Darkening

One who uses the power of aethir as a weapon by altering its flow. This creates a shadow of concentrated aethir around the darkening, which is what lends its name to the term. They use powerful magicks and are capable of clearing a room with the snap of their fingers, or at least the resulting explosions.

Darkenings tend to be of average intelligence and use their energy for artistic endeavors. Naturally, villages with high concentrations of darkenings tend to focus their talents more on art than war. They often use the village center as a place to display magnificent works of art, be it moving or stationary…or even interactive. Darkenings often work in circuses or other entertainment fields to use their abilities as a form of bolstering their image. However, there are a few darkenings who use their magicks as a display of power, often gaining high ranks by striking fear into those around them.

Items exist (and are fairly common) to aid darkenings in their magicks. Potions exist to increase their Aethir allowance (the amount of aethir they can spend on a single spell). There are even devices that attach to various body parts to increase the aethir allowance semi-permanently (until they are removed). These types of items are necessary, as going over one's aethir allowance is highly toxic, often resulting in severe aethir poisoning, which can lead one to be bedridden for months or even to insanity.

Darkenings generally use staves and wands, but a few are known who wield swords and spears. The latter group tends to be of noble blood and is raised to use them like any other noble. These darkening rarely stay in areas rich with nobility because their magicks require large amounts of aethir to be present in the atmosphere.

Due to the poisonous nature of aethir, darkenings often have much shorter lifespans than other classes; some never live to reach adulthood if they abuse their powers or become aethir junkies, as aethir-potions are highly addictive.

Subclasses: Aethir Junkie (Uses magicks with no aethir limit, but absorbs so much aethir, they are under a constant Junkie status, meaning all of their attributes decrease gradually and permanently until they die an early death. Aethir potions temporarily stop the decay, but not for long.)