The Absent Darkness

I am most prominently known online as The Absent Darkness, or just Absent for short. I am an kind and energetic Christian who does art, music, gaming, and just have fun above all. This page is all about what's happened in my life so far!

Early Life

I was originally born in California, but later moved to Montana at around the age of 4. It was also around that time when I played my first video game (at least from what I remember): God of War. That was the first game I played mostly on my own, and I began getting into more games like the WWE games, Jak & Daxter, and more. When Dead Space came out in 2008 (when I was in first grade), it quickly became my favorite game of all time. I played through the game a lot, to the point where it was almost an obsession.

The Saga is Born

Less than a year later, when I was in second grade, I started studying space and the universe, all thanks to Dead Space. At around the same time, I wanted to create my own story. Sometime in November of 2009, I created a (very) short story titled Cole. It followed a teenager who finds a pair of alien gloves and fights off an alien invasion single-handedly. All the friends I told about it loved it, so I decided to make some sequels. Eventually, the Cole series ended with a fourth part in which the titular hero finally died. Then I forgot about it for a while, mostly because I was preoccupied with fanboying over the Dead Space 2 reveal trailer and trying to play God of War III behind my parents' backs (I was fairly rebellious back then).

In fourth grade, however, I decided to bring the series back, adding another 16 parts to it and renaming Cole 1-4 to The Invaders. At that point, the series became The Invaders Series, at 20 short stories long. But my creative mind would not be satiated so easily, and so I kept adding, and it grew to 30 stories, then to 40, and then 50. By seventh grade, the series had come to 100 stories long, and I decided that some changes were in order. I divided the series into seven chapters to keep better track of it, renamed the stories to episodes, and dubbed the series with its final and current name: The Invaders Saga. But, I still wasn't done. In eighth grade, I created the first side story, titled The Invaders Saga: Omniverse, which saw Cole Maverick and his Atlantian friend Nos Ferratu (created by swish bill and named after the Nerf gun) visit other movies, games, and stories. I set it to take place between Chapters V and VI, and it was finished for a while.

Joining the Tube

In eighth grade, I decided wanted a YouTube channel. The problem, however, was that I didn't know what I was gonna do on it. Eventually, I figured that I'd do gaming videos to start. The original idea for a channel name was The Black Sword. I stuck with the idea for a while, but later found out that there were many channels with the name already. I decided to try the name Fyre Ren, based off the Star Wars character Kylo Ren. But I ended up scrapping that because I felt everyone would think I'm a Star Wars-based channel. I didn't know where to go from there.

But one day, while I was working at one of my local McDonald's, one of my coworkers helped me decide on a new name. After telling him that I describe myself as, "Absent-minded with a dark color scheme," he suggested the name I stuck with to this day: The Absent Darkness. It took me a while to find a good screen recorder to start off with, eventually choosing Fraps. Then on February 19, 2017, I recorded and edited my first-ever video: DEPTHS OF THE SEA - Subnautica #1. Quite a few people started subscribing after I uploaded that video, and so a week later, I uploaded DON'T BLOW, BRO - Minecraft #1. Things went very well for a while, but then things started happening.

See, at the time, my parents and I were going through very hard times. We were extremely poor, and really struggled to get by. Even though making videos was fun, it was getting harder and harder for me to find the motivation to do so. Then, on September 2 of 2018, I put up my last video at the time, as I was having difficulties with both uploading due to our excruciatingly slow internet and recording on a Lenovo IdeaPad that was probably the polar opposite of a gaming PC. I came and went inconsistently after that, popping in to upload a few videos after a surge of motivation before dipping from lack of said motivation. December 7, 2020 was my last video I made on the Lenovo, and I was at that point done with using such an old, slow machine. Then my buddy Jukebox came in clutch, buying me a beast of a PC! It's not the best on the market, but it gets the job done! I made a video on Dead Space (2008) and did a ton of live streams for a while, and then I had to temporarily leave again.

The New Era

The big reason I left again was solely because I wanted a vehicle to call my own, so I had to work as many hours as I could. But, being someone who worked primarily on Dairy Queen's front counter during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a lack of said hours. But, in my free time, I continued to refine my stories. At that time, I had created over a dozen unique stories and decided to have each one in separate multiverses. But, I needed a name. After thinking about it and looking on the online Thesaurus, I crafted a single, unified name for every story I have and will ever create: The Blackout Reality. I then revisited The Invaders Saga and figured that it could use some additional refining. I redid most of the Chapters, combining a few Chapters to condense the story into five, equally-sized ones. Throughout the years of YouTube as well, I had renamed The Invaders Saga: Omniverse to The Invaders Saga: Chronospace, and decided it would be a private installment exclusively for my friend, Tarkin Hux 106.

On my 21st birthday, I returned to YouTube with a brand new look, far from what I had before! With new motivations, a new well-paying job, and ready to roll, I streamed with Jukebox, revisited Happy Wheels three years later, and began incorporating music into my channel once again! On the day of its 1-year anniversary, I uploaded my remix of DAGames' Solitaire song Hail to the Jester Queen & King, which now sits as the fourth most popular video on my channel, and its instrumental a week later. On October 17, 2022, I released the Blackout Remix of Clockwork Fly's Pibby song Best Time to Learn, which sits as the third most popular video today! And on July 9, 2022, I announced on Reddit the fan-made Pibby storyline Pibby: Singularity (formerly Project Singularity), which I am now working on!

Drama in the Pibby Fandom

The story contained here is far too lengthy to provide here. In order to read up on what happened, please click the title below.

These Days

These days, I am still a pretty busy guy! Pibby: Singularity is being developed as a fan-game, The Invaders Saga is being made into a comic series, and I'm still making art, music, and other projects for my YouTube channel! As for what the future holds... well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Media Mentioned Above

Here's all the media I mentioned in the order I mentioned them in!

How Looks Have Changed

My channel's look has changed drastically over the five years I've had it, starting with a very simplistic look, becoming more and more detailed, then returning to its more simplistic design. Below are showcases on all my past channel banners in the order I had them in!

Early Life

The Saga is Born

Joining the Tube

The New Era

Drama in the Pibby Fandom

These Days

Media Mentioned Above

How Looks Have Changed

Version 1

Version 2

Version 3

Version 4

Version 5

Version 6

Version 7

Version 8

Version 9 & Current

Version 10