Shadow walker
Some people say our methods are underhanded, dishonorable, unclean, cowardly, and weak…they don’t often get a chance to say so twice, however.
~Breena, Shadow Walker

Shadow walker are warriors who fight in the most duplicitous and underhanded ways to achieve their victory. They strike unseen, and they don’t hesitate to attack a man on his back or to stab at his eyes. They kill without remorse or reprieve, and no action on the battlefield is beneath them.
Shadow walker make the most out of any advantage they can seize in combat, whether that means backstabbing a foe, or striking when their target has no chance to defend themselves. Shadow walkers want to kill their enemies as fast as possible and with as little personal risk to themselves as they can manage, and don’t care at all if other fighters think their methods are underhanded or dishonorable.

A shadow walker relies on whatever she can get to gain an advantage over her enemies, and thus employs a number of underhanded strategies to accomplish her goals. She doesn’t care about many of the virtues that fighters sometimes value, and thus employs a number of rogue-like skills to achieve her ends. Though less adept at such arts than a true rogue, and prone to struggle in battles where there is no advantage to exploit, a shadow walker is able to perform both roles well enough to become a truly deadly force in her own right.
Shadow walker do whatever it takes to get the job done, no matter how wicked, cowardly or underhanded it might be. They use poison, stealthy attacks, and whatever else they can to accomplish their goals. They have no romantic notions about combat, and would much rather kill their foes in their sleep than actually fight them. Shadow walker view the world as foolish and naïve and use that to their advantage. They lie, they cheat, and they steal, and they have no qualms about it. The average shadow walker cares about one thing—herself—and the rest of the world can burn around her; she lit the fire, after all.

Shadow walker in the World
Yes, they’re dishonorable. It’s easy not to like a man who tries to gouge your eyes out with one hand and trip you with the other, or who would rather stab you when your back is turned than when you’re facing him, but at the end of the day, they’re effective. And besides, is being stabbed in the back by a shadow walker really that much worse than being stabbed in the front by someone else? Don’t mistake their willingness to take advantage of your vulnerabilities as a weakness of their own.
~Garth Eagleeye, mercenary captain extraordinaire.

Shadow walker are selfish, secretive, and dangerous. They are out only for themselves and are willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead. This doesn’t mean that they murder and maim indiscriminately, but if violence —including murder— is the easiest means for them to accomplish their goals, they are unlikely to balk at it. In fact, many Shadow walkers take the teachings of their style only so far, and though they will take every advantage they can get in a fight, they’re not all contract killers.

Daily Life:
While many shadow walkers are criminals, and possibly even actual assassins, just as many are not. While it would be very unusual to find a shadow walker amongst a knightly order, or in the town guard, it’s not uncommon at all to find them as mercenaries, and while the distinction between mercenaries and assassins can occasionally be a bit blurry, a good number of shadow walkers are able to walk that particular line. Shadow walkers avoid fights whenever possible, and so tend to be more circumspect about their profession than other martial elites. When on a job they seek to finish it as quickly and neatly as possible, with as few complications, even if it means cutting a few corners in the morality or honor departments.
Notables:
Being notable makes you noticeable and typically leads to trouble, so very few shadow walkers achieve any real measure of notoriety.
However, “Don” Allegio Macrona is a name that inspires fear thought the port city of Zingara. Though the city doesn’t officially recognize him, the Don rules the city in truth through his dangerous assassins. The king himself pays heavy bribes to keep Macrona’s blade from his throat and is forced to listen to all his corrupt policy decisions. Many a politician has offered adventurers of all stripes a great deal of gold to defeat the Don and his men, and many adventurers coming to Zingara have died in their beds late at night, when witnesses are nowhere to be found, with others (the ones who are more cautious or otherwise manage to make their way into Don’s presence) apparently finding other sources of income and leaving the job unfinished.
The shadow walkers have their origins in a far-off land and buried deep in their history are the noble ideals of justice and righteous resistance against corrupt and foreign governments. The first of the shadow walkers was a man called Koga Nightshadow, who grew up in an age of oppression and corruption. His homeland was occupied by a foreign empire, and his people were brutalized and abused at every turn by foreigners, and then victimized further by a government which would do nothing to protect its own. Koga saw the injustice of it all and took matters into his own hands, taking the lives of those responsible in the most brutal fashion possible to relate the frustration of his people. He found others eager to join his cause and seek justice for the wrongdoings of these foreigners, but without any formal training. Koga taught them the simplest and most efficient mode of combat he knew, and his organization grew to great influence and became a sort of police force throughout the corrupt empire.
Years after Koga’s death and the empire’s fall, this police system remained intact and spread throughout the world, and in time became itself corrupt and villainous.'

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