Dark Art: The Changing Face of Public Relations

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Do we intend to show those who feel drawn to the Dark that there is a genre of art to feed that need? Is there a desire to show the world that there is a beauty in things they might normally shy away from? Are we intending to force the world of high culture to recognise the value of themes and ideas previously relegated to popular culture? 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).

In Forgotten Realms there are prohibitions from the gods of magic (covering Fantastic Nuke, endangering of the world's magical circuit and a few crimes against the magic-using community) plus whatever local laws and traditions don't approve, typically including the most unpleasant forms of necromancy and/or using wild magic in populated areas. From what is known about the elven kingdom of Cormanthyr, it prohibited some enchantments that allow massive binding of magical items and creatures, some blood magics, using mass-destruction and later also selective spells in modes aimed to harm elves or "allied" beings. A few areas don't approve arcane magic at all, claiming it's " dishonorable", but in fact it's the places when magic may attract a curious spell-grub, and no one wants that anywhere around. Sorcery in The Silent War. It revolves around summoning demons, Mind Rape and gruesome curses, and works better if human sacrifice is involved. It is also stated to corrupt anyone using it, explaining the general mindset of the Brotherhood of the Pit. 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.) 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.In Less Wrong parlance, this is used to refer to the use of faulty logic, fallacies and self-deception , Double Speak... in two words: Bad Faith . Even for ultimately good purposes, those arts are a double-edged sword. Truth, and logic, ultimately, always win. 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). 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. 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. 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.

So, if we can find the roots of Dark Art throughout history, where do we find a true starting point? There seems to be a common agreement that Bekinski and Giger are, if not explicitly part of Dark Art, then certainly represent its forefathers. Could dramatically change the status quo by altering social, economic, or military realities. This can be good if it would remove the weakness in a Terminally Dependent Society (and bring the corrupt leaders down with it), or bad if the change would cause widespread chaos. The Dying Cubs camp of the Red Talons practices a rite that "feeds" the earth with the pain of a tortured human. The rite cleanses the land and lowers the Gauntlet of the immediate area, but the effects are temporary. Moreover, spiritual guardians of the region will no longer defend the land against Wyrm incursions. Answering the question of whether Alien is Dark Art, I would suggest a firm no. Although much of Dark Art is influenced by pop culture and illustration, and the same imagery and style might appear in creature designs and album covers, Dark Art exists when the work is created as Art first and foremost, with no other purpose in mind. With this movie standing as a kind of ouroboros of Dark Art, both inspired by and inspiring artists, should we consider the movie itself a work of Dark Art?In The Wheel of Time, the problem is largely irrelevant in the beginning of the story because the only people openly channeling are the Aes Sedai, who willingly put themselves under a powerful Geas that prevents them from doing anything really bad with it. Nevertheless, some One Power weaves and uses are seen as evil: Later editions have a wide range of spells tagged [evil]. Many are poorly explained (Animate Dead uses raw energy to create a non-sapient construct, while golems, which involve enslaving a sapient being, have no such tag) have it for no reason whatsoever (such as Deathwatch, which basically says if a person is dead, near dead or alive). Later source books state that undead exude negative energy, and so make the world a worse place just by existing. That's just one spell. The Calignes, spells that call on the All-Consuming Darkness. Just to learn one is a ding on the Karma Meter (and usually requires human sacrifice), and nearly all of them are morally repugnant to use. Can empower normal people to stand up to it. Expect the Establishment to be a Hypocrite that wields these arts in secret (or openly) to oppress the people.

Outsider magic (that is, most if not all functional magic) in Dishonored. Its practitioners are hunted and slain by the Overseers of the Abbey of Everyman. The Overseers are a fanatic religious police headed by corrupted people in league with an oppressive political power, but as bad as they are they might have a point on that magic. It looks extremely corrupting since people who get involved with it fall in two categories:In President's Vampire, Necromancy and some forms of alchemy are called "Dark Arts" by Cade, due to the fact that they need Human Resources to work properly.