#dark!merlin

[whamber]

Merlin corruption arc feat. toxic yuri mergana

[justaz]

thinking fondly on my ancient wip of merlin roughly like 7000 years after arthur dies or something, after the world is ravaged by nuclear war & climate change and humanity is driven back to like the goddamn stone age or something, giving up on waiting patiently bc?? arthur still hasn't returned??? even as every land in the world was ravaged by the fire of human innovation????? when albion and every other nation was destroyed?? anyway he gives up on waiting and becomes the spark to bring arthur back by force. he becomes the evil wizard terrorizing and brutalizing the people of the land without remorse bc?? he's lived countless lifetimes, these mortal lifespans are no more than a blink of time in his eyes so what does it matter if they die a little earlier all in the name of bringing arthur back. ummm anyway i don't think i got that far into it but it was gonna be evil/morally grey? merlin vs new age round table + morgana and arthur and co rise up to fight against merlin's tyranny, morgana using her magic for good while merlin uses his for evil for a change. um. idk anything beyond that tho

[tongjaitongjai]

an alternate universe in which Merlin eventually loses it after waiting for Arthur for so long.

He watched Camelot fall. He waited and waited for so many centuries. He witnessed many disasters rampaged the world, yet Arthur was still in his slumber. He started doubting if Arthur would wake up at all, and that was the start his ruin.

Immortality eventually destroyed every trace of the kind boy he once was. Madness and loneliness consumed him. The guilts he had carried for thousand of years took him apart. Eventually, the only thing that was left in his monstrously powerful and everlasting body was pain and glimpses of memories of Arthur.

And finally, Arthur was back as the ‘hour of need’ finally arrived, as the world needed him to save it from the destruction that was once Merlin.

[stressed-and-queer]

Dark Merlin and Arthur Au

This is just a snippet of an idea I had. I'm still figuring out bits and pieces for the Au. This is basically what Merlin would do if Arthur was ever captured :)

"So, I hear you know where Arthur is," Merlin says, leaning against the wall. His arms crossed as he glares daggers into the bandits very soul.

"I already told ya, I don't know," The bandit frowns, his eyes glued to the ground as he tries to squirm in his seats. He can't move though, the chains Merlin enchanted tightening every time he moves. They have to be digging into his skin by now with how much he has already moved. And yet, a desperate growl of frustration escapes the bandit as the chains travel around his body like snakes, only getting tighter.

"Idiot"

Merlin thinks as he shakes his head, rolling his eyes at the sight in front of him. He pushes himself off the wall, walking towards the bandit, his footsteps echoing throughout the darkened room. Merlin can see the bandits head shoot up at the sound of his footsteps.

"You know," Merlin begins, his fingertips sliding across the tip of the chair the bandit was in as he leans in.

"I know that's a lie," he continues with a frown. His voice is lower, darker, there's frustration to be heard with his impatience.

"I'll admit, defeating us in that surprise attack was.... impressive. But, you had help didn't you?" Merlin says, gripping the chair and leaning it back so he can look the bandit in the eyes.

"I....I," The bandit begins.

"Shhhh. That's not important right now. What is important, however, is that gigantic mistake you made. Talking Arthur," Merlin continues with a scowl on his face.

"So, just tell me where Arthur is, and this can all be over with," Merlin finishes. He waits a moment, but the Bandit says nothing. Merlin let's out a disappointed sigh as he lets the chair go, watching it wobble on its legs as he backs up.

"Fine, we'll see this the hard way," He says. Merlin's eyes turn gold as he whispers under his breath, a ring of fire surrounding the bandit, who looks up in shock. Looking at Merlin as if he was just now realizing who he was dealing with, watching the ring if fire get ever so close to him as he struggles to get out of his magical bounds that only hit tighter. Merlin watches the bandit thrash around with no success as smoke fills the room. The bandit coughs, looking around, the fire inching closer. Merlin's sure he can feel the heat if it by now.

"Alright fine! We were hired by Bayard to stage a bandit attack so we could capture Arthur," The bandit screams, looking at Merlin. The sorcerer's eyes flash gold and the fire slows down, the bandit letting out a sigh of relief.

"So it was a staged attack then? " Merlin asks. The bandit nods his head and Merlin stands there for a second, taking in the information.

"And who helped you," Merlin asks.

"I don't know who it was but Bayard offered some sorceress a lot of money if she helped us get Arthur," the bandit explains. Merlin nods his head, walking towards the door. As he does,the fire starts to inch it's way back towards the bandit.

"Hey! You said if I told you, you'd let me go," the bandit shouted in panic. Merlin stops in his tracks and turns his head so he's looking at the bandit.

"All I said was that it would all be over with, I never said how it would end for you," Merlin says, walking out the door and closing it behind him.

[crimson-roses56]

I love the idea of horrible mean gruesome rulers Merthur. Just a young king and his court sorcerer. Who are both equally fucked up from the shit they had to endure.

[vikingsong]

WIP Whenever (9/14/23)

In which Merlin issues a pointed reminder to an insubordinate dragon…

“We are your kin, yet you spend nearly all your time with the humans,” the dragon said, tilting his chin up.

Merlin idly flicked his fingers to ignite a mote of golden flame in his hand. “That’s because it serves our plan, or have you forgotten?”

“Your plan,” the dragon countered. “How can you claim to know what’s best for us when you hardly know us?”

Merlin rolled his eyes. “I know you well enough. I named you—”

The dragon cut him off in a brazen display of insubordination. “You may be our Dragonlord”—the concession carried a bitter edge—“but that doesn’t mean you know us.”

Merlin pressed his lips into a thin line, fixing his eyes on the flame balancing on his fingertip.

The dragon evidently mistook his silence as agreement. “You have our obedience by birthright, but not our trust,” the dragon continued, huffing a sulfur-laced laugh, “and yet you make no effort to earn it.”

An icy silence hung between them like the desolate void between stars.

After a long moment, Merlin glanced up. “Quetzalcoatlus northropi,” he enunciated crisply before turning his attention back to the small flame resting in his palm. He rolled it over his knuckles like a coin. “I could reduce you to a heap of bones with barely a thought, and I could reassemble your skeleton by hand from memory. I know you.” He looked up at the dragon and arched an eyebrow. “The question is: do you know me?”

The dragon pulled his wings in close to his sides, and the burnished gleam of his scales dulled as he bowed his head.

“Don’t presume to know what I do and do not understand.” Merlin closed his fist, extinguishing the flame. As a puff of smoke curled out from between his fingers, he added, “Keep that in mind the next time you doubt my judgment.”

[hobbitofgallifrey-art]

Shockingly, I’ve never drawn anything for Merlin! I’ve thought about this role-reversal au before, in which it is Merlin instead of Morgana who becomes drawn to dark magic, so thought I’d finally make use of it for some art!

[excalibros]

thinking about merlin and immortality and vampires and the cup of life