World of Darkgleam

The World of Darkgleam (in Polish: świat Zmroczy) is a fantasy universe where magic comes in two colors: silver and sable. The sable school of magic was outlawed a century and a half ago because of a curse that tainted the sable Gift. Sable sorcerers are colloquially called vipers and universally feared, because they draw power from pain and because common knowledge assumes that the Gift often renders them insane over time. Silver sorcerers, on the other hand, are known as the Elite; they wear white robes, work in laboratories, create all sorts of magical machinery from golems to flying carpets, strive for purity and perfection in everything they do, and devote lots of effort to hunting down and destroying their sable counterparts.

The Darkgleam is a magical barrier that was created ages ago over the human world, separating it from the astral planes. It combines both silver and sable energies, which need to stay in harmony with each other, otherwise a dangerous phenomenon known as Imbalance ensues. An Imbalance manifests itself as colorful light displays in the sky and may cause temporary breaches in the Darkgleam, through which demons and other dangerous creatures can penetrate into the human world. According to the silver sorcerers, sable spells can easily cause Imbalance, which is another good reason to hunt down and eliminate vipers.

Brune Keare, better known as Anguish (in Polish, his moniker is Krzyczący w Ciemności, which literally means "screaming in darkness"), is a viper: a sable sorcerer with a nasty reputation, three scars on his cheek and a scarred soul to match. He's an expert on curses, a fairly accomplished alchemist and an introverted loner with a snarky way of talking, fights with a rapier, plays the flute and smokes opium. He's also intellectually bent, inconspicuous (unless casting fireballs), and pretty much an antithesis of Conan the Barbarian. In more than 10 novellettes, one novella and four novels, all in Polish, he has battled demons, collaborated with criminals, helped innocent people and made tragic mistakes. I hope to make some tales about his exploits available in English sooner or later (either in the form of translations or of original works). 

The atmosphere of the Darkgleam universe has been compared by some readers to the Planescape: Torment game; the funny thing is, I don't play computer games and I came up with most of my ideas before I ever heard about Planescape: Torment! The stories are fairly dark and sometimes gory, but not overly so: think Therion or Sirenia rather than Slayer.

The lovely fan art above was painted by Magdalena Wolff.