What lighting condition does the spell Darkness create?

Question

Many people hold to the interpretation of the spell Darkness that it is an area of total darkness.

But this is not how I would interpret it, to me it appears as if the spell creates an area of dim lighting.

Darkness
This spell causes an object to radiate shadowy illumination out to a 20-foot radius. All creatures in the area gain concealment (20% miss chance). Even creatures that can normally see in such conditions (such as with darkvision or low-light vision) have the miss chance in an area shrouded in magical darkness.

Normal lights (torches, candles, lanterns, and so forth) are incapable of brightening the area, as are light spells of lower level. Higher level light spells are not affected by darkness.

If darkness is cast on a small object that is then placed inside or under a lightproof covering, the spell’s effect is blocked until the covering is removed.

Darkness counters or dispels any light spell of equal or lower spell level.

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Vision And Light
In an area of shadowy illumination, a character can see dimly. Creatures within this area have concealment relative to that character. A creature in an area of shadowy illumination can make a Hide check to conceal itself.

As you can see, the spell says it radiates illumination. But more than that this 20% miss chance mentioned corresponds to partial concealment, not total (50% chance) as you would expect from total darkness. And low-light vision is mentioned as a condition which would overcome it normally, which would not be true if it were total darkness. Am I missing something?

So what lighting effect does the spell Darkness create?

Also, can you use the this spell to dimly light up an area of total darkness?

Answer 1

How I usually see this ruled:

1) The Darkness spell causes the area in which it is placed to be limited to Dim Light, as you spell out clearly. It is, however, not a [light] effect and furthermore does not add to the lighting level, rather setting the cap on illumination in the area to Dim Light. This is usually equivalent to creating a region of pitch-black magical darkness in the situations where the spell is likely to be cast, because the spell also prevents lower level spell-based magical lighting from working at all so there's usually no viable source of light functioning in the area of effect. Mundane light sources, however, are merely limited to not being able to raise the light level above dim. Most adventurers don't bother carrying any mundane light sources past about level 2, however.

2) No, you'd need a light source for that.

RAW, as I understand it:

1) Yep!

2) Yep!