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Ananke-spoiler "Once again, we return."

This article contains spoilers for Issue 25 of The Wicked + The Divine. Read at your own risk.

The Great Darkness is the enemy of the Pantheon. Little is known about them, but it appears they prevented the growth of civilisation.

History[]

The Great Darkness appears to have been around for as long as the Pantheon. According to Ananke, they fight the gods every cycle, and in the early days of the Recurrence, won every time. Eventually it was decided that, in order to halt the forces of darkness for good, the gods would need someone to guide them in future cycles, so Ananke agreed to take on that role and sacrificed her ability to inspire.

Ananke claimed that the Great Darkness can only be stopped by the deaths of four gods, which is presumably why she had been murdering gods for several millenia. This involves something called the "core sacrament", and necessitates the completion of a particular ritual. Ananke believed that the fourth death is always the hardest.

During the 2010s Recurrence, Ananke killed Lucifer, Inanna and Tara to fulfill the core sacrament. She intended to use Minerva for the final death, but was stopped by the other gods. She was then killed by Persephone, and her knowledge of the Great Darkness presumably died with her, leaving the surviving gods clueless in their fight against them. Some of the gods seemed sceptical about its existence, with the exception of Baal, who appears to have past experience with them. He was proved correct when they burst into the Pantheon's new headquarters inside the Shard, kidnapping Minerva.

Later it was revealed that there was never really a "Great Darkness", and the creatures that has been attacking the Pantheon and killed Baal's father and targeting his family, is in fact nothing more than a darkness,insect swarm constructs created by The Creature under Ananke's/Minerva's Orders to divert the Pantheon members attention away from her/them.

Appearance[]

The Great Darkness takes the appearance of a shadowy cloud that has a vaguely humanoid shape, with at least three arms and clawed hands and feet.

It was later revealed that the Great Darkness's form is entirely comprised of a swarm of beetle/firefly like insects generated and created by The Creature.

Powers[]

The extent of the Great Darkness' powers are unknown, though it appears to be able to travel through the air.

Due to it being created by the powers of The Creature, who herself was the creation of Lucifer,The Morrigan and Woden using the remains of Hades of the 1830's Pantheon. And as such her own creations possess similar energies of that of Underworld Gods and as such can seemingly absorb energy constructs made from similar energies by other Underworld Gods to increase its size, as seen during its fights against Persephone.

Trivia[]

  • It was later revealed that the "Great Darkness" that Ananke refers to is in fact, the Limbo of complete and utter darkness her soul/mind resides in whenever she fails to obtain four heads of four gods to sacrifice for her Ritual to prolong her life.
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