what do "Dark" and "Holy" elements represent in your game?

[TreguardV]

What I did was I split "Holy" and "Dark" into four. On on hand, you've got "Light" and "Shadow" which represent actual photonic light and the lack thereof. On the other hand, there's "Divine" and "Demonic" which represent good and evil.

Light and Shadow are opposites, meaning that they cancel each other out, Divine is only used for the plot-crucial macguffin, and Demonic isn't actually an element, as it's used to keep track of what enemies should be weak to Divine.

So, in conclusion, Light and Dark can be moral light and darkness, or photonic light and darkness. At the end of the day, it all depends on the story you want to tell.

 

[Black Pagan]

I use only 3 Elements in my games - Melee, Ranged and Magic. However, As a special condition I have these 2 Elements - Light and Dark.

I assign Light to certain Powerful warrior skills that do damage ignoring enemy defenses.
I assign Dark to Boss or Elite type Monsters which are the Monster's equivalent of "Penetration" ability which cannot be defended against.

For Light, I give my warriors a chance to afflict Blind.
For Dark, I give my Monsters a chance to afflict Damage over Time.

 

[zacheatscrackers]

In OHMIC (the game I'm currently working on), Holy is Light, though Dark remains the same. Light typically does heavy damage to enemies that specialize in the Dark element, and vise-versa. Both share the likelihood of inflicting someone with Blind or Paralysis.

There are 8 elements in all: Thunder, Fire, Ice, Water, Wind, Earth, then Light and Dark. Light and Dark become more commonplace magic elements later on in the game, and they are the magic types of choice for the Big Good and the main antagonist respectively.

 

[Mystic_Enigma]

Light and Dark elements don't have any symbolic basis behind them for me. Light is stuff that causes a flash or brightens an otherwise darkened area like a cave or a room. High concentrations of such energy are used in battle which why it does damage, and these attacks typically Blinds foes(A status that hurts attack accuracy, as well as the chance of special sttacks landing!). Dark on the other hand is anything that removes presence or causes a sense of shock on the target. Just like Light, heavy concentrations will hurt, and these attacks Startle foes(A status that reduces attack speed and makes further Dark type attacks do more damage!)

 

[Tai_MT]

My "Holy" element is actually just "Life". I mean, it's not really "Life Magic". It's just magic that works through sheer willpower and has a multitude of effects. Barriers, high amounts of damage, enchantments, curing states, etcetera. It is also the direct counter to "Necrotic" type damage. The player is never told why. The characters never know why. It just is.

My "Dark" Element is just "Necromancy". It's labeled "Death" magic. It mostly has to deal with creating necrotic tissue, corrupting the mind, destroying the "soul", controlling and manipulating the deceased. It doesn't really counter anything, it's just an all-around deadly and dangerous typing. It inflicts the unique state "Zombie", which simply creates massive amounts of chaos on the battlefield... It also inflicts unique problems like sapping MP... killing enemies by using their MP Pools, sometimes causing instant death, inflicting massive amounts of damage, giving other characters "Rage" (TP, renamed), and enchanting weapons with the Element of "Death". Very few enemies are weak to Death... even fewer wield this element (and the player only gets one character who will ever use it... who is optionally hidden). Even equipment to resist Zombie or the "Death" element are rare.

Though, honestly, the player is taught that "Death" magic is like an Invasive Species. It isn't meant to exist where it does. It wrecks everything. They're then taught that "Life" magic is the world's way of trying to correct the imbalance. The story behind all of that... Well... it's in the game. But, that's the dynamic they serve.

 

[NeirdaZT]

You can use the Holy element for any healing spells or status cure, and variations of these. Offensive spells also can be Holy and to deal more damage against the undead or demons. Dark element can be a reverse of this, like it's more effective against your priest (if you have one on the team). Also you can make that a Dark type spell wouldn't be effective or deals no damage at all to a Dark type enemy.

 

[Biestmann]

They represent just what they are. I think tropes this old don't really need to be strongly engrained in the setting of a game anymore. However, I have my dark magic user describe a strange feeling of closeness and familiarity when close to a dark elemental boss. Some off-hand mentions, nothing more.

 

[bulmabriefs144]

My game has Taoist elements, so Dark and Holy are not considered "good" or "evil" they're just resonances of positive and negative energy. The RpgMaker doesn't make it easy to do this, though, as like half the dark element stuff has either skulls or demon face stuff.

 

[SrOscuro]

In a classic rpg game, I would opt for a simple moral/ethic separation of the spells, treating them as opposed forces.

Sacred fire, blessing, healing, bufs, invoking angels, summoning a magical multicolored war unicorn...
Versus
Hell fire, pain, curses and debuffs, invocation of demons, summoning carnivore worms under
the skin of an enemy...

In some games, Holy healing spells do damage instead of healing to certain evil enemies (zombies, vampires, liches, etc..)​

In my game:
Holy magic is less powerful, but has no side-effects, and don't consume mana.
Dark magic is more powerful but consumes mana (willpower) and has a proc of very bad side effects (like the wizard exploding in flames)

In the mithology of my game there are only two magical schools. Holy, and dark (I use other names)

They represent the creed and the philosophy of the two most powerful sorcerer schools that fight in a kind of jihad.

The "holy" magic school.
They believe in a being of great power, for them a good God, who created the world and the beings that inhabit it. To perform the spells they pray to their God asking him to create changes in the manifest reality.

The "dark" magic school.
They believe in the same being as the previous one, however they refer to him as 'The Architect', and deny that he is a God, for them it is a being of great power that, using magic, created the physical world 'reality' as a way of imprisoning and enslaving the other beings with soul. They consider The Architect, as an evil being in the best of cases, or a being that lacks morality. For this reason they perform magic using their own will (not praying for), in an attempt to manipulate a reality that they consider a prison.

Of course, both schools accuse each other of being blasphemous, and evil.

 

[Markus I.]

In my game magic works by flowing from an original cosmological plane to the material plane (where the game setting is). "Dark" magic is regarded as "Void" magic and its properties include mainly the ability to dispel and nullify any other kind of magic, being extremely useful against spellcasters and magical beings. Holy on the other hands refers to types of magic that represent healing and the removal of ailments, since they work by 'blowing away' the magic from the material plane, its property is to basically 'reverse entropy'.