simply pay people to listen to him. So what was he to do? Why, kidnap young children from off the streets and raise them to obey his every command!

Each day he would go out, with offers of sweets and treats, entertainment for the young ones. He would take them back to his home and commit atrocities against humanity, trying to make them into the freaks and performers he had seen at the show. If they died, Oliver would take them back upstairs. The other children never questioned where Oliver got the surplus of meat. Most of them were just happy to get fed.

One day, Oliver was walking down the stairs; and he couldn’t find his children. He looked around the room, and…

When the police arrived, all they found were bones and 23 children covered in blood around their mouths. Many of them were sent to hospitals, and only 3 were returned to their families after the fact. Oliver Crow went on as a legend, being told as a ghost story to this day. The ghost story goes something like this.

”Long ago, a man went to the circus. He claimed his name was “Oliver Crow”. He raved and ranted about the experience to all of his friends. He told them “You simply must see this show!”. He modeled his life after the circus, even going so far as to dress like the man he saw running the crowd.

His life was cut short, however, and the truth was revealed. Oliver Crow was a serial kidnapper, stealing children from their homes to entertain him. When the children died, the others were fed their flesh. Oliver was killed by the children, and sent to hell. Some say that if you wander away, he’ll drag you to his shadow circus where you’ll become the latest member of his audience.

The souls of the damned will try to warn you away with their haunting song. ‘Ollie Crow, Ollie Crow. Dragged into the shadows you know. Run away, get clear, go far away from here. He’ll drag you to the shadows you know.’“

While the story has become urban legend at best, it’s mostly true. Oliver Crow was sent to hell for his sins in the early 1900s. Over the last hundred years, he’s developed profusely strong powers and has even claimed his own throne of hell where he now dictates his own shadow circus. Oliver takes the wicked and malformed souls and turns them into his performers, while taking people who are foolish enough to wander into his circus as his audience, allowing them to starve as they watch his show and grant him immeasurable power!

Shadow Manipulation - Oliver Crow is capable of manipulating the shadows around him, as well as those that make up his body granting him several abilities. Including the ability to create shadow constructs, changing his shape and size, and pure shadow manipulation.

Soul Empowerment - Oliver Crow gains power for every soul that resides in his realm. The more souls that he has captured, the more powerful he becomes.
Dimensional Lordship - Oliver Crow has complete control over his home realm, and his word is law when he’s there. Capable of manipulating the environment in any way that he pleases.

Charismatic Carnival Barker - When Oliver Crow speaks, people are forced to listen. Whether or not they listen to his commands, is up to the person; but while Oliver Crow speaks; people are so entranced by what he says that they cannot move or speak until he finishes. [Permission Based]

”Do not think to seek release” - Just as Oliver Crow gains power from souls entering his domain, Oliver also loses power when souls leave his realm.

“Do not seek to enlighten me.” - When light is shown directly onto him, Oliver becomes weaker and weaker, reverting slowly into a child-like form. Defenseless.

“Can you not hear me?” - You have to hear Oliver speak for his entrancing presence to take effect.

“The land is slow to shape to my will.” - Oliver’s ability to shape his own dimension is admittedly sluggish, and takes time to create the effect he wants. In addition, Oliver cannot cause something to happen out of nowhere. There’s cause and effect. He has to use resources already in play from his environment to manipulate it.