ancient evil
Old, dark force
Ancient evil describes a malevolent force imagined as having existed since time immemorial—something that predates recorded history and carries accumulated power or corruption.
The phrase appears constantly in fantasy, horror, and video games: An ancient evil stirs beneath the mountain, They awakened an ancient evil that should have remained buried.
It's become something of a cliché, the go-to explanation for whatever dark power threatens the protagonists.
- darknessTotal absence of light
- dark lordEvil supreme antagonist
- cursedUnder a malevolent spell
- demonMalevolent supernatural being
- malevolentHarboring ill will
forbidden · forbidden knowledge · tomb · relic · awakened · primordial · unholy · sealed · forgotten · eldritch · corruption · blood sacrifice · ritual · artifact · slumbering · crypt · summoned · plague
- fantasy tropesdragon, dragons, elf, elves, dwarf
- horror tropesjump scare, final girl, haunted house, masked killer, slasher
- scary storiesghost story, horror story, scary story, spine-chiller, campfire story
- story tropesquest, hero's journey, plot twist, chosen one, red herring
- Middle-earth RPGMiddle-earth, Tolkien, hobbits, elves, dwarves
- Gothicgargoyle, gothic fiction, pointed arch, gothic architecture, flying buttress
ancient, anciently, ancientness, evil, evils, evilly, evilness, evildoer