Dark Knight (Final Fantasy XIV)

Dark Knight is a job in Final Fantasy XIV, introduced in the game's first expansion pack, Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward. Dark Knight requires no base class and begins at level 30, unlocked by completing the quest "Our End" offered by an Ishgardian Citizen at The Pillars (13, 8).

Profile
Dark Knight is a tank job, with similar abilities as Paladins and Warriors. The job wields greatswords. In battle, Dark Knights use magicks to infuse their blades with the powers of darkness to strike down their enemies and defend their allies. Most of their abilities involve draining HP from enemies.

Heavensward
After the citizen tells the Adventurer about Dark Knights, they eventually discover Fray. Confident that the Adventurer has the potential to become a great Dark Knight using the darkness within them, Fray instructs them to go on various heroic tasks and bring out the darkness within them and with every meeting, Fray asks them to commune with the voices they've been listening to to further strengthen their darkness. Later on, after helping innocents from the Amalj'aa in Eastern Thanalan, Fray tells the Adventurer that while they are close, they are not fit for the job, although they do not completely give up.

Eventually, cracks within Fray's mind become more visible over time and his body starting to wear, becoming disappointed with the Adventurer's sporadic communions with voices, along with the frustration over helping others with little to no compensation for their trouble. After slaying a gang of Qiqirn bandits at La Noscea and retrieving stolen goods, the adventurer is berated by the distressed original owner and demands compensation, causing Fray to have an emotional outburst over their deeds being unrewarded or worse, criticized.

Eventually, the darkness and frustration within Fray reaches an apex as he is later seen attacking the Whitebrim Front. The adventurer is alerted by Drillemont to attend to the scene. Fray eventually reveals his true identity as the physical manifestation of the Adventurer's own dark side, of everything the Adventurer has been wanting to say deep down inside. Fray's body falling to the ground lifeless as the dark aura around him coalesces into the form of the Adventurer, but wearing a dark suit of armor and a sword unlike theirs. The Esteem brandishes their sword with the intent of cutting down the Adventurer and becoming their own person, beholden to no one. The adventurer defeats the doppelganger, but tells them that they've now seen them for what they really are. However, Drillemont and the inhabitants at Whitebrim raise their voices, proclaiming that they would never forsake them for all they had done or even what they are, restoring the Adventurer's confidence and trust in those around him. the Esteem merely scoffs it off as mere willful ignorance, claiming that the Adventurer is more akin to Weapon of Light if they could be so easily controlled and hailed a a hero. The shade claims it's not too late to change now and free themselves, but the Adventurer, having come to an understanding, embraces the darkness and casts aside their doubt. Though the darkness leaves the Adventurer in peace, it claims it will be waiting still for when they finally tire of the "charade".

Some time after Fray's passing, the Adventurer meets an Auri Dark Knight named Sidurgu, an old friend of Fray who protects a female Ishgardian youth, Rielle, from devout Temple Knights who are on the hunt for her. Rielle eventually reveals that the Temple Knights are hunting her as she is the daughter of a heretic who drank the blood of a dragon. Moreover, the one leading the charge is her own mother Ystride de Caulignont of House Caulignont, which bears strong ties to the Ishgardian Orthodox Church. Ystride challenges the Dark Knights to a duel to determine Rielle's fate, per Ishgardian tradition. Faced with the possibility of having to fight the higher ranking Temple Knights from an influential House of Ishgard, Sidurgu seeks out more power. Their journey brings them to the Mourn in Dravania where, from a Dravanian acquaintance of Rielle's, discovers that the dark knights have ancient ties to Moghome. Upon journeying to Moghome, Rielle is kidnapped by a group of mischievous Moogles who threaten to keep her to themselves. This causes Sidurgu to fly into a blind, murderous rage as the Moogles taunt Sidurgu of her fate. With the adventurer's help he manages to push them into defeat where they then release Rielle. Through this farce, the Moogles taught Sid that the true power of the dark knight stems from love of those close to them. As a dark knight's power is tempered by pure emotion, an especially powerful one like love and the feelings that emerge from wanting to save and protect those closest to them, can draw out their true potential. Sidurgu initially denies this, but cannot deny that there is a hint of truth to it.

Equipment
Dark Knights wield two-handed greatswords in battle. They share "Fending" armor and accessories with Gladiators and Marauders, with the exception of specific artifact gear.

Job Gauge
The Job Gauge was introduced to players in 4.0 Stormblood. The Dark Knight uses the Blood Gauge. The Blood Gauge features a heart-shaped blood-red gem set on a base covered with blue spikes. The gauge indicates whether the Dark Knight is in a defensive stance (Grit). When Grit is in efect, the Dark Knight's ability to repel damage increases but their ability to deal damage decreases.

The Blood Gauge also incorporates a sword shaped gauge that displays how much Blackblood the knight has accumulated. The gauge is refilled by certain weaponskills, such as Souleater, and is spent by other weaponskills, inclulding Delirium and Bloodspiller, for higher damage.

Role Actions
Role actions are abilities common to classes and jobs with the same role. Jobs can select and use up to five role actions, while classes can select and use up to ten.

Additional PvP Actions
These actions are common to all jobs, and can only be used in PvP areas. The number of additional actions that can be set is limited to two.

PvP Traits
These traits are common to all jobs, and only take effect when in PvP areas. The number of PvP traits that can be set is limited to three.

Limit Break
Dark Knights' Limit Breaks focus on drastically raising the defense and magic defense of the entire party for a short period of time. Dark Knight has the same Level 1 and Level 2 limit breaks as other Tanks.

Trivia

 * The journal entries for the Dark Knight are much more personal in nature and only become increasingly more aggressive over time, extending to even the in-game objectives themselves. This appears to be the power of the soul crystal itself at work, heavily implying a level a sentience as well as Fray's real identity.
 * The Dark Knight class has a few references to Cloud Strife:
 * The male idle pose when their weapon is drawn is based off of his iconic pose with his sword slung over his shoulder
 * Similarly, the Victory Pose emote is note for note the same as Cloud's
 * The second mentor of the Dark Knight job, Sidurgu, wields a large two-handed sword, has spiky hair greatly resembling Cloud's though colored white and a brooding personality.