Dark Art: The Changing Face of Public Relations

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In Pact, Diabolism is seen as this because making a Deal with the Devil tends to cause damage to the world itself and nothing good comes from it. Although other magic schools serve to light people on fire or freeze them alive, hurt or even kill them by tormenting them with visions and so on. Refinement of Flux for the Prometheans, which is based around rejecting humanity and accepting one's monstrous side. Centimani, as they're called, often twist themselves into hideous mutations, and due to the nature of Vitriol, can no longer gain it normally - forcing them to rely on lacuna, a form of Mind Rape that Prometheans view in much the same terms as actual rape.

At least, she jokes about it. She could tell soon after meeting Negi that his Martyr Without a Cause complex would cause him to jump at the chance to learn it if that ever arose, and didn't so much teach it to him as slant his regular training towards surviving making that choice. That this suited her sadistic tendencies just fine (it meant she had to break him — just a bit, and carefully — as while you don't quite have to be evil to use Magia Erebea, you can't consider yourself entirely committed to any ideal or virtue) was providentially coincidental.

Examples:

Not to be confused with shadow magic, which allows the user to bend and make darkness and shadows via magic; this tends to be morally neutral, maybe leaning slightly towards evil. In The House of Night, using the power of any element/force of nature or an ancient immortal, whether it's Darkness or Light, is Power at a Price. It's played straight with Neferet but subverted with Rephaim who has only been shown thus far to use his Dark powers in a good way. 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.

To this day no respectable medical scientist admits using knowledge gained from Josef Mengele's archives. He was such a bad scientist that there is nothing to glean from his files. The experiments performed by Imperial Japan's Unit 731 were at least as bad as Mengele's experiments, but the people involved got away with it, because the U.S. government offered them amnesty in exchange for their research. Some of them are still alive and still claim that vivisecting human beings without anesthesia was a perfectly sensible and moral thing to do. In other words, if there are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, you can expect someone to have thought it would be cool to make an easy to read how-to book on it. The "Dark" Art might not necessarily be evil or dangerous, but there's always at least some cause to consider these powers/skills inherently hazardous, if potent, and not to be left open for everyone to learn. 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? 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.)Despite dissent towards witchcraft, The Catholic Church wasn’t entirely against magic. The church believed ceremonial Magic was evil, as they thought it relied on making pacts with spirits, while another type of magic, natural magic, was permitted as practitioners of it claimed to be using natural processes, not spirits, to do supernatural feats. These natural magics usually were composed of The Hermetic Arts and the primary types of magic used were Alchemy: The replication of geological phenomena through manual craft and early experimentation with medical herbs, and Astrology: The prediction of events and diving of information through the observation of celestial body movements. Although it sounds utterly redundant to say, the point must be made that Dark Art conveys something dark to its audience. A Dark Art sculpture of a wilting flower is not conveying a sense of Wabi Sabi, a seascape is not providing a sense of majesty or adventure, a beautiful portrait is not simply a faithful reproduction of the sitter. What this ‘darkness’ is remains a complex question, although I personally lean towards a psychological framing, with anxieties, desires, and implications of the ‘Shadow’ being reflected through the cultural focus of the monster, and unconsciously communicated through colour, composition, and mark making. 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.

Demonology in general is seen as a dangerous, risky and best avoided field of study. The line between demonology (using demons) and infernalism (being used by demons) is thin, it is easier to summon a demon than to control it or to banish it, and during the First Age the sorcerers of the whole world had to to gather for a great feast every Calibration night just to make sure none of them attempted the dreaded ritual to summon a Third Circle demon (which can only be done during that night). In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, multiple practices can leave Gaia Garou at risk of Wyrm contamination.It seems on the surface, that a definition of Dark Art should be relatively simple, since those that purport to create it share many traits as artists and interests as individuals. However, it cannot be said that all paintings of skulls are Dark Art, and since the presence of ‘dark’ themes are a constant in creative work throughout history, we must find a way to reconcile this with what is a relatively new field of work. 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. 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.

I have a blog in the works which is basically my thoughts and feelings around dark art, and its role in our current culture. Ultimately for me it’s about giving people a safe space to process their shit. 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. There is without a doubt, a culture and community that surrounds Dark Art, which includes horror imagery, movies, and novels, metal and punk music, tattooing and body modification, and all manner of other ‘dark’ sub-cultural identifiers. However, it must also be clear that none of these elements is a signifier of Dark Art, or an indication of whether an individual can or should be associated with it. Such interests and identity markers relate to individuals, not the work that they create. Although ‘Dark Artist’ may be a useful marketing term, I put forward that Dark Art is not all work created by specific artists, but that works of Dark Art might be created by anyone, regardless of their normal artistic affiliations or interests. In When Demons Walk, there are all sorts of magic spells that can be fueled by blood, body parts, or torturing people. Using one's own blood is somewhere inbetween, some think it is evil, but the protagonist considers it justifiable. Basically, The Dark Arts are any science, discipline, magic, or martial combat style note (or all of the above, as a Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot of Supernatural Martial Arts and Crafts From Technology) that is deemed by society in general and the establishment in particular as a Bad Idea. ® (For some reason, actual artistic techniques are rarely considered a Dark Art (though the Wax Museum Morgue comes pretty darn close.)

Sagittarius

Champions supplement The Blood and Dr. McQuark. People on the planet Ea are forbidden to use magic or powers that involve interdimensional travel because it could lead to the unleashing of Eldritch Abominations. Dark art does not hold with the idealist visions of modernism, and holds interest in subjects and subjective reality, rather than exploration of materials. It is often anti-authoritarian, aware of its own place within wider culture, and sometimes humorous and self deprecating. As such, work created during and prior to the modernist movement, does not truly belong to Dark Art. Among the Silent Striders, members of the Eaters of the Dead camp practice the Rite of Dormant Wisdom. Participants ritually devour a dead person's brain to acquire their memories. Not only is the rite a grave violation of the Litany, but participants risk attracting the attention of the Urge Wyrm Foebok. If a Garou takes part in the rite more times than their permanent gnosis score, they become a slave of Foebok.