Darquesse

### Magic

Healing abilities, draining of magic, superhuman strength, teleportation, incredible destructive powers, Elemental abilities, influence over all atoms and matter, ability to learn other magical disciplines simply by experiencing them

## Information

### Location

Formerly the Faceless Ones’ dimsenion, now Earth.

"*Even while I'm waiting for this body to adapt to the power levels I need it at, I'm still stronger and better than you. You really want to see which one of us would win in a fight? Really? Then let's go. I can't access most of my power yet, I can't even move properly, but I bet I can still rip your head off.*"
―Darquesse to Valkyrie Cain

**Darquesse** is the True Name of Valkyrie Cain, and a part of her personality that manifested itself into a separate being. Darquesse is a being of immense power, shown to be capable of destroying entire planets with her full power. Virtually immortal, she was first heard of in a prophecy in 2010 by the seer Cassandra Pharos, destined to destroy the world. Later in 2010, she first possessed Valkyrie’s body and used her power to massacre dozens of people.

Over several years, Darquesse continued to emerge out of Valkyrie’s subconscious whenever she was in great danger or close to death. Finally in 2013, she emerged as Valkyrie was moments away from being torn apart. This time, when she emerged, she did not let Valkyrie return. Travelling to the Battle of Roarhaven, she killed many sorcerers.

Darquesse continued to possess Valkyrie’s body for weeks until a trap was laid and Valkyrie returned to her body. An untethered entity, Darquesse was left without a host to flit from Sensitive to Sensitive, burning out their minds. Eventually, possessing the body of Obloquy, she killed Stephanie Edgley and possessed her body.

At the Second Battle of Roarhaven, the Irish Sanctuary had their last stand against Darquesse. Lord Vile, Melancholia and what remained of the Dead Men all forced a final attack against Darquesse. When their attack failed, they were forced to resort to mind tricks. Four of the Sanctuary’s most powerful Sensitives created a vision of destruction that Darquesse followed, leading her to an Alternate Dimension, the home of the Faceless Ones. There she was left for dead.

She is the main antagonist of the *Skulduggery Pleasant* series.

## Appearance

Darquesse spent most of her time inhabiting the identical bodies of Valkyrie Cain and Stephanie Edgley, which had dark eyes and black hair. When inhabiting Stephanie, she wore Stephanie’s old blood-red clothes.

## Biography

### Dark Days

Cassandra Pharos, the skilled seer, saw a vision of Darquesse standing in a wasteland of a city. Many Sensitives all over the world began getting this same vision relentlessly, and soon every sorcerer knew Darquesse’s name. Soon after, Valkyrie Cain found out from the Book of Names that Darquesse was her, her true name.

### Mortal Coil

To stop Darquesse from ever emerging from her soul, Valkyrie contacted a creature called Nye, a doctor that could seal her true name. It took her into its warehouse, where she was rendered a corpse. There, Nye could do whatever he liked to her body and she would not die, so long as she stayed in the warehouse. Nye began the operation, extracting Valkyrie’s heart and beginning to carve sigils into it. Halfway through the operation, Nye left the room for hours, and Valkyrie knew he wasn’t coming back. She managed to struggle off the table that Nye had strapped her to, find the creature, and threatened him with Necromancy. Nye fearfully returned to the table and finished the job, carving the final sigil and rendering Darquesse useless, nothing more than a voice inside Valkyrie’s head.

This should have worked, but less than a week later, Darquesse temporarily took over Valkyrie’s body. Surrounded by Remnants, Darquesse began to massacre the mortals that the Remnants were inhabiting. She stopped when Valkyrie managed to take control again.

### Death Bringer

On the search for a Necromancer named Bison Dragonclaw, Valkyrie and Skulduggery stumbled across a box containing the Jitter Girls, three incredibly dangerous individuals that used to torture children. The Jitter Girls shed their skin and turned demonic. Valkyrie’s magic would not work against them, and eventually, one Jitter Girl managed to stick her fingers into Valkyrie’s brain.

The extreme pain awoke Darquesse. The Jitter Girls approached her cautiously, and she snapped out at them. After Skulduggery managed to get them back inside their box, Valkyrie had still not yet emerged. She eventually returned to reality.

Later, when the failed Death Bringer Melancholia St Clair and Valkyrie Cain were travelling through the caves beneath Gordon Edgley’s house, they were confronted by Lord Vile. Valkyrie, knowing that the only person that could defeat Vile was Darquesse, told Melancholia to kill he, knowing that the promise of death would be the only thing that coil cause Darquesse to emerge. Sure enough, Valkyrie turned to Darquesse and engaged Vile in a duel above Dublin’s streets. Vile did many things that would have killed an ordinary person, but Darquesse, assisted by her regeneration powers, was virtually indestructible, even falling from kilometres high to the pavement and creating a crater of destruction, but surviving. Eventually, Lord Vile turned back to Skulduggery Pleasant and managed to talk Darquesse back into Valkyrie.

### Kingdom of the Wicked

Valkyrie allowed Darquesse to emerge when threatened by Kitana Kellaway, Doran Purcell and Sean Mackin— three young sorcerers that Argeddion had infected with magic as an experiment. Their power levels were strong enough to match that of Darquesse’s, with regenerative abilities. Darquesse and Lord Vile engaged in a bloodbath of a duel between them. Darquesse and Vile had almost defeated the three teenagers, she followed Argeddion into Mevolent’s dimension. There, the Battle of Ratoath was raging between the Resistance and Mevolent’s Forces. She duelled Mevolent, and their fight lasted long, but eventually Mevolent cut off Darquesse’s head and walks away, leaving her for dead. Darquesse used magic to reattach her head.

She began looking for the Sceptre of the Ancients, which the China Sorrows of that dimension had stolen from Skulduggery and Valkyrie. When she found it and was escaping with it, the Nefarian Serpine of that dimension stole it before she shunted back to her reality. Once there, she was so filled with rage about the loss of the Sceptre that she killed Kitana in seconds, before making Doran and Sean join her. With the teenagers defeated, she turned to Vile. Skulduggery was still conscious, and began to tap out a steady beat that triggered sigils in the walls to light up, inducing a seizure in Darquesse and allowing Valkyrie to return. Skulduggery stated that Darquesse wouldn’t fall for that again though, and that the next time she emerged they wouldn’t be able to stop her.

### Last Stand of Dead Men

Throughout the course of the War of the Sanctuaries, Darquesse was a voice in the back of Valkyrie’s head, until when Valkyrie and Skulduggery were infiltrating the Temple of the Brides of Blood Tears, Valkyrie was forced to flee from several Brides. Darquesse in Valkyrie’s head led her into a trap, bringing her to a room full of Brides, almost a hundred. She was ruthlessly attacked by them and almost killed, losing three of her limbs, and in her extreme pain she allowed Darquesse to take over. Darquesse slaughtered the Brides and travelled to Ireland.

She arrived at the Battle of Roarhaven, and simply hovered there above the battlefield. One sorcerer tried to shoot energy at her, and she quickly killed him, but this triggered the other Sorcerers, Wrethclings and Warlocks. Any thing they could do had no effect in Darquesse, as she instantly healed any serious wounds. She swept through them as if they weren’t there.

*To be added.*

## Personality

Darquesse, unlike Mevolent or Lord Vile, is not pure evil. She is often playful with her victims and is generally curious about how magic works. She often does not choose the most efficient way to do things, but rather the most enjoyable. She was, however, a psychoptahic sorcerer and enjoying watching death and destruction. Darquesse did not hate Valkyrie; she tried to co-operate before she took over.

However, she has formed strong attachments to people like Skulduggery and Ghastly. When Ghastly was killed by Ravel, Darquesse made sure to have Ravel twisting in agony for months on end.

## Powers and Abilities

When in grave danger— such as being on the brink of death— Valkyrie subconsciously allows Darquesse to take over her mind and body. As Darquesse, Valkyrie can wield a unique type of magic, possibly Ancient magic, which grants her a huge amount of strength, allowing her to break boulders, crush skulls, and punch through bones with ease. She also has the ability to fly, the ability to see and manipulate someone's consciousness, as well as having regenerative abilities, like dulling pain and has the ability to heal even her brain and vital organs, making her practically invincible. Darquesse can survive injuries that would easily kill a normal mage, even one as powerful as Skulduggery. She can even withstand having her head ripped off, though she there was a strong chance she would have died had she not magically repaired herself within the seven seconds of life she had left. Complete destruction of the brain would kill her— however, this is almost impossible do due to her ability to heal any and all wounds magically. Darquesse has been shown to be capable of disintegrating regular humans, turning them to ash with a mere gesture. In addition, Valkyrie's normal skills, such as Necromancy and Elemental Magic are increased vastly, superior to any average sorcerer. In *Death Bringer*, she is shown to be capable of fighting on par with Lord Vile; however, in *Kingdom of the Wicked* it is shown that her power has grown greatly, as she defeats Lord Vile with moderate difficulty, and even later states that she has surpassed him. She is also shown to have the ability to see Magic, sensing its presence and nature in other beings. She can understand different people's abilities, how strong they are, and how they will use it. She can also manifest her magic in the form of telekinesis, such as using it to break Kitana's leg and moving her body towards her decapitated head.

Some of the only weapons that could kill Darquesse were the God-Killers— five weapons of incredible power, create by the Faceless Ones, capable of destroying any living thing. The Sword, Bow, Spear and Dagger were four of the God-Killers, but Darquesse has evaded three of them in the past. The God-Killer that posed the largest threat to Darquesse was the Sceptre of the Ancients, as it could not be blocked or halted.

Currently, the precise limits of Darquesse's power are unknown. As of 2012, she was roughly equal to Mevolent, if not slightly stronger - however, it had been shown that her power was increasing every time she emerged. Argeddion also states that she was learning and becoming powerful faster than he did, as she easily mastered the ability to see magic, while it took him many months. It is known that Darquesse had been prophesied to extinguish all life on Earth, and eventually the planet itself. By 2013, Darquesse had completely taken over Valkyrie’s body. She could tear another mage apart with a casual flick of her wrist, destroy a thousand powerful Witches and an army of Warlocks, other mages, Wretchlings and several supercharged sorcerers. By 2014 she is sufficiently powerful to destroy a large part of Roarhaven, absorb thousands of remnants, atomize living beings, erase matter, energy and souls from existence, and even travel to the dimension of the Faceless Ones. It was also said that even weakened, Darquesse could defeat Lord Vile (even after he was supercharged by the Accelerator). At almost her full power, she survives a combined assault by Valkyrie (with invincibility from the Meryyn sigil), Melancholia, and supercharged Lord Vile, and manages to defeat all of them with a large blast of energy. Skulduggery would later go on to state that despite this she would not be able to defeat more than two Faceless Ones, let alone a whole race of them after she was tricked into leaving her native reality for theirs. Strongly implying that she would meet her demise at their hands. This, however, proved to be incorrect, as Darquesse had indeed survived her incursion into The Faceless Ones reality only to be locked in a stalemate, as neither side possessed the means to kill the other. She was seen fighting a Faceless One six years afterwards, and prevailing.

## Trivia

* Darquesse was originally a part of another project.

## Appearances

* *Skulduggery Pleasant #5: Mortal Coil*
* *Skulduggery Pleasant #6: Death Bringer*
* *Skulduggery Pleasant #7: Kingdom of the Wicked*
* *Skulduggery Pleasant #8: Last Stand of Dead Men*
* *Skulduggery Pleasant #9: The Dying of the Light*
* *Skulduggery Pleasant #12: Bedlam*
* *Skulduggery Pleasant #13: Seasons of War*
* *Skulduggery Pleasant #14: Dead or Alive*