This schtick is generally considered evil. Darkness is a strange and horrible power to humans. Darkness hides and makes locations uncertain. It makes brave warriors hesitate and ordinary folks hide in their hovels. Beware the power of darkness! Backlash with Darkness makes you overly attuned to darkness, and consequently, you become sensitive to light. You get one point of impairment in any bright light.
Darkness Difficulties
Many Darkness effects have their difficulty determined by the ambient light, as you can see on this table.
| Condition | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Darkness; cloudy night, closed room. | O |
| Twilight or dim light; moonlit night, candlelight, streetlights, dusk or dawn, very heavy clouds. | 5 |
| Well lit; Indirect or dim sunlight, strong artificial light, well-lit room. | 10 |
| Blinding light; direct sunlight, projector, searchlight. Shadows are still present.. | 15 |
| No Shadows; created by magic, mirrors or other trickery. | 20 |
Darkness Effects
Cloak of Night
You can cover yourself in darkness and night. Even in all but blinding light or sunlight, you can use your Sorcery as Dodge, even if you don't know Blast. You can also sneak in shadows and darkness using your Sorcery.
The night also hides her children from magical detection. As long as you are in shadow or darkness, any attempt to detect you using supernatural means suffer a penalty equal to your Magic attribute.
Gift of Night
You can give somebody else the benefit of the Cloak of Night for a Magic point. They will use your Sorcery for their Dodge, but they cannot parry actively; you must do that for them. Dodging for another this way still costs only a single shot. The effect lasts for a scene.
Cloud of Night
You can create a zone of shadow that anyone friendly to you can hide in as if under Gift of Night; the cloud has a diameter equal to your Magic and you must be within it at all times.
Dance of Shadows
You can create a confusing dance of shadows and dark images that impose a -2 penalty on all action by enemies in the area who lack dark vision. You cannot affect someone whose Perception exceeds your Sorcery, and this includes Perception-like effects like HairTriggerNeckHairs.
Dark Mood
You can make your target think dark thoughts and inspire negative emotions like fear, inadequacy, resentment and despair. Use either the target's Willpower or the usual Darkness Difficulties; the effect can be reduced or negated if the target moves into the light. It lasts for a scene. Your Outcome is added to any Stunts to make the target feel bad. It aids Intimidation and Deceit, as well as supernatural powers of fear and loathing. The Outcome is added to the difficulty of any attempt to cheer up, inspire, lead or otherwise make your target feel better. If your Outcome matches the target's Willpower, he may do stupid and destructive things on his own.
Dark Step
In the dark, your position becomes very uncertain. If you are in darkness or deep shadow, you can use this power to teleport to another patch of darkness at the cost of a Magic point. The difficulty is the Darkness difficulty for the brightest illumination along the path; use normal range and cover modifications. You need not teleport in a straight line, but count the range for the path that you are actually using.
Darksight
You can smell, taste and hear the darkness. It shelters and protects you, and you are not affected by the supposed terror of the dark. You are never impaired in any way because of darkness. In a radius around yourself equal to your Sorcery, you can sense things even around corners or behind cover, by touching them with dark tendrils. For a Magic point, you can give a number of target's equal to your Magic in number night vision. They will not be immune to the terror of darkness, and can still be fooled by shadows, but will not be impaired by magical or natural darkness.
Life Drain
You can drain the life force of another to heal yourself or someone else you touch. If you hit, the healing done is equal to your Magic attribute plus the Outcome. You can extend this to an area heal centered on you with a diameter equal to your Magic attribute at the cost of a Magic point. The target loses either a Magic point, a Fortune point, or 5 Fu points, his choice as long as he has the points to spend. If neither of these are available, there is no effect on the target, but the heal still works.
Master Darkness
Allows you to dim or dispel light and create pitch blackness. Use Darkness Difficulties. The outcome becomes the diameter of the effect in meters and the duration in minutes. You can restrict the effect to a smaller area if desired.
Darkness causes three kinds of penalties. First, it causes two points of general Impairment because you are blind. Second, it penalises all targeted actions by -2 because you cannot see what you are striking at. Third, it impoises a range penalty of -1 per meter as you try to blindly aim a ranged attack.
Of course, this is only complete darkenss or blindness. In most cases, there will be some light, even if it is faint. This removes all penalties except the range penalty. Numerous schticks will mitigate darkness penalties, often with some range limitations. Finally, note that "blind" in this context means unable to use your primary sense - many dogs are more hampered by losing their scent rather than their sight.
Twilight
If you content yourself with creating twilight, you get -5 to difficulty. Twilight has no direct effect, but aids your magic immensely.
Shadow Play
You can cause darkness to shift and move in suggestive forms, playing upon ancestral fears of the dark. Victims will swear they heard the shadows making sounds and that they smelled bad as well. You must have some darkness to work with and can't affect creatures able to see in darkness; it holds no terror to them. Under these restrictions, you can make Intimidation Stunts using your Sorcery action value.
Will o' Lights
You can create a glowing nimbus or phantom light that is so weak as to be visible only in darkness. This light can move, fade, and return to full strength, and if often very deceptive at night, creating a false hope in your victim or leading them astray. Under these restrictions, you can make Deceit Stunts using your Sorcery.