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 Aa 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.

* ''[[Hellboy]]'' gives glimpses into such Times, with its [[HPH.P. Lovecraft|Lovecraftian]] overtones. One of the centrals plot threads is that Hellboy was supposed to make the Dark Times return, [[Anti -Anti -Christ|but didn't want to]].

* Most [[HPH.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.

* ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' has the "Dark Times," in the beginning of the universe, a time of "blood and magic" with the [[Witch Species|Carrionites]], the [[Giant Spider|Racnoss]], and the [[Our Vampires Are Different|Great Vampires]]. The [[Living Statue|Weeping Angels]] are also implied to have originated during this era.

* Many of the races on ''[[Babylon Five|Babylon 5]]'' had legends concerning the last war with the [[Abusive Precursors|Shadows]] 1,000 years ago: most of the Narn telepaths followed G'Quan to war and never returned; the Minbari almost lost the war until the timely arrival of Valen and a replacement base of operations; the Markab spoke of the "great darkness" defeated long ago {{spoiler|several episodes before they were conveniently wiped out by a plague}}.

* Until around 65 million years ago the Earth was ruled by [[Useful Notes/Dinosaurs (useful notes)|enormous, scaly beasts]]. It's pretty unlikely that they'll ever come back, though. [[Jurassic Park|Unless, of course, we tamper in God's Domain....]]

** 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 Aa 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.''

** Arguably 40k subverts this trope by having the present be the Dark Times with the past for the Imperium and the Eldar being depicted as glorious golden ages undone by [[And Man Grew Proud|their own pride]]. Since then [[It Got Worse|it just keeps getting worse]].

* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] Fantasy'' had a fairly brief Dark Times, the period between the Old Ones' fall unleashing the Chaos gods, and the High elves succeeding in mostly closing the Warp Gate that let Chaos in. Of course, [[Crapsack World|everything still sucks]], but Chaos doesn't dominate the majority of the world anymore.

* ''[[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 Withwith 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 Legend of Zelda]]'' had a time before the founding of the Kingdom of Hyrule when monsters were rampant across the land and people were constantly killing each other in order to get the Triforce. Among those people were a tribe of powerful sorcerers who came closer than anyone else to getting the Triforce. Eventually, the Triforce was sealed away in the Sacred Realm (cf. ''[[A Link to The Past]]''), the monsters were [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|trapped in a magic chest]] (cf. ''[[The Minish Cap]]''), and the evil sorcerers were cast into the [[Eldritch Location|Twilight Realm]] (cf. ''[[Twilight Princess]]''). ''[[Skyward Sword]]'' is the first game confirmed to take place during these times, with the only safe human settlement being in [[Floating Continent|Skyloft]]; the land below is ruled over by Ghirahim. And ''Skyward Sword'' still manages to have a ''previous'' Dark Time when an even greater evil (namely, {{spoiler|the series' equivalent of [[Satan]]}}) ruled and which Ghirahim is trying to [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|unleash once again]].

* The ''[[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/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 hershe and Luna [[Sealed Evil in Aa 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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