See, where you all think it would go against what the WoL stands for, I would have to disagree on that point. Nor would I agree that it wouldn't be fitting for the Dark Knight to draw upon the void. The Dark Knight is presented as a class that is very clearly playing with anti-hero themes. And while your character is a beacon of hope for Eorzea, you are ultimately someone that achieves what needs to be done, despite the odds and despite the means. Think about the beast-men we've killed in our pursuits of killing their gods, the many people that we've ruined their lives indirectly (Eda, anyone?). We pursue our brand of justice, and try to accomplish our goals over all else.
To draw upon the void would fit well with the anti-hero theme completely. Remember, unlike the other jobs, we don't outright choose to become one at first. We interact with the soul stone of a dead member. We then choose to embrace the darkness and walk down that path with "Fray" as our guide. Ultimately we're all just projecting our wants and our needs unto this unknown element of the abyss. Does it stand for the darkness in all men? Or does it refer to a physical plane? We've all seen (well, assuming anyways) That there is real power that can be brought from the void in the Crystal Tower storyline. However in that, we see that Xande sacrificed clones and such as offerings in a covenant for power. However, we're not talking about making a covenant with a specific being. We're talking about the power to bleed the energy from a plane. Namely the void. There's already a precedent for this within the FFXIV world. Albeit, they don't drain power from the void.
The Dark Magic of Black Mages, is dangerous and mostly outlawed not because of what it's practitioners have done. (Though that no doubt played a significant role in the imprisonment of the ones we interact with.) Black Magic, in such that comes from the Black Mage specialization drains the Aether of the land around you. It is a purely destructive force. That would be why it's represented by it's near limitless power and why it's so dangerous. Use too much and you can literally kill the planet.
What if the power of the soul stone allows you to drain the power from the void in a similar fashion? That your emotions allow you to pull power from another plane and manifest it here, in the material realm. If the power did indeed come from the void, that would be my guess on how it works. However, on the flip-side, if the power is drawn from the area around you - I would argue that this isn't any better, and would still earn you a black mark in a great many places. I cannot see for instance the conjurer's guild looking kindly upon the use of the Dark Arts of a Dark Knight being used within the confines of the Twelveswood.
They have the advantage of being relatively obscure, and their actual powers either being misunderstood, or misrepresented by the populace. There isn't a guild in Ishgard where people can learn about them in great detail. And as such, neither can we. We can only apply our conjecture upon the limited resources that we're allowed and shown. The only people that seem to really understand how and where aether is coming from, is the Sharlyan Scholars within the Scions of the Seventh dawn. They're the only ones really equipped with the tools to judge things accurately. And unless we get some comments from an adequately equipped NPC, or someone else that is a Dark Knight outright tells us....I don't see a real end to this argument. There is no right answer right now.
As much as I'd love to be able to copy and paste an answer as to where their powers come from by a developer or something, we don't have that. So till that point, the true nature of the Abyss eludes us. Just don't delude yourself into thinking that your way of doing it is the only way, and remember - that in-world there aren't many ways to actually tell something is void energy short of opening up a void portal, or being the cause of it in the first place, or if voidsent are pouring out, et cetra. So to the layman, void energy would just be dark energy. The Dark Knights themselves aren't exactly forthcoming with information either, so it's not like they would be fighting temple knights and be like "B-T-W, I'm using Void energy ^_^." And I uh, don't think they have many peaceful encounters in general. We still don't even really know how many there are, let alone how they're organized, beyond a seeming Master-Student relationship we've been shown...
To draw upon the void would fit well with the anti-hero theme completely. Remember, unlike the other jobs, we don't outright choose to become one at first. We interact with the soul stone of a dead member. We then choose to embrace the darkness and walk down that path with "Fray" as our guide. Ultimately we're all just projecting our wants and our needs unto this unknown element of the abyss. Does it stand for the darkness in all men? Or does it refer to a physical plane? We've all seen (well, assuming anyways) That there is real power that can be brought from the void in the Crystal Tower storyline. However in that, we see that Xande sacrificed clones and such as offerings in a covenant for power. However, we're not talking about making a covenant with a specific being. We're talking about the power to bleed the energy from a plane. Namely the void. There's already a precedent for this within the FFXIV world. Albeit, they don't drain power from the void.
The Dark Magic of Black Mages, is dangerous and mostly outlawed not because of what it's practitioners have done. (Though that no doubt played a significant role in the imprisonment of the ones we interact with.) Black Magic, in such that comes from the Black Mage specialization drains the Aether of the land around you. It is a purely destructive force. That would be why it's represented by it's near limitless power and why it's so dangerous. Use too much and you can literally kill the planet.
What if the power of the soul stone allows you to drain the power from the void in a similar fashion? That your emotions allow you to pull power from another plane and manifest it here, in the material realm. If the power did indeed come from the void, that would be my guess on how it works. However, on the flip-side, if the power is drawn from the area around you - I would argue that this isn't any better, and would still earn you a black mark in a great many places. I cannot see for instance the conjurer's guild looking kindly upon the use of the Dark Arts of a Dark Knight being used within the confines of the Twelveswood.
They have the advantage of being relatively obscure, and their actual powers either being misunderstood, or misrepresented by the populace. There isn't a guild in Ishgard where people can learn about them in great detail. And as such, neither can we. We can only apply our conjecture upon the limited resources that we're allowed and shown. The only people that seem to really understand how and where aether is coming from, is the Sharlyan Scholars within the Scions of the Seventh dawn. They're the only ones really equipped with the tools to judge things accurately. And unless we get some comments from an adequately equipped NPC, or someone else that is a Dark Knight outright tells us....I don't see a real end to this argument. There is no right answer right now.
As much as I'd love to be able to copy and paste an answer as to where their powers come from by a developer or something, we don't have that. So till that point, the true nature of the Abyss eludes us. Just don't delude yourself into thinking that your way of doing it is the only way, and remember - that in-world there aren't many ways to actually tell something is void energy short of opening up a void portal, or being the cause of it in the first place, or if voidsent are pouring out, et cetra. So to the layman, void energy would just be dark energy. The Dark Knights themselves aren't exactly forthcoming with information either, so it's not like they would be fighting temple knights and be like "B-T-W, I'm using Void energy ^_^." And I uh, don't think they have many peaceful encounters in general. We still don't even really know how many there are, let alone how they're organized, beyond a seeming Master-Student relationship we've been shown...
