Follow TV Tropes

Following

Roleplay / Darkness Rising

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/utopiao-1_2047.jpg
The end of the utopia is just the beginning.

Darkness Rising is a semi-lit demon apocalyptic role-play on Gaia Online. It was created by bakarashi (now Kannabyss) in the summer of 2009.

In 2012, the world is starting to reach its end when the Hell Gate is opened. A war goes between the humans and demons, being called The Cleansing by many. Over thousands of people have died, but have they allowed easy defeat? No; the humans managed to keep their place on the top by 2013. The demons are coming out of hiding.... With some new additions to their race among the way.

The original can be found here. Scorched Earth, its first sequel, is here The final canon installment, Trilogy of Hell is found here.

Please don't confuse this with Transformers episode Darkness Rising. Or the game Scorched Earth. Blame the author for creating the names without knowing either exist.


Darkness Rising contains examples of:

  • Aerith and Bob: People named Allison and Jess are upon Zircon and Armageddon. Please note that these are their original names.
  • All There in the Manual: In the OOC and profiles, you can find information such as the characters’ theme songs, the whole truth about Hakumei’s past, and their personal interests.
  • Anyone Can Die: By the end of Scorched Earth, the official dead list includes: Steam, Beatrice, Crow, Jaxon, Alex, Hero, Wren, and Kira.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Mostly on the sweet side, but the bitter’s there. All life in the world goes into the afterlife, but at least Satan’s troops are defeated. Then it’s revealed that Armageddon exploded herself among with it, and will never be coming back. Odin gets depressed, because he says that it was supposed to be him instead. Then Neil finds out that he’s now death god, but he will never see his master ever again. Pike gets a romantic ending of her own with Neil. Then Laire, Hakumei and Laire’s old girlfriend meet, with Laire running off into the plains at the end. She then says, “Oh well.” Arkana is seen stomping into Hell to talk with his brother. Yoshida and Miharu end up getting married. Willow awakes to find her childhood friends Zircon and Yosuke, and now they‘re all happy friends again! The rest of the characters’ faith is pretty open-ended, so it’s mostly subject to your own interpretation.
  • Bilingual Bonus:
    • Most of the meaningful names. Most of them don't have translations, so knowing some basic Japanese while reading this is helpful.
    • In-universe example: Hakumei and Destiny speak in fluent Chinese, and no one else can understand them. There is a translation however.
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: The protagonists lie more towards the neutral side, but the antagonists are a lot worse.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: "And then Neil took a smoke break as he waited for Suijouki to post."
  • Child Soldiers:
    • Allison joined the military when she was twelve.
    • Jaysen is seventeen and a professional demon hunter. This may be justified since his military probably accepts younger kids in need of people.
  • Crossover Cosmology: It seems that God, Satan and Armageddon rules over the rest of them.
  • "Everybody Dies" Ending: The trippy ending of Trilogy. Everyone ends up going to Hell, Heaven or the afterlife through a massive explosion
  • Fantastic Racism: Between the demons and humans. There's also some between ex-humans with demons and humans.
  • Flipping the Bird:
    • Neil does it to Hero.
      Hero: And you're so scary.
      Neil: I try. *Middle finger*
    • Odin makes a giant one out of light.
  • God Job: Being a Reaper. Neil describes it as, "Being the assassins of god."
  • A Good Name for a Rock Band: Kasou was in one that was both a "The" band and a punctuated title. It was called "The Penalty for Treason is..."
  • Gratuitous Japanese: Pike, Yoshida and Miharu regularly engage in this. Especially Pike, who picked it up for no reason at all.
  • Honorifics: Pike picks up on using them with everyone, especially around higher authority. Yoshida and Miharu use them too.
  • Immortal Immaturity: Yoshida still says things like, "Pike's got a boyfriend!" and acts like a teenager when he's over 200. The gods and the really old characters can also act like teenagers at times.
  • Love Dodecahedron: Oh boy. Jess and Hakumei like Laire. Laire and Hakumei are currently dating. Hakumei is given a chance to run away with Alex. Alex and Beatrice have mutual love for each other. The result is: Jess is left alone, Hakumei and Laire continue to date, and Alex and Beatruce die. This wouldn't be put out of place in a high school harem anime.
  • Love Triangle: Pike and Neil are dating, but Armageddon may/may not love Neil.
  • Men Don't Cry: Averted, the male characters can cry whenever the hell they want. Neil doesn’t like seeing people cry, but that’s because he hates seeing people cry. Arkana though, thinks that “Crying never helped anyone.” after he cries. (Which Pike obliviously quotes to no end.) It’s more of Women Don’t Cry. Save for Pike, most of the girls aren’t seen crying. Well.. Pike tries to suppress, but she just explodes anyways.
  • Opposites Attract: Violence-hating Pike is with remorseless Neil.
  • Our Demons Are Different: They're humanoids with powers and lose most of their sanity.
  • Pun:
    Hero: Neil down to me.
  • Take That!:
    • The roleplay likes to insult Twilight, and Hakumei could be possibly a parody/deconstruction of the Cullens.
      Hakumei: The only thing we share is our diet.
    • "Even though it was a good anime, she made the romance look like fail. So much peppiness outside of the gothic clothing. Even though I'm not that dark too..." Pike is thinking this about Misa. The original thought had to do with orgasms. Oh yeah, she insults Misa again during the story.
    • Laire and Pike don't like Abercrombie. Figures.
    • Zonbi the zombie thinks that Barney is horrifying and that the creator should get shot. He's only four.
  • There Are No Therapists: Almost everyone is helplessly insane, but they only each other to spill their emotion too. Justified with the time and place.
  • This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!:
    • Neil: "You have to do better than that, bitch!"
    • Armageddon while crushing a demon's head.
      "You little bitch!"
    • Michael to the Big Bad:
      "You gave me your back, bitch!"
  • Time Skip: Scorched Earth skips by five years, Trilogy of Hell by one year.

Top