History Sandbox / MonsterLiteratureAToC

* ''Literature/AnnaDressedInBlood'' & ''Girl of Nightmares'': [[BigBad The Obeahman]] is a voodoo ghost/demon hybrid who takes large chunks out of his victims. His first known victim is [[TheProtagonist Cas Lowood]]'s father, who was killed when Cas was only seven years old, leaving the latter traumatized and suffering nightmares. Ten years later, the Obeahman returns, killing three more victims. He had been following the Lowoods since murdering Cas's father, eventually killing their cat Tybalt as well. As Cas and his friends fight him, Anna pulls off a HeroicSacrifice by opening a portal to Hell and dragging the Obeahman down with her. A year later, Cas discovers that, while both are in hell, the Obeahman has been torturing Anna the whole time. When Cas and another girl, Jestine, make their way to a part of Hell, they find that the Obeahman had transformed into a [[SpidersAreScary spider-like creature]] that had linked Anna to it, sewing Anna's eyes and mouth shut before harvesting her. While fighting the creature, Cas recognized other nearby ghosts--some innocent--and realizes that the Obeahman had been haunting his [[ArtifactOfDoom athame]], and has been feeding off these spirits.

* ''Film/Child44'', by Tom Rob Smith: [[{{Sadist}} Vasili Ilyich Nikitin]] is a slimy, power-hungry operative of the [[StateSec MGB]] during the height of the Soviet Union, having taken his position for no reason other than for the opportunity to hurt others. Getting his start in the Union by getting his own brother thrown in prison for decades for insulting Stalin while drunk, Vasili actively assists the Union in locking up innocent in horrific prisons for minor offenses. Teaming up with [[TheProtagonist Leo Demidov]], Vasili tries to undermine the man at every turn before impulsively torturing and executing two farmers, trying to [[WouldHurtAChild kill their children]] as well, for being "traitors" to the Union. Once learning that they were seemingly innocent of this perceived crime, Vasili rounds up other people and threatens them to admit to being guilty to cover his tracks. Growing to hate Leo due to his noble nature, Vasili frames the man's wife for treason, gets him demoted, ruins the lives of his parents, and ultimately subjects the man to a torturous drug, all with almost sexual glee. Threatening men's entire families to get them to assist him throughout the story, Vasili, upon learning that Leo and his wife Raisa evaded an assassination ordered by Vasili, executes one of Leo's friends before tracking the couple down, giving his men orders to head into the housing complex they are in and kill everyone in sight if they try to escape again.

* ''The Child Thief'' by Dan Smith: Yuri Grigorovich is a [[SociopathicSoldier former soldier]] turned SerialKiller who is loathed by all who are familiar with his work, including the novel's other villains. [[BloodKnight Missing the thrill]] of [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunting other men]], Yuri kidnaps children from their villages, then stalks and picks off the hunting parties that come after them, before killing and mutilating the children. At the start of the novel, huntsman [[TheProtagonist Luka]] finds Yuri's most recent victim, mortally wounded by Yuri, dragging the bodies of his two children on a sleigh. During the chaos that ensues, Yuri kidnaps Luka's niece Dariya, and makes off with her. He kills Dariya's father when he gives chase, shooting him in the gut and leaving him to die painfully. He [[WouldHurtAChild slices a strip from Dariya]]'s thigh, smokes and salts it, and plans to eat it later, kills Luka's son Petro with another shot to the gut, and tricks Luka into killing an innocent conscript who was trying to get home to his wife and child. Fatally wounded by Luka, Yuri uses his last breath to gloat about how good Dariya would have tasted had he [[ImAHumanitarian gotten the chance to eat her]].

* ''Literature/ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath'': [[TheHeavy Gerridon]], in the distant backstory, was the [[FallenHero greatest leader of the people]], Highlord of the Kencyrath and Master of Knorth, but he would go down in history as [[TheParagonAlwaysRebels their greatest traitor]]. Desiring {{immortality|Immorality}}—in a MartyrdomCulture--and bitter that the [[HaveYouSeenMyGod absent]] Three-Faced God wouldn't grant it to him, he sold the souls of his race to their [[BigBad ancient enemy]], [[EldritchAbomination Perimal Darkling]], in exchange for eternal life and manipulated his twin sister Jamethiel Dream-Weaver into reaping them for him. This betrayal would not only destroy two-thirds of the Kencyrath, but leave scars in their collective psyche that would linger for millennia. When Gerridon's immortality began to fail him he sought out various means of sustaining it, including attempting to create a child of his or Jamethiel's blood to take over as Dream-Weaver--by rape if necessary--and taking command of an ancient religious sect and whipping them into a fanatical fervor in which they [[ColdBloodedTorture brutally tortured]] hundreds of Kencyr prisoners of war, including Gerridon's own nephew, in an attempt to force them to convert. Driven solely by his selfish desire for immortality, Gerridon will sacrifice anyone and anything--including his own blood-kin--to save himself and prolong his life. Not not only did he betray his people and his god, but he plans to do the same to his "master" Perimal Darkling, if he can find a way to maintain his immortality outside of its control; his pride rankles at the thought of being subordinate to anyone or anything. As his niece [[TheProtagonist Lady Jamethiel Priest's-bane of Knorth]] (Jame) observes, there is nothing Gerridon won't do to keep on living and to avoid paying the karmic price for his long-ago betrayal, and his remains a unique and infamous position in the long annals of the Kencyrath's history.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer: The Book of Fours'', by Nancy Holder: [[BigBad Cecile Lafitte]] is a [[HollywoodVoodoo voodoo priestess]] who serves the horrific demon known as the Gatherer, harvesting souls to [[SoulEating give to him]]. Tormenting and experimenting on countless souls to make them into zombies, Cecile uses her descendants to return to life. In one case, upon returning to life, Cecile seduces plantation owner Duvalier, making him her servant, and has him burn his own family alive. In the present day, she aims to find and destroy Slayers to offer her master their special souls. Cecile destroys the Watcher of the previous Slayer Kendra before coming to Sunnydale, unleashing the Gatherer with the knowledge it will [[OmnicidalManiac devour the world and all existence]], keeping every soul it takes in [[AndIMustScream unending torment]] within.

* ''The Algebraist'', by Creator/IainBanks: [[BigBad The Archimandrite Luseferous]] is a gleeful {{sadist}} with a love for hurting others and lust to be feared and hated above all else. Having risen through the ranks of the military after sentencing his own father to death, Luseferous founded the "Starveling Cult", a militaristic group of barbarians who RapePillageAndBurn entire planets at their leisure, all as part of Luseferous's quest for galactic domination. In his downtime, Luseferous enjoys [[TortureTechnician perfecting styles of torture]], such as keeping one of his foes' heads around as a sentient punching bag, killing an assassin by [[CruelAndUnusualDeath making his teeth grow until they pierce his brain]], and raping entire harems of women, taking sick pleasure from their utter loathing of him. While invading the Ulubis system, Luseferous displays his utter joy over a huge body count by first blowing up an entire city, then later destroying the life supports systems of a Habitat, leading 80,000 people to be [[ThrownOutTheAirlock sucked into the vacuum of space]]. Once arriving at Ulubis's capital planet, Luseferous first reveals that, for every second it doesn't surrender, he will fire a man, woman, or even child prisoner of his into space to die, then follows it up by unveiling hundreds of Ulubis [[WouldHurtAChild children]] he kidnapped from a field trip, promising to start executing them randomly until he gets what he wants. When reinforcements arrive to drive Luseferous away, he orders all the children slaughtered and the remaining 20,000 prisoners dumped into space, before attempting to flee the entire war effort, leaving behind orders to firebomb billions of innocents just as a last spiteful move. Luseferous was an irredeemable beast, with nary a likable or sympathetic quality about him, just horrific cruelty.

*** Jian Jiu, one of Weishu's imperial mages, befriends the 10-year-old stone mage Evvy during her time among Weishu's court before revealing herself chapters later to be one of Weishu's [[SociopathicSoldier most twisted soldiers]]. Jian Jiu leads the total slaughter of a hugely-populated fortress during the war on Gyongxe, not just of the soldiers but of every innocent within the walls down to the [[WouldHurtAChild infants]] and all the [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals animals]] as well. Jian Jiu personally tortures Evvy days after they seemingly bonded, using the knowledge gained from this friendship to try and [[ForcedToWatch force Evvy to watch]] as Jian Jiu starts torturing Evvy's cats to death. When Evvy escapes, Jian Jiu murders two of her own men to save face.

* ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'' has several monsters in it, particularly in ''The Circle Opens'' books
** In ''Street Magic'', Lady Zenadia seems at first to be retired and a CoolOldLady, but is in reality an utterly bored and cruel sadist with no regard for the lives of others. Recruiting a teenaged street gang, she has them engage in deadly street wars [[ForTheEvulz for her amusement.]] Any members who displease her, she [[WouldHurtAChild strangles and buries in her garden for good fertilizer.]]
** In ''Magic Steps'', we have Alzena and Nurhar who murder members of a rival merchant family, the Rokats, getting away with it because they have addicted a child mage to a FantasticDrug so he will be utterly dependent on them. Upon attacking the family, the two make certain they kill the baby first, before [[WouldHurtAChild killing the little girl]], then their rival, then his wife in case she might be pregnant again. Alzena specifically saved Rokat until after he had seen his children die. It made it more fun.

** ''Scorpia'': Julia Rothman is a executive board member of SCORPIA, who plans to make outrageous demands to Britain that will never be met, [[WouldHurtAChild kill a high school of children]] when they are not met, and make the same demand to America with the same consequence knowing that they will meet them, and ultimately cause a war to erupt between the two countries. To demonstrate the weapon and show that she is not bluffing; she kills a completely separate group of high school football players without giving them a chance to be saved. She also manipulates Alex into joining Scorpia by getting him to think his father worked for them and was killed by UsefulNotes/MI6 when it was the other way around. [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness She was planning to betray and kill Alex in the end]]. In the {{Prequel}} ''Russian Roulette'' [[YouHaveFailedMe she executes an assassin for failure]].
** ''Snakehead'': [[EvilCripple Major Winston Yu]] is another board member, as well as the leader of a ruthless Snakehead gang. He takes part in [[NebulousEvilOrganization SCORPIA's]] plans to kill the members of a conference against poverty. His plan involves causing a tsunami and kill millions of people to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident make the deaths look like an accident]], overshadow the deaths of the conference members with the deaths of millions, and to drum up sales for his Snakehead gang. When Yu captures Alex, he decides to have him slowly killed on a hospital bed as he removes his organs one by one; one organ a day until [[AndIMustScream all that is left of him is a husk]]. This seems to be his preferred method of execution, since he has people killed in the same hospital, in the same way on a regular basis. Yu is so bad that his henchmen [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]] before [[YouHaveFailedMe he can punish them for failure]].
** ''Scorpia Rising'': [[TheChessmaster Abdul-Aziz Al-Rahim]], better known as just [[KnightOfCerebus Razim]], is another agent of SCORPIA, and is affiliated with them purely to slake his sadistic curiosities. A cold, unfeeling sociopath since his [[KidsAreCruel history of violence in his youth]], Razim sold out his own parents and sister to UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein before joining SCORPIA. Come his involvement in Operation Horseman, Razim plans to blackmail Britain into handing over the Elgin Marbles, or else defame the country by revealing the contents of the Horseman file, ultimately to assassinate the Prime Minister of England and throw the country into a war. Fascinated by pain, Razim routinely tortures countless innocents to death in perverse "[[PlayingWithSyringes experiments]]", in an attempt to create a measurement for pain, initially claiming it for the sake of science but likely simply to amuse himself more than anything. When Razim captures Alex, Razim forces him to watch his mentor and guardian Jack Starbright blown up--in truth handing her off to the Grimaldi twins but keeping the emotional stab to Alex all the same, while casually adding the boy's emotional pain was so great, he may have to create a second measurement. From there on, Razim tries to have the US Secretary of State assassinated, framing Alex so that he'll be shot dead. Lacking the scale of previous antagonists but trumping all of them in sheer, frightening sadism, Razim makes his mark even in the dark world of ''Alex Rider'' as Alex's most personal foe.

** Introduced towards the end of the same book, Enok is a dreaded rogue Elder who turned both Vicente and Lilith--whom is shown to be still very-much "alive", yet dismembered and incapacitated, and in Enok's captivity--thus being somewhat responsible for both the destruction of Barrow and the slaughter in Los Angeles, respectively. He dwells in a human slaughterhouse where people are rounded up, shot in the head, and their blood is drained into buckets to be fed upon like free samples, and plans to overthrow humans as the dominant species and reduce them to cattle, presumably to be [[HumanResources farmed for their blood]] and slain in slaughterhouses like this across the globe. When Dane and Eben confront him, he sentences Dane, whom he considers a CategoryTraitor, to be killed by a horde of ravenous vampires while he tries to fight Eben—a WorthyOpponent in his eyes, to contrast with Dane—into submission, or kill him if he refuses. Malevolent and horrifically ambitious, Enok is by far--at least prior to Eben's FaceHeelTurn in the comic--the most terrible vampire in the series, Elder or not.

* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio'': The [[FatBastard Little Man]] is a [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon kind-looking]] coachman who runs [[PleasureIsland the Land of Toys]], a paradise country for children devoid of teachers, books, and school]]s. In actuality, the Little Man is a sadist who lures in hundreds of lazy boys to the Land of Toys to be [[BalefulPolymorph turned into donkeys]], whom he sells as [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slave labor]]. Using some of those donkeys to pull his wagon, he bites the ear off of one for mistreating Pinocchio. Turning Pinocchio and Lampwick into donkeys, the Little Man has them sold into slavery, with Lampwick dying at the farm he was sent to.

* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio'': The [[FatBastard Little Man]] is a [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon kind-looking]] coachman who runs [[PleasureIsland the Land of Toys]], a paradise country for children devoid of teachers, books, and school]]s. In actuality, the Little Man is a sadist who lures in hundreds of lazy boys to the Land of Toys to be [[BalefulPolymorph turned into donkeys, whom he sells as [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slave labor]]. Using some of those donkeys to pull his wagon, he bites the ear off of one for mistreating Pinocchio. Turning Pinocchio and Lampwick into donkeys, the Little Man has them sold into slavery, with Lampwick dying at the farm he was sent to.

* ''Ask the Bones'' anthology: In the title story, [[ObviouslyEvil the man with cruel eyes]] is a SerialKiller who targets [[WouldHurtAChild boys]]. He takes them in as servants, forces them to kill and skin a bull, takes them to the mountains, wraps them in the bull's skin, waits for a giant bird to grab them, tells them to give him rubies, and then leaves them to die. He attempts this with Yusef, but Yusef escapes. Not recognizing him through his bruised face, the cruel-eyed man takes him in again and tries to repeat his usual process. He is outraged when Yusef asks him to show him how to lie on the skin, and tries to attack him.

* ''Literature/{{Corum}}'': [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Earl Glandyth-a-Krae]] is the {{archenemy}} of Prince Corum and leader of the [[HordesFromTheEast Denledhyssi]]. We first meet Glandyth when he is having several of his human prisoners [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured to death]]. We subsequently discover that he has been responsible for committing [[FinalSolution genocide]] against the [[OurElvesAreBetter Vadhagh]], with Corum's family among his victims--his father and uncle cut down by Glandyth, his sisters and cousin gang-raped by Glandyth's men while he looked on. Capturing Corum, Glandyth puts out his eye and severs his hand, planning to leave him with no hands, no eyes, no tongue, no feet, and no genitals. Corum is saved by The Brown Man of Laahr, whom Glandyth subsequently captures and murders, and taken to Moidel's Mount; Glandyth unites the local Pony Tribes and tries to kill everyone there. He later participates in his king, Lyr-a-Brode's invasion of [[TheGoodKingdom Lywm-an-Esh]], sacrificing prisoners in order to summon up the army of his gods, The Dog and The Horned Bear, and planning to use Corum's body as a vessel for the soul of [[GodOfEvil Arioch, The Knight of the Swords]]. When Corum manages to resurrect the Vadhagh, Glandyth, now acting on his own, makes a DealWithTheDevil with [[TheBigBad Mabelrode the Faceless, The King of the Swords]], inflicting the Vadhagh with a [[HatePlague disease]] that causes them to [[AxeCrazy go mad]] and slay one another; he intends to use Mabelrode's power to TakeOverTheWorld. A mass murderer, a rapist, a xenophobe, and a cheerful participant in genocide, Glandyth-a-Krae is finally killed while [[CheatersNeverProsper trying to cheat his way to victory]] in a DuelToTheDeath with Corum.

* [[BigBad Reginald Birch]] is also the GreaterScopeVillain of the [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Kenway Saga]]. Initially a friend to Edward Kenway, when the latter's daughter, Jennifer Scott, exposes Birch to her father as not only a Templar of the British Rite but also their Grand Master, he sends mercenaries to the Kenway manor to murder Edward Kenway, and kidnap Jennifer to be sold as a SexSlave to Turkish slavers, all while [[FrameUp framing]] a innocent servant for the crime. He then takes in Edward's son Haytham, only so he could manipulate him into becoming a killer as well as a Knight Templar fanatic. From there he has Haytham kill many people, including the opposing Assassins. He even has a fellow Templar tortured and [[CripplingCastration castrated]] when he got in the way of his plans. When Haytham finds where Jennifer is being captive as well as Birch being the true culprit behind his father's murder, Birch tries to have Haytham killed along with Jennifer. In his last moments Birch tries to pass himself off as well-intentioned, but Haytham can see right through him as nothing more than a [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist self-deluded madman only using the Templar ideology as an excuse to claim more power for himself]].

** [[BigBad Reginald Birch]] is also the GreaterScopeVillain of the [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Kenway Saga]]. Initially a friend to Edward Kenway, when the latter's daughter, Jennifer Scott, exposes Birch to her father as not only a Templar of the British Rite but also their Grand Master, he sends mercenaries to the Kenway manor to murder Edward Kenway, and kidnap Jennifer to be sold as a SexSlave to Turkish slavers, all while [[FrameUp framing]] a innocent servant for the crime. He then takes in Edward's son Haytham, only so he could manipulate him into becoming a killer as well as a Knight Templar fanatic. From there he has Haytham kill many people, including the opposing Assassins. He even has a fellow Templar tortured and [[CripplingCastration castrated]] when he got in the way of his plans. When Haytham finds where Jennifer is being captive as well as Birch being the true culprit behind his father's murder, Birch tries to have Haytham killed along with Jennifer. In his last moments Birch tries to pass himself off as well-intentioned, but Haytham can see right through him as nothing more than a [[NotSoWellintentionedExtremist self-deluded madman only using the Templar ideology as an excuse to claim more power for himself]].

** [BigBad Reginald Birch]] is also the GreaterScopeVillain of the [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Kenway Saga]]. Initially a friend to Edward Kenway, when the latter's daughter, Jennifer Scott, exposes Birch to her father as not only a Templar of the British Rite but also their Grand Master, he sends mercenaries to the Kenway manor to murder Edward Kenway, and kidnap Jennifer to be sold as a SexSlave to Turkish slavers, all while [[FrameUp framing]] a innocent servant for the crime. He then takes in Edward's son Haytham, only so he could manipulate him into becoming a killer as well as a Knight Templar fanatic. From there he has Haytham kill many people, including the opposing Assassins. He even has a fellow Templar tortured and [[CripplingCastration castrated]] when he got in the way of his plans. When Haytham finds where Jennifer is being captive as well as Birch being the true culprit behind his father's murder, Birch tries to have Haytham killed along with Jennifer. In his last moments Birch tries to pass himself off as well-intentioned, but Haytham can see right through him as nothing more than a [[NotSoWellintentionedExtremist self-deluded madman only using the Templar ideology as an excuse to claim more power for himself]].

** [[BigBad Reginald Birch]] is also the GreaterScopeVillain of the [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Kenway Saga]]. [[FalseFriend Initially a friend]] to Edward Kenway, when the latter's daughter, Jennifer Scott, exposes Birch to her father as not only a Templar of the British Rite but also their Grand Master, he sends mercenaries to the Kenway manor to murder Edward Kenway, and kidnap Jennifer to be sold as a SexSlave to Turkish slavers, all while framing a innocent servant for the crime. He then takes in Edward's son Haytham, only so he could manipulate him into becoming a killer as well as a KnightTemplar fanatic. From there he has Haytham kill many people, including the opposing Assassins. He even has a fellow Templar tortured and castrated when he got in the way of his plans. He also has Haytham uncover technology from the [[AdvancedAncientHumans First Civilization]], knowing full well the kind of destruction that they bring, all so he could use them to rule the world, even sending Edward Braddock to help him. When Haytham finds where Jennifer is being captive as well as Birch being the true culprit behind his father's murder, Birch tries to have Haytham killed along with Jennifer. In his last moments Birch tries to pass himself off as well-intentioned, but Haytham can [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist see right through him]] as nothing more than a self-deluded madman only using the Templar ideology as an excuse to claim more power for himself.
** [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade General Edward Braddock]], known as "[[InsaneAdmiral The Bulldog]]", is a fellow Templar. Presented as an ally of [[WellIntentionedExtremist Haytham]], it was revealed that he helped Reginald Birch cover up the Kenway mansion raid while pretending to investigate it. He later took part in the siege of Bergen op Zoom against the French Army, and when he was retreating a man asked if he and his family could come with him. When the man calls him craven when Braddock doesn't allow this, [[DisproportionateRetribution Braddock has him and his family killed, children included]]. When Birch assigns him and Haytham to various parts of the world to uncover First Civilization technology, the former only questions Reginald's obsession when it meant [[ItsAllAboutMe his own life and position might be at stake]]; it doesn't detract from his cruelty during their search, as he continued to kill numerous people, not just his enemies, but also his allies and the innocent, much to [[EvenEvilHasStandards Haytham's shock]]. During the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar, Braddock oversees the annihilation of many French camps, and when one of them tries to offer a truce, he ignores it has order his men to kill them all, causing needless deaths on both sides of the field. He also has [[RapePillageAndBurn destroyed many uninvolved Native American tribes]], solely to fuel his sadism. When he believes one of his men to be insubordinate, he kills him, something he has done many times before. When one of the tribes, with the help of Haytham, ambushes him and his men, he leaves them for dead, while trying to escape.

* ''Literature/Aeon14'': Stavros, from the ''Rika's Marauders'' novel ''Rika Redeemed'', is the dictator of a relatively small [[TheEmpire empire]] in the Praesepe Cluster called the Politica. He drove the Oranians off their homeworld onto another location deeper in the system, turning their home in exile into a VichyEarth in direct imitation of the ancient Romans and Nazis, something he says he's done elsewhere. He has also [[RestrainingBolt technologically]] and [[MindRape psychologically]] enslaved almost his entire military, including many combat {{cyborg}}s known as "mechs". In the book proper, when Silva, the mother of his heir by a one-night stand who was later turned into a mech, attempted to retrieve her daughter Amy, [[ParentalAbuse whom he beats]], he captured her and enslaved her as Amy's bodyguard/pet, using her compliance chip to force her never to reveal that she is Amy's mother while encouraging Amy to address her as "Meat", a FantasticSlur for mechs. When Rika, Silva's former subordinate, goes undercover in The Politica as a defector from her [[PrivateMilitaryContractors mercenary company]], Stavros insists on installing a compliance chip in her as well. Rika is immune, but in order to maintain her cover is forced to play along with Stavros using the chip to [[RapeAsDrama make her perform a sexual act on him]]. Leslie, one of Rika's teammates, is captured during the mission and chipped as well. When Rika finally initiates the plan to liberate the mechs and kill Stavros, he resorts to using his own daughter Amy as a HumanShield. While other villains in the franchise have significantly higher body counts, few approach Stavros for sheer personal vileness.

* ''Literature/BackInTheUSSA'': [[AxCrazy Frank Nitti]], from "Tom Joad", is the wicked [[TheDragon enforcer]] of Secretary UsefulNotes/AlCapone. A {{sadist}} who loves his work, Nitti oversees labor camps to find Tom Joad, having many innocents tortured in the process. Upon assembling a family to ask questions, Nitti has them gunned down with relish even after seeing they likely know nothing. When Eliot Ness sneaks into his hotel, he sees Nitti is also a [[SerialRapist rapist]] who likes to abduct and violate young women after torturing them.

* ''Blue World'', by Creator/RobertRMcCammon: The cowboy [[StalkerWithACrush Travis]], from the title story, is a psychopath who murders women he grows obsessed with. After watching a pornographic film called ''Super Slick'', Travis hunts down and drowns one of the actresses, before finding the second working in a sex club. Travis proceeds to murder her, as well as many others in the club before escaping as the third, Debra Rocks, real name Debbie Stoner, becomes involved with a kind young priest named John Lancaster. Travis murders a man Debbie spent the night with out of simple jealousy and catches a private detective watching Debbie for John. Travis proceeds to horribly torture and murder him before trying to kill John and finally Debbie by drowning her as well.

* ''Literature/BridgeOfBirds'': The [[AristocratsAreEvil Duke of Ch'in]] is introduced as a tyrant who only cares about money, power, and obtaining immortality. To do so he tricked three gullible handmaidens into giving the feathers of the Princess of Birds' crown to him (thus rendering her unable to meet her lover in Heaven) and then murdered them so that they couldn't ask for them back. The Duke then drowned a city just to be able to hide his SoulJar there, and cursed the three handmaidens to guard his soul jar, essentially binding them to protect their murderer's heart for eternity. Ten Ox declares that the Duke "must have the coldest heart in the world!"

** [[{{Necromancer}} Jonathan]], first appearing in ''Touch the Dark'', is a leader of the Black Circle who for over nine hundred years has [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured vampires]] for days or even weeks, bringing them back from the edge of death, only to resend them to near death over and over again in order to [[ImmortalityImmorality gain power to rejuvenate himself]]. Desiring to return the gods in order to increase his power, Jonathan, over his long run in the series, attempts to kill the pregnant woman who carries the heir to faerie in order to start a civil war between the fey which could kill thousands; tortures Louise-Cesare to near death; unleashes zombie vampires to kill the North American Vampire Senate; tries to crash magical Hong Kong into normal Hong Kong--which would kill millions--in order to create an energy wave to exterminate the various Vampire Senates which oppose the gods; and tries to unleash the [[SealedEvilInACan Ancient Horrors]] in order to conquer all. A complete sociopath only interested in himself, Jonathan is eventually revealed to graft the skin and ghosts of creatures and people to himself in order to gain their powers, keeping them in [[AndIMustScream agonizing pain]] all the while.

* ''Literature/{{Brotherband}}'': [[BadBoss Zavac]] is the vicious captain of the ''Raven'', a Magyran pirate vicious even by the standards of his people, with around 200 slaughtered, plundered and robbed by him and his crew. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment Debuting]] by massacring a Skandian fleet and leaving a man and his young nephew to drown [[YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo after he promises to save the boy]], Zavac steals the Andomal, a precious treasure of the Skandians, and afterwards slaughters an unarmed, peaceful ship of traders, gruesomely torturing its captain to death. Finding the traders with a cache of emeralds, Zavac heads to the source city, Limmat, [[RapePillageAndBurn razing and massacring]] his way through the city and enslaving the populace to drain their emerald mine dry. When the city is liberated with him, Zavac abandons his close allies to die.

* ''Literature/{{Abarat}}'': Mater Motley successfully brings about the end of all that is good by making a pact with beings whose whole purpose is to destroy. She releases untold millions of evil insects, and then burns the world with a massive deathship. She burned down her own house rendering her son blind and killing all but one of her 20 or so grandchildren. It turns out all of these acts were just ForTheEvulz and she's just that horrific of a person. Her abuse of Christopher Carrion for all his life, such as sewing his lips shut for ''mentioning'' the word love, is what turned him into a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.

* ''Literature/{{Abarat}}'': Mater Motley (successfully) brings about the end of all that is good by making a pact with beings whose whole purpose is to destroy. She releases untold millions of evil insects, and then burns the world with a massive deathship. She burned down her own house rendering her son blind and killing all but one of her 20 or so grandchildren. It turns out all of these acts were just ForTheEvulz and she's just that horrific of a person. Her abuse of Christopher Carrion for all his life, such as sewing his lips shut for ''mentioning'' the word love, is what turned him into a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.
* ''Literature/TheAbles'': "[[BigBad Finch]]"--true identity [[spoiler:Thomas Sallinger]]--is a FallenHero. He is an [[PowerCopying absorber]] who leads the Believers, a group dedicated to seeking the prophesied reincarnation of a nigh-omnipotent man known as Elben, intending to [[AGodAmI set himself up as a god]] using Elben's powers. Finch falsely believes that the protagonist, a blind hero-in-training named Philip Sallinger, is Elben, and spends the book trying to force Philip to unlock his powers. In order to do this, Finch turns Philip and his friends into outcasts with the help of Chad; puts Philip's mother into a coma and later kills her; mounts an invasion of Philip's hometown of Freepoint with an army of Believers, killing hundreds; and finally threatens to destroy the town using a nuclear bomb, claiming that if Philip, [[spoiler:his grandson]], can't stop it, then "I don't want to live, and you don't deserve to." Completely lacking in compassion, loyalty, or honor, Finch shows that whatever kindness he showed on the outside [[FauxAffablyEvil was a sham to hide his true nature]].
* ''Act of Love'', by Joe R. Lansdale: [[SerialKiller The Houston Hacker]], real name [[spoiler:Phillip Barlowe]] is a depraved [[ILoveTheDead necrophiliac]] and [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] serial killer who begins murdering young women in Houston, taking parts of them to cannibalize as well. After three such deaths, the Hacker is enraged the cops are hunting him and targets the hero Marv Hanson's teenage daughter, running her off the road and killing her boyfriend. He proceeds to use his civilian guise to convince Hanson his partner Joe Clarke is the Hacker, but does the same to Clarke as well, while murdering a reporter who got too close to the truth. along with the reporter's family. When Hanson is distracted, the Hacker takes the opportunity to attack Hanson's home, killing [[spoiler:Clarke and the other cops]] there before planning to rape and kill Hanson's wife after he attempts to crucify her to the wall.

** [[OverarchingVillain Opal Koboi]] is a [[EvilGenius genius]] pixie who desires to become "[[AGodAmI empress of the world]]". Opal before the series became [[CorruptCorporateExecutive head of her father's company]] by driving him insane and having him and her mother locked in an insane asylum. Organizing the Goblin rebellion alongside Briar Cudgeon, Opal took advantage of their violent nature to cause an uprising, while all along planning to betray them. To escape prison after being arrested, Opal creates a clone, not caring it will die easily and cannot think for itself, allowing her to manipulate it. Killing Holly's [[spoiler:mentor, Julius Root]], by having a bomb strapped to him and then cruelly tricking Holly into detonating it, Opal then frames her for it and {{Mind Rape}}s a kind-hearted humanitarian, forcing him to send a probe into the Earth and reveal the Faerie people, hoping to cause a war behind humans and Faeries. Opal is also [[MadScientist revealed to have experimented on]] and killed endangered animals to make herself more powerful. In the final book, Opal murders her own past version of herself when the past version of her was trying to free the present Opal from prison, which causes all products produced by her company to explode, with planes crashing and global communications cutting off. Finally, Opal manipulates the ghosts of dead Faeries to KillAllHumans and take over the surface world. A thoroughly [[PsychopathicWomanchild childish]] woman dedicated to getting whatever she wants regardless of innocent lives lost, Opal is Artemis's greatest and most evil enemy.

* ''Literature/AssholeYakuzaBoyfriend'': [[SmugSnake Kawada]] is regarded as monstrous even amongst his fellow {{Yakuza}}, and almost all of the other villains in the book eventually turn on him, [[EvenEvilHasStandards usually out of disgust]]. In addition to being an [[CardCarryingVillain admitted and proud]] {{sadist}} and murderer, he's also the mastermind behind both a dog-fighting operation and a human trafficking operation. He has a penchant for disgusting and elaborate punishments, and is adept at [[MindRape psychologically manipulating his victims]] with threats of rape or the needlessly cruel murder of their loved ones; for example, he threatens to road-haul [[spoiler:Rose's]] ex-boyfriend and leave the remains in her bed while she sleeps. He also considers women to be "meat," and treats them as such, up to and including [[ImAHumanitarian preparing to eat]] [[spoiler:Mina]].

*** [[TheHeavy Calidus]] is the high captain of the Kadoshim, {{fallen angel}}s who serve the dark lord Asroth. The first of the Kadoshim to assume human flesh, Calidus takes the form of a wise old man who [[TheChessmaster secretly manipulates events in the human world]] to remain chaotic and brutal while also [[TheCorrupter manipulating a young man named Nathair]] to become Asroth's champion, "The Black Sun." Continuously pushing Nathair to worse deeds, including murdering his own father, Calidus intends to pave the way for the other Kadoshim and Asroth to annihilate all of humanity. Forcibly installing a multitude of Kadoshim into human hosts while they're alive and tormented, Calidus directs them to massacre human settlements and villages while also encouraging cannibalism as fuel for their new bodies. Calidus murders [[spoiler:the mother of the hero Corban]] and later desecrates her grave just for kicks. While [[FauxAffablyEvil he hides his true nature behind a mask of civility and wisdom]], Calidus is a ruthless, savage being utterly dedicated to the annihilation of humanity and his own advancement alongside Asroth.
*** [[TheDragon Lykos]], Calidus's closest human servant, serves Asroth's plans despite being one of the few to know what Asroth truly is. With Calidus's help, Lykos rose to become king of the brutal Vin-Thalun pirate culture, his people. Promoting violent raids and a [[TheSocialDarwinist dog-eat-dog society]], Lykos makes advancements into Nathair's own kingdom when he is away and sets up [[GladiatorGames illegal fighting pits]] where people are forced to fight to the death for Lykos's amusement, with one of the few survivors being the warrior Maquin. Lykos then magically enslaves Nathair's mother Queen Fidele and [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rapes her]] while also using her as a puppet to set up legal fighting pits and ruling through her as a tyrant while she is aware of everything. After Maquin rescues Fidele, Lykos develops a disturbing fixation on her and continuously tries to recover her, resulting in [[spoiler:her death when she kills herself to save Maquin from suicide at Lykos's order when he holds her hostage]]. Lykos shows no compunction cheating at his fights if he's actually in danger, and when he finally faces Maquin in a duel to the death, continuously mocks him about Fidele's death, standing apart as the [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters vilest human being]] in the series, considered barbaric even among his own allies.

* ''Literature/BattleRoyale'': [[BigBad Kinpatsu Sakamochi]] is the [[SadistTeacher sadistic director]] of the Survival Program, and a ProfessionalButtKisser and PsychoSupporter of the Government. Willing to hurt anybody that stands in his way, he murders Mr. Hayashida, Class 3-B's teacher, for protesting the Survival Program. To show that he means business, he displays his corpse to the class. During the briefing on the Program, he casually tells the students that some of their parents died trying to stop him. When Yoshitoki Kuninobu asks what happened to he and Shuya's caretaker at the orphanage, he brags about raping her, which sets off Yoshitoki and [[WouldHurtAChild prompts Sakamochi to kill him]]. To [[KickTheDog really twist the knife]], he reveals that he was lying about raping the caretaker just to piss Yoshitoki off and give him an excuse to kill somebody. He later then throws a knife at another student [[DisproportionateRetribution just for whispering]], and shoots Noriko in the leg for protesting his actions. He [[HopeCrusher takes joy in dashing the hopes of the students competing]], such as when Megumi tried to call her parents, only for Sakamochi to intercept the call and taunt her. Throughout the game, he'd make snarky comments at the expense of the dead students. At the end of the book, he reveals that he has children of his own, but would gladly sacrifice them in the Program to boost his own reputation. He even made sure to brainwash his kids into accepting that fate. He then learns that Shogo managed to disable Shuya and Noriko's collars, leading him to [[spoiler:fatally shoot Shogo before [[MutualKill meeting his own demise]]]].

* ''[[Literature/TheBeastHouse The Cellar]]'': Roy Hayes is a psychopathic rapist who was sentenced to prison for [[AbusiveParent raping his own daughter]] and [[DomesticAbuser regularly beating and raping his wife]], Donna. After being released, Roy wastes no time in butchering an innocent couple, then kidnapping their child daughter, Joni, using her as his personal SexSlave while traveling to get revenge on his family for locking him away. Unable to locate Donna, Roy tortures the woman's sister to get information on her whereabouts, promising to let her and her husband go once she tells him; he proceeds to kill her husband after raping and murdering her [[ILied even after she told him what he wanted]]. Murdering another couple to steal their car, Roy tracks down Donna and takes up residence in a teen girl's suite, raping her then trying to kill her along with Joni for defying him. In the end, Roy plans to rape and kill both his wife and daughter, and [[spoiler:dies [[VillainsWantMercy begging for the mercy]] he never sought to give]]. Despite appearing in such a dark setting with actual beasts and monsters, Roy still made his mark as the [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters most evil figure]] throughout the story.

** Arunis is an immortal, sociopathic, manipulative sorcerer who set most of the immediate plot (including the coming world war between superpower empires and the retrieval of an extremely dangerous ArtifactOfDoom) in motion to further his own ends. Those ends turn out to be arranging the destruction of the world as an offering to [[GodOfEvil the Night Gods]], so that they will be impressed enough to elevate him to godhood himself. In pursuit of this goal, he kills, tortures, and {{Mind Rape}}s his way across two continents, including sacrificing his own (few) loyal minions for short-term advantage, all without the slightest whiff of remorse. His in-universe [[TheDreaded reputation]] is well earned. [[spoiler: He even manages to make trouble post-mortem, with his ghost mind raping one man to the point of destroying his personality while trying to possess him. Guy was an AssholeVictim, but ''still'']].
** Macadra is Arunis's rival, on-and-off co-conspirator, his peer in age, power, and wickedness, and his sister. She wants the same ArtifactOfDoom he does, though she intends to conquer the world rather than destroy it. Her handiwork is mostly plainly visible in the fate of the Empire of Bali Adro, whose throne she subverted centuries ago, in the process turning it from a prosperous, enlightened society to a totalitarian hellhole (much to the horror of the time-displaced Bali Adrans traveling with the protagonists). Like her brother, she's TheDreaded and a BadBoss, and she drives her soldiers so hard in pursuit of the heroes across the last book that they end up deserting in droves as soon as they have the opportunity. After Arunis [[spoiler: dies]] at the end of the third book, she takes over as the most visible threat to the ''Chathrand'' and the world in the fourth and final volume.

** ''Some Girls Bite''; ''Friday Night Bites''; & ''Hard Bitten'': [[AttentionWhore Celina Desaulniers]], the [[VampireMonarch head of House Navarre]], started off by murdering her lover in a spiteful act after he rejected her. Celina began a [[SpreeKiller murder spree]] as an excuse to kill Merit--leading to her siring after an attack--after Merit's father earned her scorn, while framing the deaths on the other vampire houses in order to prop hers up and gain humanity's trust, with an eventual end goal of using this to initiate a bloody war between vampires and humans. Later taking advantage of a supernatural summit, she plans to use said summit to sow tensions and restart an ancient war between vampires and shapeshifters regardless of the death this would cause. Eventually desperate, Celina allies with the {{corrupt|Politician}} Mayor Seth Tate and helps distribute the drug "V" to vampires all across Chicago starting murder sprees while getting the attention she’s always desired as its distributor. Even Celina's last moments have her [[spoiler:temporarily kill Merit's lover Ethan Sullivan]] as a way to spite her, cementing herself as Merit's most [[ArchEnemy personal enemy]].

** High Lord Kalarus is a despicable despot who built his realm upon slavery and maintains it by keeping his subjects perpetually impoverished. Cruel and power-hungry, in his quest to conquer all of Alera, Kalarus commits one atrocity after another. He keeps his top intelligence agent in line by regularly having her raped and [[IHaveYourWife holding her child, Masha, captive]], despite the fact that Masha is probably his granddaughter. Kalarus built up his army by attaching discipline collars to children, then conditioned them with the collars for all their lives, ensuring that they would be a [[{{Tykebomb}} mindlessly loyal killing machines]] once they reached adulthood. When he decided to launch all out war on Alera, Kalarus had his legions slaughter most of the female Citizens in the Realm, and personally carried out attacks on orphanages to draw out defenders. Crippled and defeated in war, Kalarus retreated to his realm and rigged up a TakingYouWithMe scenario in the case his lands were conquered. He began provoking the great, volcano-dwelling fury, Kalus, and then bound the fury's wrath to his life. His plan was that if he died, the volcano would erupt and kill millions upon millions of people within the region. [[spoiler:Unable to disarm the fury, Gaius Sextus is forced to set it off to minimize the damage, killing everyone within Kalarus's realm]].
** Invidia Aquitaine is a Machiavellian plotter that desires to obtain as much power as she possibly can. When she found out that [[spoiler:Princeps Septimus]] was marrying a commoner instead of her, she arranged for his assassination, triggering [[spoiler:the entire conflict of the series]]. Devoid of empathy, Invidia has a habit of [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betraying anyone if it suits her needs]]. In order to oust a beloved military officer from his command, she orders her pawn, Senator Arnos, to have a town filled with innocent people executed for the crime of peacefully complying with a more powerful, nonhostile enemy force. She ordered this believing that the commander would refuse, allowing her to label him a traitor and have him removed, thus eliminating him as a potential political threat. Afterwards, the civilians were going to be executed anyway to "set an example." Invidia later joined the Vord in order to save her own life, and [[TheQuisling voluntarily aided them]] in their mission to [[AbsoluteXenophobe exterminate all non-Vord life on the planet]]. Hundreds of millions died due to her efforts and, when offerred the chance at redemption by teaming up with the remaining High Lords, Invidia threw it away by attempting to kill her allies the literal second it looked like the Vord Queen had been killed. She did this in order to seize complete control over the wasteland she had helped create.

* ''The Consultant'', by Creator/BentleyLittle: [[BigBad Regus Patoff]], the titular Consultant, is the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive manipulative, arrogant, and cruel mastermind]] of BFG Associates, whose ultimate goal is to create a company able to be run by a single person. To this end, Regus hires himself out as a consultant to large businesses, then slowly and methodically makes the business more productive and profitable, while simultaneously eliminating the employees one by one, be it by forcing them to quit with unreasonable rules, or by murdering them and [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident framing it as tragic accidents]]. To further along the process, Regus organizes mass shootings of employees, framing other employees for the killings; arranges company-wide vacations that turn into wretched survivalist training; and stalks and torments workers' families, threatening their lives at every turn. Having performed this same ritual over and over again on numerous companies, Regus's latest scheme, his target this time being the company [=CompWare=], ends with him driving several workers into insane frenzies and having them slaughter their co-workers, but not before Regus rapes and murders a secretary who stood up to him, and traps the wife of [=CompWare's=] CEO [[spoiler:[[AndIMustScream inside a snow globe for all time]]]].

** ''Dark Debt'': [[SerialRapist Julian Burrows]] is a vile vampire [[PsychoForHire hired]] by the circle to take the guise of Ethan's sire Belthasor to torment him. Julian is a monstrous rapist who hunts and rapes a woman for the fun of it, even shocking other members of the circle. After being empowered by the below mentioned Sorcha Reid with the ability to [[MindRape violate the minds of his victims]], Julian begins a rampage across Chicago, forcing his victims to feel as if they were being sexually assaulted. After being found, Julian, nothing more a slave to his lustful whims, reveals he intends to rape Merit out of lust.

** [[BigBad Reginald Birch]] is also the GreaterScopeVillain of the [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Kenway Saga]]. [[FalseFriend Initially a friend]] to Edward Kenway, when the latter's daughter, Jennifer Scott, exposes Birch to her father as not only a Templar of the British Rite but also their Grand Master, he sends mercenaries to the Kenway manor to murder Edward Kenway, and kidnap Jennifer to be sold as a SexSlave to Turkish slavers, all while framing a innocent servant for the crime. He then takes in Edward's son Haytham, only so he could manipulate him into becoming a killer as well as a KnightTemplar fanatic. From there he has Haytham kill many people, including the opposing Assassins. He even has a fellow Templar tortured and castrated when he got in the way of his plans. He also has Haytham uncover technology from the [[AdvancedAncientHumans First Civilization]], knowing full well the kind of destruction that they bring, all so he could use them to rule the world, even sending the below-mentioned Edward Braddock to help him. When Haytham finds where Jennifer is being captive as well as Birch being the true culprit behind his father's murder, Birch tries to have Haytham killed along with Jennifer. In his last moments Birch tries to pass himself off as well-intentioned, but Haytham can [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist see right through him]] as nothing more than a self-deluded madman only using the Templar ideology as an excuse to claim more power for himself.
** [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade General Edward Braddock]], known as "[[InsaneAdmiral The Bulldog]]", is a fellow Templar. Presented as an ally of [[WellIntentionedExtremist Haytham]], it was revealed that he helped the aforementioned Reginald Birch cover up the Kenway mansion raid while pretending to investigate it. He later took part in the siege of Bergen op Zoom against the French Army, and when he was retreating a man asked if he and his family could come with him. When the man calls him craven when Braddock doesn't allow this, [[DisproportionateRetribution Braddock has him and his family killed, children included]]. When Birch assigns him and Haytham to various parts of the world to uncover First Civilization technology, the former only questions Reginald's obsession when it meant [[ItsAllAboutMe his own life and position might be at stake]]; it doesn't detract from his cruelty during their search, as he continued to kill numerous people, not just his enemies, but also his allies and the innocent, much to [[EvenEvilHasStandards Haytham's shock]]. During the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar, Braddock oversees the annihilation of many French camps, and when one of them tries to offer a truce, he ignores it has order his men to kill them all, causing needless deaths on both sides of the field. He also has [[RapePillageAndBurn destroyed many uninvolved Native American tribes]], solely to fuel his sadism. When he believes one of his men to be insubordinate, he kills him, something he has done many times before. When one of the tribes, with the help of Haytham, ambushes him and his men, he leaves them for dead, while trying to escape.

* ''After the Fire'', by Will Hill: [[DarkMessiah "Father" John Parson]] was the despotic leader of the [[{{Cult}} Lord's Legion]]. Even before joining, he was sent to prison for [[BatterUp severely injuring his neighbor with a baseball bat]]. When John took over the Legion, he initiated stricter rules, with disobedient members being punished with beatings, whippings, starvation, and even being locked in a box for days without food or water. Extremely troublesome members were exiled, with the condition that they did not expose the Legion's activities under the threat of death. He also brainwashed his followers into believing that everyone outside the Legion was evil, had them engage in brutal combat training, and at night, [[spoiler:he would open the women's barracks to let the men rape the women, aside from the women he would take as his personal harem]]. When the authorities raided the Lord's Legion, John decided to simply abandon his followers to their deaths without a hint of remorse, [[spoiler:also ordering his Centurions to shoot themselves]].