This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. See this photograph’s page on the Geograph website for the photographer’s contact details. The copyright on this image is owned by Nigel Cox and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Overview

Not much is known about The Dark One. Some know him as Donn, seeing as he uses the undead to take down his enemies. But that is all that we really know about him at this point.

Abilities

Control Of The Undead

The Dark One controls and influences the hoard of the undead, such as zombies, skeletons, and phantoms. It is believed that other creatures are under their influence as well.

Reality Control

The Dark One seemingly can control reality itself. He has ripped open tears in time and space to corrupt beings and turn them to his side. On a large scale, this is what brought about The Pillager Cataclysm on New Caledonia Phase 1 over one hundred years ago.

Legend

According to Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland, in Irish mythology, Donn is a god of the dead. Similarly, Temple of the Ancient Fire sees him in this capacity as well. Donn is the Gaeilge (Irish language) word for the color brown and appears as an element in many Irish surnames like Donegan, Donovan, Donnelly and on its own as Dunn/Dunne. However in the case of Donn the word derives from the Celtic word ‘dhuosnos’ meaning dark as in Dark Lord.

On earth, Donn was said to dwell in Tech Duinn (the ‘house of Donn” or ‘house of the dark one’). A 9th-century poem says that Donn’s dying wish was that all his descendants would gather at Tech Duinn after death: “To me, to my house, you shall all come after your deaths”. The 10th-century tale Airne Fíngein (‘Fíngen’s Vigil’) says that Tech Duinn is where the souls of all the dead gather. In the translation of Acallam na Senórach, to go to the House of Donn in Irish tradition means to die.

This suggests that the pagan Gaels saw Donn as their ancestor and believed they would go to his home when they died. Tech Duinn may have been thought of as a place where the souls of the dead gathered before traveling to their final destination in the underworld (nether), or before being reincarnated. Indeed, most sentient beings who perish in the Rétglainn Occulti tend to reincarnate very quickly. Subsequently, many adherents to the Temple of the Ancient Fire faith conclude this as evidence that the Tuatha de Danann are intervening in an ongoing war with Donn.

In fact, that is the prevailing theory among most who live in Baile na Dagda, Nova Falias and other gaeltachts.