Dark Is Not Evil / Literature

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• The Adventures of Strong Vanya: Waron, the hero's swift, loyal and trusty steed, is completely black.
• Air Awakens: While the sorcerers are the only ones in the Empire who wear black and they are shunned and distrusted by the general public, they are just people — Groundbreakers make good healers and Firebearers often work as smiths or jewellers.
• The hero of American Gods is known as Shadow, somewhat ironically, as he is an incarnation of the god Balder of Norse Mythology, who is associated with purity and light.
• Animorphs:
  • The Howlers, who are, from a certain standpoint, the most innocent species that the kids meet. Unfortunately, "fun" means "killing the shit out of everything they see." They are a species of genetically engineered killing machines. It's just that they don't know that killing is wrong, and Crayak preserves their naivete by altering their collective memory.
  • Similarly, Hork-Bajir are seven-foot-tall anthropomorphic dinosaurs covered in blades. Said blades are used to scrape edible bark from trees, and they didn't even have a concept of war before the Yeerks turned their whole species into Puppet People foot-soldiers.
• Autumn Visits, another of Sergey Lukyanenko's novels, does something similar with the Champion of Darkness, although it is difficult to sympathize with a guy who kills women, children, and elderly. His goal appears to be to kill all Envoys (except himself), so that they do not influence humanity, letting them make their own choices. His methods, though, put him squarely into the villain category.
• Bazil Broketail: The witches, who are good (if sometimes ruthless) often wear dark clothing, black included.
• Part of the theme of the Israeli children's book "חיית החושך" ("The Beast of Darkness") by Uri Orlev. The titular beast, whose full form is never really observed or described, is said to come from "the darkness between stars; the deepest darkness there is. It is extremely vulnerable to light (said to "shrink to a tiny size" during the day), but it grows to full size in the darkness can move to wherever shadows reach. It also has several other powers... The protagonist is initially afraid of it, but it turns out to be very friendly and supportive, using its powers and advice to help the protagonist deal with the death of his father (who died in one of Israel's many wars), his mother's re-marrying an old mutual friend of theirs whom the protagonist doesn't trust in the beginning, and the birth of his new sister (the Beast of Darkness tells the boy the baby's gender in secret long before the doctors find out, having discovered it for itself by sneaking through the darkness in the mother's womb). Having helped the protagonist move on with his life, the Beast of Darkness leaves, maybe to find other children to help.
• The Beginning After the End:
  • Windsom and Aldir. The former wears a black and gold military uniform and overcoat and has Exotic Eye Designs that resemble miniature galaxies, the latter wears a suit of black and purple armor. Despite their menacing appearances, both were sent down from Epheotus by Kezess to act as advisors to the Council in the face of the impending Alacryan invasion. However, in Volume 8 it is revealed that Kezess is a genocidal tyrant who is no better than his nemesis Agrona. In light of this reveal, Windsom ends up being a Subversion while Aldir ends up being a Double Subversion. Windsom, being Kezess's Mouth of Sauron, is a carbon copy of his master in terms of personality and has no regard for the lives of the lessers he claims to protect. Aldir on the other hand had empathy for the lessers, and after being forced by Kezess to destroy Elenoir for the sake of an ultimately futile gambit has a Heel Realization, deserts his master's service entirely, and eventually gives up his life out of atonement for his actions.
  • The Alacryans seem to be look the part as Agrona's minions, tending to wear Dark Is Evil and Red and Black and Evil All Over attire and sporting their master's Horns of Villainy. However, one of the major reveals from Volume 8 onward is that the Alacryans are as much victims of the Divine Conflict as the Dicathians are and have the same level of moral complexity. Initially, this is seen with Caera, Arthur's traveling companion during his time away from Dicathen. It turns out that Caera is the protégé of Seris Vritra, one of the Scythes whom Arthur fought against during the war. In turn, Seris is revealed to be Good All Along as she was never loyal to Agrona and throws in her lot with Arthur as she recognizes his potential to end the war, even going so far as to launch a revolt against Agrona. To a lesser extent, there is Seris's Retainer Cylrit, who follows his mistress into her rebellion.
  • Post-Volume 9, Arthur himself. He wears a dark suit of armor, conjures supernatural purple flames, and is accompanied by a terrifying spectral wolf. Fortunately, he would rather spare your life rather than resort to violence first (though if you still insist on fighting, he is more than willing to oblige to show you just how big of a mistake you just made). That is, unless you are of the Indrath or Vritra Clans (except Sylvie, and even she has disowned both sides of her Warring Natures), in which case he will show you no mercy.
  • Speaking of which, Regis. He takes the form of a black spectral wolf with piercing red eyes and the Vritra's trademark Horns of Villainy and can also manifest the same supernatural purple flames as his master. In spite of his appearance, Regis is loyal to Arthur and acts as his Guardian Entity. Not only that, but his terrifying appearance belies his snarky and comedic personality, and he is prone to referencing popular culture from his master's Past-Life Memories.
• Despite his frightening bat theme, the titular character of Black Bat is a pulp detective hero who fights underground criminals.
• In Anne Bishop's Black Jewels universe, three main, sympathetic and hot characters are named Saetan, Lucivar and Daemon. "Dark" simply means "more powerful", and does not carry any connotations of evil.
• Diran Bastiaan, the protagonist of The Blade of the Flame series, is a former assassin who dresses completely in black, has black hair, and is generally creepy in appearance. He is also a pious priest of one of the main forces of good in the world and has all of the good traits generally associated with his church with none of the extremist qualities that kill its reputation in most of the world.
• Soulcutter from Fred Saberhagen's Books of Swords might count. Unlike the other Twelve, its hilt has no symbol, but is rather all black, and even its blade is dull. And its ability might seem evil, as it imposes a crushing despair on everyone within its area of effect; for this, it is nicknamed the Tyrant's Blade. For all that, though, the one time we see it used, it is to stop the evil would-be world-conqueror Vilkata.
  • On the other hand, Vilkata is also known as the Dark King, so that would certainly be an inversion of this trope.
• Very much in play in Brimstone Angels. Heroine Farideh is a tiefling — which means that she's part of a race conventional wisdom holds to be descended from devils and looks the part, complete with horns, a tail, and creepy Monochromatic Eyes. She's also a warlock, which means she gets her magic through a bargain with a supernatural being, in this case the cambion devil Lorcan. Because of this, most people she meets assume she's Obviously Evil, even though she's actually a brave and moral character. Her twin sister Havilar gets somewhat less of it, both because Havilar is a Badass Normal Action Girl rather than a warlock, and because she's got a cheery, friendly demeanor while Farideh is broodier and angstier.
• The Camp Half-Blood Series:
  • Hades is ruler of the dead, wears the helm of darkness, has horses made of shadow, and fights wearing black armor with a crimson cape... and yet he is far from a villain. Sure, he's a bit of a grumpy jerk, but because this is based off Greek Mythology (i.e. The Un Favourite), that's a given. Ironically enough, he's actually the most honorable of the Big Three. And of course the movie MAKES HIM EVIL!!!
  • Nico di Angelo as well. He even states in Percy Jackson and the Olympians that there's no place for him at camp, as Hades and all his children are shunned by many who believe the dark is, in fact, evil. Plays this trope perfectly straight, as he is just as heroic as any other demigod, and he may be Tyson's only equal when it comes to Big Damn Heroes moments.
• The Caster Chronicles:
  • Macon, being an Incubus, is of the Dark, but chose to side with the Light.
  • Also, as John Breed stated, there is Light in the Dark and Dark in the Light. So, it could be assumed that Genevieve, Ridley and Macon could do good things and help other because they were not completely evil.
• The Cats of Seroster: The Matagot, the oldest and wisest of the Miw, are completely black.
• "The Charnel God": The deity Mordiggian takes the form of a vast, inchoate darkness; leads an order of masked, purple-cloaked ghoul priests; and demands that all Zul-Bha-Sair's dead be taken to his private temple for consumption. However, while he strictly enforces his Due to the Dead, he doesn't punish the bereaved for being uncooperative as long as they don't outright try to keep or take a corpse away from him. Given what Necromancers and the Undead get up to in Zothique, Mordiggian's method of corpse disposal is both beneficial and merciful.
• Childhood's End: The Overlords aren't evil even though they look like demons.
• A Christmas Carol has the silent specter of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who shows Scrooge the future that will result if he keeps to his current path. Although he terrifies Scrooge and the reader, Scrooge's redemption depends on this, and the narration refers to the hand which points Scrooge to his grave as "the kind hand."
• The Chronicles of Dorsa:
  • The shadow arts, though they draw power from the Shadowlands and the shadows which live there, aren't inherently evil (though many fear them due to their danger or evil uses). For instance, they can be used for healing or divination, while even other uses can also serve the good. However, they are dangerous to be sure. The shadows as well aren't entirely evil. Some are benevolent or neutral.
  • Imperial palace servants also always wear black, as Linna does due to being among them. She is good and they are at least neutral.
• The Chronicles of Narnia:
  • In The Silver Chair the Green Witch's minions look like stereotypical devils (horns, spiked tails, etc although with grey skin, not red). In the end it turns out they were her slaves and have no desire to invade the upper world because their home is in the warm depths of the earth and the surface world is much too cold for them.
  • In the film version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Mr. Beaver suspects the Fox of being one of the White Witch's spies because he looks similar to his wolf relatives. The Fox of course is their ally and is greatly helpful.
  • Taken further in the movie adaption of Prince Caspian, where the Minotaurs (all dark furred and intimidating looking) are fighting against an evil king. The Pevensie children even mistook some for villains when they first saw them after getting back to Narnia — after all, the last time they were in Narnia, the Minotaurs fought on the Witch's side.
• Dyrnwyn the Black Sword from The Chronicles of Prydain is a subversion. While it is a powerful weapon of justice that can only be wielded by a truly good and noble person to strike down evil, it was originally a bright and shining blade. Its blade turned black when its first wielder murdered an innocent shepherd with it in a fit of rage. So while the sword itself is not evil, its dark appearance is a reminder that it once shed innocent blood.
• The Land of the Night from Chronicles of the Emerged World is a land constantly covered by eternal magical darkness, but this spell was done in order to attempt to make the land hard to besiege. Also one of the main characters, Laio, is from that land and is one of the nicest folks.
• The protagonist of "Clockpunk and the Vitalizer" is clad in a black suit just like the villain is, but she's willing to put herself in a deadly place for the sake of protecting her city.
• Codex Alera: The Marat, sort of, and definitely the Canim.
  • The Marat are cannibalistic Rubber-Forehead Alien barbarians and at the start of the first book are thought of as implacable foes, but eventually many of them wind up friends to the main characters and allies to their nation, show surprising sophistication of philosophy and honor, and have no concept of lying.
  • The Canim are an even better fit. They are seven-foot-tall wolfmen whose magic is fueled by the blood of sentient beings. Warlike by nature, they enjoy warring against each other and have 11 different words for "enemy", one of which essentially translates to "Worthy Opponent" and substitutes for friendship with a member of another range or race (essentially "Some day we'll kill each other but not today, and no one else but me can do so"). Most of them are generally honorable and trustworthy, albeit in an alien fashion, all disdain the slavery practiced in the protagonists' homeland, and some become as close to friends with the human characters as possible. Even their Blood Magic-wielding ritualists eventually are shown to have some genuinely honorable, decent individuals amongst them who still practice the "Old Way" of shepherding the common folk and injuring or bleeding themselves to protect them.
• A Court of Thorns and Roses: Rhysand has got darkness-based powers, wears all black, and is secretive and cruel, but it's all for the sake of protecting his home. And in fact, Beneath the Mask he's a progressive person who doesn't enjoy being cruel.
• The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids:
  • After Century Smith and the Time Terror, Briar continues to go around dressed in a black Victorian dress which used to belong to her Superpowered Evil Counterpart, and keeps the ability to turn into a bat, but she's one of the sweetest, most innocent characters in the series.
  • Frankenstein-818 self-consciously adopts the stylings of a Mad Scientist, but isn't actually malicious, merely putting dangerous settings into his invention because it's in his nature. He actually genuinely wants to help his fellow Clockwork Cherubs with everything he builds, and succeeds at least some of the time.
• In Dark Heart, the heroine Myrren worships the evil god Vraxor and has powers based on dark magic, but is sickened by the thought of killing. Her father, Warde, is a feared military commander who's conquering the nations of the west on behalf of Vraxor's priesthood, but shows himself to be a devoted parent and a surprisingly kind and decent man.
• The Devils Of D-Day by Graham Masterton. The angel summoned to exorcise the eponymous demons.
  I didn’t have much in the way of scientific training. After all, I was only a cartographer. But I knew what I was looking at. Whatever Madeleine really was or whatever was possessing her, she was now so physically dense that no reflected light could leave her body and enable us to see her. She was like a black hole in space, only she was standing right among us.
• In Digital Devil Story, the demon Kerberos is described as larger than a lion, with two rows of long, sharp fangs, the metallic feelers, striped like a tiger, and with heavy-looking tail plated with snakelike scales. It follows its master Nakajima around like a loyal, oversized puppy, even go so far as to fight the much stronger demon Loki on Nakajima's behalf. Twice.
• Discworld is full of this.
  • Trolls? Though they're very blunt and traditionally not fond of humans and dwarfs, they're as capable of nobility and generosity as other races and generally portrayed sympathetically. Created largely as a reaction to the implication in Tolkien that big, scary-looking humanoids were Always Chaotic Evil.
  • Several witches, including Granny Weatherwax and Miss Treason, who cultivate a sinister, Deadpan Snarker attitude but generally mean well.
  • Most of the undead are entirely harmless. Reg Shoe, Maladicta and Otto Chriek spring to mind in particular. It's true that Discworld vampires are instinctively predators, but many are trying very hard (and with relative success) to become useful, productive, and nonthreatening members of society by turning their fixations to other obsessions, such as coffee or photography.
    • And even the traditional ones aren't always pure evil, provided they know where to draw the line, such as the Count Bela de Magpyr from Carpe Jugulum, who, unlike his nephew, doesn't seek to dominate anything much, and in fact, is a Friendly Enemy and Worthy Opponent to the local townsfolk — he plays by the rules (he Wouldn't Hurt a Child, for starters) and gives them a fair chance, lauding the descendants of those who killed him. After all, he's a vampire — Death Is Cheap.
  • Death, increasingly after Character Development, is one of the kindest and most compassionate entities in the Disc, always standing up for life against its enemies. It got to the point where terminally ill fans sent nice letters to Terry Pratchett saying that they hoped, when they died, that they would find that Pratchett had got the Grim Reaper right.
  • Lord Havelock Vetinari is a ruthless despot who keeps the city of Ankh-Morpork tamed and functional through sheer force of will and a terrifying intellect. But his goal is to make the city a better place for everyone (except mimes), and he's been resoundingly successful - he has no personal ambitions himself. If anything, he seems to be methodically preparing Ankh-Morpork to run itself when he retires or dies. He has built up a reasonable Watch, rebuilt the post office, helped introduce paper money and encouraged a lot of other races to immigrate, increasing the city's prosperity.
  • This is represented well by Vimes and Carcer in Night Watch Discworld. Carcer is a garrulous, smiley, talkative chap who is able to charm even Vimes, to a degree. Vimes, on the other hand is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, a crowning example of Good is Not Nice, and sports an eyepatch and a nasty facial injury. Carcer is an unrepentant murderer, while Vimes is a quasi-mythical force for justice, who only wants to protect the innocent.
    • In fact, in Thud! it's revealed that Vimes has an inner watchman, the "Guarding Darkness", which keeps the darkness inside of him. Including a literal demon. When Vimes says that he's the watchman who watches the watchmen, and that's including himself, he isn't kidding.
  • Dwarven philosophy is chock-full of this. Humans are "enlightened" because they live in the blinding sunshine, Dwarves are "endarkened" and live in the caves, where the eyes are not blinded, but must open as far as they can.
  • Although they often serve morally unconventional people, the hideous (females excepted) Igors are generally quite pleasant and humanitarian, having become a lifesaving fixture of the medical industry wherever they go. Their Code actively prohibits them not taking steps to save a life (with exceptions if they've been mistreated), and almost every Igor introduced as a character has been likable, well-intentioned and eager to please. In Uberwald at least, Igors are considered quite the eligible bachelors, and Igorinas are always stunning. (Given their obsession with self-improvement and body-part transplants, most people have come to certain... realisations.)
  • Goblins are creatures of darkness, and are describes as "definitely looking like the bad guys, and they are given a very bad reputation, being seen as pests at most. But they are intelligent, sentient beings who are just as capable of kindness and compassion as any other race. The novel Snuff is about proving that they are a people that deserve rights.
  • A recent addition to the faculty of Unseen University is Dr. John Hix, the head of "Post Mortem Communications." Which is not Necromancy at all, obviously, because Necromancy is illegal and Post Mortem Communications is not. Hix lives and breathes by this trope, making a conspicuous point of wearing black and showing everyone his very gothy skull ring, as it is apparently his job to do "evil", but only within "acceptable limits", a token dark magician. Hix isn't really evil at all, as the worst of his acts involve the occasional blunt remark that no one else would say aloud because it would be impolite. Though he does slip tickets to his theatre troupe's performances. And being the head of legal PMC means he can very legally take care of those illegally practicing Necromancy. With fireballs.
  • Also from Thud!, the Summoning Dark is a spirit of righteous vengeance, with no one expressing the opinion that the Dark's victim's didn't deserve their deaths.
• The Divine Comedy: Long after going through the deepest parts of Hell, The Protagonist states that the darkest place he had ever been was one of the redemptive terraces of Purgatory. In that penitentiary for the wrathful, darkness reflects judgement blinded by passion and emotion which the sinner must recognize and move away from before moving closer to the Eternal Love.
• Dracula: Every Vampire in the story is seen and described as Dark Is Evil, including the Count himself. However consider this, with the numerous weaknesses these so-called predators have, one cannot help but pity instead of fear them. They die in sunlight, despise holy symbols and MUST feed from the blood of others. Worse yet, their coffins have to contain some earth/soil of their native land. No wonder many of these traditional weaknesses were removed, from later and more modern interpretations.
• Steven Brust's Dragaera:
  • Morrolan e'Drien novels lives in a place called Castle Black and wields a sword called Blackwand (Lit. Magical-Wand-That-Creates-Death-in-the-Form-of-a-Black-Sword) that can destroy people's souls on a whim. Guess which side he's on? Of course, he's mostly considered good because he happens to be friends with the hero — Vlad usually points out that Morrolan is quite a bloodthirsty bastard.
  • A more straightforward example might be Sethra Lavode. A vampire, a mysterious enchantress dressed all in black, an ancient being who's been rumoured to turn the heroes/fools that come after her into animals, an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette Lady of War, she's one of the wisest, most patient people Vlad knows. She's also the main protector of the world against godlike aliens.
  • The Necromancer is an undead demon from a mysterious plane known as World of Seven Doors and who serves Sethra Lavode. She acts like something of a geek and has a soft spot for Vlad, too.
• Dragon and Damsel features Azrael the Third, a large dragon with dark green, almost black scales, who is proficient in shadow magic. He might seem like a cold-hearted jerk, but he’s also a decent healer, doesn’t like to see Bernadette in pain, and shares his library and his life with her.
• Samet of the Dragon Crown trilogy is one of the nicest hellspawn you'll ever meet.
• The Dresden Files:
  • In the novel Dead Beat, Harry talks with Kumori, a powerful necromancer who uses her powers over life and death to preserve life wherever possible, and is confronted with a deep, unsettling realization that the powers of necromancy, classified as Black Magic by the White Council and considered pure evil, can be used for good ends (for example, keeping a man dying of a gunshot wound alive by simply refusing to allow him to die at all). At the end of the book, Harry puts this into practice, when he reanimates Sue, the T. Rex skeleton at the Field Museum, and uses her as his mount to save the damn day.
  • Later, in Changes, when talking to his godmother after Susan is killed, the Leanansidhe, a powerful fae of the Winter Court (which is considered the cruelest and most wicked of the faerie courts) states that she will bury her as Harry wishes her to be, at no cost to him. She will even escort Harry to the grave when Harry is ready. This prompts Harry to remark that just because Winter is cold, it isn't always bitter.
  • Further on, in Ghost Story, he encounters an angel of death watching over Father Forthill when he is close to death. Every physical aspect of the angel is ink-black with the exception of her irises and sword. Despite all this, she has an innocent personality and is simply there to guard Forthill's soul in the case that he does die from whatever horrors lurk in the spirit world, including the Prince of Darkness who would love to capture this good soul.
  • In honesty, the entirety of the series plays with the varying shades of morality, especially with the Lasciel/Lara Raith/Fae storylines.
  • Also, in Cold Days, we find that the Winter Court has a very vital purpose. They are constantly fighting a war against the Outsiders, at the Outer Gates to preserve the world.
  • The Genius Loci known as Demonreach isn't evil. In fact, it is the warden of a prison designed to keep various evil entities, the least of which are demi-gods, away from humanity, and may be one of the greatest forces for good in the setting. However, it is (for perfectly well-justified reasons) surly, anti-social and has little use for interaction with anyone.
  • Hades turns out to be a reasonable, affable deity whose legendary vaults are meant to keep powerful artifacts safe and contained until they're needed in the world. He judges people fairly and without letting any attempts at bribery or worship sway him. He even points out that he and Harry have a whole lot in common overall, including their love of their enormous dogs.
• The Edge Chronicles:
  • The Professors of Light and Darkness are not enemies, merely friendly rivals, and each is a harmless, basically likeable character in his own way. In fact, the titles are actually designations of what they study; the Professor of Light studies the mysteries of illumination, and the Professor of Darkness studies the mysteries of light's absence.
  • Less literally, the slaughterers. They're nocturnal, look like blood-red goblins, and have a sinister-sounding name. They're actually peaceful and relatively friendly, and they get their name because they slaughter in the true sense of the word — killing and butchering animals. In fact, their work is why they're red from head to toe- apparently, the chemicals involved in their tanning and spicing (or possibly sympathetic magic; there's stranger things in the Edgewoods) permanently stains their skin and dyes their hair. Unfortunately, despite this, they're undeservedly reviled because of their strange appearance and distasteful work. This is highlighted by the fact they are the most peaceful and welcoming of the races that Twig, protagonist of the first published novel, meets; he actually gives serious thought to staying there until the Gloamglozer tricks him into leaving, and later stories reveal he eventually returns to them and marries a slaughterer girl.
• The Elenium: The Pandion Knights wear black armor, and have a reputation of being ready to resort to torturing their enemies at the drop of a hat. In reality, they are religious knights who hold strongly to their vows to the Church, and wouldn't stoop to torture even if ordered to. The rumors about their savagery were planted by the Pandions themselves, to terrify their enemies in advance.
• Fablehaven has Seth gain shade walking and become a shadow charmer. Despite this he remains his heroic, if slightly brash self.
• The Fallen Moon series fits this bill. The protagonist is a dark-haired undead northerner who worships the moon, can walk through shadows, and is prophesized to kill the champion of the Sun God in battle.
  • Of course, the southerners avert this, being fanatic racists who believe if the northerners deserve to live at all, it is in slavery.
• A Fly Went By:
  • The dog thought the pig wanted to bite him because she was very large, but she turned out to be harmless.
  • The pig thought the cow wanted to hit her because she had big horns, but the cow was also innocent.
  • The fox thought the man wanted to kill him because he was carrying a gun, but he didn't want to kill him either.
• Forest Kingdom: The Forest Castle's moat monster, despite being a borderline Eldritch Abomination, is still loyal to the kingdom.
• Ghosts Don't Eat Potato Chips: Great-uncle Jasper is one of the most sinister looking creatures in the Bailey School Kids series, and the only one to be outright confirmed by the narrative to be a monster, but he's only trying to help his wife and is by far the nicest of the supernatural entities the kids encounter.
• Good Omens:
  • The book takes this farther, adopting as a major theme that "most demons weren't deep down evil. In the great cosmic game they felt they occupied the same position as tax inspectors — doing an unpopular job, maybe, but essential to the overall operation of the whole thing." These are actual from-hell fallen-angel straight-out-of-the-new-testament demons, but they're not really evil.
  • Hey, Crowley "did not so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards."
  • And of course, there's Death himself. Although he's quite a bit nastier than Pratchett's usual incarnation, what with wanting to bring about the Apocalypse and all, he's still pretty chill. And kind to his mailman.
• In Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi Wei Wuxian, the Yiling Patriarch is the founder and most skilled practitioner of Demonic Cultivation and yet he is one of the most caring, selfless and kind cultivators to ever exist.
• The dark sisters in Jane Yolen's Great Alta Saga. Their light sisters call them up by candlelight or the light of the moon, and they are devoted companions in battle.
• The Erdlings from Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Green Sky. They have darker skin (the areas where they gather food are not shaded by grund-trees), wear furs, eat meat, and accept the occasional bad seed as a reality with means to deal with it (though they still are Space Amish by our standards). Contrast with the Kindar who live in the trees, wear silks, have a Veganopia, and have banished even the concepts of anger, sorrow, and violence. Guess which society is ruled by the Knight Templar secret society...
• Grounded for All Eternity: The powers reside in Hell, are considered Fallen Angels by the residents of Heaven, and have large, black wings. However, they play an important role in guarding the souls of the Pit and keeping all of creation safe from its evil.
• Harry Potter series
  • Severus Snape. He dresses in black and looks like a stereotypical villain (and he is vengeful, petty and openly biased to boot), he saves Harry's life on more than one occasion, and in the end puts himself at incredible risk and ends up being murdered in order to help out the protagonists.
  • Also from Harry Potter, thestrals look like black, skeletally thin horses with "dragonlike" faces, leather wings, blank white eyes and wild black manes and can only be seen by those who have witnessed death and are thus considered creatures of ill omen, but prove very useful to Harry and his friends in OotP and fight in defense of Hogwarts in the final battle in DH.
  • Sirius Black, Suspected mass murderer, crazy escaped prisoner and death omen lookalike?!
  • The movie adaptations probably stress this further, as Hogwarts itself seems gloomy and dark at times. Worth to note is also the fanfic My Immortal, which tries to invoke this trope but, as in everything it builds itself up to be, fails horribly.
  • Hagrid seems to be of the opinion that, when it comes to magical creature, Dark Is NEVER Evil. Whether the creature in question is a thirty foot tall vicious three headed dog, a firebreathing dragon, a spiked, fire spewing snail, or a monstrous spider, Hagrid always believes that deep down every one of these creatures is good and pure. As a result of these, he regularly puts Harry and friends at risk by accident, such as in CoS when he sent Harry and Ron into the forest alone to confront a carnivorous and not good-at-all (except towards Hagrid) giant spider. If it weren't for the sudden arrival of Ron's father's old car, which is now borderline feral and living in the woods, Harry and Ron would've died.
    • That said, he's sometimes right, such as in his defense of thestrals. Thestrals are emaciated, bat-winged, reptilian horses, who eat raw meat and are invisible to all but those who have seen and accepted death. They're also social, docile scavengers, and when domesticated, are no more dangerous than a large dog.
    • Hagrid’s stance on most dark and dangerous magical creatures as being this is also backed up and proven right by fellow Fluffy Tamer Newt Scamander. Newt has met and tamed numerous creatures that are considered terrifying man-killing abominations, in his suitcase he’s even got The Dreaded Nundu which is considered the most dangerous in the world yet it’s as tame as a kitten under his care. As Newt says the majority of these creatures are simply misunderstood and are beautiful in their own unique ways. It’s really humans whom Newt personally considers “the most dangerous creatures” that make them out to be worse than they actually are.
  • Most ghosts fit the profile, being horrific-looking due to the Jacob Marley Apparel and odd eccentricities. (Harry, Ron, and Hermione are seriously creeped out by what happens at Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party.) Most, like Nick himself, are decent folks; Myrtle is annoying, but not malevolent, the Fat Friar is a Nice Guy almost to a fault (he used magic to help people a little too much at a time where the considered magic to be evil) and even the much feared Bloody Baron is The Atoner whose situation seems self-imposed.
  • And Harry himself in a very indirect way. None of the dark qualities that turns out he possesses are part of his innate personality but rather an infestation by the soul of the villain. Who would expect Voldemort's Parseltongue-speaking Soul Jar to be the hero of the story?
  • Durmstrang, the school that serves Central and Eastern Europe, has a fairly bad reputation as a school for Dark Arts which isn’t entirely true. The school is also on some frozen tundra in the middle of nowhere without any fires except for studying. Viktor Krum went there is an all around Nice Guy (if a bit brooding). He dates Hermione knowing she’s a Muggle born (even though they don’t teach them at Durmstrang) and keeps in contact with her for the rest of the series. He also hates the Dark Arts and has to be talked out of fighting Luna’s dad at a wedding because he didn’t like that he was wearing (what he thought was) the dark wizard Grindelwald’s mark. He tells a disguised that Grindelwald killed his grandfather and one time he and some other boys taught some other kids “a lesson” for drawing it on the wall. The school also had the decency to kick Grindelwald out when he crossed a line which would have happened about a century before the time of the series.
  • Professor McGonagall wears green and black (colours commonly associated with Voldemort’s forces), is known to be very strict, and is unafraid to punish students from her own house if necessary. She is also very trustable, protective of her students, and acts as a strong mentor figure for Harry throughout the entire series.
  • Slytherin House has the worst reputation between the four Houses. It's no secret that many dark wizards were sorted here, but to say it's a purely evil house is unfair. Horace Slughorn, Severus Snape and even Narcissa Malfoy all did good things at least. After all, as much as the other Houses had their share of good students. They each had their bad members individually as well. (Though Hufflepuff has the least so far)
  • While the Dark Arts is certainly used more often by the villains than the heroes, it's never shown that they are inherently corruptive forces, like the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars. The only dark magic that is canonically stated to lead to mental degradation is the creation of a horcrux, which requires the creator to fracture their soul. Harry himself uses both the Cruciatus and Imperius Unforgivable Curses, in anger and need respectively, and is never shown to be tempted to use them again afterward.
• His Dark Materials:
  • Daemons. True, they are NOT connected to Christianity's demons, but they seem to be strongly based on the daemons from Greek Mythology (spirits that were later demonized by Christians), and they are meant to represent consciousness, being partially responsible for free will, something that the medieval church in Lyra's world) is against. Thus, by representing that "undesired side" of mankind, they represent our dark side. In addition to daemons, most fallen angels (such as Balthamos and Baruch), which are good, are only visible in poor light conditions.
  • The Harpies count as well. They are described as having a monstrous appearance and at first torment the souls of the dead. But later it's revealed they were just bored and didn't know that they could do anything else. The Protagonist makes a deal that if the dead tell the harpies stories then the harpies will escort the dead through the afterlife.
• How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom:
  • "Dark Magic" is simply a catchall term for magics that don't fit into the other five elements, for example protagonist Souma's "Living Poltergeists" which allows him to split his consciousness to remotely manipulate objects.
  • The dark elves in this series have nothing to do with the drow, they're just regular elves with browner skin, and come to be among Souma's strongest supporters.
• Quasimodo, the The Hunchback of Notre Dame. More particularly in many of the film interpretations than in the original book, though.
• In the Icarus Project series by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge, mutants with Shadow-summoning powers are described as likely to succumb to darkness and insanity. However, the Shadow-wielding character Jet is a major superhero and media darling hailed as "New Chicago's savior, the Lady of Shadows" and is determined not to give in to the side effects that come with her powers. Her former childhood friend Iridium possesses Light-wielding powers and grew up to be a supervillain, or at least a ruthless vigilante.
• In the Incarnations of Immortality series, neither Death nor War nor even Evil is intrinsically evil — though their jobs are frequently unpleasant, and occasionally a particular Incarnation does turn out evil. Which one is evil at the time of the series? Good. Although maybe not really evil as much as Have You Seen My God?. Many characters think God is just honoring the Covenant (which supposedly said neither God nor the Devil will interfere in the affairs of mortals).
• In Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, a Knight in Black Armor not only fights on the side of the protagonist, but is revealed to be King Richard himself.
• James and the Giant Peach features seven gigantic invertebrates who are actually allies to James. Including a black spider and an ugly brown centipede.
• In the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix, the Winged Servants of the Night helps Arthur along in his quest numerous times.
• Black Magic in Labyrinths of Echo by Max Frei only differs from its White counterpart in that it deals with material substances and not etherial. High-level Black spells are used... in cookery to create exquisite cakes.
• Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness: There are two main religions on the planet, one of which, the Handarrata (the other is actually a cult that kind-of broke off from them, but they don't share this belief), see Darkness as equally important and good as Light, as evidenced by the first two lines of one of their texts, from which the title comes:
  Light is the left hand of Darkness, and Darkness the right hand of Light...
• Light And Dark The Awakening Of The Mageknight: This is the only conclusion one can make when a servant of an organization called "The Order of the Light" fights shadow monsters with darkness.
• Ghouls and Nightgaunts that inhabit the Underworld in H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands are a far cry from pure evil, and compared to the monsters inhabiting the outer voids they are downright cuddly. While they can be dangerous to any unprepared traveller who goes too near to the caves the Nightgaunts are set to guard, they can befriend and give aid to human dreamers. If you don't mind their habit of eating rotting human corpses stolen from the cemeteries of the Waking World, they can be downright amiable lot, once you learn to know them.
• Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen:
  • The Tiste Andii are the Children of Darkness, humanoids with black skin and darkness-themed powers, worshipping a goddess known as Mother Dark. But they are no more evil than any other people in that world, and seem better than their cousins the Tiste Liosan, Children of Light, who are bigoted Knights Templar. The Tiste Andii's Warrior Prince Anomander Rake, also known as Knight of High House Dark, the First Son of Darkness, the Mane of Chaos, etc. is a clear-cut case of The Good King.
  • Draconus from The Kharkanas Trilogy is the personification of primordial darkness, but actually a pretty decent guy, if he isn't bullied into having to ditch his love interest, that is.
• In Monster Hunter International the orcs look like well, orcs (warty grey green skin, yellow eyes, tusks, pointy ears), ride dire wolves and wear mostly black, but are definitely good guys.
• The Hobgoblin in the The Moomins book "The Hobgoblin's Hat/Finn Family Moomintroll" is dark, forbidding, sinister and obsessed with gathering rubies, not to mention that his lost hat produces all kinds of bizarre and bewildering transformations. He also enjoys pancakes and jam, attempts to buy rather than steal the gem he's coveted for a very long time, and grants a wish to everyone present as a way of cheering himself up.
• When the protagonist of Andrei Belyanin's My Wife Is a Witch duology travels to other dimensions, one of them is a world populated by dark creatures such as vampires, werewolves, warlocks, witches, most of whom are decent enough people with families and jobs. Granted, the first time he meets them, they try to kill him until he proves his power (apparently, his poetry has magical qualities in these dimensions) and fulfills the prophecy of a Witch's Husband (witches are normally too free-spirited to marry). This also becomes a problem in the second book, when his wife's cousin, who is obsessed with Sailor Moon, accidentally ends up in this world and starts attacking the so-called "evil" creatures, slaughtering entire families, as befitting her favorite character.
• Nathaniel Keene: The titular character is a vampire. He is also a dorky Quiz Bowler who reads books like 'The Portrayal of the Cockroach in the Western Mythos', and who literally can't bear to hurt a fly.
• Played with in Night Watch (Series):
  • The Day Watch, so called because they struggle to keep the forces of Light from remaking the world in their image, honestly believe the world's current state is better than whatever utopia Light might make. Their primary focus is the protection of free will, and they can describe it in quite noble terms, contrasting it to Light's determination to make everyone good. On the other hand, many members (particularly in the upper ranks) are selfish and hypocritical, concerned only with protecting their personal freedom at the expense of everyone else.
  • The struggle between Light and Dark in the novels is more of a clash of philosophies, Utilitarian versus Nietzschean rather than Good versus Evil, and both sides produce more than their fair share of bastards, though for different reasons. Let's put this way, Communism was one of the Light side's attempts at improving the world. Their "perfect" Communism was sabotaged by Geser, the head of the Moscow Night Watch, himself after getting a vision of the Bad Future: a dark, militarized world a hair trigger away from nuclear annihilation. This resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people, not to mention what happened after Stalin came to power. Nazism was another of the Light's social engineering projects. The world knows how that turned out.
  • While Dark Others are generally speaking more selfish and greedy than humans or Light Others, and some are outright sadistic and malicious, this is NOT universally the case. Most Dark Others are content to live ordinary family lives, and Anton at one point has to grab a new recruit by the ear and point out that, no, they are not allowed to attack a werepanther having a quiet family dinner at a restaurant, they have to wait for them to actually do something evil first.
  • Even the Dark Others who are actively evil are not always on the job. Big Bad Zawulon spends hours in the park feeding ducks when he's not on the clock, and Hot Witch Alisa goes clubbing with her friends regularly. Anton also at one point joins a pick-up game of football in a park, and muses that he could easily see a Dark Other (particularly an older one who has outgrown exotic pleasures and learned to appreciate simple ones) doing the same thing.
• Light and Shadow are balanced aspects of creation in "No Need for a Core?", and are represented by mirror-twin goddesses. Shadow tends to have connotations of Chaos, but a healthy balance of Order and Chaos is also needed for a universe to thrive.
• Of Fire and Stars: Shadow magic involves, among other things, being able to shadow walk and raise corpses which can serve as the mage's servants. However, this isn't portrayed as inherently evil, and the shadow mage in the books is definitely good.
• In C. S. Lewis's Perelandra, inhabitants of Perelandra (Venus) undergrounds appear briefly. They are human-like and not evil, but not necessarily friendly to humans.
• In the Perry Rhodan Universe, the Solar Empire once got into conflict with an alien race over an artifact. They looked like stereotypically devils (which caused the plan to let them meet some Earth Kids for evoking sympathy gloriously backfire), but were shown trying hard to understand Humans (which was difficult due to a very different way their brains worked) and resolve the crisis diplomatically.
• In President's Vampire, Cade might be a blood-drinking apex predator who loves carnage, but he's doubtlessly the good guy and fights against those who'd rather use their gifts/curses for evil.
• Race to the Sun: One of four sacred mountains of the Navajo is Dibe Nitsaa, the Mountain of the Folding Darkness, both its guardian and its herald are black—but they are protectors of the Navajo people and they are very kind towards Nizhoni.
• In the Rainbow Magic series, the Night Fairies are very nice.
• In The Red Abbey Chronicles, the goddess' crone aspect, who is associated with wisdom, but also death, is just another part of the circle of life, and no more evil than the maiden or the mother aspect. The protagonist still fears her.
• The most recent Redwall book speaks of a "dark beast" throughout the entire narrative. It's a black otter out to wipe out the Raven Big Bad, who is an obvious subversion of this trope.
• Raymond E. Feist's The Riftwar Cycle has the Epic Wizard Macros and later Pug, who's nothing short of a champion of the forces of good, has the title "The Black".
  • Similarly, the priesthood of Turakami, the Tsurani God of the Underworld. Turakami's priests wear demonic masks and are deeply feared both for their god's portfolio and the immense political power the temple wields, and some truly dreadful things are done in Turakami's name over the course of the series. However, Turakami is ultimately a natural part in the cycle of destruction and rebirth, and his high priest is not only a kind, likable and genuinely decent person, but also one of Mara's staunchest supporters in reforming the honor-bound, byzantine and destructive culture of Tsuranuanni.
  • The same applies to the priestesses of Sibi, She Who Is Death, but they get significantly less page-time.
• Saga of Recluce:
  • Black magic is order magic, while white magic is chaos magic. The reason given is that black is the absence of color and thus represents complete order and white is all colors squashed together and therefore chaotic. Of course, chaos magic isn't necessarily evil either. Just destructive. (Still, the fact that "Angels of darkness" and "Demons of light" are common expressions shows that many perceive darkness as better than light in this universe.)
  • In the first book of the saga, black magic is pretty unambiguously good (albeit overly rigid) and white fairly unambiguously bad, with the ostensible "banishing" of Recluse malcontents played as an attempt to spread the benefits of order to the less civilized continent that neighbors the island nation and educate black wizards in the responsible use of their power. It's only after three or four books that we're even introduced to a sympathetic "white" magician, and even then they're only "good" because they go against their evil culture of ultimate evilness and at least partially embrace black magic. Pure black magicians are never presented as unambiguously evil in the same manner as pure white ones, though the grey wizards are still the obvious Mary Sues of the series.
• Specter and Shade from the Seekers of Truth dress all in black, and they use the darkness itself for their abilities. And they're good guys. Not exactly warm and fuzzy, but good nonetheless. The Wizard also wears all black, but more for style in his case.
• The Shadow is possibly one of the earlier examples of this trope. There are several cases in which police arriving at the scene defend the crooks, assuming Color-Coded for Your Convenience.
• Shadow Magic (2016) provides an example in that contrary to what most people in other countries think Gehenna is not a land of Always Chaotic Evil people, but their motif is all about darkness and all within it.
• The Moth-kinden in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series call themselves "Children of the Dark" are grey of skin, hair and eyes (which are pupiless) and dress in grey but are neutral and isolationist rather than evil.
• Shannara:
  • The Black Elfstone is not evil, although its magic can certainly be put to destructive purposes. It's only black though because its power is to absorb magic, just as black objects absorb light.
  • The power of the Druids is stated to be of the same origins as the power of the Warlock Lord, and the power of the Sword of Leah comes from immersing the sword in the dark afterlife pool that is the Hadeshorn.
  • Allanon appears at first as a secretive and intimidating seven-foot tall man dressed in black robes. Later, he is seen communicating with the dead and utilizing frightening magic. However, he is unquestionably on the side of the protagonists.
• In The Sharing Knife series, the Lakewalkers carve the only blades that can harm the eldritch abominations which will destroy all life if left unchecked from the bones of thier own dead, and empower them with (willing) Human Sacrifices.
• The titular character of the Skulduggery Pleasant series is a walking, talking skeleton who wears black suits, drives a vintage black car, and has no problem whatsoever with brutally killing his enemies, especially where it's revenge for his murdered family. Despite all this, he is most definitely the good guy.
  • In the later books, Valkyrie is revealed to be the "Dark Messiah," Darquesse and begins using necromancy, but for good reasons.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • The final novel of the New Jedi Order series, The Unifying Force, comes to the shocking conclusion that there are no light and dark side of the Force. The Force is a tool; whether you're a hero or villain is all about your intent. Unfortunately the next series retconned this conclusion out of existence, because the author of The Undying Force never cleared such a drastic rewriting of Star Wars canon with George Lucas, and when it comes to Star Wars canon, Lucas is the first, last, and only word that counts.
  • Jedi Shadows were a subclass of the Jedi Sentinel who acted as spies and infiltrators tasked with destroying artifacts and people tied to the Dark Side. They were permitted to use some Dark Side powers by the Order with some becoming paranoid loners due to the nature of their work, but many were kind individuals such as Jedi Master Taria Damsin who was a close friend and former lover to Obi-Wan Kenobi.
  • Unlike the canon take, the force in Star Wars: Visions - Ronin is more akin to Taoism, heralding back to its original inspiration in the first place. The black current is associated with darkness and water, but also with introspection and calm, and good force users draw upon it alongside the white flare.
• Solomon Kane is a severe, gloomy swordsman who dresses in all black and is motivated purely by Tranquil Fury and religious fanaticism. He's unambiguously good and really a kind person.
  • The shaman N'Longa comes across as rather creepy and has the power to possess people and dead bodies. He's also a good guy.
• A Song of Ice and Fire
  • The Nights Watch is completely dressed in black, but is one of the most honorable societies in the whole universe. Well at least the part that doesn't consist of former criminals. Although they are pretty honorable. The Watch has been running on rapists, murderers, and traitors for a long time. They still do their duty.
  • The common criminals, bastards, and other dregs of society protect the realm while the best knights in Westeros, the Kingsguard, wear white and may end up destroying the realm on the orders of an unfit king.
  • Melisandre tries to invoke this trope to Davos; when questioned about the fact that her "gifts" include the ability to create terrible shadow assassins, she says that shadow is cast by light and belongs to its dominion.
  • And in contrast, Bloodraven says that darkness is a source of strength and protection for greenseers. This may turn out to be a subversion though, what with the old gods' history of receiving human sacrifice.
  • This appears to be the case with 'Coldhands', a mysterious undead being in league with The Three Eyed Crow and The Children Of The Forest. In spite of a grim appearance and intimidating presence, he has saved a number of good characters from The Others and Wights.
• Space Glass has Ratroe, who certainly has a dark demeanor, yet his goals are heroic.
• Nico from The Spirit Thief series is a demonseed whose abilities include the power to 'step through shadows' to effectively teleport. She always wears a dark coat, and is usually associated with dark colours. While the demon that infects her is obviously evil, Nico is one of the most selfless characters in the books. Interestingly, when the demon possesses her, her normally dark brown eyes glow yellow.
• The Strange Matter series had several examples:
  • The undead civil war soldier in A Place to Hide only wants to keep the protagonist safe and keep the reptiles in the area from getting the green sphere, which might very well allow them to conquer the world.
  • The titular protagonist of Knightmare is frightening to behold, but actually isn't the villain, he's come to our time to stop an evil sorcerer.
  • Shane's undead ancestor in Weird Weird West gives him advice that he couldn't defeat Clayton Motley without. The novel closes with the specter saying that, one day, he might tell Shane where the rest of his undead-creating bullets are located and then he might become "a legend of another kind" so Shane himself might one day become a benevolent zombie.
• Jacqueline Carey's The Sundering, whose original title was Elegy for Darkness. In it, the "dark god" Satoris is dark because he has been burned and constructs his dark fortress as protection. He protects the outcast and the despised, and answers the prayers of those who honor him. His minions are honorable and thoughtful creatures, who only fight to defend themselves. It is the armies of the Light that engage in genocide (forbidding defeated species from having babies) — and should they win, humans might stop having babies too.
• Tales of MU:
  • Dee is a dark elf priestess and one of the nicer girls in the dorm.
  • Mackenzie, who's supposed to be this horrible man-eating half-demon, is actually really nerdy and shy and wouldn't think of hurting someone... unless she forgets to drink virgin blood once a month, or comes in contact with a diabolic rage-inducing weapon, or someone tries to hurt Two, or... Well, the list goes on, but she regrets her actions after she regains control.
• In David Eddings' The Tamuli trilogy the Delphae are cursed by their own god with bodies that shine light and a touch that can melt a man. Despite all the connotations of the word "curse", this change is ultimately beneficial to the Delphae once they can control it. Further, the difference between "blessing" and "curse" is one of definition. A blessing is noticable and "shimmers in the air" while a curse is "dark and silent" and undetected.
• Till We Have Faces: The god of the Grey Mountain is known as the Shadowbrute, may be a Living Shadow, hides its face in darkness, and can only be encountered in the depths of lightless caves and foggy mountains. Everything indicates it is either a sinister lie or an evil specter, except the Shadow saves Istra's life and makes her happier as its bride than ever before. Its affinity for darkness seems to be more a result of humans inability or refusal to understand it. In actuality, the Shadowbrute is an example of God Is Good that is heavily implied to become Jesus.
• Stephen Baxter's The Time Ships, a sequel to the HG Wells The Time Machine, sends the Time-Traveler into a very different future where he is rescued from an inhospitable far-future Earth by a more civilized version of the Morlocks. The Morlock who becomes his sidekick has to spend quite a lot of time convincing him that the Morlock tendency to skulk in dark places is not evidence of an inherently evil nature (in fact, he implies that they chose to live in the dark to improve their night-vision for stargazing). It comes as quite a shock to the Victorian Time-Traveler to realize that his distate for Morlock appearance and habits has more to do with his own body issues than with some kind of inherent evil in the Morlocks.
• In J. R. R. Tolkien's universe, two of the Valar (gods that run the world), Mandos, the lord of fate and the halls of the dead, and Nienna, the lady of pity and remorse, who always wears grey and lives out on the edge of the world, are both benevolent entities. When the sun and moon were created, a third Vala, Este, the lady of rest, asked that the sun not always illuminate the Earth, and that there be a period of darkness every day so that creatures could sleep. The Elves awoke in the darkness before the Sun and the Moon, and always love night more than the day, which belongs to humans.They revere the night sky and love the stars above all other sources of light, many of them were unwilling to leave their homeland to go to the Home of the Valar, the land of light, and so are called Dark Elves, but they are not evil. In LotR Dark Is Evil is the result of the corruption spread by Morgoth, rather than an innate quality of darkness itself. Well, except perhaps the Outer Darkness, from which Ungoliant spawned.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The work is mainly associated with Dark Is Evil, but also contains examples of this trope. Frodo says he trusts Aragorn on their first meeting despite his dark and shabby appearance because he believes an emissary of Sauron would try to make himself appear fair. The other Rangers of the North are often misliked by other Hobbits who aren't as thoughtful about it as Frodo for the same reason.
  • Also, Tom Bombadil mentions that he remembers when the dark under the stars was fearless, before the Dark Lord came from outside.
  • The official color of Gondor? Black. OK, "sable", but that's just heraldese for "tincture black".
  • The Druedain are an obscure ethnicity, described as physically ugly, dark-skinned, and speaking a guttural language, with black eyes that seem to glow red when angered and strange, quasi-mystical abilities. They are so unusual and frightening that many upon first seeing them assume them to be an unusual kind of orc. The Druedain are not fond of this comparison, as while they are gruff and withdrawn, they are actually an entirely noble bunch that have been fighting the forces of evil since the First Age.
  • The Huorns of Fangorn Forest seem to prefer traveling at night, and can wrap themselves in shadow as they move, so that no mortal eye can see them. They aren't exactly "good", but they certainly aren't evil. Like Treebeard himself, the Huorns aren't really on anybody's side except their own.
• The Cullens in Twilight.
• In The Underland Chronicles, Gregor, the hero, wears black armour during the final battle, and his bond is black as well. To contrast his enemy is opalescent white and basically Hitler.
• Villains by Necessity: Kaylana (and Robin after his Heel–Face Turn) are nominally part of the dark side, despite lacking evil traits. Sam and Arcie aren't particularly bad sorts either, their professions notwithstanding, and Blackmail, for all his Black Knight trappings, proves to be downright noble. The only one of the "villains" who can really be described as "evil" in any way is Valeriana, and even she had children and a husband she loved which also lends her a sympathetic backstory since they were slaughtered by "heroes".
• Villainess Level 99: Even though she uses dark magic, Yumiella isn't a bad person. Just... a strange one. One of the teachers even tries to stop her students from suspecting Yumiella as being the Dark Is Evil trope, claiming that there have been royal court magicians who used dark magic for the good of the kingdom. Another court mage comments how dark magic users are scarce and their negative perception comes from the fear of the unknown. He also comments there have supposedly been demons capable of wielding light magic as well.
• The shadows in Jeff Noon's Vurt books aren't inherently more evil than anyone else.
• ShadowClan of Warrior Cats may seem malevolent at first, and have their fair share of evil cats, but they are not all bad. The POV of the books favour ThunderClan, seen as ShadowClan's direct opposite (aka: archenemy), which does not help ShadowClan's reputation. Well, ShadowClan used to be evil. Now they're just The Rival.
• In Wars of Light and Shadow and its sequels, Arithon controls the powers of shadow, but he's a pretty nice guy. His half-brother, Lysaer, controls the powers of light, but due to the titular curse he's a bit of a douche. His biting manner is actually a mask for the fact that he has no choice but to empathise with every living creature's pain.
• The Wheel of Time has an organization called the Black Tower. It is an order of male channellers dressed in big black cloaks, who intensively study the uses of the One Power as a weapon and not much else, and must constantly fight against an evil corrupting curse not to become insane. Although the organization is, unsurprisingly, quite heavily infiltrated by darkfriends, the Black Tower as a whole and most of its members are actually on the side of the good guys, and are among the most efficient opponents to the Dark One and his minions.
• Downplayed in WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior. The Darkness element is strongly associated with the evil Sekbeists and it's practically unheard-of for humans to have any affinity to it. However, there's nothing inherently evil about it: lamia like Lin use dual Earth and Darkness affinities to create poison magic, and Lin is part of main character Eryk's Battle Harem.
• Wizard's Hall: Thornmallow is corrected that the "black arts" are not evil, the term being from the fact that, like the bottom of a lake, they are deep and dangerous.
• Worm. Okay, it centres around villains whose only fully heroic member is the protagonist herself, but it is repeatedly shown that even at their worst none of The Undersiders are truly evil or anything close to it. However, unlike other such villains in the series, their powers are a collection of nightmare-inducing horrors that even includes someone with literal darkness powers. He is a villain in order to get money and a respectable facade so he can take care of his younger sister away from his extremely messed up mother. He worries about his lack of social awareness and is shown to forget how unpleasant his darkness is as he can see, hear and feel normally in it.
• The inhabitants of Ixchel in A Wrinkle in Time look like hideous monsters but are actually kind and good. Aunt Beast may be the single nicest being in the whole book.
• Marrow Bones from the Xanth series. He's a talking skeleton, but he's also friendly, laid-back and even-natured. Even though he can never understand how humans find it comfortable wearing all that skin and flesh...
• The Zombie Knight:
  • The story centers around Garovel and Hector, a reaper of souls and his deathless servant. The reason Garovel bothered to take a servant was to have a means of saving lives, a role Hector enthusiastically embraces.
  • Strongly averted for some other reapers and servants, though; some reapers subscribe to a Religion of Evil called Abolish, whose goal is to wipe out humanity, and take servants who'll help them do that.
• Ryn, the main character of The One Who Eats Monsters, has a 'hunter mode' where she grows a black cloak out of her body and moves through shadows so swiftly that people who see her describe her as a Grim Reaper. She is a monster whose purpose is to kill other monsters - but those are the only things she will kill. Whether they be actual monsters or humans who do monstrous acts, none are safe from her.

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