Do you think that, had humans originally been able to remain in Xadia, dark magic would still have been used as “casually” by the time of the series start?
Because a thousand or so years is a lot of time to develop and for cultural hybridisation (assuming that the “generalised” humans of that time had culture that differed enough from other Xadian cultures).
Would agriculture still have evolved as it did for the canon human kingdoms? If so, could there’ve been a compromise when it comes to the magical components needed to practice dark magic in the eyes of the ArchDragons? I believe that magical flora has been shown to be used, also do the living fauna used- do they always have to still be alive? If they have to be living then the seemingly unanimous opposition is much more understandable; perhaps the available magic dwindles as time passes?
Would there even be a “need” for practitioners of dark magic; from recollection humans can use other magics (I don’t recall there being extremely strict requirements in canon!proper) so at some point that surely would’ve been discovered!
Obviously the whole situation is much complex, Aaravos and the “corruption” a dark mage undergoes, general discriminatory beliefs that dark magic use was used as a cover for, possible destruction of habitats and whether or not “human” agriculture would be acceptable but it’s an interesting thought, no?
Also hope everyone is having a good day/night!
I do believe there are many possible ways you can spin this, but I don’t think dark magic would ever truly 100% go away. There’s a possibility it could be reduced if humans staying in Xadia meant elves and dragons were more accepting of humans desire to learn magic overall and thus didn’t kill off the first human primal mages and actually encouraged the spread of primal knowledge throughout humanity. At the same time it could’ve also incresed or remained steady as a Xadia that wasn’t expelling humanity may have been slightly more accepting of their usage of the force, and the fact that dark magic can perform miracles that no other source can do.
I believe given what dark magic is capable of, and how it balances the scales between humans and Xadia (maybe less important if you assume humans have arcanum’s now due to Xadia not interfering with them learning primal magic) there is a balance and compromise that can be reached with it’s usage, and that compromise would look similar to probably the modern compromise I’d make, perhaps with a few more restrictions to compensate for dark magic not being AS “necessary” as it is now. But same run of the mill would apply in that dark magic is allowed but there are certain components you simply cannot use or only use under special, life saving circumstances.
We know from some exterior sources that live fauna does not need to be killed for dark magic, which interestingly makes things like blood donations or any other non lethal donation from elves who wish to save the life of somebody possible. Given donating blood is something we do regularly in our world and, for good reason, we get a pat on the back for doing so instead of shamed, I could see a version of this being adopted in the compromise if Xadia gets less hyper about dark magic.
The stuff you’re using also doesn’t always have to be alive. From what we’ve seen dark mages could also very much be scavengers, as in, they use stuff from already dead fauna which could of course be discussed in a future compromise.
So I guess in summary. Had Xadia never expelled humans it possibly implies a few things. (1) That Xadia was more accepting of humanities existence and whether or not they wished to work with them at that time, it still means they could’ve come around over time. (2) This acceptance could imply that elves and dragons were more tolerant of humans learning magic, as you said we know, or it can be theorized that the main complaint about dark magic “ooo it kills thing” was used by a cover/justification, at least by some dragons and elves to seek out their ultimate goal which was preventing humans from having power. The more neutral stand point on this could imply Xadia didn’t interfere as hard when humans were learning primal magic.
All of this leads me to believe that dark magic would likely continue to exist or get discovered at some point but maybe with a reduced usage, being used on really when it’s needed, and a certain agreement reached between all inhabitants of Xadia.
