Darkness

This following doc details OOC knowledge of the magic: Darkness and the playable Darkness Sorcerer character. This tab details Darkness as it may be uncovered by the character explained to them by…someone.

The second tab contains more details concerning the origin of the Darkness Sorcerer character and some added mechanics.

“You’ve become a Darkness Sorcerer…congratulations.

Or shall I say condolences? You will no longer be human. All the joys you used to feel, is no more. You do not hunger, or tire, nor are you limited by your mortality. 

You are a husk - a moving host to the infestation that is Darkness. And the sooner you become at peace with that is when you can finally let go and understand your potential.

I should know. I went through the same thing.”

“Darkness is no typical magic, I’m sure you understand that by now. I regard it as a mutualistic parasite - it needs a host for protection and direction, without us it cannot defend itself. It cannot lead itself to so-called greener pastures. And in exchange, it gives us incredible and unmatched power.

But it makes us depend on it. For every action we take, from casting spells to even breathing…we use Darkness. It is US, now, and there is no going back. 

Where does Darkness come from I hear you ask? Well, yes. It comes from everywhere. It originally comes from a forbidden dimension of sorts, but we can’t rely on that dimension for aid. We must transmute other things - magic, matter…into Darkness. This does not mean you can nullify an already cast spell, mind you, but a spell in the process of being cast is fair game. The more Darkness you need, the more must be devoured. Be mindful with your activities.

The Darkness infection starts with your soul - if you’re still listening that means that Darkness deems you a suitable host. You should feel no pain as it acclimates itself to your body. It will nestle into your soul and destroy your Factor, if you have one.

By destroying your Factor, Darkness has guaranteed that you will rely on it for magic - as much as everything else.”

“Darkness looks like an oozing pile of the night sky. It’s thick and viscous, like smooth mud, and feels cold - not chilly, just cold. The star-like quality is constantly shifting and blinking. Beautiful, isn’t it?

You can sink your hand into it. But more often than not Darkness doesn’t really like to be outside of their host. Free-moving Darkness will want to move toward you and find a safe little spot in your soul.”

“Without a Factor, you are unable to utilise speed magic or rely on portals as easily…it was easy to take it for granted, wasn’t it? Speed spells were so useful, but I’m sure you’ll find a workaround.

You don’t need to eat or drink - you are in fact, incapable of eating or drinking now. Darkness will not let you have sustenance and will make you feel nauseous if you really try. However my associate has found that hot drinks can be bypassed and still enjoyed as normal.

You do not feel fatigue and do not need to sleep. As with eating, you are incapable of sleeping and you will never slumber no matter how hard you try. Will you miss your human mortality?

But you are powerful now. Who needs to retain humanity when you have access to the most powerful magic known in all the universes?

Living requires Darkness to subsist on, even if you try to ignore it, never use magic, never use your Darkness-enabled abilities, you will eventually need to devour matter or magic with Darkness to keep yourself alive. Do not think you can ignore your hunger.

You are also…immortal. Or so it seems. You are forever trapped in the age you gain Darkness. I happened to be 40 when I was infected, so it matters little to me, but for a younger soul…you’ll never appear to age. Your brain will forever remain young.

Now one last thing I should mention. You now possess one incredible power…and one fatal weakness. Darkness is very vulnerable to magic called Lightness. It tends to…hurt. A lot. When you are struck with any Lightness spell or similar, lightness will disrupt any program and any warp you make, and it destroys Darkness, often resulting in an extremely painful burning sensation for us sorcerers. It burns away the Darkness within us and may leave us very susceptible to further harm and even death. Trust me, I know. It is not to be undermined.

Be wary of any who carry Lightness magic.

Inversely, we cannot harness Lightness magic either. I’m not sure why you would.”

“By now you can probably see that Darkness’s effects are hidden underneath the surface but it affects more than just your soul. It has the rather distressing effect of affecting the way you might think too.

Darkness has a longing to be used to further your dependance on it. I recommend not giving into the compulsion so easily. There are more terrifying forces than I that will work to stop you if you give into the compulsions.

But rest easy knowing that Darkness cannot control you. You will not suddenly find yourself doing something out of your own will. I find it’s influence to be more silent, gaslighting you into thinking it's your own thoughts. Just be aware.”

“You need to understand that Darkness is very much unlike other dimensions of magic. It cannot be crafted into spells like the magic you might know. Its main vector of use, is something I like to call programming. You must instruct Darkness to do your bidding.

For the weaker sorcerers, probably meaning yourself, you’ll find your main method to programming is through physical writing - typing on a screen, to writing in the dirt, it all seems to work. Just, be careful in your everyday life. You don’t want to make a mistake sending a heated message to a friend, do you? You might want to program that phone to be ignored by your Darkness.

You must be precise and detailed in your writing. Darkness will take the path of least resistance to fulfill your will. If you instruct a door to open, it will merely open. However, if you instruct the door to open quietly, and only open halfway, it will do just that. If you instruct the door to fly off its hinges and launch into the nearest wall…it will also do that. Do not limit yourself to normal thinking. Be creative, but also be aware. The more you ask, the more Darkness will be used to fulfill your desires.

One-off programs, such as a door opening, can be referred to as ‘warps’. These are warps in reality. The same as turning rock into gold, or changing someone’s mind…that’s right. You can alter the way people think or remember. Perhaps you made a mistake in front of someone and wanted to make them forget it. It’s all possible.

Now one of the limitations of Darkness, if you can believe that, is that you cannot, under ANY circumstances, warp or program yourself. You cannot alter Darkness itself, and as far as Darkness is concerned, YOU are IT.

You cannot use Darkness to heal yourself, recover a limb or warp your own memories or abilities. But you have standard magic for that. As for any weaknesses you may have…I’m sure you’ll find a workaround.

As you grow in experience and power, you’ll find yourself relying less on physical writing and begin to use your own thoughts to create warps and programs. It’ll be like breathing to you, eventually.”

”You may have heard of such entities called ‘Figures’. These are, in simple terms, Darkness Golems. They are fully programmed masses of Darkness that can move independently of us to fulfill an assigned function.

They can be and do anything, but are also quite complex. Weaker sorcerers cannot make these yet and I don’t recommend wasting your time with these until later.”

”Your ability to possess and use Darkness is relative to your experience and skill.”

Darkness sorcerers are immune to spell stress, and instead have a Charge Pool that they must maintain for all their activities. The Charge Pool is the amount of Darkness that your character will hold within themselves, and can be recharged by using one action to consume matter or magic with Darkness in a turn (refer to the last section for the table of converting objects into Darkness). They can also ‘overcharge’ with diminishing returns and also lose 1 charge per turn until they return to or below their maximum charge. If they are overcharged then they will visibly ‘leak’ Darkness from their stomach region. 

No matter what, if your character hits 0 charge, they will die. This is certain character death. No ifs, buts or otherwise. Darkness will devour what’s left of their body to prevent its own destruction. Their body cannot be recovered.

“Sounds brutal, doesn’t it? Keep your power in check. You don’t want to end up as an unfortunate devoured soul.”

Instead of gaining spell stress when casting spells, the spell point of the spell is subtracted from the Charge Pool. For example, casting Simple Blast, that has a spell point total of 1, will subtract 1 from the Charge Pool.

For everyday life, it’s assumed your character has found a way to maintain their charge pool and they may enter any rp or event with a full charge pool.

Darkness Sorcery Ability:

These follow the same slot and spell point total as normal!

• Novice sorcery: 4 slots, 6 spell points and 8 Charge Points 

• Adept sorcery: 5 slots, 12 spell points and 12 Charge Points 

• Expert sorcery: 6 spell slots, 17 spell points and 17 Charge Points 

• Master sorcery: 7 spell slots, 22 spell points and 22 Charge Points 

• Archsorcerer: 8 spell slots, 25 spell points and 26 Charge Points 

“The amount of Darkness can be quite misleading. You may absorb an entire bathtub of Darkness and it will stay very snug in that body of yours as though it was a drop. Strange, isn’t it? You’ll wrap your head around it soon enough.”

Creating Warps and Programs:

Each warp or program will cost Darkness. One-off warps will cost Charge relative to the warp. Smaller warps, like making a door open, changing someone’s mind or creating something from ‘nothing’, may cost 1-2 charge. But larger warps, like altering the mind of a crowd, creating large items or even bringing someone back to life will cost a lot more.

Programs, like those that might always be ‘running’, like creating an object that protects its wearer against damage or always emitting an effect, will have a constant ‘drain’ on the Darkness Sorcerer, reducing their Charge Pool until they stop the program or alter it. For example, if your Darkness sorcerer wears an item that causes everyone around them to ignore them, the item might have a drain of 5 charge until it's ‘switched off’ or stopped.

(Always ping/ask Saturn for Charge cost and whether your idea will be valid. Warping or making programs that affect other player’s characters or livelihoods requires permission from ALL parties.)

Warps and Programs in Combat:

Your character may decide to create a warp or program in the midst of combat. To do this, they will have to take 1 entire turn to physically write out their warp/program, no matter how many actions they may be able to perform. Their warp/program will activate at the start of their next turn. While they are writing, their writing may be disturbed when attacked (using a normal concentration roll). If disturbed, they’ll need to try again.

OR they may instead think about the warp/program they wish to create. They may do this as a bonus action per turn for 3 turns. Their concentration may still break, however.

Darkness Forms:

“As you grow in strength and offensive capabilities, you may find your defensive ability to be rather…lacking. For that, I offer you the possibility of Darkness form.

Your Darkness form is just that - Darkness will cover your body to protect you, rendering you invulnerable to all damage except Lightness. Every Darkness form will look different, usually matching who you are. My associate has a sleek Darkness form, for example, visualising her rather…smaller, unremarkable presence. 

Writhing tendrils, shifting masses, claws, tendril-like whips and mass-like wings are a common formation among these forms. You may also levitate freely, with or with-out wings. Wings are purely aesthetic if I say so myself.”

Your character may take 1 action to assume their Darkness form, negating nearly all damage to them while they are in this form. Taking on their Darkness form will take 6 Charge Points, and then continue to take +2 Charge Points every turn after if they persist in this form.

They are still able to add charges to their Charge Pool while in this form.

The following is a rough list of Darkness you can use to estimate how much you might get from magic or matter!

“No, you don’t need to ‘eat’ things like normal food to get Darkness. Merely hold something in your hand or stand close by the object you wish to convert into Darkness. You will need to ‘force’ Darkness out of your body to consume the object, turning it into more Darkness that you may then absorb to do whatever you wish with it.”

Small objects can be consumed using 1 action in a turn, such as:

• Objects that can be held in one hand, such as an apple or stone = 1-3 charge

• Master level spells (before they are cast) or small animals = 5-10

Medium sized objects require 2 turns, such as:

• A dead body or medium sized animals = 11-19

• A large tree, a standard car, large animals = 20-40

Other living creatures or large objects, require 3 turns, such as:

• A whole living adult person with a Factor = 50

• A whole house = 60