History Main / DarkFantasy

* ''Film/TheCrow'': A murdered musician is brought back to the land of the living by a crow to seek revenge on his killers.

* ''VideoGame/LiesOfP'' is a SoulsLikeRPG video game centered around [[FracturedFairyTale a darker and edgier take]] on ''[[Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio Pinocchio]]''. Set in a dark, [[TheGayNineties Belle Époque]] city called Krat, players control Pinocchio, here a “[[RidiculouslyHumanRobot puppet mechanoid]]”, as he sets off to find his creator, Mr. Geppetto, fighting through countless enemies to do so amid the ruins of a city overrun by mechanical monstrosities.

* ''Dusk'' and ''Dawn'' from Tim Lebbon are novels that are part of his storiess set in the NewWeird-ish world of Noreela. In Dusk and Dawn, humanity is suffering from a long decline ever since TheMagicGoesAway (not that anyone would blame it - magic is a SentientCosmicForce and it left because humans were too violent even back in the good old days) and people were already pretty scummy in this setting. So dealing with cannibals, bandits, serial killers, bizarre cults and whatnot was already commonplace, things just became even worse as {{Magitek}} farming machines no longer work the fields to provide abundant harvests and other benefits of living in a magical world. Now [[TheMagicComesBack magic appears to be coming back]] to give humans a second chance, unfortunately a pair of would-be SorcerousOverlords and their armies are waiting for this.

* [[TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyBattle Warhammer]] artist Adrian Smith has the 2014 Image limited-run comic ''Chronicles of Hate'' which takes elements of Celtic legend and incorporates them into a story where demigod warlords have imprisoned the Earth Mother and taken much of her power for themselves. As a result, the sun is frozen in the sky and the moon burns while plants and animals grow twisted. Humanity itself grows increasingly more mutated and deformed with each succeeding generation, battling and enslaving each other in warring tribes. The Earth Mother seeks a champion to become the Horned God and save her.

* ''Manga/WorldsEndHaremFantasia'': An expansionist empire is conquering its way across the continent, a toxic miasma is slowly poisoning the land, and the HaremPowered protagonists run off black magic that requires them to [[HerosSlaveHarem enslave women to their wills just to have a chance at fighting back.

%%** ''Literature/BerserkTheFlameDragonKnight'', a 2017 Light Novel side story.

* ''Anime/NinjaScroll'' involves an antiheroic SamuraiShinobi aiding a kunoichi loyal to an uncaring, cruel regime as they try to stop the machinations of a cult of demonic ninjas from taking over Japan.

%%* ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc''

%%* In ''Literature/TheActsOfCaine'' it's one half of the setting. The other half is classical {{Dystopia}}.
%%* ''Literature/TheBlackCompany'' cycle. The military kind of dark.

* ''Literature/BlackguardsTalesOfAssassinsMercenariesAndRogues'' published by Creator/RagnarokPublications gained a surprisingly large Kickstarter following by promising to be nothing but this.

* ''Literature/ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades'': Looks like a ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' clone at first glance, but turns out to take place in [[TheMagocracy magocratic]] FantasticCasteSystem that's almost as abusive to the mages at the top of the pyramid as to {{Muggles}}, with demihumans barely rating third-class citizenship ''[[WhatMeasureIsANonhuman if they're lucky]]''. Mage clans perpetuate generational trauma onto their children, the WizardingSchool sits overtop of [[MalevolentArchitecture a labyrinth full of monsters that encroaches on the school building at night]], [[LovecraftLite the world is periodically threatened]] by {{Alien Invasions}} led by [[EldritchAbomination the inhuman gods of other worlds]], and the main protagonist Oliver Horn? [[spoiler:He's the leader of a StudentsSecretSociety plotting to assassinate half the faculty to avenge their brutal murder of his mother.]]

** The author does a more traditional fantasy version in ''Literature/WraithKnight'' which is essentially a Dark Fantasy sequel to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' with a cynical {{Deconstruction}} of the Fellowship and the Witch King as the protagonist.
* Creator/CaitlinRKiernan is known for writing short stories and novels in this genre. ''Literature/TheRedTree2009'' either falls into horror or dark fantasy, depending on your interpretation of what happens. If you choose the latter, it is a subversion of the story of a girl that finds a magical tree less than 100 yards from her house that grants wishes. Instead, according to the manuscript Sara finds in the cellar, the tree has a history of sinister urban legends, tales, and local folklore that becomes fascinating to the protagonist, an author named Sara. Needless to say, the massive red oak starts to take an interest in her too. Some events are not entirely explained by the suggestion that she was [[spoiler: slowly going insane and losing touch with reality]].
* ''Literature/ReturnOfTheReaper'' would be a clear example, with the "hero" being the same demon who enslaved all the sentient races in the world and who is acting more for revenge than for the well-being of those sentient races.
* Craig Schaefer's ''Literature/RevancheCycle'' follows the struggle for to control a parallel-Renaissance papacy. BlackAndGrayMorality is in full effect; decadent nobles, witches, poison, and back-stabbing galore. The one truly good character in the saga, an aspiring knight who seems to have wandered in from a much happier fantasy world, [[spoiler:is an AxCrazy psycho who's just been drugged and brainwashed into acting that way]]. It's that kind of story.

%%* ''Literature/TalesOfTheBlackRaven'' by Seth Skorkowsky is a work following the adventures of the titular Master Thief in a dark and dreary Renaissance-meets-Hyboria setting.

%%* ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' cycle, particularly in the later books of the Saga, [[CerebusSyndrome when it began accumulating grimdark]]. The game and earlier stories are quite gritty but lighter than late Saga.
%%* Creator/RoaldDahl's ''Literature/TheWitches'' is a strange mishmash of Dark Fantasy, UrbanFantasy, DefangedHorrors, and ConspiracyThriller.

%%* ''Series/{{GARO}}''
%%* ''Series/{{Helstrom}}''
%%* ''Series/MotherlandFortSalem''
%%* ''Film/RedWerewolfHunter''
%%* ''Series/{{The Witcher|2019}}''

* If any hero has a shred of nobility to them, and refuse to do any of the above activities they are often depressed loners who feel that they are the only one in the world who believes in traditional HighFantasy values of goodness. Often they are [[GullibleLemmings hated and feared by the very people they protect.]] Yet they never turn their back on their values, and try to preserve the little goodness in Dark Fantasy worlds.

%%* ''Anime/NinjaScroll''

* ''ComicBook/{{Hound|2014}}''

* ''Literature/ALandFitForHeroes'' involves 3 older heroes from a devastating war against the LizardFolk. One of the heroes is a knight who fell from grace because of his homosexuality and his desire to spill a DarkSecret about their order, [[spoiler: older members systematically rape newcomers to bind each member together with that HiddenShame]], another is a barbarian chief who's too in love with civilizations' luxuries and the third is a half-breed engineer currently working for a cruel desert kingdom. These three are the only hope against an invasion by the FairFolk, but what the CrapsackWorld they're protecting might not be worth it - there's the aforementioned cruel desert kingdom with an erratic young ruler and it's rival kingdom who's foolish business ventures have bankrupted the nation and they now resort to selling their own people into slavery.

* ''Literature/ALandFitForHeroes'' involves 3 older heroes from a devastating war against the LizardFolk. One of the heroes is a knight who fell from grace because of his homosexuality and his desire to spill a DarkSecret about their order [[spoiler: older members systematically rape newcomers to bind each member together with that HiddenShame]], another is a barbarian chief who's too in love with civilizations' luxuries and the third is a half-breed engineer currently working for a cruel desert kingdom. These three are the only hope against an invasion by the FairFolk, but what the CrapsackWorld they're protecting might not be worth it - there's the aforementioned cruel desert kingdom with an erratic young ruler and it's rival kingdom who's foolish business ventures have bankrupted the nation and they now resort to selling their own people into slavery.

* ''Literature/TheSunEater'' could be considered a more LovecraftLite sci-fantasy version of a Dark Fantasy story in a similar vein to ''Warhammer 40,000''. The titular protagonist is the TouchedByVorlons hero/villain DarkMessiah of a xenophobic empire, who ended the threat of an omnicidal alien ServantRace to {{Eldritch Abomination}}s who are trying to destroy the physical universe. To do so he committed a near-genocide of those aliens, leaving only a few hundred to be exiled into alienages. Worse yet his final victory over those aliens required the use of a StarKilling weapon and the near destruction of the Imperial fleet plus the death of the Emperor.

* ''Literature/TheSunEater'' could be considered a more sci-fantasy with lighter CosmicHorror version of a Dark Fantasy story in a similar vein to ''Warhammer 40,000''. The titular protagonist is the TouchedByVorlons hero/villain DarkMessiah of a xenophobic empire, who ended the threat of an omnicidal alien ServantRace to {{Eldritch Abomination}}s who are trying to destroy the physical universe. To do so he committed a near-genocide of those aliens, leaving only a few hundred to be exiled into alienages. Worse yet his final victory over those aliens required the use of a StarKilling weapon and the near destruction of the Imperial fleet plus the death of the Emperor.