Pitch Black

nicknames • Nightmare King, Pitch

overall history • Once, a long time ago, Pitch Black ensured the safety of the human race by causing them to fear danger, a task he excelled at for many, many years. Then, one day, the Man in the Moon decided on a different approach to safeguard humanity, especially children, in the form of his chosen Guardians. Hope, wonder, dreams, and memories supplanted fear, and Pitch Black largely faded from thought, reduced to a fairy-tale. Feeling betrayed, he vanished into the shadows, plotting revenge.

For centuries, he planned, growing ever mire embittered, subverting the Sandman's golden dream sand into black nightmare sand, all the while drifting through the shadows, leaving scattered nightmares behind him as he worked on perfecting his control of the nightmare sand. Then, once he'd mastered it, he began to move in earnest, subverting more and more dreams into nightmares, and growing in power all the while until he felt the time was right to put his plans into motion by making an appearance at the North Pole.

Though he was successful in killing the Sandman, and driving the other Guardians to the brink of death, the intervention of newly chosen Guardian Jack Frost saw him defeated, and he succumbed to his own fears, returning once more to the shadows, a mere afterthought. But, as he'd foretold, he wasn't gone for good. When the war started, and the world was reordered, he drew strength from all the fears caused by it. Watching from the shadows, he observed the opposing forces, and the ones looking after the victims of the war, before ultimately deciding to take an active role in the conflict.