The Dark Lord

* Ellie's vision
* Nightmare
* The Oath
* Subject 001
* Jacob Hamilton

### Cause of Death

Burned alive by the St. James Institute *(physical death)*Burned and disintegrated by Jacob Hamilton *(in erased timeline)*

Burned out of existence by Max Hamilton *(2012 version)*

Disintegrated after being erased from existence by the formation of the New Era *(original version, as the Speaker)*

### Aliases

The King of RatsThe Dark Master

The One

The Enemy

Subject 001

Adam

### Residence

Dark DimensionSt. James Institute *(formerly)*

### Other Relations

Michael Tomlinson - former hostAir-Walker - host, herald

Goblin King - proxy

Goblins - minions

The Shadow Goblin - minion

Hospital Monster

Thralls:

• Jerome

• Matt

• Possessed Doctor

• Lorenzo MacNamera

Jacob Hamilton - arch-enemy/host

Speaker - physical form

Adam - alternate self

### Affiliation

Dark DimensionSt. James Institute *(formerly, unwillingly)*

## Appearances

### Death Episode

The Final Countdown *(2012 version)*Endings and Beginnings *(original version)*

### Appears In

4, 7, 10, 14, 16, 25, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 51, 52, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60

*"This is what you wanted, isn't it? To hear my voice...does it frighten you? Yes, I can see it. You stand tall, stoic, as if you know how to defeat me. As if you've **won**. [...] **Arrogant children!** You think you've bested me? You cannot stop me. **Nothing** can. [...] This isn't over. This will **never** be over. I'll be waiting for you, children. Waiting, forever, for the shadow to take you..."*
― The Dark Lord talks directly to the Fellowship for the first time, 1989[src]**The Dark Lord**, also referred to as **The One** and once known as **Adam** or **Subject 001**,is an inter-dimensional and malevolent entity that rules the parallel realm known as the Dark Dimension. Introduced in *Season 2*, it serves as the predominant main antagonist of the series. With murderous intent, it seeks to merge Dewberry and the entire Earth with its own realm. It has been worshipped by a secret society for decades, but is merely a pawn in the war for dimensional and time travel between Finis Temporis and Artemis, and a conduit for a demonic entity called the Beholder.

As discovered by the Fellowship, the Dark Lord was once a human boy, who was taken by a newly formed government program investigating supernatural phenomena. Dubbed "Subject 001", the boy demonstrated abilities far beyond what the Institute initially believed, to the point of him even able to alter reality itself with just his mind. When he tried to escape, the Institute destroyed the lab in a fire, killing Subject 001's physical form. However, his consciousness survived and retreated into his mental space, which would eventually become its own reality, the Dark Dimension. From its own realm, 001's consciousness took the form of a massive, winged entity, and through this it began the process of merging dimensions to return to physical form.

The Dark Lord initially began its invasion through the Shadow Goblin, its most powerful minion. In 1988, it used the Breach to spread the toxic growth of the Dark Dimension, the wereworms, throughout Dewberry, as well as possessing Michael Tomlinson once again and unleashing an army of goblins on the town. The Fellowship and their allies fought the goblin army, culminating in Ellie closing the Breach. However, this left a small part of the Dark Lord in our dimension, which went on to possess Lucas Norman and turn him into its herald, the Air-Walker.

Through the Air-Walker, the Dark Lord was able to build a creature in 1989 using the dusty remains of the Shadow Goblin and the melted, congealed and merged bodies of several Dewberry residents, through which he could kill Ellie and then kill Max, therefore eliminating the two biggest threats standing in its way. It nearly succeeded in its plan, but the Fellowship defeated the Air-Walker and its army of thralls. With the Fellowship's mission over and having sworn a blood oath to defeat it in the future, the Dark Lord had time to gather strength.

In 2012, the Dark Lord had gained enough strength to once again lead an assault on Earth via a proxy body, the Goblin King. Its presence was detected by Michael, who called the oath-bound Fellowship back to Dewberry to face it. In the process, they discovered its human origins. Thanks to the sacrifice of MJ Baines, a vast goblin nest was destroyed beneath Dewberry High, drawing out the Goblin King. The Dark Lord finally entered the human dimension through the Crack of Doom, but was stopped and disintegrated by Jacob Hamilton, seemingly putting an end to the Dark Lord forever.

However, this victory was short lived; during the closure of the Crack of Doom, the Dark Lord had possessed the young Jacob, allowing the boy to travel back to 1989 and start a new timeline. In this timeline, the New Dark Lord opened a new portal to bring its whole body through, only to be stopped once more. As Jacob's body disintegrated, the 2012 Dark Lord left his body, only to be burned out of existence by Max Hamilton, erasing yet more traces of the original timline.

The Dark Lords' true origins - a child possessed by the Beholder - where discovered by the Fellowship through time travel and their war with Finis Temporis. Following the formation of the New Era, the Dark Lord was erased from time, allowing its original form, Adam, to live his own life and have a daughter.

## Biography

### 1940s

It is safe to assume that the child who would become the Dark Lord somehow made contact with an entity from another dimension that tried to possess him; instead, it gifted him immense supernatural powers.

### 1968

In preparation for its eventual invasion of Earth, the Dark Lord set about plans to build an army.

### 1987

#### October 28th

The Dark Lord's first appearance is as a black, shadowy cloud in Michael's hallucination.

### 1989

#### August 9th

Locked up in a heat-shielded cell, the Dark Lord talks to the Fellowship for the first time, albeit through Air-Walker, taunting them about their youth and that they can never truly defeat it.

#### September 20th

As Max and Ellie leave Dewberry, the scene flips to the Dark Dimension version of Dewberry. A black shadow looms over the town before the Dark Lord emerges in his full form, shrieking with rage.

### New 1989

#### November 23rd

With his host body poisoned by MJ's arrow, the Dark Lord leaves Jacob's body and escapes to the surface to plot once more.

## Overview

### Physical Appearance

As a human boy, Subject 001 was caucasian, with black hair that was shaved off.

In its monstrous form, the Dark Lord is near primordial and almost impossible to comprehend, appearing as a black, winged and tentacled mass surrounded by clouds of impenetrable black; when asked by Cooper on the Dark Lord's description, Michael draws a shape not too dissimilar to a Kraken, only more humanoid.

In the finale of *Season 3*, the Dark Lord's full form is seen for the first time, revealing it as a humanoid figure with massive wings and a tentacled face. It appears to be over 1500 metres tall, at least from a distance and in the unreliable geography of the Dark Dimension.

### Personality

The human 001 was once an innocent child, recoiling in pain when he was forced to undergoe experiments at the hands of the sadistic St. James Institute, who wanted to turn him into a weapon that could erase their enemies simply with a thought. It was perhaps these experiences that placed within 001 a hatred of all humankind, a hatred that inspired him to privately explore the full extent of his abilities and eventually enslave all that he viewed as beneath him. When his consciousness built its very own reality to house itself following his physical death, it took the form of a hideous monstrosity of pure, unbridled evil: the Dark Lord.

The Dark Lord is purely malevolent and seems to be nothing but a purely evil monstrosity that seeks nothing but total domination, and does not value any form of sentient life other than itself. Using James's analogy of the Dark Lord's nature, it appears to view itself as superior to any and all other organisms in existence.

The Dark Lord is a sentient entity that possesses intelligence equal or superior to that of a human. This sets him apart from the goblins, which appear to behave purely animalistic when it is not exercising its control over them. The creature was highly hostile toward anyone and anything that threatened its plans; using its almost omnipotent intelligence and dominion over the Dark Dimension to its advantage, it would develop ways to thwart and outsmart its adversaries.

## Powers, Equipment and Abilities

* **Hive Mind:** The Dark Lord's most distinctive feature is the ability to take control and command of the creatures from the Dark Dimension and later the Thralls. The downside of this mental connection was that the entire hive mind feels any pain experienced by one individual, and so therefore does the Dark Lord.
* **Possession:** By imbuing a portion of its essence on an affected subject - even despite both the Dark Lord and its subjects being in separate worlds - the Dark Lord is able to link the infected to the rest of its army. The possession can be severed by subjecting the infected to extreme heat, which burns the essence out of its body by making it uninhabitable due to a weakness to heat and light. However, when a host is under threat of being discovered or severed from the Dark Lord's possession, its influence can force the host to fight back, giving them superhuman strength and endurance.
* **Biokinesis**: Through sheer force of will it can melt host bodies and rebuild its most powerful minion, the Shadow Goblin.

## Relationships

### Ellie

The Dark Lord intensely hates Ellie for closing the Breach and used his sheer force of will to rebuild the Shadow Goblin specifically to kill her.

### Max Hamilton

As Max is the only organism in existence capable to killing the Dark Lord outright due to his command of fire, the Dark Lord fears and hates Max intensely and seeks to kill him in any way it can. It selected Lucas Norman to become the Air-Walker with the sole purpose of killing Max. It seeks to break Max down to a defenceless state by taking advantage of the love between him and Ellie.

### Lucas Norman

> *"I offer power. I offer...revenge,"*
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> -- The Dark Lord to Lucas
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The Dark Lord seems to care little for Lucas, as it manipulated his anger and transformed him into its herald, the Air-Walker, to kill Max and rebuild the Shadow Goblin.

Even after Air-Walker is defeated by Max, the Dark Lord refuses to abandon Lucas's body.

### Michael Tomlinson

> *"It's a product of trauma. [...] It was brought up to hate. That's all it knows. It exists...because of **us**,"*
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> -- Michael upon learning of the Dark Lord's origins
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## Trivia

* When designing the Dark Lord, the writing team was inspired by the works of H.P Lovecraft, especially from the character of Cthulu.
* The Dark Lord's weakness to heat was caused by his physical body being destroyed in a large fire set by the Institute.
* EDStudios promised that the Dark Lord's origins would be revealed in *Season 4* and it "won't be what you're expecting".
	+ It was revealed that the Dark Lord was once human and had been the first test subject of the St. James Institute.
* As of the New 1989 timeline, there are two versions of the Dark Lord existing at the same time: the version from 2012 that used Jacob's body to start and travel to New 1989, and the original 1989 version still within the Dark Dimension.