"[Ezekiel Daun] don't just kill. He drags it out. Likes to torture his victims in every way possible afore he kills 'em. He knows just where and how to hurt."
"Amon's ascension is our oblivion. He means to erase everything the xel'naga wrought. Including us. He wants us all scattered to dust, along with every planet and every star. That is His final goal."
—First Ascendant Nuroka, about Amon, Ascension
In the war-ridden Koprulu Sector, many characters and factions do morally questionable things but have reasons for their actions and are not truly evil. However, that doesn't mean that the worst of the worst can't still exist.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Franchise-wide
- Amon, The Dark Voice/The Fallen One, is the Greater-Scope Villain of the franchise as a whole and the Big Bad of Legacy of the Void. A fallen Xel'Naga who broke the noninterference policy towards other races, Amon sought to shatter the eternal cycle all races were bound to by genetically altering the young Protoss to suit his needs. Finding and enforcing a Hive Mind slavery on the Zerg, Amon unleashed the ravenous swarm on the other Xel'Naga when they attempted to stop him from creating Protoss-Zerg hybrids that would be used to annihilate all other forms of life. The Xel'Naga were destroyed, but Amon was imprisoned within the Void. Retaining some influence over the Zerg, Amon was responsible in part for their rampages over the galaxy that claimed countless lives. When freed, Amon had his agents murder the rest of his sleeping enemy Xel'Naga, while also marshaling his forces in the heretic Tal'Darim; Protoss who worshiped him in hopes of "ascension," that was only, as Amon knew, horrible death in the end. Amon corrupted the telepathic network of the Protoss, the Khala, possessing multiple Protoss and forcing them to fight their own brethren and then directed his forces to cleanse the universe of all other life he could not control. Even while claiming good intentions in ending the cycle races are bound to, a protoss who touches Amon's mind revealed the truth: Amon is filled with nothing but intense loathing towards all the other races and wishes them to suffer and die for the sake of his twisted megalomania.
- "Samir Duran"/"Emil Narud", Amon's follower, is a Xel'Naga who disguised himself as a Terran soldier, allowing the Zerg to overrun the Earth forces in several battles, killing many. When the officer Alexei Stukov realized what Duran had done, Duran framed Stukov as a traitor and had him murdered. Allying with Sarah Kerrigan and her Zerg, Duran assisted her in many of her schemes and gave her the idea to blow up the Nerazim capital's power grid which killed many Protoss. Duran helped the Zerg become the dominant power in the Koprulu Sector because it served his purposes, not caring about the billions that would perish as a result. Duran also conducted torturous, lethal experiments on countless beings to create the Protoss-Zerg hybrids to free Amon from the Void and end all life in the universe. One of his test subjects was the resurrected Alexei Stukov, whom he tortured for years. Devoted to Amon's nihilistic ambitions and seeing all other beings as pawns in his grand game, Duran achieved a level of damage in the galaxy few could match in order to free his master and bring about the end of all other species.
- Ma'lash is the brutal ruler of the Tal'darim Protoss and one of Amon's most fanatical supporters. Ma'lash willingly assists Amon in his attempt to cleanse all "lesser" life forms in the entire universe. When Ma'lash discovers that this includes his own people, he still goes along with Amon's plans, manipulating them with false promises of ascension in the process. When one of Ma'lash's underlings discovers his treachery and challenges him to a duel, Ma'lash spends long hours destroying his mind and body after defeating him instead of killing him quickly, a fate he has condemned many of his other fallen opponents to. Ma'lash also sends his forces to raid Daelaam colony worlds and kidnap other Protoss from them, so he could hand them over to Narud`s laboratories to be subjected to deranged experiments where most of them die. Willing to sacrifice his own people for personal gain, Ma'lash stands out as a vile individual even by the standards of the Tal'darim.
Comic Books
- Frontline:
- Dr. Stanley Burgess is a sadistic Terran Dominion scientist who personally oversaw the neural resocialization of Jin-ho Lim, a Terran of Asian ethnicity who opposed the Terran Dominion but was conscripted into the Dominion Marine Corps. After the operation, Stanley ordered the now-docile Lim to kill his wife and fellow Terran Dominion opposer, Anna, and he complied by shooting her in the face without a moment's hesitation. He also was responsible for the creation of the Terran/Protoss Gestalts by implanting the organs of captured Protoss into Terrans controlled by neural conditioning and neural inhibitors. His project came to an end after one of his subjects, Gestalt Zero, was freed from his neural inhibitors by a dying Protoss and stabbed him to death, ironically echoing one of his previous comments: "I should warn you...this is probably going to hurt."
- Volume 4's "Voice in the Darkness": "The Voice in the Darkness" is one of the many names given to an Ancient Evil entity responsible for the annihilation of countless civilizations throughout the universe. After being defeated by the Xel'Naga, it was imprisoned on a barren planet. When a group of researchers releases it, the Voice immediately shows its gratitude by slaughtering half of them and converting the other half into loyal minions. The conversion is a process, where the Voice brainwashes its victims, leaving them conscious to an extent, and feeds on them by slowly draining their psionic energy over a long period of time until they eventually die, with the Voice having inflicted this fate on many creatures. After a group of Protoss arrives, the Voice tries to convert them as well, successfully brainwashing Xy'tal and forcing him to try to kill Azimar. When Xy'tal resists its control, the Voice punishes him by engulfing his body in flames after which it attempts to massacre the entire band of Protoss. It is also strongly suggested that the Voice plans to resume its genocidal activities upon release until all beings have either been converted or killed.
- Scavengers & Survivors: "The Prisoner" is a Protoss murderer and heretic who was left trapped in her cell when the prison ship carrying her was damaged and the crew vanished. Unwittingly set free by a Terran salvage team, the Prisoner murdered them as well as the Dominion soldiers that arrived to arrest them, only sparing one of them, Caleb, because she needed a pilot. The Prisoner forced Caleb to infiltrate an Umojan colony to locate an experimental weapons lab, cowing him into declaring his life belongs to her. When Caleb does not find the lab quick enough for her, the Prisoner begins to murder his co-workers and used one of them to warn Caleb his time was running out. When she finally got her hands on the weapons she wanted, the Prisoner, angered by the Terran "arrogance" in designing the weapons, had Caleb send the knowledge to the Tal'darim, knowing they will retaliate by destroying the colony. Vicious, brutal, and tormenting and killing others just for her enjoyment, the Prisoner is one of the most singularly vile Protoss in the franchise.
Literature
- Devils' Due, by Christie Golden: Ezekiel Daun, while a relatively minor character, is utterly monstrous. Daun is a sadistic mercenary who, unless his clients specify otherwise, will torture his victims to draw out their death, and makes it theatrical by terrifying them and using psychological warfare before he moves in for the kill. At one point, Daun flays a woman alive even though there is no bounty on her, forcing her husband to watch the entire time before moving on to him. In another instance, Daun removes a victim's fingers one by one. He also records all of his deaths as holograms, both to watch in his spare time for the memories and to show his future victims to terrify them even more.
- Ghost: Nova: Julius Antoine Dale, also known as "Fagin", is a brutal crime boss who has killed so many people in his past that there is barely anyone left that knows his real name. Coming from a humble background, Fagin takes control of his criminal syndicate by murdering his previous boss. He also possesses 12 sex slaves who are scared of him and at one point kills one of them. Fagin regularly gives his newest drugs to one of his most loyal henchmen to test them for side effects before selling them to the general populace. When the 15-year-old Nova arrives on his territory, Fagin kidnaps two dozen preteen kids, shoots one of them, and threatens to do the same to the rest unless Nova submits to him. After this, Fagin enslaves the young girl, tortures her, turns her into his personal assassin, and forces her to kill 74 people over the course of 6 months. During this time Fagin becomes more unstable and kills many people himself who are loyal to him for trivial reasons, which culminates in him shooting his own daughter. Even among the criminal underworld of Tarsonis, Fagin still manages to stand out as a cruel and psychopathic individual.
