Darkhold

"Look, if the internet is a garden hose, this book is Niagara Falls, blasting the universe's deepest thoughts through your eyeballs." "It's a piece of technology, a tool." "So's a grenade, until it's in the hands of a child."

- Holden Radcliffe and Melinda May

The Darkhold, also known as the Book of Sins or the Book of Spells, is a book that allows the reader to build the things they want the most. The book is made of dark matter from the Hell dimension.

Search for the Darkhold
"Well, you know where to find it?" "No one ever has. Not Daniel Whitehall, not the Red Skull, not even Nick Fury himself."

- Robbie Reyes and Phil Coulson

The Darkhold was created in Hell dimension and was made of dark matter. It was said to contain infinite knowledge. Over the course of history, many individuals searched for it, including Red Skull, Daniel Whitehall, and Nick Fury. In the 21st century, Lucy and Joseph Bauer found it in the basement of the home's former owner and opened it. When Lucy touched it, she discovered she could read the text in English. When Joseph touched it, he could read it in German. As she studied the Darkhold, Lucy became obsessed with it.

Momentum Labs
"It was a mistake. We never should have taken it. We should've left it buried!"

- Joseph Bauer

It helped Joseph to build the Quantum Particle Generator in Momentum Labs to allegedly create matter out of thin air when in truth the machine was siphoning energy from another dimension. The engineer of the project, Eli Morrow, desired the book for himself. He tried to reason with Joseph to give him the book, but he refused to give it to him. One day, Morrow put all the Momentum Labs workers inside the machine in order to kill him and take the book for himself. He personally attacked Joseph, but the latter refused to tell him where he had hidden the Darkhold, so he put him into a coma. Unbeknownst to Morrow, Bauer and three of her co-workers Hugo, Frederick, and Vincent transformed into spiritual entities, contained within the special box created with the Darkhold's knowledge. Years later, Lucy visited Joseph and snapped him out of his coma to get the current location of the Darkhold.

Targeted by S.H.I.E.L.D.
Upon heading back to where the Darkhold was found by her and Joseph, Lucy found herself unable to read it in her current state. In order to get the Darkhold read, she and her remaining ghosts Hugo and Vincent had to infiltrate South Ridge Penitentiary in order to spring Eli Morrow from his prison. Lucy was successful in her mission at the cost of Hugo and Vincent who were taken out by Ghost Rider. At the Pasadena Momentum Laboratory after killing the security guards there, Lucy had Eli touch the Darkhold and the text appeared before them in Spanish.

With the knowledge of the book, Morrow managed to rebuild the Quantum Particle Generator in an old Roxxon Corporation powerhouse. As S.H.I.E.L.D. stormed into the building, Phil Coulson found the Darkhold unguarded. He asked Melinda May to bring it back to the Quinjet and hide it. Following Coulson and Leo Fitz sudden vanishing, May thought about using the Darkhold to save them. She told that to Alphonso Mackenzie, but he tried to talk her out of it, claiming that Coulson had explained that the book was dangerous. In the Playground, May showed Holden Radcliffe the Darkhold and asked him to read it in order to save Coulson and Fitz. Radcliffe read the book but immediately closed it, saying that it was too much knowledge for a human mind. May tried to convince him to use the knowledge, however, it was Radcliffe's android assistant, Aida, who volunteered to read the book. With the knowledge she received, Radcliffe built for her the Inter-Dimensional Gate and Laser-Coupling Gloves, which helped her bringing Coulson and Fitz back to Earth.

Targeted by Holden Radcliffe
While reading the book, apparently, Radcliffe noticed a way to prevent death. The idea corrupted him and he developed an obsession for the Darkhold. As part of his plan to steal the book, he programmed Aida to appear as if she had become self-aware via reading the Darkhold as well as taking May hostage and replacing her with an LMD. He planned that Aida would be seen as though she wanted to steal the book for herself. At the same time, Director Jeffrey Mace hid the book in his office and cloaked it. He and Coulson figured out that it was for the best that the Darkhold be destroyed. Radcliffe then initiated his plan, as Aida attacked the base and stole the book. However, Aida was destroyed and Coulson retrieved the Darkhold in the process. Coulson brought the book to Billy Koenig, who passed it to his brothers. When LT Koenig returned it to Billy, he hid it inside the Labyrinth. The Watchdogs, assisted by Radcliffe, tried to take the book, but were stopped by S.H.I.E.L.D. However, LMD May took the book and brought it to Radcliffe. Anton Ivanov wanted to use the book to kill both Inhumans and Coulson.

Ivanov read briefly the book, which gave him the answer to use Radcliffe in order to fight the Inhumans. Radcliffe later also read the Darkhold.

Aida's Plan
Under Holden Radcliffe's request, Aida used the Darkhold to improve the Framework so it would be a virtual world. With the knowledge provided by the Darkhold, Aida created a full Life-Model Decoy body for the severely wounded Anton Ivanov. While Ivanov's head was inside a jar, his brain controlled the body remotely.

The Darkhold showed Aida how to accomplish her ultimate goal: to become a human being. Using the Quantum Batteries, Aida could create for herself a human body, so she would no longer be bowed to Radcliffe's protocols. Leo Fitz designed for her the machine inside the Framework (known as "Project Looking Glass") and Ivanov's men built it on his oil platform. Aida successfully created a living body with Inhuman abilities.

Ivanov told Aida that with the help of the Darkhold, they could make the real world to become its replica in the Framework. Due to Aida's creation, a rift in Hell was created. The Spirit of Vengeance inside Robbie Reyes wanted to retrieve the Darkhold to Hell and kill Aida. Reyes passed to the other side and returned to Earth and came after the book. Aida managed to escape with the Darkhold before the Ghost Rider could get his hands on it. Later on, Ivanov, controlling LMDs of himself and Sergei Mishkin, brought the Darkhold to the International Inquiry Committee and told the attendees to read the book, intending for it to corrupt their minds to make them follow his anti-Inhuman crusade. However, Ghost Rider managed to steal the Darkhold before that could happen. Afterwards, though Reyes asked to take the Darkhold, Phil Coulson asked that he wait, intending to use the book to lure Aida into a trap. Thus, Coulson held the book close to him when he returned to the Playground. When Aida came for him, having been fooled by Fitz into thinking he was planning to use the Darkhold against her, he revealed himself to be possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance and used its power to destroy her. Afterwards, Coulson handed the book to Reyes, who then opened a portal to Hell and took the Darkhold with him, ensuring it can never corrupt any more innocent lives.

Capabilities
The Darkhold provides the reader the instructions to make their desires come true, written in the language the reader would fully understand. The instructions guide the reader to their ultimate goal by showing them how to build items, some of which harness energy from other dimensions. Therefore, even brilliant scientists, like Leo Fitz, cannot understand how the creations work.

However, the secondary ability of the book is to corrupt the reader's mind and create a dangerous obsession over the Darkhold. A person who has used the Darkhold for a long time may not want others to even touch it. Even a brief skim through the book could corrupt the reader's mind, like in the case of Holden Radcliffe, who allowed himself to betray his friends simply to regain possession of the book. Abiotic beings, such as the Life-Model Decoy Aida, can also become corrupted if they read the book. The Darkhold can even corrupt people who have yet to read it; an example is Eli Morrow, who attempted to murder his Momentum Labs coworkers after learning the capabilities of the machine they were building.

Known Inventions

 * Quantum Particle Generator: It was created by Lucy Bauer and Eli Morrow. Morrow then used the machine on himself to gain the power to channel quantum energies from Hell in order to create matter. He even stated that he was becoming a "God", though this was never seen.
 * Quantum Batteries: Created by Joseph and Lucy Bauer. The batteries harness quantum energy from another dimension. A larger Quantum Battery was created by Eli Morrow.
 * Inter-Dimensional Gate: Created by Aida and Holden Radcliffe. The machine opens a gate to other dimensions.
 * Laser-Coupling Gloves: Created by Holden Radcliffe. The gloves summon energy from other dimensions.
 * Quantum Brain: Created by Aida. It is made out of light and power the Life-Model Decoys.
 * Improvement of the Framework: Done by Holden Radcliffe and Aida. They developed the Framework from a training virtual simulation to specific detailed virtual world.
 * Life-Model Decoy Body: Created by Aida. Anton Ivanov's brain controls the body remotely as it functions as Ivanov's body.
 * Project Looking Glass: A project created by Leo Fitz in the Framework that Ivanov's men built on his oil platform. Aida used it to create a living body with Inhuman abilities for herself.

Trivia

 * In the comics, the Darkhold is the ultimate dark grimoire, a collection of all evil spells in existence that was gathered by the Elder God Chthon. It serves as the antithesis of the Book of the Vishanti. Pages of the Darkhold were copied into the Book of Cagliostro.
 * The cover of the book features an ambigram, which makes the writing on it reads "Darkhold" from both directions.