Dark Kingdom

The Dark Kingdom is presently a major faction of Battle Fantasia. Its constituent members have objectives ranging from dominating Earth and its inhabitants to destroying them, as well as the occasional more selfish motivation.

History
The origins of the Dark Kingdom are a highly-guarded secret. What is known is that near the end of the Silver Millennium, a noblewoman named Beryl came in contact with a formless entity known as Metallia. Borne of the hatred and strife that had resulted from the overuse of magic, Metallia developed a secretive cult following among those who sought greater power from the darkness. As the goddess of dark magic, she imbued Beryl with her power and sent her forth with armies of followers, beasts, demons and abominations. Although Beryl had been told to conquer and destroy, Metallia herself secretly hoped to cause enough chaos to collapse civilization altogether, at which point she would rise from the ashes to create a new world.

She did not anticipate that magic itself would be sealed away, and with it all memories of it usage. Queen Beryl retreated into the shadows of a hidden realm, where she and the followers of Metallia had no choice but to bide their time. Blocked off from interacting with the world, Metallia weakened in a sealed state, eventually falling into a deep sleep. Beryl remained awake and immortal, forever watching the world for signs of the old powers again.

The incident 50 years ago triggered Metallia to awaken briefly. The weakened goddess could do little more than send a small amount of her power into the world, a beacon to those who could hear and see it. She spoke to dark practitioners in Earth, hungry forces beyond the stars, even the very powers of Hell itself. It was little more than a warning, at that time: "Watch."

Those who craved power and domination could hear Metallia, at least on some subconscious level. Some understood the warnings, and began to prepare for the inevitable weakening of the dimensional barrier. Others simply waited.

The final return of magic came as predicted, and the goddess awoke once more. Still far too weak to enter the world, she required sustenance-the very life energy of mankind, and the magic that they once again commanded. Other powers who had heard her warnings and knew of the goddess were in turn unable to act right away. The Hell that Reine Devila lorded over was still locked in a cold war with the angels of Heaven. The warlocks and cultists were too few in number, the forces of Chaos beyond the stars still too far from Earth. All needed to gather power. All were just as hungry as the dark goddess who had spoken to them.

What formed was not quite an alliance, certainly not a friendship. A pact, perhaps. The dark powers were willing to collaborate and assist one another in a slow, careful takeover. As soon as one power was strong enough to invade the Earth in full, it was simply understood that they might slaughter their erstwhile allies in cold blooded competition. It was a power play, one that would no doubt doom the innocents of Earth no matter who the victor was.

And that suited Metallia just fine.

Present Day
The Dark Kingdom is not really a unified front at all. Rather, it is a tentative alliance of the many powers of darkness and chaos. They come from disparate realms, and all have their own agendas. All that unites them is their goal: the complete domination, corruption or destruction of the Earth.

The alliance is viewed as a necessary evil. No single faction is strong enough to invade Tokyo in full; indeed, even their combined powers would not be enough at this time. Although powerful, the followers of the Dark Kingdom are few in number, and so they have chosen to engage in something of a cold war with the guardians of Tokyo. It is in the best interests of the Dark Kingdom to remain in the shadows for now. After all, they need humanity and magic to grow and thrive in order to attain their goals.

The stated goal of the Dark Kingdom is to gather power by any means necessary. How they go about this varies wildly. Some agents carefully construct human personae and set up traps to steal the very life energy of humanity. Others channel or repress human emotion, corrupt hearts or simply consume resources little by little. Their agents are encouraged to make alliances with one another, and even to try to win the trust of their enemies for the sake of deceit. Because Tokyo is the center of the magical disturbance, most forces are concentrating their efforts on this city.

This is only to a point, of course. It is understood that if one faction were to gain enough power to dominate the others, let alone Tokyo, a massive power struggle would ensue that might be disastrous for all involved. This is also believed to be an inevitability. Thus, powerful figures will encourage their minions to cooperate with others, but keep their loyalty ultimately to their direct leaders-after all, they want to be the ones who are alive and thriving when it all falls apart. As a result, the Dark Kingdom is a sea of carefully woven social alliances, and trust is considered a rare commodity indeed. Some say even Metallia herself is merely biding her time until the inevitable breakout of war.

Possible Members

 * Jadeite
 * Pluie
 * Dewey
 * Disaster Queen

Related Topics

 * Dark Agency
 * Silver Millennium
 * Queen Metallia
 * Dead Moon Circus