History DarkIsNotEvil / TableTopGames

*** Speaking of bone, the harlequin death jesters wear black, a skull mask, and bone-studded armor, and fight with a minigun shooting envenomed "shuriken". The harlequin are sworn foes of the Ruinous powersand will occasionally appear seemingly out of nowhere to aid those fighting it.

* Pretty much everything in the titular city of {{Mortasheen}} fits under this trope, as they usually show a decent amount of respect to their fellow citizens and keep their depredations on each other outside of the city. Yes, this includes the [[EldritchAbomination sanity-blasting Unknowns]], the [[PuppeteerParasite crazy parasitic Wormbrains]], and the horrifying Bosch-inspired [[MindRape mind-raping]] [[TheHeartless Devilbirds]].

*** ''KindredOfTheEast'' introduced 'vampires' who were more like Asian hungry ghosts than anything else, feeding off of chi energy. One group had a karmic imbalance towards virtue and duty, and were driven by those emotions. They're still undead, soul-siphoning abominations who use powers which range from rather creepy to outright [[{{Squick}} squicktastic,]] but their souls and powers still feed off their sense of righteousness and obligation. Even that setting's CompleteMonster group, the Devil Tigers, were portrayed to usually be doing some sort of 'good' by visiting their vast cruelties and depravities on people who need to suffer such things.

** Speaking of Warhammer, the undead themselves sometimes qualify for this trope themselves. Blatantly obvious are the Tomb Kings, who for the most part just want to be left alone and be left to rest. The Vampire Counts, on the other hand, can range between anything from the occasional AntiVillain to the far more common CompleteMonster, mainly because they are a far more varied bunch than the Tomb Kings.

** 4E has an ''embodiment'' of the trope as a ''basic character class'', the theurgy-inclined Warlock. The three paths they have to their particular brand of Pact Magic are, as follows: Making a literal DealWithTheDevil for more offensive BlackMagic, consorting with TheFairFolk for PsychicPowers and various trickery, or making a contract with a CosmicHorror for a mix... and they are quite as capable of being good as any other core class, although the book mentions they have great capacity for evil as well, but that's the same for all other classes. There's even the Dark Pact in the Player's Guide to Faerun, in which you make deals with shadowy beings of darkness, and you are no more forced to have any alignment restrictions either (though it does promote acting like a dick in some cases).

** The ''Al-Qadim'' campaign setting went out of its way to embrace this trope, such that goblins, orcs, ogres, and other races that are just there for the heroes to kill in other settings were actually peaceful, productive members of society; the only races that were AlwaysChaoticEvil were explicitly supernatural, like the yuan-ti, yak-folk, and noble efreet. Likewise, the ''{{Eberron}}'' setting played goblinoids as aggressive but not inherently evil, while the orcs were actually responsible for protecting the world from {{Cosmic Horror}}s. And, of course, the draconians in ''Dragonlance'' were ''created'' to be the vile servants of the Gods of Evil, but once the gods went away, a lot of draconians realized that not being willing tools of evil has its ups.

** The vampire planeswalker Sorin Markov is another black AntiHero. He's scheming, vicious and paranoid...but at the same time, he managed to work together with two other planeswalkers to seal the [[CosmicHorror Eldrazi]] in their [[SealedEvilInACan can]].

** Very few non-Outsiders are ''Always'' [Something] Evil, meaning your average mortal race known for its evil is quite likely to have less than 90% of the population be evil. This was showcased by things like the Orc minority in Thesk in the Forgotten Realms, most of which were Lawful ''Neutral''[[hottip:*:Orcs were usually Lawful Evil in Second Edition, when those Orcs settled down in Thesk]].

* The ''{{Warhammer}}'' world has a few examples, notably the followers of Mohr, god of death. His paladins dress in armour carved from obsidian, but are as heroic as anyone in [[BlackAndGreyMorality this]] [[CrapsackWorld setting]]. Oh, and they really hate the undead.

** In Lords Of Madness, a book about [[EldritchAbomination Abberations]],there is a race called the Silthilar, creatures that were once elven wizards but turned into hive minded swarms that coalesce into what can only be called a [[StarfishAliens Starfish Alien]] and specialize in grafting strange and bizzarre parts onto humanoids. And they are ChaoticGood.

**** The Dustmen faction are basically all creepy goths who hang around with the undead, but their faction philosophy is akin to Buddhism and they're responsible for Sigil's funerals, proper treatment of the dead and counselling those left behind. The undead they hang out with volunteered to have their bodies reanimated.

* In ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' the Black Templars and Dark Angels Space Marine Chapters are... no ''more'' evil than their peers, although the Dark Angels are one of the shadier Chapters of Space Marines, more concerned with personal redemption than serving the Imperium itself. Though, the Dark Eldar are definitely a lot worse than the Craftworld Eldar.

** From fan work, we have a semi-example in Po, Polynesian Titan of Night. Sounds like she would compete with [[OmnicidalManiac Sobe-No-Kumi]] for the "Bastard of the Eon" award, right? Nope. Instead, she represents ''potential'', meaning that her GeniusLoci form is a beautiful forest under a clear night sky where life thrives. She's actually rather fond of life as it is now, and it's outright stated that her conquering reality wouldn't be the worst thing in the cosmos. Unfortunately, she doesn't discriminate between monsters and humans, meaning that her Earth would be a safety hazard. So, in this case, Dark Is An AntiVillain.

*** I am sad that it took this long to get [[ForgottenRealms Drizzt Do'Urden]] to this page. OTOH, the color tropes are [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience played pretty straight]] with most of the rest of the characters...
**** This troper is immediatly reminded of Saulofein in Baldur's Gate II. Throughout the quest he is involved in, he is extremely rude to you, takes every opportunity to insult you, he is sarcastic and seemingly just as heartless and cruel as all the other drow in the city. At the end of the quest you are supposed to deliver a silver dragon egg to the matriarch, who will use it to gain favour with a greater demon she will summon. You yourself are on a quest to actually save the dragon egg. You are provided with an opportunity to do so when the Matriarch's daughter gives you a fake egg, which will anger the demon, who will kill her mother, after which she can then offer the real egg. But just before you can go on, Saulofein will show up, and reveal that he has been spying on you, and if you have secretly performed good deeds before, he will have noticed. But instead of attacking you, he reveals that he is actually secretly a worshipper of Eilistrae, and his whole rude, insulting, sarcastic character was just a ruse. He then gives you a second fake egg which you can switch with the real egg. When both the Matriarch and her daughter offer their eggs to the Greater Demon in turn, hilarity ensues.

*** In fact, given that he is singularly responsible for nothing less than the [[spoiler: '''creation of at least one virtuous god-figure''',]] purely to defend the humans of his home plane, Sorin is capable of remarkable compassion and foresight (although in this set, he is part-white, unlike before).

** The SoulDrinkers are a dead-straight example: their name sounds pretty nasty by itself, their motto is "Cold and fast", and as a pleasant bonus the vast majority of them are mutated in some way, with their Chapter Master having the legs of a giant spider. They're the closest 40K gets to NeutralGood, fighting both the destructive madness of Chaos and the tyranny of the Imperium.

* Several examples from ''TabletopGame/TheWorldOfDarkness'' (both [[TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness old]] and [[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness new]]):
** ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' has the Darkling seeming. They explicitly had some of the "light" (however you want to define it, it might change from person to person) taken from them in Arcadia, leaving them rather warped and with an aversion to sunlight. One of the kiths sees ghosts; another drains life from passerby. Their major Contract gives them power over darkness and shadows... and nothing stops them from being decent people.
** The Moros Path of mages in ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' have Death and Matter as their ruling Arcana. Their powers are thus heavily rooted in destruction and decay. For the most part, however, they're not evil, just depressing; you'd be the same way if you saw the world through the eyes of the dead, too. (This is slightly mitigated by the fact that they ''just'' beat out the other Paths for Left-Handed Legacies, with three Moros-specific.) In the earlier ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' there were the Euthanatos mages, who were also down with death and decay, were resident experts on where the souls of the dead go, and were dedicated to making sure all things die at their appointed time. Despite all that they were still supposed to be good(ish) guys, and firmly disapproved of things dying before their appointed time.
** ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' had the Nosferatu (who were all hideously disfigured) and Gangrel (who start normal but become more and more bestial-looking over time) vampire clans. Despite being full of monstrous-looking freaks, neither of them were "baddy" clans... Well, not any more than the ''other'' Camarilla clans, anyway. Still blood-sucking undead monsters, though.
*** ''[[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem Vampire: the Requiem]]'' had the Septemi, a Daeva bloodline whose bloodline weakness is that its members find it hard (losing a Willpower point) to not to "indulge" in their ''virtues'' whenever the chance happens. What makes it funnier is that the Daeva clan weakness is that they lose their Willpower point everytime they do not indulge in their ''vices'' when the chance happens.

** ''KindredOfTheEast'' introduced 'vampires' who were more like Asian hungry ghosts than anything else, feeding off of chi energy. One group had a karmic imbalance towards virtue and duty, and were driven by those emotions. They're still undead, soul-siphoning abominations who use powers which range from rather creepy to outright [[{{Squick}} squicktastic,]] but their souls and powers still feed off their sense of righteousness and obligation. Even that setting's CompleteMonster group, the Devil Tigers, were portrayed to usually be doing some sort of 'good' by visiting their vast cruelties and depravities on people who need to suffer such things.
** ''TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters'' revolves entirely around characters who die, make deals with death-spirits, come back, and sling necromancy around like it's nobody's business. These guys deal with the dead more often then virtually every other game, and most of them use their powers to help cross the dead over. Of course, some go insane and others become grim reapers.

** Not true. Kane is a Scion of Amaterasu, he chose to sign up with the Titans, and Victor is a Scion of Ares, whos a bit of a jerk, but not really evil. At least not by Olympian standards.

* [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Ally_of_Justice ''The Ally of Justice'']] set of cards from {{Yu-Gi-OhCardGame}} are DARK attribute. Also worth noting, ''[[LightIsNotGood they hate light with every fiber of their being]]''.

*** In fact, given that he is singularly responsible for nothing less than the [[spoiler: '''creation of at least one virtuous god-figure''',]] purely to defend the humans of his home plane, Sorin is capable of remarkable compassion and foresight.

**** In ''Brothers of the Snake'', the distinction can be drawn between two of the senior marines. On one hand: Librarian Petrok, a walking CMOA and superhuman killing machine whose attitude towards those around him, particularly Priad, could nevertheless be described as 'chummy'. He is given to occasional whimsy, and likes to "remind himself that he has a soul". On the flipside of this, there's Hero-Captain Phobor, a more conventional Astartes in that he's a humourless, unrelenting psychopath who is 100% devoted to warfare and nothing else, and is contemptuous of weakness to the point of sentencing the officer corps of an Imperial Guard regiment to penal legions for failing to win a battle of attrition.

* Though ''DungeonsAndDragons'' tends to be pretty bad for "dark equals evil", this is not ''always'' the case. Even necromancy isn't always evil; while most of the necromancy-themed prestige classes don't allow you to be ''good'', they don't require you to be ''evil'', and a wizard specializing in necromancy may be of any alignment. Basically, in most settings there used to be three main types of people who chose Necromancy knowing what they want: some came there to create {{undead}} and drain life, some for [[WhiteMagic healing/resurrecting]], and some to [[TheHunter ward off and destroy undead]]. Old [[http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=9256 Complete Necromancers]] put raising mindless undead as such in "gray" subdivision (while unappetizing, it's just walking remnants), anti-undead and defencive spells in "white".

* Several examples from ''TheWorldOfDarkness'' (both [[OldWorldOfDarkness old]] and [[NewWorldOfDarkness new]]):

*** ''[[{{Ptitlem0r66i4g96a7}} Vampire: the Requiem]]'' had the Septemi, a Daeva bloodline whose bloodline weakness is that its members find it hard (losing a Willpower point) to not to "indulge" in their ''virtues'' whenever the chance happens. What makes it funnier is that the Daeva clan weakness is that they lose their Willpower point everytime they do not indulge in their ''vices'' when the chance happens.

* The Golgari Swarm in the ''MagicTheGathering'' setting of Ravnica are a cult of elf and human necromancers who use zombies as labor... but they're also an indispensable part of Ravnica's society, providing food and waste disposal services. A lot of them are indeed black-hearted knaves who sacrifice unwilling people to raise them as undead, but one of the heroes of the tie-in novels is the leader of the Golgari, who's working to reform them after the death of his evil sister.
** What about Black? Its iconic creatures are zombies, vampires, and demons. But they aren't defined as strictly evil, only greedy or ambitious.
*** In theory anyway. In practice it's also heavily associated with sadism, desecration and murder.
**** However, Kamigawa's main protagonist, [[AntiHero Toshiro Umezawa]], is black, while its main antagonist (among mortals, at least), Konda, [[LightIsNotGood is white]].
*** Mark Rosewater discusses Black's ideology at length [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr109 here]].
*** The vampire planeswalker Sorin Markov is another black AntiHero. He's scheming, vicious and paranoid...but at the same time, he managed to work together with two other planeswalkers to seal the [[CosmicHorror Eldrazi]] in their [[SealedEvilInACan can]].
*** To a lesser extent, gargoyles. Although they are technically White, their appearence is [[http://www.abugames.com/images/products/5thedition/abbeygargoyles.jpg quite]] [[http://magic.tcgplayer.com/images/article/gargoyle.jpg demonic]]

* In ''{{Exalted}}'', Five Days Darkness sure ''sounds'' like he'd be an [[GodOfEvil evil god]]--he's got a sinister name, a backstory as the first shadow cast by the Unconquered Sun, he was cast out of Heaven because the other deities didn't trust him, and he's a Creature of Darkness, a descriptor usually used to refer to enemies of Creation. However, not only is he one of the good guys, he's also [[JerkassGods one of the nicest and least corrupt gods you're likely to meet]].

*** Likewise, Abyssals may hurt the world through their very existence, but some of them work to keep the ghost/mortal deals fair (although the White Walker is a bit myopic when it comes to the feelings of mortals), and some of them, such as Fallen Wolf of the Cutting Sea, would very much like to ''stop'' hurting the world now please.
*** Lunar Exalted are not to be overlooked here - they can make zombies with Charms natural to their Charm set, slap some rather disturbing mutations onto people, and turn into horrifying things, but their power is no more inherently harmful than that of a Solar or Sidereal.
* ''{{Scion}}'' has any number of gods of death or darkness among the roster. Their Scions are perfectly capable of being decent folk - one of the sample characters on the hero side is the daughter of Baron Samedi, Loa of death. Likewise, just because your patron god is generally considered evil doesn't force you to be a villain - the rules allow Scions of, say, Loki or Set to be heroic. (White Wolf kind of drops this ball, however, as the only sample villain ''not'' the Scion of an "evil" god is the daughter of Erzulie...)

**** Though since their appearance back in the early editions of the games, tieflings have been described as being 'mostly evil.' PlaneScape stated about 90% of tieflings are, in fact, evilly aligned. Which leads to a curious disparity; apparently being demon-blooded makes you less likely to be evil than just being [[AlwaysChaoticEvil born into certain completely natural, mortal races.]]

* The gods and demigods that make up The Dark in ''{{Nobilis}}'' are harder to characterise as Not Evil than their opposite number are as [[LightIsNotGood not Good]], since they believe above all else in inducing humans to suicide. Their work generally involves systematically destroying everything a given person cares about. However, they have some redeeming features: They are arguably a fundamental and necessary part of human nature, having sprung from the fruit of the Garden of Eden. They will almost never kill, since a murder is a suicide prevented, and may even step in to avert needless death. The more someone resists their tortures, the more likely they are to simply leave them alone for an easier target, effectively [[EvilutionaryBiologist purifying the gene pool]]. Some believe that the point of their work is to make those they test stronger. However, as the book points out, cruelty for kindness' sake can be much more thorough than the other kind...

** ''[[{{Ptitle75avfncm}} Geist: The Sin-Eaters]]'' revolves entirely around characters who die, make deals with death-spirits, come back, and sling necromancy around like it's nobody's business. These guys deal with the dead more often then virtually every other game, and most of them use their powers to help cross the dead over. Of course, some go insane and others become grim reapers.

** ''[[{{Ptitleda3sm1n7gqv5}} Werewolf: the Forsaken]]'' and ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' had... well, pretty much everyone. The protagonists are werewolves for god's sake, turning into big ugly monsters comes with the job.

** The Vade Mecum book adds ghouls, who, while they are certainly TheGrotesque and have some [[ImAHumanitarian disgusting nutritional requirements]], are no better or worse then the mortal races -- heck, [[TheVirus some of them may have]] ''[[TheVirus been]]'' [[TheVirus mortal once]].

** However the Dark Angels are a subverted case as there are those who turned heretic called the fallen, and the loyal Dark Angels are doing the best they can to hide that secret, and hunt them down.

* Though ''DungeonsAndDragons'' tends to be pretty bad for "dark equals evil", this is not ''always'' the case. Even necromancy isn't always evil; while most of the necromancy-themed prestige classes don't allow you to be ''good'', they don't require you to be ''evil'', and a wizard specializing in necromancy may be of any alignment. Basically, in most settings there used to be three main types of people who chose Necromancy knowing what they want: some came there to create {{undead}}, some for [[WhiteMagic Regeneration]], and some to [[TheHunter destroy undead]].

** Well, mythologically speaking there really are three kinds of undead, which in D&D terms could probably be called Good, Neutral and Evil : for Good we have those folks which subvert the natural order (born-lived-died-end) in order to help others, such as the bhoddisattva of Buddhist lore, i.e. guys who have earned their way out of the whole reincarnation chore and into Nirvana, but stay down here to help others on that path. Which is pretty cool of them. For Neutral, we have the "unfinished business" kind, those undead who, in life, were focused on one goal ''so hard'' even death ain't an obstacle. Mankind's wishful thinking, there, OK, but in any case, the task in question can be Good ("protect my baby heir"), Neutral ("finish my research") or Evil ("Kill my murderer in gruesome ways"). And then we have the Evil, [=RRrrrGrowl=], feast-on-the-living, Braiiiiins kind of undead, which aren't nearly as interesting.
*** Old ''[[http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2942 Lords of Darkness]]'' mentioned things like skeletons marching out of crypts to save their descendants. Also, ForgottenRealms officially has at least two paladins who walked as undead for some time -- didn't thought the grave is important enough to stand between them and the duty and all that.