History Main / TheDarkTimes

** Played with in regards to the Dark Age of Technology, which is named as such because it was the most technologically advanced humanity has ever been. The modern Imperium just believes that technology was heretical, which is why they consider it a dark age.

* In ''Fanfic/TheElementsOfHarmonyAndTheSaviorOfWorlds'', the 20 years between Queen Majesty's death and [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials Megan's first arrival]].

* ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' has ''two'' species who have a long, ''long'' list of grievances against an ancient, completely meglomanical empire of AbusivePrecursors. By the time the game takes place, they've suffered a KarmicDeath at the hand-[[SapientCetaceans flippers]] of the Liir, but it turns out that they left around a [[AlwaysChaoticEvil sentient bioweapon]] as a sort of personalized [[TakingYouWithMe "fuck you"]] to the universe.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has the "Dark Times," in the beginning of the universe, a time of "blood and magic" with the [[WitchSpecies Carrionites]], the [[GiantSpider Racnoss]], and the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Great Vampires]]. The [[LivingStatue Weeping Angels]] are also implied to have originated during this era.

* ''ComicBook/AmericanVampire'' establishes that 13,000 years ago a beast was set loose upon the Earth. This creature also known as [[IHaveManyNames Tiamat, Kur, the First Dragon and the Worm]], had spawned several demons that for a thousand years preyed on men like fish on a stream. Until, one man known as [[TheParagon Hurin]] united the people to fight against the Beast and formed the Vassals of the Morning Star. They succeeded in destroying its monstrous spawn and defeating the Beast; however, Hurin suckled from it and became its greatest protector, [[TheParagonAlwaysRebels turning from the order he formed and becoming the very thing he swore to destroy]].

* And, well, the nature of whatever "space" the universe would eventually occupy right before the Big Bang is totally unknown to us.[[note]]Space as we understand it (3D height, width and depth) literally did not exist at all prior to the Big Bang (and neither did time, to be as pedantic as possible, meaning there actually is no such thing as "before" the BB, either.[[/note]]

* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'': 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 in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' 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 ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' basically consists of Sauron trying to start up ''new'' dark times.

* In ''Franchise/OnePiece'', the “Void Century” that preceded the present day has been completely censored by the World Government. The most anyone knows about it is that it was dominated by a “Great Kingdom”, that the World Government began as an alliance of smaller kingdoms formed to destroy it, and that all further knowledge about the Great Kingdom (up to and including the fact of its existence) is considered an immediate threat to the World Government. Research into the Void Century and the old Kingdom is utterly forbidden; the ability to read the hieroglyphs that the ancients wrote is enough to make the World Government use the most powerful attack known to mankind to completely wipe an island off the map.

* In ''Franchise/OnePiece'', the past has been completely censored by the World Government. The ability to read the hieroglyphs that the ancients wrote is enough to make the World Government use the most powerful attack known to mankind to completely wipe an island off the map.

-->-- '''[[Franchise/CthulhuMythos The Necronomicon]]'''

* ''Fanfic/StrengthsOfHeartAndMind'': Long ago, when the Dark Bonneters (dark versions of the hat spirits in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'') ruled the Corona Empire, they ruled by fear, keeping morale low on purpose to make their subjects easy pickings for their possession. Countless victims were possessed and subjected to horrific tortures so their spirits would fade and the Dark Bonneters would have full control over their bodies. These times ended when the [[LaResistance Red Berets]] stormed the capital and killed King Krános, sparking a war which killed most of the Dark Bonneters and forced the rest to set up laws against possessing humans and various other species.

* Long ago, when the Dark Bonneters (dark versions of the hat spirits in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'') ruled the Corona Empire, they ruled by fear, keeping morale low on purpose to make their subjects easy pickings for their possession. Countless victims were possessed and subjected to horrific tortures so their spirits would fade and the Dark Bonneters would have full control over their bodies. These times ended when the [[LaResistance Red Berets]] stormed the capital and killed King Krános, sparking a war which killed most of the Dark Bonneters and forced the rest to set up laws against possessing humans and various other species.

* The world of ''LightNovel/SukaSuka'' was originally a barren wasteland inhabited by strange creatures. This all changed with the arrival of the Visitors, who used their powers to change the world into something far more recognizable. [[spoiler: The trope gets subverted when it’s revealed that planet’s original inhabitants did not view their world as a wasteland; rather it was a paradise that the Visitors had stolen from them. These creatures, later known as the 17 Beasts, would eventually re-emerge and attempt to return the world to way it once was. This desire has unfortunately led to the current conflict between the beasts and the surviving Visitor created races.]]

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': The lore behind Azeroth is that there was once a time when [[EldritchAbomination the Old Gods]] ruled and had chaotic elemental lords as their lieutenants to strike terror in the hearts of many. The titans came and put a boot in their behinds, killed one or two of them and put the rest in solitary confinement.

* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' season 3 premiere has the reign [[SorcerousOverlord King Sombra]] for the Crystal Empire. The crystal pony that Twilight interviews admits that while part of [[LaserGuidedAmnesia her amnesia]] [[MindRape is due to Sombra's curse]], the other part may be [[NothingIsScarier suppressed based on how awful his rule over them was]]. Which would make perfect sense considering that the brief flashback earlier in the episode prominently displayed the ''[[SlaveRace enslavement]]'' [[SugarApocalypse of the entire population of the Empire]] by the height of [[TheDreaded Sombra]]'s power.

* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E1TheReturnOfHarmonyPart1 The Return of Harmony, Part 1]]" has [[GodEmperor Princess]] [[BigGood Celestia]] refer to [[RealityIsOutToLunch a time]] [[WorldGoneMad of disharmony]] ruled by the [[GodOfEvil God of Chaos]] [[RealityWarper Discord]], when ponies endlessly suffered under his rule. A stained-glass depiction of the era features him [[ManipulativeBastard using puppet crosses and strings]] to [[ColdBloodedTorture suspend three screaming ponies over a pit of fire]]. His reign was finally brought to a screeching halt when she and Luna [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned him]] [[TakenForGranite in a stone statue]] using [[EmpathicWeapon the Elements Of Harmony]]. The two-parter deals with Discord escaping to try and begin his reign anew.
** The reign of [[SorcerousOverlord King Sombra]] was this for the Crystal Empire, as revealed in the Season 3 premiere. The crystal pony that Twilight interviews admits that while part of [[LaserGuidedAmnesia her amnesia]] [[MindRape is due to Sombra's curse]], the other part may be [[NothingIsScarier suppressed based on how awful his rule over them was]]. Which would make perfect sense considering that the brief flashback earlier in the episode prominently displayed the ''[[SlaveRace enslavement]]'' [[SugarApocalypse of the entire population of the Empire]] by the height of [[TheDreaded Sombra]]'s power.

* Manga/{{Devilman}}'s backstory involves demons returning after having been dormant since around the ice age.
* The world of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' was besieged by the near-almighty [[spoiler: Ten-Tailed Beast]] centuries ago, until it was sealed and imprisoned by [[spoiler: The Sage of Six Paths]].
* The world of LightNovel/SukaSuka was originally a baren wasteland inhabited by strange creatures. This all changed with the arrival of the Visitors, who used their powers to change the world into something far more recognizable. [[spoiler: The trope gets subverted when it’s revealed that planet’s original inhabitants did not view their world as a wasteland; rather it was a paradise that the Visitors had stolen from them. These creatures, later known as the 17 Beasts, would eventually re-emerge and attempt to return the world to way it once was. This desire has unfortunately led to the current conflict between the beasts and the surviving Visitor created races.]]

* The Earth of the mainstream Franchise/MarvelUniverse had one of those during the time of the Elder Gods, who came into existence shortly after the planet's formation. After an unknown period of peaceful cohabitation, one of them, [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent Set]] killed and devoured one of his kin to absorb his powers; others began to imitate him, resulting in an apocalyptic orgy of cannibalistic violence that saw most Elder Gods killed or corrupted by their actions into {{eldritch abomination}}s. Only four survived - Gaea (mother of Thor), who gave birth to an über-god to destroy her corrupted kin; Set (he of the [[ArtifactOfDoom Serpent Crown]]); [[EvilSorcerer Cthon]], who fled said über-god's onslaught to other dimensions; and Oshtur (one of the [[PowersThatBe Vishanti]], from DoctorStrange), who'd been away exploring the cosmos since before the whole thing started.
* ''ComicBook/AmericanVampire'' establishes that 13,000 years ago a beast was set loose upon the Earth. This creature also known as [[IHaveManyNames Tiamat, Kur, the First Dragon and the Worm]], had spawned several demons that for a thousand years preyed on men like fish on a stream. Until, one man known as [[TheParagon Hurin]] united the people to fight against the Beast and formed the Vassals of the Morning Star. They succeeded in destroying its monstrous spawn and defeating the Beast; however, Hurin suckled from it and became its greatest protector, [[TheParagonAlwaysRebels turning from the order he formed and becoming the very thing he swore to destroy]].

* ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'' is set in a universe that was once ruled by the "Old Gods", a race of godlike monsters who have since retreated into a slumber, content with the sacrifices humanity offers to entertain them. Little detail is given about this mysterious past, other than being specifically refered to as the "dark times", and that as bad the horrors the main characters encountered in the movie, those days were infinitely worse.

* Midkemia of ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'' was ruled for an untold amount of time by the Valheru, beings who arose long before the coming of the younger races and even the gods. They were enormously powerful and, at the time, not so much consciously evil as totally amoral. They lived out their time by sporadically killing one another, enslaving entire races, and periodically riding out to slaughter and sack entire worlds. Their conflict with the newly created gods and their expulsion after their defeat is a vital {{backstory}} point.

** The world has actually undergone several Dark Times that most of humanity has no idea ever occured. Due to the TimeAbyss of Earth's age, many civilizations have risen and fallen throughout the eons after facing their own Dark Time, and will again in the future, even after mankinds extinction. Among others there are the Elder Things, the Great Race of Yith and the unnamed intelligent beetle species that will be the next dominant species after mankind.
* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'': 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 in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' 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 ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' basically consists of Sauron trying to start up ''new'' dark times.
* The ''Literature/CalLeandros'' series includes as part of its distant past a time when the world was ruled by various monsters like the Auphe.
* A Franchise/StarTrek crossover event, ''Invasion!'' introduced the Furies, a coalition of species that once ruled Federation-and-neighboring space. All the local cultures remember at least one Fury species as their "demons". The Furies were overthrown by the [[EldritchAbomination Unclean]], who require three things from other species: power cores, DNA, and BRAINS! Unfortunately, [[ContinuitySnarl each novel's author had]] [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation a slightly different take on the Furies]].

* This idea actually evolved through ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' - in early ''Buffy'', the [[EldritchAbomination Old Ones]] were implied to be merely waiting for a chance to come back and continue their reign, but by the time we came to late ''Angel'' and actually met one (Illyria), they were shown to have mostly killed one another and now are sealed away in specially-designed sarcophagi.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has the "Dark Times," in the beginning of the universe, a time of "blood and magic" with the [[WitchSpecies Carrionites]], the [[GiantSpider Racnoss]], and the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Great Vampires]]. The [[LivingStatue Weeping Angels]] are also implied to have originated during this era.
** There are "the Dark Times" of Gallifreyan history when Gallifrey was ruled by the Pythia before she was overthrown by the triumvirate of Rassilon, Omega, and the Other.

** In Myth/GreekMythology, we have a more ambiguous and double-edged example depending on the source; there are the first generation of Gaia's offspring- the Titans and the altogether stranger Giants, Hekatonkhires, and Cyclopes but some claim that time was a Golden Age (this is where the term originated, in fact) and it is hard to say whether things were worse for mankind than when the Olympians took over. If one chooses to interpret the intermediate period as the point where humanity stopped living in caves and started getting organised in communities, then at first they had simpler lives where they had to deal with an often unfriendly and everchanging environment while they later exchanged that for having much more complicated lives safer from nature's whims but just as vulnerable to the order imposed both by the men who became their rulers and by the new management of gods.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Microscope}}'': Being a game of emerging history, this comes up a lot. Every Period and Event has a Dark or Light cast to it.

* In ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'', mention is made of a dark time when the Benevodons roamed the land, causing widespread destruction.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': The lore behind Azeroth is that there was once a time when [[EldritchAbomination the Old Gods]] ruled and had chaotic elemental lords as their lieutenants to strike terror in the hearts of many. The titans came and put a boot in their behinds, killed one or two of them and put the rest in solitary confinement.
** It should be noted that the Titans are pretty much PhysicalGods / {{Precursors}} in the Warcraft Universe. They created most of the life on Azeroth, and were 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 scared them so badly, they left Azeroth with [[DoomsdayDevice a self-destruct mechanism]] on the off chance their influence spreads. Better to lose one world then all of them.

* ''VideoGame/{{Dark Souls}}''. In the Age of Ancients the world was unformed, shrouded by fog. A land of gray crags, arch trees, and everlasting dragons.
* The time of [[AbusivePrecursors the Ancients]] in ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' 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. ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast''), the monsters were [[SealedEvilInACan trapped in a magic chest]] (cf. ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap''), and the evil sorcerers were cast into the [[EldritchLocation Twilight Realm]] (cf. ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess''). ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' is the first game confirmed to take place during these times, with the only safe human settlement being in [[FloatingContinent 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' SatanicArchetype]]) ruled and which Ghirahim is trying to [[SealedEvilInACan unleash once again]].
* In ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', the First Ones lived in darkness because they could not bear the sight of their own hideousness. When Ormagoden brought light and fire to the world, they trapped and killed him. The Titans rose from his blood and made them into servants, but when the Titans disappeared, they used remnants of the Titans (like nail clippings) in a ritual to remake them, and only got a pale imitation: humanity. The First Ones used humanity as slaves until the beginning of the game proper, when Eddie Riggs arrives in the World of Metal to help the leader of the human resistance get his movement going.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' midseason two-parter "Beginnings", before the time of the first [[GodOfGood Avatar]], the physical world was overrun by spirits, many of them hostile to humans, forcing them to live in cities on lion turtles. Although the lion turtles were able to give their citizens the power of [[ElementalPowers element bending]], it wasn't much help against the power of the spirits, especially when corrupted by [[GodOfEvil Vaatu]]. These times came to an end when the first Avatar, Wan, decided to let the vast majority of spirits return to their place of origin, the spirit world, and let them be unable to return by sealing the portals between the physical and spirit worlds.
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': [[spoiler:The Lich]] is heavily implied in "Gold Stars" to be a LivingRelic of a group of monsters that predated not only everything in the Universe, but ''the void before the Universe formed'' as well.

* And, well, the nature of whatever space the universe would eventually occupy right before the Big Bang is totally unknown to us.

* The SCPFoundation universe has the Church of the Second Hytoth, whose adherents believe that before the universe there was a dark time called the "Voru", filled with all kinds of nasty creatures inimical to life. The first universe to be created was destroyed by the Voru; we're in the replacement, i.e. ''Second'' Hytoth. The Voru are still around, and attempting to destroy this universe as well, but fortunately seven PhysicalGods called the "Koru-Teusa" survived from First Hytoth and stuck around to protect this one. ''Un''fortunately, six out of seven are dead or MIA, and the only survivor may well be on his last legs...

** It should be noted that the Titans are pretty much PhysicalGods / {{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 scared them so badly, they left Azeroth with [[DoomsdayDevice a self-destruct mechanism]] on the off chance their influence spreads. Better to lose one world then all of them.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has the Long Night, occurring 8000+ years before the main storyline begins. Details vary between culture, but all agree that it was a time of literal darkness and a winter that didn’t end. In Westeros, this coincided with the emergence of the Others and their legions of wights. It’s said to have lasted for a generation before a great hero (also different in every hero) with a flaming sword led humanity to victory against the darkness, bringing back the day.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has the Long Night, occurring 8000+ years before the main storyline begins, with the emergence of the Others and their legions of wights.

** In Myth/GreekMythology, we have a more ambiguous and double-edged example depending on the source; there are the first generation of Gaia's offspring- the titans and the altogether stranger Giants, Hekatonkhires, and Cyclopes but some claim that time was a Golden Age (this is where the term originated, in fact) and it is hard to say whether things were worse for mankind than when the Olympians took over. If one chooses to interpret the intermediate period as the point where humanity stopped living in caves and started getting organised in communities, then at first they had simpler lives where they had to deal with an often unfriendly and everchanging environment while they later exchanged that for having much more complicated lives safer from nature's whims but just as vulnerable to the order imposed both by the men who became their rulers and by the new management of Gods.

* In ''VideoGame/SeikenDensetsu3'', mention is made of a dark time when the God-Beasts roamed the land.