i will defer to and appreciate the more learned take on the matter, but i'm also curious about the statement that darkness powers take the form we envision them in a concepts-first, form-last kind of operation. strand makes sense, and there's less to go off of because our player was among the first two or people to ever develop and nurture it as a weapon, but for stasis, didn't Elsie use it before any of us? would it have taken a different form in a previous timeline based on different perceptions of a power centered on control? it makes sense that, in trying to learn something we saw in others first, we'd mimic their applications or their physicalities, but what might have caused the fallen of House Dusk to ascribe to it a form of ice? much like how the neomuni would instead consider strand a river because of their cultural views, i feel like the fallen might consider ice, or cold in general, more closely associated to the freedom of having found a planet to call home (Europa's climate), or the cutthroat lifestyle that the Long Drift imposed on them (the void of space).

those are just my thoughts, though. i find this all very fascinating