Dark Fantasy: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"I can't remember the last time I saw a wizard casting spells with a fucking smile on his face. It's always a grim, half-hooded scowl of disgust, like he's shaking off some stubborn ear-wax instead of the manifested power of the Fire Spirits. 'Ooh, I had to fight in a war because I've got mastery of time and space; meh meh meh'. Why don't you magic yourself cheerful, you gloomy spod?"''|[[Zero Punctuation]]}}
Dark Fantasy is, generally speaking, a [[Darker and Edgier]] subgenre of fantasy. These kind of stories can be pretty much described as [[Standard Fantasy Setting]] [[X Meets Y|meets]] [[Crapsack World]], as opposed to the usually-lighthearted regular fantasy setting. Oftentimes common fantasy elements are [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstructed]] or played in the darkest way possible, and the best you can hope for is [[Gray and Gray Morality]]. [[Wikipedia]] goes a step farther, saying it's [[Horror]] [[X Meets Y|meets Fantasy]]. It may have been originally, but now ''every'' fantasy set in a [[Crapsack World]] can now be listed as a
[[Darker and Edgier]] [[Science Fiction]] isn't recognised as a subgenre as
== Magic ==
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* [[The Horde]] vastly outnumbers civilization. The [[Fantasy Axis of Evil]] is there, and is either [[Eviler Than Thou|even worse]] [[Exclusively Evil|than you'd expect]], or the "good" guys aren't really better than them. Expect a lot of [[Rape, Pillage and Burn]] when they go raiding. Good chance someone (on either side) will say "[[The Women Are Safe with Us]]."
* Of the [[Five Races]], the elves are all stuffed-up jerks who have either sneaked off, devolved into fancy-eared humans or gotten [[Enslaved Elves|enslaved]] (the only kind who may thrive are the Dark Elves), the [[Hobbits]] were the first to be subjugated or are just plain evil in the first place, the dwarves don't care about anyone else and thus shamelessly nickel-and-dime the other guys, and the [[Humans Are Bastards]] and actively persecute the rest. [[Abusive Precursors]], if any.
* [[Wretched Hive
* If [[Fractured Fairy Tale]] is being used, the darkest [[Alternative Character Interpretation]] possible will be used. Forget three little pigs building houses out of questionable materials because mum kicked them out, it'll be a horde of Orcs trying out new fortress designs so they have somewhere to store pillage from the village vs. a werewolf knight, or perhaps Puss in Boots is a shameless [[Con Artist]] [[Femme Fatale]] [[Beast Man|Humanoid puma]] or cat-demon, or Little Red Riding Hood and the Woodsman are a serial killer [[Unholy Matrimony|husband and wife team]].
* There is a high chance that there is an evil, expansive and genocidal empire, which nonetheless is a seemingly [[Trains Run On Time|better alternative]] to the rest of the lot, if only for the fact that everyone is too afraid of the Emperor to try anything funny. Which means that if the emperor is weak or ill, then all bets are off. When democracies and republics exist, they are corrupt and profit driven. [[Aristocrats Are Evil|Kingdoms]] and [[Corrupt Church|theocracies]] don't even need a description, and [[The Magocracy]] uses magic to [[Mind Rape]] the people into obedience.
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== Religions and deities ==
* The gods [[Jerkass Gods|are all jerks]] who pass the time [[Pass the Popcorn|eating prayer chips and drinking soul-booze while placing bets]], and [[The Legions of Hell]] are mere days away from digging into the Mortal Realm, or are there already. A [[God of Evil]] is probably [[Villains Act, Heroes React|the only active one]], unless the point of the story is that he doesn't need to, because people will jump at any opportunity to do harm anyway. [[Demonic Possession]] is quite common. If there are no "gods" per se, the [[Celestial Bureaucracy]]/[[Council of Angels]] have more red tape than a ribbon factory. May even have [[Devil but No God]], or an outright [[God Is Evil|evil supreme god]] running the show. Alternatively, the [[Angels, Devils, and Squid|eldritch abominations might be destroying both sides]].
* Any [[The Church|organized religion]] which is not a [[Corrupt Church]] or [[Religion of Evil]] is a [[Path of Inspiration]]. What else there is tend to be [[
* [[Zombie Apocalypse|The dead find staying buried a little boring, and resist any and all attempts to keep them buried]], short of [[Kill It with Fire|cremation]] or dismemberment. There might even be [[Corpse Land|a region so full of undead nothing in its right mind goes there]].
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* Most things set in either ''[[Warhammer Fantasy]]'' or ''[[Warhammer 40000]]''
* ''[[Dragon Age]]'': Kinda like Claymore, but {{spoiler|the [[Demon Slayer
* ''[[Diablo]]'' has elements of it. Moreso in Diablo II, where [[The Legions of Hell]] have [[The Horde]] of [[Undead]], mutant wildlife, lesser demons, and [[Deal with the Devil]] types Vs. a [[Black and Grey Morality|morally dubious]] [[Necromancer]], a [[Vain Sorceress]], or a [[Paladin]] who belongs to a [[Corrupt Church]]. [[It's Up to You|And it's all up to that one person]], plus any minions s/he may hire/summon. Heaven won't help out because of a strict non-interference policy, except for one Angel who sells goodies and resurrects dead party members to pay rent -- {{spoiler|and who, in the third game, finally gets fed up and decides to become a mortal in order to help humanity directly}}.
* The [[Dept. Heaven]] series in general. As if the mortals [[Humans Are Bastards|weren't bad enough by themselves]], all mortals are by design stuck in the middle of the war between [[Order Versus Chaos|gods and demons]], both sides of which will actively screw you over in the name of their own victory. Defectors from [[Fallen Angel|either]] [[Ascended Demon|side]] generally don't get very happy endings either.
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* ''[[Don't Rest Your Head]]'': A group of insomniacs are slowly losing their minds, and gain access to a city built out of insanity, and populated by corporeal nightmares, which they fight off with [[Power Born of Madness]]. And, as the title suggests, if they ''do'' ever get to sleep, they are in deep shit (If they live long enough to wake up again, they lose their superpowers untill sleep deprivation drives them crazy enough to use them again).
* [[Kult]]
* ''[[The World of Darkness]]'' games are practically the trope codifiers for [[Urban Fantasy|urban]],
* ''[[Atmosfear]]''
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* The ''[[Black Company]]'' cycle. The military kind of dark.
* All novels written by Feliks W. Kres, especially the ''Szerer cycle.''
* [[Michael Moorcock]]'s ''[[The Elric Saga|Elric saga]]'', focusing on a doomed albino emperor with [[Artifact of Doom|the mother of all]] [[Evil Weapon
* ''[[The Eye of Argon]]'', and not just because of the [[So Bad It's Good|shoddy writing]].
* ''[[The First Law]]'' series and really anything by Joe Abercrombie
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* ''[[The Children of Húrin|The Children of Hurin]]'' could be one of the earliest examples, if only Professor [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] had't held it in [[Development Hell]] until his death.
* ''[[Above Ground]]''
* The ''[[Cthulhu Mythos]]'' have evil cultists galore, and a whole plethora of [[Evil God
** It even inspired its own trope, [[Cosmic Horror Story]].
* ''[[Miserere: An Autumn Tale|Miserere an Autumn Tale]]'': the purpose of the Woerld is to hold off [[Hell]]
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Drowtales]]''. Murder and [[Demonic Possession]] are very common. One character whose life is in danger comments that she doesn't want to end up Undead. Cannibalism is completely legal due to a resource shortage, as is rape, incest, paedophilia, and [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]]. Schools don't mind the students killing each other, as long as they do so quietly and dispose of the bodies themselves. And those are the "[[Designated Hero|good]]" guys. On the surface world, nobles [[Blood Bath|bathe in elven blood]] because they think it'll make them immortal. Magic is fairly neutral though, but some are allergic to [[Blood Magic]].
* ''[[Ark The Improbable]]''. The main characters are an Elf and a [[Frankenstein's Monster]] belonging to a [[Bounty Hunter
* Parts three and four (and possibly part 5, we're not sure since it hasn't been posted yet) of ''[[A Modest Destiny]]'', although they manage to inject some humor. It also seems to be getting better (due to one character, a frost-elf Vampire/ Necromancer, being stuck in the [[Heel Face Revolving Door]].)
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