Darkness
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Darkness is a force parallel to Light, an element for Synthesis items, and is also used in the form of attacks in the Kingdom Hearts universe. Often associated with evil, Darkness has been known to cause people to lose their hearts to it if they have delved too deep into it. Slowly surpressed and conquered by its influence, these unfortunate souls become Heartless. Those who follow the path of Darkness often gain untold power at the expense of something of their former selves, but this is not always the case.
When a soul with a strong heart becomes a Heartless the body they left behind will begin to act of it's own accord. Often these "shells" or "husks" are in essence reborn in a different location with the occassional difference in their physical appearance from their former self. The being created from someone losing their heart is known as a Nobody. It should be noted that not all beings that become Heartless create Nobodies, the reasons for this are still unknown.
Weapons and Special Uses of Darkness
King Mickey's Mickey's Keyblade, Darkside (Mickey's Keyblade), is a Darkness Keyblade which he collected from the Realm of Darkness. Other notable Darkness Keyblades are the Dark Keyblade, Soul Eater, and Oblivion. The alignment of most Keyblades are still unknown at this point, leading to mostly speculation from the community on their alignments and meanings.
Darkness is also seen being manipulated into attacks by the Heartless and Nobodies, and to a greater degree Maleficent, the members of Organization XIII and Riku. Sora can also slightly manipulate Darkness in Kingdom Hearts II through his Drive Form with the randomly occuring Anti Form, in which Sora becomes his "Darkness" self which many have considered his Heartless form. Sora's Anti Form bears many similarities to that of Anti-Sora. Darkness is also an element used in multiple forms of Magic, the most notable being Gravity and Magnet.
With Darkness being a constant threat in the universe Moogles and other developers have learned to create garments, armours and accessories that will defend against it's harmful effects. Some of these items are seen as simple things such as the Midnight Anklet, Champion Belt or even the infamous Black Cloak worn by the members of the Organization.
Among the many uses of Darkness is the ability to use it for transportation. Experienced users of Darkness are able to open a Corridor of Darkness to travel between locations with a great degree of speed, however these are physical corridors of Darkness and prolonged or repeative use of these lanes of travel with often allow Darkness to manifest deeper within a being leaving them more vunerable to its negative effects in the long run.
Negative Effects of Darkness
Besides being one of the major elements for creating Heartless and Nobodies, Darkness can slowly alter the appearance of beings the more they're subjected to it. The general effects on strong willed beings are darkening of their skin, similar to that of a tan, and their eye colour changing to that of an amber. This was most noted with Xehanort in his Heartless and Nobody form, and with Ansem to a lesser degree.
The progressive loss of identity, more often seen as the loss of memories, is also a negative effect of continued exposure to Darkness. This is often an instant effect in the case of Heartless and Nobodies, but in stronger beings their memories and identity will slowly fade as is seen with Ansem the Wise.
It should be noted that continued exposure or one accepting the darkness can also lead to some interesting effects. On two unique occassions Darkness has been seen to be able to physically transform a being into a different appearance. The first was with Riku accepting the Darkness in his heart and changing to the form of "Ansem" and the second, to preserve his sanity and identity, was with Ansem the Wise becoming DiZ.
