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Dark Path Effect for Adherents: Your bWILL is increased by 2, and you obtain an extra Attribute at 10th tier.

"'Dark' is their accusation, so now darkness is my word. It is self-honesty: I see my true desires. It is self-ownership: I hide behind no sacred lie. False light exalts itself above me. False light demands my sacrifice. But in darkness, I cast it away. Only the Nameless Unshaped remains." -The Creed of Atro Vys

    The Dark Path is the Concordic name given to the ideology of Atro Vys, the founder of the Aterr. Although the Dark Ones embrace the philosophy in order to master their adamant, there is no obligation for other Path adherents to pursue arcana or defer to the Aterr. In fact, there are no obligations whatsoever. To the Path, elevated ideas like goodness, status, altruism, or justice are “false light” - blinding fictions used to disguise the desires of the self. They believe it is completely impossible to do anything that you do not in some way desire to do, regardless of the lies you might tell yourself. “Darkness” is an Aterr term for the combined ideas of self-honesty and self-ownership - laying claim to one's life without pretense, and purging all that is viewed as sacred or binding. Dark followers reject not just one morality, but the concept of morality itself - and they tend to embrace the stigma that “the Blinded Ones, possessed by the false light” usually cast upon them as a result.

    Dark followers are notoriously unpredictable, especially to those who don't understand their beliefs and terminology. They are capable of both good and evil as defined by others, but to the dark follower, they are only doing what they want - and they believe that, no matter what high-sounding words are used to cover the truth, everyone else is as well. The only difference is that the Dark adherent owns it, and is therefore better able to advance their own interests, whether or not that means playing along with the delusions of society for a time. In the advanced texts of the Aterr, even the idea of a "true self" is shunned. The self is the Nameless Unshaped: not a spirit or essence, but a shifting thing that cannot be summed up in language without risking that language becoming another fetter. What others might call "authenticity" is a side effect of the shedding of external "shoulds," not a moralized end in itself.

    Furthermore, as many outsiders have discovered to their chagrin, nothing in the Path directs its followers to respect or comply with the desires of others, unless doing so happens to be a desire of their own. If one becomes their enemy, one should expect no "proper" mercy or restraint. Of course, no higher cause compels them to harm others, either - a point frequently mentioned in their critiques of other philosophies' hypocrisies and moral failures. Assistance, rescue, liberation, and even close friendship can be readily had from many Dark adherents, if one can live with the knowledge that no moral duty or social contract guarantees it - only their owned desire to connect.

    The Dark Path strongly opposes philosophies that present obstacles to truly owning oneself. Because the Path views any kind of social construct or ethical duty as a potential obstacle, this means it opposes virtually every other ideology in theory, though Ascendants and Draconic adherents are its most frequent historical enemies. By its very nature, the Dark Path has insulated itself from the plentiful criticisms of the rest of the world. Dark adherents view most arguments against them as born from misunderstandings, but have little interest in debate; people believe what they want to believe, and listen to whom they want to listen. When darkness finally and truly calls to them, only then will the Path stop to answer.

Subschools The Eclipse Replacement Effect: Your bWILL is increased by 2. Your depth tier counts as 1 higher when calculating your party's dynamic tier.

"Dark One and Blinded One will always exist in this world. But if the Blinded can help us obtain our desires, so much the better. I will not let fools silence and ignore us in the name of rationality they never possessed." -Atra Eclipsis

    There is little division in the core of Dark Path ideology due to its grounding in Aterr teaching, diversions from which are instantly revealed by the hampering of arcane training. But there have long been bitter, sometimes-violent disagreements on how the philosophy should relate to the rest of the world. Originally, the desire for the Aterr withdraw from society and focus on their own development was a minority view termed the Dark Path of the Rift, but this essentially became the baseline stance of the philosophy during the Third Alacrian Era. When Atro Vys' previous belief - that Dark interests would best be served if they influenced society and cooperated with the Blinded Ones against common enemies - was revived by Atra Eclipsis, it became known as the Dark Path of the Eclipse.

    Followers of this subschool typically exhibit far more optimism that their ideas will spread to others. They repudiate the broader Dark disinterest in debate, holding their beliefs as fundamentally reasonable and supported by history. While just as unwilling as the rest of their philosophy to compromise with false light in their own minds, they are more often willing to compromise externally in pursuit of common goals. Unlike followers of the Path of the Will, they do not view such cooperation as a manipulative means of supremacy. Eclipse followers tend to either be indifferent to the ultimate victory of the Dark Path over the world, or believe it to be impossible or impractical. Obtaining one's own desires, with or without the help of others, is the only possible goal.

    Over history, Eclipse followers have variously allied with Rationalists and Nihilists, declarationists and post-decs alike, whenever unity was required against the more hated enemies of the Aterr. Adherence to the subschool has understandably slumped whenever those alliances ended, or when Blinded society proved unwilling to listen to Dark teachings.

The Will Replacement Effect: Your bWILL is increased by 2. Your sorcerer tier (if any) is increased by 1.

"Of course I desire power. So do you, at least as a means, if you desire victory and survival. So seize power, and do not forget that as long as the Enemy remains on our planet, there are only two sides." -Atra Læsensha

    The Dark Path of the Will is arguably the opposite of that of the Eclipse, though both are united by an "interest" in non-Dark civilization. Domination and supremacy are the distinctive goals of the Path of the Will; the name refers to the will to take power. A minority view in Alacrian times when the Blinded Ones seemed too powerful, the Will came into broader favor after the Fall. Despite the loss of their Alacris members, many Aterr remained, and the Tennebris and its Guardian remained operational; the Dark Ones seemed poised to play a much greater role in the new world.

     Some Will followers simply desire power for its own sake, while others believe that the victory of the Dark Path is vital to the survival of themselves and possibly all mortalkind. Either way, all other philosophies are the Will follower's enemy, though it is perfectly acceptable to conceal one's motives and make temporary alliances. Although all are technically enemies, Draconic adversaries are the most hated. Historians and scientists of the Path of the Will have been instrumental in promoting the extraterrestrial theory of draconic origins; poetically, the moon-empowered Dark Ones are the only force that can defeat "the Enemy," or so they believe. Genuine alliance and friendship with Blinded society leads to this power being wasted on meaningless sacrifice, as demonstrated by the failure of Eclipsis.

    Ultimately, the ambitions of Will followers were thwarted in the Recovering Age by the rise of the Magi, resulting in the bitter and costly Ternary War. The Aterr struggled to reassert themselves until the reign of Atro Imætis, the tyranny of whom led to the Path of the Will falling out of favor for centuries. Today, with Lur-Asko increasingly volatile and the white dragons having recovered from their ancient defeat, the subschool has experienced a limited revival. Still, post-Imætis, the Path of the Will has often used manipulation rather than outright coercion to attain power. Atra Læsensha is the most iconic example; her subtle machinations led to her rising into total leadership of the Resistance, which she used to scour Eer'Kalla's influence from Manusia and score a massive social victory against the Red Synod. Had more Aterr embarked upon the Path of the Will instead of returning to their infighting, she might have become even more powerful.