Main Characters | Antagonists | Demon Lords
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Demon Lords (Spoilers for later versions)
Nelgel
- Adaptational Intelligence: During the original Online version of the game, Nelgel just chills out at the Heart of Hell after the Heavenly Ark is created and can be fought anytime, while collecting the other Key Emblems was completely optional. In the Offline remake of the game, he immediately neutralizes the Ark right after it's created, forcing the Hero to collect more Key Emblems just to bring it back.
- An Ice Person: Casts Kacrack and Kacrackle in his Netherfiend form.
- Back from the Dead: He's revived by Razerburn during the 10th Anniversary quest's 4th episode via the Dark Key Emblems.
- Breakout Villain: He’s the villain face of Dragon Quest X in various spinoff games, with Nelgelas being the Past Master representing him in the next game.
- Dark Is Evil: In addition to sealing Rendacia with a dark barrier, he uses Miasma Pellet and Gate of the Underworld in his Netherlord form, as well as his Netherscythe. He can also cast Kazam and Kazammle, in his Netherfiend form, in addition to Consecutive Dolmadon by his revived form.
- Final Boss: Of 1.0. In the context of the whole game, however, he's just a Disc-One Final Boss.
- Flunky Boss: Accompanied by 2 Archdemon bodyguards during the attack on Tenton. He also summons them and a Belial during his boss fight, but unlike other villains in the series, he just sits on his throne while they fight his enemies. note
- In the strong version of his boss fight, he summons Atlas and Pazuzu, as well as Belial.
- Mighty Roar: Uses War Cry and Total War Cry in his Netherfiend form, the latter of which damages enemies in addition to stunning them.
- Playing with Fire: Casts Kafrizz and Kafrizzle, in addition to breathing Purgatory Fire in his Netherfiend form. His revived form can also cast Godspeed Melagaia.
- Sinister Scythe: Similar to Bishop Ladja, he wields his own scythe, the Netherscythe, as his main weapon. Unlike Ladja's scythe, it can cut through dimensions, threaten the Hero in their dreams, and even summon 2 giant Dark Hands that transforms him into his final form.
- Slouch of Villainy: Does the classic head-resting-on-hand pose before and during his boss fight, though the latter is only him letting his 2 Archdemon bodyguards and a Belial do the fighting until they’re defeated.
- Status-Buff Dispel: Just like other Dragon Quest villains, he uses Disruptive Wave to remove the party's buffs.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Casts Kaboomle in his Netherfiend form.
- Villain Respect: By the time the Hero confronts him in the Revived Reidametes Temple, he has grown to respect the Hero as his personal adversary, even using his Netherscythe to kill the apparitions of Razerburn, Mystical Julanite, Id, Tyrant Basagrande, Aranid, and Sludgeball to ensure only he could face the Hero and their allies himself. Even after being defeated, he doesn't mind his loss, since if more people died, he could be revived again and again.
- Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?:
- Averted. When the Hero reaches him in the Heart of Hell’s main throne room, he traps and prepares to kill them, but they’re saved by the Original Owner who frees them so they can fight Nelgel.
- Played more straight during the 10th Anniversary Quest storyline, where despite the apparition of Razerburn, his right hand man, doing the same thing he did, he kills him and the apparitions of Mystical Julanite, Id, Tyrant Basagrande, Aranid, and Sludgeball with his Netherscythe so only he could fight the Hero and their companions.
Maldragora
- An Ice Person: Casts Kacrackle in both his Worldbreaker and Worldmaker forms.
- Breath Weapon: His Worldmaker form has Impure Breath, which damages all enemies and inflicts them with a variety of status conditions, such as poison/envemonation, paralysis, dazzle, and curse.
- Casting a Shadow: Casts Continuous Dolmadon in his Worldmaker form.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Of the posthumous variety. He created a garden full of Shiny Melons that could end world hunger in real life, but was unable to finish it in time due to being killed by the Hero and Anlucia.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Revealed to have a grandson Pepelagora when the Hero reaches the Netherworld.
- Final Boss: Of 2.0.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Masterminded the destruction of Tenton and is the ruler of the Netherworld.
- Japanese Beetle Brothers: The Kuwagata to his grandson’s Kabuto.
- Mad Artist: He created various paintings when he was the Netherworld's king, including that of Demon Dragon Jaomanda, which he sealed in the deepest part of his art museum when beginning his plan to invade Astoltia. He plans to make the False Rendacia replace the real one, even calling it his masterpiece.
- Playing with Fire: Casts Kafrizzle in his Worldbreaker form and Godspeed Melagaia in his Worldmaker form, as well as Sizzling Sketch in Dragon Quest Tact.
- Status-Buff Dispel: Uses Disruptive Wave in both his Worldbreaker and Worldmaker forms.
- Villainous Friendship: He's good pals with Zerudorado, even allowing him to become the new commander of his armies after Nelgel and Anlucia the Maluminary are defeated. This sentiment is also shared by Pepelagora and Jilldrana, the former's grandson and the latter's daughter.
- Wicked Cultured: The same guy who sends the Netherlord Nelgel to try and kill the Hero while destroying Tenton in the process is a pretty damn good artist, with many people speaking fondly of his artistic talent.
Nadraga
- An Ice Person: Attacks with Natural Disaster Ice in his initial form and breathes an Icy Exhale attack during Phase 3 of his boss fight, as well as Icy Veins to freeze his targets.
- Blow You Away: Uses Natural Disaster Wind in his initial form to damage enemies with a tornado that potentially stuns them.
- Breath Weapon: In his Dragon God Form, he uses Infernal Breath, Icy Exhale, Breath of Darkness, Heavenly Water Breath, and Green Storm Breath.
- Casting a Shadow: Breathes a Breath of Darkness in his Dragon God Form that damages enemies and can potentially blind them.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- To Malroth from Dragon Quest II. Both are evil gods that are worshipped by an antagonistic cult that seeks their revival by a priest leading them and who sacrifice themselves to ensure their return even after being beaten (Children of Hargon and Hargon, The Nadraga and Patriarch Orstov). Though while Malroth is genuinely evil, Nadraga was once a benevolent god of the Dragon race until he allied himself with Jagnouba to make them rule over the other races.
- To Rhapthorne from Dragon Quest VIII. Both are ancient evils that were sealed away after a long and bloody battle (Rhapthorne being sealed away in the Godbird Sceptre by the Seven Sages while Nadraga was sealed in Nagaland), and both manipulate their stories' respective events to reclaim their bodies (Rhapthorne possessing Dhoulmagus, Jessica, Sir Leopold, and Marcello to murder the heirs of the Seven Sages while Nadraga brainwashes the Hero's sibling to abduct the current Divine God Vessels in the form of Mjoll, Hussar, Dustin, Fuura, Prince Raguas, and Anlucia) What really sets them apart however, is that when Rhapthorne is fully revived, he repeats his plans to conquer the World of Light and merge it with the World of Darkness, while Nadraga wants to destroy Astoltia as well as the Dragon race for not supporting him in his ambitions.
- This also extends to their boss fights as well. While they are faced in small, but powerful sorcerer forms in the first phase, their second phases are different. (Praying to the Godbird Sceptre 7 times to break Rhapthorne's shield of darkness and then fighting him on Empreya, while Nadraga is faced in a long battle totaling 6 phases with the various territories of Nagaland as both backgrounds and attacks while his enemies fight him on a big rock platform).
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: After his defeat, he wonders why the Dragon race would not support his ambitions to rule over all the others, since he's doing it for them. Estelle tells him it's wrong and the Dragon race should help and coexist with the other races, rather than fighting them.
- Fallen Hero: Various stained glass windows seen throughout Version 5.4 and 6.3 showed that he once fought against Jagonuba and his Dark Deities to protect Astoltia before he joined up with the Great Source of Darkness himself to have the Dragon race rule over the other races, and the rest is history. The Hero even encounters his pre-evil self during 6.4!
- Flunky Boss: Calls in 2 Ash Lizards and a Black Flying Dragon to aid him during the Dark Nagaland territory phase of his boss fight.
- Final Boss: Of 3.0.
- Formerly Fit: He once had a slim body when encountered by the Hero in 6.4 of the game, long before he allied himself with his mother's sworn enemy and got his current appearance via demonic miasma.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: His ultimate fate after being revived.
- Making a Splash: Breathes the Heavenly Water Breath attack in his Dragon God form to damage enemies and removes negative status debuffs from himself.
- Might Makes Right: Believes in this, and is the reason why he wanted his race of dragons to rule over the other.
- Playing with Fire: In his initial form, he uses Natural Disaster Fire to attack his enemies with a huge fireball and breathes an Infernal Breath in his Dragon God form.
- Satanic Archetype: He was Goddess Luciana’s first born child who sided with Jagonuba when his siblings refused to help the Dragon race rule over the others. Even after being sealed away, a cult led by Orsotv, who turns out to be a part of him before he was sealed, revives him using Estelle as a host while he offers himself up to complete the ceremony and invokes the Biblical Dragon of Discord of being on top of a mountain after his revival is complete.
- Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: His body was destroyed and each of his five parts were sealed away.
- Shock and Awe: Uses Natural Disaster Lightning in his initial form to damage enemies while dealing an electric shock and paralysis to them, as well as Green Storm Breath in his Dragon God form.
- Super-Scream: Uses Cry of the Evil Dragon God in the 1st, 4th, and 6th phases of his boss fight to damage all enemies, in addition to knocking down, cursing, and/or confusing them.
Kyronos
- All Your Powers Combined: Uses the various skills from the final bosses of the Version 4 storyline, namely Infinite Beast Nerosgogue's Evil Light Trinoculars, Mourning Beast Zontedor's Crackerwhack, Ulbea Grand Genie's Blood Tears and Meteor of Destruction, and Breeding beast Byrogogue's Blessed Breath and Reactor Flare, in addition to the usual Mind Drain of the Hemographic Beast monster family.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: He is the time powers of Curex sealed away in the Tokime Box, and then mutated by evil human desires that used it.
- Bishōnen Line: First as the Tokime Box itself, then as the Time Beast, a massive, Freeza-like monster, and finally as the Time God, an angelic being with mechanical wings.
- Death by Irony: Dies at the hands of the child of the man he used to ascend himself, with a vision of Padre appearing to help you finish him off.
- Final Boss: Of 4.0.
- Final Boss Preview: By fighting an ever-evolving villain near the end of every story who gets harder and harder to beat, he's still one step closer to succeeding in his goal. The fact that the Hero's biological father, Padre helping him get stronger and stronger before he later helps you near the end, is just the icing on the cake.
- King Mook: To the Hemographic Beasts and their variants. Justified, since they were created in Tenton’s Alchemy Lab and his ever evolving body is based on them.
- Light Is Not Good: He breathes a Blessed Breath in his Time Beast form, while his last form resembles an angelic being, but it's certainly not benevolent.
- Lone Wolf Boss: He’s the only main villain of the game not to be another one of Jagonuba’s followers.
- Unperson: After his defeat at the Hero’s hands, he is no longer remembered by anyone in Astoltia.
- Unwitting Pawn: While he is a powerful villain in his own right, he is unaware that even if he successfully destroyed Astoltia, Kyronos is just a puppet on Jagonuba’s strings, waiting to be killed by the Hero due to the Shock Seed inside him.
- Villainous Legacy: Even after his death and memories of him are erased from people’s recollections, his Shock Seed, combined with the one from Nadragle, opens the door to the Netherworld, which would eventually cause more pain and suffering for Astoltia, as well as the Netherworld itself.
Jagonuba
- Always a Bigger Fish: Manages to sneak into Astoltia just before the Shield was completed to repel the Jia Kut Clan.
- An Ice Person: Casts Ice Block Mahadedos in his God of Destruction form.
- Arch-Enemy: To various characters throughout the game's history:
- To the Hero. Indirectly and directly being the cause of their problems from Nelgel attacking Tenton and trying to kill them via his Dark Hands after the Netherlord's defeat, to powering up the next two villains they had to face during Versions 2 and 3, Maldragora and Nadraga, in addition to using their sibling as their puppet servant, the Demon Oracle, in the Netherworld.
- To Estelle. Jagonuba enlisted Nadraga, the God of her people, the Dragons, into his service after his siblings refused to help the Dragon race rule over the other races of the game's setting after his mother disappeared trying to fight him, causing a lot of deaths and parts of him being sealed away in the 5 territories, in addition to Nagaland being a pocket dimension as punishment.
- To Luciana. Since she got her children, including his future lackey, Nadraga, safely away from the Jia Kut Clan's attack on the Eternal Cradle/what remained of the Protectorate, he managed to get into Astoltia just before the Shield was completed to repel his family and tried to rule over Astoltia with an army of monsters, while desiring to return it to nothing but a place for monsters, going against the Jia Kut Clan's wishes of wanting the Spirit of Creation.
- Big Brother Is Watching You: Keeps tabs on the Hero's Sibling after they survive an attack from Daviyaga, as well as the Hero themselves ever since they defeated Nelgel and fled from the Heart of Hell.
- Big Red Devil: After eating the giant dark soul ball with Nalasia in it. The Hero, their allies, and Shaka even first fight him in that form.
- Blow You Away: Uses Thin Air and casts Gekifu Bagimucho in his God of Destruction form.
- The Corrupter: Turned Nadraga towards his side with demonic miasma to help him achieve his goal of having the Dragons rule over the Human, Ogre, Wetling, Poppet, Elf, and Dwarf races, in addition to turning said races into Demons, and corrupted even the most benevolent rulers of the Netherworld into invading Astoltia.
- Dark Is Evil: Casts Kazammle during the first phase of his boss fight, and spews an Eldritch Eclipse in his final form, in addition to casting Continuous Dorumadon, having a Cloth of Darkness to boost his power, summoning Dark Hands to aid him, and his Dark Palm attack, which damages an enemy 8 times while potentially cursing them.
- Devour the Dragon: Absorbs Daviyaga after the Tyrannical Deity is defeated, and later absorbs Megoa and Garzand, the Dark Deities of Wrath and Thirst, during his fight with Luciana.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: A villainous variant, since he takes down Luciana in a deadly fight despite her reawakening from Illusia after defeating the Shrine Guardians, as well as permanently kill her before facing the Hero and Shaka in his new form.
- Greater-Scope Villain: He is responsible for the creation of the Demon race as revealed in 5.2, as well as Nelgel, Maldragora, and Nadraga's actions throughout Versions 1, 2, and 3.
- The Heavy: He's later revealed to be formerly of the Jia Kut Clan, a group of alien invaders who once attacked Luciana, but took matters into his own hands to fight the Goddess herself, thus kickstarting the events of the entire game.
- High-Voltage Death: Suffers this from Kazapple after the Hero, all their allies, the people of Astoltia, Nagaland, and the Netherworld pour their support into it.
- One-Winged Angel: After absorbing some more light from Luciana's butterfly body, he turns into a eight armed ghost like skeleton demon.
- Satanic Archetype: A giant demon who is responsible for all the bad stuff to Astoltia? Check. Has an army of monsters and various agents like Pujyu to wreck havoc? Check. Sealed in a temple until Nalasia wanders too close to his body similar to a massive, cold lake of frozen water on which Satan himself is imprisoned until something breaks him free as depicted in The Divine Comedy? Check. Has hooves and a devilish red body? Check. Lives in a lair that is at the very bottom of the Netherworld? Check. Bounds someone to deals and servitude? Check. This villain ticks most, if not all of the boxes, and gives Orgodemir a run for his money.
- Shock and Awe: Uses Lightning Storm in his God of Destruction form to damage enemies, in addition to paralyzing them and reducing their resistance to paralysis.
Jia Red Genos
The real, REAL main villain of the game, he is Jagonubanote 's father and the leader of the Jia Kut Clan.
- Abusive Parents: Gives Jia Rube and Jia Saphir a bomb in their crown to use in case they lost against the Hero, secretly dismissing them as useless. Unfortunately, this would cause Jia Rube to help the Heroes of Astoltia defeat the Jia Kut Clan and destroy the Evil Eye Moon out of anger for being discarded.
- Falsely Reformed Villain: Takes over Jia Rube's body and consciousness after his defeat and becomes Jia Rube Genos, claiming he wants to be divinitized and learn about Astoltia peacefully. The Hero doesn't buy it and proceeds to kill him with the Lectalis Sword, though.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Despite him and his Clan getting blocked off from Astoltia by Luciana's Shield, he's indirectly responsible for his son's actions throughout the whole game up until his death.
- One-Winged Angel: Fuses himself with the Evil Eye Moon to become Jia Meld Genos, his final form.
