2

I know that this question may look a little bit similar to this one: Realistic perspective on "shadow/void/darkness" powers? But I do believe this question is quite different

Intro:

I'm currently developing the guidelines to explain the powers that some characters have on my story. Different "demigods" control one of the 6 basic elements: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Darkness and Light. They've come to a peaceful lifestyle by using their powers on a positive way, helping each other when needed and caring for the environment by maintaining an equilibrium.

Darkness powers, like fire and light, are of a destructive nature (this means that it has more agressive applications).

About positive applications: in the case of fire they can apply their powers to help some ecosystems that need fire to thrive (it's a real thing, there are a lot of research on this topic on the internet) and also control wildfires that get out-of-hand, etc..., light also provides benefits to the community by shielding their lands from the outside dangers, creating a magic alternative that mimics electricity on that world, etc....

My problem with darkness is that I'm short of ideas for giving them a positive use for their powers, wich are based in something similar to antimatter and some spare teleportation skills by traveling between dimensions, they excel in battle because they can create excesive amounts of energy (much more difficult to manage that the one light-powers provide) but apart from creating ideal environmental conditions to help some species that require darkness-ecosystems I don't find more applications for their powers.

Background

A lot of the guidelines for the powers are based on chemistry and physics.

- Fire: They create spontaneus combustion in objects by weakening the bonds at molecular level, or creating friction between particles.

- Water: They don't "control water" they can manipulate the structure to freeze it inmediately or evaporate it.

- Wind: They have something similar to telekinesis and can also levitate by redirecting the wind around them using invisible molecule bridges.

- Earth: Controls and identifies vibrations on the structure of the planet.

- Light: Electromagnetism 101

And then there's darkness, the first thing I thought about was antimatter, somewhat allowing them to create an access to a mirrored dimension or create temporal-matter that has a highly volatile nature because according to a research:

"One thing for sure about antimatter is that it explodes when it meets matter. Harness that, and the possible uses are limitless."

Thing is, that the limitless possible uses I can imagine are pretty useless on the sense of helping a civilization persist or thrive on peaceful times.

My question

¿Are there any possible positive uses for darkness powers? On the context of my story, apart from powerful weapons.

It would be nice to stay a little bit close to the "antimatter" concept, beacuse I belive it gives a little bit more of scientific-base to make it more realistic.

Note:

If you think I might need to re-structure my question to make it more suitable for this site feel free to mantion it on the comments, it's the first time I post a question.

H_Garcia
  • 39
  • 1
  • Have you considered making Darkness the opposite of light? If light is electromagnetism then darkness would be resistance and magnetic dampening. – Henry Taylor Mar 13 '18 at 16:32
  • So you are saying that in this world darkness is something different than absence of light? Then in order to fantasize about its application you must first define what darkness is in your fantastic world, because the word clearly has a different meaning than on Earth. And regarding antimatter, the photon (the quantum of electromagnetic radiation and therefore the quantum of light) is its own antiparticle: light is the same in an universe made of matter and in one made of antimatter. – AlexP Mar 13 '18 at 16:33
  • Do I interprets you correctly - you want to know what kind of power you could call darkness under the condition that it could be used constructively? If not, I don't understand what you mean by darkness. Btw paradoxically just making up magic can be more believable than using scientific terms randomly and justifying stuff with it. Just a hint, nothing here is realistic, but I find going non-scientific is more intuitive – Raditz_35 Mar 13 '18 at 16:39
  • 2
    I'm voting to close this quesiton as primarily opinion-based as no one answer will be better than any other. Please note that it appears by "darkness" that you mean something akin to "evil" or "unwanted." Without knowing the foundation of your magic system there's no way to separate the tool from its application. Is fire just a tool or must you be evil/angry/destructive to use it? You need to delete the 80% of your Q that doesn't apply to the question and replace it with information that helps us understand the nature of "darkness" and "fire." – JBH Mar 13 '18 at 16:44
  • 1
    feels odd to mix molecular theory (molecular bonds, particles) and dark age elemental theory – BKlassen Mar 13 '18 at 17:52
  • 1
    Philosophy may be a great place to gather ideas. The void/darkness is often not as destructive of a force, and is considered part of the balance. Yin and Yang are highly associated with dark and light. – Cort Ammon Mar 14 '18 at 03:49

1 Answers1

1

Drop the antimatter thing.

Contact between matter and antimatter will not cause a huge explosion as some might thing, but it will still liberate such amount of energy and radiation as to be too dangerous to use.

Assuming a bacterium has a mass around 10-12 kilograms (source), I ran a calculation on Wolfram Alpha to see how much energy a bacterium and an "antibacterium" would release upon contact. That would give us 180 Kj, or ~43,021 Kcal. Supposing those two microbes met inside a droplet of water that is around 1 ml in volume, that droplet would instantly become hotter than the surface of the sun by around one order of magnitude, before vaporizing in a very spectacular way. Also any animals that witness this will probably be made sterile if they survive the gamma ray shower.

Stick to the other shadowy powers you described, along with some creative destruction. Shadows may maim, wound and potentially kill poachers, so as to safeguard animal life. It may cull animals that have excesses in their population, so as to preserve equilibrium in ecossystems. And in the case of an accident such as a tsunami/tornado/forest fire etc., the darkness may teleport animals to a safe place until the disaster goes away.

The Square-Cube Law
  • 141,440
  • 29
  • 264
  • 586
  • This doesn't answer the OP's question and is merely a comment. – JBH Mar 13 '18 at 16:45
  • 1
    @JBH the question says, and I quote: "Are there any possible positive uses for darkness powers?... (see my last paragraph) "...On the context of my story, apart from powerful weapons. It would be nice to stay a little bit close to the "antimatter" concept, beacuse I belive it gives a little bit more of scientific-base to make it more realistic." (which is why I went on about antimatter anihilation). – The Square-Cube Law Mar 13 '18 at 16:47
  • The question identifies the darkness powers, they are not generic under the term "darkness." He does not mention shadow, he does mention fire and light. You don't mention them (other than in the context of an accident). He even gives an example: in the case of fire they can apply their powers to help some ecosystems that need fire to thrive. You offered no such examples (shadow is not listed as a darkness power). – JBH Mar 13 '18 at 22:01