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The Grishaverse

"Fine. Make me your villain."
— The Darkling, Shadow and Bone

The Darkling is a Shadow Summoner, the former Second in Command in all of Ravka, and the former leader of the Second Army.

Biography

Early life

The Darkling was born many centuries ago to Baghra and an unknown Heartrender. He was raised by Baghra and never knew his father.

Due to his and his mother's unique powers during a time of heavy persecution against Grisha, he had a nomadic childhood and lived in secrecy, rarely staying in one location under one identity for more than a month at a time for safety. His mother warned against showing off his powers or allowing anyone to touch him for fear they would discover he was an amplifier. He was a sweet but lonely boy, and despite his powers, he was afraid of the dark, loved sunlight, and initially struggled with mastering his powers.

The Demon in The Wood

At 13, at the time under the name Eryk while stationed at a Grisha camp near the Fjerdan border, two other children at the camp attempted to drown him in a freezing lake after finding out he was an amplifier, one of whom he had befriended and trusted. He used the Cut for the first time and framed the nearby otkazat'sya village. His mother, at the time going by the name Lena, told him she didn't blame their kind for the desperation to protect themselves. It was at this moment that he swore to make a safe place for Grisha.

When Water Sang Fire

Whilst studying as an apprentice to The Seer (an advisor to the Fjerdan King of Sondermane), he met the Sildroher Ulla and offered her knowledge of how to sustain fire under water. It turned Ulla was his half-sister whom he remembered being born and whose return he had been awaiting. She declined his invitation to return to their mother, and he never saw her again.

Over the course of his life, the Darkling searched for his many other half-siblings, as Baghra had many children.

Service to The Crown

The Darkling, under the name Leonid, was one of the first Grisha to offer his services to the King Yevgeni Lantsov, helping him to defeat Shu Han in a tough battle. For his reward, he rejected gold and instead requested a sanctuary for Grisha in exchange for a trained army. It was unpopular as Grisha were treated with suspicion, but he was able to establish the Little Palace and the Second Army.

Over time, he became more corrupt. The Darkling's experimentation with power and darkness resulted in the creation of the Shadow Fold, in the period when he was still known as the Black Heretic. The Darkling served many kings over the years and faked his death many times. He planned to expand the Fold and gain power over Ravka but needed a Sun Summoner to destroy the volcra and carry out his ambitions.

Shadow and Bone

Alina Starkov was brought before the Darkling after a failed attempt to cross the Shadow Fold resulted in a mysterious light saving her and her friend Malyen Oretsev. After witnesses shared what they saw on the sandskiff, the Darkling did not believe that Alina was a Sun Summoner and decided to conduct a test. After covering the room in darkness, he tried to call out to the magic inside her, but she actively resisted. Instead of falling for her trick, the Darkling decided to use physical force, cutting her arm with a knife, and the pain triggered a response in Alina: a blazing white light that shattered the darkness he conjured.

The Darkling is a living amplifier, a person who can increase a Grisha's powers. There are also inanimate objects that are used as amplifiers but only the Darkling's most favored Grisha are allowed to have them. The Darkling did not interact much with Alina again while at the palace, but he appeared one day at Baghra's hut and told Alina that he might be able to get her the most powerful amplifier ever.

After Alina finally accepted her powers, the Darkling visited her again during a training session. He had still not found Morozova's stag whose antlers he had promised her but he asked that she have faith in him, and then he kissed her to both of their surprise. After the King and Queen's winter fete, Alina learned that Baghra was the Darkling's mother, He was the Black Heretic who created the Shadow Fold, and that his plan was to use Alina to fend off the volcra that kept him from using the Fold.

When he caught Alina and Mal after they ran away, he used the stag's antlers to bind her to him, and then he revealed that he planned on having Mal killed by the volcra. He used Alina's powers to show his own powers over the Fold and easily scared the ambassadors and envoys that came along for the demonstration into submission. When he ordered Mal to be thrown overboard, Alina broke free from his control and left the people on the boat to fend off the volcra themselves. The Darkling was one of the only people to have survived the volcra attack.

Siege and Storm

After Alina Starkov and Malyen Oretsev escape, the Darkling relentlessly worked towards their capture. A trail of payments that Alina made using her golden hairpins led the Darkling to them. He discovered that the pair had fled to Novyi Zem and had checked into a boarding house using one of the remaining hairpins. When Alina and Mal returned to their home, the Darkling was seated casually upon a rickety chair; surrounding him were his supporters who appeared to be frightened by his presence. He commanded Ivan to hold Mal hostage as he repeatedly expressed his "gratitude" to Alina for helping him further expand his power. However, surviving the Fold came with a cost. The Darkling now had scars across his face from the volcra as a reminder of the origin of his new power and Alina observed that when the Darkling used his power, it seemed to be feeding off him, taking a toll on his physical health, instead of a normal Grisha, where it furthers their health. He revealed to Alina that his ability to manipulate darkness evolved into manifesting abominations/volcra-like creatures that cannot be destroyed by light, which he called nichevo'ya.

The Darkling then brought both Mal and Alina on board a whaling ship that belonged to infamous privateer Sturmhond. On his order they sailed north, hunting for the sea whip, the second of Morozova's amplifiers. When they found the sea whip, however, Sturmhond and his crew mutinied against the Darkling and spirited Alina and Mal away aboard Sturmhond's Volkvolny.

The Darkling finally found them in Os Alta, where Alina had taken command of the Second Army. He attacked, taking control of the Grand Palace and the Little Palace.

Ruin and Rising

After Alina and the other Grisha are captured by the Apparat, they stay underground in the White Cathedral. Meanwhile, the Darkling ruled Ravka aboveground. Alina visited the Darkling through the bond they developed and he revealed he was going to stage an attack on West Ravka. Alina told Nikolai and the twelve Grisha she traveled with. Just as Alina and Nikolai Lantsov were about to leave, the Darkling attacked them instead. As revenge for Nikolai stealing Alina, the Darkling filled his lungs with merzost, which turns him into a volcra-like creature. After his mother's death, he called Alina using their bond, but she refused to answer.

Later, he destroyed Keramzin and killed the Grisha instructors, Botkin Yul-Erdene and Ana Kuya, and showed Alina their corpses hanging in the oak. At the battle at the Shadow Fold, he engages in a fight with Alina, but when she lost her powers, he looked distressed. Alina used this distraction to stab him in the chest with a Grisha steel dagger. After this, they shared a last moment together, in which he asked Alina to burn his corpse because he didn't want his grave to be desecrated. His corpse was burned along with Ruby's, which got disguised as Alina's by Genya Safin.

King of Scars

Lizabeta kept his body preserved after the battle in the Fold. She had swapped the body burning in the pyre hoping to revive him.

Nikolai and Zoya Nazyalensky got trapped in the Fold looking for answers on how to rid Nikolai of the demon. In there they met Sankta Lizabeta, who told them a ritual known as obisbaya was the solution. They decided to perform the ritual despite the risk. Unbeknown to them, the ritual was really meant to bring the Darkling back to life. In the end, Zoya realized and burned his body, but his spirit managed to flee and introduced itself in Yuri Vedenen's body while he was unconscious and thus the Darkling came back to life.

Nikolai and Zoya bound his hands and took him back with them to the palace.

Rule of Wolves

The Darkling despite having returned to life, did not manage to bring his powers with him or rid of Yuri as the boy was still present and sharing body and mind with him. Due to being powerless, he was kept captive at the old zoo at the palace where Sun Summoners kept watch on him. After some time, Zoya and Nikolai went to see him in hopes of finding information on where to find thorn wood, supposedly extinct, a key ingredient that was needed to perform the obisbaya ritual again.

The Darkling told them, he knew the seeds were preserved by the Order of Sankt Feliks, and he could tell them how to find them in exchange for getting to see Alina Starkov. Zoya and Nikolai reluctantly agree, and Zoya set up a meeting between Alina and the Darkling.

They met at an abandoned sanatorium. Alina, Mal, Misha, the Darkling, Zoya, and the Sun Summoners were present. At the meeting, the Darkling suddenly jumped between Mal and Alina who had been holding hands at that moment and drove a piece of thorn wood he had kept hidden in his clothes through their hands. He needed the blood of the person who had killed him and a person who was related to him by blood in order to gain his powers back. He then managed to escape Zoya and the Sun Summoners.

He then planned to rally the followers of the Cult of the Starless Saint. He found a settlement of them near the Fold and started to manipulate them into getting supplies and weapons to join the war. Brother Azarov grew suspicious of him, so he ended up killing him.

At the battle for Os Kervo, the Darkling ended up saving Nikolai's life by helping the demon and was the first to kneel and shout "Sankta Zoya" which helped them win the battle.

After the battle, Nikolai, Zoya, Genya, and a group of other Grisha went to find the Order of Sankt Feliks in hopes of finding thorn wood and performing the obisbaya ritual which they thought could be the answer to stopping the blight. They end up finding the mystical order which consisted of Fabrikators of several nationalities. The old monastery had a big and ancient thorn wood tree. One of the members of the Order explained that the obisbaya could not stop the blight. The Shadow Fold was a tear in the fabric of the universe, also known as "The making at the heart of the world". Before the making, there was nothing, only void, that void was seeping into the world through the tear, known to them as the blight.

There was no way to close the tear, someone had to hold it closed standing at the doorway between the void and creation for eternity. The members of the Order explained that the person doing this would suffer so much that death would be kindness. With this information the group was debating who should sacrifice themselves, Nikolai and Zoya were debating which one of them should do it when the Darkling volunteered himself saying he was the only one who was truly immortal and more powerful than Zoya. The only thing he asked of them was that they built him an altar so that he could be remembered in the books as a saint, the Starless One.

They decided to let the Darkling do it. Before his heart was pierced by the thorn and his screaming body was swallowed by the thorn wood tree, he uttered his last words: "My name is Aleksander Morozova, but I have had hundred names and I have committed a thousand crimes. I am not sorry. I do not repent! All I did, I did for Ravka!".

After her coronation, Zoya called for Alina and Genya. She told them she wanted to free the Darkling from the tree to grant him death, and she thought it could be possible with the heart of Sankt Feliks, as he had endured the first obisbaya and his heart was the first heart pierced by the thorn wood. However, there was the possibility that was only a legend that his heart existed and was preserved somehow. Nonetheless, Zoya was set on trying to find this ancient relic and was going to hire Kaz Brekker to do the job.

Personality and traits

The Darkling is an extremely dark and manipulative person. He is power-hungry and had created the Fold with merzost, in order to use it against his enemies. In the process created the volcra which prevented him from expanding it. He is also ambitious. He wants the Grisha to be free from slavery and oppression and planned to use the fold as leverage against those people who built the pyre (where they burn Grisha), and not only against his own enemies. He feels the loneliness of immortality, causing him to fixate on Alina because she had the capacity to be like him. However, he is also shown to truly care for and wants to be loved by his people (the Grisha) and his nation, claiming that all he ever wanted was to create a safe place for people like him. He willingly sacrifices himself to stop the blight and save Ravka, with his only condition being that he is recognized as a Saint.[3]

Physical description

The Darkling is described as a tall handsome young man, appearing not much older than Alina despite his ancient age.[1] He has ink-black hair, gray eyes, and sharp, beautiful features. After surviving the Fold, he receives several scars on his face from the Volcra.

Powers and abilities

Grisha powers

As a Shadow Summoner, the Darkling is able to summon and control darkness and shadows. He can use the Cut, a lethal ability that uses shadows or darkness to create a slicing effect on the target. Later in life he developed the ability to use merzost to create the nichevo'ya, formless shadow monsters who followed the Darkling's will and could fight in his stead, though summoning them came at a great cost to him. Being one of the rarest and strongest of all Grisha, the Darkling possesses a greatly extended lifespan, appearing as a man in his prime despite being over 400 years old. As a living amplifier his blood and bones naturally amplify the power of any Grisha he is touching.

Multilingualism

The Darkling speaks fluent Shu and Kerch, and could pass as either.[4]

Relationships

Alina Starkov

"We are alike, as no one else is, as no one else ever will be."
— The Darkling to Alina, Siege and Storm

In the beginning, the Darkling and Alina felt drawn to one another. Before Alina left the Little Palace, the Darkling kissed her abruptly by the lake, after he told her about the stag he was hunting. He then kisses and touches her at the winter fete, before they are interrupted. His betrayal and deceit are revealed not long after, leaving whether his feelings for her were genuine or not a mystery.

Later on, their connection became deeper and more complex as the Darkling could visit Alina at will in a tangible and accurate form: Alina was, of course, disturbed by their encounters and asked him why he won't leave her alone. His reply clearly implied that he sees Alina as his only companion and solace in the dark. At the Chapel, Alina and the Darkling were able to manipulate each other's abilities through a particular bond. When they meet each other at the Chapel, he reveals that her visions were real and promises that he would never turn away from who she truly was, for they were alike as no one else was. She then pretends to accept his offer of peace and kisses him, distracting him enough to steal his nichevo'ya through their connection and try to kill them both, but failing.[5]

Alina paid him a visit by the tether shared between them. He asked her why, only to say that she, in fact, wanted to see him. He told her that she was destined to be his balance and could make him a better man, to which she replied he could make her a monster. He offered her the throne sitting beside his, despite the fact that she attempted to kill him. He told Alina his real name, which earned him a lighthearted laugh from her, commenting on how common his name was. The laugh was then returned with a genuine smile from the Darkling, who tries to kiss and touch her. She, even though feeling the strong beat of desire in both sides through their connection, resists his advances. At the final battle on the Fold, the Darkling panics and suffers over Alina's loss of power, realizing she was no longer his balance and he was truly alone in the world, being distracted enough to let her stab him with a knife. She cried over his body and obeyed his request to not have a grave that people could desecrate. The Darkling's corpse is later burned and Alina whispers his true name, Aleksander, above it.[6]

After he is reincarnated, he confesses to seeking Alina out because "with her, he was human again".[3]

Baghra

"To him, she was always Mama, Madraya."
— Aleksander about Baghra, The Demon in the Wood

The Darkling had a very difficult relationship with his mother, Baghra. She told Alina that Grisha used to be heavily persecuted even in Ravka and she was always shunned for being able to summon darkness, which was an extremely rare power, and never wanted her son to suffer as she did. She raised him to be hard and strong and gave him pride (teaching that he had no equal and was destined to bow to no man) and ambition (teaching that love was fragile, fickle and nothing compared to power) so he would rely on no one but himself. As a child, Baghra praised his abilities in reading the flow of power, which would make him a great leader, and instructs him to never trust others or let anyone touch him, for that could be dangerous. She also refers to common Grisha and otkazat'sya as being dust, for her son would easily outlive all of them, and tells him she would burn a thousand villages and kill a thousand people to keep him safe. He vowed to make a safe haven for Grisha, which was the seed of the Second Army, but eventually, his thirst for power overcame him and his cruelty increased until the creation of the Shadow Fold. Baghra no longer supported him, criticizing and opposing him in every decision, and ultimately betraying him. She told Alina about his past and true intentions and urged her to escape the Little Palace, believing he could still be redeemed if he wasn't successful in his evil plans. It cost her dearly, as he ended up blinding her as a punishment, but she didn't regret it. She sacrificed her own life as a distraction, and despite her son's efforts, he was unable to stop her from taking her own life. Alina later feels him grieving through their link.

Appearances

Etymology

  • Aleksander is a variant of Alexander.[7]
    • Alexander is a name of Greek origin, meaning "defender of the people."[7]
  • Morozova is a Russian surname derived from the Russian word moroz (frost).[8]

Gallery

Trivia

  • The Darkling is the only Grisha permitted to wear black, although he allows Alina to wear black for her kefta at the winter fete.
  • The Darkling's symbol is two overlapping circles representing the sun in eclipse.
  • In When Water Sang Fire, there is a scholar around whom "the shadows seemed to shift as he passed, pulled along by him like a tide." This is the Darkling.
    • The same story also reveals the Darkling has a half-sister named Ulla, mothered by Baghra.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 His age is never specified; when asked Leigh Bardugo said on a Goodreads Q&A: "I'd prefer not to get into those specifics.". He presented himself as around 120 while claiming to be the great-great-great-grandson of the Black Heretic. He is at least older than the Shadow Fold, which was created around 400 years ago.
  2. When Water Sang Fire
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Rule of Wolves
  4. The Demon in the Wood
  5. Siege and Storm
  6. Ruin and Rising
  7. 7.0 7.1 Wikipedia: Alexander
  8. Wikipedia: Morozov (surname)
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