Dark Magic - Tumblr Posts
Goretober Day 19: Black Magic
“If my foolish father won't carry on her legacy, then fine! I’LL JUST DO IT BY MYSELF!” ------------------------------- Hehe, lore. :> Lucius belongs to me. A ref for him can be seen in Picrew here. https://sta.sh/0c8hvnghrww
Trying a new program for doing line art, don't know what I think about it yet. They're some sort of dark mage or necromancer. I wanted them to be cute/sweet but with a dark side. I'm very happy with the pose!
I couldn't stop laughing for almost 4days
Okay tdp fans, I wanna share something with you. So I watched season five twice already, once with original audio and once dubbed together with my seven yo son (he was a wee toddler when I first set season one for him to watch back in 2019, you decide if I'm awesome or a bad mom) anyway, in comes episode's 08 final scene with the slithering snakes and my boy just jumps. It's cinematic: as he realizes Callum's gone and done dark magick again my son literally gasps, I hear this sharp inhale of breath and he tears his eyes from the screen and looks at me startled. He can't even talk coherently. He babbles a few times trying to come up with something: "Did he... He... Calum he... Used... Did he use dark magic? What? Did Callum really..?" My boy was floored. He was clearly disappointed. But he was also excited! "That's why he's so sad!" he exclaimed after a beat. I kid you not. My baby. I'm so proud! Also I'm so happy we share the same taste in media hahaha
Yesss after E08 I was like: "so Callum's gonna have to use dark magic to connect to each of the arcanum?". Maybe. I do not like the look of it... I LOVE IT.
Callum's canonical dark side
I've been thinking... Maybe dark magic stems straight from star magic?
For a second there I even thought the "big reveal" would be that dark magic might just be star magic pure and simple, but that doesn't click.
Then season five came and I've got a little theory: dark magic is corrupted star magic, it's star magic backwards. This could make sense because while dark magic drains power from life, by way of killing/exploiting body parts from animals and magic creatures, I propose star magic creates life. Case in point: Sir Sparklepuff, aka viraavos' baby.
What Viren did there with Aaravos' help was using his own blood (therefore his own power/life force) and some incantation to bring life into the world. If that was indeed star magic (I'm inclined to think so) then star magic created a magical creature with its own unique existence.
What do y'all think?
I don't know what that would mean for the story but... the wheels are turning in my head.
I've been thinking a similar line of thought, actually.
The lore we have says something something divination and seeing beyond, but they also focus on how little is truly known about Star Magic. So maybe that is somewhat off? I've speculated Star Magic might be connected with creating life (which is very god-like or deity-like, really).
In season five we learn that startouch elves are known as 'first elves' and that got me thinking about how we are all ultimately made of stardust? Like literally, from what I gather about our current knowledge regarding the origins of the universe, stars are nuclear reactors from which all matter comes from. It was in their nucleuses that atoms first formed and fused and became what eventually would be everything else. It's inside stars that Hydrogen becomes Helium and successively heavier mass is possible... Every atom in every molecule in each cell of our bodies was once part of a star.
And when some stars become bigger and heavier and older they become... black holes, right? And they swallow everything around them, warping even light, space and time itself.
So yeah a Star Magic -> Dark Magic pathway seems likely. And that would so reinforce the creating life -> destroying life motif.
This is more of a showerthought (that may become a longer meta later), but there does appear to be some sort of relationship between Dark Magic and Star Magic.
Callum mentions there is a Star spell that lets one recreate bodies for captured spirits. Which is interesting because that doesn’t seem to have much to do with divination or destiny (what Stars are mostly associated with), but sounds instead like a Dark Magic spell.
But then on the other hand, it does make a lot of sense when you think about what the Stars represent. In Callum’s Spellbook, Callum does point out that “Star magic” is really more like “cosmic magic.” It’s not just the stars themselves, but the cosmos as a whole that represents this primal source. Well, what does the cosmos mostly consist of.
That’s right, darkness. The haunting emptiness from which light consist of only a small minority of space.
So maybe it’s possible that Dark Magic is a “seventh source” in the sense that it is an offshoot of Star magic, but without the guiding light of the stars, it simply leads to rampant corruption and decay.
A pyrrhic victory for Pyrrah
Hey y'all remember when Callum freed a then-unnamed dragon from chains?
Yeah of course you do. He used dark magic to win this victory and it took a toll on him, he later colapsed and went into a trippy dream, then woke up with knowledge of the Sky Arcanum.
So this dragon was pretty cool and she comes back to help the dragang later! She's a great character. We love her. We love her so much some of us wanted to know her name and on Twitter a fan asked the creators and they answered! Her name is Pyrrah.
The wiki tells us:
Yeah okay that's credible. It makes sense of course -- but. The sources listed are legit but have nothing to do with TDP and we can't be sure if this was indeed the [only] inspiration. Have you ever heard of a
Pyrrhic victory
A Pyrrhic victory is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Such a victory negates any true sense of achievement or damages long-term progress. Says the wikipedia.
That's all folks. Make of it what you will.
It's giving Willow on Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 5 and I'M HERE FOR IT.
so have we talked about Claudia, under water with her pentapus tentacles, having to repeatedly go back to her potion to keep up the effect and how much it looks like someone reliant on recreational drug abuse and the implications that has for the addictive quality of dark magic
Yes yes yes yes the tdp lore is deep and consistent and I love the show for it
obsessed with the long-game payoff of "Hearts of Cinder" rn tbh
like not just in a narrative mirroring/parallels way, showing in s3 how far Viren had fallen and closing that arc in s6, or with how Soren and Viren's positions reversed, but like... either they planned this for Viren literally from the beginning or it came about through a startling commitment to lore depth and consistency
because like
a) Back in s3, the "Hearts of Cinder" spell is... weird. Like not so weird that it clashes with the setting as we know it, but at the time we're only just being introduced to things like the Draconic corrupted Sun rune spells, or the role the Staff of Ziard plays in dark magic. It's got an incantation that, at the time, is kind of unusual in the context of other dark magic spells but slots in with the series' overall recurring heart motif such that it can't really be called wrong. It's not a Spiders Georg-level outlier, but it definitely feels like there's something we're missing.
b) That's because someone planned it out in deep detail: "Hearts of Cinder" is, in hindsight, the only dark magic spell we see that is clearly intended for war with Xadia. It's a spell that comes from a much more brutal era both politically and magically, when armed conflict with dragons was high and "make your army immune to dragon fire for the low, low cost of one human sacrifice" was a deal people were willing to take. We know that's intentional, because it's right in the incantation: dark magic incantations frequently reference the spell reagent, as with "Slithering Steel" or "Ash of Fallen, Rise Again." So someone knew as far back as s3 that this spell normally used a human heart for its magical power.
c) This confirms so much stuff that it's like they put it in there for me, tumblr user kradogsrats, special interest: dark magic. The on-screen exposition drop that the Sunforge Staff contains a Sun primal stone. Confirmation that you can use a primal stone as a source for dark magic. Confirmation that you can use human essence as a source for dark magic. Another consistency example of the Staff of Ziard being used to empower dark magic spells. Confirmation that there are dark magic spells built on human sacrifice.
like... that's all stuff I knew, or at least suspected and wanted to be true, but having it all right out there like "hey who wants some resolution in the lore arc of dark magic? kradogsrats again?" just has me like
Jus eatin
You're conducting a dangerous research
Remember to bring sweets
Voldemort lifts his wand, murmurs an incantation, and the pain starts. Regulus struggles against it. He locks his muscles tight and clenches his jaw. He keeps his face carefully vacant. If there's one thing he’s been told about the dark mark it’s that taking it shouldn’t hurt. Not if he’s agreed to it. Not if this is what he wants. He closes his eyes and loses himself as the pain rips through him.
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“Hello? Hello in thereeee,” she screeches. Regulus winces and opens his eyes. He can’t wait them out forever.
“See I knew he was awake,” she calls triumphantly over her shoulder.
The boy walks forward into his line of sight and Regulus twitches hard enough that the ropes dig painfully into his skin.
He’s James but also… decidedly not. His shoulders are a little slimmer and his hair a little curlier. He’s all Potter cheekbones and mouth but his tan complexion is a shade lighter than James. As he walks closer, Regulus notices he carries himself with straight backed precision. Nothing like the lackadaisical stroll that's so familiar. When he bends closer his eyes catch the light and burn a brilliant green.
Regulus catches his gaze and holds it. The boy’s gaze sharpens even though his face stays deliberately blank.
“Who are you?” He breathes, he can feel his hands trembling.
“I think I’m the one that should be asking you that.” The boy’s tone is carefully flat.
“I don’t know about that,” Regulus replies, cocking his eyebrow, “after all you’re the one in my house.”
The girl gasps. The boy looks at her quisically and shrugs, turning back to him, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I live here.”
Excerpt from my wip piece: when you go (leave your shadow behind)
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Persuasion - cont.
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