Dark Art: The Changing Face of Public Relations

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crawlersout: In this story, "dark" magic is magic that requires a "price" (usually emotional, but spiritual or physical aspects are possibilities as well) to perform. They're considered "dark" because they're much easier to abuse than "light" magic. It's actually perfectly legal to learn dark magic, it's just heavily frowned upon in magical communities that are highly conservative, such as Magical Britain. Some of the more useful and comparatively less objectionable spells, such as the Patronus Charm (which is fueled by happy memories) often return the "toll", and thus many are unaware that they qualify as dark magic. On the other hand, there are some spells whose "tolls" are so terrible that usually only the most evil of people would ever consider using them; the Killing Curse, for example, takes a piece of the user's soul. The three Unforgivable Curses, along with Blood Magic and soul magic, fall under this category. Charms like Ghost-Eating Technique that can permanently destroy the essence of spirits and gods are considered very very evil by said gods and spirits, who usually consider themselves immortal and hate being reminded that it is not really the case. They can intuitively feel any Exalt who knows such techniques and they fear and hate them intensely.

The happy few who are bestowed the Mark of the Outsider don't become mad (or at least not immediately) and can use a powerful magic, but they don't fare so well. Known recipients are Daud (murderer of the Empress), Vera Moray (formerly a beautiful aristocrat, now an ugly half-mad witch), Delilah Copperspoon (evil witch heading a conspiracy to steal the body of the heir to the throne), and Corvo Attano ( Player Character who may or may not be a bloodthirsty lunatic depending on how you play him). In Wraith: The Oblivion, three Arcanoi are forbidden in the Western Underworld on pain of soul-forging - Intimation, the power to create and remove desire (because of its great capacity for abuse); Mnemosynis, the power to explore and manipulate memory (again, because of its capacity for abuse), and Flux, the power to affect the structure of inanimate objects, strengthening them, decaying them, and animating them (because of wraithly politics, rather than any potential to abuse others). The military service is a secret. The officially given choice is death by execution or death resisting arrest. Dark Sun defilers aren't tolerated by anyone including most other defilers, because their magic is fueled by draining the life-force of every living thing around them, and centuries of using magic this way resulted in the world of Athas becoming a harsh and inhospitable wasteland. All magic is looked upon with at least some suspicion because of this. Necromancy in An Army of the Dead, which revolves around using the energy of formerly living things to power spells. Oddly enough, the time it was actually used was for a good reason.

Examples:

The True Power, which is a variant of the One Power bestowed by the Dark One, is incredibly addictive and will make you mad. The Dark One only allows his most favored minions to use it, but even they are not really overenthusiastic about it (except Ishamael, who is mad.) The huge majority of people who get interested in runes and bone charms just end up fascinated and obsessed with them, usually to the point of madness, paranoia, murder and death. You found plenty of examples of such people in the game. Moving into modern, and post-modern times we find Goya, Bacon, Bourgeois, Hirst and countless others producing work that would not look out of place in an exhibition of Dark Art and yet it is certain that these artists would not have considered themselves within the grouping of work we are discussing. Improvised Explosives. While modern technology makes it impossible to completely eradicate such knowledge, the authorities become VERY unhappy if they find out you know this stuff. Dragon Age has Blood Magic. While magic itself is not evil, blood magic revolves around using life force for power. Most of the blood mages in the game are evil, or at the very least enemies of the heroes. The power is also taught to humanity by personifications of emotions (ingame only a personification of desire teaches it, no information on which emotions are able to), and while it can just be used as an alternate means of powering normal spells, the big headline blood magic spells allow for Mind Control, blood-boiling and similar nastiness. Also, of course, the life force you use to power the spells need not be your own, a temptation that few blood mages can resist.

Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Magia Erebea is powered by nasty stuff. Negi isn't even human anymore due to overuse of it. In fact, Evangeline started teaching it to him because she wanted to corrupt him into her "mini boss" flunkie. A trait that seems common amongst the artists interviewed on the Dark Art Society podcast is that they have felt like outsiders. It is clear that in recognising Dark Art as a distinct entity, it creates a psychologically valuable sense of belonging. The value of this can create a desire to include all things held creatively dear to the artists involved, or to ensure that all artists interested in Dark work are included within the category. However, definitions are vital to the discussion and development of a subject, and definitions are created by exclusion. To define what Dark Art is, we must be clear about what it is not. In When Demons Walk, there are all sorts of magic spells that can be fueled by blood, body parts, or torturing people. Using one's own blood is somewhere inbetween, some think it is evil, but the protagonist considers it justifiable. Necromancy. Although it is not evil or corrupting in itself and some spells can actually be used for good, it almost always involves gruesome rituals or blood sacrifice. And its foremost practitioners (but not the only ones, and not even the first ones) are the Deathlords and Abyssal Exalted, who are evil by most standards.

Compulsion (magical mind-control) and Rending (torturing and directly ripping apart someone's body using the Power) are seen as weaves that can almost only be used for evil purposes. In the beginning of the series, the knowledge of them has been lost for a long time anyway, but most Aes Sedai consider that a good thing. Dark magic in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic appears to be this since even Twilight Sparkle, who is very knowledgable on the subject, was surprised by it when Princess Celestia uses it to demonstrate the threat King Sombra poses in the Season 3 Premiere. Twilight herself manages to use it later, but it does not look anything less than painful to even cast .