dark new age?

this probably already has a name, but like: sruff that’s got the feel of healing crystals new agey stuff, but also with a dark, gothy edge that could manifest as character angst, a world in which horrible things happen, violence, etc.

most of the examples i can think of are comics: sandman, black orchid, books of magic, supergirl: wings, revere, maybe kiss: psycho circus? the judge anderson story satan

non-comic examples i can come up with are the ttrpg changeling the dreaming and the band inkubus sukkubus

stuff i specifically haven’t included: everway, house of secrets, hellblazer (though the “young john constantine” story love street would probably count)

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Zhaan’s whole character is this in Farscape.

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just wait till you get to noranti

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crystal healing granny with a penchant for blowing psychoactive drugs in your face

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The apple tv show The Changeling actually kind of has this vibe a little bit. The ending is horrible imo but the first few episodes are really well done. And extremely spooky. It was based on a book but I never read it

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is this based on the victor lavalle novel? if so, the novel also has a bad ending

Of the three I’ve read, ballad of black tom is still the only lavalle novel that I can endorse without reservations

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Yep that’s the one!

90s earthdawn and shadowrun are lousy with this shit




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Maybe this?

dsun_700

I get the vibe you are trying to put your finger on

The hood by Brian K Vaughan, Ultimate X-Men by Mark Millar even some Morrison Marvel stuff is like an ‘urban’ inflected or ‘urban’ analog/equivalent of this

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Kinda long but I started making some conections in my head:





I feel like D&D in general went through a phase of various busy, covered in runes and bobbles, aesthetic too, though Planescape, and specifically Tony Diterlizzi’s art probably embodies it the most. It can be argued this carried over to some of the aesthetics of 3rd edition as well, especially early on. Which makes sense, it had a few former Planescape, Talistlanta, and Everway guys working on it. All of which were published for at least some of their existence by WotC.



Come to think of it, a lot of this turns up in MtG, so WotC definitely was excited about this aesthetic for a while
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Generally this stuff falls into my own broader 'brass ‘n glass’ aesthetic, but it’s definitely something.

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the comedian Brian Joseph Alvarez has a character that I love that fits this bill
TikTok - Make Your Day

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neopets: the darkest faerie

(my friend speedruns this game)

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a dnd thing of which you just remound me that fits this thread perfectly is the long-forgotten tcg blood wars





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The text on these cards is like the tcg equivalent of a sitcom videogame