  We present a framework of dark- and visible-sector unification in the E6
embedding of the standard model. The demand for consistently getting the
standard model leads to the existence of the dark-sector. We show that the
hierarchy of vevs typifying unified models leads to multicomponent dark matter
at the IR. The symmetry breaking itself categorises the matter content into
dark- and visible-sector particles, the categorisation being uniform across
different breaking chains. We discuss the stability of the dark matter
particles and compare them to existing phenomenological models of dark matter.
The central results follow from symmetry and hierarchy arguments. We present an
indicative set of models of gauge coupling unification, to show that the
framework can be embedded in realistic models of E6.
