"The one great evil is here. It's part of that creature that was with her. Oh, we've sensed him. Everyone on Olympus has. This... this force of darkness spells the end of all of us—gods and man alike."
— Ares on Dahak, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, "Armageddon Now: Part 1"
A time long ago, a time of myth and legend, when the ancient gods were petty and cruel, and they plagued mankind with suffering. The world cried out for heroes. These are the worst that Hercules, Xena, and their companions have ever faced, whether god, warlord, or king.
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The entire Herc-Xenaverse
- Dahak, lord of chaos and evil, is a god who predates even the Titans themselves. Seeking to plunge the world into chaos to destroy most of humanity, Dahak is responsible for sowing evil through his cults and countless murders and cruelties. When the prophet Zarathustra refused to murder his family, Dahak killed them and cursed Zarathustra with immortality to never forget. Dahak rapes Xena's companion Gabrielle to beget the child Hope so he may use her to spawn a race of monsters to wipe out humanity and allow Dahak's coming upon earth. Dahak corrupts the former hero Gilgamesh to destroy the world, with the latter killing Hercules's companion Iolaus. Dahak then tries to trick Hercules into damning Iolaus's soul while preparing to arrive upon Earth and enact his schemes of eternal chaos.
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
- "The Gauntlet" & "Unchained Heart": Darphus is the former second in command of Xena before her Heel–Face Turn. Darphus earns Xena's disfavor by sacking innocent villages and slaughtering women and children for fun. When Xena objects, Darphus stages a coup on her after trying to force her to murder a baby. When Xena survives the gauntlet to leave the army, Darphus tries to have her killed anyways. After being killed by Xena, Darphus is revived by Ares and carries on a brutal campaign of slaughter where he also has care of Ares's monstrous pet. Darphus feeds innocent victims to said monster and shows no hesitation in killing his own men as well just for displeasing him.
- "A Star to Guide Them": Queen Maliphone is the ruler of Bethos along with her husband King Polonius. Wanting her own children to reign over Bethos, Maliphone helps to spearhead rounding up any child under a year old when she learns of a prophecy that Polonius's children will be displaced. Summoning monsters from Hera and testing their power by having them kill her own guards, Maliphone eventually decides to simply have every baby in the kingdom murdered just to ensure that the prophesied child is absolutely eliminated.
- "Prodigal Sister": Mayam is the leader of a renegade band of Amazons that routinely terrorizes the countryside in Greece and massacres entire villages, except for the little girls she turns into her weapons. Most Amazons who did raids would go for minimal loss of life, and are appalled by Mayam's actions. She personally blinds Ruun—just after killing his parents and kidnapping his sister who she turns into a mindless killing machine—who's only five years old. Fast forward years later, when most of the renegade Amazons have rejoined the Amazonian Nation, Mayam still leads raids which Rape, Pillage, and Burn entire villages for fun. When confronted by Hercules, she laughs off that her actions will lead to an Amazon Civil War which will be crushed by the outside world. And finally, when confronted on what she did to Ruun and his sister Siri after she is beaten by Hercules she flat out says "So what, I turned her into the greatest Amazonian Warrior!"
- TV series:
- Ming Tien, debuting in "The Debt" two-parter, is the son of Ming Tzu, who grew up despising his "weak" father after the latter's assassination at the hands of Xena. Ming Tien grows up to be a cruel tyrant who personally tortured his own mother Lao Ma to death to take the throne, sadistically gloating to Xena how she refused to fight back against her own son the entire time even as Ming tore out her still-warm heart. After his demise, Ming's spirit is kept intact through the power of sheer hatred and attempts to burn all of Chin to the ground with black powder in revenge.
- "The Haunting Of Amphipolis": Mephistopheles is the first true ruler of Hell. A depraved demon who subjects every being in his realm to an eternity of horrible torture, Mephistopheles masterminded the death of Xena's mother and seeks to take over the Earth to turn it into a brand new hell. Attempting to trick Xena with horrific mental torments, Mephistopheles plans to break the barrier by having Xena kill her own innocent baby to unleash him upon the world.
- "Who's Gurkhan?": Gurkhan The Magnificent is the mysterious warlord responsible for the death of Gabrielle's parents in order to get at their other daughter, Sarah. Gurkhan regularly loots villages for would-be wives, marrying women by the dozens while having any who fail to please him beaten to a bloody pulp and left in the dungeons to die. Not even longtime loyalty guarantees Gurkhan's favor, as Gurkhan orders Sarah murdered and her head put up on a platter on a whim after Sarah spent years clawing her way into Gurkhan's graces.
- "A Friend in Need" two-part Series Finale: Yodoshi was a Japanese warlord in life who, after being slain by his own daughter Akemi after he murdered every other member of his family, was rejected from the underworld for being too evil. Yodoshi feasts upon the souls of anyone he comes across, in one case devouring all 40,000 lives of a town Xena accidentally destroyed, keeping them enslaved and in perpetual torment within him. Yodoshi even devours the soul of Akemi in the final battle, and promises Xena that he'll personally tear Gabrielle's head off her shoulders after he's done devouring Xena's soul.
- 2006 Dynamite Comics series: Anubis, the Egyptian God of the Dead, has designs on conquering the entire planet for himself. Manipulating a conflict between the Egyptian and Greek pantheons, Anubis takes advantage of the chaos to usurp Hades by poisonous, god-suppressing snakes while he tortures Hades for fun. Amassing an army of the dead, Anubis plans to unleash them on the world, killing every living thing to add to the ranks of the dead while he swells in power till everything submits or dies.
- Video Game: Kalabrax, the Goddess of Dark Sorcery, is expelled from Olympus because of her power-hungry nature and sadistic tendencies. Kalabrax intends to sacrifice Xena's companion, Gabrielle, in a ritual which will bring Kalabrax's strength to a whole new level, allowing her to conquer the realms of gods and mortals. Arranging for her worshipper, King Valerian, into bribing a band of pirates to massacre a village, Kalabrax had Valerian abduct Gabrielle for her while Xena is distracted fighting the pirates. After Xena rescues Gabrielle and attempts to uncover the truth, Kalabrax sics her legion of Brainwashed and Crazy Amazonian cultists into attacking the heroes, forcing Xena and Gabrielle to kill most of them, before recapturing Gabrielle and having Xena cast into Hell. With Xena's absence, Kalabrax then has her followers wipe out and capture entire villages to establish her dominance, and as Xena escapes Hell to confront Kalabrax one last time, she then takes on a demonic monstrous form and tries to trample over Xena.
