The Dark Times: Difference between revisions

Most often, this is important to the [[Backstory]] of a series, giving writers room to introduce remnants of those old evils [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed in a can]]. Sometimes [['''The Dark Times]]''' become [[The Time of Myths]] and then lead to [[Gotterdammerung]]. Alternatively, the creatures that populated [['''The Dark Times]]''' are merely waiting [[Beneath the Earth]] until they regain their strength.

* Most [[H.P. Lovecraft]] stories, where [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s are just waiting [[When the Planets Align|until the right stars align]] to return. [[Cosmic Horror Story|There is nothing humans can do about it beyond slightly delaying the inevitable]].

* [[The Silmarillion|Middle-Earth]] has cycled through various [[Dark Times]] when Morgoth and/or Sauron were the dominant forces in the world (perhaps the most notable being when Melkor/Morgoth ruled the all of the world except for Valinor completely unchallenged- it was only the coming of the elves that inspired the Valar to act against him). The plot of [[The Lord of the Rings]] basically consists of Sauron trying to start up ''new'' [[Dark Times]].

* The [[Cal Leandros]] series includes as part of its distant past a time when the world was ruled by various monsters like the Auphe.

** Also, according to the RNA World hypothesis, before DNA based life appeared, the world was once dominated by things which were basically viruses, although modern viruses may not have any connection to them.

* In the ''[[Continuum]]'' RPG, the time before 14,000 BC was/is ruled by the civilization of Antedesertium, whose narcissistic experiments and attacks on the timestream led to their Scorpion Kings becoming [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s, before finally destroying their civilization, triggering more or less a millenium of temporal chaos that led to the creation of the Sahara Desert.

* The second age of the ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' setting ''[[Eberron]]'' was the Age of Demons. And they are, in fact, [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] [[Beneath the Earth]]...

* [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] has several Dark Times: the aftermath of "The War in Heaven" stands out when all life was enslaved under the rule of the [[Physical God|C'tan]], until a ''plague of [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s killed 99% of all living things.''

* ''[[Bionicle]]'' had its own Dark Time, and it was called just that, but it wasn't ancient. That is, it wasn't for most people, save for the tribes on the Mata Nui island, whose memories had been wiped. The era started with the Great Cataclysm 1000 years ago and ended directly before the main plot began -- butbegan—but it only lasted for 999 years on the island of Mata Nui, because the [[Big Bad]] agreed to give the islanders one spare year to build their villages that he later wanted to besiege. The rest of the Universe wasn't as lucky.

* ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' has ''two'' species who have a long, ''long'' list of grievances against an ancient, completely meglomanical empire of [[Abusive Precursors]]. By the time the game takes place, they've suffered a [[Karmic Death]] at the hand-[[Sapient Cetaceans|flippers]] of the Liir, but it turns out that they left around a [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil|sentient bioweapon]] as a sort of personalized [[Taking You with Me|"fuck you"]] to the universe.

** It should be noted that the Titans are pretty much [[Physical GodsGod]]s / [[Precursors]] in the Warcraft Universe. They created most of the life on Azeroth, and where PISSED when the Old Gods started screwing with their creations, namely the Curse of Flesh which made all of their metallic creatures "Squishy". In fact, this pissed them off so badly, they left a few [[Kill Sats]] orbiting Azeroth on the off chance their influence spreads. Better to lose one world then all of them.

* The ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2 E1/E01 The Return of Harmony Part 1|The Return of Harmony, part 1]] has Celestia refer to a time of chaos ruled by the [[God of Evil|God of Chaos]] Discord, when ponies endlessly suffered under his rule. A stained-glass depiction shows him holding three ponies by puppet crosses and strings over a pit of fire. His reign was finally brought to a screeching halt when she and Luna [[Sealed Evil in a Can|imprisoned him]] in [[Taken for Granite|in a stone prison]] with the Elements Of Harmony. The two -parter deals with Discord escaping to try and begin his reign anew.

[[Category:Cosmic Horror StoryTropes]]

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