Dark Fact (ダルク・ファクト) is a powerful sorcerer and the main antagonist of Ys I. One of the descendants of Cain Fact, one of the original Six Priests of Ys, he is responsible for the appearance of demons and the creation of the Stormwall in the sea that isolates Esteria.
History[]
Ironically, his descent to evil occurred after witnessing the murder of his parents, who warned people against mining Cleria ore, known in the present only as "silver". As more Cleria ore was mined from the mine in Esteria, the seal on the ancient evil that once threatened Ys became weaker until Dark Fact managed to break the seal on the Black Pearl, causing monsters to appear across Esteria.
In Games[]
Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished[]
Throughout Ys I, he is referred to as the mysterious cloaked man, who goes around stealing anything made of silver. This is due to the fact that his cloak is made of Cleria, so only the weapons made of silver would be able to pierce it and actually harm him. He was also responsible for kidnapping Feena, one of the goddesses of Ys, and putting her in the prison inside Solomon Shrine. It is unknown if he is responsible for her amnesia.
Eventually, he hears of the swordsman from the outside world by the name of Adol Christin, who started uncovering the relationship between the outbreak of monsters and the disasters that once befell Ys by collecting the lost Books of Ys. In order to prevent Adol from going further in his quest, Dark Fact murders Sara Tovah, who was helping Adol recover the Books. Nevertheless, Sarah anticipated her death and bequeathed the Book of Tovah to Adol, leaving written instructions to go to the Abandoned Mine to find the third Book, so Adol presses on.
After struggling to get to the 25th Floor of Darm Tower, Adol reaches the Tower Summit, and comes face to face with Dark Fact. Dark Fact congratulates Adol on getting that far and goes on to explain his plan to get to the floating island of Ys using the power of the Books of Ys and obtain whatever power that resides there. Stating that Adol has to die for the name Dark Fact to be inscribed into history, the sorcerer rises and engages Adol in his first real fight against a human opponent. After a brutal battle, Adol comes out victorious and the former descendant of Priest Fact of Ys disappears into flashes of light, leaving only his cloak and the final Book of Ys, Volume Fact, as remains.
Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys[]
As of the remake Ys: Memories of Celceta, this information is not canon.
When Adol met the third Sage Arya, Arya revealed the story of Celceta. His real name was Sieg Fact, and he was seeking for power to resurrect his master Darm. He was looking for the Mask of the Sun, but he only found its twin, the Mask of the Moon. After he stole the mask from the temple, a great catastrophe occurred in Celceta.
After Returning to Esteria, Adol visits the mines where the two goddesses sleep and temporarily awakens them with the Silver Harmonica. Feena and Reah tell him the rest of the story: the Mask of the Moon was the Mask of Eyes that Adol used when he met Feena the first time. Later, Gadis tried to resurrect Dark Fact using Keith Fact as a sacrifice, but he is saved by the goddesses, and thus Dark Fact returns to the dead.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- He is infamous for being one of the hardest bosses in the series because of his ability to remove the block where he was hovering above whenever he gets hit. Therefore, it is not advisable to attack him while he is on the middle of the battlefield at the beginning of the battle. Also, if Adol remains on the spot where the hole is getting generated, Adol gets killed instantly. As a result, it gets harder to move around as the battle goes on due to the holes' restricting Adol's mobility. Combined with a large number of fireballs that appear out of nowhere generated by Dark Fact's own magic throughout the battle, this makes Dark Fact a very tricky boss to beat.
- Dark is not a title he received after becoming evil, but actually his real name.
- It is not known why Dark Fact wishes to go to the floating island of Ys even though the source of all evils in Ys, the Black Pearl, was sealed in Esteria.
- His cloak, as mentioned above, is made of Cleria. Because of this, only the silver equipment, which is itself made of Cleria, can harm him. As a result, if the player doesn't equip all the silver equipment, including both the Silver Armor and Silver Shield, the battle against him becomes impossible to win. Should the fight be entered without the Silver Equipment, Dark Fact even mocks Adol (and by extension, the player) with this point before the battle as well. This is different in the MS-DOS/Apple IIGS version of the game where his dialogue does not change and he can be beat without any of the silver equipment.
- He is likely to be the descendant of Hugo Fact from Ys Origin, one of the Fact brothers who remained on Esteria after the events in Darm Tower, 700 years before Ys 1.
- As such, him falling to madness and assuming a demonic appearance after his parents' murder is likely a product of the demonic element Dalles implanted in Hugo Fact, similarly to what happened with Keith. Additionally, Dark Fact's text is colored red, just as Hugo's (or other human characters' who obtained demonic powers) text was also colored red, leading to an abnormal lust for power.
- In the Ys I OVA, Dark Fact is shown to be an accomplished swordsman as well as a powerful sorcerer. During his final fight with Adol, he is seen wielding a sword, presumably made of Cleria. He similarly demonstrated this ability in the animated intro for the Sega Saturn version of Ys II.
- He made a cameo appearance in Ys IX: Monstrum Nox along with other characters from the Ys series.