Dark Magics

The Dark Arts

The term Dark Arts refers to a cluster of universally feared magical disciplines. These practices, while not inherently evil, are heavily stigmatized for their dangerous nature, ethical ambiguity, and long history of abuse. Despite this, many are still studied—if only in theory—within mage academies under strict regulation and oversight.

Mastering the Dark Arts requires not only magical talent but also nerve, knowledge, and a willingness to tread paths most mages fear to walk.

Demonology

Demons are creatures of the nether realm, created by the Ynue Mallakar, and through magic, they can be summoned to the earth.
They are soulless beings, incapable of crossing into the world of Yanu on their own, except during the appearance of Mekharis, the red moon.

Binding: When a mage summons a demon, they can bind it to their will, the demon will attempt to resist this bond, break free, and kill whoever sought to enslave it. The bigger and stronger the demon, the more difficult it is to bind them.
Bait: Summoning demons is comparable to fishing, except the only working bait is the soul of a mortal. In most cases, animal souls are sufficient, but the bigger and stronger the soul, the more powerful demons it attracts.
Tug: When a demon bites, it can either jump into the world eagerly, or it can realise what awaits them, and attempt to pull back, in which case the mage will have to magically real them in. This is again more difficult if the demon is more powerful.
Prohibition: In most nations, demonology is strictly forbidden. However, in mage academies, it is standard practice to study demons, although a summoning license is often required, and there are designated summoning areas where this is done, for the sake of the safety of the rest of the school.

Read more about: Demons

Thaumaturgy

Thaumaturgy is the practice of altering regular matter and giving it magical properties, either for good or for evil.

Infusion: Thaumturgy is easily mistaken for regular infusion magic, but there are some key differences. Infusion only fills matter with mana, but thaumaturgy alters the material itself, which makes for much more permanent, and more volatile changes.
Heal or Kill: This can be used to both strengthen natural healing drafts or to create deadly poisons with arcane properties. Whatever one chooses to do, the effects can be strong and sometimes unpredictable.
Control: Still, however unpredictable, these modified potions are powerful, and in times of war, the healing drafts are in very high demand. The thaumaturgists do have control over whether the effects are positive or negative, and healing drafts rarely have negative side effects.
Reactions: Matter can also be made to interact with the environment, normally stable items can be made to be flammable, or simply be dissolved in water when they wouldn't do so normally, which has a wide set of applications.
Side Effects: Thaumaturgy, good or bad, leaves a strong scent behind, and spells cause affected objects to discolor over time, creating blue and purple discolorations that appear and grow over time.

Thaumaturgy is generally frowned upon, and those who practice it are mistrusted, but its more useful applications have prevented it from being banned. Instead, it is often regulated or taxed, or allowed only under certain conditions, such as close supervision or royal contracts.

Blood Magic

Blood magic is the manipulation of blood and bodily essence to power spells. It is one of the most feared and heavily restricted branches of magic.

Sacrifice: To cast blood magic, a sacrifice of blood is required—either from the caster or another being. The more potent the offering of blood, the stronger the resulting magic.
Use: Blood magic is primarily used to alter, enhance, or otherwise change the bodies of mortals, and it is often used by individuals out of a desire to increase their strength, magical capacity, or simply their physical appearance.
Risk: Miscasting can result in death or severe magical deformities. These deformities are often permanent and can sometimes grow worse over time.
Corruption: The use of Blood magic changes a person, and even if they can hide the effects from outside appearance, the insides often grow worse and worse, causing a wide variety of diseases that require further use of this magic, just to stay alive. This causes a vicious cycle of disease and blood offerings that is extremely difficult to break.
Prohibition: Blood magic is banned almost everywhere. Possession of blood magic texts or spell components is a capital offense in many countries.
Academia: Mage academies teach blood magic only in theory, to highlight the dangers of its misuse.

Historical Note: Blood magic played a pivotal role in the Blood Wars, specifically the Black Blood Rebellion, where a faction of human mages sought to surpass vampires by achieving immortality through blood magic rituals. Their defeat reshaped magical law across the continent.

Necromancy

Necromancy is the manipulation of the dead—raising corpses, extracting memories from remains, and summoning souls from the afterlife.

Reanimation: Corpses can be re-animated to serve as laborers, soldiers, or experimental subjects. These undead lack personality or will, as their souls remain in the land of the dead.
Memory Echoes: While the dead will always stay dead, and the majority of their personality and memories go with the soul, they retain faint echoes of memories and experiences. Skilled necromancers can extract those fragments of knowledge, though these memories are often incomplete.
Soul Recall: Souls can be summoned back from the afterlife, but not restored to life. A soul cannot be returned to its body—resurrection is impossible, this is because a vital connection is severed at death, the one that keeps people alive, and once severed, it cannot be unsevered.
Ghosts: A recalled soul will linger in the world unless guided on. If left unattended, they become ghosts, trapped between realms and visible only to those either in the spectral realm or capable of looking into it.
Soul Passage: Paradoxically, necromancy can also be used to help souls cross into the afterlife, without the need of a reaper. This is rarely practiced and often seen as blasphemous.

Necromancy is considered a grave crime in nearly all lands. Even academic institutions ban soul recall and corpse reanimation outright. Rumors of necromancers are often met with immediate suspicion, followed by organized hunts and executions.