Why is the power of Dark and Destruction able to supply its worshipers and minions with cool supernatural powers, while the power of Light and Creation isn't?
I need possible explanations for this for my setting. I don't want it to be that L&C doesn't actually exist, just that it doesn't show itself in a blatant manner like D&D.
The explanation I originally considered was that all of L&C's power goes into actually creating new life. Does that explanation hold up?
Pic unrelated
Evil shit is much more forthcoming with power and also much more demanding of its followers. That's the deal, generally.
A "good" faith might ask you to live a good life, turn the other cheek, love your neighbor, and all that good stuff. Maybe sacrifice a goat here or there for those more bohemian faiths, attend a festival, whatever. Dragon slaying and villain-foiling are generally reserved for paladins and shit, and you'll note that they *do* get magic buffs.
For an evil cult, though? Man, the price of entry might well be selling your soul, or procuring a sacrifice, or murdering someone. A good god is likely to give you some core tenants and things to live your life by. An evil god might very well have an earthly agent (in the form of a demon, spirit, whatever) literally giving you instructions. Being a devotee of a good faith is a lifestyle choice. Being a devotee of an evil faith is a job, and--often--a difficult, deadly one. And so you get paid.
If you want to get more into it, the forces of "evil" can probably afford to be handing out all that mojo because they're so busily and actively generating it. Old man living in the clouds and asking people to live moral lives might be a little stingier with his mojo, but the god who has his followers suck up souls for him and throw bodies into pits in eldritch rituals can probably afford to be a little bit more spendthrift.
>Why is the power of Dark and Destruction able to supply its worshipers and minions with cool supernatural powers, while the power of Light and Creation isn't?
>what are clerics
>what are paladins
I somehow have the impression that you got this idea from christianity where supposedly the bad guys do the spooky magic tricks and the good guys pray.
I am not talking about D&D system. Although thanks for the input Somewhat, yeah. It's about crusaders in a not!Europe+not!Japan setting fighting against the Dark Lord. For the direction I want to take the campaign in the Light power has to be there but not get blatantly involved with mortals, while the Dark hands stuff down to anyone who asks in a suitable manner.
The powers of light are losing. There is no balance, there never was. Just endless war - and now your side is on the ropes, can't give you much supernatural juice, and you're facing both more and more powerful enemies.
The powers of darkness are strong and powerful, but not very efficient or sustainable - there's a reason the Dark Empire is always expanding, why there's new dark minions all the time and why you don't see many dark masters who are old and in good health, where the forces of light are content to remain in harmony, don't have as showy powers and has Old Masters out the arse
Dark Power needs new recruits, new souls, new land to spread over and corrupts its users and territory horribly, but it has a lot more raw force to play with because of that - think of it like big fossil fuel engines, compared to light's much more sustainable low-power efforts
The light powers have a running bet with the dark powers that their followers can wreck the dark shit without needing immense supernatural strength
The powers of light and dark are fighting a vast multiversal war and due to various circumstances, resources were needed elsewhere. The powers of light will eventually get around to reinforcing this world with power again.
The forces of Light believe that doing good is it's own reward. They'll dole out powers on a case-by-case basis where they believe they'll make the most difference to peoples lives, or to those truly in need.
The forces of Dark are temptation, the easy path, power for power's sake. They hand out power like free candy, except it's not really free, because each time they take a piece of your soul, until you have nothing left to give, at which time you become a wretched husk, good only for cannon fodder, willing to do anything for a fix that'll never come
Darkness can't create, it can only twist something already existing(and that never results in anything stable), meanwhile Light can only create, but cannot change what it has created(and since it already created the laws of nature and reality at the dawn of the world it can't just create say some sort of Angel Nuke to defeat the Darkness, it's completely limited to what it's rules will allow it, which is very limited, while the Darkness can break the spirit of the rules while bending the letter of the rules as much as it can)
basically Light has to follow the rules of Reality completely both in Spirit and Letter, while Darkness doesn't care about the Spirit, and only follows the Letter to the barest minimum(and only then because if it outright broke them Reality would literally fall apart taking both Darkness and Light with it, and the Darkness while inherently self-defeating in the long term, is not suicidal)
>thread full of rehashed book plots
Yep. Veeky Forums is officially dead.
Evil uses earthly powers to try and gain dominance.
Good uses the power of fate.
Thus, evil can never win, for no matter how bad it gets, evil is not destined to win.
More like someone who's never read the Bible at all and has no idea about God granting certain people the power to do CUHRAYZEE shit.
Samson is the lowest tier, and that's saying something.
Light and creation grant the power of supernatural perseverance. How else do you think that two hobbits brought down the lord of all darkness?
Power of Creation is what allows the world to exist. As such, people usually don't pay much attention to it. Power of Destruction undoes Creation, so it's far more noticeable. You don't pay attention to the air you breathe untill somebody starts pumping the air out of a sealed room you're in.
Light powers have to do with morale rather than flashiness. Chivalry, brotherhood, repentance, doing the right thing, resisting corruption. The powers of light are in all of us, not just the few. That's why they might seem less powerful, less obvious. Amongst the enemy power is concentrated amongst a few top dogs who lead an army of cannon fodder. But the light is spread out amongst all our hearts. Paladin, farmer, thief. The light turns us into brothers. How can we not resist evil when you have the light behind you and on either side?
Because stupid puritan Victorian/American revisionist wankery.
Christians in ye olde dayeths before the Protestants cocked everything up with their witchhunts were just fine with magic (after all, didn't work anyway).
History is full of noblemen, alchemists, priests, etc. doing some occult business on the side.
Chuck that retarded idea aside, and just give the good guys just as much magic as the bad guys. I mean, just look at European myths and legends.
>woo im the big bad evil guy i can turn in a dragon
>woo im the small hero i dunno what im doing
>hi hero i am an old wize wizard lemme give you this magic sword of +20 dragonslaying
>woo now im the big hero
>haha you cannot beat me i will turn in a dragon
>no haha i win i have a magic sword of +20 dragonslaying
And Christians in the oldest days weren't cool with it, precisely because they believed it did. A witch summoned Samuel's ghost at Saul's behest and Samuel was like "You fucked up Saul."
Furthermore, supernatural agents of darkness tend to, even when working stealthily, effect obvious and visible destruction. Therefore they feel no need to be subtle in the long-term. They start by tempting or corrupting, but once they have a foothold they step out of the shadows to impress the public with their powers, figuring that the more people see them the more will be tempted by power. They may even step in to be the leader of the dark forces. Whereas the forces of light do not compel their followers. The forces of light would rather open the way for the fighter to be where he needs to be at the right place at the right time than to shout commands at him from a heavenly light beam. The unlikely leader was not proven by halos of light appearing behind him or flashy signs or prophecies, but by being put into the situations where he would shine under his own power. Meanwhile certain chance encounters lead to people finding just who they need in order to keep fighting, unlikely allies working together, a band of misfits becoming heroes...
Yeah, the Old Testament has some crazy stuff, Elijah comes to mind, supposedly the guy could cause nationwide droughts, call heavenly fire down from heaven, and make iron float.
Light and Creation doesn't want to actually interfere with freewill while Dark and Destruction does everything in its power to subvert it. The reason here being that Dark and Destruction covet the power of Light and Creation, and in their dark anger seek to subvert it. While Light and Creation may not actively try to fight back, they know that their creations feel the pull of their makers, that they will choose to fight against the Dark and Destruction of their own freewill. If the situation is dire enough, Light and Creation may give a boon to their fated champion, but otherwise do not want to interfere with the agency of their creations.
without an actual pantheon and creation story you're gonna have a bad time
Don't forget Elisha the guy that summoned a horde of bears to attack children because they called him bald
One of the lamest tropes.
That's a cheap victory for Light though - nice for morality tales, but if you want both sides to have an actual fight it's shit
dark powers are about forcefully bending the magic to your will. it's all about the big, flashy powerful attacks.
light powers however, are more subtle. light powers play the long game, understanding that flash and power aren't as useful as long-term wisdom. someone who embraces light powers might just seem lucky. they always manage to dodge the attack. they're always in the right place at the right time. their attacks always seem to connect just right to do the job.
kind of like the force
What the fuck you talking about? I've been serving creation for 5 eternities now and I've got a bunch of kickass powers. I mean I'm metaphysically prevented from destruction, but I can just transmute motherfuckers.
I have a somewhat comedic fantasy setting that involves intrusions from the heavens and from hell.
The masters of Hell is a third world country, it's masters are ether lazy, selfish or insane. They don't care about collateral damage or the safety of their charges. They mass produce dangerously flawed artefacts that they distribute liberally. They actively project their propaganda into the dreams of mortal to ensure evil tomes are written so they can sell their second-rate magic and craft for souls.
Demon magic on its own isn't inherently evil, however it is made with a evil design philosophy so don't be surprised when it backfires.
The forces of heaven get that their magic can be horribly misused in the wrong hands so they limit it's exposure to the lower planes. They fewer magic-nukes floating around they less likely one of them will be used for something stupid. Since there are so few magics handed out they usually go to the particularly righteous and competent. Because these individuals are so rare it helps if their magic swords don't randomly explode. Also angelic craftsmen just like making things that are actually good.
While angelic artefacts could be used for evil they are generally protected by a lot of crazy geasa that need to be met for their supernatural powers to work. The most powerful are constructed for incredibly specific purposes and a have a maze of annoyingly specific conditions that can lock one out of their use.
tl;dr
>Demons make mass-produced chinese knock-off magic and man-eating escalators which they sell for souls
>Angles fold their magic a million times and hand it out to people they like for purposes they care about
Read the young wizards series by diane duane.