The Darkness

You asked after the darkness that dwells within the hearts of men.

It's in all of us. Every creature on this world holds a darkness within them. But this darkness is not necessarily evil.  The lesser beings of the world know this, but man thinks too much. Most minor creatures fear that with lurks in the deepest night. But man, who is less prey then predator, fears the night regardless. It is he who looks out into the darkness and sees an abyss where even the most fantastic of notions is possible. What man fears most is not the most mundane creatures of the night that silently stalk the forest and plains in search of a meal, but the creatures that come from within their own minds. It is in the darkness where the lightest rustle of leaves becomes a creeping horror, where the hushed whispering of the trees becomes a twisted nightmare. There has been many a man that has lost his wits to the creations of his own imagination.

And so, man has long sought to steal the light for themselves. They learned the secret of fire from the dragons. They stole the mysteries of magic from the elves. And since the dawn of their existence they have waged war with that with flourishes in the dark of night. They have pushed the children of the moon down to the darkest crevices of the earth and claimed the land under the sun for themselves. They have learned to keep the dark and the nightmares at bay through trickery and brute strength.

They have no understanding of the balance that exists in the world, the balance of the sun and the moon. They do not realize that without the darkness the stars would never be seen. For if you remove the dark, what would be there to contrast the light and to add shadow to the world?