[RPG] Does light from a flame from a magic weapon dispel Darkness

dnd-5emagic-itemsspells

One of my party members found a magical mace. Its magical ability is that it can light on fire (turn on or off at will) for 1 bonus fire damage. My question is, does the light from this mace dispel the magical effect of the Darkness spell?

My argument is that no, the mace is magical, but the fire isn't magical, nor is the light from the fire magical light, it's just regular light.

Even if I granted that the light is defined as magical, the mace was found really early after level 2, and Darkness reads:

If any of this spell's area overlaps with an area of light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, the spell that created the light is dispelled.

I expect that the mace is a low level magic at the very least, and not high enough level to cancel out darkness?

Best Answer

The mace is not affected by the Darkness, and the Darkness is not affected by the mace.

Darkness has no clause that allows magical light to dispel it. You might be thinking of this, from the Daylight spell:

If any of this spell’s area overlaps with an area of darkness created by a spell of 3rd level or lower, the spell that created the darkness is dispelled.

But that is a feature of a specific spell (Daylight), not a general rule about the Darkness spell.

As for Darkness, it says this about magical light:

If any of this spell’s area overlaps with an area of light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, the spell that created the light is dispelled.

But the light from the mace isn't light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, it's light created by a magical item. Or possibly light created by fire created by a magic item. The point is, it's not the kind of light Darkness says it dispels.