I’m playing FFXIV for the first time and I’m about to get to Heavensward at which point I want to switch to dark knight.

However, it was hard for me to reconcile the whole warrior of light shtick with being a dark knight. So I did some research on the class and with the exception of a few key points the power system of the class seems pretty vague with a few unanswered questions. ( Some of which probably will be answered in the Shadowbeinger part of the story) I took this to mean that most of it is up to the player’s own interpretation and head canon. So with some research in the lore of the dark knight and on how aether works or “can work” in general I created my head canon for their power system.

So below is my head canon on the dark knights power system told from the perspective of Fray. I’d be interested to hear other people’s own thoughts on how they perceive the dark power of the dark knight to work as well. —————————————————————————-

“In battle a dark knight increases his power by amplifying his aether. To do this he taps into his most intense and volatile emotions.

The dark aura that dark knights wield is the visual manifestation of their amplified aether under the influence of their most intense and often negative emotions.

Just as a primal feeds off of the thoughts and prayers of their faithful and grows in power by doing so.

So too can your own power, your own aether feed off the emotions of the soul. The greater the intensity of these emotions the greater the power you can wield.

As the warrior of Light you tend to shy away from these emotions. Intense feelings such as those of Anger, or betrayal, desires for vengeance. You try to suppress them to keep them bottled up……THAT IS A MISTAKE! You may think of these feelings as darkness but the truth is these emotions are natural , and they are a part of you.

Up until now, subconsciously you have been trying to limit these feelings and to suppress them. However, in doing so you place an unnecessary burden on yourself and even worse, you place limits on your own humanity.

Your rage, your sorrow, your guilt and anguish. Instead of suppressing these emotions I can teach you how to harness them. To turn them into power.

The only reason this power manifests itself as “darkness” is because both you yourself and those around you choose to perceive it as such. Though they are natural you tend to think of these emotions as “negative” and so your aether responds in kind…..though…..there is some truth to that I suppose, after all, we all have some darkness within ourselves. “

• Fray