History Main / TheSacredDarkness

* The Christian {{God}} is associated with shade and rest, and keeps his people in "the shadow of his wing" for protection. By contrast, [[{{Satan}} Satan AKA Lucifer]] is [[LightIsNotGood the "Light Bringer" and the "Bright Morning Star"]]. However, JesusChrist is the "[[LightIsGood Light of the World]]", and Satan is often called "the Prince of Darkness" or "His Sable Majesty" in early theological sources. One could conclude, therefore, that light and darkness are both intended to be good, but are equally both corruptible.

* The Undead element serves as this in ''SkylandersSpyrosAdventure''. There are references to the undead attacking the living, but some have shown themselves to be friendly; plus the Eternal Undead Source is one of the components of the Core of Light, and the Skylanders themselves include a number of Undead members (even if one ''is'' a TokenEvilTeammate and people are wary of the dark powers of two others). It should be noted though that while undeath is all right, ''darkness'' is still portrayed as evil.

** ''O guiding dark of night!
O dark of night more darling than the dawn!
O night that can unite
A lover and loved one,''

Note that this trope is not just DarkIsNotEvil. The usual variant of said trope is that a good person is using dark powers despite their villanous and problematic ways for the sake of good. That is not really this trope. This trope is about some kind of darkness that exists in a form where you can reasonably justify its existence for the good of the world or when darkness is treated in some way as equally as holy or good as Light would be treated. Generally, if your hero can make a somewhat logical WorldOfCardBoardSpeech, a ReasonYouSuckSpeech or simply a RousingSpeech involving the virtues of their particular brand of darkness, it qualifies. Similarly, if following this darkness has a bit of a RightMakesMight feeling to it, it would also count.

->''" This is a more alchemical perspective: spirit needs to be embodied; alchemy recognizes that both Light and Dark are divine and deserving of our respect."''
-->-- [[http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/AGEDE/Fire.html Biblioteca Arcana on Fire]]

* In Greek myth Thanatos was a child of the night goddess, Nyx, and was the personification of death. Rather than being [[DarkIsEdgy dark and edgy]], however, many myths associate the god with a gentle, non-violent death, such as passing while asleep.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', magic is either present in it's raw chaotic form, or is refined into eight winds (which can be further refined and weaved together into High Magic); one of said winds provides magic over death, and other over shadows. Both are very distinct from the chaotic magic used by necromancers and worshippers of chaos gods.

"Pure" darkness powers can often easily be distinguished from their "corrupted" counterparts. An InstantKill spell by a corrupt villain would likely involve a lot of pain, mutiliation, brutality etc., while a pure darkness spell of that kind might result in something resembling a peaceful sleep or simply dropping dead. Pure darkness powers tend to avert the more obviously negative aspects of darker powers such as MindRape, ColdBloodedTorture and somesuch and instead tend to be more spectacular and flashy, or involving beautiful stuff, like conjuring up the star-filled night sky, or awesome stuff like summoning a black raven to attack the enemy. For instance, if a hero's signature move was a combo attack where he cloaks his blade in light magic, a "pure" darkness counterpart to that move would simply involve cloaking the blade in [[DarkIsEdgy shadow]] instead.

->''"Holy darkness, blessed night, Heaven's answer hidden from our sight, as we await you, O God of silence, we embrace your holy night."''

->''"Holy darkness, blessed lnight, Heaven's answer hidden from our sight, as we await you, O God of silence, we embrace your holy night."''

* ''DigimonFrontier'': Kouichi embodies this and also nicely illustrates the change between "corrupted" and "pure" darkness; he starts out BrainwashedAndCrazy using a twisted set of Darkness spirits - the creepy, borderline-{{Eldritch Abomination}}s Duskmon and Velgmon - and upon undergoing a HeelFaceTurn, the spirits are purified into the {{Black Knight}}s Löwemon and [=KaiserLeomon=], the embodiments 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 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 ''Anime/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; whenever he [[CombiningMecha DigiXrosses]] with Shoutmon, the end of the sequence plays a brief high note of a CherubicChoir.

* The Dwarfs of the Literature/{{Discworld}}, being belowground-dwellers, have many values opposite to those of humans. One of them is that they consider darkness sacred, and their equivalent of priests keep themselves in it whenever possible, many shunning daylight altogether and believing it to be blasphemy. They recognize different kinds of darkness--including malevolent kinds like the [[EldritchAbomination Summoning Dark]]--but generally think of it as a good thing; one dwarf priest uses the metaphor that the eyes grow wider in darkness, but shrink in light. For example, their creation myth:
-->"The first Brother walked toward the light, and stood under the open sky. Thus he became too tall. He was the first Man. He found no Laws, and he was enlightened. The second Brother walked toward the darkness, and stood under a roof of stone. Thus he achieved the correct height. He was the first Dwarf. He found the Laws [[CreatorDeity Tak]] had written, and he was endarkened."

* In ''{{Warhammer}}'', magic is either present in it's raw chaotic form, or is refined into eight winds (which can be further refined and weaved together into High Magic); one of said winds provides magic over death, and other over shadows. Both are very distinct from the chaotic magic used by necromancers and worshippers of chaos gods.

** Gleipnir actually doesn't deal bonus damage to monsters the way the other Sacred Twin weapons do. However, in ''[[FireEmblemTellius Radiant Dawn]]'', every unit brought to the endgame gets one of their weapons turned into a holy weapon at a certain point. If you brought along a dark magic wielder, Balberith or Fenrir could become this[[hottip:Worm, Carreau, and Verrine could be as well, but aside from possibly going with Verrine if you can't wield Balberith, there's not much reason to]].

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

* Occasionally has a minor part in ''FinalFantasy'' games. In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'', it is stated that previously the world was saved by Dark Warriors fighting against light. In ''FinalFantasyIV'' there are 4 light crystals and 4 dark crystals.

* The Dwarfs of the Literature/{{Discworld}}, being belowground-dwellers, have many values opposite to those of humans. One of them is that they consider darkness sacred, and their equivalent of priests keep themselves in it whenever possible, many shunning daylight altogether and believing it to be blasphemy. Part of the Dwarf CreationMyth goes: "The first Brother walked toward the light, and stood under the open sky. Thus he became too tall. He was the first Man. He found no Laws, and he was enlightened. The second Brother walked toward the darkness, and stood under a roof of stone. Thus he achieved the correct height. He was the first Dwarf. He found the Laws [[CreatorDeity Tak]] had written, and he was endarkened." This said, however, Dwarfs recognise that there are many kinds of darkness, and some, such as the [[EldritchAbomination Summoning Dark]], are malevolent.

* In ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', the Faith of the Seven believes the new gods to be the seven faces of a single benevolent deity, one of which represents death and the unknown. Meanwhile, a competing religion regards Rh'llor as the one true god of life, light and flames, but also of the shadows they cast, which are contrasted with the shapeless darkness of his enemy the Great Other. [[spoiler: Judging from the shadows, this might in fact be EvilVersusOblivion.]]

* In ASongOfIceAndFire, the Faith of the Seven believes the new gods to be the seven faces of a single benevolent deity, one of which represents death and the unknown. Meanwhile, a competing religion regards Rh'llor as the one true god of life, light and flames, but also of the shadows they cast, which are contrasted with the shapeless darkness of his enemy the Great Other. [[spoiler: Judging from the shadows, this might in fact be EvilVersusOblivion.]]

** 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; whenever he [[CombiningMecha DigiXrosses]] with Shoutmon, the end of the sequence plays a brief high note of a CherubicChoir.

* ''ChroniclesOfTheEmergedWorld'': One of the Eight Lands is the Land of Nights, which is costantly covered in eternal darkness. Nevertheless, the darkness is also one of the eight sacred elements needed for the Talisman of Power, and the spirit of darkness is the kindest and most helpful. By contrast, the Light spirit Glael comes across as a PsychopathicManChild who's willing to resort to DemonicPossession [[LightIsNotGood to end his solitude]].

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 [[DontFearTheReaper 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.

-->--''[[TheBible Psalm 91]]''

* Occasionally has a minor part in ''FinalFantasy'' games. In ''FinalFantasyIII'', it is stated that previously the world was saved by Dark Warriors fighting against light. In ''FinalFantasyIV'' there are 4 light crystals and 4 dark crystals.