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Brian Souballo
"I'll go, but instead I will polymorph myself into HER instead! What a twist THAT would be!"
Brian is the emperor of the Souballo Empire, and is married to Angelo. He was outside relaxing on a balcony of his castle when he saw a giant beacon of light that Julie released when she activated her pendant for the first time. Judging from his reaction he knows about the Magicant and probably the pendant keeper as well, and has informed his followers to find her.
- Affably Evil: Is quite a bit more good-natured than his husband.
- Anti-True Sight: One of his spells allows for illusions that fool true sight.
- The Archmage: As an Epic-level wizard, he can leave regular Archmages in the dust.
- Beard of Evil: Brian is one of the two main antagonists of the story and he has a goatee. Gets subverted when he later shaves it off.
- Benevolent Boss: He seems to care about his underlings more than the usual evil overlord, and is also fixated on professionality.
- Better Living Through Evil: One of his plans is rounding up "choice people" to work for the empire. Brian attempts to invoke this trope on his old magic teacher Mr. Stratus, but fails.
- Beware the Silly Ones: He's been hard to take seriously as a villain in the past, but the "ruin Thomas Stratus" arc shows him to be intelligent and not afraid to kill dozens of people with his magic.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: With Angelo.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He may have chastised Angelo for destroying an underling, but we learn that declining Brian's offers to join him result in lightning to the face.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Shows signs of this.
- Depraved Homosexual: Averted. The fact that he and Angelo are a couple has absolutely nothing to do with their evilness.
- Emperor Scientist: He created a Magitek system of transforming/transferring Cosmic Lifestrand into clones created in laboratories, and his former mentor calls him a genius in theoretical magic.
- Evil Overlord: He is one of the two emperors of the Souballo Empire.
- Fantastic Racism: He and Angelo don't like Dwarves and make fun of them, but are mortified when a dwarf within earshot catches them doing it.
- Large Ham: He certainly enjoys playing the part of the Evil Overlord.
- Lawful Evil: His willingness to do unethical things such as kill and destroy are apparent, but runs his Empire with fairness and organization.
- Pride: Eagerly shows off his castle with two hour tours.
- Tom the Dark Lord: Brian sure isn't a very scary name for an evil emperor.
- Unholy Matrimony: He is married to Angelo.
- Villains Out Shopping: The first thing we see him doing is enjoying a hot chocolate while wearing his "imperial pajamas".
Angelo Souballo
"If someone around here could make a decent drink, I wouldn't have to kill so many employees..."
Angelo is the leader of "Angelo's Kids", a pseudo-religion of young adventurers who do his bidding and quest in his name. It is revealed that he works with Brian's Souballo Empire and is married to the emperor himself, making Angelo the "co-emperor". Angelo is more of a traditional evil overlord than his husband and isn't afraid to assert this fact.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: One of the most obvious examples in the comic.
- Anti-Magic: He has nigh-unbeatable spell resistance through means unknown.
- Bad Boss: What with the underling annihilation and all.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: With Brian.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Much moreso than his husband, Brian. Angelo can turn the sweetness on and off like a light switch.
- The Archmage: He has access to the highest levels of divine magic, with a lot of arcane magic to back it up.
- When he's told that rescuing Sophia Moriatos from the Kingdom of Justice would require a miracle, he immediately casts Miracle, effectively direct-dialing a Deus ex Machina.
- Though he prefers to delegate duties, when he faces off against a team of high-level spellcasters and powerful angels, he effortlessly No Sells their attacks and Implodes them one by one in a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Came Back Wrong: It appears that at some point he died in such a way that normal resurrection magic wouldn't work. While Brian was able to retrieve his soul from the Void, whatever he did allowed a powerful "spiritual parasite" to attach itself to Angelo's soul.
- Cruel Mercy: Angelo prevented Eva's suicide, only because he had something more interesting in store for her. It seems to have to do with the framing of Thomas Stratus — or his habit of collecting souls.
- Damaged Soul: Apparently
one of his reasons for wanting the Magicant. - Dark Messiah: His followers certainly believe he is a messiah figure.
- Demon Head: Angelo does one to Janice.
- Demonic Possession: The real reason he's evil is that he has some sort of shadowy "entity" influencing his actions. He's actually Good...when he's able to resist.
- Depraved Homosexual: Actually averted. The fact that he and Brian are gay have absolutely nothing to do with their evilness.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Totally annihilated an underling because she criticized Brian's meeting plan.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He forbids his employees from dealing with undead or evil outsiders like devils and demons, though this is at least partly due to the bad PR that would be. He also refuses to act against his former goddess, Stellina, when it's avoidable.
- Evil Overlord: One of the two emperors of the Souballo Empire.
- Evil Red Head: Angelo has "strawberry blonde" hair, and is quite evil.
- Evil Sorcerer: Is shown to use high-level arcane magic.
- Fallen Hero: He was once a servant of the Angel of Justice. But after some frustrations, as well as some interest in sinister magics, he turned to less scrupulous deities. Or rather, the "entity" controlling him did.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: His outfit has one boot longer than the other, one black glove with jewels on it, and one long sleeve and one short sleeve with his tunic.
- Faux Affably Evil: Angelo's moments where he seems decent are mainly due to Brian suggesting him to be.
- Flight: He can fly without the use of any normal flight spells or any anatomical feature that should allow flight, one of the strongest hints that there is something very strange going on with him.
- Holy Halo: Subverted as Angelo's a pretty bad egg.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Seemingly not played for laughs like with Peganone. Angelo's outfit is pretty out there.
- It's All About Me: Angelo may be one of the most conceited and disdainful creatures in this story. He cares even less about his underlings than his husband does.
- Kick the Dog: Most of his dealings with Eva.
- Lawful Evil: He shows organization and fairly careful planning, and claims that he would be sent to the Lawful Evil afterlife of Camazerra. Supported by him drawing his divine powers from the Lawful Neutral quasi-divinity Judge Daethros, which requires that he be Lawful himself.
- Light Is Not Good: Angelo is a cleric who wears mostly white, but seems totally insane.
- The Magnificent: His followers call him "Our Beautiful Worship".
- Manipulative Bastard: A perk of having an epic-level Bluff skill. When his words fail, he'll use magic to make you see it his way.
- Path of Inspiration: The religion he created.
- Pet the Dog:
- He may be a soul stealing genocidal narcissist, but he considers it beneath him to take someone's loved ones hostage to control them. When Janice enslaves Jordie for this reason, Angelo lets him go when he learns about it.
- When he learns that Sophie is imprisoned in the Kingdom Of Justice, he immediately casts a very expensive Miracle spell to bring her back.
- When more in control of himself, he frees Eva's soul, finally granting her peace.
- Powers via Possession: An angel thinks so, he has mentioned having a
Damaged Soul, and he has mentioned the need to keep control to avoid hurting his former goddess's servants. Word of God confirms that he may not actually be human, which might suggest that "Angelo" is actually at least in part a victim of Demonic Possession, which was hinted at by some of the art and eventually confirmed. - The Red Mage: Angelo is stated to be a "Mystic Theurge", a D&D Prestige Class allowing the simultaneous advance of both Cleric spells and (in Angelo's case) Sorcerer spells. This usually leads to a Master of None situation, but Angelo seems to have overcome that through sheer experience and high levels.
- Smug Super: He's an egomaniac epic-level spellcaster with an empire and his own cult of personality. It comes with the territory.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: A group of soldiers Julie's group encounter revealed that Angelo used to be a Cleric for Stellina, the Angel of Justice. It turns out that being possessed by a shadowy "entity" will do that to you.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: He collects people's souls in gems, a habit even his partner finds a little creepy. One of his own allies fears that he will devour hers if she becomes too powerful. Which he in fact does. He specifically does so in order to feed the "entity" possessing him.
Bruce Moriatos
"As per your request, sir."
Bruce Moriatos is a powerful Blackguard in charge of the Souballo Empire's melee forces.
- Attack Its Weak Point: His Blackguard levels grant, among other things, Sneak Attack, allowing him to hit the vitals of distracted or helpless enemies.
- Battle Butler: Has this personality.
- Black Knight: He's a Blackguard of Tyranny in black armour.
- Co-Dragons: Along with Sophia, Janice and Exillon.
- The Comically Serious: Remained as serious as ever even when giving those shortbread cookies to the Emperor.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Not as obvious as Sophia as he was wearing a helmet when he was congratulating Jason for passing Barbarian School.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He appears to care deeply about his family, and his daughter helps him out.
- Lawful Evil
- No Honor Among Thieves: Saw an opportunity to eliminate a rival lieutenant so he reports Janice achieving level 9 magic to the Emperors, which gets her killed and soulbound.
- Punch-Clock Villain
- Poisonous Person: Blackguards get an instinctive knowledge of how to use poisoned weapons as one of their class features.
Sophia Moriatos
"I also have a 347 page progress report for you to read if you desire."
Sophia Moriatos is Bruce's daughter, and in charge of the magical part of soldier training in the empire. She's a cheery go-getter, and a powerful sorceress in her own right.
- Cheerful Child: Though she's part of an Evil Empire.
- Child Mage: A powerful sorceress despite her young age.
- Child Prodigy: She's a child but has a high ranking position in the army. She also has class levels, despite being below the minimum age requirement under normal D&D rules.
- Co-Dragons: With Bruce, Janice and Exillon.
- The Cutie: Surprisingly enough.
- Daddy's Little Villain: For Bruce, who is another department head.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Infiltrates the Silverfronds palace both with disguise magic of her own, and a more powerful magic ring she received from Mr. Souballo.
- Early-Bird Cameo: We see her congratulating Jason when he finished Barbarian School.
- Enfant Terrible: How a child her age became a homicidal, high-level spellslinger with a clown-shaped demon for a best friend is anyone's guess.
- Evil Sorceress: Literally, on both counts.
- Fantastic Racism: She despises elves to the point that disguising herself as one nauseates her.
- Genki Girl: Greets Angelo by glomping him.
- Oh, Crap!: When her cover is blown and she's left in the custody of a powerful celestial who ignores her strongest attack spells. She literally considers it a Fate Worse than Death.
- Perky Female Minion: Oh yes.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She used mass suggestion on a group of magical commanders, which is an advanced Wizard/Sorcerer spell.
- Put on a Bus: While spying on the Silverfronds Elves for the empire, King Tegretol confronts her and forces her to the Kingdom of Freedom. There she gets apprehended by Sandra The Solar Butterfly and taken to The Kingdom of Justice for imprisonment.
- Squishy Wizard: Averted, despite all appearances. She's incredibly tough for her size.
- Teacher's Pet: In an imperial organization instead of a school class.
- Tyke Bomb: A magical prodigy with a top-notch education and a deep-seated desire to please is a lethal combination.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: She acts considerably older than she actually is.
Janice Jamison
"Mind your own business, you little rodent!"
Janice is the head of magical research in the empire. She is also tasked with being the military tactician and is researching on finding Julie. Her efforts have been unsuccessful so far.
- Bad Boss: When she kidnapped Jordie and Warren and magically dominated them she made them do menial intern work, and threw a cup of scalding hot coffee at Jordie for not making it well enough.
- Co-Dragons: For the Souballos, alongside Bruce, Sophia and Exillon.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not even Angelo chewing her out in some kind of evil, eldritch form phased her snark.
- Evil Old Folk: Very old, and very evil.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Her adopted son, Carrus, the equally evil Black Dragon.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted — she has to be forced to obey the Empire's facade of good. She has no qualms about trading children's souls to a Devil in exchange for service, and she burst out laughing at the idea of having moral objections to becoming a lich.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Before being forced to be the Empire's tactician, Brian taught her about magical science and she spent most of her time producing symbiote bonded humans in a magical science lab.
- Insufferable Genius: Angelo seems to hate this about her, too.
- Lean and Mean: Very much so. She's nicknamed "Janice the Annis", after the emaciated hag.
- Loves the Sound of Screaming: Specifically, the screams of innocents watching a Devil butcher helpless children.
- Perpetual Frowner: It's easy to see where all those wrinkles came from.
- Pet the Dog: In her single moment of kindness, she encourages a Mook to court a woman he likes, and even offers to clear it with his superiors.
- Power Hair: Wears it short like one.
- Purple Is Powerful: Likes the color purple a lot, and she is one of the most powerful wizards in the Souballo Empire.
- Put on a Bus: Upon finding out Janice could cast meteor swarm, Brian and Angelo killed her and bound her soul. They stated afterword that they will revive her, but not at this point in the story.
- Resignations Not Accepted: Janice tried to leave the Empire by flaunting her maximum non-epic magic in front of Angelo, hoping Angelo would destroy her. She may not have seen the Soulbind spell coming, though.
- Squishy Wizard
- Took a Level in Badass: An unusual example in that she was already extraordinarily dangerous. Then she breaks out a Meteor Swarm, revealing that she's gained access to the most powerful spells a non-Epic caster can use.
- Wicked Witch: Illustrated very clearly in this comic.
- You Didn't Ask: Very nicely done.
Master Exillon
"BEEP."
Exillon is some kind of glowing robotic crystal, and the token non-human part of this villain ensemble. Exillon's an outside agent that's working in secret with the empire in exchange for some kind of reward. The only person who can understand what it says is Brian.
- Brain/Computer Interface: Exillon installs himself into the imperial airship's computer and security system.
- Co-Dragons: Like Bruce, Sophia and Janice.
- Cyber Cyclops: It certainly looks robotic.
- Enigmatic Minion: Mainly because only Brian understands what it's saying.
- Faceless Eye: Exillon doesn't have a face, only a robotic-looking central eye.
- Psychic Powers: Has a variety of psionic powers. Many of these were used on the Everwood Crew, Denise and Slammy while they were attacking the imperial airship.
- Put on a Bus: When we last see Exillon he was planeshifted to the Kingdom of Justice, where we see the monster being chased by three Astral Deva angels.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: A central eye (or robotic sensor) where its face would be.
- Sinister Geometry: An elongated tetradecahedron accompanied by 10 smaller crystal-like things in various 2d geometric shapes.
- The Unintelligible: Exillon speaks only in robotic sounding BEEPS, but Brian can understand it.
Soldiers of the Souballo Empire
Soldiers of the Souballo Empire
"Certain filthy Elves are gonna get what's coming to them in time."
The Souballo Empire seems to be the main antagonist force in the comic. It is led by Brian Souballo and Angelo Souballo, and its agenda includes making Manjulias a better place to live for humans, and anyone who allies with them. This would be all well and good if it weren't for its tyranical tendencies and hostile approach. This section will cover tropes of the Souballo Empire as a whole and various minor members of the Souballo Empire have invoked.
- Elite Mooks: Most all of the soldiers Julie's group has met so far have class levels and specialized training.
- Faceless Mooks: Completely averted.
- Fantastic Racism: Actively work against Elves due to idealogical differences.
- Fantasy Character Classes: There are members of every character class except Bard (with the exception of Umbria) in the Empire.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: The Souballo Empire gives many other races this feeling.
- Knight Templar: Most of the imperials are depicted this way.
- Magic Knight: Carissa went this route.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: At its worst, the empire's warlike nature and genocidal attitude towards Elves somewhat resembles Nazi Germany.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Brian's attempts at professionalism and the way he treats his underlings suggest they probably get paid quite well. There are some nutters, but many of the imperials are depicted as normal people who are fighting for a world they were promised.
- Putting on the Reich: Most of the members of the Empire we've seen seem to genuinely believe in the Emperor's vision and willingly do what he commands. These soldiers range from the nutjobs to seemingly reasonable people.
- Screw You, Elves!: Pretty much the only reason they're considered the bad guys.
- We Are Everywhere: Word of God stated the Empire is the most concentrated in the northern half of the main Manjulias continent, but agents of the empire have been seen as far away as the Baxillon Island.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: When it comes to making the world a better place for humans, anyway...
Angelo's Kids
Angelo's Kids
"Defying our Beautiful Worship is a capital offense. Even those who aren't under the light of his halo know that."
Angelo's Kids is a cult composed of young adventurer fanatics who idolize Angelo Souballo as a holy man, due to his powerful divine and arcane magic. They preach his dogma and enforce his will, which often means destruction of any who won't submit to the "light of his halo". It's been revealed in the comic that Angelo's Kids is a faction of the Souballo Empire, but not all of Angelo's flock are aware of this. Even without official affiliation, the two organizations often work together due to having similar ideals. Angelo's kids are often more extreme in their methods than the Empire, and it's likely the Angelo's kids are used to perform certain things the Empire publicly won't.
- All Crimes Are Equal: In regards to defying Angelo, as quoted above.
- Burn the Witch!: Often do this with heretics and other undesirables.
- Cosplay: In universe, with Angelo Souballo.
- Cute and Psycho: Many of them look very good, and are very cheerful as well as nuts.
- Fantastic Racism: A little less so than the Souballo Empire.
- Fantasy Character Classes: Much like the Souballo Empire, including the lack of Bards.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: The AK uniforms mimic Angelo's taste in attire, with one gloved hand, and one boot longer than another.
- Flanderization: In universe. Many of them emulate Angelo's mannerisms and flamboyance. Some of them even use a Noblewoman's Laugh, despite Angelo himself never laughing like that once in the comic so far.
- Light Is Not Good: Some of the Angelo's Kids are Clerics (Angelo himself uses powerful divine magic) and channel positive energy.
- Expendable Clone: some of the Angelo's kids seen have been created in labs much the same way Emily was. Martin, the magical scientist overseeing these clones revealed they have a lifespan of only 5 years or so.
- Obliviously Evil: Some may be aware that what they're doing is horrible, while others may just be thoughtlessly following orders.
- Path of Inspiration: They all follow the dogma of Angelo in a very hardcore manner.
- Puppeteer Parasite: Many of the clones created in the magical labs have these bonded to them.
- Stepford Smiler: With the nasty things they often have to do, it's hard to imagine them otherwise.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Much like the Souballo Empire.
- We Are Everywhere: Perhaps even more so than the Souballo Empire.
