Davina Claire: "Inadu channeled life in all its forms. Her hunger was insatiable. She loved the fear she inspired in others. Her people knew her as ruthless, unfeeling, empty. Until that became her defining quality. So they began to refer to her by that single trait... "The Hollow"."
Hayley Marshall: "She killed them all."
Davina: "Not because they hurt her or were unkind. She did it for fun."
—Regarding the history of Inadu, the Hollow, The Originals, "Voodoo In My Blood"
The Vampire Diaries Universe operates on Black-and-Gray Morality, with very few characters truly pure. A select few, however, are completely and irredeemably evil.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Multiple series
- The Vampire Diaries & Legacies: Malachai "Kai" Parker is a bloodthirsty witch with a sense of humor to go with it. In his past, Kai was denied the chance to perform the merge ritual with his twin sister Jo and lead the Gemini Coven, and retaliates by murdering his kid siblings. Spending years in a prison world, when Damon and Bonnie arrive, Kai torments them until he escapes, leaving Bonnie behind, while intending to hunt Luke and Liv down. Siphoning leftover magic, Kai experiments by torturing Elena. He eventually comes up on top of the merge, killing Luke in the process. Kai later attacks Jo and Alaric's wedding, stabbing his pregnant sister's stomach. Kai kills himself to complete his transformation, and so that the Gemini Coven will die with him, before binding Bonnie's life with a comatose Elena. Kai later escapes Hell, trying to sacrifice Elena to Cade, and tries to kill his young nieces Josie and Lizzie. Returning years later, Kai tries to leave a group of the students trapped in the prison world, including Josie, before forcing Hope to choose between saving the twins or Landon, as the former will die when the prison world collapses and he has Landon forced to walk a path that could kill him, while he attempts an escape.
- Season 5: Markos is the leader of the Travelers, a subculture of witches, and plans to undo every spell ever cast by a witch, viewing their magic as an abomination. Centuries ago, Markos enacted a curse so that the distant descendants of Silas and Amara would be their doppelgängers, brainwashed into being drawn together, so he could use their blood for this ritual; even before he is resurrected, he orders the death of Stefan's doppelgänger, so Stefan and Elena will be the only ones left. Markos allows a loyal follower to die to demonstrate the result of his curse; begins the destruction of the Other Side, an afterlife for the supernatural, causing its denizens to start hurtling into the void; abducts and tortures Stefan and Elena for more of their blood; leads the Travelers in a ritual to possess the population of Mystic Falls, destroying their bodies to make the change permanent; and tries to unleash an anti-magic field that would have killed every vampire on the planet. In the season finale, Markos has another follower killed, after learning that Stefan was killed when he was still useful to them. In his dying moments, Markos uses Sheriff Frobes as a Human Shield.
- Season 7A: Julian is Lily Salvatore's lover and father figure to the Heretics, seeing his "family" as posessive pawns. A pathological murderer and manipulator, when Julian discovers that Valerie is pregnant with Stefan's child, he beats her into a miscarriage, silently taunting her as she recovers. When resurrected, Julian brainwashes dozens of people from other towns into filling up the school and restaurants as a living blood bank. He links his life to Lily's for protection and when she sees through his lies, Julian tries to force Lily to kill either Damon or Valerie, mockingly revealing he unlinked their lives when Lily stakes herself. Julian later uses a mystical dagger to entrap Stefan and Damon in their personal hells, later slaughtering his way through a mall. When the Salvatores return, it's discovered that Julian has built an chaotic vampire army that has taken over Mystic Falls, feeding off and tormenting the human population. Julian holds a gladiatorial fight club where contestants fight to the death for his amusement, in which he has a suicidal Damon take part in. It's also revealed he's inadvertently created the vampire hunter Raina, having forced the girl to kill her father.
- Season 8: Arcadius, aka Cade, was an ancient psychic. After being betrayed and executed by his people, Cade developed a hatred for humanity, and used his power to create Hell for him to rule over. Cade would corrupt Sybil and Seline into the cannibalistic sirens, causing mass death, corruption, and damnation over the centuries. Cade would take people regardless of how remorseful they were or otherwise good people, dragging the denizens of the Other Side into Hell upon its destruction. When summoned to Earth, Cade plans on warping young Josie and Lizzie into his new servants, before taking Damon and Stefan; Cade reveals to Stefan that he wants him for his horrid past and to seek out innocent souls for him. When an attempt to sacrifice Mystic Falls fails, Cade has Seline and Sybil burned alive. When Damon regains his humanity, Cade tries to force Damon to kill a hundred strangers or kill Caroline, before revealing he sent Stefan to track down and kill Elena; later, in the final fight against him, Cade tries to force Damon to choose between Stefan and Elena's soul. Initially presented as a tragic figure, Cade is not only aware he became a worse evil he supposedly sought to eradicate, but is proud of it.
- Non-canon comic issues #37-39—"Circus of Souls" arc: The Ringmaster leads a mysterious circus into Mystic Falls, abducting and brainwashing multiple people into joining him as his audience and workers, starting the comic off by having a family abducted through a mystical gem he got his hands on. After the Mystic Falls gang look into his operations, the Ringmaster has Damon abducted and tortured to be part of his show, before successfully brainwashing hundreds of people, and keeping them captive by threatening them with a ring of fire. After brainwashing Damon, when his friends come to his rescue, the Ringmaster gets Stefan in the middle of the show to have Damon fight his brother to the death by giving him hallucinations. When foiled and beaten, the Ringmaster sets the carnival ablaze to leave his captives to die while he attempts to escape.
- Season 1: Francesca Guerrera (formerly Correa) is a descendant of the thought to be extinct Guerra werewolf clan/crime family, but poses as a human to control their faction. Despite signing a peace treaty between werewolves, vampires, witches and humans, she helps intensify the conflict by masterminding the bombings on the home of the Crescent werewolves, with children in the home, in order to frame the vampires. She intimidates Father Kieran's niece Camille into looking for a key that might expose her family for what they are. Francesca is revealed to be in cahoots with the witches, and oversees the witch leader Genevieve, who makes the moonlight rings. In return for the rings, Francesca gives the witches Hayley so that they can kill her baby. With these rings, Francesca and her brothers massacre a small army of vampires and savagely maul Elijah. Francesca cares not for her family and minions, using even her brothers as bodyguards, claiming that she is the top dog and that it's her minions job to keep the fight from getting to her. She maintains control by running her werewolves as a gang, all while secluding herself to avoid retaliation. When the fight does go to her, she flees while Elijah kills her brothers.
- Season 3: Lucien Castle, one of the Mikaelsons' first sires, is defined by his arrogance, sadism, and ambition. Originally a timid peasant and servant who befriended Klaus, over time Lucien would surpass him. As CEO of Kingmaker Land Development Inc., Lucien uses his position to have werewolves in Louisiana hunted to near-extinction, with the few survivors, along with vampires, taken by his company for inhumane experiments. Lucien would frame Camille for his serial killings, before psychologically torturing her and and a detective for information. Acting as an uneasy ally to the Mikaelsons, Lucien betrays them after Klaus is unlinked to his bloodline. Lucien reveals he made a deal with the Ancestors to take over New Orleans and kill the Originals, in return for enhanced power and ruling over the remaining vampires. Upon his transformation, Lucien kills Finn and attempts to kill Elijah's bloodline, to kill his rival Tristan. Learning Aurora doesn't love him, Lucien denounces his love for her, stating all love is weakness. To spite Klaus, Lucien kills Camille, and plots to kill Rebekah, not caring that Aurora is part of her bloodline. In the final confrontation, Lucien forces Klaus to kneel to him, threatening to rip out Hayley's heart.
- Seasons 4-5: Inadu, aka the Hollow, is an ancient witch who seeks power and domination over all things. Inadu was bestowed great powers since birth, with a lifetime of mass murder and chaos, purely for the fun of it. When she was first killed, she cast a final curse on her people, creating the first werewolves. As the Hollow, over the centuries she had cultists carry out dark deeds in her name, mostly child sacrifice; she was also behind several serial killers. Inadu drives her followers into insanity and even suicide; including Evie Sinclair, and Jackson's grandfather, having the latter kill Hayley's parents. Following the downfall of the Mikaelsons, the Hollow's followers begin a new spree for a takeover of their own. The Hollow tries to draw power from Klaus and Marcel, tries goading them into killing each other, and threatens to trick Klaus into killing Hope. Inadu possesses Sofya and slowly kills Elijah, wiping out his bloodline for ritual sacrifice. Following her resurrection, she butchers her followers, and plans to take New Orleans for herself. Despite being killed by Hayley, she possesses Hope, attempting to completely take her over years after her seeming destruction.
- Malivore is a being created millennia ago for the purpose of exterminating monsters before gaining sapience and a god complex. Obsessed with creating others like him, Malivore eventually sought to wipe out all supernaturals, creating a new "superior" species to rule over. To this end, Malivore enslaves a young muse named Cleo, devouring her creations, and rejects his "son" Ryan Clarke for his "imperfections". Bound within his pit, Malivore ruled his Pocket Dimension where his victims rot in darkness and isolation, a frequent punishment he'd use on Clarke. Malivore forcibly impregnated a woman to conceive to his desired vessel, Landon Kirby. Malivore allows numerous monsters to be freed to retrieve the artifacts that bind him, find Landon, and eventually Cleo. Using hollow expressions of mercy and freedom, Malivore soon takes over Landon, cruelly tormenting his friends within his mindscape. Capturing Cleo, Malivore makes her witness her family burning eternally for turning against him, and begins infecting Mystic Falls with his essence, intending to infect the world until all life is an extension of himself. Facing Hope Mikaelson, Malivore tries swapping places with Landon to escape, with Hope being forced to kill Landon in order to destroy Malivore for good.
- Season 4: The Father of the Gods, nicknamed "Ken" and heavily implied to be Zeus himself, is an arrogant and bloodthirsty deity who brought mass destruction and war to the world, when he and his family conquered it in the ancient past. So great was the death toll of his wars, they flooded the world of Limbo with lost souls; when his sister tried to help them find peace, Ken punished her by forcing her to work from limbo for all time, unable to return home. To punish his son "Ben" for bringing magic into the world, Ken has Ben bound to a rock, and gruesomely eaten alive by monsters each day for thousands of years, giving him a Healing Factor to prevent Ben from dying. Awakened in the modern day, Ken intends to conquer the world once more, challenging Hope Mikaelson for being such a powerful creature. To this end, Ken attempts to wipe out the Salvatore Academy; forces his daughter to make a weapon to kill Hope, under threats and torture; forces the werewolves to transform and attack their allies; and discards Aurora after sending her into fighting Hope in his place, and mortally wounding her.
