Dark theme version that inherits light theme + overrides portions?

This should be common/color_definitions.scss.

And in common.css, the fallbacks are the same as the initial value, so you could simply use:

.nav-pills>li>a:hover {
  background-color: var(--custom-nav-pills-bg);

  &:not(.active) {
    color: var(--custom-nav-pills);
  }
}