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  • Complete Monster:
    • Xeraan is a greedy wizard who was expelled from his academy when it was discovered that he gave other students access to forbidden books in exchange for money. After several decades of attempting to obtain treasures via robbery and blackmail, Xeraan joined the returned Borbarad. Attacking the city of Ruthor, Xeraan kidnapped 150 children. Over the course of several years, he conducted cruel experiments on them and had them fight against each other, killing most of them. The 53 survivors were merged with demons, turning them into brutal killing machines forced to obey every of his commands while still being fully aware of everything that had happened to them. During a battle, Xeraan would attempt to create more demonic soldiers on the spot by opening a portal to the Nether Hells and having incorporeal demons possess the mercenaries under his command. After Borbarad's defeat, Xeraan managed to obtain a demonic shard of his crown, creating his own nation called Xeraanien. As ruler, he continue hoarding treasures by squeezing as as much money out of his subjects as possible.
    • Rhazzazor was an ancient dragon who sold his soul to Thargunitoth, the Archdemoness of the Undead, and became a powerful undead monstrosity. He would eventually become the despotic ruler of a small nation, demanding monthly human sacrifices to maintain his unholy existence. When Emer, the ruler of the Middle Realm, not only dared to challenge him but also managed to injure him, he turned her into a living seal for an Eldritch Abomination, driving her almost insane. Eventually he planned to steal the life essences of thousands of people to give himself a new body, offering their souls to Thargunitoth in exchange for his own. When a group of heroes stopped the dark ritual that would've allowed Thargunitoth to claim these souls, Rhazzazor still continued with the plan, hoping that the sheer life essences of all those soul would give him enough strength to simply break the pact and reclaim his soul.
    • Karas also known as the Legate of the Spear and The Butcher of Garetia, was a brutal general who fought for the Empire of Bosparan during the Dark Age. Whenever a settlement refused to surrender to his authority, Karas would have all the inhabitants slain. In one notable instance, Karas promised to be merciful to the population of Luring, who had fiercely fought against him, only to immediately break his word once they surrendered and instead told his legionnaires to kill them all, while making sure that the parents would watch their children die before being killed themselves. To restore order to what he believed was a corrupt and weak society, Karas eventually planned to overthrow the Horas and rule the Empire himself. Inspired by the infamous Fran-Horas, Karas intended to create a legacy that would last for centuries by establishing a strict and bloody rule where everyone not doing his part would be executed.
    • Rosthaut is the leader of a pack of Gareth's Gargoyles driven by ambitions and a strong hatred for humans. After having learnt about the existence of the fey realm of Mandariel sealed inside a crystal ball and its magical connection to Gareth, he attempts to obliterate Mandariel to cause a magical backlash that would destroy large parts of the city and kill thousands of humans, allowing him and his Gargoyles to rule over the remaining survivors. Despite his claims that all his action are done to free the Gargoyles from the shackles of slavery, he treats the members of his pack as more or less expendable tools which he would sacrifices without a second thought to cover his own escape. Showing that deep down, the only creature Rosthaut truly cares about is himself.
    • Aarbilar is a ruthless wizard and former servant of Demon Emperor Galotta. After Galotta's defeat in Gareth, Aarbilar hid among the city's beggars and allied himself with the Gargoyle Rosthaut, sharing both his hatred for the city and desire to rule. To learn more about the magical connection between Gareth and Mandariel, Aarbilar summoned a powerful demon whose killed several people and endangered the lives of dozens more. Then, after obtaining the necessary knowledge, Aarbilar began with a ritual that would allow the demon to enter Mandariel and tear the realm apart from within. Not afraid to get his own hands dirty, he personally sneaks into a temple of Peraine and attempts to desecrate it by murdering several priests, so that his summoned demon would be able to gain access.
    • Oswyn Puschinske is the headmaster of the Hall of Power who wishes to establish a continent-wide Magocracy and lord over the rest of the population. To achieve this goal, Puschinske places a Night Soul inside the leader of the Grey Guild and plans to turn him into a living bomb at the largest gathering of mages on the continent to cripple the Mage Guilds and kill everyone who could oppose him. Afterwards, Puschinske intends to plant another Night Soul inside the Empress of the Middenrealm to rule the nation from the shadows. When the Night Soul inside the guild leader got exposed before he could set his plan in motion, Puschinske attempts to have it kill all witnesses by causing a magical catastrophe that would destroy one third of a city. When he's eventually confronted by the Player Characters, Puschinske proudly explains his plans to them in an attempt to stall for time, while he secretly takes over the minds of their allies and orders them to kill the Player Characters.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: A small part of the fanbase believes that the nameless god is just misunderstood.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: The sheer volume of NPCs has led to quite a few of these. Many of the villains are more popular than their 'good' counterparts.
  • Game-Breaker: Few and far between, but they do exist. Some of the truly terrifying ones are highly situational, though.
    • A guild wizard's staff can be used to store spells which can be used instantaneously. Given enough preparation time, this can roughly double the amount of spells he can cast before he is out of mana and circumvents casting time and gesture or word requirements.
      • Taken up to eleven with the Applicatus spell, which allows for spells to be temporarily stored and released when certain conditions are met. Some GMs ban the spell outright, many others at least add houserules to cut down on exploits.
    • Magic-users' main limitation is their all-too-quickly-exhausted stores of astral energy. However, they can learn to Cast From HP, and the healing potions an experienced alchemist will brew in large batches even while on the move can restore any character to full health instantly...resulting in mages with effectively inexhaustible "ammunition".
    • All "full" magic users can learn a ritual to burn up their entire remaining life force to fuel terrifyingly powerful spells for a short time, after which they irrevocably die. However, they can also learn a spell that lets them swap bodies with another person's, and the extra power from the ritual all but guarantees that this spell will go through. As a result, the druid who has just nuked half a continent is probably already safely inside another's skin while the poor bastard's soul is stuck in a body about to die. This tactic is actually acknowledged by the writers, with one of the major evil NPCs using it to prolong his life for centuries.
      • However, that particular spell ("Seelenwanderung", which roughly translates into "soul migration") is on a blacklist of sorts, where most of the exceedingly powerful spells (like all the spells dealing with manipulation of time etc.) are. These spells are generally intended to be for NPCs only and there are almost never official ways (like deriving it from a spellbook, learning it at an academy etc.) to get a hold of them - not to mention the side effects like antagonizing the God of Time, for example. A GM who hands out spells like these probably has a totally different idea of gamebreaking mechanics.
    • Because there are so many spells that can be modified and work out differently in different representations (Druid, Guildmage, Witch, etc.) a few spells can be incredibly powerful if used right, which led to the hilarious example of a player who, using the only mechanism available at character generation with no extra Game Master grace given, managed to max out the effects of one spell far enough to create the fantasy equivalent of an atomic bomb.
    • The fact that magic users aren't explicitly denied by the rules to wear heavy weapons and any type of non-metal armor (with some exceptions like druids, who mustn't use metal at all) opened a lot of loopholes for Munchkins. The 4th edition however introduced a currency-based leveling system somewhat comparable to The World of Darkness that encouraged specialisation and made "multi-classing" a lot less attractive.
  • It Was His Sled: Emperor Hal was a woman. The twist ending to an old adventure module, this information has no further relevance to the setting. Despite this, many fora have a ban on this information.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Many of the demons might qualify. The demon queen of rape and her servants certainly do.
    • For reference the ones who only might: the demon king of tyrannic rule and law (Going way past Knight Templar), the king of axe crazy, butchering warriors, the queen of everything scary in the sea (channeling Cthulhu and other nasties), the king of strife and unfaithfulness, the queen of undead and nightmares, the king (or queen) of illusions and madness, the king of black ice and hunting every possible prey (including Hunting the Most Dangerous Game), the queen of mutation, the king of greed, the queen of sickness and filth, and the king of perverted fire, air, stone and earth along with perverted inventions.
  • Rooting for the Empire: In the early days of TDE, the slave-holding city-state of Al'Anfa was the source of all evil and scourge of the continent's south. Then Villain Decay set in and The Empire was thoroughly pummeled whenever it reared its head (and sometimes even when it didn't). Nowadays the fanbase is nearly unanimous in its support for the battered city.
  • Squick: The Demon Lords of TDE are the dark reflections of the gods, and thus the anti-pantheon includes such charming entities like Belkelel, the Demon Queen of Rape. At one time, this Demon had her own theocratic state.
  • The Scrappy: Plenty of NPCs who qualify as a Creator's Pet (usually, but not always a GMPC from various members of the editing staff). Notable examples are Nahema ai Tamerlein, Thesia von Ilmenstein, Raidri Conchobair, Thomeg Artherion, Khadan-Horas etc.

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