History Main / TheSacredDarkness

* In ''MagicTheGathering'', while Black magic is often focused on unpleasant things like necromancy, corruption, selfishness, and MindRape, it is not inherently evil, and also encompasses necessary forces such as death and self-preservation. Not only have [[DarkIsNotEvil some protagonists been pure Black]] but, like all colours of mana, Black necessary for planar stability.

* ''HeroesOfMightAndMagic V'' has the dark elves, who worship Malassa the Dragon of Darkness, and the necromancers, who worship "death" aspect of Asha the Dragon of Order. Both ultimately work for the "good" side in the campaign.

* In ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', the Sage of Light sends the hero on a quest to awaken the Sages of Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow and Spirit, all forces of good required to defeat the Great King of Evil. This theme is further explored in [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]], with events such as the Blade of Evil's Bane being blessed by the gods of the DarkWorld.

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* Taken to the extreme in the [[BlackJewels Black Jewels]] Trilogy and subsequent books. In-world, the [[CreatorDeity Darkness]] is the source of the characters' power, receives the characters' prayers, and inhabits the [[TheAbyssGazesBack Abyss]]. As an extension of darkness being one of the most positive traits, possessing a darker [[CapitalLettersAreMagic Jewel]] confers a higher position in the society's hierarchy.

* R. Talsorian Games' ''{{TabletopGames/Cyberpunk}}'' supplement ''Home of the Brave''. A religion called Worshippers of the Night considers the night to be a time of rest and spiritual purification. They patrol the streets at night to "protect the night's holiness against the evil that surrounds us."

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* In ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', the Sage of Light sends the hero on a quest to awaken the Sages of Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow and Spirit, all forces of good required to defeat the Great King of Evil. This theme is further explored in [[TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]], with events such as the Blade of Evil's Bane being blessed by the gods of the DarkWorld.

** The sequel, {{Terranigma}}, goes further by making the main character a creation of Dark Gaia designed to impel the world through another cycle of death and rebirth. As soon as the world reaches the peak of its cycle of life, Light Gaia moves to stop him.

* In the Mystara setting of DungeonsAndDragons, the Immortal (Immortals being the D&D functional equivalent of AD&D's gods) Nyx was the Entropic Immortal of darkness, night, and the undead. She is also pretty much the only Immortal of Entropy who is ''not'' evil, although her goals [[OrangeAndBlueMorality would be horrifying]] to most people. Still, Nyx serves as the key reminder that Entropy is as necessary for the existence of the cosmos as are the other four Spheres of Power, and is not inherently evil.

Despite this, it may still carry some of the usual problems of dark powers, such as the NobleDemon spirits empowering the SwordOfPlotAdvancement deciding that their user is not worthy enough to use their sacred sword and killing him, or simply the usual problem of prolonged exposure to the darkness being dangerous to the mind. Note that "sacred" does not have to equal "good". More often, these characters embody a morally neutral concept or ideal. On rare occasions, villains can use The Sacred Darkness, but usually this only works when they are opposing another villain who is using the corrupted variant in a ALighterShadeOfBlack situation.

Can also be interpreted as necessary and holy when its part of a YinYangBomb. In a similar vein, the pure/corrupt interpretation can be done for Light in a LightIsNotGood scenario, such as a "corrupt" light spell that poisons the enemy.

** King Mickey outright tells [[KingdomHeartsII Xemnas]] that the Worlds are made of both Light and Darkness, and that "you can't have one without the other."

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has Princess Luna, who is essentially the [[PhysicalGod Physical Goddess]] of the night. While she turned evil for a brief period ('brief' in divine terms, anyway - a thousand years), her job of making the night fall was so justified in its existence that after Luna was banished, her sister Celestia, responsible for the sun, took over the job of bringing the night into existence as well. In the present day, however, Luna has returned, and presumably has taken to her duties once again. It helps that, according to backstory, both Celestia and Luna stood up together against Discord, essentially the god of chaos, by wielding the Elements of Harmony.

* In ''MagicTheGathering'', while Black magic is often focused on unpleasant things like necromancy, corruption and MindRape, it is not inherently evil, and not only [[DarkIsNotEvil have some protagonists been pure Black]], but, like all colours of mana, Black is generally necessary to maintain planes stable.

* ''FireEmblem:'' Several of the holy InfinityPlusOneSword[=s=] used by the PrecursorHeroes and eventually obtained by the player are dark magic tomes, but are treated with exactly the same level of reverence and usefulness as the other holy weapons; said weapons are [[FireEmblemElibe Apocalypse]] and [[FireEmblemTheSacredStones Gleipnir]]. The exception here is [[FireEmblemJugdral the Jugdral canon]], which plays DarkIsEvil very straight - of the holy weapons of the Twelve Crusaders, none of them are dark magic, and the equivalent dark tome, Loptous, was born of a destructive evil god of the same name and is used by the final boss, a descendent of and possessed by said evil god; however, the "holy" blood of Loptous is charted in exactly the same way as the holy blood of the Crusaders. Nontheless, the holy sword Mistoltin might be an example, as side materials sometimes call it a demonic sword and its destined wielders are always [[BlackKnight Black Knights]].

** Given that it turns his eyes from the more aggressive red into an honest green and gives him wings, one might argue that Beelzebumon of ''DigimonTamers'' - who is in the broader canon one of the Seven Great Demon Lords - goes through a "dark purification" as well when he obtains [[WingPull Blast Mode]]. Similarly, his ''DigimonXrosWars'' incarnation (which is very similar to Blast Mode) is an outright holy warrior, being reborn into that form using a mask of the goddess he once served, and is one of the noblest and most loyal characters in the series.

* ''FireEmblem:'' Several of the holy InfinityPlusOneSword[=s=] used by the PrecursorHeroes and eventually obtained by the player are dark magic tomes, but are treated with exactly the same level of reverence and usefulness as the other holy weapons; said weapons are [[FireEmblemElibe Apocalypse]] and [[FireEmblemTheSacredStones Gleipnir]]. The exception here is [[FireEmblemJugdral the Jugdral canon]], which plays DarkIsEvil very straight - of the holy weapons of the Twelve Crusaders, none of them are dark magic, and the equivalent dark tome, Loptous, was born of a destructive evil god of the same name and is used by the final boss, a descendent of and possessed by said evil god; however, the "holy" blood of Loptous is charted in exactly the same way as the holy blood of the Crusaders.

*** More specifically. It was orignally called "the Tome of the Night Sky", and was simply a repository of magical knowledge. Being such a thing, various douchenozzles over time took to obtaining that knowledge for the usual reasons evil people would seek it. Their manipulations, across time, resulted in the Book becoming corrupt.
* In Anime/YuGiOhGX, the Gentle Darkness not only is a force for good, it's what actually created everything in the first place. This isn't commonly known information, but it's true nevertheless.

* ''FireEmblem:'' Several of the holy {{Infinity+1 Sword}}s used by the PrecursorHeroes and eventually obtained by the player are dark magic tomes, but are treated with exactly the same level of respect as the other holy weapons; said weapons are [[FireEmblemElibe Apocalypse]] and [[FireEmblemTheSacredStones Gleipnir]]. The exception here is the Jugdral canon, which plays DarkIsEvil straight - of the holy weapons of the Twelve Crusaders, none of them are dark magic, and the equivalent dark tome, Loptous, was born of a destructive evil god of the same name and is used by the final boss, a descendent of and possessed by said evil god; however, the "holy" blood of Loptous is charted in exactly the same way as the holy blood of the Crusaders.

->Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

* ''DigimonFrontier'': Koichi embodies this and also nicely illustrates the change between "corrupted" and "pure" darkness, going from creepy, borderline EldritchAbomination Duskmon to heroic BlackKnight Loewemon, the embodiment of the sanctity of the element of darkness.
** Given that it turns his eyes from the more aggressive red into an honest green and gives him wings, one might argue that Beelzemon from ''DigimonTamers'' goes through a "dark purification" as well when he obtains Blast Mode.

* ''FireEmblem:'' Several of the holy weapons used by the PrecursorHeroes are powerful and respectfully treated dark magic, such as the tomes of Apocalypse and Gleipnir. In a similar vain, the dark goddess of chaos is really a pretty decent person.
* ''KingdomHearts'' skipped into this occasionally. While usually DarkIsEvil and LightIsGood, some parts of the story regarding Riku have felt like this, especially in Chain of Memories, where he's told to accept his darkness and uses it to beat Zexion.

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* Dark Matter, [[ScienceMarchesOn if it exists]], is hugely responsible for the formation of the universe. It's also doing most of the work of holding it together. Also, theoretically speaking, it will end the universe before the [[FateWorseThanDeath heat death]] comes.

Can also be interpreted as necessary and holy when its part of a YinYangBomb. In a similar vain, the pure/corrupt interpretation can be done for Light in a LightIsNotGood scenario, such as a "corrupt" light spell that poisons the enemy.

Usually, this kind of darkness takes the form of a "pure" darkness as opposed to the "corrupted" darkness that is typically used by villains. The philosophical interpretation behind this is DarkIsNotEvil taken to extremes, where it is acknowledged that light and darkness can and must exist only simultaneously. Darkness can still be associated with aspects such as death, but expect this to be treated in a somewhat positive way, such as death being an important part of the cycle of rebirth, being natural and therefore being necessary for the world. Also, a dark god may simply be doing an unpopular, but still very important job, rather than being a villain. This kind of darkness may not be nice, or comfortable, or maybe it is even outright terrifying, but it nontheless radiates a dignity that cannot be denied and, like it or not, you know that the world would be worse off without it.

->''"To truly see, your eyes must be open to both light… and dark."''
-> --Father Balder, ''{{Bayonetta}}''

* ''HeroesOfMightAndMagic V'' has the dark elves, who worship Malassa the Dragon of Darkness, and the necromancers, who worship "Death" side of Asha the Dragon of Order. Both ultimately work for the "good" side during the campaign.

* ''HeroesOfMightAndMagicV'' has two example with the dark elves and the necromancer who are two factions who worship two dark gods who are on the good side.

* In YuGiOhGX, the Gentle Darkness not only is a force for good, it's what actually created everything in the first place. This isn't commonly known information, but it's true nevertheless.

* ''WesternANimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has Princess Luna, who is essentially the [[PhysicalGod Physical Goddess]] of the night. While she turned evil for a brief period ('brief' in divine terms, anyway - a thousand years), her job of making the night fall was so justified in its existence that after Luna was banished, her sister Celestia, responsible for the sun, took over the job of bringing the night into existence as well. In the present day, however, Luna has returned, and presumably has taken to her duties once again. It helps that, according to backstory, both Celestia and Luna stood up together against Discord, essentially the god of chaos, by wielding the Elements of Harmony.

* ''WesternANimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has Princess Luna, who is essentially the [[PhysicalGod Physical Goddess]] of the night. While she turned evil for a brief period ('brief' in divine terms, anyway - a thousand years), her job of making the night fall was so justified in its existence that after Luna was banished, her sister Celestia, responsible for the sun, took over the job of bringing the night into existence as well. In the present day, however, Luna has returned, and presumably has taken to her duties once again. It helps that, according to backstory, both Celestia and Luna stood up together against CompleteMonster Discord, essentially the god of chaos, by wielding the Elements of Harmony.

->''"To truly see, your eyes must be open to both light… and darkness."''