| “ | He's here. | „ |
| ~ The Dark Presence upon Alan Wake's arrival to Bright Falls. |
| “ | I'm much older than you. Older than your first work of art. I will find a new face to wear. Someone else to dream me free. | „ |
| ~ The Dark Presence to Alan Wake. |
The Dark Presence is the main antagonist of the Alan Wake franchise.
It is an immensely powerful and supernatural dark entity responsible for the nightmares and paranormal events occurring in Bright Falls. Existing in the Dark Place within the depths of Cauldron Lake, the entity attempts to escape from the site to cover the world in darkness, manipulating numerous artists via bringing about their creative works into fruition while altering them for its own benefit.
The Dark Presence once managed to manipulate the poet Thomas Zane by possessing the body of his lover Barbara Jagger and utilizing her as an avatar. Decades later, it successfully attempted to manipulate Alan Wake to take over everything, though it was defeated by him with the Clicker. After its defeat, the Dark Presence turned Mr. Scratch into his new avatar via false Alan Wake rumors, all in order to find a new way to escape from its prison.
In the form of Barbara Jagger, it was voiced by Kate Weiman.
Biography[]
Past[]
| “ | The Dark Presence followed the choreography laid out to it in the manuscript, growing stronger and stronger, moving like a storm from one scene of destruction to the next. | „ |
| ~ Alan's description of the Dark Presence in his manuscript. |
Not much is known of the Dark Presence's origins, nor how it came to be trapped within Cauldron Lake. It boasts itself to be much older than protagonist and writer Alan Wake thought before, but the exact date as to its beginnings are never made clear, be it in-story or through supplementary material.
The Presence has the ability of warping reality according to the creative mind it latches onto, mostly writers like Alan Wake himself or Thomas Zane, but it can also bring to fruition song lyrics and music, as it was the case with the Anderson Brothers. It works as an editor to these works, in its own twisted way, trying to take advantage of plot holes and Deus ex Machina to make itself stronger and, if successful, escape its confinement.
Like many other eldritch horrors, it does not have a proper form of its own, as it is mostly depicted as a black fog or smoke moving about in the air. It also chooses to take other forms to manifest itself, possessing animals, objects, and humans to either be its avatars or Taken minions.
While the Dark Presence has been rumored to have manipulated and utilized several writers through history to further its own machinations, writer Thomas Zane was the first to awaken the Dark Presence in a far more intimate and dangerous level during his stay at Bird Leg Cabin in the 1970's. Throughout the course of his stay, Zane realized the Lake's powers and used them to further his poetry and stories, but it quickly started to grow out of hand. Thomas' lover, Barbara Jagger, while swimming one day, drowned under mysterious circumstances (it is hinted often that the Dark Presence, by itself, pulled her deeper under the water). Desperate, Zane attempted to write her back into life using the lake's power (an act suggested by his then-assistant writer, Dr. Emil Hartman); however, this backfired as what came back was the darkness, using Jagger's visage as means of communication with the outside world, as well as manipulating him into releasing it. Realizing his mistake, the writer attempted to cut out her heart, only to discover it had none even in human form. Without options, Zane wrote himself and the Cabin out of reality by sinking it and Diver's Isle in a volcanic eruption (Cauldron Lake has its name from being over a caldera), but not before leaving one final page written to bring in Alan Wake into the city of Bright Falls, all in a last-ditch plan to subdue the Dark Presence.
In the period between the island sinking and Alan's arrival in Brightfalls, the Dark Presence was also responsible for the disappearance of FBI Agent Robert Nightingale's partner; meanwhile, Hartman would go on to earn his doctorate, as well as construct Cauldron Lake Lodge in an attempt to harness the lake's power for his own goals. The Anderson Brothers (Tor and Odin) would also be attacked by the Presence and survive it, but at the cost of their mental sanity, and they were subsequently interned at the Lodge. Once Alan did arrive in Bright Falls, the entity under the lake waters stirred yet again.
Alan Wake[]
Upon Alan and his wife Alice's arrival, the Barbara Jagger avatar handed over the keys to Bird Leg cabin to the couple, tricking the two into heading towards Cauldron Lake. Once there, the Presence took Alice hostage underwater and controlled Alan's mind into writing the script of his next novel, "Departure", turning it into a horror story where the Dark Presence would come out of the lake and take the world under its shadows. Alan freed himself from the darkness' hold for enough time to let him write the story differently, keeping it a horror genre while creating new ways and fail-safes to ensure the Dark Presence would be cornered, including writing Zane into the story to take away the manuscript's pages and leave it unfinished for enough time to develop a counterattack. Alan then escaped and the story, as he rewrote it, was set into motion.
His journey was not easy, however. The Dark Presence attacked him, his allies and the city itself with its own fabrications, such as the Taken, Poltergeist objects and giant dark tornadoes hurling debris. Hartman's plot to control the Presence through his patients' creativity ended with Wake throwing him into a room with the darkness taking over his lodge and presumably dying, and Nightingale's insistent chasing was stopped when the Presence began invading Bright Falls itself, taking the Agent out in a fell swoop through a door. Alan, his agent Barry and Sheriff Sarah Breaker, with the help of Zane's former admirer Cynthia Weaver, were able to locate the one thing able to cause the Dark Presence to retreat: a small switch nicknamed the "Clicker", from Wake's own childhood. Diving into the waters of Cauldron Lake and arriving at the Dark Place, Alan used the Clicker within the hole in Jagger's body and successfully defeated the Darkness, releasing his wife back to the real world while being trapped underneath Cauldron Lake by himself. Alone inside the Dark Place, Alan would eventually fight off the Presence's attempt of taking his mind and begin the process of his writing his next manuscript "Return".
Alan Wake's American Nightmare[]
During Alan's time imprisoned within the Dark Place, where the Dark Presence resided, he wrote a script he used to manifest into the real world yet again, this time fighting off the Presence's second avatar, an evil copy of himself known as Mr. Scratch seeking to steal Alan's life for itself. As before, the Dark Presence attempted to attack him through the doppelganger, who was far more sentient and intelligent than the Presence itself, utilizing many new forms of Taken and reinforcing the Poltergeists into truly deadly opponents.
Alan decided to create another manuscript to defeat his doppleganger, but Mr. Scratch was able to keep Wake in a loop of the story to prevent him from reaching the theater. However, thanks to Alan's persistence, Scratch was destroyed and the writer found himself at least a few steps closer to finally returning to the real world fully, even if the battle against the Darkness wasn't done yet.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Omnipresence: The Dark Presence may have a form of limited omnipresence, as it is seemingly able to survey entire areas and watch multiple people at the same time. It can be anywhere as long as the environment it manifests in is sufficiently dark enough. This means that it can move through the shadows as well as the night.
- Super Mobility: The Dark Presence can move freely and impossibly fast in darkness, blurring into nothingness, moving too fast for humans to shoot, and can travel great distances almost instantly.
- Super Strength: The Dark Presence can lift cars with ease and throw them a long distance.
- Super Durability: The Dark Presence can take brutal damage before being vanquished.
- Invulnerability: The Dark Presence is immune to all harm while in the dark.
- Teleportation: While in Barbara Jagger's form, the Dark Presence can literally teleport around a person or place at will, as long as there is sufficient darkness for it to appear in.
- Possession: The Dark Presence has the ability to take over human beings and use them as Taken. The Dark Presence seems to prefer to use one host as its main one. The Dark Presence is also able to take over inanimate objects, creating poltergeists. This can be an object of any size, including tractors, vehicles, farm equipment, train carts, tools, etc. It can possess objects to either control or simply throw them long distances.
- Daytime Travel: The Dark Presence may be able to travel in the daytime as well, albeit to a limited extent to (and/or) of the shadows . At the beginning of Mirror Peak on Episode 3 where you must drive to the old coal mine, walk the opposite direction to find a bridge destroyed. It prompts Alan to say that he had just crossed the bridge and that the Dark Presence even haunts him in the daytime.
- Influencing Touch: The Dark Presence can also choose to merely 'touch' a person, using a more subtle way to control the victim. The Dark Presence seems to do this if it needs the target to still think for itself. Examples of this are when Alan Wake had to write the manuscript or when Rose had to trick Alan into coming to the trailer park. This 'touch' can also happen simply by coming into contact with the Dark Presence, as seen in the case of Cynthia Weaver. The touch also has the ability to erase a person's memory, creating blackouts of the period during which the Dark Presence controls its victim. This can be seen in the miniseries Bright Falls, when Jake interviews Dr. Emil Hartman, and later on in episode 4 when he looks at the Deerfest commercial on TV and wakes up on the beach of the lake. Alan Wake also experiences this when he tries to rescue Alice and then wakes up in his car at the edge of the cliff.
- Control of Ravens: The Dark Presence uses flocks of ravens who seem to be made out of pure darkness and have seemingly infinite numbers. A possible origin are the two ravens the Dark Presence took from Odin, one of the Anderson Brothers. These could also be local ravens that have been turned into Taken.
- Weather Control: The Dark Presence has a limited form of weather control, and can summon rain and lightning storms, and even tornadoes. A possible origin is the thunder it is stated to have stolen from Tor Anderson.
Abilities[]
- Intelligence: The Dark Presence is highly intelligent and uses this intelligence to create elaborate schemes. When it sees opportunities, it quickly tries to twist them to its own advantage. No matter how strong the Dark Presence is, even it seems to be bound by the powers of the Lake. It was forced to act out the manuscript of Alan, which meant the Dark Presence had to let Alan escape numerous times. The Dark Presence was quick to find loopholes though, using indirect means to try and get to Alan and using anything the writer didn't specify to its own advantage.
- Manipulation: The Dark Presence is a master manipulator, capable of tricking anyone to do it's bidding once it came into contact with said victim.
Weaknesses[]
- Light: Light (e.g. sunlight and flashlights) can harm the Dark Presence, but to the same degree as the Taken or possessed animals or objects. Though the dark form would lurk within the lake until darkness falls, it was capable of coming into the day, such as appearing at the Oh Deer Diner.
Quotes[]
| “ | You will NEVER get her back! | „ |
| ~ The Dark Presence to Alan Wake. |
| “ | Carl couldn't make it. Unfortunately, he was taken ill. But I have the key for you, and instructions on how to get to the lake. | „ |
| ~ The Dark Presence meeting Alan, giving him the key to Cauldron Lake. |
| “ | I wish you a good stay in my cabin. I'll come by later to check how you've settled in. And to meet your wife. I insist. | „ |
| ~ The Dark Presence to Alan Wake. |
| “ | Look at the cabin. Is there someone in the window? {...} Maybe she didn't drown after all. Maybe she's inside. {...} Yes... | „ |
| ~ The Dark Presence manipulating Wake. |
| “ | Oh, hush. There's still hope. Cauldron Lake is a special place. Here, you have the power to change things. She wanted you to write. I will tell you what to do. You can write her back. The story will come true and all will be well again. | „ |
| ~ The Dark Presence manipulating Wake to write "Depature". |
| “ | I promised I'd come visit you and your lovely wife. You must finish what you started. | „ |
| ~ The Dark Presence to Alan. |
| “ | Back to work, boy. | „ |
| ~ The Dark Presence to Alan Wake. |
| “ | You. | „ |
| ~ The Dark Presence in front of the camera. |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Though it is left ambigious, it was possible that the Dark Presence has made Robert Nightingale its new avatar. However, Alan Wake II instead clarifies that Nightingale was corrupted into becoming an Overlap Guardian by the Dark Presence after the Cult of the Tree ritualically murdered him.
External Links[]
- The Dark Presence on the Alan Wake Wiki.
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 Villains
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The Dark Place Bright Falls In-Universe Fiction | ||