History TheDreaded / Literature

** Gellert Grindelwald was the equivalent of Wizard Hitler, and he became so powerful that, towards the end of his reign of terror during World War II, it was believed that the only person who could stop him was his eventual conquerer Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore knew this, but delayed stopping Grindelwald until he couldn't ignore what was happening any longer, because even he feared the man. [[spoiler:Though, it was admittedly for unconventional reasons]].

* The Literature/VeilOfMadness stories, an online collaborative fiction first appearing on 4chan, plays this for laughs. Apparently, humanity's corner of the universe exists under the titular veil, some kind of bizarre psychic field which drives every intelligent species (except for humanity apparently) completely psychotic. Unfortunately, humanity only discovers this when first contact goes a bit pear-shaped due to the aliens in question completely freaking out when what looks like a terrifying battleship comes out of a dark corner of the universe which drives everyone mad, some mixed messaging ensues and the humans "attack" the aliens (in actuality, the aliens fired the first shot in panic, and the humans only fired a warning shot in return, but things fell apart from there). Everyone consequently views humanity as a species of bloodthirsty lunatics who are only kept from rampaging over the entire cosmos pillaging indiscriminately through tribute, and after numerous ignored attempts to correct the misunderstanding humanity as a whole just ended up throwing their collective hands up and going along with it because it was easier (and, admittedly, they find it quite fun pulling the largest-scale {{Troll))ing ever).

* [[ChaoticEvil Lord]] [[OmnicidalManiac Vile]] from the ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'' series. Nobody knows where he came from, or who he was (except that he was a Necromancer), but he fought in the war for 3 years on the evil side. He was said to have massacred thousands. Then, one day 'he went away' and vanished. There's lots of fear and rumour around him, with everyone agreeing that he was crazy powerful. The tailor Ghastly sums it up best he can.

-->'''Tanith''': What happened to her?
-->'''Ghastly''': She made a mistake. She went up against Lord Vile [...] There was a rule we had back then: You didn't go up against Vile alone. You wait until your army is gathered behind you, you all attack together, and you hope one of you gets lucky.

** Darquesse is also made out to be this, the [[DarkMessiah messiah]] of the [[ChaoticEvil Revenants]] except that she starts killing Revenants too for the lulz. She is so powerful and threatening that every seer and psychic on the planet starts having visions of her coming to end the world. This isn't helped by the fact that [[spoiler: Darquesse is Valkyrie's [[SuperPoweredEvilSide God Tier Psychopathic Alter Ego]] and there just so happens to be a Necromancer prophecy about one who will break the boundary between life and death by killing half the planet and a fair few necromancers think that this is about Valkyrie]] the effect is kind of spoiled though when we find out that Darquesse has some severe ADD tendencies such as getting distracted mid fight by a helicopter or deciding to banish an eldritch abomination because it no longer interested her.

** Burke, one of the eight personalities of Canting Crew member(s) Altogether Andrews, is so very frightening that Andrews' ''other personalities'' mentally "pile on" to keep him suppressed. Even so, the rest of the Crew freeze up in dread when Andrews' personas reshuffle themselves, as they've met Burke once and never, ever, ''ever'' want to do so again.

** When it comes to court and law, [[RevenantZombie Mr. Slant]] is the one lawyer everyone else is utterly afraid of. Because no one wants to stand against a lawyer with literal centuries of experience that has worked the profession long enough that he wrote most of the legal system by himself. He has shut down actual court cases by glaring at the other bench's legal defense until they sat down and shut up.

* Sharrakor of ''Literature/TheSeventhTower'' elicits this reaction even from Ebbitt, the resident CrazyAwesome {{Cloudcuckoolander}}.

* In ''[[Literature/TheElenium]]'', The [[ChurchMilitant Militant Orders]] [[MagicKnight of the Church of Chyrellos]] are respected throughout the world. One particular order, the Pandions, however, are feared. Between their [[BlackKnight Black armor]], reputation for ColdBloodedTorture to get information and incredible skill, they are widely feared. Of course, the torture part is actually wildly exaggerated, but intentionally cultivated in order to weaponize their reputation as needed.

** Ebenezar [=McCoy=] is an old Scottish farmer and the wizard who trained Harry. ''Blood Rites'' reveals that he's [[spoiler: the Blackstaff, the White Council's assassin and wetworks man, responsible for eliminating the Council's enemies through any means necessary. "Any means necessary" includes his ColonyDrop in the previous book, Krakatoa, Tunguska, and the New Madrid Earthquake.]] When [[FamedInStory Jared "Hellhound" Kincaid]], already established as a serious badass, meets him, he's terrified. The Red Court's entire gambit in ''Changes'' is set up mostly just to get revenge on him. This, it turns out, is a ''spectacularly'' bad idea.

** [[OurZombiesAreDifferent The Others.]] An entire race of ice zombies with CreepyBlueEyes, bringing death and blizzards with them everywhere they go. Led by the [[GrimReaper walking embodiment of death]] also known as "The Night's King." [[labelnote:The Correction Note.]]The Night's King is only in the show, not the books. There is a story about him, but it's a completely different, and unlikely to ever show up at all, so....[[/labelnote]]

** The Dementors who are one of the most foul creatures in the world. Wherever they go the atmosphere goes cold, and the sky darkens. They thrive by draining all the happy memories of an individual, and worse can suck out their soul. Harry himself is more afraid of them than he is of Voldemort.

* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}},'' [[BigBad Visser Three]] evokes this reaction, [[TheCaligula with]] [[OneWingedAngel good]] [[ImAHumanitarian reason]]. It also seems that [[TheAce Elfangor]] has this effect on the [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerks]]--at one point we meet one who refers to him as "Beast Elfangor."

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* Orrec himself is this in the first ''Literature/AnnalsOfTheWesternShore'' book, ''Gifts'', since he has a [[PowerIncontinence wild gift]] that is also extremely powerful--he has to go blindfolded or risk destroying anything he looks at. The knowledge that the heir of Caspromant is so powerful is quite a deterrent. [[spoiler:It's actually a ruse by Orrec's father to give Caspromant a fearsome reputation since Orrec has no actual gift at all.]]

* The titular villain of ''[[Literature/TheReckonersTrilogy Steelheart]]'' goes to great lengths to become this, showing off his ivinciblity, slaughtering foes with their own weapons, randomly destroying skyscrapers full of innocent civilians, and hiring TheDragon to render it permanently night. Turns out that there's a bit more than just ForTheEvulz behind this, as [[spoiler:his invincibility can only be bypassed by someone who doesn't fear him.]]

* [[EvilOverLord Dayless]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Conqueror]] in ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror.'' The [[FinalSolution seas of blood]] that he waded through over the course of three decades have made him the most feared man to ever live in [[FloatingContinent Tellos]]. Even twenty years after his supposed death, everyone old enough remembers him as the embodiment of terror and oppression.

** Lord Voldemort, "He Who Must Not Be Named" or "You Know Who." A huge part of his power is that the Wizarding World is so ludicrously afraid of him, which makes them screw up many times. It's present throughout the story, but becomes more obvious after [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire book 4]], and is taken UpToEleven in the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows last book]]. He exploits this trope in the seventh book by jinxing his name; his followers will instantly travel to and attack anyone who speaks his name. Since only the people who don't fear him actually use his name, it's an excellent way to hunt down his most important enemies. Some of his more terrible Death Eaters are only slightly less feared.

* In ''Literature/TheMachineriesOfEmpire'', Shuos Jedao absolutely terrifies most of his subordinates, thanks to his reputation of being both a brilliant general and completely insane.