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"The ultimate villain of the story, who's causing the problem the heroes must solve."

Note that Big Bad is not a catch-all trope for the biggest and ugliest villain of any given story.

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    A 
  • Adeptus Mechanicus by Rob Sanders: Idriss Krendl, a warsmith of the Iron Warriors, who manipulates the Adeptus Mechanicus of Satzica Secundus and the Dark Mechanicum of Velchanos Magna to claim both sides' forge worlds.
  • The Adventures of Strong Vanya: Grand Duke Dimitri's ploy to take over the throne by forcing the Tsarevna to marry him prompts the Tsar to demand an Engagement Challenge as simultaneously looking for someone who is able to undertake the Impossible Task. When Vanya appears clad in the Armor of the Tsar Ivan Vasilievich, Dimitri attempts to murder him by any means: poison, fire...
  • The Age of Fire series has a different antagonist per book:
    • Dragon Champion: Wrimere the Wrymmaster is the leader of a human supremacist organization that is enslaving dragons in order to use them against the other hominid races. This also makes him the Greater-Scope Villain for the next two books, as they take place simultaneously and also feature the presence of his minions.
    • Dragon Avenger: A Big Bad Ensemble between dueling Evil Overlords Thane Hammar and King Fangbreaker, who between the two of them are most responsible for the deaths of the dragon protagonists' parents, and every other bad thing that happens to Wistala in the book.
    • Dragon Outcast: The Lavadome Imperial Line is full of backstabbing schemers, but SiMevolant is the only outright antagonist, as he schemes and assassinates his way to power in order to act as The Quisling to the Wrymmaster's forces.
    • Dragon Strike: The Red Queen is the rule of Ghioz, and is seeking to conquer the known world, bringing her into conflict with the dragons.
    • Dragon Rule: NiVom and Infamnia (later revealed to be possessed by the Red Queen at the time) are behind the political scheming that is meant to undermine RuGaard's rule of the Dragon Empire.
    • Dragon Fate: A Big Bad Duumvirate of Infamnia/Red Queen and Rayg are responsible for all the problem plaguing the Dragon Empire and threatening the safety of the dragon species.
  • The Agent Pendergast series has one in each novel:
  • The Alex Rider books have a big bad in each one. Four of them - the Big Bads of Scorpia, Snakehead, Scorpia Rising and Never Say Die - are members of SCORPIA, a Nebulous Evil Organisation which is effectively the Big Bad of the entire series (they are also later revealed to be The Man Behind the Man for the events of Stormbreaker, and play a major role in the Prequel Russian Roulette, which also makes them culpable for most of the series' backstory). The individual Big Bads are:
    • Stormbreaker: Herod Sayle, an evil billionaire who wants to kill all of Britain's children via a computer virus he has placed in free computers he's given out.
    • Point Blanc: Dr. Huo Grief, a white supremacist doctor who uses clones to replace children in rich families to slowly take over the world.
    • Skeleton Key: General Alexei Sarov , a Russian General who wants to restore Communism with a nuclear bomb.
    • Eagle Strike: Damian Cray, who intends on launching a nuclear strike on several drug supplying areas around the world to stop productions of illegal drugs.
    • Scorpia: Julia Rothman, an executive board member of Scorpia who infects the children of London with nanites containing cyanide and threatens to kill them all if her demands aren't met.
    • Ark Angel: Nikolei Drevin, who plans to blow up Ark Angel over Washington, D.C. and destroy the city, in order to both commit Insurance Fraud and get rid of the CIA's evidence of his criminal activity.
  • All the Light We Cannot See: Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel is a Nazi gemologist who is in pursuit of the Sea of Flames, a diamond that is rumored to give its owner immortality. He is a recurring character throughout the book and is responsible for much of the conflict in the third act. He harasses the blind Marie-Laure Leblanc in an attempt to find out whether she has the Sea of Flames. Later, during the Battle of Saint-Malo, von Rumpel breaks into Marie-Laure's house to find the Sea of Flames, forcing Marie-Laure to hide in the attic with it.
  • The Alterien series:
    • Alterien: Once Was Lost - The Big Bad of this story turns out to be another superhuman named Theseus Spencer, who tells Oberon they are both Alteriens.
    • Alterien: Shadows of the Past - Oberon's former teammate, Ulysses River aka The Leopard. Oberon has to stop him from killing his sister.
    • Alterien: Path of Redemption - There are actually two Big Bads in this story. One of them is Helena Velazquez, who reveals a startling secret of her own. The other is Theseus Spencer again in another plot that could drive two countries to war.
    • Alterien: The Ghost Men - A team of mercenaries who are capable of passing through walls.
    • Alterien: Return of the Light - An enhanced man from Oberon's past, Ustaz Mamur. He's determined to get revenge for a botched SABER operation that left many of his people dead.
    • Alterien: The Orion Directive - Recurring terrorist group, Al-Dhi'ban.
  • American Psycho: Patrick Bateman, a Wall Street yuppie and Serial Killer.
  • Anno Dracula by Kim Newman: Dracula, who has taken control of the United Kingdom as Prince Consort by seducing, marrying, and turning Queen Victoria and is increasingly turning the country into an authoritarian state. While he is an Orcus on His Throne for most of the book, the story chilling portrays his mere presence as a poison spreading through Britain's body politic, regressing society into a bloodier and more primitive throwback, warping individuals into monsters, and creating a shockwave whose ripples are shattered lives.
  • Sharon Kay Penman's The Angevin Novels, being scrupulously researched Historical Fiction novels, have plenty of antagonists but not necessarily Big Bads since real life doesn't unfold according to narrative conventions, but two of them do end up having them because that's essentially how it worked out historically:
  • Animorphs: Visser Three. Where there are two Vissers and the Council of Thirteen above him in the Yeerk hierarchy, Visser Three is the leader of the Earth invasion and Arch-Enemy of the Animorphs. Further solidified when he is ultimately promoted to Visser One and becomes commander-in-chief of the entire Yeerk forces.
  • Ararat by Christopher Golden: The demon Shamdon, trapped for thousands of years on Noah's ark after his body was killed. He torments and kills members of the archaeological team studying the ark for fun and ultimately seeks to leave the mountain Ararat for the wider world by possessing one of team.
  • Isaac Asimov:
    • The Complete Adventures of Lucky Starr:
      • The Sirian government is the biggest threat faced by Lucky, and fought only indirectly until the final novel. The second book reveals that the events of the first book may have been encouraged by the Sirians because they are still attempting to use the asteroid pirates to encourage war within the Sol system. Sirian robots appear in the fourth and fifth books, while Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn is the last book, so Lucky is finally able to confront them directly.
      • David Starr, Space Ranger: Benson, the Martian agrarian scientist, is the one behind the poisoning scheme, and the one ordering Hennes to do his dirty work, like killing the nosy "Williams".
      • Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids: The pirate crew know that Captain Aton takes orders from a mysterious "Boss". What they don't know is that their boss is in contact with Sirians, planning for a war against Earth, and that he's Hansen, the hermit.
    • Foundation Series' "The Mule": The Mule manipulates people around him with Psychic Powers, turning entire planets to despondency and fear. While on Kalgan, Bayta and Toren manage to rescue his jester, Magnifico Giganticus, only to learn that the Mule had wanted them to do so. Twice they barely escape as the Mule's fleet brutally conquers the planet they're on. His fleet of ships conquers the entire First Foundation. In "Part Two", the protagonists head to Trantor because figuring out where the Second Foundation is will be their only chance to stop him. Bayta realizes, just in time, that Magnifico is the Mule, and that's how he's been one step ahead of them this whole time. Despite being defeated here, his efforts to conquer the Foundation leave a lasting impact on the series.

    B 
  • The BFG: The Fleshlumpeater, the leader of the human-eating giants.
  • The Balanced Sword: It initially seems that the Big Bad is Kerlamion Blackstar, the King of All Hells, who is enacting a scheme to take over the world. Later it turns out that the underling who came up with the scheme for him, called Viedraverion, is a Dragon with an Agenda and the real threat.
  • Baltimore: The Vampire Lord whom Baltimore calls "The Red King" is the mastermind behind the plagues.
  • The Barbarian and the Sorceress: Barnabus, an evil sorcerer planning to sacrifice Rom in a ritual, is the villain of the story.
  • Battle Royale: The Supervisor, who's in charge of the Battle Royale Program.
  • Bazil Broketail:
    • The Blunt Doom of Tummuz Orgmeen in the first novel. It is Thrembode's direct superior and supreme commander of Padmasan forces that Bazil and his comrades face.
    • Heruta. As ruler of Padmasa, the main antagonistic faction, he plays this role until the end of the fourth book when he gets replaced once Waakzaam, basically the Satanic Archetype of the universe, returns (with them reduced to his minions). In the first book, the Blunt Doom of Tummuz Orgmeen serves as this, who's the Padmasan overlord there.
  • Beijing Payback by Daniel Nieh: There's a Big Bad Duumvirate between Ouyang and Zhao Chongyang, two of the four bosses of the Chinese crime syndicate known as Happy Year Co. Ltd, who are orchestrating an operation to smuggle something called "Ice" into the U.S. Ice turns out to be human organs that can be sold to wealthy ineligible recipients in America. In an interesting wrinkle, they turn out to not be responsible for the death of protagonist Victor Li's father, Li Renyan, who was actually one of the four bosses too. Whether the actual murderer, Victor's pseudo-foster brother Sun Jianshui, counts as a third Big Bad is a complicated question, as Sun is both the one who executes the plan to take down Ouyang and Zhao, which was originally Li Renyan's plan, and has reasons for the murder.
  • The Beginning After the End :
    • Agrona and his Vritra clan who serve him are a Fallen Angel s. Agrona is determined to rise above everyone else by experminting on, interbreeding with and using the Lesser races with Vritra blood from Alacrya and Dicathen as Canon Fodder against Kezess Indrath making him a case of Greater-Scope Villain. Agrona is responsible for many tragedies that ravaged Dicathen and killed so many of Arthur Leywin's loved ones turning Arthur into his greatest mortal enemy. Later Agrona's madness drive Seris Vritra into rebelling against Agrona by allying herself with Arthur Leywin knowing that Agrona will burn Alacrya and Dicathen to the ground in his war against Kezess Indrath and the other Asura clans.
    • Later it is revealed that kezess Indrath is a ruling tyrant no better than Agrona as Kezess is responsible for Agrona's Start of Darkness when Agrona attempted to reveal the truth about the Dijnn genocide regarding aether out of jealousy. Kezess exiled Agrona which in return drove Agrona to madness making Kezess Indrath another Big Bad like Agrona Vritra. Later Kezess orders his subordinate Aldir to use the World Eater Technique to prevent Agrona from summoning the legacy but the attempt failed and drove the Elves into near extinction making a case of Big Bad Ensemble. Later Kezess's actions drive Aldir becoming a Defector From Decadance and depart his service altogether.
  • The Belgariad: Kal Torak, the god of Agnarak determined to be god over the whole world. Torak is the primary tool of the Dark Prophecy, and Garion's ultimate adversary.
  • The Fragility of Bodies: Juan Garcia The Don of The Cartel is the main antagonist of the story. He's a corrupt businessman and politician that controls all sorts of criminal schemes all over Argentina, such as smuggling operations and illegal gambling rings. The railway Game of Chicken's scheme that Verónica investigates is just one of his many businesses.
  • Big Little Lies has micro-managing business-mum Renata and abusive husband Perry in a Big Bad Ensemble. Over time, Renata is portrayed more sympathetically and her involvement in the plot dissipates. The role of Big Bad is fully inherited by Perry when it's revealed that not only does he hit his wife, but he cheated on her with a close friend, abused her both physically and emotionally during sex and left her a struggling single mother.
  • The Black Arrow: Sir Daniel Brackley murdered the protagonist's father, pretends to be his legal guardian and well-meaning friend as plotting to steal his inheritance, and tries to get him assassinated when Dick discovers the truth.
  • The Black Company cycles through several over the course of the series. The Dominator in the books of the North, Longshadow in the books of the south, then Soulcatcher and finally Kina in the Books of Glittering Stone. All save the one with spoiler tags are eventually dispatched by the Company, often at great cost.
  • Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi: The Magician, a mysterious man who entered the life of Jamie Warren and friends during their childhood, displayed supernatural abilities, and is revealed to be an illusionist who made a deal with a powerful, mavelovent entity to return to life in exchange for collecting the souls of children to create a world for the entity to dwell in.
  • The Bone Season: Nashira Sargas. A nearly immortal Rephaim, she captures rare magic users known as voyants and kills them, forcing them to become her "fallen angels" which protect her eternally and from which she draws all her powers.
  • The Braided Path has the Weavers, who are led initially by Weave-lord Vyrrch and later by Weave-lord Kakre. However, the Weavers themselves are only to tools of the ultimate antagonist, the evil god Aricarat, who controls them through their enchanted masks.
  • Brimstone Angels has Bryseis Kakistos, heroine Farideh's ancestor who manipulates her descendants lives as part of a decades-spanning plot to avenge herself on Asmodeus, regardless of who else gets hurt in the process.
  • Brothers of the Snake has an unnamed Dark Eldar Archon who orchestrates several incidents in order to bring ruin to the Reef Worlds.
  • A Brother's Price: Kij Porter, and her whole family, who are behind literally every problem the protagonists encounter, even those that seem totally unconnected, like the problem of getting everyone in the family to agree to marry Jerin. Oh, and they also killed the princesses' father.
  • Dan Brown is fond of making it seem like a huge, shadowy conspiracy is going on, when actually it's all plotted by a Big Bad — always a character who is already relevant to the plot before The Reveal — some underlings, pawns and a lot of theatricality.
  • Bubble World has Todd Piloski, CEO of Bubble World. He emotionally manipulates both Freesia and her mom, and is only in it for the money. When Bubble World is retooled, he retains control of a military base to develop war games, which is what he wanted to do in the first place.

    C 
  • The Camp Half-Blood Series
    • Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Kronos the Titan King. His goal is to be resurrected, and the demigods and gods have to stop him because it would mean the fall of civilization.
  • The Case Files of Ibrahim Helsing:
    • Mason Frogg and his bride in The Vampyre Apostles
    • Pater Zutter, Frater Felix and Soror Kaitlyn in The Miskatonic Affair

  • The Chaos Cycle: The main villain of both books is the demon Abaddon who has been manipulating people into killing young girls as part of a twisted eons old revenge.
  • In Chasing Shadows, Kortha, a snake-like death god, accepts "deliveries" of the dead from agents like Wiry and is always keeping Corey just out of Holly's reach. Ends up subverted as he's not real.
  • The Chronicles of Dorsa: The unnamed undatai, who is a Prince of Shadows. He, or it, is the most powerful type among the living shadows, working to possess many people so that his kind can live in the mortal realm, not just the Shadowlands, with the goal of ruling the world eventually. Several lesser villains in the story turn out to be his minions.
  • The Chronicles of Narnia:
  • The Chronicles of Prydain has several Big Bads. Really, there is a single Big Bad, Arawn Death-Lord, and a bunch of others trying to usurp his position.
    • The Book of Three has Arawn Death-Lord, ruler of the land of Annuvin, and the ultimate antagonist that the Companions have to defeat. Queen Achren, former ruler of Prydain until Arawn took over, could also be considered to be in a Big Bad Ensemble with Arawn in this book.
    • The Black Cauldron has a Big Bad Ensemble between Arawn and King Morgant, and both want the titular Black Cauldron (Arawn had it in The Book of Three, only to lose it before this book began).
    • The Castle of Llyr has Queen Achren returning, now trying to make a comeback with Magg as her Dragon.
    • Taran Wanderer has a Big Bad Ensemble between Morda, an evil sorcerer and enemy of the Fair Folk, and Dorath, the Ax-Crazy leader of a group that wants whatever's at Lake Llunet, though they don't serve as Big Bad at the same time.
    • The High King has Arawn return as the Big Bad with King Pryderi as a Big Bad Wannabe. Dorath also returns to make a Big Bad Ensemble in this book.
  • The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant has Lord Foul the Despiser as the main antagonist of the entire series. His role is somewhat different in each arc:
    • In the First Chronicles, Foul is initially The Man Behind the Man to Drool Rockworm. After arranging Drool's defeat, Foul comes out of the shadows as an archetypal Evil Overlord for the remainder of the arc.
    • In the Second Chronicles, Foul takes a more subtle approach, using the power of the Sunbane to turn the Land into a Death World and then setting up the Clave to rule it as his proxies. Ordinary people (and most initiates of the Clave) are unaware of his involvement in these events.
    • In the Last Chronicles, Foul forms a Big Bad Duumvirate with Kastenessen, between them setting in motion a number of events intended to culminate in the utter destruction of the Land. Because Foul is both the smarter and the more completely evil of the pair, he remains the greater threat, even if Kastenessen's actions tend to be a bit more... obvious.
  • The Chaos Gods series has Rising Chaos, a long-imprisoned god which is struggling to break free so it can destroy the Four Realms and eradicate all life
  • Chung Kuo: Howard DeVore, the Rebel Leader who manipulates the T'ang and Chung Kuo civilizations into war with each other so he can Kill All Humans and replace them with his perfect race, "The Inheritors".
  • Ciaphas Cain: Not every novel or short story has a Big Bad leading the antagonists, but many do.
    • "Fight or Flight:" The Big Bad is a tyranid hive tyrant leading the attack on the Valhallan 12th Field Artillery's fire support base.
    • For the Emperor: Grice, the governor of Gravalax, a world at a flashpoint between the Imperium of Man and the T'au Empire. He's actually a genestealer patriarch who's trying to provoke a war between the two powers to leave the planet a weak and easy picking for a tyranid hive fleet.
    • "The Beguiling": Emeli Duboir, a sorceress and headmistress of the planet Slawkenburg's Saint Trynia Academy for the Daughters of Gentlefolk, which is actually a cult of Slaanesh. While attempting to lure some rival cultists to the academy to drain them, she ends up ensnaring Cain, Jurgen, and two other Imperial Guardsmen instead.
    • The Traitor's Hand: Emeli again, now a daemon of Slaanesh, who's orchestrating events to turn the planet Adumbria into a daemon world.
    • Death or Glory: Warboss Gargash Korbul, leader of the ork Waaagh! trying to conquer Perlia.
    • Duty Calls: The two major antagonists are the tyranid hive fleet targeting the world Periremunda as its next meal and the mastermind behind the local Chaos cult. The latter turns out to be Ernst Stavros Killian, an inquisitor recklessly experimenting with a Chaos artifact called the Shadowlight to create an army of psykers that the Imperium could use to destroy Chaos.
    • Cain's Last Stand: Varan the Undefeatable, a psyker and Chaos warmaster who leads an invasion of Perlia to seize the Shadowlight for his master Abaddon the Despoiler.
    • The Greater Good: A tyranid hive fleet threatening the worlds of the Damocles Gulf and El'hassai, the t'au ambassador who alerts the Imperium to the hive fleet's presence, gambling that the Imperium's Battlefleet Damocles will be destroyed in the confrontation with the tyranids and therefore leave half of the Imperial systems in the area helpless to t'au annexation.
    • Choose Your Enemies: Cain's old enemy Emeli, who's pulling strings to allow her to be summoned onto the material plane after having been banished from said plane.
  • Circleverse: Some of the books have No Antagonist, but the ones that do...
    • Tris's Book: Queen Pauha and her mage brother Enahar, a nasty pair of type 1 Pirates who takes advantage of the earthquake damage from the first book to attack Winding Circle and its treasures, enslaving Aymery and nearly ensnaring the Circle kids as their slaves too. They cause a lot of death and destruction as well as a loss of innocence when Tris in particular gets blood on her hands to drive them away.
    • Street Magic: Lady Zenadia. She "adopts" a street gang to use as her personal toy because her retirement's a bit dull. She orchestrates their battles with other gangs and tries to abduct Evvy because she thinks a stone mage would be a good asset.
    • The Will of the Empress: Empress Berenene. Unlike other antagonists, as a ruler she has many strong qualities. However, she financially squeezes Ambros in an effort to make Sandry return so Berenene can have her married off to one of the suitors she's chosen, so she can have access to the Landreg wealth. She starts this with a charm offensive on Sandry and her friends, but the claws come out when Sandry decides to leave after one kidnapping too many.
    • Battle Magic: Emperor Weishu. He's a ruthless tyrant who has been conquering his neighbors already in a bid to seize Gyongxe so he can claim to own the land of the gods. Briar, Rosethorn, and Evvy all leave with PTSD thanks to his atrocities.
  • City of Victory trilogy by Adrian Goldsworthy:
    • The Fort: Brasus, a young chieftain of the Dacians leading a vanguard of the Dacian army to seize the Roman fort Piroboridava. He's supplanted in this role when the main force arrives under the command of the generals Rholes and Diegis, but reclaims the position when Rholes dies and Diegis presses on to battle advancing Roman legions.
    • The City: Memnon is this by default as the senior strategos, or magistrate invested with civil and military authority, of Nicopolis, the city the Romans, including Flavius Ferox, are besieging, though his page time is scant and he's not actually "bad," simply the enemy.
    • The Wall: The Wolf, a brilliant, ruthless, and vengeful Brittonic war leader leading a guerilla campaign to destabilize and ultimately end the Roman presence in Britain, culminating in an attempt to assassinate the emperor Hadrian.
  • Short story "Clockpunk and the Vitalizer" features The Vitalizer, a semi-telekinetic powerhouse hell-bent on retrieving an unseen superweapon known as the Bull.
  • Codex Alera plays with this one. In the first book we're introduced to High Lord Aquitainus Attis and his wife Invidia, who are the masterminds of several schemes against the Realm, aren't defeated or even directly confronted by the heroes, and keep up their role as main villains in the subsequent books. The catch — neither is the Big Bad. That would be the Vord Queen, a monster The Hero wakes up during a Side Quest early on, and is gradually revealed to be not the mindless creature she initially appeared, but an incredibly powerful and cunning adversary far more dangerous than either Aquitaine could ever hope to be. Meanwhile, Lord Aquitainus got Character Development moving him more towards Anti-Villain territory, culminating in Redemption Equals Death mixed with Alas, Poor Villain, while Invidia was pressed into service by the Vord Queen as The Dragon and died in that role.
  • Companions Quartet: Kullervo, a shapeshifter that wants to wipe out humanity.
  • The Color Out of Time by Michael Shea, the Big Bad is what the protagonists dub the "Enemy," the eponymous color from Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space," specifically the fragment/offspring left behind at the climax of that short story. It gruesomely feeds on the life and the negative emotions of the victims that visit the reservoir it dwells within to gain enough energy to leave the planet, and for its sadistic amusement.
  • Conan the Barbarian: Thoth-Amon, a powerful and ambitious sorcerer who worships the God of Evil Set, is the most prominent villain in the franchise. In addition to Thoth-Amon, King Yezdigerd, the despotic ruler of Turan, is also a repeated source of trouble for Conan. Yezdigerd mostly serves as an unseen Greater-Scope Villain, but appears as a visible secondary antagonist in the pastiche novel The Return of Conan, during which he meets his demise at Conan's hands.
    • Conan of Venarium: Count Stercus, an Aquilonian nobleman invading Cimmeria.
    • Conan the Bold: Taharka, an outlaw leader responsible for the deaths of a family Conan befriended.
    • Legions of the Dead: Vammatar, who controls an undead army, which she used to capture victims for her to claim as slaves, including Conan himself..
    • The Thing in the Crypt: The undead corpse that attacks Conan after he disturbs its tomb.
    • Conan the Defiant: Neg the Malefic, a necromancer who seeks to use the Source of Light to create an undead army.
    • Conan the Indomitable: A Big Bad Ensemble of Katamey Rey, Chuntha, and the Harskeel. Katamey Rey and Chuntha are feuding Sorcerous Overlords. The Harskeel is a fusion of two lovers, who seek to use Conan's sword and blood to undo their fusion.
    • Conan the Formidable: A Big Bad Ensemble of Dake, a Repulsive Ringmaster who kidnaps victims for his freak show, and Raseri, a giant who captures Conan for experiments. Although he joins into an Enemy Mine with the heroes to rescue his daughter from Dake, he plans on killing them afterwards to keep his village hidden.
    • The Tower of the Elephant: Yara, a sorcerer who enslaved his mentor Yag-kosha to gain more power.
    • Conan and the Sorcerer: Hissar Zul, a sorcerer who steals Conan's soul.
    • Conan the Mercenary: Sabaninus, who attemps to marry Queen Ialamis of Khauran so that he can annex her land into Koth.
    • The Sword of Skelos: a Big Bad Ensemble between Akter Khan, the tyrannical ruler of Zamboula, and his Treacherous Advisor Zafra, who manipulates Akter into turning on Conan.
    • Conan the Magnificent: Basrakan Imalla, a priest who seeks to gain control over a group of dragons and Kezankian Mountain tribes to fight against the people of Zamora and Brythunia.
    • Conan the Invincible: Amanar, a rogue member of Thoth-Amon's group of sorcerers, who now serves Morath-Aminee, the Eater of Souls, who orchestrates the theft of a group of set of pendants, one of which protects him from Morath-Aminee. When his minions also kidnap the girls who were with the pendants, Amanar decides to used them as sacrifices.
    • The Hall of the Dead: Averted, there is no central antagonist for Conan to deal with. Instead, there is a monster that Conan encouters in the city, a group of undead who guard the city's treasure, and a magistrate who confronts Conan after his adventure. Nestor, who was leading a group of soldiers in pursuit of Conan at the beginning of the story, quickly abandons his mission to join Conan in finding the city's treasure.
    • The God in the Bowl: The murderer of Kallian Publico, who turns out to be the titular serpent, which was intended by Thoth-Amon to murder one of his enemies.
    • Conan the Warlord: Lar, the leader of a Set-worshipping cult terrorizing Nemedia.
    • Rogues in the House: Thak, an ape-like being who imprisons his master Nabonidus, and also labors to imprison or kill any intruders to Nabonidus' mansion, including Conan.
    • Conan the Victorious: Naipal, a wizard who seeks to take over Vendhya by installing a Puppet King.
    • Conan the Unconquered: Jhandar, a cult leader seeking to become the Shadow Dictator of Turan.
    • The Hand of Nergal: Munthassem Khan, a rebellious satrap who was corrupted by the Hand of Nergal.
    • The City of Skulls: Jalung Thongpa, the ruler of Meru who enslaves Conan and his friend Juma, and plans to force Princess Zosara to marry him.
    • Conan the Hero: A Big Bad Ensemble of General Abolhassan, who is plotting to usurp the Turanian throne from Yildiz, and Mojourna, the leader of the Hwong rebels.
    • The People of the Summit: The leader of the People of the Summit, who plans to use Shanya Karaz as a Breeding Slave.
    • The Curse of the Monolith: Duke Feng, who tries to sabatoge a treaty between Turan and Kusan.
    • Conan and the Spider God: Feridun, the high priest of Zath, who kidnapped Jamilah, and plans to take over Zamora.
    • The Blood-Stained God: Keraspa, the Kezankian chief trying to kill Conan.
    • Conan the Valorous: A Big Bad Ensemble between the Stygian sorceress Hathor-Ka and the Vendhyan sorcerer Jaganath, who both seek to use the Great Summoning to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Meanwhile, series antagonist Thoth-Amon is the Greater-Scope Villain who obstensibly offers to aid Hathor-Ka in exchange for becoming equal through the Great Summoning, but in reality sabatoges her by giving her false intstuctions to perform the Great Summoning, as Thoth-Amon knows better than to tamper with the powers that Hathor-Ka and Jaganath are, and instead seeks to use their feud to rid himself of rival sorcerers.
    • The Frost-Giant's Daughter: Atali, a Frost Giant who attempts to lure Conan to his death at the hands of her brothers.
    • The Lair of the Ice Worm: The Remora, an ice worm responsible for the death of the Hyperborean woman Ilga.
    • Conan the Savage: Ninga, a malevolent goddess who becomes worshipped by the Brythunians under the reign of Tamsin, a witch who becomes the Sorcerous Overlord of Brythunia.
    • Conan the Defender: Cantaro Albanus, a wizard plotting against the King of Nemedia.
    • Conan the Triumphant: Synelle, a sorceress who seeks to conquer Ophir with the aid of the demon Al’Kiir, who she plans to unleash.
    • Conan the Rebel: Tothapis, a Stygian sorcerer trying to deal with the threat posed by Conan and Bêlit after being warned about them by his deity Set.
    • Queen of the Black Coast: A winged ape responsible for attacking the Tigress's crew.
    • Conan at the Demon's Gate: Lysenius, a sorcerer who allies with a faction of Picts under the leadership of Vurag Yan and plans to reanimate a statue via Human Sacrifice in order to wage war against the Bossonian Marchers to avenge his wife.
    • The Vale of Lost Women: Initially the main antagonist is Bajujh, a tribal leader responsible for the imprisonment of Livia and the murder of her brother. After Bajujh is killed, he is replaced by a bat-like Eldritch Abomination to intends to claim Livia as a Human Sacrifice offered to him by the women of the Vale.
    • The Castle of Terror: A myriad of souls haunting a castle, which merge into a monster killing anyone in it's path.
    • The Snout in the Dark: Tuthmes, a nobleman who orchestrated the murder of a commander, and tried to pin the blame on Tanada.
    • Hawks Over Shem: King Akhirom, the insane ruler of Pelishti who harbors Conan's enemy Othbaal, ignores the infighting between his generals, sponsors religious persecution, and has himself declared a god.
    • Black Colossus: Natohk/Thugra Khotan, a sorcerer who leads a horde to invade the kingdom of Khoraja and make its Princess Yasmela his bride.
    • Shadows in the Dark: Rhazes, who is planning to help the Kothians deliver King Khossus to Strabonus without paying off Moranthes of Ophir, the man holding Khossus prisoner.
    • The Road of Kings: Initially it is King Rimanendo, the ruler Conan and his allies are rebelling against. After his death, his replacement Mordermi becomes a tyrant. However, Callidios, who is his Prime Minister, is in control of the Final Guard.
    • Conan the Renegade: Prince Ivor, who betrays several of the mercenaries under his employ, including the mercenary group Conan joins, after making peace with the tyrannical Kothian ruler Strabonus.
    • Iron Shadows in the Moon: A Big Bad Ensemble between a man-ape attacking Conan and Olivia, and a pirate crew who imprison Conan for killing their captain Sergius, with one of Sergius' former lieutenants, Aratus, pushing to have him killed. At the end of the story, a group of warriors who were turned into statues are animated by the moonlight and start killing the pirates, including Aratus, forcing Conan, Olivia, and the remaining pirates to escape the island together.
    • Conan of the Red Brotherhood: Emperor Yildiz, the ruler of Turan who seeks with eliminate Amra (a.k.a. Conan) and his followers. He also greenlights the plans of his son Prince Yezdigerd to increase Turan's naval power by holding a contest to recruit brilliant minds to innovate more useful ships for Turan's navy, and Yildiz later orders these experimental ships developed for the contest to be used against Amra.
    • The Road of the Eagles: Artaban, a Turanian general who earns Conan's ire after attacking him and his pirate crew, forcing him to land. Artaban also seeks to overthrow King Yildiz of Turan and replace him with his brother Teyaspa.
    • A Witch Shall Be Born: Salome, a witch who usurps the throne of Khauran by imprisoning and impersonating her sister Taramis with the aid of the mercenary leader Constantius the Falcon.
    • Black Tears: A demoness who rules over the city of Akhlat. However, Conan ended up in Ahklat in the first place because he was in pursuit of a man named Vardanes, who betrayed him to Yezdigerd. However, Vardanes is captured halfway through the story by people who intend to use him as a Human Sacrifice to the demoness.
    • Conan and the Manhunters: A Big Bad Ensemble of Torgut Khan (A cruel viceroy who under the rule of the king of Turan (who is Yezdigerd according to the William Galen Gray chronology)), Sagobol (Torgut Khan's treacherous underling, and the employer of the titular manhunters), and the Priests of Ahriman (Tragthan, Shosq, and Nikas, who seek to restore the evil god Ahriman and become "lords of his new creation").
    • Man Eaters of Zamboula: Totrasmek, a priest responsible for driving Jungir Khan, the satrap of Zamboula insane.
    • Conan the Raider: Horaspes, the chancellor of Abaddrah who plans to create an empire of undead.
    • The Star of Khorala: Count Rigello, who has turned his cousin King Moranthes II into his puppet, becoming the de facto ruler of Ophr, and is planning to usurp him outright.
    • Conan and the Death Lord of Thanza: Initially Baron Grolin, who seeks the Soul of Thanza to gain power over the death. However, he is later Demoted to Dragon by an Evil Sorcerer, who also seeks the Soul of Thanza. Towards the end of the story Grolin regains his position as the top villain by becoming a Death Lord and killing the sorcerer.
    • The Devil in Iron: A Big Bad Ensemble of Khosatral Khel and Jehungir Agha. Khel is a demon who rules as God-Emperor of Dagon, and pursues Conan and Octavia when they enter his city. Agha is a Turanian noble in the service of Yezdigerd.
    • The Flame Knife: The Magus, a cult leader behind the attempted assassination of Kobad Shah, who blames Conan for the attempt. However, The Magus' ally, the Tiger, a.k.a. Olgerd Vladislav, who holds enough sway that the Magus feels the need to wait for the Tiger's assent when making decisions, is a more personal adversary for Conan, seeking revenge against Conan for betraying him and becoming Conan's final adversary after the Magus is killed.
    • The People of the Black Circle: The Master of Yimsha, the leader of a group of sorcerers who assassinate King Bunda Chand on behalf of King Yezdigerd, who seeks to take over Vendhya. However, the Master of Yimsha later decides to discontinue his alliance with Yezdigerd and make Devi Yasmina his slave, against Yezdigerd's own desire to force Yasmina into his own seraglio.
    • Conan the Maruader: A Big Bad Ensemble of Khondemir (A wizard who seeks to seize the Turanian throne from Yezdigerd), Bartatua (A Hyrkanian warlord who seeks to Take Over the World, although Conan himself is Bartatua's henchman for a large part of the story. Bartatua does temporarily become antagonistic towards Conan after he is deceived by Lakhme's False Rape Accusation against Conan, but ends this antagonism after Conan exposes Lakhme's treachery), and Lakhme (Who seeks to Take Over the World herself by manipulatiing Khondemir and Bartatua).
    • Xuthal of the Dusk: a Big Bad Ensemble between Thog, a demon terrorozing the city of Xuthal, and Thalis, a Stygian witch who wishes make Conan her lover and sacrifice his companion Natala to Thog. Thog ends up killing Thalis and becoming the Final Boss.
    • Drums of Tombalku: Zehbeh, the treacherous co-ruler of Tombalku.
    • The Gem in the Tower: The winged creature slaughtering the pirates raiding Siptah's tower.
    • Conan and the Grim Grey God: A Big Bad Ensemble between Thoth-Amon, Tevek Thul, and Jade, who all seek the titular Artifact of Doom.
    • The Pool of the Black One: The group of black humanoids who kidnap Conan's crew. However, the humanoid adorning a jeweled headband is the most prominent one of them.
    • Conan the Buccaneer: Duke Villagro, a noble who seeks the throne of Zingara, enlisting the aid of Thoth-Amon to do so. Towards the end of the story, Thoth-Amon betrays Villagro and attempts to claim the throne of Zingara for himself.
    • Red Nails: Tascela, who plans to kill Valeria to restore her youth, and overpowers her husband Olmec when his own designs for Valeria contrast with hers. During the climax of the story, the sorcerer Tolkemec starts attacking Tascela and her followers, forcing her into a brief Enemy Mine with Conan, although she attempts to claim the wand for herself once Tolkemec is killed.
    • Conan and the Gods of the Mountain: Chabano, the Paramount Chief of the Kwanyi, a group of people who are at war with another group known as the Ichirubu (who Conan and Valeria befriend).
    • The Servants of Bit Yakin: Gwarunga, a Keshan priest conspiring with the Stygian Thutmekri to con his fellow Keshanites into giving the Teeth of Gwahlur to Thutmekri.
    • The Ivory Goddess: Thutmekri, who seeks to manipulate the King of Punt into helping him fight the Keshans.
    • Conan, Lord of the Black River: Zeriti, a witch who is zombifying the people of Baalur.
    • Beyond the Black River: Zogar Sag, a Pictish sorcerer terrorizing Aquilonian settlers.
    • Moon of Blood: Sagyetha, a Pictish shaman who bribed the Aquilonian General Lucian into helping him take over Schohira.
    • The Black Stranger: The demon pursuing Count Valenso. de Camp's version of the story, The Treasure of Tranicos, has Thoth-Amon, who riles up the Picts against Valenso and his allies, and sends a demon to kill Valenso.
    • Wolves Beyond the Border: Lord Valerian, who conspires with the Pict Tenayoga to unite the Pictish tribes in order to wage war against the Aquilonian Province of Schohira.
    • Conan the Liberator: King Numedides, the tyrannical ruler of Aquilonia, is nominally the main antagonist. However, his advisor, Thulandra Thuu, takes a more active role in plotting against the rebels, and proves to be more powerful than his supposed master.
    • The Phoenix on the Sword: A Big Bad Ensemble between the Rebel Four, Ascalante, and Thoth-Amon. The Rebel Four, consisting of their leader Dion, Gromel, Volmana, and Rinaldo, seek to depose Conan from the throne of Aquilonia and install Dion in his place. To this end, the four enlist the aid of the outlaw Ascalante, who secretly plans to betray the Rebel Four and claim the Aquilonian throne for himself. However, Ascalante's own slave, the sorcerer Thoth-Amon, proves to be the most dangerous villain of the story. He murders Dion to reclaim the Serpent Ring of Set, regaining his powers as a sorcerer and summoning a demon to kill Ascalante and anyone else present. Gromel, Volmana, Rinaldo, and Ascalante continue their plan to assasinate Conan. However, Conan succeeds in killing the former three before Thoth-Amon's demon kills Ascalante, becoming Conan's final opponent in the story.
    • The Scarlet Citadel: King Strabonus, King Amalrus, and their Dragon-in-Chief Tsotha-lanti, who seek to replace Conan as King of Aquilonia with their puppet Arpello.
    • The Hour of the Dragon: Xaltotun, a sorcerer who seeks to revive the ancient country of Acheron, reducing Amalric, Tarascus, and Valerius (the conspirators who tried to use him for their own power grabs) to being his underlings.
    • The Return of Conan: A Big Bad Ensemble of Yah Chieng, a sorcerer behind the kidnapping of Conan's wife Zenobia, and King Yezdigerd, the ruler of Turan who spends the first two-thirds of the story seeking to bring down his longtime adversary Conan.
    • Conan the Great: Kthantos, a demon plotting who spread his worship by fanning the flames of confict between nations, tempting their rulers, including Conan himself, with promises of power. He is also responsible to the death of Yasmela, of which Conan and a rival ruler Armiro blame each other for.
    • The Witch of the Mists: Thoth-Amon and Louhi, who are behind the kidnapping of Conan's son Conn in order to lay a trap for him.
    • Black Sphinx of Nebthu: Thoth-Amon, the leader of a group of sorcerers known as the Black Ring, plans to kill Conan and cripple Aquilonia's military might when Conan leads a military force into Stygia.
    • Red Moon of Zembabwei: King Nenaunir, the Sorcerous Overlord harboring Thoth-Amon. He captures Conan and Crom and attempts to sacrifice them to to Set/Damballah, who he summons into the mortal plane of existence.
    • Shadows in the Skull: Initially Queen Lilit, the ruler of the serpent-folk who Thoth-Amon has taken refuge with. Thoth-Amon is initially forced to act subservient to Lelit, but once she is abruptly killed, Thoth-Amon makes his Last Villain Stand against Conan, revealing his intentions to kill him in the hopes that Cimmerian's death will allow him regain the favor of Set.
    • Conan of the Isles: Xotli, a demon god who consumes the life force of human sacrifices abducted for him by the Red Shadows cast by his priests, although the priests' leader, the Hierarch of the Seven Mysteries of Xotli, is the one who actually rules over the Xotli-worshipping Antillians.
  • Coraline: The Beldam/the Other Mother, who lures Coraline into the Other World with the intention of trapping her there forever.
  • The Cosmere:
    • From the Mistborn trilogy, the Lord Ruler is set up like this in the first book, until he's killed at the end. Later books reveal he was a Well-Intentioned Extremist, and the real Big Bad was Ruin, the dark god he'd been keeping imprisoned.
    • The Stormlight Archive has Odium. He might not be the Big Bad himself, but there's definitely one somewhere, and he's a pretty good candidate, considering he killed Honor. Word Of God also states he's responsible for the death/destruction of the shards Devotion and Dominion, and is actively interested in hunting down Ambition.
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses:
    • The King is Hybern is the main antagonist of the whole series.
    • Amarantha is the main antagonist of A Court of Thorns and Roses.
  • Craft Sequence:
    • Three Parts Dead: The loathsome Alexander Denovo, an influential professor of the Hidden Schools who is the true mastermind behind Kos Everburning's death and is carefully manipulating events and the various parties involved to literally take Kos' place as a god.
    • Two Serpents Rise: Alaxic, former priest and chairman of Hearthstone, comes up with the plan to harness the Twin Serpents while simultaneously neutering Red King Consolidated's ability to fight back, but Alaxic is not the one who ends up wielding the serpents' power, deliberately offing himself as part of an attempt to kill the remaining Quechal priests to ensure ritual sacrifice cannot be used to put the beasts back to sleep. He leaves it to his successor Malina "Mal" Kekapania to carry out his plan, which is to launch a violent revolution with the Twin Serpents' power, wiping the slate clean and ushering in a new truly Quechal society to replace Dresediel Lex.
    • Full Fathom Five: Jason "Jace" Kol, the head of the Sacerdotal Order of Kavekana. Discovering that some of the idols the Order have created have apparently started awakening as gods,note  he leads a conspiracy to quietly snuff out the new divine life and ensure that nobody learns of their existence. The idols are essentially meant to serve as tax havens for soulstuff, a service that only Kavekana can provide, and thus key, Jace believes, to ensuring the small country's independence in a world of expansionist great powers. If the service the Order provides is compromised, so is Kavekana's leverage.
    • Last First Snow: There are two figures who are deliberating stoking tensions between Kopil, the King in Red, and the Skittersill protesters. The first is Tan Batac, whose Citizens Coalition owns the majority of the Skittersill real estate and who has been forced into a compromise deal that will require him to pay extremely high insurance premiums and limit his ability to redevelop the neighborhood. On the other hand, if Kopil were to raze Skittersill in a clash with rioters at a moment when there just so happens to be a gap in insurance coverage, his insurer Aberforth and Duncan could be held liable for damages, Citizens Coalition won't have to pay high premiums, and there's plenty of now vacant land to develop. The second is the previously mentioned Alaxic (still alive as Last First Snow is a prequel), who wants to force Temoc Almotil to lead a revolution against Kopil. In the end, Kopil himself becomes a Big Bad. Despite learning that the conflict has been instigated by others for their own ends, his bloodthirstiness, hatred of gods and theists, and moral certainty ultimately goads him into taking disproportionately brutal action.
    • Four Roads Cross: Madeline Ramp, the Craftswoman who leads the suit against Kos and Seril, arguing that former's support of the latter is an off-the-books liability that represents undisclosed risks to those who do business with the Church of Kos Everburning. Winning this suit would give the plaintiffs license to destroy and rebuild Seril, and perhaps even Kos, as their own tools. But Ramp's primary goal is to steal the skull of previous Big Bad Alexander Denovo during the chaos of the trial, which would allow her to tap into Denovo's vast knowledge, networks, and experiments to free humanity, or rather the brilliant talented few, from the world that the Craft is steadily destroying.
    • Ruin of Angels: There's a Big Bad Duumvirate in Alethea Vane and the unnamed Iskari Lord of Agdel Lex. The former is the visionary but sociopathic co-creator of what is essentially a Magitek telecommunications satellite that interconnects human minds into a network guided by a "seed soul" to create a consensus reality. The latter is the one that will be the "seed soul" and will enforce belief in Agdel Lex and in doing so permanently seal off the extremely dangerous tear in reality known as the Wound. Unfortunately, this means that anyone who does not buy into the reality of Agdel Lex will end up in the Wound, and the old previous city of Alikand's history and heritage will be lost forever.
  • Crimson Lake series by Candice Fox:
    • In Crimson Lake, it's Harrison Scully who's responsible for the death of Jake Scully, furious at his father's attempts to break up his relationship with his girlfriend Zoe Miller. In addition, crooked cops Lou Damford and Steven Hench are Big Bads as well rather than "just" recurring threats unconnected to the larger plot. It turns out that they're running a twisted blackmail operation that led to Amanda Pharrell's apparently senseless act of murder all those years ago and are concerned that Ted Conkaffey's partnering with her could expose them.
  • The Crimson Shadow: King Greensparrow, an evil wizard who rules Avon, Eriador and the islands nearby, is the main villain.
  • Cthulhu in the Cthulhu Mythos series and adaptions but in the original mythos, there were a whole load of Eldritch Abominations with their own agendas, and Cthulhu was one of the less powerful. The reason why it's called Cthulhu Mythos is that he's the closes to Mankind - other Old Ones are living on other planets or dimensions, Cthulhu sleeps a few miles off the Atlantic Coast. There are some hints that Azathoth might be somehow controlling all or many of the others (even if he doesn't know it) so if there's a Big Bad at all it's more likely to be him.
  • In Rebecca Coffindaffer's Crownchasers duology, the Big Bad is Enkindler Ilysium Wythe, the scheming regent of the United Sovereign Empire who turns out to the leader of a fanatical sect of the Solari religion and has been moving behind the scenes to place himself in charge of the empire and enforce Solari fundamentalism and cultural supremacy.

    D 
  • Dark Harvest by Norman Patridge: The October Boy turns out to not be the Big Bad. The actual foe is Jerry Ricks, the enforcer for the local cult that each year sacrifices the teenage boy that kills the October Boy and turns him into next year's October Boy, a ritual that ensures the small town's prosperity.
  • The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth: The eponymous Jackal, who's hired to assassinate Charles de Gaulle by the OAS. While it's the OAS leader Marc Rodin who conceives of the idea of hiring an outside assassin to kill de Gaulle, the actual execution of the plan is almost entirely the Jackal's and it's his actions that drive the conflict. Once the Jackal is dealt with, the OAS, a spent force at this point, no longer poses a threat.
  • Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano: The First One, an unfathomably old demon dwelling beneath Clifford Island who, if it fully awakens, will wipe out the island's populace and potentially move to the mainland.
  • The Dead Zone: Greg Stillson, an up-and-coming politician whose election will result in a nuclear apocalypse.
  • The Death Gate Cycle initially appears to have Lord Xar as Big Bad, though he is played with a good deal of sympathy and the main character is his Dragon, at first. However, further books complicate matters by creating a Big Bad Ensemble with Kleitus and Samah in the mix as well, and then the Serpents show up about halfway through and blow everyone else out of the water in terns of sheer power and evil.
  • The dubheasa in Alma Katsu's The Deep. She gives suicide Lillian Notting another chance at life by placing her soul in the body of another suicide, the protagonist Annie Hebley, so she can reclaim the man she's obssessively in love with, Mark Fletcher, at the price of her daughter Ondine.
  • The dactyl demon Bestesbulzibar in RA Salvatore's Demon Wars Saga. Rather unusually, he's defeated in his physical body at the climax of the first book; he spends most of the saga as a disembodied spirit influencing other villains, who believe they're the Big Bad.
  • Devils & Thieves has Darek is the cause of all the bad events in the story, from Michael Medici's death in the backstory to the disappearance of several characters in the main story. The ending solution requires taking him down.
  • Lazarus in Dis Acedia, a malevolent god abducting people to the titular maze so as to play with them.
  • The Divergent series:
    • Jeanie the leader of Erudite, the rival of Tris's old faction. She's the driving force behind the feud between Erudite and Abnegation, and orders the attack on Abnegation in Divergent. In Insurgent, she continues to hunt down Divergent for her evil plans.
    • Allegiant: [[spoiler:Evelyn, the leader of the factionless who wants to establish an oppressive government of her own,
and David, the head of the Bureau For Genetic
  • The Doctor Who Expanded Universe has managed a few:
    • The New Adventures: The Timewyrm tetralogy has the Timewyrm. The Alternate Universe Cycle has the Meddling Monk. The Psi Powers arc has the Brotherhood, ultimately led by the Grandmaster.
    • Eighth Doctor Adventures: The Faction Paradox storyline has Grandfather Paradox, although he's more of a Greater-Scope Villain. The Compassion arc has Romana of all people, seeking to capture Compassion in order to improve the Time Lords' TARDIS technology. The Sabbath arc has the Council of Eight, especially Octan.
    • Crossovers: The New Adventure "Blood Harvest" sets up Lord Yarven as the Big Bad of the first Missing Adventure "Goth Opera". The Missing Adventure "The Scales of Injustice" and the Past Doctor Adventure "Business Unusual" have Martin Townsend (AKA "the pale man") as the Big Bad.
  • The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth: Jean Kimba, the brutal and insane dictator of Zangaro who's the target of the mercenary protagonists, and the mercenaries' employer, mining magnate Sir James Manson, who's sponsoring the coup in order to place an equally brutal man in office in exchange for mineral rights to a massive deposit of platinum.
  • The Dora Wilk Series has Raphael in the first three books. Then he's one-upped by Greater-Scope Villain Ibrahim, who's then overshadowed by yet another Greater-Scope Villain, Iris, who turns out to be behind this all.
  • Dragoncharm: Wraith wants to keep Charm from disappearing from the world. The Charm appears to be dying, which is scaring most of the Charmed dragons along with making them sick, but in truth it isn't dying, only going into a dormant state which it will wake up from in a few aeons - so long as the Seed of Charm gets planted. Wraith knows all this, but wants to keep the Seed and use its power for himself. To do this he orders the capture of at least one community of Natural dragons plus a group of pacifist Charmed dragons who want to stop him, sends selected acolytes of his to trigger deadly magical booby-traps, and murders Halcyon, the leader of the Charmed.
  • Dragonlance:The dark goddess Takhisis is usually the Big Bad, though at various points of the timeline, she's been overshadowed by Chaos, the dragon overlord Malystryx, and once nearly by Raistlin.
  • In the Dread Empire series, the Princes Thaumaturge initially seem to be a Big Bad Ensemble - until they're killed off, that is. The Pracchia then emerges as the collective chessmasters behind the titular empire's civil war and subsequent wars of expansion and their leader is eventually revealed to be the Star Rider, who has been pulling everyone's strings for time immemorial and is firmly established as the overarching Big Bad of the entire saga.
  • Most individual books in The Dresden Files have one of these.
    • Storm Front: Victor Sells is "The Shadowman" behind the murders Harry is investigating.
    • Fool Moon: Agent Denton is a Knight Templar who is hunting down criminals that have escaped justice.
    • Grave Peril: The Nightmare, the ghost of sorcerer Leonid Kravos, antagonizes Harry and the cops who killed him on behalf of Margravine Bianca St. Claire, whose plans to get revenge on Dresden initiates a magical war between the White Council wizards and the Red Court vampires.
    • Summer Knight: Lady Aurora is the one behind the murder of the Summer Knight, in an effort to give his power to Winter to disrupt the balance between the Winter and Summer Fae Courts.
    • Death Masks: Nicodemus Archleone wants to use the Shroud Of Turin in order to spread a plague across the entire world.
    • Blood Rites: Lord Raith is the driving force of the plot, being the one behind the murder of Arturo's workers as well as planning on killing Harry and Thomas to regain his lost glory and power.
    • Dead Beat: Cowl is the leader of the three heirs of Kemmler, including Grevane and Corpsetaker, and plans to consume the souls of thousands in order to make himself all-powerful.
    • Proven Guilty: The Scarecrow is the eldest of the fetch wraiths being unleashed across the city. It's not quite clear who sent those wraiths, but the running theory is either Maeve or Queen Mab.
    • White Night: Vittorio Malvora is The Heavy for Cowl, the two serving as the architects behind a plot to overthrow the Wraith family ruling the White Court.
    • Small Favor: Nicodemus Archleone returns here and plans on kidnapping the Archive to turn her into a Denarian.
    • Turn Coat: "Shagnasty" is a skinwalker brought in by the Black Council to cover for their spy on the White Council, Samuel Peabody.
    • Changes: Kukulcan, the Red King plots to cause the death of the entire Dresden family line by murdering Dresden's daughter. That being said, his daughter Duchess Ariana Ortega is The Heavy who set most of the plot off by kidnapping Dresden's daughter in the first place.
    • Ghost Story: Corpsetaker aka The Grey Ghost is the driving force of the novel, and intends to bring herself back to life through any means necessary including torture, Mind Rape, and murder.
    • Cold Days: Maeve, who intends on unleashing the various evils and monsters contained in the magical prison Demonreach upon the world. Though ultimately she was being influenced by the unseen Greater-Scope Villain, Nemesis.
    • Skin Game: Nicodemus Archleone returns again and plans on stealing various items from Hades' vault situated in the underworld.
    • Peace Talks: Ethniu the Last Titan, who is revealed to be The Man Behind the Man to the Fomor, and who arranges the titular Peace Conference only as an excuse to give a Join or Die speech to all the supernatural nations before declaring war on the whole world.
    • Battle Ground: Continuing from the previous book, Ethniu continues to serve as the main antagonist, spearheading the Fomor's invasion of Chicago. Near the end of the book, however, it's discovered that the true mastermind was actually Justine, possessed by Nemesis aka He Who Walks Beside, who manipulated Ethniu's invasion as part of a larger plan.
    • That said, the driving force behind everything is the Black Council, which is believed to have been involved in setting up many of these Big Bads. Cowl is known to be a member. Nicodemus gets an honorable mention for being a non-Black Council recurring Big Bad in his own right. Cold Days further complicates matters by introducing Nemesis, a form of quasi-intelligent magical infection which takes people over and causes them to act on behalf of the Outsiders and is implied to be behind most of the various bad happenings in the series. Nemesis and its tools may or may not be the same thing as the Black Council.
  • With a blatant disregard for history, Alexandre Dumas makes Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu the Big Bad of The Three Musketeers. And he does it again with Catherine de' Medici in Queen Margot!
  • The Dune universe has several big bads over the series.
    • The original Dune has the infamous Baron Harkonnen, leader of House Harkonnen and driving force behind the plot against House Atreides. Technically he's doing it at the behest of The Emperor, but the Baron also has his own personal ambitions to get rid of the Atreides and bolster House Harkonnen's power.
    • Dune Messiah introduces the Tleilaxu as the ones primarily opposing Paul Atreides and his new empire, with the Bene Gesserit and Spacing Guild as allies.
    • Children of Dune sets up the remnants of House Corrino to be this, but the ultimate threat is really a Baron Harkonnen-possessed Alia.
    • God-Emperor of Dune has Ix as the greatest threat to Leto II's Golden Path. They send both Malky and Hwi Noree to probe him for weaknesses, both tailored to seduce him and break his discipline. It is also Ix that posed the threat of the AI Hunter-Seekers of Leto's vision. Though Ix doesn't have a role in his death, his death actually furthers his plan.
    • Heretics of Dune introduces the Honored Matres, who emerge as the biggest threats to the universe post-Golden Path.
    • Chapterhouse: Dune continues the Honored Matre threat, now personified by Dama the 'Spider Queen', however it turns out the Honored Matres are themselves fleeing a greater threat, which may or may not be the mysterious Daniel and Marty.

  • Dust Devils: The main antagonist of the novel is King Vampire Adam Price, who's wreaking havoc across the Old West and is being hunted by hero, Cody.

    E 
  • The Elenium: Azash, the evil Elder God of Styricum who was emasculated and sealed inside a clay idol. He's the main villain behind the events of the first trilogy and eventually the final enemy.
  • The Emberverse books have Norman Arminger in the original trilogy, and the Prophet (leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant) in the later books.
  • Empire from the Ashes: Corien harbors a deep hatred for humanity, especially the Saints due to their deception cutting off his kin's physicality. He uses Rielle's own fears and desires to seduce her to his side, that way he can have the most powerful being aid him in his quest for vengeance. He puts himself at the top of a new rule, the Undying Empire, and- after Rielle's death- makes it so that humanity will live in constant fear and paranoia if they don't join in his regime, or obedient adoration if they do. Despite living centuries apart, both Rielle and Eliana are forced to fight against him in their own ways.
    • Book 1, Mutineers' Moon, has Anu, the leader of the mutiny, who is a depraved power-hungry lunatic who has been manipulating Earth's society for millennia.
    • Book 2, The Armageddon Inheritance, reveals that the setting's Big Bad as a whole is the Achuultani Master Computer, which enslaved the species and has been sending out the genocidal waves to perpetuate a state of emergency which allows it to keep itself in power due to a loophole in its programming.
    • Book 3, Heirs of Empire, has Lawrence Jefferson, aka "Mister X", who has been working for decades on a plot to usurp the throne of the Fifth Imperium.
  • The Empirium Trilogy: Corien harbors a deep hatred for humanity, especially the Saints due to their deception cutting off his kin's physicality. He uses Rielle's own fears and desires to seduce her to his side, that way he can have the most powerful being aid him in his quest for vengeance. He puts himself at the top of a new rule, the Undying Empire, and- after Rielle's death- makes it so that humanity will live in constant fear and paranoia if they don't join in his regime, or obedient adoration if they do. Despite living centuries apart, both Rielle and Eliana are forced to fight against him in their own ways.
  • The Essalieyan Saga (The Sacred Hunt duology, The Sun Sword series and the House War series) has Allasakar, Lord of the Hells, whose return to the mortal world and plans to absorb it into his domain drives the overarching Myth Arc of the connected series.
  • The Exorcist: Pazuzu, the demon possessing Regan McNeil in order to triumph over Father Lankester Merrin by resisting exorcism and destroying the girl before his eyes.
    • The sequel, Legion, has James Vennamun, a formerly deceased Serial Killer in the body of the prequel's protagonist, Father Damien Karras, who is responsible for a series of brutal murders in Washington, D.C. The previous Big Bad, Pazuzu, is the one behind Vennamun's return, and chose Karras' body and some of Vennamun's targets in revenge for being exorcised.

    F 
  • Fablehaven has the Sphinx, who posed as a friend of the heroes until his real position as the leader of the Society of the Evening Star was revealed. Followed, briefly, by the demons of Zzyzx, and Graulas and Nagi Luna.
  • In the first Faeries of Dreamdark book, it's the Blackbringer. The next book features Dusk, an old friend of Magpie's and to a lesser extent, Ethiag. Ethiag is the general (and mind-controller... person) of a huge horde of other demons, but he's still only second in command.
  • Firebird Trilogy:
    • Firebird: Phoena Angelo is the sponsor of Dr. Cleary's biological weapons research and thus the driving force behind the invasion of Veroh, which resulted in Veroh being rendered open-air uninhabitable, the disappearance of several merchant ships, the Netaian resistence against the Federacy, and the need for Brennen Caldwell and Firebird Angelo to infiltrate and partially destroy Hunter Heights, which got them both nearly killed (by Phoena) and Brennen court-marshalled and dismissed.
    • Fusion Fire: Eshdeth Shirak, as the leader of the Shuhr, is the mastermind behind the Sunton massacre (utter destruction of a residential town), the attack on the Sentinel College, the deaths of the two child princesses of Netaia, Phoena's departure to the Shuhr and her imprisonment by them, Brennen's captivity after he tries to rescue Pheona on the Federacy's orders, and the plan to kill Firebird to break Brennen.
    • Crown of Fire: Modabah Shirak, Eshdeth's son, takes over where his father left off. He orchestrates a number of plans within plans in an attempt to re-capture Brennen, including taking over the Netaian government from the shadows and several attempts on Firebird's life.
    • Wind and Shadow: This book features two Big Bads, one for each thread of the story.
      • The Shadow possessing Tamím Bar'Baror kidnaps Kiel Caldwell, thinking him the Boh-Dabarnote , in an attempt to corrupt him and causes or encourages a number of destructive events, including the destruction of the planet Three Zed.
      • Jahana is the leader of the neo-Shuhr group and is a cruel but powerful woman. She is responsible for a number of deaths and disappearances and intends to take over the galaxy through a combination of reviving ancient technology, bringing the Shuhr policies of unlimited use of telepathy back into play, and posing Kinnor Caldwell as Boh-Dabar and using him as her spokesman.
    • Daystar: Piper Gambrel, along with the Shadow possessing him (a different Shadow than the above), is determined to wipe out the Sentinels. To this end, he manufacture fear and persecution of the Sentinels, forcing them all to take refuge on their sanctuary world. Once he has them thus isolated, he comes up with a way to introduce a virus which will kill them and only them, plus he has several back-up plans in place in case that fails.
  • Judge Craven in Flawed is the cause of all of Celestine's problems, from her multiple undeserved brandings, to getting rid of anyone that might support her in her plight.
  • In Flawed Dogs, Cassius is single-handedly responsible for getting Sam disowned and kicked out of the house, starting the conflict.
  • The Flying Boy has Dr. Paigne, a mad scientist who wants to take over the world.
  • Frankenstein: The creature, who's responsible for most of the damage in the novel in his pursuit of vengeance against his creator.

    G 

    H 
  • Halo: Shadow of Intent: The most active villain is the Prelate attacking peaceful colonies, but he works for the Minister of Preparation, who turns out to not be entirely truthful to his own soldiers and has his own plans for his enemies.
  • Harry Potter: Lord Voldemort, aka Tom Marvolo Riddle. Each book also has its own main villain, but with the exception of the fifth, all of them trace back to or are acting under the orders of Voldemort. In order:
    • Philosopher's Stone: Professor Quirinius Quirrell, who is attempting to steal the titular stone in order to revive Voldemort.
    • Chamber of Secrets: the memory of Tom Riddle, uses Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk to attack the Muggle-Borns in Hogwarts. Later, Riddle kidnaps Ginny Weasley in order to drain her life force to create a body of himself. The story also has Lucius Malfoy, who awakened the duo by arranging for the Diary Horcrux to be smuggled into Hogwarts - though we discover much later on that he wasn't aware of the book's true power at the time.
    • Prisoner of Azkaban: The Dementors and Peter Pettigrew. The former are prison guards meant to guard the school from the wanted fugitive Sirius Black, but in practice are a threat to the students as well. The latter is the Evil Former Friend of James, Sirius, and Lupin, having betrayed James and Lily Potter to Voldemort and framing Sirius for it, before murdering several Muggles in order to fake his own death and incriminate Sirius further, leading to Sirius's imprisonment in Azkaban. After being exposed, Pettigrew flees, ensuring that Sirius is unable to clear his name.
    • Goblet of Fire: Bartemius "Barty" Crouch, Jr. who is posing as Professor Alastor Moody as part of a scheme to help revive Voldemort with Harry's blood.
    • Order of the Phoenix: Dolores Umbridge, who attempts to control the teachers and students of Hogwarts with an iron fist and undermines any attempt to teach defensive magic to students. While she's loyal to Obstructive Bureaucrat Minister Cornelius Fudge, most of her actions (notably sending Dementors to kill Harry) are done entirely on her own initiative without his knowledge or approval.
    • Half-Blood Prince: Draco Malfoy, who spends the year attempting to kill Albus Dumbledore on Voldemort's orders, as well as repairing the Vanishing Cabinet, which he uses to let Death Eaters into Hogwarts.
    • Dealthly Hallows: Lord Voldemort himself, who takes over the Ministry of Magic and systematically begins hunting down Muggle-Borns and other individuals deemed "Undesirable", with Harry himself at the top of that list.
  • The Heaven Cycle: The ultimate Big Bad of the series is the original Chayne Summers, who kickstarts the Heaven Cycle to begin with as part of a Long Game to create a paradise for her and her daughter — at the expense of the rest of reality.
  • Holes:Warden Louise Walker, the head of Camp Green Lake who makes the campers' stays hell.
  • How to Sell a Haunted House: Pupkin the living puppet serves as the main antagonist of the book, being the entity that's haunting the Joyner house.

  • The Hunger Games President Coriolanus Snow. As the leader of the totalitarian regime responsible for organizing the Hunger Games, he serves as the prime mover behind all the horrific events that transpire within the story, until Alma Coin seizes control from him near the end of Mockingjay by trying to go for a Full-Circle Revolution.

    I 
  • I Know What You Did Last Summer: Collingsworth Wilson targets four young people who caused the death of his little brother David in a hit-and-run accident.
  • In Death series: In each book, the murderer Eve is trying to get would be considered the villain. However, for the entire series, Max Ricker qualifies as the Big Bad. Why? Well, he's a crime boss who controls a vast criminal empire. He had dealings with the terrorist organization Cassandra from Loyalty in Death. He appears again in Promises in Death, despite being in prison. Eve's father Richard Troy and Roarke's father Patrick Roarke actually worked for Max Ricker, although they were not particularly high up in the ranks of his organization. If all this does not make Max Ricker the overall Big Bad, then what does?
  • Incubus by Ann Arensberg has the Dry Falls entity, a being (or beings) that, for reasons the beleagured residents of the rural town of Dry Falls cannot comprehend, is raping women while they are in a state of sleep paralysis. It also warps the very weather of the region, creating an unending Heat Wave.
  • Inheritance Cycle: King Galbatorix is a former Dragon Rider who destroyed the rest and took over the land of Alagaësia. The entirety of the series is a plot to overthrow him.
  • The two Big Bads in The IPCRESS File by Len Deighton are Jay, a "talent scout" for the Kremlin, and Dalby, head of the intelligence agency WOOC(P) and the unnamed protagonist's boss, who are carrying out an elaborate operation brainwashing important British scientists into serving as moles for the Soviets.

    J 
  • Jade Green: Charles, Jade Green's murderer.
  • James Herbert:
    • The Dark: Occultist Boris Pryzslak, by murderous ritual, harnessed the Dark, a concentration of malice manifest in sentient concentrations of darkness. From beyond the grave, he and his followers remain its agents.
    • Moon (1985): A psychic Serial Killer known only as Heckatty, with horrific visions and murderous violence, torments similarly psychic Jonathan Childes.
    • The Magic Cottage: Eldritch P Mycroft, head of a seemingly harmless mystic society, is a highly unscrupulous, power-crazed fanatic.
    • The Ghosts of Sleath: Carl Beardsmore, descendant of occult experimenters the Lockwoods, pursues their murderous aim to harness the discarnate soul.
    • Creed (1990) Nicholas Mallik, head of demonic cult the Fallen Angels.
    • Portent: Mama Pitie, priestess of the Temple of the Blessed Earth, sees recent ecological turmoil as the Earth's vengeance. In aid of this, she targets psychic twins Joshua and Eva.
    • Others: Dr Leonard K Wisbeech, director of retirement home Perfect Rest, secretly conducts brutally inhumane study of bodily deformed people.
    • Once: Occult practitioner Nell Quick, by insidious ritual, aims to acquire the Bracken estate.
    • The Secret of Crickley Hall: Maurice Stafford, now known as Gordon Pike, having been a war evacuee under the abusive Augustus and Magda Cribben, aims to dissuade the latter's haunting of him by murdering one last child of Crickley Hall.
  • Jerusalem by Cecelia Holland: There's a Big Bad Ensemble between Saladin, who seeks to destroy the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the power-hungry, scheming Templar officer Gerard de Ridford, Rannulf Fitzwilliam's personal Arch-Enemy who plots ceaselessly to become the Templars' grand master and the power behind the throne, blind to how his conniving weakens the kingdom itself.
  • The Journey to Atlantis: Most of the violent "natural" things that happen to the characters are actually the result of the mischievous beast-god Loki.
  • The Jungle Book: Shere Khan the tiger in and its adaptations is Mowgli’s Arch-Enemy who is the most reoccurring villain, as well as being responsible for Mowgli being raised in the jungle in the first place after attacking Mowgli’s family when the latter was a baby.
  • Jurassic Park (1990): John Hammond, the CEO of InGen and creator of Jurassic Park. All of the dangers the characters encounter occur due to his fixation on opening the park, regardless of how unsafe it is.
    • The Lost World (1995): Lewis Dodgson, the head of research at Biosyn known for his law-breaking studies and being in charge of corporate espionage for the company. He appeared as more of a Greater-Scope Villain in the first book, but has a more direct role in this one.

    K 
  • The Kaiju Preservation Society: Rob Sanders, who wants to steal Kaiju genetic material to unlock the secrets of growing a biological nuclear reactor.
  • Stephen King books often have one:
    • Carrie: Margaret White, Christine Hargensen, and Billy Nolan, all of whom contribute to Carrie's trauma that leads to her Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
    • 'Salem's Lot: Kurt Barlow, an ancient vampire whose ultimate goal is to turn Jerusalem's Lot into a nest for vampires.
    • The Shining: The Overlook Hotel, who corrupts Jack and drives him to attempt to murder his family.
    • Jerusalem's Lot: James Boon, who converts the residents of Jerusalem's Lot to his cult and sacrifices them to the Worm.
    • The Stand: Randall Flagg, a servant of the Devil who takes over Las Vegas and plots to conquer the rest of the nation.
    • The Dead Zone: Greg Stillson, an up-and-coming politician whom Johnny must stop from getting elected after forseeing that he'll cause a nuclear apocalypse.
    • Firestarter: Captain Hollister, the man in charge of The Shop and the person behind the manhunt to find Charlie and her father.
    • Cujo: Cujo, a Saint Bernard turned into a rabid monster by rabies terrorizing his owners.
    • The Dark Tower: The Crimson King is the being behind all the chaos and decay in Mid-World, as well as all the Worlds that are connected by the Dark Tower, undermining the Tower and causing the steady collapse of the multiverse. Given that it's heavily implied the events of all of his novels take place on different levels of the Tower, the Crimson King could be seen as the Big Bad of King's entire literary universe.
    • Christine: Christine, the killer car who gradually exerts her influence over Arnie.
    • Cycle of the Werewolf: Reverend Lowe, the werewolf terrorizing the small town.
    • The Mist: Mrs. Carmody, who forms a cult of terrified survivors with herself as the leader.
    • It: Pennywise/It, an Eldritch Abomination disguised as a clown who emerges every thirty years to devour the children of Derry, Maine.
    • The Eyes of The Dragon: Randall Flagg, the king's court magician who aims to plunge the land of Delain into a new Dark Age.
    • Misery: Annie Wilkes, who imprisons Paul Sheldon when he kills off her favorite character in his latest book and forces him to bring her back to life.
    • The Dark Half: George Stark, Thad Beaumont’s Evil Twin and pen-name who died in utero but was resurrected when Thad revealed his identity and killed him off. He seeks revenge on the people who caused his death and makes Thad write a novel with him to allow him to live again.
    • Rose Madder: Normal Daniels, Rose Daniels abusive and psychopathic husband and a crooked cop who she escapes from at the start of the novel and who searches for her using his skills as a police officer.
    • The Green Mile: William “Wild Bill” Wharton is revealed to be this as he causes a lot of problems on the mile during Paul Edgecomb’s time there and is responsible for the rape and murder of the two little girls that John Coffey is in prison for.
    • Desperation/The Regulators: Tak, an extra dimensional entity that came from a dimensional gateway in the mines called an ‘ini.’ The being possessed various people in the town of Desperation and killed everyone in a brutal fashion, leaving the town seemingly deserted. It possessed Collie Entragian, the local sheriff and kidnapped people traveling past the town.
    • Dreamcatcher: Mr. Gray, the leader of the aliens invading who possessed and took control of Jonesy because of his near death experience at the beginning of the novel. He plots to put his alien fungus into the water supply so he can spread throughout the world and take it over.
    • Cell: The Raggedy Man, a phoner with powerful psychic powers who serves as their leader. He plots to trick people by guiding them to Tomahawk and turn everyone on the planet to phoners.
    • Under the Dome: Selectman James P. "Big Jim" Rennie, who conspires to use the panic of the people to become the town's dictator.
    • Joyland: Lane Hardy aka The Carny Killer, the amusement park employee Devin befriended who is actually the serial killer that has unintentionally trapped the ghost of Linda Gray in the amusement park ride. He believes Devin has figured out he was the killer and has been looking to confront him.
    • Doctor Sleep: Rose the Hat, the leader of the True Knot who are hunting children who shine for food to extend their lives. She hunts the deuteragonist, Abra Stone, who is the most powerful shiner she has found and becomes her archenemy.
    • Revival: Charles Jacobs, following his Face–Heel Turn, becomes a Mad Scientist who dupes people into becoming the guinea pigs for his experiments to reveal the other world through his "special electricity".
    • The Outsider (2018): The Outsider, an Eldritch Abomination who rapes and murders children and uses his shapeshifting abilities to frame others for them.
    • The Institute: Mrs Julia Sigsby, the woman in charge of the Institute who is responsible for their kidnappings and views them all as her property.
    • Later: The Deadlight, a mysterious cosmic entity that takes control of the ghost of terrorist, Kenneth Therriault. It becomes fascinated with Jamie as only he can see it and it becomes a fear-eater, similar to Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
    • Billy Summers: Roger Klerke, the media mogul who ordered the hit on Joel Allen to cover up the fact that he assassinated his own son who was going to bring some disturbing truths about him to light.
  • Subverted in The Kingdoms of Evil with the main character, who is a moral person forced to act as an evil overlord.
  • Krieg: For the events taking place in the "present," it's the orks who've taken over Hive Arathron and are both threatening to spread over the entire planet and accidentally discover a hidden armory of nuclear weapons. For the events in the past, the Chairman of Krieg's Council of Autocrats starts out as the Big Bad, leading his planet in seceding from the Imperium of Man, but it's the more driven and competent General Krause who starts to take charge when the Chairman reveals himself too faint-hearted to truly lead the rebellion. When the Chairman is assassinated, Krause steps forward as the ultimate Big Bad.

    L 
  • The Land Beyond the Sea by Sharon Kay Penman: While evil is a bit too strong given the book's realism and depiction of value systems quite different to our modern sensibilities, Salāh al-Dīn, or Saladin, is the main antagonist to the story's Ensemble Cast of Frankish royals and nobles, proving to be an existential threat to their Kingdom of Jerusalem.
  • The Last Vampire:
    • The Last Vampire: Yaksha, the first vampire and the heroine Sita's sire plans to kill her in order to atone for his creation of vampires.
    • Black Blood: Eddie Fender is an evil, newborn vampire who plans on wiping out most of humanity and ruling over the survivors as there leader.
    • Red Dice: Arturo Evola plans to discover the secrets of vampires in order to gain divinity for mankind through the use of immortal vampire-human hybrids.
    • Phantom: Kalika is Sita's daughter whose apparent rising evil serves as the main plot of the novel.
    • Evil Thirst: Kalika initially seems to be this only for the reveal of the true main villain whose Ortyo/"James Seter" and plans on consuming a child who is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ in order to gain godly powers.
    • Creatures Of Forever: Landulf of Capa who plans on shifting the balance between good and evil towards evil by manipulating Sita.
  • Last Days by Adam Nevill: Sister Katherine, the megalomaniacal, narcissistic, sociopathic leader of The Temple of the Last Days who didn't actually die in the cult's massacre of 1975 but, having made a deal with malevolent beings known as the Blood Friends, placed her soul in the body of a child and is in the process of trying to do so again.
  • The Last Rune has the Elder God Mohg. However, he's currently trapped between worlds and has to rely on proxies to do much of his heavy lifting - chiefly, the Pale King in the High Fantasy world of Eldh, and Duratek in the Urban Fantasy of modern Earth.
  • Last Sword of Power: Wotan, aka Molech.
  • The Laundry Files: The overall biggest threat are the various soul-sucking horrors from beyond space-time poised to descend upon Earth once CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN goes active, and in particular the most powerful of them: N'Yar Lath-Hotep, The Black Pharaoh. However, each book has a (usually human) villain who presents a smaller and more immediate threat, who are usually taking orders from one of the aforementioned soul-sucking horrors.
  • The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlmann: Camilla, seniormost of the "child" vampires that are actually very old and extremely strong, much more so than the vampire protagonists, and Cvetko, who serves as the children's guardian. They infiltrate the nest of younger vampires and, after turning them against each other and weakening them that way, wipe them out to claim their territory.
  • Little Dorrit: Mr. Merdle and Mrs. Clennam are ultimately responsible for most of the misery in the book, although both ultimately undergo a Heel Realisation (albeit too late to make up for what they've done).
  • The Lord of Bembibre begins when the corrupt Count of Lemos, seeking to increase his lands, power and influence, talks Don Alonso into breaking off the engagement between his daughter and Don Álvaro, and forcing her into marrying him. Wanting to get rid of his romantic rival, he is predictably delighted when Don Álvaro joins an Order which he has been to ordered to wipe out.
  • The Lords of Creation:
    • The Sky People: The entity possessing Lithuanian cosmonaut Franziskus Binkis and leading the Neanderthals. As it turns out, the entity is a subroutine of a supervisory AI left behind by the hyper-advanced Lords of Creation to oversee the experiment that is the terraformed and life-seeded Venus and is alarmed by the arrival of Terrans on the planet ahead of the projected schedule. It's solution to the disruption is to try to release smallpox on Venus to reset the parameters of the experiment.
    • The Courts of the Crimson Kings: Genomic Prince Heltaw sa-Veynau and Chinta sa-Rokis form a Big Bad Ensemble. The former is the apparent next-in-line for the Ruby Throne of the Crimson Dynasty and the discovery of the existence of the current Emperor's secret daughter Teyud is a threat to his ambitions. She's also a potential means of securing his ascension if he can coerce her into making him her consort, or at least secure her ova to produce a heir of the dynastic lineage. Chinta is alarmed at the prospect of a younger, energetic ruler carrying on her predecessor's progressive policies, policies that promise to cut into the profits she and her allies accrue from their control of important societal infrastructure. While she is favorable towards the conservative Heltaw's claiming the throne, she'd rather he eventually die heirless and therefore conspires to kill Teyud rather than capture her like Heltaw.
  • Loyal Enemies: Tairinn orchestrated everything, from the raising interracial tensions, through monster attacks and up to the main scheme.

    M 
  • Magical Girl Raising Project: Pythie Frederica is a pragmatic villian who uses her intelligence to manipulate the other magical girls to perform evil deeds. Since her introduction in Limited, she becomes the series' main antaganist.
  • Malazan Book of the Fallen: The Crippled God. Though not directly introduced until the third book, being The Man Behind the Man to, most prominently, the Pannion Domin, the Whirlwind rebellion, and Lether makes him the most significant and with the widest reach of any villain in the series. Ultimately subverted when after the events of book seven (when his followers lose control of Lether), the Crippled God loses most of his influence in the mortal world and the protagonists end up having to save him in the last book when a bunch of Abusive Precursors called the Forkrul Assail to hijack his powers for their own purposes.
  • Malevil has Fulbert, a Sinister Minister who turns a town into a post-Apocalypse "religious" dictatorship.
  • The Manchurian Candidate: Eleanor Iselin, the one behind Shaw's brainwashing, who uses him as a means to secure her husband's position as President and turn the United States into a dictatorship.
  • The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell: Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, protagonist Lucrezia de' Medici's husband, a talented but utterly ruthless ruler who is both obsessed with siring an heir to secure his family's dynastic succession and is in denial of his own infertility. Having come to the conclusion that Lucrezia is the problem in his failure to produce heirs, he decides she has to go...
  • Masks of Aygrima, The tyrannical Autarch of Aygrima. In Faces he becomes part of a Big Bad Ensemble with The Lady of Pain and Fire. They both sap magic from their subjects to avoid dying of old age and want to take over Mara's body to live longer.
  • A Master of Djinn: It turns out that Abigail Worthington is the leader of the Al-Jahiz conspiracy, having murdered her own father along with his followers, caused many more crimes and plotting to retake the lands that have broke away from the British Empire, dreaming of possible becoming queen herself.
  • Matilda: Agatha Trunchbull, the Evil Principal in charge of Crunchem Hall who abuses the children under her care. Matilda's goal is to resist and somehow stop her regime.
  • The Mediochre Q Seth Series looks to be building up "The Organisation Which I Represent" as the overall Big Bad. However, they mostly operate as a behind-the-scenes Greater-Scope Villain while more immediately-pressing plots are going on at the behest of a more temporary Big Bad.
    • Sapphire serves the role of immediate Big Bad in The Good, the Bad and the Mediochre.
    • Black, White and Shades of Mediochre has the necromancer, although there are indications that Obsidian may qualify as a separate, joint or even superior contender.
  • Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn- The Storm King, who seeks nothing less than the total destruction of all mortals and the consumption of the world by Unbeing.
  • Metro 2035: Aleksei Bessolov is the Big Bad in not only the 2035 novel, but he is technically the Greater-Scope Villain of the series, as a whole. Bessolov is the leader of the Invisible Watchers, who is the true mastermind and the wirepuller behind the events that happened between the book and the games, completely unseen within the shadows. In 2035 he is the biggest threat to Artyom, as well as him being responsible for Lyokha's betrayal and his ascension into being his number two.
  • Michael Vey: Dr. C. James Hatch, who exploits the power of Glows to use for his terrorist activities.
  • Micro: Vincent Drake, the ruthless CEO of Nanigen who will do anything to keep the company on top.
  • Gyphon is the overall villain of the Mithgar series. However, most of the individual books have their own Big Bads, who may or may not be trying to curry his favor, and usually come up with an enact their own schemes in the hopes of getting his support. Sometimes Gyphon's active Big Bad himself, sometimes he's The Man Behind the Man, and in other cases, he's just the Greater-Scope Villain. The Eye of the Hunter has Baron Bela Stoke.
  • The Monarchies of God: Aruan, an ancient sorcerer and werewolf who desires to subjugate all of the kingdoms of the world.
  • The Moomins: An impersonal example is the comet in Comet in Moominland that besides threatening to cause The End of the World as We Know It by colliding with said world causes all kinds of strange portents of doom for the heroes to contend with (ash all over the place, drying seas, storms) before it even gets there.
  • The Mortal Instruments: The original triology of books has Valentine Morgenstern, a powerful and charismatic Shadowhunter who aims to destroy all Downworlders.
  • The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress: For the first half of the novel, the Big Bad is the Warden of the Lunar Authority who, while not exactly evil, is the hapless head of an authoritarian bureaucracy that facilitates the exploitation of the Moon's natural resources, something that will cause mass starvation and even the lunar population's extinction in the near future. In the second half of the novel, the Big Bad is the Lunar Authority's parent entity, the Federated Nations, which attempts to re-establish control over newly-independent Luna.
  • The Most Dangerous Game: General Zaroff, a big game hunter who's grown bored of hunting animals and begins hunting humans instead. When Sanger Rainsford gets stranded on his nearly deserted island, Zaroff decides to make him play his sick game, as the prey, and challenges him to survive till sunrise.
  • The Mummy Monster Game: Seth, the Egyptian devil, whose actions kickstarted the events of the first game in the series and who later tampers with it to prevent Josh from retrieving his sister and cousin through the game.
  • The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells:
    • All Systems Red: Blue Leader, the leader of GrayCris' survey team, which is trying to murder the PreservationAux survey team, protected by Murderbot, to prevent anyone aside from GrayCris discovering the rich resources of an alien planet.
    • Artificial Condition: Tlacey, of Tlacey Excavations, who has stolen scientific research and, when the scientists responsible for the research attempt to secure its return, attempts to kill them.
    • Rogue Protocal: Wilken and Gerth, security guards for a team evaluating an abandoned GrayCris terraforming facility who are secretly working for GrayCris and entrusted with the mission of destroying the facility to cover up the illegal mining operation the company engaged in there.
    • Exit Strategy: GrayCris again, which has kidnapped Dr. Ayda Mensah in order to extort a ransom for her.
    • "Obsolescence": Piecework, a rover created illegally by an amoral space exploration corporation now long defunct and leaving them with obsolescent augments. Insane and desperate to survive, they have been murdering other augmented humans and harvesting their cybernetic parts.
    • Network Effect: targetControlSystem, the remnant of an alien technology that has infected the inhabitants of a forgotten colony and is trying to propagate itself further.
    • Fugitive Telementry: Balin, a CombatBot disguised as a Port Authority bot owned by the mining planet BreharWallHan and tasked with capturing a group of escaped slaves passing through Preservation Station.
  • Mythos Academy: Loki is an evil god who serves as the main threat of the series. He plans to revive himself to full power and bring about the age of chaos which would result in the deaths of all the other gods as well as the decimation and enslavement of humanity.

    N 
  • The Neverending Story: The Nothing, an indescribable void that threatens to erase Fantastica, is the main threat of the first half of the book. After it's defeated, Xayide takes over the role, planning to use Bastian to take over Fantastica.
  • Neverwhere: Islington, a Fallen Angel who serves as Messires Croup and Vandemar's employer who schemes to manipulate Door into opening the gates of Heaven so it conquer it.
  • Nightfall (Series): Prince Vladimir has conquered the world and destroyed human civilization. Now, he breeds the surviving humans in farms for food and forces the Resistance to live in constant fear and on the brink of extinction.
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four: O'Brien is the central villain of the novel, and is responsible for the tortures of Winston and Julia and later death of the former. Big Brother is the Greater-Scope Villain, assuming that he's actually a person and not just a concept.
  • Northanger Abbey has John Thorpe, who causes all of Catherine Morland's problems in the novel, even after he disappears from the plot.

    O 
  • Obsidian Mirror Janus. He rules the world in the future she's from, and his abuse of the titular mirror is said to be creating a black hole that will destroy the world.
  • October Daye series:
    • Rosemary and Rue: Devin is the one responsible for the apparent death of Evening Winterrose which is the main plot of the novel.
    • A Local Habitation: Gordan is responsible for the various killings taking place at Tamed Lightning which Toby is investigating during this novel.
    • An Artificial Night : Blind Michael serves as the main villain of the book having abducted various children to help with his Wild Hunt.
    • Late Eclipses: Oleander de Merlands and Rayseline Torquill plot here to frame Toby for various murders that they committed in hopes of having her executed for them.
    • One Salt Sea: Rayseline Torquill and Dugan plot during the novel to incite a war between the Undersea and Kingdom of the Mists in order to take control of The Mists.
    • Ashes of Honor: Samson as well as Treasa Riordan are responsible for the kidnapping of a young changeling whose powers they plan to use in order to allow them to take over the court of cats from Tybalt and conquer a new realm respectively.
    • Chimes at Midnight: The false Queen of the Mists is responsible for the deaths of various changeling children due to her distributing and selling a fatal narcotic drug to them.
    • The Winter Long: Eira Rosynhwyr AKA Evening Winterrose plans to forcefully take over Shadowed Hills and has helped her descendants seize various kingdoms in order to allow her to rule.
    • A Red-Rose Chain: King Rhys plans on starting a war with the Kingdom of Mists in order to enact his racist blood purity policies on them as well as impress his love, the false Queen of the Mists by getting revenge on Toby for her.
    • Once Broken Faith: Queen Verona is responsible for the assassinations of royals which take place here. The main purpose of this is to help increase her power.
    • The Brightest Fell: Amandine the Liar is Toby's mother and the main antagonist of this novel. During the novel, she kidnaps and holds captive the Love Interest of Toby and will only free him should Toby find Amandine's eldest daughter.
  • The Old Kingdom Series:
    • Sabriel: Kerrigor.
    • Lirael: Hedge, though the end of the book reveals that he's actually working on behalf of Orannis the Destroyer.
    • Abhorsen: The Destroyer takes over directly, though Hedge sticks around as The Dragon.
    • The prequel Clariel: For most of the book, Guildmaster Kilp appeared to be the main villain but the ultimate threat is the machinations of Clariel's allegedly bound Free Magic elementals Aziminil and Baazalanan, who were also allied with Token Evil Teammate Mogget.
  • Oliver Twist: Mr. Monks, a.k.a. Edward Leeford, the title character's disinherited older brother. He's usually omitted from adaptations, oddly enough, with the role of Big Bad typically shifted to Bill Sikes, who is The Brute in the book, merely another character manipulated by Fagin who serves the role of Monks' Dragon.
  • Ollie's Odyssey has Zozo, the former attraction of the "Bonk A Zozo" game who has Ollie kidnapped.
  • The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones features Ponokaotokaanaakii, or Elk Headed Woman, as the Big Bad. The spirit of a young pregant elk killed by four young Blackfeet on their tribal elders' hunting ground, which they trespassed on, she takes calculated and brutal revenge on her killers with several innocent people as collateral damage.

    P 
  • A Pattern of Shadow and Light has the Malorin'athgul, a group of four Eldritch Abomination 'brothers' that seek to unmake the world of Alorin into raw chaos. Initially Darshan seems to be their leader, but it turns out most of his worst acts were manipulated by his dragon, Dore Madden who actually works for Darshan's younger brother Shailabanachtran, the real mastermind.
  • The Pendragon Adventure: Saint Dane, an evil shapeshifter who wants to push the territories towards chaos, destroying the barriers between them, so he can reshape Halla in his own image.
  • Petaybee: The Intergal corporation sends all of the major villains in the series to Petaybee and gets involved itself toward the end.
  • The Phantom of the Opera: Erik/The Phantom of the Opera, whose kidnapping of Christine drives the story's plot.
  • The Plague Dogs: Dr. Boycott, who cruelly experimented on animals.
  • The Powder Mage Trilogy initially appears to have a Big Bad Ensemble with Kresimir, King Ipille and Lord Claremonte being the main players. The last book reveals that the ultimate mastermind behind everything was Claremonte, who is actually the god Brude in disguise.
  • A Practical Guide to Evil:
    • The biggest antagonistic faction in the setting is the Dread Empire of Praes, whose Dread Emperors and Empresses range from nightmares to incompetent loons; the only reason they're still seen as a threat by the rest of Calernia is because of their sheer persistence and the occasional horror that manages to climb the Tower. The main conflict of the series is kicked off when their current rulers, Dread Empress Malicia and her Black Knight, successfully conquer the Empire's perennial foe of the Kingdom of Callow and do away with the Empire's needlessly evil practices so as to avoid the losing tropes villains always fall into. Catherine is recruited as Black's Squire as part of the pair's plan to permanently integrate Callow and its culture into the Empire, which would provide them with the resources needed to finally solve Praes' overpopulation problem.
    • However, greater threats eventually arise in a Big Bad Ensemble between the Wandering Bard and the Dead King, two ancient Named who have clashed for centuries; as their conflict begins to rear its head once more, the rulers of Praes quickly become little more than stooges in their game.
      • The Wandering Bard is the Gods' Intercessor, charged with overseeing the Good versus Evil conflict that defines Creation and personally intervening on their behaves with an expertise in stories and tropes needed to manipulate fate to her preferred outcome. Unfortunately, her centuries of service have driven her to nihilistic insanity, as she begins to see getting rid of all stories—by way of wiping out everyone in Calernia—as the only way for her to finally die and be freed. She plans to prop up a great Evil (first Malicia, then the Dead King) that needs to be stopped; with a crusade currently being formed by First Prince Cordelia Hasenbach of the nation of Procer, the Bard intends to manipulate her into using an angel corpse as a last-ditch weapon of mass destruction to stop this Evil, then meddle with the blast radius so as to annihilate everyone on the continent.
      • The Dead King is an ancient lich who recognized the Gods using Creation as nothing more than the latest in a long line of wagers, and seeks to survive past the end of the world so as to escape their control for good. He has spent centuries patiently crafting himself a story of an Evil too great to ever be defeated, and allies with Malicia in modern times to war on Procer; however, after finally discerning the Bard's endgame he declares war on everything living, taking a risky gamble to stop the Bard for good by eliminating any pawns she could manipulate into a story capable of slaying him.
      • Although Black manages to pull a Hazy-Feel Turn and becomes a Wild Card for the second half of the series, Malicia unquestionably devolves into a Big Bad Wannabe, as her ardent refusal to come into direct armed conflict with the forces of Good (out of an understandable worry that Evil tropes dictate they won't be able to win) leads to her committing horrid atrocities in the name of keeping the Tenth Crusade too occupied to invade, such as funding Akua Sahelian's doomsday weapon and releasing the Dead King. By the time Catherine gets around to invading Praes before the final fight with the Dead King, Malicia has burned every bridge she had and is little more than a pawn batted around in a three-way conflict between Catherine, Black, and the Bard.
    • Kairos Theodosian, the Tyrant of Helike, also stands out as a major threat for a time as he starts a Civil War with the rest of the League of Free Cities to seize power through a Puppet King and bring the League into the war between Praes, Callow, and the Tenth Crusade; he spends Book V as a Wild Card who repeatedly allies with and backstabs every single faction involved in the conflict (including the Dead King and the Wandering Bard themselves) For the Evulz, which culminates in a Thanatos Gambit to temporarily cripple the Seraphim and Cordelia's angel corpse-weapon so Catherine and the Dead King can freely war against each other without the hanging threat preventing the latter from going all out.
    • Akua Sahelian is Catherine's initial Arch-Enemy and the main antagonist of the first three books, a cruel Praesi noble with grand aspirations of overthrowing Malicia and returning Praes to their glory days of rampant Evil. After a few clashes with Catherine she eventually reveals her master plan of converting the city of Liesse into a doomsday weapon capable of opening Hellgates across the world, planning to butcher and conquer everything in her wake. Unforunately, she's unknowingly being funded by Malicia herself, who plans to take the weapon after her inevitable defeat to deter the Tenth Crusade from invading.
  • Princess Holy Aura has Azathoth of the Nine Arms, who tries to consume the entire world at regular intervals.
  • Proud Pink Sky has the gay republic's radio host, Kenneth Luvvie. Though at first his radio broadcasts are a source of hope for protagonists William and Gareth, it later becomes clear that Luvvie likes to demonize the city's minorities. However, Cissie's husband Howard turns out to be much, much worse...
  • The Psalms of Isaac toys with this one. Initially, it looks like Overseer Sethbert was the ultimate villain, but by the end of the first book it was plain he was a Starter Villain whose strings had been pulled by someone else. Several characters' suspicions then fall on Vlad Li Tam, but he's more morally ambiguous than outright evil, and he turned out to be as ignorant of the true cause as anyone. Then mysterious forces in the service of the Crimson Empress showed up, but she was eventually revealed to be a little girl- one raised for power, certainly, but hardly in a position to actually wield it yet. The real Big Bad appears to be the Empress's father, the ancient Wizard King Ahm Y'Zir.
  • Pugs of the Frozen North has Sir Basil Sprout-Dumpling, an Impoverished Patrician who seeks to win the Great Race to get it back. And he's willing to knock the other players out of the race by any means to do so.

    Q 

    R 
  • The Rainbow Magic series has Jack Frost, who is always sending his goblins out to do his dirty work before appearing in the climax of a series.
  • Ranger's Apprentice starts off with Morgarath as its Big Bad in books one and two; the Skandians aren't really Big Bads in book three, but the closest there are to antagonists; the Temuji in book four; Keren in books four and five; the Tualaghi in book seven; Tennyson in books eight and nine; and Arisaka in book ten.
  • Red Planet: Gaines Beecher, the Mars Company's factor, or Resident Agent General, on the planet. He tries to carry out the company's plan to end the colonists' seasonal migration as a cost-saving measure (a move that would be both lethal, as the cold would kill many colonists, and unprofitable, as no work can be done under winter conditions anyway), and ends up jeopardizing the entire human settlement on Mars when his greedy attempt to capture and sell James Marlowe's bouncer friend Willis nearly galvanizes the Martians, of whom Willis is implied to be a juvenile, to wipe out all humans on the planet.
  • The Reddening by Adam L. G. Nevill: Jessica Usher and her son Finn Willows, leaders of a cannibalistic Cult worshiping a subterranean primordial beast that demands sacrifice in exchange for fertility. While Jessica's lover Tony Willows is technically the head of the cult, Jessica's the spiritual heart and the one who resurrected it after a period of dormancy and Finn's the brains behind the cult's illegal marijuana operation.
  • Redwall:
    • First book: Cluny the Scourge, a brutal rat warlord who seizes control over Redwall Abbey and intends to conquer all of Mossflower.
    • Mossflower: Tsarmina Greeneyes, who takes over the Thousand Eyes army and the fortress of Kotir after killing her father and intends on exerting her tyrannical rule over all of Mossflower.
    • Mattimeo: Malkariss, the founder of Kingdom of Malkariss, which he maintains through the labor of the countless children he's had kidnapped across Mossflower; with Slagar the Cruel acting as The Heavy.
    • Mariel of Redwall: Gabool the Wild, the paranoid Lord of Terramort Isle who steals the Great Joseph Bell and holds Mariel's father, Joseph the Bellmaker, captive.
    • Salamandastron: Feragho the Assassin, the ruthless leader of the Corpsemakers who leads a campaign to conquer Salamandastron.
    • Martin the Warrior: Badrang the Tyrant, the wanabee ruler of the Eastern Coast who captures Martin the Warrior and steals his father's sword.
    • The Bellmaker: Urgan Nargu, a fox who conquers the kingdom of Southsward, which leads to Muriel and Dandin getting caught up in the conflict and Joseph having to intervene.
    • Outcast of Redwall: Swartt Sixclaw, who leaves a path of death and destruction in his pursuit of Sunflash the Mace after he escaped him and crippled his paw.
    • Pearls of Lutra: Emperor Ublaz Mad Eyes, the self-proclaimed emperor of Sampetra who's willing to tear down anyone in his way of obtaining the Tears of All Oceans.
    • The Long Patrol: Damug Warfang, who takes over his family's army and leads an invasion on Redwall Abbey, seeing it as an easy target.
    • Marlfox: Mokkan, the eldest of the Marlfoxes who steals the tapestry of Martin the Warrior and sends his siblings to attack Redwall Abbey as he takes control over Castle Marl.
    • Legend of Luke: Vilu Daskar, a corsair and slaver who murdered Luke the Warrior's wife, leading Luke to pursue him in search of vengeance.
    • Lord Brocktree: Ungatt Trunn, the fascistic wildcat leader of the Blue Horde with ambitions of conquering Salamandastron.
    • Taggerung: While Gruven's hunt for Deyna is what drives the plot, he's so much of a Harmless Villain that Vallug Bowbeast and Eefera end up hijacking his feeble plans. After they're dealt with, Ruggan Bor takes the role, having taken over the Juskarath tribe and leads an invasion on Redwall Abbey.
    • Triss: A Big Bad Ensemble between King Agarnu, the Pure Ferret King of Riftgard who sends his children to Mossflower to retrieve his father's crown and bring back his escaped slaves, and Zassaliss, the leader of the alder triplets terrorizing Mossflower and killing those who enter their territory.
    • Loamhedge: Raga Bol, a sea-rat pirate planning to lead a siege on Redwall Abbey and the target of Loona Bowstripe's revenge after he murdered his father and left him for dead.
    • Rakkety Tam: Gulo the Savage, a ravenous wolverine barbarian who seeks the Walking Stone, a symbol of leadership to his kingdom, and is willing to massacre every living thing in Mossflower to get it.
    • High Rhulain: Riggu Felis, the wildcat warlord of Green Isle who has numerous otters enslaved that Tira and the other otter tribes intend on freeing.
    • Eulalia!: Vizka Longtooth, the captain of the Sea Raiders responsible for murdering Gorath's grandparents who soon sets his sights on Redwall Abbey.
    • Doomwyte: Korvus Skurr, the leader of the Doomwytes who invades Redwall Abbey under the belief that they have the fabeled Doomwyte jewels.
    • The Sable Quean: Quean Vilaya, the head of the Ravengers who kidnaps the children of Redwall and intends on holding them hostage until the Abbey is surrendered to her.
    • The Rogue Crew: Razzid Wearat, a corsair who leads a bloody campaign to plunder Redwall Abbey, leaving a trail of death in his wake.
  • The Return: Julie Ryan is the main threat, as she turns out to have come back from the dead as a ravenously hungry monster who wants to make good on the "forever" part of "best friends forever."
  • The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman: Mother-and-daughter ghosts Ella Louise and Jessica Ford, murdered in 1931 in for "witchcraft," forever trying to reunite and compelling men to tell their story over and over again as punishment.
  • The Riddle Master Trilogy has a Big Bad Ensemble of Ghisteslwchlohm and the shape-changers, who operate independently (and indeed, often at cross-purposes). Near the end of the third book, Eriel, the leader of the shape-changers, captures Ghisteslwchlohm and magically binds him to serve her as The Dragon.
  • The Riftwar Cycle:
    • Magician: Doesn't have a clear-cut example, since the Kingdom-Tsurani conflict is grey enough. The Tsurani Warlord Almecho is the closest thing to one, though he's removed from play with a good chunk of the plot left to resolve.
    • Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon: Murmandamus looks like this, but is ultimately revealed as The Dragon to the returning Valheru.
    • Serpentwar: The Emerald Queen who eventually gets killed and replaced by the demon Jakan.
    • Conclave of Shadows: Leso Varen
    • Darkwar: The Dasati Dark God
    • Demonwar: Belasco and Dahun are a Big Bad Duumvirate
    • Chaoswar: The Dread, which is revealed to have been The Man Behind the Man to most everything else, making it the overall Big Bad of the entire saga.
  • Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark: Grand Cyclops, leader of Eldritch Abominations that feed on hate, manipulates the Ku Klux Klan, which naturally provides plenty of hate, to allow her and her minions to manifest and possess bodies. But the Klansmen's hatred isn't potent enough for her tastes, as it is born of insecurity and directed toward the powerless. What she really wants is the protagonist Maryse Bordeaux, because she has truly filling hate, a justified hate born of oppression and directed to those who have wronged her people over the centuries.
  • Rising Sun: The mastermind is revealed to be Masao Ishiguro, who was also the murderer himself.
  • Brian Keene's The Rising book series has Ob, the leader of a demonic group of sort-of zombies that possess dead bodies and turn them against humankind. However, in the first book he is in a Big Bad Ensemble with Colonel Schow, the leader of an entire platoon of Sociopathic Soldiers. In the second book, with Schow dead, Ob takes his position as the true Big Bad once again.
  • Rogue Sorcerer has Lyr Yarika, the once-powerful lord of a noble house who has since been reduced to running a quiet little inn.
  • Romance of the Three Kingdoms primarily has Cao Cao, who softly usurped the Xian Emperor to lay the foundation for Wei, and is positioned as the Arch-Enemy of Liu Bei.
  • The central villain of The Runelords is essentially that universe's equivalent to Satan though it manifests in several forms throughout, including the One True Master, Shadoath, and Lord Despair.

    S 
  • Safehold:
    • The Gbaba, who nearly rendered humanity extinct, necessitating the creation of intentionally-Lost Colony Safehold in the first place.
    • In a Posthumous Character sense, Langhorne and Bédard, creators of the Path of Inspiration Church of God Awaiting, which they designed to try and prevent the re-emergence of advanced technology for all time.
    • Finally, the first nine books have Vicar Zhaspahr Clyntahn, the Church's Grand Inquisitor, who starts a war that eventually goes global out of rampant paranoia over a nation he doesn't like, and is an all-round despicable human being.
  • Second Apocalypse series: The Inchoroi and the Consult. Mostly because they apparently want to rape everything ever. And also because, according to Kellhus, the only way they can save their souls from being sent to Hell by the God is to exterminate the vast majority of the human race. The No-God is, in a way, something of a subversion of this: despite his overwhelming presence and the fact that his very existence makes every human baby stillborn, he doesn't really know what he's doing. WHAT DO YOU SEE? I MUST KNOW WHAT YOU SEE. TELL ME. WHAT AM I? Somehow, Bakker makes a Woobie out of an Eldritch Abomination.
  • Sekhmet is the big bad of Sekhmet. She destroyed the old world and caused Set to go evil, but in the story is more of an Anticlimax Boss
  • Count Olaf for most of A Series of Unfortunate Events, though we eventually discover that he's more like a Dragon to a larger organization. His incredibly horrifying superiors, however, are polished off in the second-to-last book, and Olaf enters into an Enemy Civil War with Knight Templar Ishmael in the finale. It's implied that they kill each other.
  • The Big Bad of 7th Son is John Alpha, the initial subject of a decades long cloning experiment who got bitter, got crazy and got his hands on advanced cloning and memory manipulation technology.
  • Shadows of the Apt has a Big Bad Ensemble between Emperor Alvdan and Uctebri the Sarcad, who are each manipulating the other for their own gain, in its first arc. After they both die, Alvdan's younger sister Seda steps up to the plate as the new Wasp Empress, proving to equal and exceed the combined strengths of both. Ultimately, Seda's pursuit of supreme magical power leads her to tamper with a Sealed Evil in a Can that really should have been left alone, leading to the final and greatest threat of the series being the ancient horror known as the Worm.
  • The Shahnameh: Three of the most famous examples would be:
    • Zahhak, a tyrant with two snakes growing out his shoulders whom Zahhak must feed human brains to.
    • The White Demon, a cave-dwelling albino who rules Mazandaran.
    • Afrasiab and his brother Garsivaz who commit many atrocities including the execution of Siavash, which sends Rostam and the Persians on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • Shannara:
  • Shardik: Genshed.
  • Every novel in the Sharpe series has one, sometimes more:
    • Sharpe's Tiger: The Tippoo Sultan, leader of the Mysore state at war with the British.
    • Sharpe's Triumph: A Big Bad Ensemble of Anthony Pohlmann (commander of the Mahratta army), William Dodd (the British deserter Sharpe is pursuing) and Obadiah Hakeswill (who attempts to frame Sharpe for assaulting an officer), although Dodd is working for Pohlmann for much of the novel under he deserts.
    • Sharpe's Fortress: William Dodd, who decides to seek power by gaining control of the fortress of Gawilghur.
    • Sharpe's Trafalgar: The Big Bad Triumverate of Anthony Pohlmann, Peculiar Cromwell and Michel Vaillard, who help the French capture the ship Sharpe is sailing on as part of a plan to smuggle messages of support to them. Lord William Hale is also a major antagonist, attempting to murder his wife Grace on learning she has been having an affair with Sharpe.
    • Sharpe's Prey: Captain John Lassiver, a British-Danish officer working for the French who attempts to kill the British agent in Copenhagen.
    • Sharpe's Rifles: Colonel De L'Eclin, commander of the French garrison at Santiago de Compostela, arguably in a Big Bad Duumvirate with Tomas Vivar.
    • Sharpe's Havoc: Colonel James Christopher, an honorary British officer who believes the French will win the war so deserts to them, leaving Sharpe and his men to die.
    • Sharpe's Eagle: Sir Henry Simmerson, the cowardly and brutal commander of the South Essex who abandons several of his men after a disastrous skirmish, and his Dragon Christian Gibbons, who attempts to kill Sharpe in order to take the credit for capturing a French eagle. Lieutenant Berry serves as Simmerson's Co-Dragon in the adaptation of Sharpe's Eagle for Sharpe, but in the book he's merely the Mook Lieutenant.
    • Sharpe's Gold: El Catolico, a corrupt Spanish partisan whose gold Sharpe needs to finance the British defences.
    • Sharpe's Escape: Ferragus, a traitorous Portuguese merchant attempting to provide the French with supplies in contravention of the British plan.
    • Sharpe's Fury: Colonel Vandal for the French (who earns the enmity of Sharpe by taking his lieutenant prisoner during a truce), Father Montseny for the inhabitants of Cadiz (who is planning to disgrace the British liaison and make an alliance with the French).
    • Sharpe's Battle: Major Pierre Ducos, who is The Man Behind the Man for Loup and Juanita, orchestrating a plan to have the Irish soldier rebel against the British by spreading false rumours.
    • Sharpe's Company: Hakeswill, who joins Sharpe's company determined to make his life a misery again, attempts to rape Terese and frames Harper for looting.
    • Sharpe's Sword: Colonel Philippe Leroux, a French cavalry officer charged with killing the British spymaster El Mirador.
    • Sharpe's Enemy: Pot-au-Feu, the leader of a group of deserters who have taken several army wives hostage, with Hakeswill as his Dragon, although the French attack on Adradas is organised by Ducos.
    • Sharpe's Honour: Ducos, who frames Sharpe for the murder of a Spanish officer to break up the Anglo-Spanish alliance.
    • Sharpe's Regiment: Lord Fenner, who attempts to have Sharpe killed in order to hide an illegal crimping scheme selling recruits to other regiments.
    • Sharpe's Siege: Ducos, who once again lures Sharpe into a trap to halt the British invasion of France. The French troops assaulting Teste de Buch are led by General Calvet but the plan is Ducos' with Calvet functioning as The Heavy.
    • Sharpe's Revenge: Ducos, who steals the Emperor's treasure and murders the officers guarding it, framing Sharpe in the process.
    • Sharpe's Waterloo: Effectively, Napoleon Bonaparte, who leads the French army at Waterloo. On a more personal level, Sharpe's estranged wife Jane Gibbons encourages her lover Lord Rossendale to murder Sharpe.
    • Sharpe's Assassin: Colonel Lanier, the leading member of a fraternity who swore loyal to Napoleon and who are planning to assassinate the Duke of Wellington to avenge his defeat.
    • Sharpe's Devil: A Big Bad Ensemble of Governor-General Batista, who tries to sabotage Sharpe's efforts to track down his friend Don Blas Vivar, and Admiral Cochrane, who is actually responsible for Vivar's disappearance.
    • The short stories written by Bernard Cornwell: In "Sharpe's Skirmish", as far as Sharpe is concerned the Big Bad is General Herault, who leads a French assault on the border, but again Ducos is The Man Behind the Man. "Sharpe's Christmas" has Colonel Caillou, one of the senior officers of a French convoy Sharpe is charged with ambushing (although he dies without personally encountering Sharpe), and "Sharpe's Ransom" has Sergeant Challon, who takes Sharpe's family hostage believing he has the Emperor's treasure.
  • Shatter the Sky: Emperor Rafael is the main villain of the story, as a cruel, greedy, and repressive ruler whose actions lie behind everything bad in the story (or continues the evil his predecessors did).
  • The Silerian Trilogy: Kiloran, one of the water lords who rules his domain with an iron fist, soon becomes this. He tries to seize control over the entire country, starting with one port city, and is the main antagonist to the heroes in the latter two books.
  • Sisterhood Series by Fern Michaels: Well, there are certainly a number of Big Bad characters in the series!
    • Weekend Warriors: Doctor Clark Wagstaff, Doctor Sidney Lee, and Doctor Samuel La Fond are a Big Bad Triumvirate of dentists and rapists!
    • Payback: Senator Mitchell "Mitch" Webster is a Big Bad, and an HMO consisting of Elaine Monarch, Derek Monarch, and Ethan Monarch seem to be a Big Bad Triumvirate. They have seemingly no connection to each other, but apparently Mitch had sex with Elaine and got AIDS from her and gave it to Julia Webster! Hoo, boy!
    • Vendetta: John Chai.
    • The Jury: The Barringtons were being set up as this... but they got away! So the story throws in an unrelated Big Bad in the form of Domestic Abuser and National Security Advisor Karl Woodley.
    • Sweet Revenge: Rosemary Hershey. Bobby Harcourt seemed to be a big guy at first, but it turns out that he's just a Horrible Judge of Character who finally wised up!
    • Lethal Justice: Arden Gillespie. Roland Sullivan is more of The Dragon to her than a Big Bad.
    • Free Fall: Michael "Mick" Lyons. There are four men who are apparently subordinate to him.
    • Hide and Seek: Mitch Riley, assistant director of the FBI.
    • Hokus Pokus: Grant Conlon and Tyler Hughes appear to be a Big Bad Duumvirate.
    • Fast Track: Maxwell "Max(ie)" Zenowicz.
    • Collateral Damage: Dan Winters and Baron Russell are likely a Big Bad Duumvirate.
    • Final Justice: Hank Owens, with four men working for him.
    • Under the Radar: Harold Evanrod, the Prophet of a pedophile polygamist cult called Heaven On Earth.
    • Razor Sharp: Vice-President Hunter Pryce, with several men being subordinate to him.
    • Vanishing Act: Margaret Pearson and William "Bill" Bell, identity thieves and a Big Bad Duumvirate.
    • Deadly Deals: Baron Bell, with Adel Newsom acting as The Dragon.
    • Game Over: Strangely enough, President Martine Connor is being set up as this, but it gets subverted when it turns out that she had been reluctant to throw out Obstructive Bureaucrats that had barred her at every turn, and simply needed some urging to do it.
    • Cross Roads: Henry "Hank" Jellicoe, with Little Fish and Stu Franklin acting as Co-Dragons.
    • Deja Vu: Henry "Hank" Jellicoe.
    • Home Free: Owen Orzell and Jason Parker are apparently a Big Bad Duumvirate. Interestingly, Owen reveals that he was part of a Big Bad Triumvirate consisting of CIA director Calvin Span and Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. Henry is now rotting in federal prison, and Calvin is now dead from a heart attack he got while shovelling his driveway!
    • As indicated, Henry "Hank" Jellicoe could qualify as an overall Big Bad, especially after Free Fall.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • There are too many plot-lines in the series to pick a single Big Bad; the series mostly features morally ambiguous and sympathetic humans pitted at odds with each other, making it difficult to pick out heroes and villains at all. When the Others finally come, everyone's gonna be screwed, though for the moment they have only been antagonists in the Night's Watch storyline, and for most of that storyline the Wildlings under Mance Rayder were more the antagonists, though the Wildlings have banded together and are trying to flee south in response to the Others... However the Others' threat starts to spill over into the main plotline when Stannis Baratheon saves the Night's Watch from the Wildlings on realizing that the Others are the true threat.
    • The Big Bad of the civil war plotline of the first three books appears to be Tywin Lannister for the most part, Warden of the West and head of the Lannister family, but towards the end it's revealed the true Big Bad is Littlefinger; who is responsible for the books' main action, notably the murder of Jon Aryyn and the death of Joffrey. Interestingly enough, officially in-universe Joffrey is the Big Bad, as he is the King the Lannisters and their allies are supporting, and thinks of himself as their leader, however he is so incompetent that his grandfather Tywin is clearly in charge.
    • Now that the combination of Tywin's death and their repeated defeats in battle has left the main antagonistic faction in disarray and largely supplanted by the Tyrells, there are three competitors for the title:
      • It's hard to say for sure given the series' long hiatus, but Feast for Crows and Dance With Dragons appeared to be setting up Euron Greyjoy as a Big Bad in the aftermath books, even though he doesn't appear in the first three books or play any role in the first two, outside the Appendixes, he is first mentioned in the third book when we hear after Balon Greyjoy's sudden death his brother Euron returned and claimed rule of the Iron Islands. So far, he has invaded and sacked the Shield Islands while dispatching the Iron Fleet to Essos under Victarion to bail out Daenerys (where they've left a trail of terror), with the implication that he plans to use magical artifacts he found to bend her dragons to his will. Book five ends with the Tyrells moving to confront him in the Reach.
      • Roose Bolton, Warden of the North, is this for the Northern story line and all the characters involved in it; he was arguably this since book three, both because of the role he plays in Jaime, Brienne, and Arya's chapters and because it's revealed he was subtly sabotaging Robb's whole cause ever since Stannis lost at the Blackwater, culminating in him and his allies butchering Robb's loyal followers in a dishonorable betrayal. Though he is acting in service of the Lannister regime, he doesn't interact with them much and his power base is effectively independent (it's also implied he approached the Lannisters with the betrayal idea rather than the other way around, and he enacts it without their troops present). The only reinforcements he gets are 2,000 Frey soldiers secured via marriage alliance, and any houses he can convert on his own initiative in the North. Much of book five revolves around Stannis building a loose alliance of southrons and northerners and leading them against him, while Jon watches anxiously from the Wall and POV characters Davos, Asha, Theon, and Melisandre are caught in the action; the book ends on a cliffhanger as Stannis's coalition engages a detachment of Roose's army, outmatched.
      • The aforementioned Littlefinger is still planning something with his politicking in the Vale, though whether this is part of a sinister master plan or just him trying to adapt is left ambiguous. Meanwhile, Tywin's daughter Cersei Lannister seemed set to become the main antagonist in book four, as she acts as regent for Tommen Baratheon, her weak-willed younger son, but she ends up a Big Bad Wannabe who quickly ends up purged by elements in her own capital.
  • Dan Simmons' Song of Kali has Kali as its Big Bad, a being born from and feeding on humanity's atavistic and violent impulses who wants to spread her "song" and bring about the Age of Kali.
  • The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix: James Harris, the monstrous vampire who insinuates himself into the Charleston suburb of Mount Pleasant and not only preys upon the children and teenagers of the area but corrupts the community by excerbating the residents' worst inclinations, such as greed, misogyny, and racism.
  • The Sovereign Stone has Dagnarus, Lord of the Void, as its Big Bad. Interestingly, though plainly the bad guy, he's also the main character; the heroes who oppose him come and go, but in the end the trilogy is concerned primarily with Dagnarus, his rise, rule, and fall note .
  • Spectral Shadows pretty much features at least one Big Bad per serial. Then there's Salocin, the evil God, who pretty much serves as the series' Greater-Scope Villain.
  • In the Stories of Nypre series we have the unnamed creature that controls the Night Land who is behind most atrocities in the series.
  • The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Edward Hyde, Henry Jekyll's repressed evil personality who indulges in his darker impulses.
  • Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town has Saint John, leader of a gang called "The Vipers" who has big plans for New York City.
  • The Sword of Shadows series has numerous mortal villains running around, but they all pale compared to the incoming threat of the Endlords, nine godlike personifications of destruction and entropy.
  • The Sword of Truth has Darken Rahl in the first book, the Sisters of the Dark in the second book, and Jagang for the rest of the books, though most of those also have their own baddie for Richard to deal with, but they're almost always minions of Jagang's and the Imperial Order. The new book seems to have a villain named Hannis Arc, if the online blurbs released are to be believed.

    T 
  • A Tale of Two Cities: Madame DeFarge, who after having her family killed by the Evrémonde Brothers, becomes bent on killing anyone who is part of or close to the Evrémonde family.
  • The Terminal Man: Harry Benson, a man who goes on a crime spree after getting cybernetic implants in his brain.
  • There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm: SCP-3125, an "anomalous metastasized memecomplex" from another reality in the process of "invading" SCP's universe. Upon fully entering reality, it will render humans incapable of conceiving of ideas other than itself, essentially turning humanity into an extension of itself. Until its emergence is complete, any observer who becomes aware of SCP-3125 is horrifically destroyed.
  • The Thirteenth Tale: The real Adeline March. After the death of Charlie, she's responsible for almost everything bad that happens, from the deaths of Missus and John-the-dig to the attempted murder of Emmeline's baby, which led to the fire at Angelfield.
  • Those Across the River: Hector, the leader of the werewolf pack in the Megiddo Woods that preys upon Whitbrow when the townsfolk choose to stop sending a monthly offering of pigs in the forest. He also has a particular interest in the protagonist Frank Nichols, as Nichols is the great-grandson of plantation owner Lucien Savoyard, his former master and the werewolf that turned him.
  • In Those That Wake, Man in Suit is this; he can influence and control almost anyone through spreading hopelessness, and is behind several major events in the present day and backstory. The sequel, What We Become, has the Old Man, who secretly runs the world via corporate dealings and has many subordinates on hand.
  • Time Out of Time: Balor The One-Eyed. He seeks to rule over the Travelers' Market, and have all myths and legends conform to the dark's wishes.
  • To Kill a Mockingbird: Bob Ewell is responsible for framing a black man for the savage beating he committed, taking advantage of the racist system of 1920s Alabama to do so.
  • Tortall Universe:
    • Song of the Lioness: Duke Roger of Conté. In an effort to usurp Prince Jon's place in the line of succession, he calls a plague, manipulates Jon into exploring an incredibly dangerous place, engineers a war with Tusaine and tries The Uriah Gambit, tries to kill Queen Lianne... when Alanna kills him, he's actually not quite dead and one of his allies manipulates Alanna's own brother into bringing him back, and he promptly begins plotting again.
    • The Immortals: Emperor Mage Ozorne of Carthak, who has designs on conquering the Eastern Lands and sees sending thought-extinct immortals at the kingdoms of the north as a grand way to weaken them up for conquest. After he's deposed and turned into a Stormwing, he teams up with an even greater villain: Uusoae, the Queen of Chaos.
    • The second half of Protector of the Small has Maggur Rathhausak, King of Scanra, who employs the necromancer Blayce the Gallan in the first place. Rathhausak never makes an on-page appearance, however.
    • Beka Cooper: Pearl Skinner in Bloodhound. She's terrified Sir Lionel into not interfering with her at all, which hamstrings the Guard and allows her to run wild making counterfeit silver coins — Lionel actively prevents anyone from investigating her too closely. She also murders anyone who risks exposing her. She got the original idea from Hanse Remy, but he banked on the fact that she'd take it to an extreme.
  • The Traitor Son Cycle: The Big Bad for the first three books (The Red Knight, The Fell Sword, and The Dread Wyrm) is Ash, a dragon of vast magical power who seeks to seize the gates, portals to other universes and key to his ambition of conquest. His success means the extinction or enslavement of man and the Wild. In the last two books of the series, The Plague of Swords and The Fall of Dragons, a Big Bad Ensemble emerges as other powerful entities scheme to take the gates, including the Necromancer, the will, and the fire. note  All of them make and break alliances with each other, but at the end Ash is left as the biggest and baddest antagonist the Red Knight and his armies must face.
  • Trapped on Draconica: Gothon is The Emperor that invades the good guy kingdom and tries to capture The Protagonist. He's actually an Unwitting Pawn for the Man Behind the Man, Kazebar.
  • The Twilight Saga has the Volturi, an ancient society of vampires who control the vampire world and maintain its secrecy, with Aro acting as the organization's leader.
  • The Tyrant series by Christian Cameron:

    U 

    V 

    W 
  • Warrior Cats: Tigerstar, whose goal is to unite the four Clans and gain power over all the forest. After his death, he spirit tempts Firestar's descendants and his own to his ideals. While most of the story arcs have their own Arc Villain (book 1 has Brokenstar, book 6 has Scourge, series 2 has Hawkfrost...), more often than not, they're working for Tigerstar.
  • Wars of Light and Shadow has Desh-thiere, the Mistwraith, a formless, malevolent entity which has shrouded the world of Athera in cursed fog for centuries. Half-brothers Lysaer and Arithon defeat and imprison it partway through the first book, but it continues to drive the plot via the curse of eternal enmity it placed on them as it was defeated as well as by its continued attempts to escape captivity and regain its power.
  • The Wheel of Time: The Dark One/Shai'tan, the living manifestation of evil imprisoned by the Creator in the beginning of time whose ultimate goal is complete freedom and the annihilation of reality.
  • Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?: The enigmatic Arnold Friend in the short story stalks Connie, convincing her to leave with him with malicious intentions in store.
  • The Wild Ones has Titus, a greyhound who wants to eradicate all the residents in Ankle Snap Alley. The sequel, Moonlight Brigade, has Coyote, a thief who steals all the food from the city.
  • The Winds of the Forelands:
    • The Sequel Series Blood of the Southlands plays this one interestingly. Lici is responsible for setting pretty much all of the trilogy's bad events in motion directly or indirectly but then she dies early in the second book and the remainder of the trilogy is more a case of Grey-and-Grey Morality.
  • The Witches: The Grand High Witch, the leader of all the witches and the most evil witch of all, who wants to turn all the kids in the world into mice.
  • The Witchlands has Ragnor the Raider King, who wants to conquer the entirety of the eponymous continent.
  • Woodwalkers: Andrew Milling, who's bent on destroy all of humanity after a hunter killed his wife and daughter in their animal-form.

    Y 
  • You Are Dead (Sign Here Please): Director Fulcher is the big bad for much of the series, as he is responsible for putting Nathan's file in order and goes to great lengths to accomplish it.
  • The Big Bad of the Young Wizards series is the Lone Power, the creator and embodiment of death and entropy. Good luck, heroes.

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