Light and Darkness

• Light illuminates. Light brings harmony, contentment, and peace. It can also bring intolerance and stasis.
• Darkness conceals. Darkness brings ambition, individuality, and advancement. It can also bring destruction and oblivion.

Light and Darkness are major forces within the worlds, and the power of these forces fills one’s Heart and both colors its interactions with the world around them as well as empowering it to withstand hardship in their own ways. By their nature, these forces conflict and seek to gain dominance and destroy the other. Some call the active portions of these forces ‘Chaos’ and ‘Omega’, which is certainly borne out as the entities who claim allegiance to these forces work to gain advantage through any means necessary.

Light and Darkness are primal and tangible Forces, as much a part of the world as Fire, Air, Earth, and Water, even if they typically manifest in less physical manners. As pure, primal forces, these energies can manifest directly under the right circumstances, and direct exposure to those forces can be often dangerous or even life-threatening. Because of the contentious nature of these Forces, those who are heavily invested in one of the Forces can often find that exposure to high amounts of the opposite Force can be especially painful.

The study of Light and Darkness is a common pastime in magically-inclined areas, as evidenced by the eponymous schools of White and Black Magic, Technology can also interact with these forces, but such things are often less common, as developers of Technology often eschew the undependable primal imperatives of these Forces in favor of more reliable effects.

Any being with a Heart carries some level of Light and Darkness within their Heart. The decisions of that being determine the concentration and capacity of that Heart, however. Shifting that balance of Light and Darkness within takes a conscious and concerted effort, though there is often no indication outwardly as to how ‘Light’ or ‘Dark’ one is, though it can play a factor in a great deal of metaphysical interactions. The greater the Light or Darkness within one’s Heart, the easier it is to continue in that direction. Hearts have inertia, reinforced by the habits, beliefs, and perceptions that people build up over time that reflect that inertia. Personality traits that are often associated with those Forces can become apparent as the shift continues.

The danger begins to appear when one of the Forces becomes too dominant. If one’s Heart is overwhelmed by Light or Darkness, they can gain great power, but in return they may lose something of themselves in the process. Heartless are often created when the Darkness overwhelms the Heart of a living being, for example. It is possible for people who have a powerful Will to stop this from happening, and such brinkmanship can lead to incredible power as long as one has the ability to hold off the potential for self-destruction. The Shadow Lords, for example, are known for refining and perfecting these techniques in their pursuit of mastery.