Dark Magic is an extremely powerful form of witchcraft that draws on malevolent powers, and may be used for dark purposes that deliberately cause harm in some way (e.g. to injure or kill, to cause destruction or misfortune, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences). In popular usage, the term "Dark Magic" is often used to describe any form of magic that goes against the Balance of Nature.
Dark Magic was first mentioned by Esther Mikaelson after she explained how she used Dark Magic to create the Original vampires. Abby also used Dark Magic when she desiccated the Original vampire, Mikael.
Bonnie would eventually turn to the dark arts in order to desiccate Klaus. Later, Bonnie Bennett resorted to using Dark Magic again, in an attempt to help her friend after the Spirits turned against her. However, after Bonnie is warned about the dangerous consequences that come with Dark Magic from her Grams, she plans to quit the Dark Arts for good. Though is quickly forced to use Dark Magic yet again by the infamous Klaus to place his spirit back inside his original body and subsequently having the spirits punish her through her Grams.
The Originals
Over a millennium ago, Esther sought out her sister Dahlia to make her fertile. Dahlia used dark magic to perform the fertility spell. Dahlia also used Dark Magic over the following years to link herself to Freya; perform the century slumber spell, channel Freya, make herself and Freya invulnerable and sense the newborn of each generation's magic. It is also possible that Dahlia used Dark Magic to link herself to Klaus and channel his immortality.
Like her sister Dahlia, Esther is also very skilled in the Dark Arts. Esther promised that if Dahlia took Freya, she would return to the Dark Arts and take revenge. Many years later, Esther used Dark Magic to perform a variation of Qetsiyah's immortality spell to turn her family into vampires. She then preceded to use Dark Magic to place the Hybrid curse on Klaus. Over a millennium later, Esther used Dark Magic with help of the Bennett witches to link all of her children together.
Dark Witches
Many dark witches have appeared throughout both The Originals and The Vampire Diaries. The term "dark witch" refers to any witch who has tapped into Dark Magic, either to perform something they weren't strong enough to do with Traditional Magic or as a means to empower themselves with far greater strength.
Dahlia: Dahlia is one of the darkest and most powerful witches in the history of time.
Esther Mikaelson: While not as powerful as her elder sister, Esther is still one of the most famous dark witches in history, notably known for creating the Original vampires.
Freya Mikaelson: While under the guidance of her aunt, Freya is well-versed in Dark Magic and is possibly more powerful than her mother, Esther.
Céleste Dubois: Celeste Dubois was a powerful witch who belonged to the New Orleans coven almost 200 years ago. Upon her death, she used Dark Magic to continue living in the bodies of different witches throughout the next two centuries.
Annie La Fleur was one of the witches Celeste possessed. She was later shunned by her coven for practicing dark magic, of which they had proof.
Valerie LaMarche: Valerie LaMarche was a very powerful witch who use Dark Magic to gain more power. Eventually, this obsession with Dark Magic caused Valerie to turn to the darkest form of magic known to man; Expression.
Davina Claire: Following her shunning from the New Orleans witch community, Davina joined a powerful coven of dark witches, known as the Sisters.
The Heretics: As a group of siphoner-turned vampires, the Heretics by default practice dark magic by siphoning power from their vampirism, a creation of dark magic.
Tremé Coven: The Tremé Coven are hardy witches of New Orleans known for making the majority of the witch community's known Dark Objects and producing famous dark witches such as Eva Sinclair and the Griffith Family.
The Kindred: The Kindred are a coven of dark witches obsessed with necromancy and immortality spells which eventually got them imprisoned the Asylum.
Cassie, the former Harvest Girl, eventually sided and perished alongside of them.
The Sisters: The Sisters are a coven of witches that solely practice dark magic and work as the personal coven for the Strix.
Former Dark Witches
Many Dark Witches are temped by the power and lose themselves to it, while other witches can utilize it for a single purpose or spell and remain pure.
Abby Bennett: At some point in time, the Original vampire, Mikael, came to Mystic Falls looking to kill the doppelgänger as a means to prevent Klaus from breaking his curse. Knowing that Elena Gilbert, the daughter of her best friend, Miranda, was the doppelgänger, Abby lured Mikael out of town and performed a spell that required Dark Magic to desiccate and imprison him inside of a crypt. Due to the spell, leaving Bonnie and/or punishment from Nature, she lost access to her magic.
Sheila suffers while Bonnie uses dark magic.
Bonnie Bennett: Bonnie Bennett is a very powerful witch. While Bonnie originally used Dark Magic to help her friends, like most witches, Bonnie became tempted by the Darkness and began to use this power more and more to protect her friends and family. She even went against the spirits in an attempt to save Elena and was punished by the spirits. Afraid of what she had done, Bonnie eventually turned to the darkest form of witchcraft in creation, Expression, just like Valerie LaMarche, though she had darker intentions.
Vampire Creation Spell: A modified version of Qetsiyah's immortality spell which, unlike it's older counterpart, worked ritualistically. The spell made its targets completely immortal, safe for the object called up for their immortality, as well as being physically superior to the werewolves in every aspect. Consequently, nature provided every weaknesses to their strength, affecting even more so, their vampire descendants to the point of fatality.
Incantation: Unknown
Requirements: Sun, White Oak Tree, Doppelgänger blood, Death of targets, Drinking of blood to complete transition
Used by: Esther used this spell on her children in order to protect them from the village's werewolves, spawning the first ever Vampires. Drawing from the Sun for life, one of nature's eternal objects for immortality and blood from Amara's doppelgänger. However, she soon regretted that decision.
Heart Stasis Desiccation Spell: A powerful spell that temporarily stops a human heart while an vampire's heart is being stopped so that the vampire can be successfully desiccated. It is also powerful enough to be used on a Original Vampire.
Directions: For the spell to work, it requires a balance amongst the living. To stop a vampire's heart, the witch must stop a human's heart as well. The spell also requires a physical connection to the vampire's bloodstream, such as a vein or artery (anything that is connected to the heart).
Used by: Abby Bennett-Wilson used this spell to desiccate Mikael and it nearly drained all of her magic. She later taught this spell to her daughter, Bonnie, to use on Klaus, who suffered no consequences at all upon performing the spell.
The Other Side Transcending Spell: The spell stops the heart of the witch who is performing the spell to induce death, while tethering them to their body. This allows the witch to successfully enter the Other Side and even bring someone back with them if they are powerful enough.
Incantation: Phasmatos Tribam, Mihan Veras Ractas, Mas Anima Mal Vita Caturam Hors. Suus Phasmatos Oproctum, E Tiamis Mihan Ractas, Somus Suster Gana. Phasmatos Tribam, Mihan Veras Ractas, Mas Anima Mal Vita, Caturam Hors. Somos Suster Gana, Phasmatos Tribam, Mihan Veras Ractas. Mas Anima Mal Vita, Caturam Hors. Revertas Phasmatis Ut Victas, Revertas Phasmatis Ut Victas, Phasmatos Tribum, Mihan Veras Ractas. Mas Anima Mal Vita, Caturam Hors.
Requirements: Dark magic
Used by: Bonnie Bennett has used this spell in order to pull Elena's spirit from the Other Side and stop her transition into a vampire. However, she was stopped by her Grams before she could help Elena.
Bonnie's Spirit Transference Spell: A powerful spell that allows the witch to place the spirit of a person into the body of another and vice versa. It seems that both the host body and the transfer body must be alive (or undead) and cannot work if either body is destroyed. It is unknown what happens to the soul of the body being possessed during the possession. Also allows one to bypass invitation barriers. The requirements are unknown, though it is hinted it requires blood from both bodies.
Incantation: Phasmatos Tribum, Nas Ex Veras, Radamis Phasmatos Ex Sonos. Resustamen Ex Veram Vatas. Radamis Phasmatos Ex Sonos.
Requirements: Dark Magic
Used by: Bonnie Bennett has used this spell on Klaus Mikaelson by placing him into Tyler's body, in order to keep his bloodline alive. She later on used the same spell to return Klaus to his own body. Esther used a similar spell to place Rebekah's soul into the body of another.
Possession Spell: A spell that is able to possess a person with the soul of someone else. The body which is to be possessed has to be unconscious and pumped with external blood.
Incantation:Somno Ritum Per Dax Ritum.
Requirements: Body for possession, Vials of blood
Used by: The warlock Maddox performed this ritual over Alaric Saltzman's mind so that Klaus could possess his body
Dispossession Spell: A spell that would reverse the effects of the Possession Spell.
Incantation: Phasmatos Tribum, Nas Ex Veras, Uenes Phasmatos Et Sonos. Ex Tutam Exum Lamia Matus.
Requirements: 2 witches to perform the spell, Semi-circle of lit candles, Body of possessed, Body of subject
Used by: Maddox and Greta Martin to allow Klaus to return to his body after his was done possessing Alaric.
Ancestral Plane Transcending Spell:A powerful yet simple suspension spell performed in a circle of salt, that allows a witch to gain access to the Ancestral Plane by stopping their heart with poison while the spell keeps them from permanent death as long as they maintain physical contact with a living person, serving as their life link. In order to return to the mortal plane, the witch is required to be at the place of the spell. There is one known loophole to this spell. Should an original vampire's spirit die within a witch and is consecrated to the ancestral plane, with this spell they will be able to temporarily return.
Davina's Incantation:Non-verbal (Unknown)
Vincent's Incantation:Préserver a la vie nu (or Prezeve lyen lavi nou)
Requirements:Candles, Circle of Salt/black sand, Life Link, Poison
Used by: Davina used this spell to gain access to the Ancestral Plane in order to speak with Kol about her plans for bringing him back. Vincent, along with Kol used this spell to access the Ancestral plane in order to untether it from the human plane.
Sireline Unlinking Spell:An extremely powerful spell, that is specifically a combination of all of Esther's sire bond and linking spells performed in reverse to undo the link pasted down from each new generation of vampires from the original.
Incantation: Nemo unus animabus carnem et sanguinem de ista duo. Sanquinatum venetus barkael meh.
Requirements: Kandahar root / Unsired vampire heart, Specific grammatical changes, Target Original Vampire, Pool charged with original blood
Used by: Davina has created this spell by combining all of Esther's linking and sire bond spells in reverse, though she still hasn't used it. Roughly a year later after it's inception, with Kol's help Davina was able to finish the spell with the correct ingredients, and revising the incantation to the first portion only. Davina and The Sisters use the spell on Elijah and Klaus; while participating in the spell, the majority of the witches were killed, leaving Davina only able to break Klaus' link to his sireline. The resulting release of mystical energy from many generations of vampires was strong enough to create a nexus vorti.
Soul Branding Ritual: A ritual used to reveal if a person is being possessed by said branded spirit. In order to brand a certain person's soul, the spell requires an item blessed by the witch in question, such as a talisman and the sacrifice of a python. After the spell is completed, a distinct mark will appear on the back of the hand of whoever is inhabited by the marked spirit. The spell is rooted in dark sacrificial magic.
Incantation: Le vu ut em bu l'espirit la vu sa.
Requirements: Item enchanted by target witch, Sacrifice of a python
Used by: Lenore performed this spell on the spirit of Esther Mikaelson, in order to reveal who she will possess next.
Dark Magic can be used however the practitioner desires; for benevolence or malevolence. However, due to the fact that Dark Magic is known to corrupt the practitioner by distorting the human perception between right and wrong, most practitioners of Dark Magic become malefic over the course of time.
Interestingly, Bonnie Bennett has used dark magic the most throughout the end of season three and early season four, and yet sill remains pure of intent.
In Night Has A Thousand Eyes, Freya mentions how sacred ground that's been stained in the blood of the innocents that were massacred creates a place of "dark power", based on her revelation it would be safe to say that such a place serves as a source of Dark Magic as well.
Dark Magic allows a witch to circumvent the common rules of witchcraft that apply to other forms of magic. Such examples include:
A dark witch's ability to reach the purgatory for supernatural beings by inducing death in themselves while returning to life is powered by the sheer force of will.
A dark witch's ability to access the Ancestral Plane despite not being an ancestral witch.
A dark witch's ability to return to life following the performance of a suspension spell depending on a life link despite that link being broken. This is powered by the witch's force of will as well.
Spells of possession are considered to consist of dark magic, though not all spells are out right stated as such.
While Bonnie's Spirit Transference Spell, and likely Maddox's, specifically requires dark magic, as seen with the blackened veins that occurred with Bonnie, we can speculate that other spells related to possession equally use or is at least combined with in order to achieve the spell's purpose.
This is most notable with Davina and Vincent's Ancestral Plane Transcending Spells, both of which called for the caster's death, though they utilized Ancestral Magic. This spell can be considered a 'sister-spell' (or similar) to The Other Side Transcending spell, original cast by Bonnie, both of which achieved the same purpose, to travel to a spiritual dimension. When Jeremy states what kind of magic would let her die, in order to bring someone and herself back, she told him that she had found a new source of power, which was later revealed to be dark magic.
Such an example is Lenore's soul branding spell which called for sacrificial magic, the sacrifice of a python, which is a subsection of dark magic.
Another example is the Traveler's passenger spell, which is rooted in possession, though it is never accurately stated that they've used dark magic specifically. This is the most likely case though as they sacrifice multiple people on several occasions to fuel their most potent spells.
Expression is an extremely powerful source of dark magic, it isn't even credited as magic by the witches.
Shane states Expression is neither good nor evil
Nandi LaMarche (in regards to expression) states that the magic her mother practiced was "unnatural". In We’ll Always Have Bourbon Street, wWhen Stefan (and Damon) asks if it is like 'Black' Magic, to which she replies that its worse than Dark Magic.
Many years prior, Nandi's mother, Valerie LaMarche states to Damon that the magic he sought was 'dark' and 'powerful' and that dark magic draws power from dark places. Casting the spell he needed would require the sacrifice of 12 human souls.
