Changed every reference of 'Dark magic' to 'Black magic' · 5:13pm Jul 11th, 2023
yyyyyeah, so I realized today that I kinda wrote the entire section of my notes on Dark magic while referring to it as Black magic, and I further realized that I'd meant to call it Black magic in the story and always deferred to Dark magic on instinct. I wrote an entire well-reasoned explanation on why it's specifically called 'Black' magic, as well, so in the face of either changing the details of the unfocused story verses my extremely concerted notes on magic, I chose the former!
It's not a huge change, but I thought I'd put the fact of it out there so people aren't accidentally gaslit when they look back and remember a different word. Don't worry! It was me! The word's barely different but its meaning is much more severe!
Next chapter's going well, by the by. It'd be going a lot better if I hadn't fallen severely ill for a few days and had to put writing on hold on account of not being able to put two intelligent thoughts together, but what can you do? With the pace it's on right now, it's likely to come out sooner rather than later, so don't go thinking I'm going inactive for a month again.
Also, to fill space, here's the song I'm listening to literally right now while writing the next chapter. 4everfreebrony is a fandom treasure and I will freely use my extremely limited sphere of influence to get more people to listen to his music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8alIAbqXHbg
I think that's it for the moment. I'll get back to you if anything else of note happens that can't wait for an AN. snrkt
Have a good day!
Hope you feel better. Any idea what it was?
5737345
Aw, sweet of you to ask.
It was nothin', just a nasty cold. Sore throat; ridiculous fever; extreme fatigue- the works. Nothing to worry about, and I was only laid up for as long as it took for my throat to heal enough to jam food into my piehole. From there I was basically in tip-top shape- though the chapter laid dormant at a meagre few hundred words, and that was as distressing as my illness.
It doesn't help that I'm actually working on two chapters at once- but you didn't hear that from me. The point is that I'm okay! And it's super sweet that you asked!
Thanks for being around, Witchery.
Black magic huh? I think I made a point about it a real long time ago.
But with it changing to Black magic, my point is relatively still the same but this just adds another implication to it.
Black is a very ominous colour. It is unfortunately linked to all things spooky and death related. That means there is a "White" magic representing life.
The implication here is that the colours implicates such magic to be perceived by everyone that such spells are wholly good or evil only, no in betweens. For all I know, it might be partially correct.
Spells are not inherently evil.Maybe one such Black spell could actually be the Black Plague. Light and Dark doesn't limit such spells to their respective trope. But Black on the other hand, it doesn't sound like it can budge, regardless of good intentions.An example: Sombra uses mind control. It implies it can be broken of it is dark magic's hold. But under black magic, the name implies something darker, the mind control irreversibly replaces the mind for life.
With that in mind, it seemed like Light has been even more condemned from the start.
5737356
I'm glad you realize the tremendous distinction between the two terms. Dark magic is so innocuous in comparison, and it doesn't fit very well into the established schema in their society. That school of magic is well and truly reviled: it is believed to be wholly depraved. Bon Bon has previously stated in no uncertain terms that it is perceived as profane. That is: it is the conceptual anathema to her faith.
Celestia's faith. The Pure Goddess who stands above their world, white as snow, who we can only assume is the one who outlawed the school. If that's true, then She may very well be the one who named it as well.
It is no coincidence that the Goddess who has made Herself synonymous with good would envision a terrible evil as a tenet of Her faith. The antithetical opposite of what She built. Where the light is white, the dark is black. If the Light- White- is good, then the Dark- Black- is evil.
That's more or less why I changed the name of the school. Dark is just a step behind on the philosophical chain of importance. It's why the typical holy magic is usually called White instead of Light: it's too ambiguous. White and Black are as stark as you can get, and that's exactly what Celestia wanted.
...Presumably. I confirm nothing! Nor do I deny anything!
5737348
That sounds awful. Glad you're all better though! I got food poisoning for one evening over my recent vacation, that was... A trip.
It sounds so very mundane to me.
I even searched for alteratives, but returned empty hoofed.
Empty... headed?
5737356
White used to be the color of death by the way. For various reasons.
One personification of death is a white mare, or "pale horse". "White" (gray) foals with blue eyes are very rare and almost always die within [several] hours. Newborn gray foals are almost black.
I got something to say I don't feel like saying it before but I find a picture cute and funny at the same time
5737356
Well Zecoras fate is pretty much horrifying. Definitely black over dark
'Black' is just a harmless color.