The Fable Wiki
Register
Advertisement
The Fable Wiki

The Corruption, also identified as Darkness, is an entity in the Fable universe that seeks to corrupt the world. First introduced in the form of the Darkness in Fable III, the Corruption returns as the antagonistic force in the game Fable: The Journey. It is led by the creature known as the Corruptor.

History[]

The Corruption has its roots in Albion's ancient history as well as that of the first Archon and Hero, William Black. In order to end the reign of the Court that established a stranglehold on Albion, William Black entered the dimension known as the Void and made a deal with the Sword of Aeons, the weapon of Jack of Blades that had the power to destroy the Court in exchange for his own soul. However this afflicted William with a terrible plague that began to waste his body away.

Many years after William Black defeated the Court and founded the Old Kingdom, he returned to the Void in an attempt to cast away the plague, fearing it would eventually rule Albion through him. This formed the Corruption, the Darkness, and their leader, the Corruptor, who grew stronger in the Void as the centuries passed.

In the waning days of the Old Kingdom, following the construction of the Tattered Spire, a rift was opened by such magical tower between Albion and the Void and so the Corruptor sent one of its liutennents, the Crawler, to attempted to conquer Albion. In a desperate attempt to stop it, three heroes, Sol, Blaze, and Stone attempted to seal the rift to stop the Crawler. The closing of this rift resulted in a gargantuan explosion that shattered the Spire, destroyed the Old Kingdom, and turned the three heroes into Willstones. Unfortunately for Albion and its people, the three heroes were not powerful enough to kill the Crawler, instead merely sealing it in the Shadelight dungeon in Aurora where it layed dormant for centuries.

Fable III[]

After the events of Fable II in which the Tattered Spire was rebuilt by Lucien's and its reactivation served to reawaken the Crawler five years prior to the events of Fable III. The Corruption, identified then as the Darkness, began its assault of Aurora, which quickly fell to its knees. Every night, the Crawler's children would roam the streets of the City of Aurora freely, attacking civilians at random and dragging them from their homes before retreating once more with the approach of dawn. It during this tumultous time that the current monarch of Albion, King Logan, went on an expedition to the desert continent, only to be attacked and nearly killed by the Crawler. After Kalin nursed him back to health, Logan promised to save the Aurorans, only to abandon them to the Darkness when he was told by Theresa in a vision that the Darkness would eventually invade Albion.

Five years later, similar events played out with the arrival of Logan's sibling, the Hero of Brightwall in their attempt to gather allies in order to lead a revolution and overthrown Logan. Fighting their way through Shadelight dungeon after washing upon its shores, only to succumb to the scorching heat and the relentless hallucinations of the Crawler, Kalin found them in the desert and united them with his/her companions, Ben Finn and Walter Beck. It was at this moment that Kalin asked the Hero to do what Logan failed to-protect her people from the Crawler. Agreeing to this request, Kalin pressed Aurora's navy into service during the revolution.

Exactly one year after the revolution took place and the Hero of Brightwall ascended to the throne the Darkness attacked Albion led by the Crawler with an army of shadows. The Hero himself led the defense and battled the Crawler who had possessed Sir Walter's body in the destroyed streets of Bowerstone defeating the creature and the Darkness in Albion and Aurora once and for all.

Fable: Edge of the World[]

Important Attention: Novel Content
This article or section contains information original to the novel Fable: Edge of the World, which is a licensed Fable work, but does not necessarily conform to Lionhead's Fable canon.

A decade after the events of Fable III the Darkness reappers, this time in the neighboring country of Samarkand ruled by the shady figure known only as the Empress who was believed to corrupt and ultimatelly killed the once benevolent emperor Zarak. Warned by a Samarkandian refugee the King of Albion leads his army into the Samarkand desert in order to once again defeat the Darkness. However this time the Darkness proves itself to be a much more fierce foe and the majority of the Albion forces are either killed while journing through the cursed lands of Samarkand or during combat against the Darkness.

Even though the King and his army are joined by poweful allies for the final battle in the capital city of Zahadar, the Darkness proves itself to be too powerful to the Albion forces and the King itself is defeated by the Empress corruption and imprisoned in the city's underground cells marking the Darkness first great victory against Albion.

Fable: The Journey[]

Forty years after the Hero of Brightwall was imprisoned at the hands of the resurgent Darkness at Samarkand, the Corruptor took a real opportunity to conquer Albion once and for all. Using a newly torn rift between the Void and Albion by the Tattered Spire, the Corruptor dispatched its other two lieutenants, The Devourer and The Temptress, to prepare for its arrival by destroying any possible threat and by building an army of corrupted creatures, like Balverines and Hobbes. Although The Devourer managed to wound the Seer Theresa, her recruitment of the Dweller Gabriel ultimately stopped the now properly addressed Corruption after the duo gathered the Willstones of the same three heroes that stopped the Corruptor centuries before, killing the lieutenants and closing the rift by destroying the Spire, sealing the Corruptor once again in the Void.

Nature[]

The Corruption, like the Darkness, is an extremely dangerous entity that kills or destroys anything it touches, only weakened by the light that it can consume. As Theresa explains at the end of Fable III, a world consumed by the Darkness would be devoid of colour and devoid of life. Although intelligent, the Darkness cannot be reasoned or bartered with, which makes its single-minded resolve to consume Albion that much more frightening.

Corrupted Army[]

In addition to lieutenants like the Devourer and the Temptress, the Corruption also fields a massive army of winged creatures called Harbingers and Shadows.

Cursing Power[]

In Fable: Edge of the World the Corruption was shown to be able to curse the subterranean water reservoirs of Samarkand and all who drank of the cursed water turned into Jakalas by sunset, the Samarkandian version of balverines. Unfortunatelly many soldiers of the Albion Army fell to the curse after drinking the tainted water and were thereafter killed by the non-cursed soldiers.

Possessing Power[]

The Corruption can also possess and consume various creatures forcing them to serve as puppet soldiers in its foul army. The only way that such creatures can be destroyed is with a proper application of light-based Will powers, such as those used by the old Hero Sol.

Up to Fable: The Journey the Corruption was shown to be able to possess the following living beings:

Notes[]

  • In an interview with Ted Timmins, it has been revealed that the Darkness is just one form of the Corruption, the antagonistic entity in the then upcoming game Fable: The Journey.
  • When first landing on Aurora, Jasper is not present in the Sanctuary, books are scattered everywhere, and as the Hero of Brightwall continues through the temple, Darkness begins to drip from the walls and ceilings. This also occurs during the battle at the end of the main quest-line.
Advertisement