Darkness, also known as World at War, is a series of six fantasy novels by Harry Turtledove.
Though a fantasy, its general history, geography, and combatants are analogs of World War II, called the "Derlavai War" in this universe. Many of its characters are also the equivalents of historical people. Magic and other fantastic beasts, like dragons, are also stand-ins for World War II technology. Important battles in the series are also based on famous World War II battles. For example, the Battle of Sulingen is an analog to the Battle of Stalingrad.
Novels Into the Darkness (1999) Darkness Descending (2000) Through the Darkness (2001) Rulers of the Darkness (2002) Jaws of Darkness (2003) Out of the Darkness (2004)
World of Derlavai Most of the action in the series takes place on the main continent of Derlavai, located in the southern hemisphere of an unnamed planet. There are also some lesser land masses and island chains mentioned in the story and on the map included in the novels. The planet also has the smaller continents of Siaulia and The Land of the Ice People.
There are only 12 independent countries: Algarve, Forthweg, Gyongyos, Jelgava, Sibiu, Kuusamo, Lagoas, Ortah, Unkerlant, Valmiera, Yanina, and Zuwayza. There are also three dependent territories (Bari, Grelz, and Rivaroli). Populations are for the most part homogeneous enough that a difference in hair color is easily enough to make one stand out. The vast majority of the members of a given Derlavaian ethnic group have the same hair and eye color combination.
All nations in the Darkness series are monarchies with the exception of Kuusamo, in which seven princes have a hereditary power-sharing arrangement. While by no means all absolute monarchies, in all of them kings (or princes in Kuusamo) seem to have the executive power. There are foreign ministers, but no prime ministers and no cabinets - a foreign minister evidently reporting directly to the King. None of the people have family names, even if they are members of the nobility. To the extent that monarchs are limited in their power, the limitation comes mainly from hereditary aristocracies which still maintain many privileges of feudal times.
The nations in the Darkness series do not have randomly invented names for their people and locations. Rather, each nation has personal and geographical names taken from a real nation on Earth. Turtledove has, however, mixed up the attributes so that any given Derlavaian kingdom is not instantly recognizable as a cognate of the countries which took part in World War II. For example, Unkerlant has Germanic (German, Low German, and Frankish) place and personal names. Forthweg has a Germanic language, Old English. Similarly, the Algarvic nations all speak Latin-derived languages: Algarve speaks Italian, Lagoas has Portuguese, and Sibiu Romanian. Kaunian languages are based on modern Baltic languages - Lithuanian is Classical Kaunian and Latvian for Valmerian and Jelgavian.
Unkerlant, though German-speaking, is an unmistakable Russia in both its culture and politics. On the other hand, Kuusamo - though playing the strategic role of the United States - has a Scandinavian culture, fitting with its Finnish language. Similarly, while politically and strategically Algarve is a clear analogue of Nazi Germany - including its committing genocide against the Kaunians/Jews - its culture seems more Italian than German, fitting with its language.
Magic Magic in the Darkness series is not created by mages but rather harnessed by them. The mages of Derlavai gather magical power from the various power points scattered around the planet and the ley lines which link them, a recent discovery made only 200 years before the start of the books. Mages can also gather magic from human sacrifice. As such, the operation of magic is heavily reliant on location. Large, modern cities tend to be located on or near strong power points which provide the energy for the operation of the city's lighting, heating and other comforts. In addition, large power points tend to be linked to greater numbers of ley lines, which are utilised for transportation between cities and towns.
Mages There are fundamental laws of magic, which require intense studying to master in order to become a mage. Though popular "how-to" books for the general public do exist, the spells published in them are not always reliable, and can backfire in dangerous or embarrassing ways. Professional mages are divided into "theoretical" and "practical." Theoretical mages research the relationships and underlying laws governing the behaviour of matter and energy, formulate hypotheses expressed in complicated mathematical formulas, and devise careful experiments in order to prove or disprove these hypotheses empirically. Practical mages use the theories devised by theoretical mages to make devices that can be used by the general public.
Magic and Technology Derlavai has gone through a "Thaumaturgical Revolution" instead of an Industrial Revolution, using magic as the basis for much of its technology. Because of magic, there appears to be less of a need for mass industry. There are plants producing pottery, for example, in large amounts, but behemoths and dragons are bred on farms and clothing appears to be made by tailors instead of in factories.
On the civilian scene, magic is much less important, being limited to applications such as rest boxes (an analogue to the refrigerator which operates by slowing the effects of time on its contents), lighting (in places where such sorcerous power is available) and ley line ships, while in the military magic is involved in the production and use of almost all their weapons and supplies.
Most of the magical items in the world of Derlavai are analogues to everyday, or military, devices in our world. While the series is more concerned with military affairs than with economic ones, it seems that there are three competing ways of producing things:
By direct magic, using the law of similarity which can obviously be applied to mass production. This method is fast, but can produce inferior goods if not conducted with skill and effort. By artisans, who work by hand and use a limited amount of magic. Each profession has some spells, and the knowledge and use of them is considered a normal part of that trade rather than a form of magecraft. Mass production by machines, as in our world.
There is a mention of the Kuusamans rapidly building a new port in a newly conquered island by magic, which is evident from all buildings being the same (indicating that the spells made extensive use of the law of similarity). It is noted that only a country with many skilled mages could have spared the resources for such construction. In another place it is noted that printing is usually done by mechanical means, but the Valmieren resistance utilises magic for reproducing a propaganda sheet in order to avoid detection by the occupying authorities. The result of this magical duplication is readable, but the ink smudges easily as it was produced without the aid of a power point or an experienced mage.
Magical Items in the Darkness series
Crystals: Described as smooth spheres of glass, crystals are imbued with spells which allow them to be used for communication, and thus take the place of radios in the world. If operated away from a power point or ley line, they require regular recharging by some other means, which in one instance in the series involves the sacrifice of captive humans for their life energy which is used to power the crystal. Crystals can operate as videophones, showing an image of the person at the other end, as well as in audio-only mode. The emanations by which speech and images are transmitted between them are subject to interception by other mages, something at the forefront of the minds of most military planners in the series.
Eggs: The name given to the Derlavaian equivalent of bombs and shells, eggs are thin metal shells filled with magical energy which burst, or explode, when they impact a target or are triggered by an appropriate spell. A variety of uses for eggs are seen in the series. Armies launch them like shells from magically powered 'egg-tossers', which may be standalone devices or mounted on ley-line ships or behemoths. Dragons can carry eggs beneath their bellies for their fliers to drop on enemy forces or cities. Eggs may also be buried in the ground and enchanted to explode like landmines if they sense pressure, or can be buried along ley lines and set to explode if a ley line caravan passes over them, which simultaneously destroys the caravan and overloads the ley line's controlling spells. Leviathan riders also use eggs for mining enemy ships. Later in the series, the Algarvian army develops a hand held egg which can be thrown like a hand grenade; these eggs are encased in small pottery sugar bowls rather than metal shells. The reason for the term "egg" is never explicitly explained; apparently, originally armies used natural dragon eggs which are explosive in themselves, and then more powerful ones were developed by mages - but this is not explicitly stated.
Sticks: Sticks are the analogue to guns in the world of Derlavai. A stick emits a beam of energy which leaves behind a sharp scent like that of a nearby lightning strike. A soldier's stick is a large device and is activated when bare flesh such as an uncovered finger is inserted into its 'blazing hole'. The beam from a soldier's stick can burn a hole through a person with little difficulty, although they are largely ineffective against dragons and behemoths, which are not only naturally tough but also armored or painted silver to reflect beams. Smaller sticks are seen owned by civilians for blazing vermin or hunting game, or used by constables. Larger sticks, known as heavy sticks, are carried by behemoths on the battlefield, and can blaze through several men, another behemoth's armor or even take down dragons. Even larger heavy sticks can be used as fixed installations on the ground, used for air and sea defense, and carried on ley-line warships for use against ships, dragons and leviathans. Portable sticks used away from a power point or ley line require periodic recharging, which can be achieved in some unspecified way through the delivery of what is only described as 'charges' in supply wagons, or by the interventions of a mage drawing energy from a power point or sacrifice.
Rest crates: in function, much like a refrigerator or freezer, only considerably more effective. Rest crates are often mentioned as an archetypal application of modern sorcery, based on a spell used by the ancient Kaunian Empire to paralyze enemy soldiers. After counterspells were developed, it fell into disuse until modern systematic sorcery discovered that it operates by dramatically slowing the rate at which time affects objects under its influence. The rest crate, therefore, operates by slowing down the passage of time within its volume while its lid is shut. Food placed within it does not decay at a noticeable rate, but also requires no defrosting or other preparation before being used. A variant on this technique is also used by medical mages, who can slow down people suffering from serious injury in order to give them time to perform surgery, or to transport the victim to a place of treatment.
The Naantali Project The equivalent of the Manhattan Project. The project included over a hundred mages working on a secret project for Kuusamo to create a new magical weapon. Due to the inability to hide their magical experiments, attempts were made by Algarve to disrupt it but this failed. At one point it is led by the viewpoint character Pekka.