This is a long entry. The first six parts cover canon; after that is my my attempt to weave a coherent backstory out of this.
- Origins of the Dark One
- The Vault of the Dark One
- Effects of the Curse - Physical
- Effects of the Curse - Psychological
- Effects of the Curse - Spiritual
- Dark Ones Throughout History
- Filling the Gaps - A Proposed History of the Dark Ones
Long before your stories began, [Merlin] battled the darkness. He was able to keep it from consuming realms. He tethered it to a human soul that could be controlled by the dagger…. - The Apprentice, 4.22If you think this sounds morally dubious, you are not alone. If you think, after 5.07, that this sounds like he got a few things wrong, you are also not alone. Perhaps it was due to him being a child at the time (assuming it was even the same guy).
A long time ago, Merlin used the Holy Grail to create Excalibur (5.07). He planned to use the sword to somehow remove his own magic and immortality, allowing him to live a normal mortal life with his love, Nimue. Instead, Nimue drank from the Grail, acquiring magic of her own, and then used her power to crush the heart of the man who destroyed her village in his own Grail quest, Vortigan. Her appearance changed immediately as she became the first Dark One. She broke Excalibur. Merlin later created the dagger from one of the broken sword pieces and tethered Nimue’s soul to it, to control her power.
Theory: Nimue obtained power and immortality, like Merlin, by drinking from the Holy Grail, a gift from the gods intended for peaceful, healing use (Merlin found it in the desert when he was dying of thirst, after all). Using this power to kill is a breach of divine contract, hence the visible mark of the curse that Nimue takes on. Excalibur was created to sever Merlin’s power, and that’s why it can “kill” a Dark One and draw the magic -- now irrevocably tainted by Nimue’s darkness -- into the wielder of the dagger.
At some later point the two confronted each other again. Merlin intended to destroy Nimue (5.05), but he could not go through with it and was turned into a tree. Merlin did say (5.07) that although he is immortal, a Dark One can kill him, so leaving him alive was presumably Nimue’s choice.
The Blue Fairy (who appears to have heard of “The Sorcerer” but not to have had any personal contact with Merlin), makes at least one attempt to get rid of the Dark One for good, when she gives Baelfire the magic bean that will take him to the Land Without Magic. "What ails your father is specific to our realm. His powers do not belong here" (1.19). That’s interesting in retrospect, given the ultimately divine origin of those powers.
Open Question: The Apprentice can travel freely between the Enchanted Forest and the Land Without Magic. Seems like it would have been easy for him to ship the Dark One off to Earth and allow the curse to expire there. Possibly if the Dark One dies on Earth, the darkness will simply reform and wait in the Vault?
The Vault of the Dark One
Scenes that take place at the vault entrance happen in locations that do not remotely resemble one another, so one of the following holds:
- there is more than one entrance
- the entrance moves around
- the location people messed up
The design around the edge of the vault incorporates what appears to be an ourobouros (5.01), symbolizing the cyclic nature of the curse.
The most obvious effect of the Curse of the Dark One is to give the bearer access to general magic ability of a high order, including the usual range of psionic abilities, shapechanging, healing, and casting curses. This magic apparently must be paid for (5.02) if it is performed on someone else’s behalf; a price must be enacted even if the Dark One would prefer not to. (Although there may be some kind of minimum threshold effort level.)
The Dark One can move with super-human speed (may be a magical manifestation, as I think Maleficent does it once as well), catching arrows in flight. They do not age, and they are impervious to physical attack in realms with access to magic (the hook in 2.04, Robin's arrow in 2.19; similarly, Rumple does not limp while he has access to magic; Zelena stabs Hook with no effect in 5.09). They do not need to sleep (5.01), although Rumple’s nightmare (2.19) indicates that they can. (Or more ret-conning.)
The curse affects the bearer’s appearance. Nimue changes as soon as she crushes Vortigan’s heart. Rumplestiltskin sports golden scales and claw-like nails throughout his Dark One existence. Although hunched and ugly, Zoso appears human in his first appearance (1.08), but this is ret-conned in 4.04, when he has the same sort of golden skin as Rumple has.
When she uses Dark Magic in Camelot, Emma’s skin begins to change (5.02).
The dagger (or sword) that bears the Dark One’s name can control their actions completely, and is the only means to kill them. The Dark One can hear their name spoken aloud, although they are not actually compelled to appear when summoned.
Horses are afraid of Emma after she becomes the Dark One (5.04, 5.05).
Effects of the Curse - Psychological
Initial Curse Manifestation - When she first becomes the Dark One, Emma encounters the Darkness personified as Rumple in what appears to be standard procedure. (The entity has been christened “Clippy” by the fandom due to its intrusive nagging, in order to differentiate it from Rumple himself. To the best of my knowledge, Tumblr user screwballninja came up with that usage.)
Clippy gives Emma advice about using magic and tempts her to use her power to harm others (5.01) in order to fully embrace the Darkness, after which it is implied the manifestation will go away. Going by the events of 5.08, what is required to embrace the Darkness is a magical act of pure selfishness (in Emma’s case, keeping Killian alive).
One important thing to note here is that while it plays freely on fear and anger, this entity cannot compel.
Killian has a similar early encounter (5.10), in which Clippy dangles the possibility of killing his old foe at last. It uses his fears and insecurities around Emma to create a rift there, and convinces him to kill Merlin in order to return to Storybrooke and have revenge.
This personification reappears in Storybrooke (5.02) after Emma has accepted the Darkness, apparently due to Nimue’s efforts to watch and manipulate Emma (5.07), and shadows Hook there as well (5.10).
Magic - Nimue’s magic was originally light or at least neutral until she used to kill in vengeance. The question was never one that mattered to Rumple. S5 has been a bit up in the air about this. At times it has seemed to be generally accepted that any magic Emma uses as the Dark One is automatically “dark magic”; it overrides her native magic with the power of the curse. At others, the FX appear to highlight that she is using light magic, as when she freed Merlin and when she fought him. When she stopped being a Dark One, Emma retained her light magic. Like Rumple, Killian doesn’t have any native magic, so all of his is automatically dark.
Personality - The curse appears to amplify aggression. Rumple immediately kills a bunch of soldiers after taking the curse. Emma chokes a traveler without even being aware that she’s doing it, and takes Merida’s heart when it seems that Merida will stop her from being able to find Merlin, although she is able to exert control over herself in both cases (in the second, when supported by her loved ones). Killian goes straight for heart-crushing and goes through with it.
Nimue, Rumple, and Emma all note in dialog that they feel fearless and powerful. Killian uses the word “reborn” (5.10). Rumple and Emma exhibit dulled or absent empathy and a willingness to manipulate those close to them to achieve goals. Emma is at least in theory willing to kill Zelena in cold blood (5.08) to destroy the Darkness, and Killian murders Merlin (5.10). Killian is also verbally cruel to Emma (5.10).
On the other hand, Killian’s example until 5.08 suggests that it’s possible to be a Dark One and not even know it. That makes one wonder how many of these effects are based on the cursed person’s expectations and frame of mind. Emma was able to plan to destroy the Darkness, and between the two of them to carry out this decision, despite both being cursed at the time.
One can still love as a Dark One, although it would appear that things can easily get a little mixed up with selfish aims. Emma’s actions starting from the moment she tethers Killian to Excalibur are for his sake; even while he speaks cruelly to her, part of his reason for exacting revenge on Rumple is for having filled Emma with this Darkness.
Effects of the Curse - Spiritual
Former Dark Ones can appear to their successors and can be summoned through the dagger. Although my initial thought was that this meant that they aren’t officially dead and have not moved on to any afterlife, apparently that’s not quite it. Rumple’s blood can open the portal to the Netherworld (5.10) because he literally went to hell and came back when resurrected by Neal in 3b. When Hook opens the portal, all previous Dark Ones are able to return to the world, although in order to stay, other souls must take their place in the underworld.
When Hook decided to destroy the Darkness, all of the previous Dark Ones were pulled into Excalibur, and their souls now appear to inhabit the dagger.
Nimue
Nimue gained both magic and immortality by drinking from the Holy Grail. She became the first Dark One when she used her new power to kill the man who destroyed her village.
Gorgon the Invincible
We will probably never know what this was about.
The duke has the Dark One in thrall. He's enslaved him with the power of a mystical dagger. And on the blade is written a name - the true name of the Dark One. If you were to steal the dagger, then you would control the Dark One yourself. (Zoso, 1.08)There is a glance here at the idea of names having power, at the old Rumplestiltskin story, which they also reference in the pilot but which has not appeared since.
Zoso made at least one attempt (4.04) to acquire the Sorcerer’s hat, which would allow him to break free of the dagger while retaining his power.
The only magic we see Zoso do is to restrain and Force choke some villagers who protest when their daughter is drafted. (My personal theory is that he was a weak/unskilled Dark One, otherwise the war would have been over, but this is merely a head-canon.)
Rumple burns down the duke’s castle and acquires the dagger. He holds the blade within the flame of a torch and says, "Zoso, I summon thee." When the Dark One appears and taunts him with the idea that Baelfire may not be his son, Rumple kills Zoso. His own name replaces Zoso's on the dagger.
Zoso indicates that his life had become burdensome to him, and that he deliberately maneuvered Rumple into taking the curse from him.
Rumplestiltskin (1)
Rumplestiltskin kills Hordor and his troops through physical means, showing greater than human strength and speed. He soon masters the curse’s magical ability, demonstrating within a few years such techniques as heart-taking and transformation.
What he can’t do is travel realms under his own power.
Rumple’s cursed status is threatened only once, when Regina informs Belle that "all curses can be broken; a kiss born of true love would do it." (1.12) Belle does just that. Rumple's appearance begins to change at once, but as soon as he realizes what Belle is doing, he stops her. In 5.02 Belle confirms that this kiss didn’t work because Rumple didn’t want it to; he wanted to keep his power. (Same goes for Emma in that episode in Camelot; it didn’t work in SB because two cursed people can’t uncurse each other.)
When the Dark Curse begins to break, Rumple buries his dagger in the woods (1.19), not wanting to take the chance of Regina finding it. August (posing as Baelfire) tries to use it to control him and claims that his knowledge of it came from "a little fairy", but when could that have happened, and why would Blue (presumably) have told him? The lack of local magic prevents the dagger from working.
Hook learns of the dagger from Baelfire in Neverland (2.22). When he returns to the Enchanted Forest, he seeks it through Belle; "There are rumors of a magical weapon that has the power to kill him" (2.09). Hook is still working on this angle when he arrives in Storybrooke and questions Archie (2.10). Cora knows of the dagger and proposes searching for it while Rumple is in New York; Belle knows the dagger's location and has a map to its location. Hook decodes it, after which Cora and Regina immediately ditch him (2.14). He's given them the wrong location, but they get the dagger from Charming and Snow anyway after taking Johanna hostage (2.15).
While Rumple is dying of poison, his name begins to fade from the dagger. Cora says that "all of that power of his will just boil off into the air, and there will be no new Dark One" (2.16).
In Neverland, Rumple cuts off his own shadow with the dagger and sends the shadow away with it, ensuring that the dagger cannot be used against him by Pan (3.02). Like Pan's, his shadow can evidently traverse realms independently; it returns with the dagger in Storybrooke. Rumple uses the dagger to kill Pan (3.11); there is a flare of light from the dagger's point of entry, and both vanish.
After the unmaking of Storybrooke, Neal and Belle are directed through Zelena's trickery to a book, which contains a key to the Vault of the Dark One.
The vault bears symbols that match those on the key. When the key is inserted, it becomes searing hot. The plate sinks and floods with black liquid. From this liquid Rumplestiltskin is reborn (looking ghastly), and the dagger with him, but the cost is Neal's life. Refusing to accept this, Rumple bodily absorbs Neal. Zelena takes the dagger.
The bodies are separated by Emma's magic, and Neal dies (3.15). After the final battle with Zelena, Rumplestiltskin regains the dagger (3.20). He gives Belle a fake and seals the real one in a hidden place within the shop.
4.04 introduces the idea that there is another way to (partially) break the curse, and that it resides in the Sorcerer's Hat. The hat absorbs magic-users and their power, and evidently can, if sufficiently charged up, break the dagger's control while allowing Rumple to keep his power. Beyond sheer magical energy, breaking the dagger's control requires the heart of someone who knew you before you succumbed to the curse (4.08) -- although there is a popular fan theory that Ingrid was lying about this, and was simply using Rumple to get rid of Killian. Regardless, Rumple was stopped (4.11) from carrying out his human sacrifice and compelled to leave Storybrooke by Belle.
... Only to return 6 weeks later, having been “invited” back in via the Sorcerer’s Scroll (originally given to Ingrid). Rumple immediately set about regaining the dagger by taking on Hook’s form to dupe Belle, in theory so as to hide the implement more securely.
When Rumple’s heart threatens to become completely darkened (S4b), it will destroy his ability to love and leave no trace of human personality in him, only the Dark One. The Apprentice removes Rumple’s heart (4.22) and draws the darkness out of it (leaving his heart white, a new thing). He attempts to imprison the darkness in the Sorcerer’s Hat, but it is too powerful to be contained. Emma takes the curse upon herself, then disappears (to reappear at the vault).
Emma Swan
In the Storybrooke timeline, Hook attempts True Love’s Kiss on Emma; when it doesn’t work, he assumes that it’s because she wants to keep the power. B Hales confirmed over Twitter that it was because they’re both cursed at the time. Emma uses Rumplestiltskin to draw the sword (5.06) and then uses the spark obtained from Nimue to reforge the sword as one piece (5.07). Her plan as revealed to Killian and Zelena (5.08) was to move all of their combined Darkness into Zelena and then kill her, destroying it.
After Killian brings back all of the Dark Ones, Emma decides to sacrifice herself in this same fashion to stop them, but Killian steals Excalibur before she can do so.
Killian Jones
The only known Dark One to become so against his will, Killian was wounded by Excalibur (5.08). Emma tethered him to the broken sword to prevent his death.
Rumplestiltskin (2)
Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, Rumple had used a bit of potion on the sword so that rather than destroying the Darkness, the combined power of all previous Dark Ones now dwells in him. The design of the dagger has changed, but it appears to work the same way as always.
Filling in the Gaps - A Proposed History of the Dark Ones
In which I do that fun thing where we spin probable continuity errors into, um, straw or something. Let me note that I am completely throwing out the timeline where Camelot events are concerned. “A lot of time passed” is the only yardstick I feel makes any sense with this stuff.
Merlin’s tower appeared as part of the landscape when he received his power.
While it went on, Merlin tried other avenues. He invented the Dark Curse to send Nimue into harmless exile, but to use it would have meant killing her (I forget who came up with this theory, but I’m pretty sure I read it somewhere here?). Dead End. He invented the hat, but she was too powerful to be contained in it. Dead End. The glove? Perhaps that is what led him to identify the possibility of tethering her to the dagger.
The Author’s Pen, now, that’s interesting. Presumably it could have changed history -- or perhaps it would only have created another universe in which things happened differently? I’m going to surmise that it was a late addition to the magical arsenal, in any case, perhaps an effort to ensure that even if Nimue prevailed, someone would record the stories truthfully.
I think the Vault was originally intended to be Nimue’s prison -- hence the pocket paradise disconnected from time, the connection in Merlin’s notes that allowed Arthur to make the connection, and the strange link to later Dark Ones -- but she took control of that, too.
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