History Main / TheSacredDarkness

This trope usually manifests in the powers of [[CastingAShadow Darkness]] being treated as equal compared with the powers of Light, coming with the same acknowledgement and worship that people offer to the Light.

This trope usually manifests in the powers of TheDarkSide being treated as equal compared with the powers of Light, coming with the same acknowledgement and worship that people offer to the Light.

Usually, this kind of darkness takes the form of a "pure" darkness as opposed to the "corrupted" darkness that is typically used by villains. The philosophical interpretation behind this is acknowledged that light and darkness can and must exist only simultaneously. Darkness can still be associated with aspects such as death, but expect this to be treated in [[DontFearTheReaper a positive way]], such as death being an important part of the cycle of rebirth, being natural and therefore necessary for the world. Also, a dark god may simply be doing an unpopular, but still very important job, rather than being a villain. This kind of darkness may not be nice, or comfortable, or maybe it is even outright terrifying, but it nonetheless radiates a dignity that cannot be denied and, like it or not, you know that the world would be worse off without it.

** This directly contradicts the original manga and anime, which depicted most Shadow Magic as stemming from evil sources and dangerous to use (although several good characters were able to use it), and had one deity explicitly called the Creator God of Light. But the sequel anime tend to make up their own lore all the time, so it's not much of a surprise.

Despite this, it may still carry some of the usual problems of dark powers, such as the NobleDemon spirits empowering the SwordOfPlotAdvancement deciding that their user is [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield not worthy enough to use them]], or simply the usual problem of prolonged exposure to the darkness being dangerous to the mind. Note that "sacred" does not have to equal "good." More often, these characters embody a morally neutral concept or ideal. On rare occasions, villains can use The Sacred Darkness, but usually this only works when they are opposing another villain who is using the corrupted variant in an ALighterShadeOfBlack situation.