A return to the eight-week formula. I wanted to give ya'll a longer break, but I'm shaking up my work schedule, and with how temperamental I am about these things, I suppose it's a miracle I even stayed on task.
Darkness is (obviously) on the opposite end of the spectrum from the light element. Like light, it will often be misunderstood as being a literal manifestation of morality (light is good and dark is evil), but both will actually be morally neutral. However, my current impressions are that this won't be super-relevant anyway, because darkness is a hard club to get in to, largely because my dark element is supposed to encompass some of the things we don't understand about real-world physics.
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Color: Black
Sin: Sloth
Virtue: Patience
Nature and Applications: Darkness is such an obscure element that many scholars are unaware it even exists. A majority of magic communities don't acknowledge it in their records, either because of its dangerous nature or because they're simply oblivious to its existence.
It has, by far, the smallest representation of earthbound elements, but as darkness is the purest of the physical magics, it is also the most prevalent throughout the universe. The fact that the world exists in a minority of the universe - where darkness isn't dominant - has led many to believe it is an enemy to life. This is a misunderstanding, however; life makes use of the dark element as it does any other, though the doses are so much smaller that they are essentially imperceptible.
Darkness got its name from the absence of light, but the element itself is rarely the reason for an actual lack of light. Darkness is so-called because its status as the purest physical magic causes it to be hyper-absorbent. None of the energy elements can escape its gravity; light, heat, electricity, and even life will be permanently captured by any darkness these elements are exposed to. If that energy is ever released, it will only be because the darkness permitted it.
This makes the darkness very difficult to study. Since all light is absorbed, it cannot be seen, and since physical contact with any perceptible amount can be lethal, it is difficult to determine whether it is solid, liquid, gas, or some new, unknown state of matter. The best way to study it is by studying its effect on its surroundings, which has made progress understandably slow.
What is known is that it retains all the energy it constantly absorbs and its capacity seems massively disproportionate to its concentration; it can retain exponentially more than a piece of earth of the same size. The few who claim to be able to communicate with the darkness say it has little interest in absorbing all the energy it does; that the energy actually seeks the darkness like a shelter. Whatever the case, it can make use of this energy to alter its position in space. If the universe were drawings on a page, then darkness is able to fold the page enough to make the face touch itself, travelling to a new spot on the paper by folding the universe so that its starting point is touching its destination.
As darkness is a lazy element, it is reluctant to even communicate. If a sorcerer can manage it, however, they can harness its insane density to strengthen other materials or enhance their conductivity. Intermediate users can make use of its space-"folding" properties to travel vast distances in an instant - though if they expend too much energy from the darkness in themselves, it will consume too much of their heat, electricity, light, or life to survive the trip.
Masters can temporarily fold larger quantities into the world from the void beyond. Collections the size of a fist will exert more gravity on their surroundings than the entire planet, causing unsecured people and objects to "fall" towards the darkness. Further, if they touch the substance, their energies will be siphoned and whichever body part touched the darkness will be mangled by the force of its gravity.
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So if ya hadn't guessed, darkness is a cheap and liberal interpretation of dark matter - so-called because we don't really know what it is, we just know there must be some type of matter out there we haven't been able to classify. The known elements don't exist in enough quantities to be exerting enough gravity for the universe to be doin' what it's doin', so dark matter is the 'x' they use to make the unified theory of physics work until they figure out exactly what it is. At least, that's how it was explained to me.
Because it's fiction and fantasy and magic, I felt like I have the privilege of assigning properties to it, and some of the common perceptions regarding black holes and warp drive and wormholes and whatnot seemed like natural properties to assign. Plus, since it's the least-understood element, we can introduce new applications as we go. Fun!
How have other writers handled darkness in fiction? Most of the time, it seems so abstract; it's always tied to demons and evil and corruption. It's hard to imagine how darkness could really harm a person in combat. Like, shadowbolts in Warcraft obviously cause damage, but what kind of pain do you feel when it hits you? I won't lie, the way I'm using it has been influenced by things like the Dark Dark fruit in One Piece, but writing has always been a derivative thing. Drawing influence from other people is fine, so who else has used darkness in a way that makes some degree of sense? What properties was it assigned, how did sorcerers use it other than to make good people do bad things, from whence was it sourced (if we don't include the underworld or Hell)? Most importantly, how would you interpret it as an element; what properties would you assign, in my position?
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