Theory for becoming a Warrior of Darkness

[Iscah]

this "Light" and "Dark" of our is never always meant "Good" and "Evil".

The problem is that thus far, Darkness has been equated to evil and chaos. It's the element the Ascians run on, and that their god is aligned to. The Ascians spread Darkness by sowing conflict and misery in the world.

Now we need to turn that around and find out what this "Darkness" is that won't require us to go around the First being horrible people.

The description of our end goal (as given at Fanfest) made me a bit more hopeful, because restoring the natural darkness of night sounds a lot more promising than spreading chaos, but the question remains of what we are expected to do to restore that balance - hopefully without compromising our 'goodness' in the meanwhile.

[MrThinker]

The problem is that thus far, Darkness has been equated to evil and chaos. It's the element the Ascians run on, and that their god is aligned to. The Ascians spread Darkness by sowing conflict and misery in the world.

Now we need to turn that around and find out what this "Darkness" is that won't require us to go around the First being horrible people.

The description of our end goal (as given at Fanfest) made me a bit more hopeful, because restoring the natural darkness of night sounds a lot more promising than spreading chaos, but the question remains of what we are expected to do to restore that balance - hopefully without compromising our 'goodness' in the meanwhile.

I think the only time when it is presented otherwise is the whole situation with the WoDs, and even then its more of a 'too much light is bad' sort of portrayal. I mean sure, Arbert says that Light and Dark are just tools, but we never see that in practice. Unless you count the inner darkness of Dark Knights.

[Iscah]

I think the only time when it is presented otherwise is the whole situation with the WoDs, and even then its more of a 'too much light is bad' sort of portrayal. I mean sure, Arbert says that Light and Dark are just tools, but we never see that in practice. Unless you count the inner darkness of Dark Knights.

That's part of the problem itself. Arbert tells us "Light and Dark are just tools", but never explains what that means. We never saw them trying to spread Darkness in a 'good' way - only deliberately tormenting the beast tribes and trying to murder us, guided by whatever Elidibus has explained to them about how Light and Darkness work.

I really don't want an entire story full of "you have to do this awful thing! The only way to save these people is to make them suffer!" ...and yet we have no idea what else "spreading Darkness" could entail at this point.

[Cilia]

That's part of the problem itself. Arbert tells us "Light and Dark are just tools", but never explains what that means. We never saw them trying to spread Darkness in a 'good' way - only deliberately tormenting the beast tribes and trying to murder us, guided by whatever Elidibus has explained to them about how Light and Darkness work.

I really don't want an entire story full of "you have to do this awful thing! The only way to save these people is to make them suffer!" ...and yet we have no idea what else "spreading Darkness" could entail at this point.

I can't account for Arbert & co., but...

Too much order (Light) is just as bad as too much chaos (Dark). If you go too far in the direction of Light, you get nothing but stagnation - everything falls into perfect lockstep and nothing ever changes. This is implied to be what's happening on the First Shard - aside from the Sin Eater attacks, various processes we consider natural (such as the cycle of night and day, presumably seasons, etc.) don't appear to be occurring because they're chaotic. The plane is being erased into "blank white perfection" - perfectly ordered.

We're going to be harbingers of chaos. Change. For the First Shard, good news.

[MrThinker]

That's part of the problem itself. Arbert tells us "Light and Dark are just tools", but never explains what that means. We never saw them trying to spread Darkness in a 'good' way - only deliberately tormenting the beast tribes and trying to murder us, guided by whatever Elidibus has explained to them about how Light and Darkness work.

I really don't want an entire story full of "you have to do this awful thing! The only way to save these people is to make them suffer!" ...and yet we have no idea what else "spreading Darkness" could entail at this point.

Well, Dark Knights are meant to do their thing by going against the established order/laws/society, which was how the in-game explanation of it went iirc, or maybe I'm just conflating it with the story of the 1st Dark Knight. But this could point to the way we spread 'darkness'. We do the right thing and regardless of what society wants.

EDIT:

Small correction; they protect the innocent even if it means going against the established order/laws/society. It's two words but it changes so much about what they are and do, so I apologize for that nitpick.

Thank you for that Dual.

[Dualgunner]

Well, Dark Knights are meant to do their thing by going against the established order/laws/society, which was how the in-game explanation of it went iirc, or maybe I'm just conflating it with the story of the 1st Dark Knight. But this could point to the way we spread 'darkness'. We do the right thing and regardless of what society wants.

Small correction; they protect the innocent even if it means going against the established order/laws/society. It's two words but it changes so much about what they are and do, so I apologize for that nitpick.

[LineageRazor]

We're going to be harbingers of chaos. Change. For the First Shard, good news.

I still get what Iscah is getting at, though. So, we're going to be Harbingers of Chaos? Fine and dandy - but what does that MEAN? So far, all the proponents of Chaos that we've seen have been doing Very Bad Things to spread that chaos. That includes our buddies the Warriors of Darkness. The game has yet to provide any examples of chaos as a good and positive force.

I'll be somewhat disappointed if becoming a Harbinger of Chaos basically means doing exactly the same things we've been doing all along (defeating primals-or-other-trial-battles, thwarting villains, and being generally helpful to those in need) - but that's exactly what I'm expecting to see. No change in behavior, except now our actions are somehow promoting Darkness instead of Light. Because we've Embraced the Darkness, or something. I dunno.

At the same time I don't want to see us spiraling into villainy ("Hmm, way too much Light 'round these parts - time to set some buildings on fire!!!"). I find this to be an unlikely path the storyline will take, but between this option and the one above, what else is there?

[Bright-Flower]

I still get what Iscah is getting at, though. So, we're going to be Harbingers of Chaos? Fine and dandy - but what does that MEAN? So far, all the proponents of Chaos that we've seen have been doing Very Bad Things to spread that chaos. That includes our buddies the Warriors of Darkness. The game has yet to provide any examples of chaos as a good and positive force.

I'll be somewhat disappointed if becoming a Harbinger of Chaos basically means doing exactly the same things we've been doing all along (defeating primals-or-other-trial-battles, thwarting villains, and being generally helpful to those in need) - but that's exactly what I'm expecting to see. No change in behavior, except now our actions are somehow promoting Darkness instead of Light. Because we've Embraced the Darkness, or something. I dunno.

At the same time I don't want to see us spiraling into villainy ("Hmm, way too much Light 'round these parts - time to set some buildings on fire!!!"). I find this to be an unlikely path the storyline will take, but between this option and the one above, what else is there?

Maybe we'll organize a violent communist rebellion against the fat cats up in that city.

[Vulcwen]

I still get what Iscah is getting at, though. So, we're going to be Harbingers of Chaos? Fine and dandy - but what does that MEAN? So far, all the proponents of Chaos that we've seen have been doing Very Bad Things to spread that chaos. That includes our buddies the Warriors of Darkness. The game has yet to provide any examples of chaos as a good and positive force.

I'll be somewhat disappointed if becoming a Harbinger of Chaos basically means doing exactly the same things we've been doing all along (defeating primals-or-other-trial-battles, thwarting villains, and being generally helpful to those in need) - but that's exactly what I'm expecting to see. No change in behavior, except now our actions are somehow promoting Darkness instead of Light. Because we've Embraced the Darkness, or something. I dunno.

At the same time I don't want to see us spiraling into villainy ("Hmm, way too much Light 'round these parts - time to set some buildings on fire!!!"). I find this to be an unlikely path the storyline will take, but between this option and the one above, what else is there?

The WoL has experience with causing chaos already. Raiding the Kojin's vault was a deliberate act to cause chaos, it resulted in a primal to be summoned (kind of oops, but also convenient).
Besides, the WoL has quite a bit of experience with messing with governments, and acts as a major point in driving a war forward.

Also remember what the WoDs did on the source when acting as WoDs: Baiting groups into summoning primals and then defeat them.
I think this is exactly what we have to do on the First. The main switch in perspective is that rather than trying to prevent a primal summoning (and failing), we have to intentionally cause primals to be summoned, and then defeat them (to both provoke the parties more, and to prevent the draining of the land).

[Daralii]

I still get what Iscah is getting at, though. So, we're going to be Harbingers of Chaos? Fine and dandy - but what does that MEAN? So far, all the proponents of Chaos that we've seen have been doing Very Bad Things to spread that chaos. That includes our buddies the Warriors of Darkness. The game has yet to provide any examples of chaos as a good and positive force.

I'll be somewhat disappointed if becoming a Harbinger of Chaos basically means doing exactly the same things we've been doing all along (defeating primals-or-other-trial-battles, thwarting villains, and being generally helpful to those in need) - but that's exactly what I'm expecting to see. No change in behavior, except now our actions are somehow promoting Darkness instead of Light. Because we've Embraced the Darkness, or something. I dunno.

At the same time I don't want to see us spiraling into villainy ("Hmm, way too much Light 'round these parts - time to set some buildings on fire!!!"). I find this to be an unlikely path the storyline will take, but between this option and the one above, what else is there?

From what Arbert said, anything with any element of unpredictability(weather, seasons, everything about every bit of the lives and deaths of plants and animals) is considered "Chaos," and will be consumed. Simply fighting to protect those things staves off the Flood, and we know from FanFest that it has enough of an impact to bring back night and weather.

Maybe we'll organize a violent communist rebellion against the fat cats up in that city.

If the name "Sin Eater" is literal, I wouldn't be surprised if they have a symbiotic relationship. Fat cats are allowed to continue to live in endless self-indulgence(I wouldn't be surprised if whoever ultimately rules Eulmore is Innocence, which is why the one being that can presumably absorb the excess Light is imprisoned beneath the city) while hate festers in that endless refugee shanty town around their tower up until the Flood completes.