Why Dark Fantasy Friendships Are More Complex

In the sanitised worlds of lighter fantasy, friendship is simple.

Companions never truly doubt each other, and bonds weather every storm unscathed.

But dark fantasy shows us something truer: loyalty becomes most meaningful when tested against our darkest impulses.

The Innocence of Friendship in Guild of Assassins

Consider Soren and Alaric in my novel Guild of Assassins.

Their friendship begins in innocence – a sculptor’s apprentice and a fisherman’s son, bound by childhood memories.

But it’s only when thrust into the guild’s brutal crucible that their loyalty reveals its true depth.

When Kierak torments them, when the Threshing forces them to kill or die, they choose each other over survival itself.

Dark Fantasy and Friendship Stripped to Its Core

This speaks to how dark fantasy uses extreme circumstances to strip away social pretence and reveal friendship’s bare bones.

We see this in Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law trilogy, where Logen and the Dogman’s bond is forged in blood and battle.

Or in Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings, where Fitz and the Fool’s friendship endures betrayal and sacrifice.

These stories show us that true loyalty isn’t tested by minor grievances, but by moral compromise.

When Friendship Becomes Corruption

Yet dark fantasy also explores how friendship can become its own form of corruption.

When Soren and Alaric support each other through increasingly brutal acts at the guild, are they preserving each other’s humanity or enabling its loss?

Their loyalty helps them survive, but it also binds them to a path of violence.

It’s reminiscent of how Locke and Jean’s friendship in The Lies of Locke Lamora both saves and damns them.

Their absolute trust makes them formidable thieves, but also locks them into a life of crime.

The Price of Loyalty in Dark Fantasy

The genre forces us to ask: what price are we willing to pay for loyalty?

In Guild of Assassins, we watch Soren and Alaric face this question repeatedly.

When they discover the truth about the Threshing, they could flee.

But staying together means participating in a death match.

Their choice to face it as a unit speaks to how friendship can become a moral compass when all other guidelines fail.

Friendship as a Last Tether to Humanity

Dark fantasy also shows us how friendship can serve as a last tether to humanity in inhuman circumstances.

During the Threshing, Soren and Alaric’s bond keeps them from descending completely into savagery.

Like Frodo and Sam in the increasingly dark latter portions of The Lord of the Rings, their connection reminds them of who they were before violence reshapes them.

Loyalty Through Moral Transformation

But perhaps most powerfully, dark fantasy explores how loyalty survives moral transformation.

When Soren becomes capable of killing, when his hands learn to deal death instead of creating beauty, Alaric doesn’t abandon him.

Their friendship adapts to accommodate their darker selves, much like how Mark Lawrence’s Broken Empire series shows Jorg’s brothers accepting both his monstrosity and his humanity.

Friendship as a Force That Shapes Morality

This is what elevates friendship in dark fantasy beyond simple companionship.

It becomes a force that shapes morality itself.

When Soren and Alaric face Kierak in their final confrontation, their loyalty to each other proves stronger than individual survival instincts.

They fight together not because it’s tactically sound, but because their bond has become fundamental to who they are.

The Dual Nature of Loyalty in Dark Fantasy

Yet these stories don’t present friendship as an unalloyed good.

We see how loyalty can blind us to moral compromise, how it can lock us into destructive paths.

When Alaric follows Soren into the guild, is he being a true friend or enabling a descent into darkness?

The genre forces us to grapple with how friendship can both save and damn us.

Loyalty in Dark Fantasy: Standing by Through Darkness

Dark fantasy reminds us that real loyalty isn’t about standing by someone’s side when things are easy.

It’s about choosing to remain when paths darken, when moral choices become murky, when the cost of friendship demands everything we have to give.

Through characters like Soren and Alaric, we explore what it means to be loyal not despite someone’s darkness, but through it.

Finding Light Within Darkness

In the end, perhaps this is why friendship in dark fantasy resonates so deeply.

It acknowledges that true loyalty isn’t about preserving innocence, but about weathering corruption together.

About choosing to stand by someone even as they change, even as the world forces impossible choices.

About finding light not in spite of darkness, but within it.

Your Thoughts

How do you think dark fantasy explores friendship differently than other genres? What are some of your favourite examples of tested loyalties in fantasy literature? Share your thoughts below.

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