The purpose of black magic is...?

FYI - Good things happen through Dark or Black magic - it's the people behind them and their intentions that is your issue.

For me, black magic is magic that either does harm or requires harm to be done in order to work. So, if you sacrifice a goat in order to work a healing spell, for me that is black magic.

Black magic can also deal with taboo subjects. For exmaple, necromancy is often considered taboo in many fantasty novels, even if the practitioner in question does no harm to anyone, living or dead.

I guess what I'm really saying, is the difference between good magic and evil magic is the moral code of the society it's being practiced in.

Does magic in your world have an "alignment"? Usually magic is not inherently "good" or "evil," only the purposes to which it is put, much like technology. There may be spells that don't really have much beneficent usefulness (say, a torture spell), but that doesn't mean their very existence is evil.

If you are using a setting in which magic comes from places or entities which are good or evil (e.g., deities, angels, demons, whatever), then the question is, why would someone choose "evil" magic? Traditionally, the answer is that it's easier (the Good powers expect you to follow a bunch of rules, use your powers only for good, be judicious, etc., and only dole out power as they think you deserve it, while the Evil powers will give you whatever you want as long as you dedicate yourself to them), or people turn to the dark side for selfish reasons (envy, revenge, sadism, greed, etc.).

Off the top of my head...

Reasons for necromancy (speaking with dead): getting information

Reasons for necromancy (raising the dead): cheap labor, assembling an army, obsessive love -- Heathcliff dug up Cathy years later, so there'd be a market for reviving the loved ones of obsessive people who can't let go

Reasons for cursing people: getting rid of rivals, influencing politics, advancing your career, revenge

Reasons for mind control: creepy love, hate, advancing your career, gathering information

Reasons for destroying crops: revenge, driving up the price of your own

Reasons for the dark wizard to practice his art: belief in justice for those who can't get it otherwise, desire to make money, they were trained by the army to do it in war and now that its peacetime this is all they know how to do

Reasons for not getting rid of the person who provides this service: you might want to use them someday, it's a black market service, they're freaking Dark Wizards so they'll do something nasty to you if you try to get rid of them, they're regulated so they can't do anything too bad, they're part of a wizarding Mafia, and so on.

Bad people do bad things all the time and don't want to call a bunch of attention to it.

So use your imagination. Why would a character use dark magic and not want to draw attention to themselves?


Assassins using black magic to kill their targets.
Cursing the chick that stole your boyfriend or the boss who fired you.
Slaughtering virgins and cooking up their blood in your cauldron to create a wrinkle-reducing face lotion.

Not everyone's motives would be to take over the world or openly terrorize everyone.

Dark huntress said:

I can think of no "reason for being" for the dark witches. What do dark witches do? Hex their neighbors, destroy crops, make a living selling evil spells...? And if is all they do,why wouldn't the villagers simply kill them?

What purpose , unless they are involved in the plot line , do they serve?

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Well, the original reason for "black magic," or magic in general, was to place blame, because they didn't understand that microorganism existed, which was what caused disease (a.k.a hex) or crop failure (poor soil or overworking the soil can also cause crop failure). And people did kill supposed "witches": Salem Witch Trials ring a bell?

As for a reason in your story: Well, a witch could curse the land's soil, perhaps the lord spurned her love, thus causing famine in the local area. That will cause the hero to migrate to another area, and maybe there he encounters friends or antagonists. I'd imagine those who dabble in dark magic use it for petty purposes, sort of like girls writing 'slut' with your name on the girls' bathroom mirror. They want to harm you, but not in a direct, physical manner. They may also love to cause trouble, mischief makers, because some people aren't happy unless everyone else is miserable.

Simple: supply and demand.

Human emotions run the gamut, from happiness and altruism to greed and megalomania. Humans aren't just dichotomized into "good" and "bad", and neither should magic. There should be spells for every human emotion, because there will always be a need for them when a person is feeling vindictive or spiteful.

If there's a Power who would stand to benefit by giving mortals so-called "black" magic that the other, more benevolent gods wouldn't, wouldn't he or she take that opportunity?

Dark huntress said:

Neither my Mc or my antagonist are magical however I do have a few minor characters who practice beneficial magic. So if I have good magic I should have dark magic to balance it all out. If there are good witches, there must be those who also practice black magic. It just stands to reason. So I do want some presence of black magic.

There is a purpose for my good magic but I can not think of any reason for the dark magic.

I can think of no "reason for being" for the dark witches. What do dark witches do? Hex their neighbors, destroy crops, make a living selling evil spells...? And if is all they do,why wouldn't the villagers simply kill them?

What purpose , unless they are involved in the plot line , do they serve?

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Do they think of themselves as dark witches, practising black magic? Or do they think of themselves as put-upon people, just trying to get by as best they can? Sure, she forced that guy to love her, leaving his wife and children, but he was her 'Twu wuv' and she was only fulfilling their destiny. Okay, their cow died, but now they know to be more generous with the poor and share their milk. So, the crops failed, but they stole that field from her family, so serves them right!
As for why no-one does anything, maybe they don't believe these particular people are witches. Especially if there's a death penalty.
It's only old Griselda, she's always muttering and complaining, but it's not like she can do anything.
Annie, sure, she always seems to turn up when something happens, or says something inappropriate, but there's no harm in her, known her since we were girls.
After all, if they don't think of themselves as dark witches, there's no need to go around cackling and smirking.

Use examples from real life to pull from. Think of black magic just like someone comitting any crime. They don't want to work for what they want, so they steal it. They hate someone, so they take it out against another person. They're too smart and rationalize out the need justifies the end. They make a serious misjudgement that draws them in. They run out of options and get desperate enough to try anything. They believe it's the the right thing to do. They want power and don't care how they get it.

It depends on whether you're looking at the Hollwood definition of black magic or the Pagan definition.

Some bollocks from little Pagan me follows, so may or may not be relevant. But, Pagans have been debating this shit to the death, so at the very least the links might provide something of interest!


This person is Wiccan I believe. Not my path, but they have an interesting take on "black magic"

Here is another one I found quite interesting. And as the article states, sex magic is considered black or left-handed magic in many circles. Despite the fact that it is a lot of fun and, ultimately, just a way of channelling energy.

The article above also linked to this one, which you may find interesting.

*edit*

I would definitely recommend a look into Voodoun practices. I cannot recall the terms, but I believe Voodoun practices are split between two types of practitioner; one who only does beneficial workings, and one who does baneful up to and including the mythologised zombiefication.

Ah! Bokor! That is one of them.

Does your world have good/evil alignments, in which good path = white magic and evil path = black magic, a strict divide with no overlap? Or are both kinds of magic available to both kinds of people?

I ask because in addition to wondering what purpose black magic serves, you also wonder why the villagers wouldn't just kill a black magic user. To me, that raises the question of how easy or hard it would be to identify a black magic user from a white magic user.

In terms of purpose, my understanding of black magic is that it harms people for selfish reasons. Poisoning, hexing, cursing, that stuff listed in the OP, all fall under that heading, whether the witch/sorcerer is casting the harm for his own benefit or selling the service to someone else. In that sense, it's like other kinds of crime and is motivated by the same things crime is -- especially profit of one kind or another, always at the expense of someone else.

But in terms of how they would skate through society without being killed or otherwise neutralized on sight, it would seem to me that they should have some way to hide or disguise their activities. Either some way that a magic user can pass for a non-magical person or else for a black magic user to pass for a white magic user. This might have the additional effect of raising risks for white magic users themselves, due to suspicion.

In real world societies that believe(d) in witchcraft, there was a lot of good/evil overlap in the popular imagination about magic users. In Voudoun, the divide is clear and established, but in other societies, like shamanistic Siberian or Russian folk culture, the divide is less clear and fear of the magic user's power could cause people to suspect even magic users they relied on for blessings and healing, etc.

See, for example, this article about Russian beliefs that addresses this point.

.303 Bookworm said:

they're part of a wizarding Mafia

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[shakes off the plot bunny]

Black magic. White magic. Smatz magic. It's all what you the writer want it to be as long as you create a consistent world.

Personally, I thought "black magic" was to scare the bejeasus out of you.

Dark huntress said:

There is a purpose for my good magic but I can not think of any reason for the dark magic.

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You can't think of a reason why someone would want to hurt someone else? Really?

And if is all they do,why wouldn't the villagers simply kill them?

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Why don't people simply kill the Mafia? Or the man down the road who beats his wife and kids? Or the gang members who hang outside the 7-11?

Dark huntress said:

Neither my Mc or my antagonist are magical however I do have a few minor characters who practice beneficial magic. So if I have good magic I should have dark magic to balance it all out. If there are good witches, there must be those who also practice black magic. It just stands to reason. So I do want some presence of black magic.

There is a purpose for my good magic but I can not think of any reason for the dark magic.

I can think of no "reason for being" for the dark witches. What do dark witches do? Hex their neighbors, destroy crops, make a living selling evil spells...? And if is all they do,why wouldn't the villagers simply kill them?

What purpose , unless they are involved in the plot line , do they serve?

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I think you're coming at this from the wrong perspective.

Sociology describes magic (as it does all myths and legends) in specific ways. Hermetic magic is considered to be the kind of magic that comes from a spiritual connection to a greater power, such as gods, spirits, etc. Pagan magic is considered to be powered by a connection to primal forces of nature and human emotion.

Black magic is the negation of those. Black magic runs on taboo -- the breaking of social and sacred contracts. That means it draws power from murder, deviant behavior, dark emotions and the destruction of things that are holy and spiritual. Performing these acts gives the black magician power.

You're looking for ways that your dark witches can use black magic to be evil. That's backwards. Instead, realize that your dark witches are evil *because* they use black magic.

As an example, your dark witch might intend to make the crops grow or bless the village with good health, but they might have to murder babies to power that spell. Their acts are evil, whether their intents are or not.

Magic, think of it this way...

No one ever though of jetliners as weapons until Bin Laden came along...

The jetliner is not evil, but it was used for evil purposes. The same can be applied to magic, or just about anything else in your novel

Magic in my opinion isn't really cut and dry. It's the people who use it. Dark magic could be necromancy, entropy, mind-control, etc. etc. What is the reason for there being practitioners of black magic? The same reason we have rapists and serial killers in the real world, some people are just inherently evil. Now black magicians don't necessarily have to be evil. Someone could use necromancy to raise the dead to help thwart a greater evil or something along those lines. They use forbidden arts but aren't really inherently evil. If these magicians or sorcerers are considered villains in your world perhaps they don't see themselves that way. The best villain thinks he is the good guy of the story. Maybe they kidnap and sacrifice virgins to appease demons that would otherwise wipe out the town or to make sure the crops are plentiful. This is basically a subject matter that you can take as far as your mind will let you wander.

Dark huntress said:

Thank you all. Having come from contemporary fiction to fantasy, sometimes I need a little help stopping the logical process and relying more on the fantasy aspect.

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I'm sorry but are you saying fantasy is illogical?

Dark huntress said:

True. There in lies the problem. If the dark witches have any intentions it would have to fall under power, prestige, revenge or something similar.

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So?

Dark huntress said:

And if these witches were known, they would be ostracized or perhaps the villagers would plan a night attack and kill them. If they were unknown, then what would be the purpose of doing any evil if they never got credit for it?

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Because people never do evil things unless they get credit for it.

Dark huntress said:

My problem is I see no purpose for dark witches unless their intention is epic in size.

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Because people never do bad things unless there intentions are epic in size.

When it comes to character development there is no difference between contemporary fiction and fantasy (or any form of fiction for that matter). Characters need to have motives, growth and development. Don't think of them as "evil dark witches." Think of them as them as people.

I used magic in a novel that had the cliché color scheme: red, blue, white, black. It worked well in the novel, so I believe...

Red magic was a buffing magic; it could temporarily make you stronger, or faster, or slightly more intelligent, by increasing the flow of mana to particular parts of your body and manipulating it in certain ways. Red magic could also, adversely, make another person temporarily dumber, slower, weaker, etc. Blue magic could influence inanimate objects, such as making them magically sharper or more durable, or lighter, temporarily. It could also teleport you. White magic had the healing spells, spells to create harmless light (and, to add a bit of diversity, there was a 'harming' spell that white magic could use to use healing in reverse and make a wound worse.) Black magic was attack spells, such as spontaneous black holes, shards of wind, what have you. It is very RPG based.

As for your novel, I personally do not believe there needs to be a balance in magic. Perhaps you could adopt my white magic idea about healing in reverse. I absolutely abhor novels (well, the idea) who associates black magic with "ancient pagan rituals" because it usually shows the ignorance of the writer, having little clue about paganism.

Black magic is often related to bad things, obviously, so anything that negatively affects a person. Cast a spell on somehow to make them insanely hungry. Have them fall in love with someone when they're already happily married. But most importantly, make sure there's a reason and a need for a black magic. Why would the characters need it?