Way back in Eerie # 76 there came a story of a prince of Nebularia called Darklon The Mystic who sold his soul to the Namless One to avenge his father against Tarus Blacklore. The whole series has a sense of breath & epic tragedy from the pen of Jim Starlin.
The Daddy Principle
Darklon is driven to become the anti hero socercer supreme of his universe by his father. The Crown prince was a pacifist & the culture of Nebularia is one of conquest & warfare. Darkhold is the ruler of a thousand planets & has turned his back on his son.
The king takes on an adopted son in the form of Tarus Blacklore who imprisons Darkhold.
Darklon is a hippie mystic at this point & his teacher tells him that he hasn't the power to grant his wish of mystic knowledge & power. His father's old enemy the Namless One can grant it though but there will be a price.
The Prince descends into the caverns of the Nameless One & defeats his demons. He is granted an audience & the demon god of some nameless hell decapitates the prince. Gouges out his eye & grants him power beyond the ken of mortal men.
There is a price however!
The Daddy Principle
Darklon is driven to become the anti hero socercer supreme of his universe by his father. The Crown prince was a pacifist & the culture of Nebularia is one of conquest & warfare. Darkhold is the ruler of a thousand planets & has turned his back on his son.
The king takes on an adopted son in the form of Tarus Blacklore who imprisons Darkhold.
Darklon is a hippie mystic at this point & his teacher tells him that he hasn't the power to grant his wish of mystic knowledge & power. His father's old enemy the Namless One can grant it though but there will be a price.
The Prince descends into the caverns of the Nameless One & defeats his demons. He is granted an audience & the demon god of some nameless hell decapitates the prince. Gouges out his eye & grants him power beyond the ken of mortal men.
There is a price however!
The Magic of Darklon
The magic of the universe of Darklon is the magic & mysticism of the 70s science fantasy realm. Here in the high science fantasy universe of Darklon super science & sorcery exist side by side. Those who wield magic at the level that the prince of Nebularia does, do so with a price. Magic does not come cheap. Those who wield it do so by treading with damned entities & unholy mystic gods from beyond.
This is the magic of Lovecraft, Howard, & many other pulp writers.
The Price is always high & beyond merely damning one's soul to some nameless hell or other. In the case of Darklon it was having his head chopped off & his eye gouged out by the Namless One. The man's very soul was filled with "unclear power" & his physicality became something other then flesh. Darklon is closer to demonic sorcerer then he his man..
The Orb Of Hell replaces his eye & allows the prince to see into alternative dimensions & draw power from the nether realms. The orb owes more to the wiles of Moorecock then it does the magic items of Doctor Strange.
The magic of Darklon is the magic of primal raw powers of some Lovecraftian hell & the alien sciences of weird religions created in alternative universe.
These are the magics of Carcosa, The Empire of The Petal Throne, Crypts & Things, & Arduin. Using these magics does grant great power but at a very high price. Mutation, insanity, eternal damnation, etc are simply a few of the things that go along with it.
The magics are also in the hands of religious orders of the most dangerous types & to court them is to court beyond the powers of mere good & evil.
Here even the lowest sorcerer summons demons & weird gods of some alien hell. The possibilities here are endless but remember there is always a price.
Chaotically evil doesn't begin to cover some of this stuff. Also check Realms of Crawling Chaos for further insanity
The magic of these stories is also a sort of anti religion & science where the seeds of magic sew chaos,death, destruction, & change to those around the wielders. Yet the religions that opposite the madness in these stories seem to need it to survive. The various spells also seem to serve to allow the various dimensions & planes to gather greater footholds within the material universe.
Dreadstar another Starlin creation used many of the same themes but Darklon is far more raw in his power, clear in his evil, & downright bloodthirsty in his rage!
OSR Darklon Resources
If you wish to read more about Darklon The Mystic go here Here. For a nice overview of the series go right Here. The Marvel version of Darklon called Darklore is available right Here
Still more Darklon can be seen in its black & white glory right Here
On a personal note -Darklon remains a favorite of mine. My grandfather at the time was suffering with cancer & I recognized through the pathos of series some of the "lessons"which helped me get through some of the very hard times!
Very cool. I a nice compliment to my Dreadstar post today.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Trey!
ReplyDeleteI wrote it as a companion piece to your Dreadstar post Trey! Darklon is relatively unknown & under appreciated. I aim to do my part to change some of that! Darklon is dark operatic & would make a great patron NPC for Carcosa game or other science fantasy game!
Nice job and excellent introduction to Darklon. This was a great series, but Warren was pretty exceptional in allowing creators like Starlin to really push the boundaries. I have a few old Eeries and such here on-hand, if I can find them (probably packed away in storage...). It would be a blast to play in an RPG campaign based off of Darklon...but a Warrenverse RPG would be even better...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment!
ReplyDeleteWell Garrison I think that Starlin didn't have the merry Marvel editors & do gooders on his neck at Eerie's offices. So we got to see how a sorcerer of Dr.Strange's level would let off & cut loose.
The Warrenverse is a very dark place & would make an excellent rpg campaign. I think that the Goblinoid/Labyrinth Lord family of retroclones could handle it with very little problem! The world of Hunter/Darklon/the rest would be a perfect pulp style rpg setting! There is more Warrenverse coming up soon!
We're pretty much on the same page on this. The Warrenverse would make for a great RPG setting/campaign. The second edition of Starships & Spacemen might fill-in a few gaps to make this sort of thing even more do-able...
ReplyDelete