Dark Earth takes place several centuries in the future, when a meteor collision with Earth tossed up great clouds of dust that blocked out the sun. Earth's remaining survivors began to seek refuge beneath small openings in the clouds, the few places light could be found. Those that remained in the 'dark earth' were hunted by strange creatures, infected with the darkness. To shelter themselves from the dangerous 'dark earth', the people began to form cities beneath the light called 'Stallites'. At the time of the game, most of the citizens of the stallite have forgotten their history and now worship the light as a god. The stalites are run by 'Sun Priests', who maintain order and prevent the creatures of darkness from harming the city. The game follows the story of Arkhan, a "guardian of fire", protector of the stallite 'Sparta' and the Sun Priests. After an attack on the sun priests, Arkhan has a poison thrown into his face that begins to infect him with the dark sickness. He begins to mutate into a creature of the dark and has to find a cure before his transformation is complete. Along the way, he is treated as an enemy by most of his former friends while he struggles to uncover the conspiracy behind the attack.