Protecting the Kingdom is a heavy burden to bare. A Royal Mage might turn to dark magic to maintain order and eliminate threats. Dark Magic is largely forbidden and certainly frowned upon in every Continent. Examples of dark magic include manipulating blood to control enemies, using necromancy to question deceased foes, or sacrificing life force to enhance their power.
Any use of Dark Magic has consequence in this Realm. Drawing power from dark magic can cause the decline of the users health, the health of the planet, resurrect the monsters of the Realm… It is a highly dangerous line to dance.
Here are some specific examples of dark magic categorised by usage:
Political Manipulation and Control
Mind Control
Stripping subjects or foreign dignitaries of their free will to ensure loyalty or extract secrets.1.
Memory Extraction/Modification: Probing the minds of suspected spies for treasonous information, often causing severe mental damage.
2.
Love/Obedience Potions: Using dark alchemy to make the monarch loved or to force binding marriage alliances.
3.
Glamour Failure/True Polymorph: Forcing an enemy into a monstrous form to discredit them.
Battlefield and Strategic Destruction
Haemomancy
1.
Blood Magic: Controlling the blood of enemy soldiers, stopping their hearts, or using blood sacrifice to amplify defensive barrier spells.
2.
Necromancy/Animated Soldiers: Raising fallen enemy soldiers as undead minions to fight for the crown, or animating armour for city defence.
3.
Darkness Shield/Sentient Flame: Creating protective barriers that protect allies while hostile to any who oppose the crown. Warding is light magic. A shield that both protects and harms is dark magic.
4.
Summoning Demons/Void Beings: Binding dark entities to protect the kingdom, often requiring mortal souls as bait.
Intelligence and Surveillance
1.
Shadowcasting/Spying: Using shadows to observe secret meetings, or creating shadowy doppelgängers to act as bodyguards.
2.
Soul Recall: Forcing a recently deceased enemy to reveal secrets, trapping their spirit between realms.
3.
Magic Mirror (Dark Divination): A scrying tool that uses blood sacrifice to see anywhere in the world.
Personal Preservation (The "Immortal Chancellor" Trope)
1.
Life Draining/Vitality Theft: Sapping the life force of commoners or political prisoners to maintain the mage's youth, strength, or to survive otherwise fatal wounds.
2.
Soul Splitting: Creating a soul container to ensure they can serve the royal bloodline forever.
3.
Magic Jar (Body Swapping): Possessing a younger, stronger, or more politically advantageous body to retain power.
Urban Control and Punishment
1.
Magical Plague: Engineering diseases that only affect a certain population or district to quell rebellion.
2.
Mandatory Madness/Curse of Suffering: Using hexes to drive political dissidents insane.
3.
Silent Assassination: Using curses that make murders look like natural causes (e.g., stopping a heart from a distance).
Contextual Consequences
A Royal Mage using these abilities would likely deal with corruption— such as shadowy auras or strange runes appearing on their skin. Persistent use of Dark Magic has wider implications outside of the Mage themselves. The world suffers, decays and monster sightings are increased. A Mage seen to be using Dark Magic is punished by the Council of their Continent and, in more extreme cases, all Continent Councils.
