A Beginner’s Guide to Drucraft #23: Light Sigls (I)

An overview of some of the most common Light sigls.  Light sigls are almost always spherical, and their colour varies from light blue to dark blue.

Torch/Torchlight

Sub-branch:  Projection
Type:  Continuous/Triggered
Appearance:  Pale blue, opaque
Rank:  D

The most basic of all Light sigls, and often considered the most basic of all sigls.  Converts essentia into visible light which is projected outwards to illuminate the surrounding area.  Comes in dozens of varieties:  continuous ‘light rings’ which shine when put on, triggered versions designed to be used by channellers, ‘ray’ designs which project a narrow beam, ‘searchlight’ versions which project a cone, and ‘finder’s stones’ designed to only activate in essentia-rich environments, and many others.

Torch sigls have exceptionally low Lorenz ratings, requiring hardly any personal essentia to activate.  Because of this, as well as how cheap and easy they are to produce, these sigls are commonly used as training tools.  Countless generations of drucrafters have learned to sense on a continuous torch sigl, learned to channel on a triggered torch sigl, and (eventually) learned to shape by crafting one for themselves.

Torch sigls can theoretically be made at any rank, but in practice there’s little reason to make one at above the minimum rank of D.  A higher-grade torch sigl costs far more and rarely does anything that a D-rank one couldn’t.

Torch sigls are often casually referred to as ‘light sigls’, but due to how confusing it is to have both ‘light’ and ‘Light’ sigls, formal descriptions generally go with the name ‘torch sigl’ instead.

Dazzle

Sub-branch:  Projection
Type:  Triggered
Appearance:  Blue, opaque
Rank:  D to D+

Essentially a weaponised version of the Torch sigl, the dazzle sigl is made by taking a Torch sigl and adding a capacitor, storing up energy to be released in a single blinding flash.  The light is directed outwards in a cone, both to avoid dazzling the wielder and also to avoid wasted energy.

Dazzle sigls are popular as a self-defence weapon because of how cheap they are:  given how little essentia they require to make and activate, they’re quite cost-effective.  Their main drawback is that they require the target to be looking directly at the sigl, and a weapon that anyone can counter by closing their eyes isn’t what most people would call reliable.

Higher-grade dazzle sigls allow for a more intense flash.  More sophisticated models allow the cone to be narrowed or broadened, allowing the wielder to change the sigl’s focus on the fly.

Gloom/Blackout

Sub-branch:  Negation
Type:  Triggered
Appearance:  Very dark blue, opaque
Rank:  D to C+

The inverse of the Torch effect, this sigl reduces the brightness of light in a sphere around the channeller by converting visible light to free essentia.  The radius of the sphere and the level of light reduction depends on the power of the sigl.  D-rank and D+ versions produce an area of shadowed gloom, while versions of C-rank and above produce a sphere of total darkness.  The weaker versions are usually referred to as ‘gloom’ sigls, while the more powerful ones get the ‘blackout’ label.

Obviously this sigl blinds the wielder just as thoroughly as it blinds anyone else.  As such, to be effective, it is typically combined with some way for the wielder to see while everyone else can’t.  The most common approach is to design the sigl in such a way so as to negate most frequencies but exclude certain ones – the wielder can then use light-enhancing goggles or another sigl to see in those specific frequencies, while everyone else is blinded.  Used in this combination, this sigl becomes a fairly cheap and effective method of ‘invisibility’.  The main drawback, of course, is how obvious it is – a giant sphere of darkness is hardly subtle.  As such, it is much more useful at night or in other poorly-lit environments – in daytime, the amount of attention it draws tends to counteract any benefit it might provide.

Shadowman

Sub-branch:  Negation
Type:  Triggered/Continuous
Appearance:  Very dark blue, translucent
Rank:  C to C+

A more advanced variation of the Blackout sigl that affects a very small area around the wielder, but works only on outgoing radiation.  Visible light travelling away from the wielder is converted into free essentia;  visible light travelling towards the wielder is unaffected.  The result, to observers, is to make the wielder look like a sort of humanoid shadow, fuzzier around the edges and pure black at the core.  The wielder, meanwhile, can see just fine, although the loss of indirect light does hamper them slightly – wielders often describe it as like trying to see on a very cloudy day.

While usually thought of as a stealth sigl, in some ways this sigl does the exact opposite.  A drucrafter with an active shadowman sigl is, in most cases, incredibly easy to spot – in any conditions other than total darkness, the huge moving blot of shadow is very obvious.  However, while the shadow is obvious, actually seeing the wielder or making out their movements is close to impossible.  You can tell that someone’s there, but not who they are or what they’re doing – useful for those who don’t want to be identified.

It should not be a surprise that this sigl is heavily associated with criminal activity, particularly raiding and other forms of theft.  It’s illegal to sell to the public in most countries, and possessing one is typically seen as highly suspicious.