Darkness: Difference between revisions

For centuries following the Collapse, the Darkness was believed by scholars of the [[Last City]] to be an inherently evil force, with its usage inevitably corrupting the wielder. This is now known to be untrue; just as the Light can be used for constructive and benevolent purposes as well as destructive and self-serving ones, the Darkness has no moral valency of its own and can be used for good or ill. Ancient civilizations such as the [[Ecumene]] and [[Qugu]] used the Darkness for peaceful purposes, such as communing with the memories of their ancestors. In contrast, the being known as the [[The Witness|Witness]] and its [[Disciples of the Witness|Disciples]], who collectively lead the armada known as the [[Black Fleet]] and have exterminated countless civilizations uplifted by the [[Traveler]], wield the Darkness as a weapon against their enemies. Most of humanity's experience with the Darkness has come through conflict with those aligned with the Witness and its cause, such as the [[Hive]], [[Taken]], [[Scorn]] and the [[Vex]] of the [[Sol Divisive]], which has in large part led to the one-sided view of Darkness as a destructive force hostile to life and peaceful civilization.  

However, if the Lore Book ''[[Lore:Unveiling|Unveiling]]'' is to be taken at face value, the reality may be more complex. Unveiling is narrated by a being who identifies themselves as the Winnower, one of two primordial entities who predate the universe, the other being the [[Light|Gardener]]. The Winnower is presented as embodying the reduction of complexity, whereas the Gardener embodies the growth and preservation of complexity. In the allegorical story recounted in ''Unveiling'', these two entities struggled with one another in the state which preceded the universe, and upon inadvertently creating the universe as a by-product of this struggle, each became a [[paracausality|paracausal]] force which would serve to further their respective goals within the universe. This story not only appears to provide an origin for the Light and Darkness as they are presently known, but also seems to imply that the Darkness is itself sentient and has its own motivations, namely to reduce the universe to an eternal, maximally simplified form known as the [[Final Shape]]. A conversation between [[Oryx, the Taken King]] and the Darkness itself is also recorded in the [[Books of Sorrow]], in which the Darkness further describes a philosophy of winner-takes-all and survival at the expense of others. In both of these entries, the Darkness exhibits an informal, friendly demeanor, and refers to itself in the first person; both of these seem to indicate that the speaker in these entries is not the Witness, who is less casual in its speech and always refers to itself in the plural. However, it remains unclear to what degree various other statements that have been ascribed to the Darkness itself in fact originate from the Witness, who has also been referred to as the "voice in the Darkness".

The precise relationship between the Light and Darkness likewise remains somewhat ambiguous. The Witness and its followers clearly believe the Darkness to be superior to the Light and oppose all who would use it, and the Darkness itself is presented in ''Unveiling'' as having opposed the Light since before the beginning of time. However, in the Lore Book ''[[Lore:Inspiral|Inspiral]]'', a slightly more nuanced picture is given in the entry "Winnowing", where the Darkness is presented as playing a necessary and complementary role to that of the Light in helping to maintain the stability of life and civilization. After having gained insights into the Darkness from his studies of [[Strand]], Osiris likewise came to believe that the Light and Darkness are not truly antagonistic forces, but merely different.