"As the hordes of Cluny the Scourge have moved southwards over the past six years, I have gathered intelligence of other incidents: a farmhouse set alight, later that same year... piglets, an entire litter of them eaten alive by rats... [...]"
"Laugh, yes laugh all you like, but stay hidden while you value your miserable lives. I am Tsarmina, Queen of the Thousand Eyes. Before I am finished with Mossflower, every creature who defies me will wish that its mother had never given birth to it. The crying and the dying will be loud and long. Now let me hear you laugh at that!"
—Tsarmina Greeneyes, Mossflower
The residents of Redwall Abbey are constantly threatened by various vermin, who are determined to take over the land and enslave everyone there. Despite numerous evil murderers and slavers, there are still some who stand out as the vilest of the lot.
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Novels
Examples
- Redwall (1986): Cluny the Scourge, the first villain introduced in the series, is a borderline Satanic figure of legend. A pirate turned warlord with a legacy of blood and murder behind him, Cluny arrives at Redwall Abbey with the intent to conquer all of Mossflower. Press-ganging every nearby rat, ferret, stoat, and weasel, Cluny orders their deaths should they not join while happily sacrificing his troops when he deems it necessary or to make brutal examples to his own forces. Steadily losing his sanity as the siege drags on, Cluny becomes more brutal before taking a dormouse family hostage to force the father to open the gates to the Abbey. Upon his triumphant claiming of Redwall, Cluny declares that he will slaughter every citizen within for daring to defy him and fatally wounds the harmless old Abbot Mortimer for attempting to protect his people. When the young warrior Matthias arrives to face Cluny at last, the rat sacrifices one of his most trusted lieutenants and attempts to force Matthias to yield to a pointless death by holding an innocent mouse hostage with a spike to his throat.
- Mossflower: Queen Tsarmina Greeneyes begins by murdering her father and framing her good-at-heart brother, sentencing him to life imprisonment in the dungeons of her Castle Kotir. Tsarmina then becomes a ruthless tyrant, exacting her power over her rebel "subjects", the woodlanders, by sending a giant, mindless, and bloodcrazed rat-monster to attack the woodlanders and slaughter them. Like Cluny and many other villains after her, she treats her mooks horribly, forcing her lame advisor to hobble ahead of marching troops in the hot sun after one of his plans doesn't work out. She extracts so much taxation from her kingdom that she impoverishes it, doesn't give her starving soldiers a second thought, and when provided with a means for escape from an attack by the woodlanders by her one genuinely loyal general, she leaves him to die because it will make her own getaway easier.
- Mattimeo:
- Slagar the Cruel, formerly a wannabe thief and accidental murderer named Chickenhound, reinvented himself as a kidnapper, slaver, and mass murderer. Capturing the children of the Abbeydwellers, and several others, Slagar plans to sell them into slavery in the nightmarish Kingdom of Malkariss, where they will be worked to death by a tyrant. Along the way, Slagar proves himself the worst boss in the series when he runs Hairbelly through for complaining, hurls Wedgeback off a cliff for letting some slaves escape, wrongly executes Vitch (who he had previously tried to sell into slavery) for talking to Matthias, and in his most impressive act of treachery, convinces his entire gang to slaughter one another, so that he can keep the profits for himself. Completely untrustworthy, and intent on one day betraying Malkariss as well, Slagar is as underhanded and manipulative as Redwall's villains get.
- General Ironbeak, the fiercest fighter of the north, is a refined yet monstrous character who leads his followers to conquer Redwall Abbey. Arriving at the Sparra loft, Ironbeak massacres the elderly and baby sparrows who were left behind to take over and proceeds to launch attacks on the abbey. Upon taking over Redwall, Ironbeak reveals he intends to massacre the population, who are all innocent civilians and little children, at least one of them only a baby. When he attempts to attack the abbot, one of the abbey residents tries to protect him, prompting a furious Ironbeak to attempt to kill her on the spot.
- Malkariss is the evil slaver employing Slagar, and the biggest villain in the novel. An Unseen Evil for the majority of the book who rules from a towering statue in his likeness, Malkariss's kingdom is built upon an engine of child slavery, with hundreds of young woodlanders kidnapped from all over Mossflower to slave away under constant starvation and torture until they finally die. The widest scale child-slaver in the franchise, Malkariss is ultimately revealed to be a haggard, frail, helpless old polecat who has consumed the lives of countless children as a means of compensation.
- Mariel of Redwall: Blodge, the cruel slavedriver of the Seatalon, is one of the most sadistic vermin in the entire series despite not being a warlord or anything close. Blodge works his oarslaves for seasons on end, torturing them with constant tastes of his lash while he deliberately wastes food in front of them to break them further. Blodge makes a depraved rowing song out of the suffering of his slaves, gleefully singing on how he whips his slaves until their backs peel off and how he kills any who can't row anymore.
- Outcast of Redwall: Swartt Sixclaw, aka The Pitiless One, began his career in monsterdom as a particularly vicious teenager. Capturing the young badger who would become Sunflash the Mace, Swartt proceeded to beat and torment him for several seasons. When Sunflash broke free and maimed Swartt's trademark sixclawed paw, Swartt vowed to have his revenge upon him. Poisoning Bowfleg, Warlord of the Eastern Flats, Swartt assumed control of his horde, and went on a seasons long rampage across the countryside, searching for Sunflash; when he encountered a band of foxes led by a vixen named Shang Damsontongue, he poisoned her as well, and assimilated her band into his own. Those who defy him die horrible deaths—he forced one rat to forcefeed a crow to his captain, choking him to death, than had the rat executed for murdering an officer; the fox, Balefur, who challenged Swartt's authority was left to die in an adders' den alongside two of his closest friends. Even the death of the vixen, Nightshade, his closest advisor and long-time companion fails to get any reaction out of Swartt. And that's without getting into his treatment of his family. Swartt essentially ignores the death of his wife, Bluefen, and abandons his son Veil by the side of the road when the going gets tough. During the finale he and Veil are reunited, and Swartt proceeds to belittle and mock his son, before killing him while trying to murder one of his friends. Sadistic, treacherous, and driven solely by the need to assuage his wounded pride, Swartt is about as selfish as even a ferret can get.
- The Legend of Luke:
- Vilu Daskar and his crew slaughter Luke's tribe "for fun", with Vilu personally cutting down Luke's wife, Sayna. When he spies Luke and his crew following him on a ship, rather than ram the Goreleech into his enemy's much smaller vessel like Akkla suggests, he says he'll wait until the mice work and sweat to fix the ship anew...then he'll swoop in and sink it, taking the survivors as slaves. When he gets new slaves on his ship, Vilu finds the sickest and weakest by making them pull the log; those who can't are "given" their freedom and forced to walk the plank. His crew is treated little better: when some pirates are found guilty of theft, Vilu has them savagely beaten and hung from sunrise to sunset with sea water poured into their wounds. One of the pirates recalled a past incident when Vilu dealt with four hedgehogs who hid some sacks of grain. Vilu promised to set them free if they reveal where their harvest is hidden, and when they did so, he had the four creatures sewed up in those same sacks, along with heavy rocks, then tossed overboard, saying, "You leave my ship alive, free to go where you will!"
- Overseer Bullflay of the Goreleech is a towering monster of a weasel and one of the worst minor vermin in all of the series. A sadist who loves the pain of the slaves, Bullflay regularly tortures them with his trademark whip for talking, not rowing fast enough, or simply because he can. Bullflay also conducts a test to lift a log past a certain height, with any oarslave who does not succeed being thrown to their deaths in the ocean. Only too happy to turn his whip on his own, Bullflay tortures other crew members at Vilu's behest, spraying their wounds with saltwater when he is through whipping them.
- Lord Brocktree:
- Ungatt Trunn, Tsarmina's truly vile uncle, believes the path of conquest is his destiny and wholeheartedly embraces it with no regard for friend, foe or family alike, abandoning his homeland because inheriting the throne from his ailing father would wound his considerable ego. Trunn is notable for his so far unique supremacist philosophy as well. His Blue Hordes are considered the "Master Race" and members of the "lesser orders" are to be enslaved or wiped out. He conquers Salamandastron, resulting in the deaths of many heroes, including its old badger lord, and brutally treats the survivors as slaves. His own men are terrified of him, and his personal seer only works for him because Trunn slaughtered his family long ago, something Trunn mocks him over again and again. One of the worst things Trunn does is his decision when supplies run low in the conquered mountain. He simply proposes eating the hostages they have. It's worth noting that despite his claims of superiority in everything, Trunn is wholly without honor. After being challenged to a one on one duel by Lord Brocktree, Trunn accepts, then instructs his men to murder the Badger Lord if Trunn loses the advantage.
- Karangool is Ungatt Trunn's Chief-Of-Captains. A former mass-murdering pirate before he joined Trunn, Karangool carries out numerous slaughters for his master. Headlining the conquest of Salamandastron, Karangool was responsible for the slaughter of Bucko Bigbones's people and family, having tortured the brave hare by whipping Bucko with the flat of his own sword until it shattered over his back, one of so many evil deeds that Karangool cannot even recall it when confronted with it. Karangool is prepared to sign off on cannibalizing the hare prisoners with Trunn, leading the attempted slaughter of woodlanders and when he realizes Trunn is wavering, plans to murder him with the Searat brothers Ripfang and Doomeye. Despite his promises to share power, Karangool is prepared to behead Ripfang if he does not yield to his power.
- Rakkety Tam: Gulo the Savage is an Ax-Crazy, cannibalistic wolverine who seeks to dominate the lands of ice and snow. Murdering his own father to seize control, Gulo finds the symbol of his rule, the "Walking Stone", has been stolen by his brother and leads an army to murder his brother and recover the Walking Stone. Upon crossing the sea, Gulo goes on a killing spree, murdering and eating any luckless creatures who cross his path, including a group of squirrel performers whose heads he leaves as a macabre warning. Interrogating a tribe of river rats about the Walking Stone, Gulo refuses to believe several victims have no answers and brutally kills them when they try to "lie" to him before killing and eating more, with even his own soldiers not safe from his insanity and fury. A sadistic brute, Gulo makes his entire existence revolve around killing, eating and dominating anything that comes within reach of his claw and remains one of the most terrifying creatures to ever strike at Redwall.
- The Sable Quean: Zwilt the Shade is a ruthless sable who relishes facing his opponents in battle, slowly tormenting them and finally murdering them with their own weapons. Leading the Ravagers of Vilaya, the Sable Quean, Zwilt murders the families of children to take them as slaves and shows himself willing to kill them as well, having one of his own soldiers killed when he's taken hostage to remove the Woodlanders' leverage. Eventually overthrowing Vilaya after killing her elderly servant, Zwilt plans a conquest by force and to murder every Woodlander he can find. Finding himself outmatched by the hare Buckler, Zwilt resorts to taking a baby hostage for an advantage—a baby he plans to kill anyways.
- The Rogue Crew: Razzid Wearat, the final Big Bad of the series, is a hulking, brutal corsair whose path of coastal piracy led to an entire season being dubbed the "Winter of Slaughter". A paranoid, brutal sadist left with a seething hatred for otters after a failed attempt to kill the crew of Skor Axehound left him scarred, Razzid burns a helpless old otter to death and kills a bunch of young Long Patrol cadets just to send a message. Razzid also brutally massacres a huge camp of sleeping Guosim just for fun, and then launches a bloody attack on the Abbey, attempting to torture to death a young hedgehog who had earlier escaped him out of spite. A classic example of a Bad Boss, Razzid slays and mutilates his own men for nothing but offhand remarks and at one point uses his own soldiers as fish bait to capture an enormous pike, gloating that he may well be eating part of the dead mook when he digs into the pike.
Examples
- Season 1: Cluny the Scourge adapts all the nastiest parts of his book counterpart's villainy and goes beyond that. A searat warlord with a propensity for abusing his own men, Cluny is established to have massacred the hero Matthias's peasant village in the past, attempting to personally slaughter the young mouse. In the present, Cluny tries every scheme he can to take over Redwall Abbey, from attempting to starve everybeast within to death and having an unfortunate mouse who tries to deliver food to the abbey executed, to taking various hostages and trying to see them all slaughtered to goad the heroes—even managing to capture Cornflower and torturing her for her impudence against him. Setting up his own traitorous minion to die in an assassination attempt against him and regularly imploring the rest of his band to slaughter innocents with aplomb, Cluny finally attempts to take over Redwall by ordering the massacre of everybeast within.
- Seasons 1 & 2: Slagar the Cruel was born Chickenhound — the arrogant and greedy son of Sela, a fox soothsayer and con-artist recruited by Cluny the Scourge to heal his broken leg. Conspiring with Sela to steal Cluny's plans and sell them to Redwall, Chickenhound callously murders the elderly Methuselah when he and his mother are caught stealing from the abbey. Abandoning Sela to be thrown out of Redwall and killed by Cluny, Chickenhound escapes but is disfigured by the adder Asmodeus. Blaming Matthias and swearing revenge, Chickenhound renames himself and becomes a notorious slaver employed by the polecat god-king Malkariss. Abducting Redwall's children—including Matthias' son Mattimeo—to sell to Malkariss, Slagar treats his crew of hordebeasts as disposable: throwing Fleaback off a cliff for failing him; tricking the rest into killing each other; and killing Vitch out of spite. With ambitions of usurping Malkariss and taking Matthias' legendary sword for himself, Slagar is a petty sadist who delights in cruelty, murder, and above all treachery.
- Season 3: Badrang the Tyrant was a murderous corsair so vicious that his actions ravaged the coasts until Luke the Warrior set out to eradicate the threat. Badrang later attacked the home of Luke's son Martin and enslaved the young mouse and his people. Years later, only Martin is left, with countless innocents left to toil and build Badrang's fortress Marshank. Upon being confronted by his old ally Clogg, Badrang outwits and enslaves Clogg, murdering a subordinate Clogg coerces into spying on Badrang and then initiates an attempt to wipe out all the slaves who rebel against Marshank. Upon being confronted by Martin and Rose, Badrang spitefully murders Rose in an attempt to hurt Martin before engaging the warrior himself.
