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- "I heard he's got the Darkhold, Wanda.
Are you familiar with the Darkhold?
I know it's the Book of the Danmed, a grimoire with all knowledge of the dark arts that exists, and that corrupts everything and everyone it touches." - ―Stephen Strange and Wanda Maximoff
The Darkhold, also known as the Book of Sins, the Book of Spells, or the Book of the Damned, was a book of spells containing transcribed Dark Magic, wrote by the Elder God Chthon, originally created to be his personal grimoire. Not only does the Darkhold possess all the extant knowledge of the dark arts, but also possess all the extant knowledge of magic as whole, but had a corrupting effect on the user. Only a few copies of the Darkhold have surfaced in recent times.
Copies[]
True Darkhold[]
The first copy of the Darkhold, known as the True Darkhold, was wrote million years ago by Chthon, right before he fled to his dimension K'lay. The True Darkhold eventually ended up in Lilith's possession, in which she used to study and master magic, but she found out about the corrupting effect of the Darkhold and how dangerous it can be, specially when she casted the spell that created the Vampires and other supernatural races, so she hid it. Centuries later, the witch/fairy hybrid Morgan le Fay acquired the True Darkhold, and became a master of the dark arts, and she founded the Darkholders, a coven of witches that followed her and dedicated themselves to the dark arts, and they were also responsable for creating and writing several copies of the Darkhold. The True Darkhold was lost when le Fay was banished to the Dark Dimension and the Darkholders were forced to work in the shadows.
The True Darkhold resurfaced in modern times when it was finally found by Joseph and Lucy Bauer, although the Darkhold corrupted them along with Eli Morrow, who tried to kill his co-workers to take the book for himself. Five years later, after Morrow's demise, the book was used by Aida and Holden Radcliffe to upgrade the Framework virtual reality, which was used to trap several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Aida used the True Darkhold to create herself a human body using dark matter, pitting her against Ghost Rider, who helped S.H.I.E.L.D. defeat her before taking the book back to the Dark Dimension. The True Darkhold was eventually retrieved by Morgan le Fay in an attempt to merge the Dark Dimension with Earth. However, she was stopped by the Runaways and PRIDE, who used the book to imprison her in the Dark Dimension. The True Darkhold was hidden by S.H.I.E.LD.
In 2024, Chthon managed to return to Earth, and was able to retrieve the True Darkhold, and used it to compensate the fact that he was not yet in full strength. Even after being defeated by Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch, Chthon managed to hide the book in a safe place, and so, when he returned again 2 years later, he retrieved the book and fought the Avengers, Young Avengers, X-Men, Thunderbolts and Midnight Sons combined, and won. When Chthon was defeated for the last time, the True Darkhold was destroyed by Wiccan.
Agatha Harkness' Copy[]
One of the many copies produced by the Darkholders ended up in the hands of the Salemites, a coven lead by Evanora Harkness, and the Darkhold was heavily guarded as they wanted to prevent it from ending up in the hands of ill intented witches. Evanora's youngest daughter, Agatha, discovered the book by accident, and thanks to it, Agatha discovered she was a violet witch, however, she returned the book because she feared it.
In 1711, after Agatha finished walking the Witches' Road, she used her wish to acquire the Darkhold in order to defeat Morgan le Fay, so the Road gave her the copy owned by her mother's coven. She used the book to develop and master her dark powers and witchcraft skills, and eventually ended up corrupted and controled by the book. Centuries later, after being defeated by Wanda Maximoff, the current Scarlet Witch, she took this copy and used to create another copy without its corrupting properties, and then she destroyed the book.
Wanda Maximoff's Copy[]
When Wanda Maximoff took the copy of the Darkhold owned by Agatha Harkness, she created a new copy of the Darkhold in order to study and use it without risking to fall under its corruption. Through this, Maximoff learned more about witches, her role as the current Scarlet Witch, her nature as a Nexus Being and Chaos Magic. After the Scarlet Witch was presumed dead after defeating Chthon, Strange took the copy to study, and later gave it to Wiccan, who gave it to Agatha Harkness as he had no interest in the book.
This is the only known copy of the Darkhold that does not have a corrupting effect on its user, being the safest version of the book.
Capabilities[]
The Darkhold, as Chthon's personal grimoire, was wrote to contain all of his knowledge about magic, specially chaos magic and dark magic, magical systems of his own creation. However, the book also contained all extant knowledge about magic as a whole, so, the book could potentially allow its user to know all that is to know about magic. Despite the book being older than any human language, the book magically translates itself to the native language of the user.
The Darkhold was created with a combination of dark matter and dark magic, and because of it, the Darkhold has a influence over the user's mind, much like dark magic itself. Once someone uses the book, they are connected to Chthon's hive mind on a unconscious mode, where while they retain their autonomy, they enter in some kind of trance state, where their mind is completely influenced by Chthon without them even realizing. The connection, and by extent, the corruption can only be sustained as the user has constant contact with the book, so if a person uses the book a few times but does not use it constantly can avoid its corruption.
The Darkhold creates and cultivates on its reader a dangerous obsession over itself. A person who had used the Darkhold for a long time may not want others to even touch it. Even a brief skim through the book can corrupt the reader's mind, like in the case of Holden Radcliffe, who, despite recognizing the danger the book posed and not even attempting to read it properly, allowed himself to betray his friends simply to regain possession of the book Abiotic beings, such as the Life-Model Decoy Aida, could also become corrupted if they read the book. The Darkhold could even corrupt people who have yet to read it; an example is Eli Morrow, who attempted to murder his Momentum Labs coworkers after learning the capabilities of the machine they were building.
The extended use of the dark magic filled within the Darkhold not only caused deep corruption to the user's soul, but it also latched on to their biggest fears and desires, amplifying them to such an extent that they almost turned insane. The way the Darkhold corrupted people manifested in different ways. The Darkhold's corruption of its user could only be broken through their own conscience and sheer will, with guilt acting as a counter to break it, as shown with Strange and Radcliffe.
Despite the short amount of the time that a person used the Darkhold, it still could permanently corrupt the user upon use, as shown when Doctor Strange developed a third eye on his forehead after using the book to temporarily dreamwalk. Due to its prolonged use, and in specific cases, the Darkhold's effects caused its user's fingertips to acquire a black color, looking like rotten flesh, this happened to Agatha Harkness, 838 Doctor Strange, Morgan le Fay and Sinister Strange.
The Darkhold was able to amplify the user's magic, as shown with Harkness. The witch used the book as an amplification totem, which allowed her to break into the reality known as the Hex. Therefore, she was the only person, besides the disguised Chthon, unable to be controlled by Maximoff and was able to manipulate the course of events of the reality without being noticed. Harkness was able to hold her own against Maximoff due to a combination of her innate powers and the Darkhold's magic. However, this was not enough to overpower the Scarlet Witch.
Alternate Versions[]
To be added
Trivia[]
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