DRK related lore questions

[Justsomenoob]

Hello, I have a few questions about Dark Knights, and their soulstones, I wish to progress with him as smoothly as possible but I feel I need to clear some things up before I do. I'll post my character's wiki if some of you wish to read it. It will be great to get some feedback or tips on it :]

 

 

1. So darkness is something all Dark Knights deal with and can take on a form like IG, Is it different for every Dark Knight? Does it only take the form of whoever is carrying the soulstone or can it take the form of another person (say like a dead comrade or relative?)

 

2. If the darkness is a reflection of the Dark Knight's dark intent or desire (Idk which one it is) Can the darkness antagonize the Dark Knight to do evil if they are not in a good state of mind? Does the darkness make them go insane or whats the deal?

 

3. I read up on some lore about soulstones, (mainly Dark knight soulstone posted in a tumblr by someone with a dark brown xeala with black hair with red highlights I think) So if a Dark Knight desires to forfeit their life, would they unable to use the soulstone or would their be unable to use it if the decide to not protect but instead destroy everything?

 

4. Soulstone, does it suck the souls of its wielder once they die?? (I've been pondering on this for quite some time and would love an answer to this :]))

 

5. Since dark knights fuel their power with negative emotions, If one would go murderously insane, using feeling like anger, malice and murderous intentions. This wouldn't effect the strength of his abilities right?

[ɴᴘᴄ]

Hey, not sure of your progress through the questline, but I'll just add what I can recall up to and including the Lv 70 Job Quest. Hence, don't let me spoil anything if you haven't gone that far. Also, I'm not a lore expert, so take this as tentative until someone corrects me.

 

1. So darkness is something all Dark Knights deal with and can take on a form like IG' date=' Is it different for every Dark Knight? Does it only take the form of whoever is carrying the soulstone or can it take the form of another person (say like a dead comrade or relative?)[/quote']

 

From the conflict with Fray at Whitebrim, we find that The Esteem is a manifestation of the WoL's darker emotions, their suppressed responses to the challenges of being everyone's go-to problem solver. Hence, a bearer of a Dark Knight soulstone would likely face an Esteem that reflects themselves and their own particular resentments.

 

2. If the darkness is a reflection of the Dark Knight's dark intent or desire (Idk which one it is) Can the darkness antagonize the Dark Knight to do evil if they are not in a good state of mind? Does the darkness make them go insane or whats the deal?

 

The Dark Knight as an institution is a response to a lack of Justice. They are those who give of themselves in order to enact judgement upon the wicked when none other can or will. Thus, I do not believe they are inherently evil, but rather willing to commit brutality in order to serve their ideal of justice. The pivotal question is: how morally universal in that ideal?

 

3. I read up on some lore about soulstones, (mainly Dark knight soulstone posted in a tumblr by someone with a dark brown xeala with black hair with red highlights I think) So if a Dark Knight desires to forfeit their life, would they unable to use the soulstone or would their be unable to use it if the decide to not protect but instead destroy everything?

 

Personally, and this may be wrong, I think of the soul stone as a repository of knowledge and memory. The 'soul' is the operating system, and as the WoL cultivates their own 'soul' (through story, leveling, etc.), new insights within the stone can be accessed.

 

4. Soulstone, does it suck the souls of its wielder once they die?? (I've been pondering on this for quite some time and would love an answer to this :]))

 

I don't believe so. The WoL bears the stone, taps into it, and also feeds their experience and memory within. Someday, someone else could bear it, gleaning insight through the WoL's memories along with others.

 

5. Since dark knights fuel their power with negative emotions, If one would go murderously insane, using feeling like anger, malice and murderous intentions. This wouldn't effect the strength of his abilities right?

 

Hypothetically, if The Esteem were victorious in that pivotal battle, I think a typical Dark Knight would cease to be, and The Esteem would become , having seemingly gone 'murderously insane'. That being may have the power of the Dark Knight abilities but none of the temperance that the original soul stone bearer exerted over their own destructive emotions. However, I'm skeptical that a living soul stone bearer would retain the ability to wield the stone in the event that they were so far detached from reason.

 

Ultimately, the Dark Knight is not meant to kill, but to punish.

[Valence]

1. So darkness is something all Dark Knights deal with and can take on a form like IG, Is it different for every Dark Knight? Does it only take the form of whoever is carrying the soulstone or can it take the form of another person (say like a dead comrade or relative?)

 

It's probably very different and personal depending on the person. We're only presented the WoL story in the quests, and as you have probably seen, everything is deeply personal and related to their own context: the WoL finds a corpse, Fray's corpse, and so their unconscious projects Fray as their mentor through their soulstone, which is also the soul crystal carried by Fray before their death.

 

You can bet that another dark knight, that never found Fray in the same context, doesn't even know Fray, and has a whole different psychology, will deal with a very different impersonation of Darkness.

 

2. If the darkness is a reflection of the Dark Knight's dark intent or desire (Idk which one it is) Can the darkness antagonize the Dark Knight to do evil if they are not in a good state of mind? Does the darkness make them go insane or whats the deal?

 

Yes. That's the whole point of the 30-50 quests, and even the 50-60 one. There is a duality to be found and it climaxes in the lvl50 quest notably when the WoL battles their own dark self impersonation that exudes very dark and negative nihilism about their fellow eorzeans, among other things. Honestly, it's like battling not to fall to the dark side.

 

Ultimately it covers very similar themes than what you could find in Batman and whatnot: bringing justice as a vigilante and punishing the wicked outside the laws. You can guess that the next question that comes pretty fast is: where do you draw the limits? Where does it stop to be justice before it turns into pure vengeance or just bloodshed?

 

The 50-60 quests bring a complement to that: if the WoL was close to fall without a true purpose in the previous quests, their only purpose being punishing the wicked, how does it stay in check without a more positive motive? This is where they introduce the need to protect as well.

 

3. I read up on some lore about soulstones' date=' (mainly Dark knight soulstone posted in a tumblr by someone with a dark brown xeala with black hair with red highlights I think) So if a Dark Knight desires to forfeit their life, would they unable to use the soulstone or would their be unable to use it if the decide to not protect but instead destroy everything?[/quote']

 

They could be unable. That's hard to tell but that's a possibility. Soul crystals are an allagan invention that serves as a repository of memories and knowledge, really like a holocron in starwars by the way. If you're not worth it, it won't open, simple as that. If you're just starting and worthy of the basics but no more, it will only offer you the basics until you get stronger.

 

If a dark knight forsakes their art, or deviates too much from what the soulstone teaches and the specific memories stored inside, then maybe it could close to its carrier? Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

 

Keep in mind that soul crystals being repositories of their previous owners and mentors, the latter being only human and far from perfect, that those soul crystals are personal, probably reasonably biased, and far from complete or perfect. See how the 50-60 quests need you to actually go find the most improbable source of teachings, moogles, to get an answer? Well, you can bet that Fray's soulstone had no answer to offer there.

 

4. Soulstone' date=' does it suck the souls of its wielder once they die?? (I've been pondering on this for quite some time and would love an answer to this :']))

 

I've read nothing of the sort. If it's a standard soul crystal, then probably not. However some soul crystals are a bit specific to their jobs, like a black mage soul stone which acts as a gem of Shattoto, acting as a catalyst not to die to their own spells, or a machinist soul crystal that acts as a catalyst without which the machinist couldn't even fire. So heh, who knows, maybe a dark knight soul crystal sucks a soul when its carrier dies? But that's totally out of the bounds of the lore to my knowledge. You would be acting in terra incognita with that, unless maybe you invent something like a cursed soulstone or something to that effect, which makes more sense. Curses are a thing.

 

5. Since dark knights fuel their power with negative emotions, If one would go murderously insane, using feeling like anger, malice and murderous intentions. This wouldn't effect the strength of his abilities right?

 

This wouldn't as far as I know. Might even get out of hands without any check to the balance of their inner darkness.

[Kieron Lohengrin]

1. So darkness is something all Dark Knights deal with and can take on a form like IG, Is it different for every Dark Knight? Does it only take the form of whoever is carrying the soulstone or can it take the form of another person (say like a dead comrade or relative?)

 

Whether you do it consciously or unconsciously, you can manifest your aether as physical forms that can be perceived by others. This becomes an even bigger plot point in the 60-70 quests.

 

5. Since dark knights fuel their power with negative emotions' date=' If one would go murderously insane, using feeling like anger, malice and murderous intentions. This wouldn't effect the strength of his abilities right?[/quote']

 

Not negative emotions, but strong emotions. The 30-50 quests warn you against the danger of being consumed by selfish anger and rage. The moogle mentors in the 50-60 quests teach you the value of having people to protect. The 60-70 quests warn you against the danger of being consumed by misplaced guilt and a martyr-savior complex.

 

Taken together as a whole, all the DRK quests teach you to carefully balance your desire to punish the wicked with your desire to effectively save people, without getting overtaken by either hateful malice or misguided bleeding-heart selflessness. Natsuko Ishikawa's writing is more evocative of Persona rather than Fight Club.

[Milo Northwind]

On question 4, the dark knight soul crystal doesn't do anything like that, though it seems to have a certain level of... autonomy? At least, it produces a Darkside of the WoL on contact.

 

On question 5... We don't know? the lorebook states that if the Abyss isn't controlled, it will immolate the wielder in black fire, not unlike what can happen to weak Black Mages. But we haven't been given an example of someone who does not have good intentions; that is, someone who is sociopathic and already as callous and self-serving as the WoL's Esteem and then some. Will they just auto-immolate? We don't know. I have the feeling that the Dark Arts in the hands of someone like that would get very Sith-ish very quickly though.

[Kallera]

Hello, I have a few questions about Dark Knights, and their soulstones, I wish to progress with him as smoothly as possible but I feel I need to clear some things up before I do. I'll post my character's wiki if some of you wish to read it. It will be great to get some feedback or tips on it :]

 

 

1. So darkness is something all Dark Knights deal with and can take on a form like IG, Is it different for every Dark Knight? Does it only take the form of whoever is carrying the soulstone or can it take the form of another person (say like a dead comrade or relative?)

 

2. If the darkness is a reflection of the Dark Knight's dark intent or desire (Idk which one it is) Can the darkness antagonize the Dark Knight to do evil if they are not in a good state of mind? Does the darkness make them go insane or whats the deal?

 

3. I read up on some lore about soulstones, (mainly Dark knight soulstone posted in a tumblr by someone with a dark brown xeala with black hair with red highlights I think) So if a Dark Knight desires to forfeit their life, would they unable to use the soulstone or would their be unable to use it if the decide to not protect but instead destroy everything?

 

4. Soulstone, does it suck the souls of its wielder once they die?? (I've been pondering on this for quite some time and would love an answer to this :]))

 

5. Since dark knights fuel their power with negative emotions, If one would go murderously insane, using feeling like anger, malice and murderous intentions. This wouldn't effect the strength of his abilities right?

 

1. Yes, it comes about in different ways. Not everyone gets a manifestation, muvh like the struggles of every person, the path can take different turns.

 

2. I'd say it more entices the subject to "let it out." But it is still the user's own mindset doing this, the darkness is not "a will" or something. Whether that leads to evil or not depends on circumstance, and that is the crux of justice, at any rate.

 

3.a soulstone is based on the mindset of the person, that said, I don't think anything from the soulstone prevents a person from committing evil, or usijg said powers to take their own life. It is not a matter of simply shouting to the heavens "take me, O sweet loving Abyss!", however, that just makes you look silly.

 

4. No. The process is decribed I think in the machinist storyline, but it doesn't do that, not even the drk one.

 

5. It's more emotions in general, the negative ones are easier to use, particularly within battle, but i think so. This comes of course at a cost, apart from the increased chance of doing something wrong or causing friendly fire, the energies can cause a backlash in the DRK, basically hurting themselves from overuse.

 

In the 50 fight, if Esteem managed to win, it would essentially be you, and as you, everyone in Whitebrim would have been killed. Evil? Yes. But Esteem sought to leave Eorzea for a freer life, dispensing justice devoid of the chains. (Either that or it was an allergory for suicide, it depends on how you interpret “quitting these lands forever”)

 

I hope this helps!

[Justsomenoob]

Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to respond to my poorly written, silly questions :). They have been extremely helpful in mapping out keys things for my character.  

Edited May 8, 2019 by Justsomenoob

[Milo Northwind]

1) The darkness is the power you utilize, sourced from the "Abyss". Rather than a location, it's more implied to just be the darkness within ones soul. It is not an evil force, but it is volatile and emotional inherently, which makes it dangerous to harness.

 

2) The darkside in the MSQ appears in two incarnations, the first a form of frustration that everyone coens to you with their problems, and later, a manifestation of the WoL's pain and a desire to escape it. The most important thing to note is that these are desires are not external-- the WoL really does feel these things, and these supresses emotions are manifesting as a Darkside. In both cases, the darkside is not a bad thing, but if not accepted by the dark knight, they will overtake you. In the lorebook, it is stated that those who lose control in such a way literally combust in stygian, abyssal flame.

 

In short, the darkside can overtake the person to commit heinous acts, yes, but some part of the person must want that.

 

3) The soulstone isnt strictly required to use the dark magics in lore. But if you dont have a healthy approach to dealing with your power it will probably hurt you or corrupt you!

 

4) No. A soulstone, contrary to its name, doesnt absorb souls. A soulstone is exposed to the experience and memory of its user over their profession, engraining memory, instinct and experience into the tiny grooves of the crystal. Soul stones can act differently depending on class-- in the dark knights case, touching the soulstone allowed the darkness within the WoL to manifest as a Darkside, which introduces itself as Frey (the name of the previous owner) but who later names itself Esteem. Frey isnt literally there, it's just using the name of the dead dark knight to further its goals.

 

5) the "fuel" of the dark knight is not entirely spelled out. While negative and passionate emotions seem a basic one, the darkside seems to embody the emotional states that the wielder others within themselves-- in the WoLs case, their irritation and frustration with the world, and their own grief. As stated previously, a dark knight is only stable when they confront these raging feelings and accept them. This doesnt mean they go away, just that they do not ignore or allow them to rule them. Of someone is using their rage to fuel their power, and that rage is eroding them as a person, I dont think that dark knight will last very long.

 

 

[Kieron Lohengrin]

Just to add on a bit more to the above, which is already mostly correct: the moogles in the 50-60 jobquests explicitly teach you and Sid that your darkside can be tempered by the power of love, such as Sid's love and caring for Rielle. Being such an emotionally-fuelled job makes it inherently volatile, if you lack the positive outlook or levelheadedness to balance it out. 

 

The emphasis on centrist balance is key, as we've seen the Dark extremists of voidsent, and now we'll get to see the Light extremists of Sin Eaters. This is likely one of the reasons why the job is now the poster boy class for Shad.