Monday 14 January 2002

Pic of the day: A bright one for a change. Yes, it's a screenshot from DAoC. Ironically, it's rather dark outside when I come home, in the real world.

Worlds of light & darkness

I am uncomfortably aware that my screenshots from Dark Age of Camelot tended to be night pictures, dark with only scattered firelight. Taken together with the name, you might get the impression that it was a world of darkness or at least twilight, sinister and forbidding. Actually, it was daylight most of the time. The sun always rises and sets there at 6, in an eternal equinox. (As is good and proper, for the spring and fall equinoxes were thought to be great events of magic and the supernatural, in days of old.) But already shortly after five, you could notice that the sky was starting to grow brighter and the stars were fading, on a cloudless morning. Similarly, the twilight fell gradually. And even in the middle of the night, it was never completely dark. I used to be practically the only one who used a torch. (Even though you don’t need to carry it or equip it - it just is there when you need the light.)

So when I miss the game, it is not because I particularly love the dark. In fact, I used to be afraid of the dark. Not just in my early childhood - it continued to some extent into adult life, though it has gradually faded through the last ten years or so. I am still not comfortable in deep darkness.

But I have gradually come to understand that the greatest dangers are not from the darkness outside us, but the darkness inside us.

***

Darkness and its opposite, light, also play an important part in my latest fantasy writing. As usual, I write mostly for my own enjoyment (and perhaps enlightenment) and have little hope of ever finishing the story. This time I work with a world where black and white magic are frighteningly real. It is not quite a medieval world - if anything, it is more like Europe after Reformation but before Industrial Revolution. There are schools even in the villages, and basic literacy is high among the young. But the great majority are poor farmers and find little use for their reading skills. Reading is however the key to effectively using the black and white magic. The magic is collected in two books that are both widely circulated: The Black Book and the White Book. Black books are actually outlawed, but most people treats the White books with as much fear as reverence, and not without reason.

The magic system is a kind of New Testament meets L.E. Modessitt’s books of Chaos and Order (Magii of Cyador and others) with a dash of TimberBram’s World of Erath. As can be expected, Light basically equals Good, whereas Dark equals Evil. However, no deities are expected to make their appearance in the story, directly or indirectly. Almost certainly there is a monotheism / dualism worldview behind this, but I treat magic as science rather than faith. Effects of magic are repeatable and stand up to peer review, not that this is common. Most of the magic is done informally, alone or (especially in the case of Light) sometimes in small groups.

Darkness has two advantages and a disadvantage. It can be used for personal gain of almost all kinds: To get money or other goods, to seduce and compel others to give you sex or show you respect or assist you in almost any way. The other advantage is that it can be used as a weapon against others, and not a few have sought this part for righteous revenge. It is however hard to limit yourself to the righteous when you have first started down this part. And the drawback is that there is one exception to the wish fulfilment: The price of Darkness is that your health unravels, both mind and body. Your life is likely to be shortened, and there will be suffering before the end. Dark magic seems to somehow transfer lifeforce away from the body in order to get magic back. And you cannot choose to sacrifice someone or someone else in your place.

Light has also benefits and costs. It protects against Dark magic automatically - the more you touch the Light, the harder you are to hurt or compel by Darkness. (On the other hand, Light can not be used to harm those who walk in the Darkness - Light has no truly offensive spells.) Light can be used to heal and protect others, and in the process it also improves the health and prolongs the life of the caster. Depending on your dedication, a Lightwielder can live for several generations longer than anyone else, in famous cases several centuries. It is theorized that if someone walked fully in the Light from childhood, he or she might live indefinitely. But no such person is known.

The price of Light is that it binds you with moral demands. A Lightwielder will feel remorse at first and eventually physical pain if he hurts others or, at higher levels, even at the thought of using others as an object in any way. The Light ruthlessly enforces a moral code based on respect and service to all; and because resources are limited, it eventually enforces austerity (but not outright asceticism, which would be hurting oneself). For an old person, the many memories of hate, greed and jealousy makes it almost impossible to get into the Light, because they start to hurt, stronger and stronger the more you touch the Light. Few have the moral and social courage to confess and atone for the darkness accumulated over a lifetime, and this world does not seem to have any supernatural sacrifice to take it all away. Most Lightwielders therefore start young, and it is not the first thing that runs through the mind of your average teenager.

Darkwielders are known mostly through rumor, and these rumors are not always accurate. Some people are just lucky in money and love but unlucky in health, but to the casual observer they would look like a Darkwielder. Some more extreme Darkwielders don’t bother to hide the source of their power, especially in parts where the law is weak. They rely on intimidation to keep people from interfering, or they restrain themselves enough to not make powerful enemies. (A Darkwielder can hurt another Darkwielder, but can expect retribution. The cost of a direct deadly assault through magic is quite high, and might well finish off himself too, if he is already weakened through a life in Darkness. A Darkwielder’s dying curse however is a thing to be greatly feared, and more than one of them has taken an enemy with them in death.)

Lightwielders are usually well known, but the respect offered them is tinged with pity and superstition. Some people are reluctant to see a Light-healer because they fear that associating with the Light even in this way may curse them with "Lightburn", the feeling of physical pain when doing something immoral.

The story centers on Jarod, who is nearly 16 when he takes his first steps into the Light. (All characters have unusual names.) We also meet other Lightwielders like Widow Betina, the local healer, and the powerful Arovid the Ancient who lives in the "White House" where the lights blaze like daylight all night long. There is also Jarod’s childhood friend Larso who inherits his grandfather’s darkspell book and has to decide what to do with it. Others may come and go according to their whims, I have not the best history of controlling my characters once I let them out of my head.

I’m a bit excited because this is not a classical fantasy story with a big war between good and evil brewing and a counting down to the end of the world and our hero chosen to champion the side of good. The battle between good and evil here takes place in each heart, and the role each has to play depends mostly on his own dedication and the price he is willing to pay. For everything has its cost.

In that respect, I guess it is less an epic fantasy and more like the literary equivalent of a massive multiplayer roleplaying game ... the world does not revolve around you, but you may still change it a bit because you have a role to play. Of course, some would say that this holds true for real life too. But real life doesn’t have magic ... or does it? ^_^