Inspired by Overly Sarcastic Productions’s “Grimdark” trope talks episode, it’s come to me that Shadow Herald, despite being dark fantasy, isn’t grimdark in its outlook.
Grimdarkness requires that the world be ugly, and that characters can’t change their world in any significant fashion. It is true that the world of Rhimn has a lot of ugliness in it. But the core theme of my work is something along the lines of, “hey, we can’t give in to this”.
The sheer determination to make the world a better place — and a narrative where the protagonist having a genuine chance at succeeding in this — will always preclude a story from falling into the grimdark category. Even if it is a little gritty and dark. I think we could all use some stories where the characters keep fighting to turn a hopeless situation into a hopeful one.
I suppose that one could call Shadow Herald a grimbright story then? That’d certainly fit with the antagonist’s light theme...
