#noblebright

Noblebright doesn't mean main characters don't suffer, doubt, hate, or die. It means they refuse to fully break, even if they struggle (example Boromir falters, but he doesn't fully fall. Yes he dies, but it's as himself, an honourable and selfless man who really only faltered because Sauron knew how to prey on his desperate desire to protect). Noblebright is the main characters staring down the horror in their world, and while it may harden them, they refuse to let it make them cold and cruel, at least not permanently. You can still explore dark and painful themes in Noblebright, that doesnt negate the genre, it just means those themes will be resolved with hope and healing instead of festering in bitterness. Sam's quote from the films sums up the spirit of the genre perfectly.

Princess: the Hopeful is a tabletop roleplaying game in which players take the role of magical girls acting as the guardians of hope and light in a world of darkness and despair. And before I can really talk about it, I need to give some backstory. Princess: the Hopeful is a fan-made game for Chronicles of Darkness AKA the New World of Darkness. Chronicles of Darkness is a line of TTRPGS in which players take on the roles of monsters hiding amongst humanity. Each game has you play a different kind of monster, so there’s a vampire game, a werewolf game, etc. While each game can be played independently of any other, they are all in the same setting and they all use the same core rules. This is intended to make crossovers easy, but it also means that fans can pretty easily homebrew their own content, up to and including entire games. CoD is a pretty dark setting where the shadows run deep, humans are prey to monsters we don’t understand, and hope is vanishingly rare. So when a group of fans decided to make a magical girl game for the setting, it seemed like a joke. However, the finished project has become one of the most popular fan games and is just as good if not better than many of the official games (cough Beast cough). While the world of Princess: the Hopeful is as grim and bleak as the rest of CoD, you play as the people who refuse to give in to despair and fight to make the world a better place and you are going to dress fantastically to do it. 

In the setting of Princess: the Hopeful, the ultimate force of evil is the All-Consuming Darkness. Born of fear, hate, despair, and every other negative aspect of life, the Darkness is less an entity and more a cosmic force of corruption that will not stop until the world is dragged into an eternal hell. When the Darkness first threatened the world, agents of light rose up to stop it. They wielded powerful magic and formed a civilization called the Kingdom which opposed the Darkness. And they won. The Darkness was beaten back and the Kingdom was at peace. This peace made them complacent and they failed to notice the Darkness building a counterattack until it was too late. The Darkness overwhelmed the Kingdom and destroyed many of queens and their courts. Of the 8 surviving courts, 5 were trapped within the Dreamlands, a dimension formed from the dreams and desires of humanity. This prison was perfect as the desires of its prisoners led them to not even realizing they were trapped. They lived in a fantasy of the world at peace, never realizing their predicament. The 3 remaining courts survived by becoming darkened. The corruption of the Darkness is found in them, but they are not its servants and are therefore known as the Twilight Courts. With the courts either trapped or corrupted, the Darkness had free reign over the world and turned it into the grimdark setting of Chronicles of Darkness. That was until 1969, when the first moon landing set off such a powerful surge of wonder and hope worldwide that it pierced the Dreamlands and alerted the imprisoned courts to the truth. The 5 imprisoned courts, the Radiant Courts, destroyed the prison and turned the Dreamlands into their new base of operations. They now face a world where the Darkness has effectively won. This hasn’t stopped the Radiant Courts and they have now resumed the war with the Darkness. Whether this war is an ultimately futile struggle or if the Radiant Courts do have a chance at actually turning things around is up to the players. 

The player characters of PtH are the Nobility. Nobles, also called Princesses/Princes or the Hopeful, start out as people who remain good and hopeful despite living in a darkened world. The potential to become a Noble will remain as long as that person remains good, but it takes a major event to unlock it. This event must be something life-changing and can happen at any time in someone’s life, though it usually happens during, and as a result of, puberty. The person will go through the Blossoming and awaken the power of a Noble. While the game focuses on magical girl tropes, anyone of any gender and sex can become a Noble. Nobles gain a number of powers, including the ability to perform magic. However, most of their powers require them to go through the classic magical girl transformation sequence. After transforming, a Noble’s body will change to represent their idealized self and they will be wearing clothes and tools called Regalia. The idealized self can be quite different from your normal appearance and the game explicitly states that a transgender noble’s transformed appearance will match their gender identity. The transformed state also acts as a magical disguise. Even if a Noble looks identical pre- and post- transformation, you won’t be able to recognize the two forms as the same person unless the Noble tells you. A noble can only stay transformed temporarily before needing to change back and rest. Nobles get access to magic spells, most of which can only be used while transformed. Casting spells requires spending wisps, which are gained by inspiring happiness and goodness in others. In both forms, Nobles have a 6th sense which detects dark acts and thoughts. If someone is depressed or does something evil, every Noble in range will know about it. Given the state of the world, this 6th sense can become overwhelming and many Nobles will take trips to the Dreamlands to get some relief for a while. Nobles can also grant people some of their powers. These people are known as Sworn and many Nobles will grant powers to people they trust as allies or people they love as protection. Nobles are also often aided by Shikigami, inhabitants of the Drealands who inhabit small animals or toys to enter the real world and who act as mentors and advisors. Shikigami are good at tracking down potential Nobles and helping them Blossom, making them the magical girl mascot trope. 

Fighting the Darkness is not just about battling monsters. While every Noble will eventually have to do battle with soul-sucking horrors from the netherrealms, most of the fight isn’t about violence. Anything that causes negativity is a tool of the darkness and you can’t exactly kick poverty or discrimination in the face. However, just as any negative emotion or cruel act empowers the Darkness, any act of kindness or that sparks joy fights it. Each Noble has a particular specialty called their Calling that determines how they inspire hope and joy the best. The callings are:

Champions: the defenders of the weak. Champions are classic heroes who fight for justice and protect others. They gain wisps by standing up for others. Champions are the most combat-oriented of the Callings and are typically the ones who do the fighting when creatures of Darkness are about. Example Champions include a knight who charges out to face the monsters, an activist pushing to end poverty, the manager of a shelter for the homeless, or the kid who stands up to bullies. 

Graces: the messengers of hope. Graces prefer to guide others to the light through communication and support. Graces are skilled at social interaction and gain magic that lets them power up other people. They gain wisps by giving support and advice. Example Graces include a motivational speaker whose speeches are charmed with magic, a therapist who encourages patients to improve themselves, the person who always gives good advice, and the friend who is always ready to offer a shoulder to lean on. 

Menders: the healers of the wounded. Menders aid people who are suffering, be it physically, mentally, or supernaturally. Menders will give aid to anyone they can and will not engage in violence, except against creatures of Darkness. Their magic focuses on healing and supporting others. They gain wisps by helping people. Example Menders include a first responder for disasters, an emergency room doctor who will stop at nothing to heal patients, a counselor who helps people fight depression, and a hero who helps people reject the corruption of Darkness. 

Seekers: the scholars of the light. Seekers are defined by their curiosity and devotion to uncovering the truth. Lies and ignorance are tools of the Darkness and Seekers are here to uncover the truth. Their magic focuses on stealth and information gathering. They gain wisps by learning new things. Example Seekers include a bookworm who spends all their free time in the library, a spy who gathers intel on the Darkness’ activities, an archeologist who seeks out ancient artifacts of the Nobility, and a scientist who tries to reconcile the supernatural world with the scientific one. 

Troubadours: the muses of joy. Troubadours seek to inspire wonder and joy in other people through their works. Natural artists and storytellers, troubadours gain wisps by inspiring others. Their magic focuses on illusions and supporting others. Example Troubadours include a party animal who always has a story to tell, a children’s book author whose work always includes positive morals, a graffiti artist who leaves messages of hope around town, an inspiring speaker who encourages people to fight the Darkness, and a jokester who can always make people laugh. 

Noble society is centered around the courts. Each court is an alliance of like-minded Nobles led by a queen. Queens are immensely powerful and ancient Nobles who date back to before the imprisonment in the Dreamlands. There are 5 Radiant Courts and 3 Twilight Courts. A Noble’s Calling is innate to them and cannot be chanced, but membership in a court is optional and switching between them is accepted (by the Radiants anyway). Some people opt to remain courtless. Each court has a signature emotion or two that powers their unique magic. The Radiant Courts are:

The Court of Clubs practices a pseudo-Taoist philosophy of finding the balance where you can express your truest self while remaining in balance with the world. Accepting change and avoiding violence are part of this harmony. Don’t assume this means Clubs are helpless against attack. They aren’t allowed to start a fight, but they are allowed to finish it. Harmony with nature is also an important part of their beliefs and many Clubs prefer to live in the natural world and protect nature from the Darkness. Their emotions are harmony and tranquility.

The Court of Diamonds embraces enlightenment ideals and believes in the power of logic and reason to improve the world. They embrace modern science and technology and reject ignorance and misinformation as tools of the Darkness. Key among their teachings is that knowledge is to be shared freely with everyone, nor hoarded away or locked behind paywalls. They also reject the divide between the arts and sciences, seeing both as equally important. Diamonds tend to be excellent planners and strategists. Their emotions are curiosity and wonder.

The Court of Hearts is the one that takes the title of Nobility most seriously. They believe that the key to a better world is building and improving social institutions with them as the strong leaders. While Hearts view themselves as natural leaders, they also believe that authority is not owed, it is earned through the respect of others. They practice noblesse oblige, the philosophy that those in charge have a duty to improve the lives of their subjects and to be a wise and fair leader. The Hearts also take tradition seriously, believing that you must preserve the traditions that work and discard or improve those who do not. Their emotions are trust and duty.

The Court of Spades encourages creativity, going outside norms, and humor. Their skill is in questioning traditions and social institutions to find out what is valuable and what isn’t. Those institutions that cause harm are tools of the Darkness and should be dismantled. Above all, everyone needs some laughter in their life and so the Spades are great pranksters and jokesters. Many other courts stereotype the Spades as ineffective and annoying pranksters, but their skill at thinking outside the box can make them highly effective at finding new and unorthodox solutions to problems. Their emotion is humor. 

The Court of Swords believes in following your heart and doing everything with burning passion. Love is the most important emotion to them, and not just romantic love but all kinds. They follow a morality code that emphasizes that harming someone is always wrong and that you should strive to broaden your horizons and embrace your passions. Many Swords are classic heroes, striving out for the sake of goodness and willing to do anything to protect their loved ones. The Swords also trust their members to be able to act autonomously, though of course if you can work with others, you should at least consider it. Their emotion is love. 

While the Radiant Courts have only been active in the real world since 1969, the Twilight Courts have been active since the fall of the Kingdom. In order to survive the Darkness, they had to become darkened. While each Twilight Court is affected by the Darkness, they are still its enemies and do not serve it. Because they have been active for so much longer, the Twilight Courts have much greater populations than the Radiant Courts. If the Radiant Courts are the classic magical girls, the Twilight Courts are the dark magical girls. 

The Court of Tears survived the coming of the Darkness by fleeing into it. The Queen of Tears moved her city, Alhambra, into the Dark World and converted it into a hollow sphere, with the city on the inside. The city is lit by lamps that keep the Darkness out, but they are fueled by hope. Nobles of Tears are tasked with stealing hope from the real world to keep the lamps burning. Key to their beliefs is that the Darkness has already won and all they can do is keep their loved ones safe in Alhambra. Thus, they will do whatever they can to keep the lamps burning. Their mission is ultimately futile as they are helping the Darkness win and once it does, nothing will keep Alhambra safe. The Queen of Tears constantly weeps over the sacrifices she made and it is implied that if she ever realizes the self-defeating nature of her mission, she will fully fall into despair and become an agent of the Darkness. Their signature emotions are depression and resolve. 

The Court of Storms barely functions as a court anymore as their queen is not capable of leading anymore. To survive the Darkness, the Queen of Storms transformed herself into a living storm that rages within the Dark World, destroying all she touches. Nobles of Storms lash out against the Darkness in rage. They hate the Darkness and the state of the world and that hate leads them to do whatever they can to destroy it no matter who and what gets in the way. They believe that the world is already hopelessly corrupted and the only way out is to turn it to ashes and hope that whatever’s left is worth saving. Storms Nobles believe that when they die, their souls will merge with the storm that is the Queen and make it a bit bigger. Once enough of them die the Queen will grow enough to destroy the Darkness and rip the world apart. If there’s something left to rebuild after, that’s a nice bonus. Their emotions are rage and hate. 

The Court of Mirrors isn’t a court in any sense of the word. The Queen of Mirrors fled when the Darkness came. SInce then, she has appeared to newly-Blossomed Nobles and informed them that they are the True Heir to the Kingdom and destined to be the one who defeats the Darkness and saves the world. Given how many people she does this to, her approach seems to be that if she tries enough times, eventually she’ll find the right person. Nobles of Mirrors become utterly convinced that they are the heroes of the story. They are vain, narcissistic solipsists convinced the world revolves around them. Most other Nobles view the Mirrors as obnoxious brats, but a narcissist with magic powers can prove to be a formidable threat. The Mirrors are incapable of working together and tend to fight each other when they meet. There can only be one True Heir after all. Their emotions are selfishness and solipsism. 

The Darkness is a subtle and insidious force that operates wherever there is violence, hate, or misery. Places of sadness or where atrocities have been committed become tainted areas, where the influence of the Darkness is more pronounced. Tainted areas are more prone to violence, depression, and bigotry. The people who spend time there are also more likely to become Darkened. A Darkened person has the influence of the Darkness influencing their mind and body. It changes their sense of morality to encourage them to engage in immoral acts. Unlike other creatures of the Darkness, Darkened are redeemable. They can resist their malevolent urges and strive to be a good person. Nobles are charged with helping Darkened redeem themselves and can use magic to help purify their corruption. Darkened who are not redeemed turn into one of two types of monsters. The most common result is a Darkspawn. When a Darkened fully gives into the Darkness, they will die and their body (or part of it) will revive as a twisted monster. Darkspawn have no real intelligence, but there are an incredible variety of them and they are very dangerous. When a Darkened uses the Darkness to corrupt their minds rather than warp their bodies, they will become a Mnemosyne. These monsters still look human and remember their past lives. They are also highly intelligent, allowing them to command Darkspawn and scheme to spread the Darkness and corrupt other people. Another dark creature is a Cataphract, who are born from people who die in despair (often through suicide). They retain the memories of their human lives and will attempt to return to them, but are only capable of being twisted parodies of humanity. Probably the most feared creatures of Darkness are the Dethroned, Nobles who lost hope and turned to the Darkness. Dethroned usually spend their time wallowing in their own misery, only occasionally roused into action by other dark creatures. An active Dethroned is an enormous threat and even other dark creatures fear them. Even killing a Dethroned won’t save them as they will simply be reborn. There are only two ways to destroy one: utterly destroying their soul at the cost of your own, and taking their misery onto yourself and working through it, allowing the Dethroned to feel hope again before dying and being reincarnated. 

Again, I don't like "the Boys" simply because I'm over grimdark deconstructions of superheroes. As the seasons have progressed, the Boys fandom has complained about many things but I was surprised to find they are complaining about everything becoming so dark and raunchy. Like I thought that was part of the charm, Y'know? seeing shitty people abuse power without regard.

So yeah I kinda feel like saying "See I was vindicated in believing shows that revel in cynicsm end up disappointing their fanbases". But of course the problem of shows like "the Boys" and the way the GOT novels are stuck in development is more complicated.

The nuanced analysis I have is that with so much grittiness and cynicism permeating the story, that chokes out the narrative motion. You can only play the "greatest hits" of grim and dark themes like "might makes right" and "breaking away from the status quo means destruction" before the audience gets bored. Eventually, to break the status quo you'd have to add idealism, nobility, altruism or the like in some capacity.

The commentary on "why people like grimdark" that I've seen is that people like it precisely because good grimdark acknowledges how difficult it is to have noble virtues and ideals and how they are still necessary in a world ruled by self-interest and suspicion. In this way this little windows into goodness punch harder, and it's never free; it comes with dire consequences.

But apparently that's not what has been happening in The boys and the GOT books. In the quest for pungent social commentary and "realism" the authors of these works have painted themselves into a corner where the protagonists gaining ground would feel unearned because the odds are so big and the characters are just not the type to power through the odds with belief alone.

Please reblog if you know any avid readers who frequently review books online! Especially if they enjoy novels containing: - fae - witches - angst-free queerness - romance - a cozy noblebright mood even amid magical disaster - '90s cover bands I seek reviewers and general word-of-mouth-spreaders for my novel Ballad for Jasmine Town, which contains all of the above. (As to the romance and queerness, the main couple is a trans man and a bi woman, in case you prefer to know such details.) It can be requested on NetGalley and Edelweiss right now, or I could email you an ARC in PDF or epub format.

Here is the publisher page if you’d like to read more about it. (Though distributed by Simon & Schuster, the book is independent-press-published. The publishing world is complicated.) For those who've read Lava Red Feather Blue: it takes place in the same country and has some overlapping events, but you don't have to read one book to make sense of the other. They are both stand-alones. Thank you in advance, and I hope it finds some happy readers!

A character from a grimdark series dies partway through the story and is reborn into a noblebright series with memories of their first life.

The first robots to arrive on Ymir were those sent by Empyrean. They had no intelligence of their own, and operated merely as they were programmed. However, contact with raw, unrefined adonium caused them to gain sentience, and they tried to claim the planet as their own. Admiral Montu wiped them out, leading to the Genesis II Project, as headed by Dr. Nebo.

Some time during the Second Age, humans living on Ymir figured out how to use adonium to create their own automatons to assist in mining adonium. Rather than running on electricity, these automatons ran on the magic of adonium itself. Every automaton has an adonium core, which acts as the seat of its consciousness. However, not every automaton has free will or total consciousness. Many simply behave as their makers programmed them to behave.

Automatons are considered a servant class in human society. Most of them work in the mines, but some assist in day-to-day tasks. Some automatons might be bartenders, lift operators, woodcutters, or even soldiers on occasion.

The lifespans of automatons vary greatly. Some only last a few years before they break down and can no longer function. Others run for hundreds of years. There are even rumors of some who have survived thousands of years. Generally, as long as an automaton’s adonium core is still intact, they are still “alive,” though sometimes the damage to their bodies is so great that new frames need to be built for them.

Since automatons do not need some of the basic creature comforts, such as food and water, those that are paid are usually paid far less than humans. Even so, automatons often seek work because it makes them feel like their lives have purpose.

Sadly, in recent times there are some humans who have grown to resent and even hate automatons. The Skin and Bones society was formed around the basic idea that only beings made of flesh should be considered truly “alive.” Members of the Skin and Bones Society have been known to destroy automatons for the slightest offenses, or simply because of baseless hatred. They often wear parts of automatons they’ve killed as armor, intended to frighten any other automatons they might come across.

Since justice for these murders is hard to come by, some automatons have formed gangs, posses, or militias. This, in turn, has made many of their human neighbors nervous that automatons are about to rise up against them, and driven several right into the arms of the Skin and Bones Society.

Those automatons loyal to Empyrean usually pray to Shun as their patron deity. Since he is believed to be the god of stone and hard labor, their mythology says that he was the first one to create automatons, and has a special interest in their survival.