Black Magic

Black magic is magic that carries a social taboo within the society of Ethos. It is considered a capital crime akin to murder or rape in most jurisdictions, though the League of Nine is notoriously open-minded on its use.

"White magic," is a rarely used term, typically only used to delineate between black and nonblack magic. "Gray magic," is a term used more frequently, denoting a particular use that has applications that are sufficiently balanced between "black" and "white" applications so as to be neither by default.

Common Themes
It should be noted that magic being considered "black" is a question of etiquette; there is no functional difference between black or white magic as far as a wizard is concerned.

Black magic shares a common theme of infringing on the body, mind, or other fundamental attribute of human being without their consent or in direct defiance of their will. This overall theme is sometimes called "encroachment," in scholarly works.

Types of Black Magic
Within the portfolio of encroachment, each school of magical expression has its own distinct "black" applications. Most of these sub-schools have had names attached to their specific use, in order to separate them from the school's "white" applications.
 * Aphoration: Necromancy. Necromancy is the animation of the dead and, in practice, a simpler version of Golemtry (see Magic, Layman Schools).  Animation of human corpses is considered black magic, unless the person the corpse belonged to gave permission before their death.  Necromancy in particular has had its stigma reduced within the League of Nine, as the League's armies are reliant upon Lantern Thralls to compensate for the Alliance's superior numbers.
 * Conjuration: Luxurimancy and Necromancy. Mental conjuration inciting violence, passion, or other hot emotion that precludes reason.  Other forms of mental conjuration are seen as grayer or even white.
 * Transmutation: Domination or Shapestealing. In the case of mental transmutation, Domination is taking direct control of another being thoughts or influencing them in the extreme.  Shapestealing is a subschool of shapeshifting in which the wizard takes a form that they have not been given consent to take.  Shapestealing is more versatile than consensual shapeshifting but also more difficult--the shape resists being taken, and will take active effort on the wizard's part to maintain, usually displaying telltale twitches where the form briefly fails.
 * Evocation: Domination.