Shadow Market

(also called the Black Run, the Shadows, the Back Roads, or simply off-route)

“No record. No returns.”

The Shadow Market isn’t a single group or guild. It’s what people call the web of smugglers, fences, fixers, and quiet intermediaries who move things that can’t be moved openly.

Every settlement insists it doesn’t rely on the Shadow Market.
Every settlement quietly does.

What It Is

The Shadow Market exists wherever:

  • Goods are restricted

  • Routes are closed or monitored

  • Authorities refuse responsibility

  • Something must move or disappear without record

It has no banner, no leaders, and no membership. People fall into it for a job, then step back out... if they’re lucky.

Some who work in it are criminals by trade. Others are ordinary folk who take a single dangerous job and never speak of it again.

What Moves Through It

People say the Shadow Market handles:

  • Contraband and restricted goods

  • Relics denied official transport (or acknowledgement of existence)

  • Refugees and exiles

  • Dangerous substances

  • Cargo no authority wants to claim

The Market doesn’t care what something is - only where it must no longer be.

Names You’ll Hear

Different people use different terms, often depending on how close they are to it:

  • Black Run

  • The Shadows

  • Back Roads

  • Off-Route

  • Shadow Work

How It Operates

There are no fixed routes or offices.

Instead, the Shadow Market relies on:

  • Improvised paths and damaged passages

  • Temporary brokers who vanish after a job

  • Local signals, marks, or phrases

  • Reputation carried by rumor, not record

If a job goes wrong, the cargo is abandoned.
If a route becomes too dangerous, it’s forgotten.

Nothing is recovered unless someone is paid to recover it.

Reputation

Publicly, the Shadow Market is blamed for crime, corruption, and instability.
Privately, many rely on it to solve problems no one else will touch.

It’s widely understood that:

  • Using it is risky

  • Being caught is disastrous

  • Asking questions is worse

Some say the Shadow Market makes things worse.
Others say it’s what keeps them from being worse faster.