"He was so threatened by me, fearful that I would make a more perfect creation than he, so he exiled me. Virtually erased me. Passed on stories that I was a threat."
The Darkness, often referred as her vessel's name Amara, is a primordial entity who has existed since before the beginning of time, predating both God and Death, who were of similar age.[1] Sometime later after her brother God came into being, he created the Archangels to fight a terrible war against her. Not even the combined power of God and the Archangels could destroy her, so God tricked and sealed her away by using the Mark of Cain as a lock and key.[2][3] God revealed that he chose not to kill her in her weakened state as she needed to exist with himself so reality wouldn't be destroyed.[4] Whilst the Archangels battled her and thus knew of her existence, she is so ancient and mysterious that the Demons and even the Angels, except for Metatron, didn't believe she existed or was locked away. However, Metatron knew about her and who she was, as he was God's scribe. Both Heaven and Hell thought it to be a "myth" or "scary bedtime story", told to keep others in line.[5]
When Rowena used a spell from the Book of the Damned in order to free Dean Winchester of the Mark (which he gained from Cain to kill Abaddon and had been bearing it since), the Darkness was unleashed once again.[2] While on Earth, The Darkness has taken the body of a female baby, Amara. She has also developed an affection for Dean, and is possibly in love with him. With the help of Dean, the Darkness reconciled with her brother and departed the Earth with him, but not before leaving Dean a thank you present.
"Before there was light, before there was God and the Archangels, there wasn't nothing. There was the Darkness, a horribly destructive, amoral force that was beaten back by God and his Archangels in a terrible war. God locked the Darkness away where it could do no harm, and he created a Mark that would serve as both lock and key, which he entrusted to his most valued lieutenant, Lucifer. But the Mark began to exert its own will, revealed itself as a curse, and began to corrupt. Lucifer became jealous of man. God banished Lucifer to Hell. Lucifer passed the Mark to Cain, who passed the Mark to you, the proverbial finger in the dike."
According to Death, the Darkness existed before the Universe, the light, and even God, her brother. She is credited as a powerful, amoral, and horribly destructive force. Some time afterward, God and Death came into being, [2][3] God created many worlds to show The Darkness that there could be more than just the two of them, but she would destroy these worlds. After this, God created the four Archangels and battled The Darkness in a terrible war. Whilst even together they couldn't kill her, they managed to defeat her; God and his Archangels tricked her and eventually sealed her away with a mark that would later be called the Mark of Cain, though they only barely managed to lock her away. According to herself, Lucifer and God conspired to seal her away, and she implied it was her trust in Lucifer that led to her downfall. God then gave the Mark to Lucifer, his favorite angel and most valued lieutenant, to guard and protect, and the Darkness had been locked away ever since. The Mark, however, began to exert its own will and revealed itself to be a curse. It corrupted Lucifer, leading to a chain of events that would see Lucifer refuse to bow down before humans and be cast out of Heaven. Lucifer then transferred the Mark on to Cain who then, thousands of years later, passed it on to Dean Winchester.[2][6]
The Mark of Cain on the arm of Dean Winchester was eventually removed with the Mark of Cain Removal Spell by the witch Rowena. As Dean was the only living host of the mark remaining, the Darkness was unleashed once more. Immediately after she broke out of her prison, she rained down destruction and made a move to consume everything in her path.[2] Her release caused such strong disturbances in Hell, that Lucifer's Cage was damaged as a side effect, which eventually allowed Lucifer to influence the outside world.[7]
Shortly after breaking out of her prison, she spared Sam and Dean's life and thanked Dean for freeing her. She mentioned that she already helped him and Dean helped her. Bound for eternity, they will always help each other. Michael or Lucifer recognized her release and both of them tried to warn the outside world. She temporarily assumed the form of an adult female human, but has since become one with a human baby, going by the name of Amara.[5]
Humans infected by the Darkness
Following the Darkness' release, Sam begins searching for a cure for the people infected by her. His search led him to find that Holy Fire cures her victims, but as Amara the Darkness began displaying telekinesis, causing Jenna to call Dean back. Her grandmother called an exorcist who was actually Crowley and Dean finds the Mark of Cain on Amara's chest, immediately realizing she is the Darkness. Amara had consumed Jenna's soul and shortly afterward grew into a little girl. Amara left and later encountered Crowley who offered her people to feed off of.[8]
Crowley took Amara to his base on Earth where he assigned her a demonic "nanny" and began educating her about what has happened since she was locked away. He was essentially spoiling her with literally whatever she asked for so as to assure her allegiance. Amara, for the most part, proved complacent and calm, asking Crowley many questions about the world God created while she was learning but expressed a slight fear of him. She even came to call Crowley "Uncle Crowley" despite the fact that she was eons older than him. All the while, however, she began to plot with a reflection of herself in a mirror behind Crowley's back.
Good, Evil, Heaven, Hell, People, it all seems so unimportant
”
— Amara in The Bad Seed
Amara is constantly hungry for souls to consume, which Crowley (at first) happily (and later reluctantly) facilitated by feeding her random demons in deceased vessels. Amara's appetite only grew to greater levels and eventually resulted in her consuming both of her demonic nannies and her taking on an older form, much to the concern of Crowley. When Crowley tried to dissuade her from consuming more demonic souls, she became angry and demanded to be fed.[6]
Amara feeding on a human soul
Some time later and unbeknownst to Crowley, Amara left Hell to explore the Earth and observe the humans. Her travels eventually brought her to Fall River, Massachusetts where she came across the Lizzie Borden Hotel and Museum as well as the Lizzie Borden super-fan Len. After chatting with him briefly, Amara then devoured Len's soul, which subsequently extinguished his passion for Borden altogether and robbed him of his conscience. Amara then continued a spree of soul-devouring both in the hotel and in the surrounding area, resulting in a short series of gruesome axe murders by one of her victims which were initially believed the work of the ghost of Lizzie herself by the Winchesters, who had come to Fall River to investigate. The streak ended when Len saved the brothers by axing the real killer in the back while she had Sam at gunpoint and the Winchesters left Fall River to pursue Amara, but as they drove away, Amara emerged from out of a treeline, smiled and simply said "Thank you, Dean", evoking her earlier promise that Dean would always help her in the end.[9]
Teenage Amara
Crowley became increasingly worried by Amara's voracious appetite as she continued to consume demons faster than they could be produced. Tired of her sneaking out to snack on human souls, Crowley subdued her in a display of power to curb her rebelliousness and worked out a shaky agreement with her to diet and be patient. Amara reluctantly agreed. While on her new regime, the Winchester brothers tracked her and Crowley to an abandoned insane asylum and busted in intent upon killing Amara. While Sam held Crowley's demons at bay, Dean marched into Amara's room with the demon knife and went to attack her but was stopped and pinned to a pillar by Crowley. Set on finally killing Dean and Sam once and for all, Crowley was ironically thwarted by Amara, who betrayed him by pinning him against a wall and torturing him into guaranteeing safe passage out for Dean. Amara then declared her alliance with Crowley over. Crowley had no choice but to comply and then fled. Amara released Dean and stood before him a knife in hand but try as he might, Dean could not raise a hand against her, in keeping with her vow that neither would ever hurt the other. Dean demanded to know her intentions, to which Amara simply replied that she was out to settle a score, the oldest score of all time. The Winchesters in vain tried to attack her simultaneously but Amara telekinetically flung them away and marched out of the asylum before vanishing. Later on, she was seen walking down a busy street admiring the human beings.[3]
“
I was the beginning and I will be the end. I will be all that there is.
”
— Amara in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Amara is enraged
In time, Amara, at last, gained the form she had originally taken upon her release and set about tracking down God so as to settle her score. Scouting across the globe, she attacked and slaughtered hundreds of humans in various religious sects both to learn about his universe's rules and in an effort to draw her brother out of hiding, but was visibly and violently frustrated each and every time as God continually failed to appear or intervene in any way. Eventually, her activities drew the attention of the Winchesters yet again, who were in the midst of preparing to visit Lucifer's Cage with Crowley and Rowena. Dean traveled to her last known location, a church, and sensed her presence through their bond.
Amara meets Dean
After meeting up with Dean, Amara teleported Dean and herself to the countryside and engaged him in conversation. She attempted to explain her actions by criticizing God and his universe due to his detachment from his beloved creations, the pain they endured, and his apparent need to be worshiped and loved by all. She claimed that, if she were allowed her way, there would be no pain, no sorrow, no rules, just bliss. Her words had no effect on Dean who stubbornly accused her of seeking to become the new 'God', to which Amara replied that God was the light, and she was the dark. She also revealed she was once all that there was, and she sought to reestablish that state. Dean attempted to stab her with a silver knife but the blade shattered upon the impact. Completely unfazed by the attack, Amara derided Dean's efforts to resist and closed in on him as if to consume his soul, but instead kissed him passionately, declaring that their bond was unbreakable and that in the end, she and Dean would be together and become one.
Before Dean could reply, a small group of angels appeared out of nowhere and attacked Amara but she butchered them with ease. The entire angelic population in Heaven then took aim at her from the heavens, combined all their power as one and prepared to open fire on Amara in a last ditch effort to destroy her with a single ferocious celestial blast. Amara exchanged one last pained look with Dean before teleporting him away to safety as she prepared to meet the angelic attack head-on.[7]
The Darkness reintegrates itself
“
I mean, Heaven brought the thunder, and it barely even scratched my paint job, but you and a shiny knife?
”
— Amara in The Devil in the Details
Dean meets with Castiel in order to check if the combined angel smite took the Darkness down. The power of the blast caused some kind of supernatural fallout and Dean is unable to proceed closer to the impact area. Castiel eventually meets with the angel Ambriel who was sent by heaven to verify if Amara was killed. The whole area is clouded in Darkness and they decide to team up and search the area. Ambriel eventually found her lying unconsciously on the ground. As she comes closer and touches Amara, the Darkness woke up. Alarmed by his partner's scream Castiel watched in shock as the Darkness consumed Ambriel's grace. Amara merges with the Darkness around her and is amused as Castiel threatens to stab her with his angel blade. Easily overpowering Castiel, she decided to spare his life since he wasn't even worth the effort to consume his essence. She sent him back to Billie to deliver the message: "I am coming"[10]
Months later, the Darkness still felt the impact of the combined angel smiting but with the help of Rowena, she was able to heal her vessel. Rowena tried to convince the Darkness of her usefulness, adding that she could provide knowledge and help her design her world. Amara then tested her healed vessel by sending a powerful blast towards Heaven, which caused a heavy disturbance there as well as lightning on Earth.
Meanwhile, Crowley teams up with the Winchesters in hopes of using the Horn of Joshua against Lucifer. Sam and Dean however, believe that the weapon used by Lucifer can destroy the Darkness. They also prepared a trap in order to give Castiel some time to either reject Lucifer or leave his vessel. With the help of Rowena, they were able to finally summon Lucifer. Lucifer asked for the Hand of God but Dean tried to reach out to Castiel with a spell. However, Lucifer quickly regained control of the vessel, running out of time, Crowley possessed Lucifer but also failed to free Castiel. As the wardings could no longer hold Lucifer, he was about to kill Sam and Dean. In this moment the Darkness blasted through the walls of the building. After a short conversation, Lucifer obtained power from the Hand of God and released an immense blast on Amara to no avail as she was completely unharmed.
“
As God's favorite, his first son you may be the one thing in all of creation that he still cares about. The one thing that could finally make him show himself, so that I could confront him and he can acknowledge the wrongs he has done to me. And then he can witness the utter destruction of all his creation, before he himself is swept away.
”
— Amara in Hell's Angel
Amara confronts Lucifer.
Amara telekinetically pulled Lucifer, who was visibly shocked, to her. She released Sam and Dean from Lucifer's telekinetic grip and said to Lucifer that they need to have a chat, apporting them both away. Pinned against the wall, Lucifer tried to convince the Darkness that they both share anger towards God and that he is willing to team up with her. Amara eventually agrees, but not quite as Lucifer hoped: she came to think that Lucifer might be the proper tool to lure out God, since Lucifer might be the one thing in all of creation, that God still cares about. She announced that her brother will watch the destruction of all of existence before his own death. Amara raised her hands and began to torture her nephew, who subsequently began to scream in agony.[11]
Some time after she captured Lucifer, Amara unleashed a deadly fog on a small town, which captured the attention of Sam and Dean. They quickly came to realize that Amara is responsible for this. Influenced by Amara, an infected police officer told Dean that God wont save them and that everything that exists will vanish forever - except Dean and Amara herself. Once the fog threatened to cloud the whole city, most people hid in the police station, including Sam and Dean. They tried to prevent the fog from penetrating the police station, but eventually failed and Sam got infected as well. In desperation, Dean demanded God's help. Due to his conversation with Metatron, God came to think that he should not abandon his creations. Dean's amulet began to glow, implicating God's presence. God erased the fog and also healed and resurrected all the people effected by the plague.[12]
“
You really aren't worth sparing... None of you.
”
— Amara in All in the Family
Amara continues to torture Lucifer in an attempt to force him to call out to God and sends more fog to try to draw God out. When it fails, Amara projects an image of herself and Lucifer into Dean's mind to try to get him to let God know of Lucifer's predicament. Amara later contacts Dean again, asking to meet with him privately.
Dean eventually agrees to meet with Amara in a forest and she asks him to become a part of her and to give up his state of being. Amara and Dean both acknowledge the feelings they have for each other, even though Dean is frightened by their affections. Dean resists her desire for them to become one, and Amara realizes that he has met with God and is now protected from her mentally. Amara realizes that she has been betrayed and returns to her lair where Sam, Metatron and Donatello have rescued Lucifer. Metatron uses an angel banishing sigil on Amara, but she is simply amused by his efforts. Metatron tells Amara that God meant well and asks her to spare the universe. Enraged, Amara replies with a "spare this" and implodes him into nothingness.
As Sam, Lucifer and Donatello race away in the Impala, Amara appears in the middle of the road and stops the car. As she prepares to kill them, God teleports the car to the Bunker.[13]
“
If you won't change, why should I?
”
— Amara to God in We Happy Few
In search of God, Amara enters the home of Donatello and attacks him, demanding he tell her the whereabouts of God. When Donatello refuses, Amara absorbs his soul and gains the knowledge. She travels to Kansas and enters the Men of Letters' Bunker, after having taken down the wardings.
Amara inside the bunker
She appears on the war room table and notices God's mug, which she kicks out of annoyance. She then begins her search inside the bunker. She eventually enters Dean's room and finds a photograph of Dean with his mother, Mary Winchester, and appears to admire Dean's photo.
Suddenly, Rowena calls to her and offers to take her to God. Despite knowing it to be a trap, Amara leaves the bunker and heads to Rowena's location. Rowena urges her to go inside the warehouse, but Amara informs her of what she is aware. In response, Rowena attacks her with a lightning blast. Amara muses how it "tickles". She proceeds to mock Rowena for thinking one witch could harm her.
Rowena argues that she is not just one witch, and resumes her attack, this time empowered by other witches. This knocks Amara to her knees, but she soon rises up and deflects the spell, knocking Rowena away and killing the other witches. Just then, Heaven begins preparing for a combined smiting. Amara extends her arms out and screams as the blast comes for her.
The blast leaves Amara noticeably wounded but shortly after Amara finds herself attacked by demons in their smoke form. She struggles to swat them away, and the demons begin to levitate her into the air. Crowley exits the building and joins the fray, and hits Amara in his smoke form, knocking her into a car down below.
Now beaten and battered, Amara slowly marches in to the warehouse and discovers God waiting for her. They meet again for the first time since her imprisonment. She attempts to attack but Lucifer impales her from behind, injuring her further.
Amara admits defeat, saying God won and he should kill her, even if his reason for doing so may not be justifiable. Amara explains that she loved God, and they were equals together, but God went off and created lesser begins, such as the archangels, to boost his ego. God argues that life needed to be created, and that she wouldn't let him. He's sorry for what he did and begins sealing her away, this time using Sam as the bearer of the Mark.
Horrified, Amara strikes back and suffocates God, yelling
A wounded Amara meets God again for the first time in eons.
how she'd rather die a million times and kill him a million more before going back into her cramped cell. Lucifer tries to protect his father and charges at her again, but Amara simply sends him flying into a pillar and rips him out of Castiel's vessel, presumably killing him. Dean tries to defend God too but Amara deflects him as well.
God erupts in a ball of bright light and collapses onto the floor. Amara states that he's not dead, but dying, for she wants him to witness to destruction of everything he created. Upon declaring her intentions, Amara departs, apparently fully healed now. [4]
After Amara departs, she travels to a park where she notices that she is starting to be affected by God's state as well. While there, Amara meets an old lady who she talks about family with and despite how much the woman hates her son for trying to put her in a retirement home, she loves him anyway. Amara is emotionally affected by the discussion of family and upset as she reflects on what she did to her brother.
As the sun continues to die, Dean arrives armed with a soul bomb to kill Amara with. Amara explains that the universe is dying with God and her along with it. Amara admits to being conflicted on what she did to her brother to Dean who tells Amara that God doesn't want her dead either. Dean tells Amara about his fights with Sam but how at the end of the day he loves him anyway. After Amara mentions she thought her revenge would feel better than it does, Dean tells her it only feels good for about five minutes and urges her to find another way.
After speaking with Dean, Amara teleports God to their location and admits that he has created something beautiful. Amara explains that before God created the universe, it used to be just the two of them and she got jealous when he created other things. Amara tells God she knows they can't go back to before, but asks to have her brother back. God and Amara forgive each other and Amara heals the damage she did to God. After God removes the souls from Dean, he and Amara depart the Earth to have a "family meeting" to truly reconcile fully. Before leaving in a stream of darkness, Amara tells Dean that he gave her what she wanted most so she will do the same for him.
I spent millions of years crammed into that cage, alone and afraid, wishing - begging - for death, because of you! (...) I'd die a million times! Murder you a million more before going back there! Tell me, if you won't change, why should I?
Due to her long imprisonment, The Darkness has yet to learn many things about God's creations. She expressed confusion about why he created the world in which people suffer and die. She believes that her brother "screwed up" by creating the world while claiming that he tricked and imprisoned her for the sake of his own ego. She said that she wants to settle an old score ("the oldest score"), showing that she is still very upset about her younger brother. The Darkness is also shown to be impatient and easily angered when she is not given what she desires immediately, in keeping with her (then) current form of a spoiled young girl.[6][3] However, she is also able to recognize human emotions and can influence them in a positive manner; one of the humans who lost her soul to her described her as a goddess afterward and felt generally better.[9]
She also seems to have developed an affection towards Dean Winchester for setting her free and Dean seems to somewhat return this as he had opportunities to attack her, but couldn't. Now an adult, her affection seems to have developed into full romantic affection towards Dean as shown when, rather than consuming his soul, she passionately kissed him. Dean, in turn, has admitted that he feels something for Amara and is frightened by it.
Both Lucifer and Amara have alluded to her long-term plans, but with different connotations. Lucifer has claimed that, unlike God, whom he describes as "a master strategist", Amara is prone to tantrums and lacks experience. Whereas she told Dean her purpose is to become all that there is and remake the universe into a blissful state (although she refused to reveal any more details), Lucifer was frightened by her plan, saying the Apocalypse would be a better alternative. Lucifer has also claimed she was "determined to take over everything" before her imprisonment.[7]
Later, Amara used Lucifer as a tool to lure out God, since she believes that Lucifer is the one thing God still cares about and torturing him might make God to show himself.[11]
She eventually revealed more details about her ultimate goals. Still very angered about her brother, she told the captured Lucifer that she is about make God watch the destruction of all his creations before he himself is killed. She also told Rowena that the destruction of the old universe is a means to "renovate it" - turning it into the blissful world she intended.[11] Despite the fact she originally wanted solitude, Amara now seeks to have Dean be a part of her, so that she will not be alone anymore. Amara appears to have genuinely fallen in love with Dean. Dean himself acknowledges that he also reciprocates her feelings toward him despite how frightened he is of their connection, and the morality of their feelings.[4] This potentially shows that while she originally did not understand companionship, her bond and feelings for Dean have caused her to change somewhat, at least concerning Dean and herself if not others.
She has even showed a great fear of the Mark of Cain, claiming that she would rather die than be imprisoned again. She even claimed that during her imprisonment for eons, she kept praying and begging for her death, due to the Mark. This could imply that although she likes solitude, she does not like to be absolutely alone. She has even claimed that she has loved God more than he could ever imagine.
Amara heals her brother.
After getting her revenge, Amara started to regret her actions as despite everything God did to her, she still loved her brother. With the help of Dean, Amara came to realize that revenge just wasn't worth it and let go of her grudges. As God and his creation started to die, Amara truly started to see the beauty in everything and admitted it along with the real reason for her actions: jealousy. Amara had been jealous of not being all there was to God anymore after he created life and let it consume her with rage. After letting go of the jealousy and rage, Amara finally had what she truly wanted all along: her brother back which made her happy.
Characteristics
“
You have to understand this about the Darkness, she is relentless. A force beyond human comprehension.
”
— God in All in the Family
The Darkness was the beginning of everything; prior to her nothing else existed.[7] While walking among God's creation, she took the form of an adult human woman, but her true form looks like a dark cloud that corrupts living beings when they come in contact with it.[5]Death described her as an ancient and horribly destructive amoral force while God, her younger brother, described her as "nothingness".[2][12]
It is also implied that she would never change her nature; God himself tried to convince her that their creations could end up to be greater than themselves, but Amara always dismissed him and destroyed any world he created. Amara said that she only wanted solitude, whereas God wanted a "fan club", and Lucifer said she wanted nothingness. Even after being imprisoned since the dawn of time, she continued to wreak havoc upon the world as soon as she was unleashed and intends to annihilate all of existence in order to recreate the world the way she wants.[7][12] However, while she originally wanted solitude, she now wishes to have Dean be part of her, due to having possibly fallen in love with him due to the bond that they share, even though Dean is afraid of how he feels for her.
Being imprisoned and bound for billions of years had weakened the Darkness almost completely, but she quickly healed and regained her powers by absorbing human and demon souls, and even the grace of an angel. She already healed enough to withstand a combined, simultaneous smite from every Angel in Heaven and could effortlessly overpower an archangel. God stated that if it was just him and Lucifer, they would lose a war against the Darkness, suggesting she is more powerful than God himself; this is confirmed during their first confrontation after she returned, when she was hit by lightning from a coven of witches, another smiting by the Angels, a mass attack by demons, and stabbed by Lucifer, she still stopped God from trapping her again and badly wounded him before walking away. This means Amara is the most powerful being in existence.
The Darkness can easily annihilate angels
Immortality - The Darkness is immortal. Even the combined power of all the angels caused her no permanent harm.[10] She was also unfazed by a Hand of God-empowered Lucifer. However it's been stated that she can die as she asked her brother God to kill her.
Nigh-Invulnerability - Considering her ability to stand against God and his archangels, the Darkness has immense resilience to physical and supernatural attacks.[2][7]
Nigh-Omnipotence - Castiel describes The Darkness' power level as near infinite, and she describes herself as mightier than God.[6] In fact, she is so powerful that he couldn't defeat her without the archangels, and their combined power was only enough to seal her away, by tricking her first. Even weakened after a combined attack from witches, demons, angels, and Lucifer, she managed to overpower and fatally wound God, while keeping Lucifer at bay. Among the powers she showed were:
Reality Warping - While she conversed with Dean, her smoke form was still expanding, causing immense winds. However, they were completely unaffected by them, indicating that she has tremendous control over the physical Universe.[5] Her power was evident when she turned a water fountain into blood.[7] She claims to be able to destroy all of God's creation.[11] Prior to the creation of the current universe, she destroyed multiple worlds God created.[12]
Conjuration - She is said to be able to create a whole new reality in which everyone lives blissfully forever, but Lucifer disagrees.[7][11][13]
Flight - The Darkness, while disembodied, can fly in a similar manner to demons and angels without a vessel.[5]
Weather Manipulation - As The Darkness expanded on Earth, she caused powerful winds.[5][2] She also created a deadly storm with her mind that burned people to charred skeletons.[7]
Apporting - She was able to teleport Dean out of his car without a word.[5] Later, she apported him from a city to the countryside and back.[7][11]She was also able to apport her dying brother to the location she herself was.[14]
Telekinesis - In the form of Amara, the Darkness displayed telekinesis.[8] She forced an angel to kill himself with his angel blade[7] and even overpowered God.
Amara feeding on a demon.
Soul and Grace Consumption- After she was released, the Darkness started devouring human souls in order to heal and restore her former power. In her human form, she ate Deputy Jenna Nickerson's soul which made her grow into a little girl and later a preteen girl.[8][6][9] She has since consumed many souls (including demon souls). It's revealed that she can also consume the grace of angels, as she consumed Ambriel's grace.[10]
Corrupting Affect - The Darkness' presence is a corrupting force to whatever it comes in contact with. The Mark of Cain corrupted anyone who wore it, turning them into a killer.[2] When released, those who came in contact with the pure form of the Darkness turned into a meaningless killer.[5] Reaper Billie told Sam that he was "unclean in the biblical sense" from being infected by a Rabid.[8] She can also speak to the Rabids, driving them insane.[13] She often released a deadly fog which turned humans into Rabids and connected humans to her.[12]
Empathy - The Darkness can feel and influence the emotions of humans.[6][9]
Smiting - Just by raising her hand, the Darkness was able to kill an angel with a similar effect to an angel blade.[7] After exorcising Lucifer from Castiel, Amara caused him to explode into nothingness.
Power Negation - With a wave of her hand, Amara was able to negate Lucifer's hold over the Winchesters.[11]
Torturing - She was able to torture Lucifer by pointing her hand at him, which caused him to extreme pain and exude light from his chest and eyes.[13][11]
Sedation - With a wave of her hand, Amara was able to knock Lucifer out.[13]
Mental Projection - Amara was able to project an image of herself and Lucifer into Dean's mind to pass a message to God and later to ask Dean to meet with her.[13]
Implosion - After Metatron fails to harm her with an angel banishing sigil, Amara imploded him into nothingness by surrounding him with darkness.[13]
Electrokinesis - She tortured Lucifer with powerful electrokinesis that burned his face.[13]
Super Strength - The Darkness was easily able to throw a grown man with enough force to kill him.[7] The Darkness also blocked an attack from Castiel with ease and threw him several feet away with barely touching him.[10]
Superhuman Endurance - She has displayed significant tolerance for extreme physical & psychological trauma. This was seen when, despite the combined massive attacks from Rowena, Demons, Angels and Lucifer, she was still able to move and walk up to God.
Regeneration - Amara has shown a healing factor. When she was wounded by a massive angelic smite, she absorbed an Angel's grace and took help from Rowena in order to restore her powers. However, after being fatally wounded by a massive angelic smite, full scale demonic attack, Crowley attacking, and Lucifer's Spear, she regenerated only minutes afterward.
Omnipresence (formerly) - The Darkness was once all there was. She announced that she will one day reestablish that state. When Sam was talking with Lucifer in Hell, he said that she was possibly "everywhere on Earth". Shortly after the Host of Heaven unleashed an immense blast on her, part of her essence was split from her main body and the whole area was clouded in darkness.[7][10]
Nigh-Omniscience - Although she is still learning about the Universe that God made while she was locked away, she was immediately able to speak the English language.[5][6]
Mandatory Existence - Amara's existence is necessary and provides balance to reality. As God put it, "Light needs Dark", and "Dark needs Light". If she were to be killed, reality itself would end. However, it was said that if both God and the Darkness were to die, a new balance would be established.
Weaknesses
Despite her immense power, she has weaknesses, and can be sealed away or even killed. However, it takes extreme levels of combined power as even a Hand of God used by Lucifer, which is capable of hurting Archangels, caused her no harm when used alone.[11] God is the only being powerful enough to kill Amara, but he chooses not to as he says that the Darkness (Amara) and the Light (God) must both exist for the Universe to maintain balance, if either God or The Darkness cease to exist, the other also ceases together with reality itself. Thus, God opted to seal her away.[14][4]
Harming and Banishing
Combined forces of powerful beings - The combined strength of God and the Archangels was strong enough to bind the Darkness and seal her with a lock, albeit barely.[2] God is also able to kill her. An attack by an army of demons, in smoke form after an attack by witches and a mass-smite by angels somewhat weakened Amara.[4]
The Mark of Cain - The Mark of Cain was the "lock" to the prison that held the Darkness back. As long as someone bore the Mark, the Darkness would remain sealed.[2] Amara has displayed a great fear of the mark of Cain, claiming that she would rather finally die than be imprisoned by that Mark.[4]
Diminishing Spell - This spell was able to harm and weaken her vessel to some degree.[4]
Lucifer's Spear - After a combined attack of angels, witches and demons it was capable of harming her vessel to the point of her admitting defeat.[4]
Light - According to God, a massive amount of light equivalent to 10,000 suns going supernova at once could potentially destroy the Darkness.[14]
Soul Bomb - A bomb made up of a couple hundred thousand souls could potentially emit enough light to destroy the Darkness.[14]
Mandatory Existence Compromised - If God were to be killed, the imbalance would result in the annihilation of everything that exists, including the Darkness.[14]
Some religions have similar structure to what the Darkness is.
The terrible battle between God and the Darkness bares some similarities with the first day of creation in Genesis (God separated the darkness from the light).
Chaos/Nun in Greek/Egyptian mythology, which predated everything and created or from which the deities came from.[15]
Erebus and Nyx/Nox in Greco-Roman Mythology, Erebus being the male primordial embodiment of darkness, and Nyx/Nox being the female primordial embodiment of night/darkness.
Amatsu-Mikaboshi in Japanese Shinto Mythology, was originally a Shinto god of the Pole Star and the primordial chaos.
Ginnungagap from the Norse Creation Myth, was a primordial void.[16]
The name Amara occurs in many cultures and is ascribed a variety of meanings: "eternal" (German), "unfading" (Greek), "immortal" (Sanskrit) and "bitter" (Latin). In Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia, the word amara(h) means "anger" or "run amok". In Ethiopian legends, Amara is the name for paradise.
The Darkness's release was felt by both Michael and Lucifer from within the Cage, marking the first time since their imprisonment that both archangels have attempted to communicate with the outside world.
Since she was sealed by and bound to the Mark of Cain, she is the true source of The First Blade's power.
The Darkness is the fifth entity that was sealed away and later unleashed, the first being a huge number of demons, the second being Lucifer himself, third being Death and the fourth being the Leviathans.
Like previous major antagonists (Lucifer and Leviathans), The Darkness was sealed by God and released as either an unknown or unintended consequence by the series protagonists (Dean, Sam and Castiel) in their efforts to beat other antagonists or solve a major problem at the time, such as Lilith, Raphael, and The Mark of Cain.
After Famine and Crocotta, The Darkness is the third being in the series to consume or absorb human souls and demons for nourishment. However, unlike them, her consumption of souls is also her effort to make individuals that she likes a part of her and assimilate their traits into herself, rather than simple nourishment.
In addition to souls, she also consumes angelic grace and memories, which makes her the first being to feed on humans, demons and angels.
Her release set off alarms in Heaven and Hell and Purgatory that, according to angels and demons, hadn't gone off in "ever".
Monsters are also aware of the Darkness' existence, and that it is coming. Some are now building armies to make a stand and buy more time to survive.
The Darkness shares a lot of similarities with the Great Darkness from Hellblazer/Constantine, which was a major inspiration for Kripke and Supernatural. They are named similarly and both existed before God created light and was released as a form of an engulfing blanket of thick smoke. The way in which Amara was finally "defeated" is also very similar to the way the Great Darkness was "defeated".
The Darkness shares similarities with the First Evil from the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as both existed before the Universe, both can't be killed, both will exist even after the Universe ends, and are both considered the first evil force to exist.
Being God's sister and only kin makes her his only direct relative, unlike all other beings in the series that are only indirectly related to him, due to being his creations.
God and the Darkness are often described in polar terms. The Darkness has described God as the "light" and herself as the "dark". However, the difference between them is later described in more abstract terms. Whereas God is "being", the Darkness is "nothingness." Lucifer remarks that he does not believe that the Darkness can create, only destroy. This dichotomy alludes to Jean-Paul Sartre's work L'Être et le néant (literally translated as "Being and Nothingness"). God later confirms this, adding that dire consequences would result if the balance was upset by one of their deaths.
The Darkness is one of the few Supernatural main antagonists not to be killed or destroyed at the end of her story arc.
The Darkness is the third Big Bad to realign themselves with good during Season 11, the other two being Lucifer and Metatron.
