Allies
A world-trekking bounty and treasure hunter with a harsh demeanor and a soft heart. He antagonizes Lina to a degree, but ultimately becomes an integral ally for her during the second arc of the light novels. He originally was an assassin, but changed his ways when Milina came into his life.
Like Lei Magnus and Rezo, Luke holds a shard of Shabranigdo in his soul; unlike the other two, he is, at least, partially aware of Shabranigdo's presence. When Milina is killed in the second-to-last novel, his rage reaches to an extreme that allows Shabranigdo to take over, thus setting off the final battle in the final novel. Lina and Gourry eventually defeat him due to the conflict that still lied within Luke's soul.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Poor guy...
- BFS
- The Cameo: At the very end of the manga adaptation of Evolution-R.
- Death Seeker: Luke-Shabranigdo WANTS to die.
- Dogged Nice Guy: To Milina
- Fiery Redhead: It's revealed that he dyes his hair black because Milina doesn't like redheads.
- First-Name Basis: No last name of his has been revealed. This is even lampshaded by Lina in the final novel.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Like Rezo before him, Luke's human soul is still lingering when Shabranigdo is revived. There is more complication to this battle, but Luke is able to find peace, which proves to be the key to Luke-Shabranigdo's defeat.
- The Lancer: Replaces Zelgadis as this role in the novels. In the Hourglass of Falces manga, he's more The Big Guy.
- Magic Knight: Wields an enchanted blade like Gourry, and is capable of casting black magic, although not to the same degree as Lina. He even has his own original spell to accomodate his sword: Ruby-Eye Blade.
- Person of Mass Destruction
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When Milina dies from a poisonous stab wound that went untreated due to irresponsible priests, he ''completely obliterates'' all five shrines in the area and murders all but one of the priests. This continues into the final novel.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Not quite, they certainly aren't the nice variety, but he isn't truly nasty either.
- The Rival
- Tomato in the Mirror: Subverted, he is at least partially aware of Shabranigdo's presence within him, but doesn't try to ignore it or wholly supress him. He freely allows him to emerge when
Milina is killed. In the Hourglass of Falces manga, he even tells Milina to strike him down if Shabranigdo ever emerges from him. - Walking the Earth
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
Luke's partner and fellow mercenary, she was the one who convinced him to quit his assassination job. She is well aware of the fact that he is smitten with her, and brushes off his affections constantly. During a bodyguarding job in the fourteenth novel, Milina is stabbed with a poisoned knife. She is denied medical care from one man and the other does not know the spell needed to heal the toxins, and Milina dies as a result, cuing Luke's Roaring Rampage of Revenge and Shabranigdo's awakening.
- First-Name Basis: Also lampshaded by Lina in the final novel.
- Hotter and Sexier: Her midriff-bearing ensemble is skimpified in the Hourglass of Falces manga.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- Kick the Dog
- Kick Them While They Are Down: Unintentionally caused example. She's poisoned, and the priest she was fighting against denies her care. At the next shrine, no one in the clergy knows the Resurrection spell. She then tearfully says goodbye to Luke, and you can guess what happens from there.
- Magic Knight
- Morality Chain: It's because of her that Luke isn't a cold-blooded killer or a Person of Mass Destruction, for that matter.
- Sixth Ranger: In Hourglass of Falces.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension
- Walking the Earth
A mercenary employed by Copy Rezo and Eris to bring Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis to Sairaag. He's a proud swordsman who often seeks to fight Gourry and prove himself to be a better fighter, but over the course of the series, he switches his role from a crafty antagonist to a helpful ally.
- Blow You Away: He wields an enchanted sword called Howling Wind that creates rending gusts with each swing.
- Canon Foreigner: Created exclusively for the anime (although Kanzaka has been involved with the production, making him somewhat of a Canon Immigrant).
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Meets Martina in the 23rd episode and marries her three episodes later, having known her for what one can assume is a day or two...
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: He's more concerned about settling the score with Gourry rather than following Copy Rezo's orders, and he's a much more decent person than his partner Vrumugun.
- Happily Married: In the final episode of NEXT.
- Heel–Face Turn: Takes a while to get there, but happens officially when Gourry is kidnapped by Hellmaster.
- Rags to Riches: After marrying Martina, he goes from a common mercenary to a king of a country.
- The Rival: To Gourry, always hounding him for a fight to find out who's the greatest swordsman around.
A well-mannered, gentle-natured shrine maiden from the city of Sairagg and the first of the party's many additional members; she is extremely skilled in White Magic, which, unfortunately, hampers her ability in combat. She is in love with Gourry, but he doesn't really notice at all.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Poor girl. Her love for Gourry goes right over the Jellyfish brain's head. Her pain ends in the eighth novel, where she realizes that Gourry loves Lina (even though Lina herself doesn't) and, while disappointed, accepts it and willingly gives up Gourry to her friend.
- Barrier Warrior: In addition to being an exceptional healer, she can also create strong defensive barriers.
- Beware the Nice Ones: In NEXT, she reveals that she can cast Dragon Slave, just like Lina.
- Guest-Star Party Member: In seasons 1, 2, and 4; however, she is only this during the fight with Copy Rezo in the novels.
- Cooldown Hug: Gives one to Lina in NEXT, when she panicks while thinking she's killed a little girl.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The best in the series when it comes to white magic, but sorely lacking in terms of offense. Her first attempt at Flare Arrow (which she learned from a magazine) is pathetically weak, painfully slow, and shaped like a carrot. She does get better eventually .
- Dull Surprise: While Yumi Touma gives Sylphiel a perky, energetic voice, Stacia Crawford sounds like she's reading her lines for the very first time ever. Little wonder she was one of the only dub VA who didn't return in Revolution.
- Hime Cut: The classic "long hair and straight bangs" to fit with her lady-like personality.
- Inept Mage: Sylphiel is one of the most powerful white magic users in existence, but she cannot cast black magic, with one exception: after a lot of practice, she can cast a Dragon Slave that is almost as powerful as Lina's. But that's the only black magic spell she can pull off properly; even though she had a reasonably powerful Flare Arrow once, she seems unable to regularly cast it effectively.
- The Medic: Her healing powers are almost unmatched in the series.
- Nice Girl: Edges out Amelia for "nicest character in the series" because she isn't Wrong Genre Savvy.
- The Ojou: Her father was a high-ranked priest from Sairaag.
- Proper Lady: Well-mannered, gentle-natured, modest, etc.
- Put on a Bus: In the tv program, she appears as a minor ally at the climax of The Slayers and Slayers: Next. Despite promising to join the team, she's not seen for the whole of Try.
- The Bus Came Back: She leads the Seiruun Magic Squad in Revolution, and cameos in the finale of Evolution R.
- Shrinking Violet: She sharply contrasts Lina and the others in terms of extroversion.
- Statuesque Stunner: Much taller than Lina.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The "girly" half, with Lina being the tomboy because she herself is a Proper Lady and Lina is far too rough mannered and aggressive to fit.
- Took a Level in Badass: Happens twice in the anime. The first occurs shortly after the "Flare Carrot" incident. A few off-screen pointers from Lina and she's easily blasting down walls with a proper Flare Arrow. For the second, see Beware the Nice Ones above.
- White Mage: Even better at the art than Amelia, who usually serves as this for the party.
- White Magician Girl: A proper lady healer and love interest for the male lead.
The spoiled, overly-dramatic princess (later queen) of the kingdom of Zoana who exclusively appears in the second season of the anime (NEXT). She antagonizes Lina and follows her around during the course of the season because she destroyed her castle, and often falls into trouble for comedy relief. Nevertheless, she pulls herself together and gives Lina motivation to fight against Phibrizzo during the final battle, and marries the swordsman Zangulus soon after.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: See Determinator below. Shows extreme competence in a lot of areas but as a villain, she's almost completely inept.
- Butt-Monkey: Starting with the destruction of her kingdom she jumps from one comedic disaster to another.
- Canon Foreigner: Created exclusively for Slayers NEXT.
- Cute and Psycho: More garden-variety odd than Axe-Crazy, but still... what kind of person invents their own religion?
- Curse: Black Magic-based curses are the only form of magic that she knows. She manages to cast one on Lina in an early episode: should Lina attack someone, pain would be inflicted back at her.
- Determinator: Her most defining attribute, after her insanity and solitary worship of Zoamelgustar. To get back on her feet after her kingdom is destroyed, she sells random trinkets. She takes advantage of the destruction of a kingdom to sell her religious pendants. And she never stops trying to earn money or get revenge on Lina, taking even waitressing jobs while the rest of the party is relaxing, and going all the way into another dimension with Lina to try to research how to restore her kingdom.
- Expy: She is named after a famous lesbian tennis player from the Czech Republic. Episode 16 pays a homage to this by involving her and Lina participating in a game similar to tennis. Interestingly, Navratilova was not aware of this up until now
. - Fairytale Wedding Dress: Wears a gown worthy of a princess in the final episode when she marries Zangulus.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Meets Zangulus in the 23rd episode and marries him three episodes later, having known him for what one can assume is a day or two...
- Goldfish Poop Gang: Her role is to show up every episode or so and cause trouble for Lina.
- Happily Married: In the final episode of NEXT.
- Heel–Face Turn: Takes a while to get there, but happens officially when Gourry is kidnapped by Hellmaster.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: She's a poor villain, and if she weren't spending so much time trying to curse people she believes responsible for her hard times, she would draw sympathy.
- The Load: Up until the very end she is no help to anyone. Then she is the one to push Lina into unleashing the Giga Slave on Hellmaster.
- Love at First Sight: Crushes on (chronologically) Zelgadis, Gourry, Xellos, and Zangulus at the drop of a hat, and she settles down with the latter by the end of the season.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: She worships the demon god Zoamelgustar, who nobody has ever heard of and it's strongly implied she made up herself. However, she does seemingly get a massive power boost by invoking him (for instance the curse she put on Lina is supposed to be impossible without a contract from a mazoku) and Hellmaster at one point claims he's sparing her out of respect for her patron in a way that leaves it ambiguous if he's joking.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Martina is named after a famous lesbian tennis player from the Czech Republic.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Often laughs in this style when hatching a (in her mind) devious plan.
- Odd Friendship: When traveling with the main group, she actually comes to get along best with Amelia, possibly since they're both princesses. Amelia even happily attends and cheers on Martina's wedding to Zangulus at the end.
- Ojou Ringlets: Again, a mark of her former high social standing is her curling hair.
- Plucky Comic Relief: She's not a serious threat and everyone except her knows it. She's there to provide comedy instead of drama, with the exception of during the confrontation with Hellmaster.
- Princess in Rags: She's the princess of Zoana, and forced to sell her possessions for food.
- Rich Bitch: A formerly rich princess who believes everyone beneath her (except Xelloss for some reason).
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Averted until the very end, where she toughens up and tries to motivate Lina when Gourry is kidnapped and Brainwashed by Phibrizzo. And succeeds.
- Running Gag: She is always being left behind by the core party, and complains about it. It takes on a darker aspect in the final episode where they fly off chasing Gourry and leave her and Zangulus stranded on a rapidly-disintegrating pinnacle of rock, surviving only thanks to Martina's comic relief status.
- Serial Romeo: In NEXT she falls madly in love with a different male cast member every appearance.
- Spoiled Brat: Her dad did a poor job raising her.
- Talking to Themself: She worships a deity she more or less made up herself, and praises herself using "his" voice.
- Underwear of Power: Wears what appears to be a pair of yellow panties over her leggings.
The Regent of the Kingdom of Seyruun note , heir to the throne, and father of Amelia and Naga. Despite the turmoil that follows being heir, Phil is resilient and incredibly just, both towards his subjects and towards Lina and her allies. Along with those, his two other notable traits are his boorish, dwarf-like appearance and his physical prowess.
- Badass Normal: Unlike his daughter, he lacks white magic and shamanism. Regardless, he is able to stand against lesser demons with his own raw strength.
- Badass Pacifist: He's a weird case. On one hand he gets rampaging ghosts to listen to him with words alone. On the other hand, he does use physical violence which a typical Badass Pacifist would avoid and calls his techniques oxymoronic names like "Pacifist Crush" and "Goodwill To All Men Smash". It actually might be that this very mindset is what helps him put down lesser demons, since they are explicitly vulnerable to positive emotions.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: All his techniques are bare handed and they resemble wrestling moves.
- Big Damn Heroes: Subverted in his attempt to save the group near the end of the first season. While he did manage to save the heroes for the moment by causing a distraction (and changing the tone to a more comedic one that made character deaths unlikely, as is lampshaded by the heroes), he was completely out of his league against the villain.
- Boisterous Bruiser: A big and hammy man that can crush you with his bare hands.
- Calling Your Attacks: "PACIFIST CRUSH!"
- Faking the Dead: Does this in NEXT after Alfred's botched assassination attempt on him.
- Generation Xerox: Averted. It's pointed out on a few occasions that he and Amelia really don't look anything alike, whenever people find out they're father and daughter.
- Large Ham: In addition to Calling Your Attacks he's also a passionate Love Freak.
- Love Freak: Like Father like Daughter. All his attacks have this theme.
- Nice Guy: Overall, despite his Large Ham tendencies, he's a pretty friendly, easygoing, helpful guy. It's easy to see where Amelia gets it from.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Not with the same dignified tone as the trope suggests, but he is prone to laughing a lot.
- Papa Wolf: To Amelia and his kingdom.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: This is another trait Amelia gets from him; active and heroic royal service.
- Technical Pacifist: Despite his attacks, he's never killed anyone because he's a pacifist at heart.
- The Wise Prince: Despite being a Love Freak, he doesn't overdo it or fall to Wrong Genre Savvy like his daughter.
The Mazoku Lords and their Followers
The source of evil in the Slayers world, and one of the four dark lords of the four worlds created by The Lord of Nightmares. Many millennia prior to the series proper, he was defeated and split into seven pieces by Flare Dragon Ciefeed, and those pieces were subsequently sealed away into the bodies of seven humans, with Ciefeed's intent being that they would be purged quickly due to their short lifespans. Unfortunately, this was not the case, as extreme amounts of hatred can force these pieces to reawaken.
So far, three carriers of Shabranigdo have been revealed; two have been destroyed for good (Rezo and Luke, with the latter only having been done in the novels) and one was sealed away a thousand years before the series begins (Lei Magnus). The other four carriers are unknown. Shabranigdo is also a potent source of the world's Black Magic.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance
- Big Red Devil: In the anime and games. His two appearances in the novels are bizarrely different in appearance.
- Black Magic: Two incredibly powerful spells (the Dragon Slave and Ruby-Eye Blade) draw power from him. As a result the only Black Mage spell that can even affect him is drawn from The Lord Of Nightmares and has a very real chance of burning the world in the process.
- Dark Is Evil: His skin is a very dark shade of red, and all of his appearances across the franchise take place in very grim settings, such as a tall tower in the first novel, or in the ruins of Taforashia in the fifth season of the anime.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: In the first novel.
- Evil Plan: All the mazoku lords are (in theory) working on his plan: destroy the world.
- Evil Overlord: Rules over the Mazoku.
- Final Boss: In the fifth season of the anime.
- God of Evil: He is literally the source of all supernatural evil in the Slayers Universe, and possibly all mundane evil as well, given he predates the human race by a wide margin. All monsters in the Slayers Universe were created roughly one thousand years before the series begins during the War of Dark Lord's Resurrection by his Lei Magnus-Shabranigdo incarnation.
- Graceful Loser: The Rezo incarnation salutes Lina (and Rezo's rebellious spirit) for their victory with his dying breath.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The boss of the Mazoku lords and ultimate evil, but his parts are either sealed away or missing or dead so he doesn't actually do much himself.
- Hijacked by Ganon: Takes over Rezo's position as the Disc-One Final Boss in the first novel/first anime season after Rezo awakens him. He does so again in Evolution-R, since his spirit also being inside the Hellmaster's Jar is explained as the source of the corruption that led to Gioconda's greed, Duclis's fixation on vengeance, Zuuma's madness, and even Rezo's selfishness that led him to do anything to see, even if only for one last time after being resurrected in Posel's body.
- Orcus on His Throne: Justified in regards to the fact that he's a being that was sealed away in pieces, but he dawdles quite a bit when he awakens out of Rezo's body.
- Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Death
- The Power of Hate: Is powered by this. During the final battle in Evolution-R, he explains to Lina that he was able to cling to Rezo's soul while sealed in the Hellmaster's Jar because of the fear and hatred he grew of her during his first battle with her.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning
- Sealed Evil in a Can: He's sealed alongside Rezo in the Hellmaster's Jar in Evolution-R, and only Xellos is aware of it.
- Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Seven "cans", even.
- Shapeshifter Identity Crisis: Luke's incarnation of Shabranigdo suffers from this big time. He despises humans for killing Milina, but still loves her, and hates his fellow Mazoku for setting off the incident in the thirteenth novel. He ultimately decides to give Lina and Gourry a large portion of power and give them a fair chance of beating him, and his love for Milina ultimately allows him to die by his own power.
- Tailor-Made Prison: The sorcerer Lei Magnus's incarnation of Shabranigdo was sealed away (along with Lei Magnus himself) in a block of ice in the Kaltaart Mountains. A game on the Super Famicom had both sorcerer and demon as the True Final Boss.
Considered to be the strongest of Shabranigdo's five generals, Phibrizzo is the manipulator of human souls and can control life and death at the drop of a hat. He is the main antagonist of the eighth novel and of the second season of the anime. His beast form is an amorphous black sphere.
A sadistic and manipulative being who thrives on murder, he is able to defeat fellow general Chaos Dragon Gaav with a snap of his fingers, and this sets off his sadistic plan that culminates into the climax of season two. His plan was to provoke Lina to destroy the world by casting the all-mighty Giga Slave; he succeeds in doing so by killing off her friends one by one. Unfortunately for him, the Giga Slave is miscast, and the Lord of Nightmares is summoned. Unamused by his actions, she obliterates him from existence.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: The form of a child.
- Ax-Crazy: Though it isn't evident until the climax.
- Badass Fingersnap: His preferred way of conjuring his powers. He does it while wiping Gaav out of existence and capturing Gourry.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: He craved for destruction... so this is what Lord of Nightmares granted him (and him only) when she was inadvertently summoned.
- The Big Bad: Of King of the City of Ghosts, Slayers NEXT and the last volumes of Slayers: Super-Explosive Demon Story.
- The Chessmaster: And how. He had been manipulating everybody — heroes and villains alike — for most of Slayers NEXT, siccing Gaav on Lina Inverse and assuming that she will use the Giga Slave spell against him. When that failed, he quickly came up with a backup plan to use Lina's friends as hostages and blackmail her into casting that spell.
- Creepy Child: His human form is in the likeness of an androgynous young boy, which easily fools Lina and the others. While he initially averts this trope, he plays it straight after showing his true colors.
- Crystal Prison: He seems fond of imprisoning others with these.
- Death Seeker: His ultimate goal is to more or less blow up the world—and himself—in a spectacular fashion. He gets (part of) his wish when he provokes the Lord of Nightmares in the final episode.
- Didn't See That Coming: The intervention of the Lord of Nightmares.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Phibrizzo, did you just nuke Gaav by snapping your fingers?
- The Dragon: Of Shabranigdu, as his most powerful general.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Or a little girl, complete with big eyes and long eyelashes. In the manga iteration covering his storyline this is actually taken further where part of the plot is that he explicitly took control of the body of a little girl named Erina to make Lina let her guard down around him.
- Eviler than Thou: Gaav and his minions are the primary antagonists for most of Slayers NEXT and it would seem that Gaav himself is going to be set up as Lina's ultimate adversary of the season. However, once Phibrizzo reveals himself, he instantly proves to be a far greater threat. Not only does it turn out he's been manipulating both sides the whole time, but the moment he takes off the mask, he instantly annihilates Gaav with a snap of his fingers, taking his place as a Big Bad with the much more sinister goal of destroying not only Lina Inverse, but also everyone and everything else.
- The Fake Cutie: His human form is extremely adorable, when not pulling freakish Slasher Smiles. He mentions in one episode that he did this on purpose because he knew no one would suspect him if he took the form of a cute little kid.
- Faux Affably Evil: Even after it's revealed he's the true Big Bad, he continuously shows a jovial attitude in spite of being batshit insane.
- Final Boss Preview: That cute little kid you see for a very brief shot in the Next opening? That's the Big Bad for this season.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: He gives a hint to his true identity shortly before openly revealing it when Lina apparently manages to kill Gaav using Ragna Blade. Everybody present is just staring in shock, but Phibrizzo smiles maliciously instead, totally contradicting the cute child persona he's been keeping up until this point.
- Gone Horribly Right: He wanted to force Lina to call upon the power of the Lord of Nightmares. She ended up summoning the Lord of Nightmares herself.
- The Grim Reaper: He is able to control human life and death.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His elaborate plan to force Lina into a desperate enough situation to try and cast the Giga Slave again actually worked perfectly. Unfortunately its success didn't mean what he thought it did, as it turns out the Lord of Nightmares' power is inseparable from her physical presence and attention, meaning when the spell is cast, you're technically summoning her briefly into the physical universe. When she possesses Lina, Phibrizzo completely loses his marbles, realizing that all his plans and designs that he worked on for years were ruined in an instant just when they were so close to fruition. In a fit of desperation (and insanity), he tries to destroy Lina's physical form, reasoning that Lord of Nightmares' power is trapped within it and this would mean "releasing" her. Of course, this turns out to be a bad idea. Phibrizzo's attack doesn't harm her in the slightest and she kills him off-handedly in retaliation.
- Light Is Not Good: His true form pretty much invokes the trope.
- Laughing Mad: Loses it when the Lord of Nightmares manifests in Lina's body, and his laughter becomes unhinged to match.
- Nietzsche Wannabe: He wants to destroy everyone and everything, seeing it as the ultimate goal of the Mazoku race.
- Sadist: He revels in his victims’ suffering and despair, as evidenced when he kills all of Lina Inverse’s friends one by one.
- Spell My Name With An S: His name was romanized as "Phibrizzo" in the Central Park Media subtitles, with "Fibrizo" being the original spelling.
- Sphere of Destruction: His true form is what appears to be an amorphous black sphere.
- Thanatos Gambit: Subverted; instead of having something come later, he wanted to die spectacularly along with the rest of the world.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: He is notably one of the most sadistic, depraved and vile characters in the series. But, he's even more terrifying.
- Villainous Breakdown: Once he realizes that the Giga Slave spell has summoned the Lord of Nightmares herself and his elaborate plan with years in the making has just gone to hell, his smug demeanor drops instantly and he goes completely off the rails.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: He can destroy souls and subsequently kill others by crushing what appear to be little glass spheres — the physical representation of them. He kills Amelia, Sylphiel, Zelgadis, Zangulus, and Martina in this fashion.
The most aggressive of the five generals. He was sealed into his human form by Aqualord Ragradia, who hoped that his power would diminish overtime, similar to Shabranigdo's dilemma. However, Gaav's soul fused with the soul of his human host, and because of it, he has rebelled against his fellow lords out of the desire to survive. He is the main antagonist of the seventh novel and the Disc-One Final Boss of NEXT. His true form is a three-headed red dragon.
Gaav spends most of the early novels/second season spreading his influence towards the humans with the help of his underlings, hoping to secure power and raise a powerful human army. It is revealed in the novels that he is doing this in order to destroy the piece of Shabranigdo sealed in the Kaltaart Mountains. Because of his rebellious nature, Hellmaster Phibrizzo murders him during a fight with Lina's party.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Averted. Since he's sealed into a human form that really is what he looks like.
- Ambiguously Brown: His human form.
- Badass Longcoat: Wears one in human form.
- BFS: Wields a massive sword that is powerful enough to severely injure the normally Nigh-Invulnerable Zelgadis.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Seems like the main antagonist of the second season. As it turns out, that’s actually the cute Tag Along Kid.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Easily pummels the two boys in the party; it isn't until Lina strikes him with the Ragna Blade that he gets hurt. He survives anyway.
- Cool People Rebel Against Authority: Strangely justified: because he gained something of a human consciousness when he was sealed into the body of one, a survival instinct not normally associated with the Monster race took over, thus making him no longer able to fight for the goal of eliminating all existence.
- Enemy Civil War: Had a brief scuffle with the other lords due to the trope above.
- Evil Redhead: A red haired antagonist.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Hellmaster checks him out in this fashion in the novels; in the anime he disintegrates slowly instead.
- Large Ham: He's pretty boisterous.
- My Greatest Second Chance: He is the one who gave Val, the final ancient dragon, a portion of his powers along with a reason to live again.
- Our Dragons Are Different: His true form.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a short but harrowing one to Amelia about her black-and-white obsession with justice, then proceeds to try to kill her until Zelgadis saves her with a Diving Save.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Normally he would kill everyone, but his time as a human made him gain human survival instincts. Most of this trope is disregarded, though, because he still desires to overrun the world chaotically.
A mazoku serving under Gaav who attempted to assassinate Prince Philionel in the fourth book. In truth he is actually hoping to lure out and assassinate Lina Inverse.
- Disc-One Final Boss: He's portrayed as a major threat in the first half of NEXT, but only lasts up to its halfway point.
A mazoku searching for the Claire Bible. She has the ability to seal one's powers and does so against Lina leaving her unable to cast any magic, with her death being the only way to break the seal. The anime changes her role a bit, now making her Kanzel's partner in crime, and assists him with his attempted takeover of Seyruun .
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the original light novels, she's killed by Xellos, while in the anime Lina uses the Sword of Light to slice her in half.
- Evil Redhead: Her human form has long red hair
- No Ontological Inertia: Her sealing spells wear off when she is killed.
- Power Nullifier: Her main ability amounts to this, sealing away one's ability to cast spells.
- Smug Snake: She spends most of her screentime being cocky and dismissing Lina and her friends as a genuine threat to her. She pays dearly for this arrogance.
Originally a follower of Greater Beast Zelas Metallium and later a servant of Chaos Dragon Gaav, he is a menacing cloaked figure that hides a manifestation in the physical world. He first appears framing Damia and Tarimu by summoning ooze monsters out of their estates, and he makes an alliance with Halcyform. However, when confronted by Xellos, he retreats without a fight. He later attacks Lina in the temple of the Claire Bible manuscript, revealing that he was granted enough of Gaav's power to withstand a Dragon Slave.
- Cool Mask: Wears a white stone mask under his cloak, which is actually his Pledge Stone.
- Lightning Bruiser: Already incredibly fast and tough for a low-ranking Mazoku, he gains even more resistance thanks to Gaav.
- Handwraps of Awesome: His arms and hands are completely bandaged up.
- In the Hood: His signature black cloak.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The eyes of this thoroughly nasty guy are just red lights behind his mask.
One of the two female Mazoku lords, and Xellos' mysterious master. Also, Xellos himself is her only underling. Her beast form is an enormous anthropomorphic wolf with wings.
Zelas appears in the final novel alongside Deep Sea Dolphin in a forest near Sairagg; together, the two of them trap Lina and Gourry into an enormous sealed-off space where Luke-Shabranigdo lied in wait. Milgasia the Golden Dragon reveals hers and Dolphin's identity when Luke-Shabranigdo is defeated. She makes several cameo appearances in the anime, and is the Final Boss of a video game for the Super Famicom.
- Affably Evil: In the 15th novel, she addresses others as "Lady" or "Sir."
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Her human form.
- Ambiguously Brown: Her human form in the anime.
- Animal Motifs: Wolves.
- The Cameo: In the final episode of TRY, we can see her from behind as she is talking to Xellos.
- Canis Major: Her true form is a large wolf.
- Enigmatic Minion: Even more so than Xellos!
- Final Boss: In the Super Famicom game.
- Lady of War
- Smoking Is Cool: Her human form in the anime.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy half, with Dolphin being the "girly" half.
The tactical, scheming, and ever elusive master of disguise among the five generals. He uses all of these traits in order to cause destruction, and he hopes to start a second war between the Shinzoku and the Mazoku, along with the intention to resurrect the piece of Shabranigdo in Luke. He is the main antagonist of the thirteenth novel. His true form is what appears to be a golem-like beast wearing spiky armor.
Dynast sends his general Sherra to hinder Lina and Gourry, and when she is defeated, he sets off the conflict in the thirteenth novel by impersonating the king of the kingdom of Gairia. Lina is able to defeat him by encasing him in Zanaffar Armor and striking him down with the Ragna Blade. The main part of his body on the astral plane remains intact, thus ensuring his survival, but he is otherwise severely wounded to the point that he can no longer manifest on the physical plane. He has not appeared in the anime or any other media.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: He can take human form.
- Death Trap: Lina is able to render his powers useless by trapping him into a set of magic-nullifying Zanaffar Armor, and cuts him down from there.
- Evil Genius: Since both Hellmaster and Chaos Dragon are dead, he is forced to fit into this role despite being closer to The Brute. Even his plan to resurrect the soul of Shabranigdo is an attempt at copying what Hellmaster did several millennia ago.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Has no definitive human form.
- Master of Disguise: He impersonates a king.
-
Word of God: Dynast has had at least four different priests and generals made in his lifetime; Zelas only has Xellos, and the other three lords each have one priest and one general.
Dolphin resides in the sea that lies to the southeast of the mainland the story takes place in most of the time. In terms of goals and backstory, there is little known about her; however, it's hinted that Dolphin herself was the one to have planned her priest Huraker's scheme to seize the power of Aqualord Ragradia in the Knight of the Aqualord manga. Her true form is unknown.
Dolpin appears alongside Zelas in the final novel and traps Lina and Gourry into the sub-space where Luke-Shabranigdo awaited them.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Her human form.
- Evil Plan: Believed to have started it in the Knight of the Aqualord manga, where she sent Huraker off and caused all of that turmoil in order to have Lina gain the power of one of the four Shinzoku lords; from there Huraker would absorb both Lina's and Lyos' powers in order to become a demon with the power of the gods. Yikes...
- The Ghost: Only appeared in the novels, and has no definitive beast form.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Wears a poofy dress covered in pearls in her human form.
- Technicolor Eyes: Her eyes in her human form are abnormally shiny...
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The "girly" half, with Zelas as the tomboy.
- Water Is Womanly: The Mazoku Lord over water and the seas is a feminine, beautiful woman with long dark blue hair.
Other Villains
A highly well-known and respected priest and sorcerer, and Zelgadis' great-grandfather. He is known across the kingdoms of the Old World for performing miraculous feats with magic, namely healing. However, this is mostly a cover-up for his more shadowy intentions, which is finding a method of opening his blind eyes in any way possible. His eyes are permanently blind because a shard of Shabranigdo is sealed within him, and his eyes act as something of a seal. He never considered this possibility until he broke that seal and released Shabranigdo.
Rezo served as the catalyst for many events in the series. He is the first major antagonist that Lina fights, and he returns later in the anime where the group learns that he was involved in the sealing of a kingdom (it's also subtly implied that he caused the plague that forced the kingdom to be sealed away in the first place), and more of his less pleasant side is revealed.
- Badass Bookworm
- Blind Seer
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: He arranges matters so that not only does his soul survive his death in the Hellmaster's Jar, not only does he need to be resurrected in order to restore the people of Taforashia, but he ensures Lina and the others will be there when it happens...so that after getting to see light and the world one last time, they can destroy him and Shabranigdo again. Because he has faith they can do it.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: His red robes. The novels elaborate on the fact that many high-ranking sorcerers that graduate from magical guilds are assigned a color as a part of their title (an example would be Tarim and Daymia, who, in the novels, are Tarim the Violet and Daymia the Blue respectively. There is also Lina's infamous color, pink.).
- Crazy-Prepared: (Anime only) He invented his own magical jar for his soul to hide in if he ever dies, all for the sake of continuing to find a way to open his eyes...
- Death Equals Redemption: Somewhat. The first time, his soul is able to hold back Shabranigdo long enough for Lina to strike the killing blow against the Big Bad. The second time he not only tries to hold him back again, as he is finally slain for good he is able to cast Posel's soul back into his chimera body, saving him from the Giga Slave.
- Evil Sorcerer
- First-Name Basis: He's only referred to be his first name, but Hajima Kanzaka revealed that his last name is Graywords, the same as his great-grandson's.
- Hijacked by Ganon: To a lesser extent, since he himself is being corrupted/manipulated by Shabranigdo, but it is revealed in Evolution-R that he was not only the one who created Ozzel, but ordered her to protect the Hellmaster's Jar and bring about his resurrection, which is how she and the jar ended up in the possession of Gioconda and Duclis, thus influencing their inner darkness.
- Literal Genie: Well, he did say that Zelgadis would be transformed when he promised him power.
- Meaningful Name: His name means "prayer" in Spanish.
- Older Than They Look: He's stated to be about a hundred years old, but looks at least half that - the only true indicator of his older age are two bony lines under his eyes. When Lina meets him in the novels, she describes him as looking "young and old at the same time."
- Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: He is the person-shaped can.
- Start of Darkness: Rezo's inability to cure his own blindness despite being able to do so in other people slowly pushed him into taking more desperate measures and eventually became an obsession. This allowed the shard of Shabranigdo sealed within his eyes to corrupt his soul, culminating in the demon taking him over.
- Villain with Good Publicity: He's known to virtually everyone on the continent, and both Lina and Amelia revere him as such (until The Reveal, obviously). Pokota understandably feels the same way for most of Evolution-R, seeing as he sealed all the people of Taforashia in a stasis spell to keep them alive until a cure for the plague striking them could be found.
The chairman of the Atlas City Sorcerer's Guild who seeks immortality. He is the Big Bad of the second light novel and in the first part of NEXT.
- Immortality Immorality: Abducted human subjects for his research.
- Love Makes You Evil: In the anime.
- Playing with Fire: He appears to specialise in shamanic fire spells.
- Necromantic: In the anime.
- Rapid Aging: In the anime, after the Pledge Stone is destroyed.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: At the start of the novel since Tarim and Daymia were unable to kill him.
- Soul Jar: He has made a Pledge of Immortality with Seigram - so long as Seigram's mask remains intact, he can't die.
- Telepathy: Displays this in the novel.
- Together in Death: With Rubia in the anime.
A copy created by the Red Priest for use in his experiments to cure his blindness. Copy Rezo's only desire is to surpass the original, even if the world might be destroyed in the process. He is the Big Bad of the second arc of the first season/the third novel.
- Beta Test Baddie: A clone of the villainous Rezo.
- Body Horror: Due to being fused with a mazoku. In the anime, he has two mouths on the palms of his hands, which allow him to cast spells quicker. In the novel, these two extra mouths are where his eyes should be.
- Clone Angst: He is so insecure about being a clone that he will do absolutely anything to surpass the original.
- Eyes Always Shut: Either when pretending to be the real Rezo (anime) or due to having mouths there instead (novel).
- My God, What Have I Done?: In the anime, his death scene is treated as such a moment, when he seems to understand and regret the death and destruction he's caused, and asks only to be buried beneath Flagoon. In the novel, there's no such moment of clarity, and he passes away as bitter as he's always been.
- No Kill like Overkill: After fatally wounding Eris, Copy Rezo finishes her off with a huge blast that effectively erased her from existence. He even mocks how there's not even a trace of her body left after he was done, disgusting the heroes.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Kills Eris once she has fulfilled her purpose. Even the original Rezo wasn't quite that cruel.
- Wham Shot: He’s a copy, but after killing off Eris, Copy Rezo casually removes the control gem from his forehead before crushing it, showing that he’s fully sentient.
Eris is a sorceress who accompanied Rezo on his journeys and fell in love with him. He eventually left her in his search for a way to open his eyes. After learning of his death, she sought revenge on Lina using Copy Rezo.
- All Love Is Unrequited
- Avenging the Villain: Her goal.
- Blood from the Mouth: During her death.
- Evil Costume Switch
- Ignored Enamored Underling
- Misplaced Retribution: Eris tries to kill Lina and her group for causing Rezo’s death, when in actuality, he was killed once Rezo removed the seal on his eyes which released the shard of Shabranigdo sealed in himself, so if anything, the Slayers group were technically trying to prevent Rezo’s death. Zelgadis even calls Eris out on it, simply saying “totally misplaced resentment”.
- People Puppets: She is able to control people by attaching gems to their forehead.
- Spikes of Villainy
- Villainous Breakdown: Eris was in complete shock when Copy Rezo shot her in the back, unable to process why he would do that to her.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: She is shot in the back by Copy Rezo once he is done with her.
An immensely powerful beast with near-complete immunity to magic. It was originally armour created using the Claire Bible to fight the Mazoku, but due to a flaw in the process, it became sentient, consuming its wearer and going out of control (the flawless, safe version is called a Zenefa). One of these creatures laid waste to Sairagg before it was slain by a previous wielder of the Sword of Light and sealed under the Holy Tree Flagoon. In the anime, it was unsealed by Copy Rezo who merged with it to increase his power to fight Lina. Another Zanaffar was born during the events of Revolution after Duclis activates Gioconda's armor and goes on a rampage.
- A God Am I: The Zanaffar from Revolution.
- Achilles' Heel: The Sword of Light.
- Breath Weapon
- Cannibalism Superpower: It acquires the knowledge of those it consumes.
- The Corruption: Its armour form does this to its wearer, eventually consuming them.
- No-Sell: Due to being sealed off from the Astral Side, as well as having natural elemental resistance on par with an Arc Dragon, nearly all categories of spells are completely useless against it – only magic calling directly upon the Lord of Nightmares is able to bypass its various protections.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The one sealed under Flagoon.
A human-gray tiger chimera who is an antagonist in the fifth light novel and the main antagonist in Revolution. In the novels, he is a guard for the Cult of Shabranigdo, having being rescued by their leader after being betrayed by his comrades. In the anime, he is a former friend of Pokota who wants revenge against everyone who he believes turned a blind eye to the suffering of their homeland, Taforashia.
- Big Damn Heroes: Has such a moment in the finale of Revolution after changing sides, when his resistance to Zanaffar's absorption and a very timely attack provides the distraction to let Lina finish using the Ragna Blade and Dragon Slave.
- Emergency Transformation: In the novel.
- Half-Human Hybrid: A chimera in the novel. In the anime, it is an artificial body.
- Heel–Face Turn: If of the last-minute variety, in the anime.
- I Owe You My Life: His reason for serving the Cult of Shabranigdo in the novel.
- Kill Me Now, or Forever Stay Your Hand: Asks this of Pokota in the anime; refused out of love, although to him living is actually a punishment.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Has a quiet moment of this as he's dying and being transformed by his Zanaffar armor, when he finally comes back to himself.
- My Revenge Is Mercy: Not from Pokota, who can't bring himself to kill his friend, but Phil in the anime, who agrees he will live but will have to remain trapped in his tauric chimera form, apart from people, traveling the wilderness completely alone, haunted by the guilt over those he had killed.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Lives in the anime, dies in the novel.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His initial motivation in the anime, aside from seeking a cure for his people and a way to break Rezo's spell, is to punish those neighboring countries who left his kingdom to die without aid, something which inspires great sympathy even if his methods leave a lot to be desired. However, as time goes on he becomes more and more unhinged (possibly encouraged by his Zanaffar armor, although Shabranigdo also claims it was due to the influence of his spirit in the Hellmaster's Jar). Even once he finds out aid was indeed sent but it had been intercepted by Gioconda, he still desires Revenge on the countries he believed failed his people and their honor. As a result he unleashes Zanaffar to punish them and make them suffer as his people had, claiming that whether they survived or not was up to fate and would prove their true worth.
A marquess of the kingdom of Ruvinagald whom Duclis is working with. She intends to learn how to mass-produce the Zanaffar armour and also sells the magic tanks produced on the way for money. She is also responsible for diverting the aid that was being sent to Taforashia.
- Aristocrats Are Evil
- Arms Dealer: Wishes to sell the magic tanks for profit.
- Disc-One Final Boss
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: After Duclis learns that she stole the aid that was meant for Taforashia, he slashes the Zanaffar armour she was wearing, awakening it and causing it to consume her.
- War for Fun and Profit
- Voiced by: Nobuo Tobita (Japanese), Troy Baker (English)
A deadly assassin hired to kill Lina who appears in Revolution, Evolution-R and the 4th and 6th novels. His true identity is the merchant Radok Ranzaad.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: In the original novels he first appeared during Kanzel's attack on Seyruun, which occurs in the second season of the anime. He doesn't appear until the anime's fourth season.
- An Arm and a Leg: He loses both of his arms in battle with Lina and Gourry, and has to merge with a Mazoku to gain new ones. He later loses those arms as well.
- Casting a Shadow
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Courtesy of cone!Xellos impaling and then quite literally obliterating his body.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: He's killed by Lina with the Ragna Blade in the novels but in the anime, Lina merely defeats him and afterwards, Xellos finishes him off.
- Offing the Offspring: In the anime.
- Professional Killer
- Revenge: Aside from the reason for becoming an assassin given below under War for Fun and Profit, Zuuma also has an indirect desire for revenge against Lina: she killed the bandit group that had kidnapped and murdered his wife in Sairaag—either during the fight with Copy Rezo or the one with Phibrizzo—thus depriving him of the chance to repay them.
- Sanity Slippage: He gradually becomes more and more unhinged, to the point that he murders his own son. According to Shabranigdo, this is due to his use of the Hellmaster's Jar to join with Mazoku, since this also exposed him to the corruption of the Demon Lord's spirit.
- War for Fun and Profit: More or less why he's an assassin in the novels; the anime adds a revenge factor for the death of his wife during an imprisonment; it probably would not have happened if his father paid the ransom the kidnappers demanded in the first place.
Other Characters
"She who shines like gold upon the Sea of Chaos", the supreme creator goddess of the Slayers universe. Despite the name, and the homage the Mazoku pay to her, she mostly doesn't get involved in things. She shows up in the afterwords of the novels/manga as "Author's Official Spokeswoman L", much to the annoyance of the author himself, who finds himself on the receiving end of her abuse.
- Above Good and Evil: In Xellos's own words, she has a very capricious nature to begin with. Not to mention that she's, y'know... God...
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Can be called neither good nor evil, and does things on her whims. She killed Phibrizzo without a second thought even though he worshipped her. She was touched by Lina's reasons for summoning her and so spares her friends, but is fully intending to abscond with her body. And then when Gourry's devotion to Lina has him following her into the realm of the Gods she decides to give Lina back her body after all.
- Demonic Possession: A very rare benevolent case in this instance. She does this to Lina after she 'dies' while invoking the Giga Slave. To honor Lina's final thoughts, she obliterates Phibrizzo with every intention of taking Lina's body for her own purposes.
- Dissonant Serenity: Even when Phibrizzo, the strongest of Ruby Eye's subordinates, fired off a full-powered energy attack to try and destroy her vessel, she didn't even bat an eye as she blocked it.
- Eldritch Abomination: Her 'body' is what Lina's world, and three others, are made of.
- God of Chaos: Her title as the will and mind of the Sea of Chaos. She's every bit as chaotic as her title implies.
- Guardian of the Multiverse: She created four worlds, put in a god and devil in each one and if called upon can undo anything in any of those worlds that she sees fit to.
- Hot Goddess: An Eye Catch◊ from Slayers TRY has her appearing as a beautiful golden-haired woman.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Any ranked Mazoku and Dragon knows about the Lord of Nightmares, as she is the one who created them all.
- The Omnipotent: There is nothing in all the worlds that can harm her, while she can, with a thought, unmake anything and anyone in any of them.
- She Is the King: Despite her masculine title, is referred to as female.
- Wild Magic: The source of power for Lina's Giga Slave and Ragna Blade. To date, Lina is the only one who has survived wielding it. The Giga Slave especially has the potential to umake the entire world if it gets out of control.
Luna Inverse is Lina's "ever-persevering, never-appearing" older sister. She is The Chosen One, a Knight of Ceipheed who wields the Dragon God's power, but prefers staying in her hometown as a waitress. Lina fears her greatly.
- Almighty Janitor: Despite being the chosen one and possessing the strength of a god, she much prefers working as a waitress while her little sister does all of the work.
- Aloof Big Sister: Lina is terrified of her, and she is without a doubt the superior mage of the two.
- Always Someone Better: The rare sort of mage that is more powerful than Lina.
- Big Sister Bully: Considering how she's one of the only things Lina is afraid of.
- The Chosen One: The Dragon God's avatar with magical power far surpassing anyone alive. Not that she really cares.
- Eyes Out of Sight: Her hair always covers her eyes.
- The Ghost: She never appears in person in the story proper, but she's mentioned fairly often and Lina's fear of her is a Running Gag.
- Informed Ability: Her magical power is apparently equal to the Dragon God's though we've never seen her so much as appear in person let alone use magic.
- Lazy Bum: "Lazy" might be too strong of a word since she does make a living as a waitress. But as much of a Jerkass as Lina can be towards her own friends and random civilians, she at least puts forth the effort into heroics and saving the world, sometimes at Luna's forced insistence. Luna puts in absolutely no effort in these matters despite having the power to do so and just delegates all the work to her younger sister.
- Story-Breaker Power: She would probably make quick work of the series' villains, if she ever showed up.
