Characters / The Dragon Prince Viren

The Dragon Prince Main Character Index
Main Characters (Callum | Lord Viren) | The Human Kingdoms | Xadia

Warning: ALL spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

---

Lord Viren

Every problem can be solved with a "creative solution".

^{Click here to see Viren's appearance as of Book 4} 

Voiced by: Jason Simpson (English) ^{Click to see other languages}  Óscar Gómez (Latin American Spanish), Pablo Irles (European Spanish), Guilherme Briggs (Brazilian Portuguese), Paulo Oom (European Portuguese), Andrey Barkhudarov (Russian), Atsushi Imaruoka (Japanese), Murat Aydın (Turkish), Emmanuel Curtil (French), Peter Flechtner (German), Andrea Mete (Italian), Wojciech Chorąży (Polish), Bas Heerkens (Dutch), Zalán Makranczi (Hungarian), Pavel Vondra (Czech), Halvard Djupvik (Norwegian), Dan Shatzberg (Hebrew), Nikos Papadopoulos (Greek)

"I'm a pragmatist."

A lord and high mage that served under King Harrow. He is the father of Soren and Claudia.

---

#-D

• 0% Approval Rating: Downplayed, but after his blatant disregard for Due to the Dead regarding Harrow's burial, ignoring the usual seven days mourning and having his daughter burn the corpse with magic, all the people in the kingdom are visibly less than thrilled about him trying to take over as the king. And other members of the court, Amaya in particular, rightfully do not trust him due to how eager he seems to take over.
• Abusive Parents: He's always been this in regards to emotionally manipulating his children, to the point both feared telling the other the orders Viren gave them. Soren, despite having chosen his father when their parents separated, gets it the worse despite attempting to appease his father. It's at its most blatant in season 3; he rather blatantly gaslights Soren and his manipulation of both Soren and Claudia makes it very clear his model of abuse is treating Claudia as the Golden Child, who is praised for emulating him and chided for deviation, and Soren as the Scapegoat, who is always second best and has to live up to impossible standards to earn any kind of approval, to Viren's Narcissism. Even Claudia nearly sees his real attitude towards both of them until Aaravos points out how useful she'll be in the future. After which he only gives her any form of condescending respect for believing everything he says.
• Ambiguous Situation: After Harrow's death, Amaya speculates that Viren proposed the body-switching solution knowing that Harrow would be too noble to accept it, as a way of ensuring that his king would die in a way that would allow Viren to save face, and conveniently leave the throne empty for Viren to grab. (Either as a regent while Ezran is too young to lead, or to get the princes "out of the way" for him to seize power).
• Ambition Is Evil: His desire to unite the human kingdoms to wage war against and wipe out the dragon and elven kingdoms of Xadia with himself as the leader, and his willingness to do so by any means necessary (be it bribery, fear-mongering, forging royal documents, assassination, murdering and usurping King Harrow's two sons), corrupting and stealing the entire Sunfire Elven magic source, and turn a whole army of humans into monsters to do so, drives most of the villainy in the plot.
• The Archmage: Said to be a master of dark magic, and improved it with King Harrow. Later learns how to cast a dark magic-tainted version of primal magic first via Willing Channeler by Aaravos, then independently in season 3 after Aaravos' tutelage and the hijacking of the sun forge.
• Arc Words: "However dangerous, however vile". Often uses these words to emphasize that he will do whatever it takes for the good of his family and humanity, justifying why he has no other choice.
• Back from the Dead: Rayla defeats him at the end of season 3. He thought to have survived his fall but it turns out he actually did die. Claudia managed to revive him somehow off-screen by using dark magic, though doing so took two years.
• Believing Their Own Lies: An interesting case that everyone can tell his bluster is full of bull... droppings, but Viren seems to genuinely believe himself when he says his attempts to usurp the throne and to fear-monger the human kingdoms into waging war against Xadia is in humanity's best interest, but any time someone points out the holes in his logic, the fact that there is a better way, or points out how his grand plan conveniently gives himself the most power, he reacts very poorly.
• Berserk Button:
  • Perceived Ingratitude. When he offers a solution to a problem, the methods are generally not pretty, but they do deliver the results promised. Being snubbed for offering a solution to the elves' assassination attempt and later for requesting troops to prevent possible elven invasions, enrages Viren more than anything else. He also gets angry when his actions are seen in a cruel light, such as when he had the king kill a Magma Titan, even though his actions prevented thousands from starving and possibly both kingdoms from collapsing.
  • The vilification of dark magic. Many people tell him it's a shortcut, but because humans don't have an inherent connection to it - and because Viren lacks the will to connect to Primal magic on his own - it's often the only option he can use to remain competitive with the elves. The elves have the benefit of Primal magic, which they are innately born with and use for whatever they want, so treating Primal magic like the good option to Dark magic's bad is a simplistic perspective for him.
  • Being accused of wanting King Harrow and his sons gone so he could take the throne.
• Big Bad: Becomes this at the end of Season 1. It turns out that he secretly took the Dragon egg and hid it away. After the King's death, he starts taking steps to seize power for himself, this includes ordering Soren to kill the princes should they be found. He temporarily loses his status in Season 2, but avoids becoming an Arc Villain by climbing back up to the main antagonist position in Season 3.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Turns out to be this in Season 2. His attempts at becoming regent and manipulating the Pentarchy end up failing big time. His actions are then discovered by Opeli, who strips him of his power, and he gets taken down rather anti-climatically without ever confronting the heroes. Finally, it's revealed that for all his mastery in magic, there's someone else more powerful and knowledgeable than him. He manages to turn it around, and comes roaring back to prominence over Season 3.
• Black Eyes of Evil: After using dark magic, his eyes become completely black, with his iris becoming white. Different from his daughter, this is played straight, as he is the only villain of the show until Aaravos comes along.
• Break the Haughty: King Harrow gets fed up with Lord Viren's attempts to persuade him to use dark magic to save his life, leading to him giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how Viren is not his equal and is his servant and must kneel to him. This moment was particularly ironic since it happened after Viren had already decided to do the heroic thing and give his own life to save his friend's. Getting crap from Harrow was what pushed him to The Dark Side.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Averted; he initially assures Aaravos that he's never killed anyone called "Avizandum" (implying he knows everyone he has killed). When Viren learns that was the actual name of the dragon he knew as "Thunder", he spends much of the rest of the episode recounting details about killing him, as it was a major event in his life.
• Can't Take Criticism: Oh, no. Any time he offers a "creative solution" or a grand plan against Xadia, any criticism deeply offends him.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Discussed. He wants Soren to frame the princes' deaths, and if necessary, kill them himself, because as King Harrow's heirs, Ezran would have to succeed their father as king. Viren believes that he would make bad decisions and cause the humans to lose the war. In season 2, he encounters Queen Aanya, and clearly carries the same attitude he has about Ezran, that children make weak rulers and are incapable of making decisions for the good of their kingdoms.
• The Comically Serious: His pragmatic, no-nonsense personality becomes the butt of many jokes and humorous moments, especially in Season 2.
• Court Mage: To Harrow's court.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: When Aaravos channels Primal Magic through him, he is virtually unstoppable, killing most of the guards sent to arrest him. Even after he takes an arrow to the leg and is faced with several archers, he pulls out the arrow like it's nothing and stands ready to keep going. Only Aaravos taking away his magic forces him to stop.
  • Even without Aaravos, Viren was still capable of wreaking havoc against any poor soul standing in his way. invokedWord of God states that he had massacred most of the Dragonguard - some of the best warriors in the world - when they challenged him, and in the very next scene he didn't have so much as a scratch on him.
• Dark Messiah: He views himself as humanity's savior. In season 2 he saves people from a famine, and in season 3 he is seen in white robes, parts a river of lava-like Moses did with the Red Sea, and is raised from the dead after a few days. However he is incredibly ruthless, power-hungry and manipulative.
• Detrimental Determination: Viren is so fixated on his goal of nullifying Xadia and the Dragon Prince as potential threats that he crosses increasingly dark moral lines to do so, justifying them as being pragmatic while ignoring other alternatives, as well as accept help from suspicious figures like Aaravos when he faces opposition. It ultimately leads to him marching into Xadia with barely anything resembling a plan and becoming all the more dependent on Aaravos for guidance, who directs him to assault the Storm Spire to drain Zym, which results in his two-year long death.
• Didn't Think This Through: Despite his ambition, skill at manipulation, charisma, and goals, Viren's really not too good at considering the logical endpoint or consequences of his plans. Case in point: attempting to take the Magma Titan's heart got Sarai killed, killing Thunder nearly caused another war and caused Harrow's assassination, his attempt at shaming the entire Katolian army into fighting for him and mistreating other rulers such as Opeli ends up giving the heroes unexpected reinforcements, and it's heavily suggested that he didn't have much of a plan when invading Xadia, and Aaravos had to essentially spell out to him that his goal of achieving a better place for humanity would mean conquering Xadia at all.
• Disney Villain Death: In "The Final Battle", Rayla tackles him from the top of the Dragon Queen's Keep. A conversation afterwards with Claudia reveals that he did not survive the fall, and that she brought him Back from the Dead.
• The Dreaded: By season 3, Opelli worries that keeping him locked up is not going to be enough, and he is at points called the most dangerous man in the world.
• Dub Name Change: The Dutch version changes Viren to "Virel".

E-L

• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Double Subverted. Despite his rising maliciousness through the first three seasons, he occasionally shows that he truly loves his family. Several of the credits image show him having sweet casual moments with Claudia and Soren. Which makes it all the scarier when he tells Claudia that getting the dragon egg takes priority over Soren's life, and his behavior towards Claudia is similarly toxic (although he still balked at the way Aaravos called her an "asset"). Ultimately, his death and revival lead him to realize that his obsessions and use of dark magic have turned him into someone he doesn't like being and he willingly goes to his final death rather than risk hurting his children any more than he already has.
• Everyone Has Standards: When told that the price for a permanent resurrection is the blood of his child, Viren understandably balks at sacrificing one of his children. Aaravos then clarifies that he doesn't expect Viren to sacrifice one of his human children, but the homonculus the two created through Blood Magic. Even with that loophole, however, Viren can't bring himself to butcher an innocent being to save his own life.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He doesn't understand why Harrow would be willing to give up his life to make up for the terrible things they've done. Especially why Harrow questions the use of dark magic.
• Evil Chancellor: He had shades of this role from the beginning, having been an advisor of the king dealing with dark magic and some shady "practical" decisions. It's implied he would've also been this to Amaya by saying he would support her if she took the throne.
• Evil Counterpart: To Callum — Both are mages (Viren a Dark Mage, Callum a Primal Mage) who are insecure about their place in the world. However, whereas Viren is a fan of using "creative" or expedient solutions to problems, such as Dark Magic, Callum utterly rejects this after using a Dark Magic spell once. Viren also uses and seeks out magic primarily to gain power, while Callum does so to protect and empower his friends and loved ones. Viren succumbs to his hatred of elves and dragons, while Callum learns to forgive and move past his hatred.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: Decades of dark magic use have rendered his skin chalk white and his eyes pitch black. He has to periodically absorb the life force of magical beings to maintain the Glamour of his normal appearance.
• Evil Sorcerer: He's a master of Dark Magic, and is exactly as morally principled as you'd expect a master of Dark Magic to be.
• Exact Words: Katolis' law state that, should a dynasty end, the monarch elected to start the new one has to be an orphan. Viren flippantly points out that his parents are dead.
• Face–Heel Turn: His entire character arc in Book One is about how he went from being one of King Harrow's closest friends to The Usurper who plots to kill the princes.
• Failed a Spot Check: When he used his True Sight Serum to see past the illusions on the Dragon King's mirror, he stared so hard at the glass that he failed to notice that the frame was glowing purple.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Cutting the Knot. His desire to find "practical" (read: expedient) solutions even at the cost of people's lives and to take shortcuts to get what he wants without considering the consequences has put him at odds with Harrow and other members of the court like Opali and Amaya, who intensely distrust him.
  • Said desire feeds into his second Fatal Flaw - Didn't Think This Through. Viren rarely - if ever - considers the consequences of said "solutions," which leads to them eventually causing more problems than they solve. After season 5 he is forced to comfront these consequences when his daughter Claudia begins to emulate his worse traits with even greater zeal.
  • Hubris. He believes himself to be the one with the most knowledge (which, to be fair, he was until he met Aaravos) and the best plans, which makes him unable to consider different points of view and underestimate others. This is an actual Fatal Flaw, since his dismissal of Rayla and Bait leads to his death. Lucky for him, Claudia apparently had a way to bring him back.
  • Greed. Before Viren was resurrected, he never held any pity for magical creatures, the risk of driving other species to extinction, as other dark mages had done before, meant little to him so long as humans thrive.
  • Delusion, he used the suffering of humanity as a blanket excuse to commit war crimes, conspiracy and mass murder, convincing himself he was acting as humanity's savior. Upon his resurrection he begins to reflect on all he had done in his quest to "protect humanity" and realized it was a self-made lie to deny his missteps and that, in fact, his actions damaged mankind more than Xadia ever did.
  • Hypocrisy. The main reason half of the Katolis army turned against him, they realized he only cared for his own image, despite his claims of caring for their future, he was quickly convinced to conquer Xadia despite saying he didn't want to, all to keep on denying his mistakes and prove he was always right even as his actions grew ever more unjustifiable.
• Green-Eyed Monster: When Callum confronts him about stealing the egg, he rants at the boy, saying he was given everything and that it made him weak. Given that it's later revealed Viren came from a humble background this rant implies that Viren secretly resented Callum for being Adopted into Royalty.
• Glamour Failure: Viren's normal appearance is a spell he maintains by draining magical creatures. When he expends a great deal of magic, the spell falters and reveals his true form.
• Glory Hound: This is why he's a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist. As a pathological narcissist, he's literally addicted to praise and respect, which is why he's always pursuing his next big kick through increasingly extreme and outrageous 'creative solutions' to social problems.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Like his daughter, only hers are white while his eyes are green.
• Godhood Seeker: In "The Final Battle" Aaravos offers to show Viren how to drain Zym's power and make it his own to transcend humanity and become a being none would dare oppose. Viren later attempts to do so, but Rayla stops him before the process can be completed.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam:
  • Once King Harrow calls him out on how unethical he's become, it's implied Viren is preparing to make a Heroic Sacrifice to die in Harrow's place. Then Harrow misunderstands Viren's intentions and verbally rips him apart. Afterwards, whatever plans for redemption Viren had are abandoned in favor of gaining power for himself.
  • Self-inflicted in season 5. After Claudia brought him back to life last season, he began soul-searching about his actions and use of dark magic, ultimately realizing he went too far and that he risks dragging Claudia and Soren down with him, so he refuses to help Aaravos escape prison and allows the resurrection spell to expire naturally.
• Heel Realization:
  • After King Harrow gives him an Armor-Piercing Question, he realizes that he hasn't been the same man that King Harrow had trusted all those years ago, so he sets out to prove himself by going through with the spirit-switching anyway, with the Heroic Sacrifice being himself.
  • In Season 4, Viren is reluctant to proceed with Aaravos' plan, noting that his ambitions were what got him killed and that now he just wants to enjoy what little time he has left with his daughter. Claudia is briefly touched before trying to slap some sense into him, snapping that she's come too far for him to wuss out on her, but it isn't until he reclaims the Relic Staff that he relapses to his old villainous ways... Only for Season 5 to have him realize his mistakes even further in a Vision Quest much like Callum had due to using Dark Magic for the first time since he was resurrected.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: He says to King Harrow that he's like a brother to him and would do anything for him.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He decides to switch his spirit with King Harrow to save him from the Moonshadow Elves' assassination. But it looks like things didn't go according to plan.
  • Then in season 5 after he recognizes his faults and that Claudia has became a sociopathic copy of himself, Viren accepts he deserve to die for all his lies and betrayals, and the terrible things that resulted from them, and he goes off to die alone in the forest in the hope that Claudia doesn't find him and repeats his mistakes.
• Hidden Depths: While Viren generally comes off as cocky or prideful at worst, he is actually quite insecure about his place in the whole world, seen when he uses a true-sight potion to try and see what's really in the mirror. When nothing comes up, he starts yelling that he thought the mirror would be something special, something important, but it's just useless. However, he slowly comes to realize that he's actually yelling at himself.
  • Then in season 5 he realized he isn't the selfless saint he thought he was, he was using the war and suffering of humanity as an excuse to kill innocents, poach all the magic creatures he wants and deny is his fault things got worse.
• Hypocrite: Minor example. When Queen Aanya refuses to yield to his warmongering, he calls her weak, and unable to make important decisions. As Aanya pointed out, the other rulers had pretty much resigned themselves to following the majority. Viren only called Aanya weak because she didn't submit to him.
  • A better example shows up in the first two episodes. Viren repeatedly tries to convince King Harrow to save himself, saying that every one of his soldiers would willingly give their lives for their king. Harrow shuts him up by asking him if he would do the same.
  • And then there's the fact that he hates elves with a burning passion, yet he's working with one. He also — begrudgingly — accepts that his daughter is dating Terry, an Earthblood Elf, and even compliments Terry's chosen name as being a strong one.
  • He also claims that he wishes for humanity to thrive and prosper and that he only wants what is best for humanity. While a nice sentiment, the problem here is that many of his actions to ensure that has been first and foremost to benefit his own prosperity. While he does share the benefits later on, it's done in a fashion to ensure he doesn't get any flak for it, as shown by his turning his own army into fanatical inhuman monsters.
  • While he claims that everything he does is to protect humanity, no matter how dangerous, vile and evil, and he claims that he is a pragmatist willing to take hard choices for the greater good, in Season 5 he knows now he was just a greedy, bloodthirsty, jingoistic and uncaring idiot making bad excuses to deny is his fault many innocents died.
  • In the early seasons he was willing to sacrifice his son for his goals of killing the princes of Katolis preventing the egg from returning to Xadia, but later he affirms he would never sacrifice his children when Aaravos told him he needs the blood of his child to make his resurrection permanent, it's when he refuses to kill Sparklepuff that Viren realizes he was a hypocrite regarding everything he said about protecting humankind.
• An Ice Person: While he has access to an impressive amount of magic, his go-to spell for direct combat is Aspero Frigis. So far, his track record includes three dragon guards and Thunder himself (though that one lasted for all of half a minute before the dragon king got free).
• Identical Stranger: Bears quite the resemblance to the first human mage whom we see use Dark Magic. Whether it's this trope or Identical Grandson in play remains to be seen.
• I Did What I Had to Do: His justification every time his methods are criticized, no matter how many disasters they wrought.
  • Deconstructed when he reflects upon his life and realizes that everything that went wrong came from his desire to gain power and worth no matter what he had to do to get it.
• I Just Want to Be Special: From his tirade against his own reflection, and his constant need to prove his own value to other people, Viren very much wants to be a person of importance but his single-minded methods always backfire on him.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Implied in Season 2. While he acts smug, when Viren is having difficulty figuring out the secrets of his magic mirror, the way the scene is framed makes it look like he's talking about himself. Bonus points for his use of a Truth-revealing serum on his eyes in the operation: the truth which it reveals might not have been about the mirror at any moment.
  Viren: Nothing? Nothing. Nothing! Oh, you're powerless, useless. I thought you were going to be something special, something important!
• Insistent Terminology: Harrow points out in their argument that Viren has always called dark magic a "creative solution".
• Ironic Name: In Hindi, "viren" means "leader of heroes". Of course, Viren would see his actions as heroic instead of tyrannical.
• Irony: He wanted to end the war against the elves because he thought humans could never flourish while they were around. The war between them does end, not because one side won, but because both sides are starting to join together when he turns out to be a bigger threat.
• It's All About Me: For all of his talk about wanting to protect humanity, all Viren truly wanted was power to himself, with Viren later admiting so after being revived in Season 4.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Even those who don't like him sometimes agree with him, though this is shown most clearly in the books.
  • No matter how much Amaya doubted Viren's intentions, she agreed with his argument that she was most needed at the Breach to protect it from the elves.
  • After the fight against the Magma Titan, Sarai was understandably angry at Viren for suggesting leaving the wounded in Xadia, given that her sister Amaya was one of the wounded. But she still thought that he had the right idea.
  • Aanya saw right through Viren's manipulations at the Pentarchy, but even she privately agreed with him when he called King Ahling a "coward."
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • He may come off as abrasive and morally ambiguous, but he does love his children. He confides in them and says goodbye when it seems he's about to perform his Heroic Sacrifice. Images in the credits also show him happily demonstrating magic to his children in their younger age and enjoying a drink that Claudia brewed up.
  • Although he isn't above deceiving them and has arguments with them about what the right thing to do is, he has a friendship with King Harrow and General Amaya, and discusses fond memories of Queen Sarai with Amaya when they visit her grave.
  • Even as late as the third season, it is clear that (unlike Aaravos) Viren sees Claudia as more than just an asset.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: He starts out as pragmatic, but ultimately gets to the point where he is willing to have the princes killed and is engaging in dark magic far beyond what is appropriate. At the end of episode 5, he decides to imprison Gren, in preparation to make sure the princes wouldn't be found alive. Up till that point, his actions could be excused by a need to protect Katolis by whatever means necessary and by desperation, but after that he starts seeking his own power.
• Kick the Dog: In season 3, in exchange for Ezran peacefully abdicating the throne, Viren agreed to allow soldiers against participating in the upcoming war against Xadia to throw down arms and return to their families. While Viren holds up his end of the bargain, he first shames them in front of the other soldiers, labeling them as cowards, and forcing them to take up a brand to symbolize their "cowardice."
• Kung-Fu Wizard: When fighting against the guards sent by the High Council, he uses his staff in a combination of magic and physical attacks, displaying some rather impressive skills in martial arts. Even without magic, his skills are impressive; he manages to hold his own against two members of the Dragonguard at the same time. Despite being outnumbered and outflanked, he only resorts to magic when backed into a corner.
• Lack of Empathy: Explored. He's a textbook narcissist, so this comes with the territory, but he's a textbook narcissist who wants to be a good friend, ruler, parent, and so he goes on without completely understanding what those are and how to be one (and without the interest and patience to learn what he doesn't understand). The usual rule of thumb is that he'll do things for other people in hopes of gaining their adulation, or in hopes of improving his own power, reputation, and legacy through them, while sincerely believing that this is what it means to do good.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • For all the evil things that he did, he gets exposed and imprisoned by Opeli for his crimes and even Aaravos couldn't do anything to save him.
  • In season 3, his mistreatment of Aanya, Soren, the Sunfire Elves, the people who didn't want to support him (Corvus, Opeli and some soldiers) come back to bite him. Aanya unites her army with Corvus, Opeli and the conscientious objectors and marches against Viren in the battle on Stormspire where they turn the tides. Soren's continuous mistreatment leads him to leave the army and join the princes, where he turns out to be a valuable asset. The Sunfire Elves, angered at the destruction of their home and queen, are even willing to join forces with humans to bring him down, creating an army that far surpasses his own. Furthermore, his decision to turn his army into Super Soldiers at the cost of their sanity bites him back when it turns out that they're now terrible at strategizing and are sloppy in battle.
• Life Drain: He has apparently been draining the life force of some magic beings, in this case, butterflies he keeps hidden in his office.
• Light Is Not Good: At the end of season 3, he switches from his normal dark clothes to a white robe, takes the sunfire magic with the aid of Aaravos, and loses whatever sympathy and good were left in him.
• Living on Borrowed Time: In Season 4, Claudia reveals that Viren died at the end of Season 3 and that she's reanimated him with Aaravos' help, but he only has thirty days before he dies again for good. Viren wants to spend what time he has left being a proper father to Claudia, but she rejects this and tells him to get a hold of himself.

M-W

• Magic Staff: He wields the Relic Staff, an ornate staff that aids in his magic. It's normally shorter, like a cane, but can extend to full staff length if need be. The official website reveals that it's the same magic staff used by the first human dark mage Ziard, and was made by an elf. In Season 4, Ibis reveals that said elf was none other than Aaravos. The lower end of the staff is incredibly sharp and capable of piercing flesh (which Ibis sadly found out the hard way).
• Manipulative Bastard: To a degree. He can manipulate his children but only because they are so desperate for his approval. For the first two seasons, his attempts at manipulating others mostly fail. He makes up for it in season 3, however, where he demonstrates that, under the right circumstances, he's an excellent people person, able to persuade an entire army to his cause using only his words, and ensuring that at least Neolandia would be on his side against Xadia. This is part of the reason Aaravos partners up with him, as Aaravos' people skills are somewhat limited by his confinement.
• Meaningful Name: In German, "Viren" means "viruses". It also sounds a bit like "villain".
• Military Mage: Although his primary mission is to serve King Harrow as an advisor, he is seen taking part in both planning strategies for battles as well as the fighting itself. He's perfectly capable of fighting Rayla's parents and Rayla herself on his own.
• Mirror Character: To Runaan. They are on opposite sides of the war, but they both urge their subordinates to commit acts of evil in the name of pragmatism. Notably, Runaan and Viren both admit that killing the innocent princes is evil, but do it anyway in the name of "the greater good".
• Missing Steps Plan: When Aaravos asks Viren what his overall goal is in Season 3, Viren proudly declares that his intention is to allow humanity to flourish. When Aaravos asks if that includes conquering Xadia to do so, Viren falters.
• Moral Myopia: He treats the Moonshadow elves infiltrating the kingdom to kill Harrow as an act of war, but his own ride into Xadia alongside Harrow to kill Thunder doesn't seem to register as a similarly aggressive act in his mind.
• Moses Archetype: Fits a dark version of the trope. He views himself as humanity's savior, fit to unite the human kingdoms to wage war against and wipe out the oppressive dragon and elven kingdoms of Xadia with himself as the leader to lead his people into a paradise. In season 2, he saves people from a famine, and in season 3 he is seen in white robes, parts a river of lava with his staff like Moses did with the Red Sea.
• My Way or the Highway: Whenever he comes up with an idea or a solution, he'll hardly budge and think of alternative options to that. This is shown the most when he brings up the console of the four kingdoms, and at first is glad that the other rulers are taking his side to fight against the elves, but the moment Aanya points out the flaw in his plans, everyone starts to pull back out of the agreement and Viren labels them all as cowards.
• Narcissist: He's got a case of narcissistic personality disorder lifted straight out of a medical textbook - he Can't Take Criticism, he's got severe Lack of Empathy, and his obsession with being a great man who saves humanity with 'creative solutions' constantly overrides any interest in how it might be accomplished, what the cost might be, and what happens afterwards. It makes him dangerous, irredeemable (because he's completely incapable of understanding he might need redemption), and curiously human and vulnerable as a villain - he's not a monster, but a man with the worst possible illness someone in his position could have.
• Necessarily Evil: Viren belives that sometimes a problem requires a "creative solution". If it works, then why care about the details?
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Viren proclaims his ruthless actions are for humanity's benefit but in truth he's trying to improve his own feelings of self-worth and gain the adulation of others through grand accomplishments.
• One-Man Army: Downplayed. He utterly obliterates the guards sent to arrest him, but he's only able to do this because Aaravos is channeling primal magic through him. However, since he was able to use his abilities to hold off the king of the dragons, he certainly qualifies.
• Only Mostly Dead: As of "Through the Moon," he was dead enough to appear in the spirit world (whereas even his coin victims weren't that dead), but being kept in stasis by Aaravos' cocoon. About two years later, Claudia and Aaravos succeeded in reviving him fully.
• Papa Wolf: Two examples, in seasons 3 and 5:
  • When Aaravos calls Claudia a "valuable asset", Viren reprimands the Startouch Elf for viewing his daughter as a potential means to an end.
  • When Aaravos reveals his plan to use the homunculus' blood to make the resurrection spell on Viren permanent, Viren refuses to go along with it.
• Pet the Dog: In the reflections story Strangers, he notices Soren is having a panic attack while held captive at their camp, and guides Soren through it by repeating an old breathing exercise with him that they used to do when Soren was little. A rare moment of fatherly concern for his son he never showed before his resurrection.
• Politically Correct Villain: His messiah complex to unite Humanity against Xadia aside, he shows no intolerance towards the Queens of Duren, and merely protests aiding their kingdom on the pragmatic grounds that it would shorten the food supplies of Katolis. When Terry confides that he is transgender, Viren simply compliments his chosen name and doesn't object to him dating his daughter.
• Pragmatic Hero: Deconstructed. Viren initially had good intentions, wanting what is best for Katolis and all of humanity. However, at some point, his "doing things for the greater good" turns into an excuse to commit actions worse than the ones he is fighting against, eventually turning him into a full-blown villain, and blatantly seizing power in season 3 and reveling in taking it.
• Pragmatic Villainy: By the time he and Harrow killed Thunder, Viren has become enough of a villain to rationalize destroying an egg, even against Harrow's appeals to morality; the only thing that stops him is the realization that the egg is a great source of power, and that he would gain more by stealing it than destroying it.
• Purple Is Powerful: His eyes gain a purple glow whenever he uses Dark Magic, which typically displays just why he has the position of high mage of Katolis.
• "The Reason I Suck" Speech: Viren delivers a scathing one to himself. While trying to decipher the mystery of the mirror, Viren uses a True Sight spell that will "strip away all illusions" and allow him to see the truth. He looks in the mirror and only sees his reflection, leading him to rant that the mirror is powerless and useless and that he thought it would be something important. The whole time he is pointing at himself (his reflection), showing how Viren really views himself: as nothing special or powerful.
• Redemption Rejection: In Book 4, Viren contemplates letting go of his ambitions — which got him killed — and simply spending the time he has left with his daughter. Claudia slaps him and snaps that she didn't spend two years doing unspeakable things to resurrect him only to have him give up, and Viren relapses into his old power-hungry self when he reclaims his staff. However, Season 5 subverts this, as after using Dark Magic for the first time since he was resurrected, Viren undergoes a Vision Quest in which he realizes the wrongs he had committed and that he risks dragging Claudia down his footsteps if he proceeds any further in his journey. Instead, he ultimately decides to let the resurrection spell expire naturally rather than let himself be fully revived while he and Claudia are following Aaravos.
• Red Right Hand: His right eye in Book 3 gets webbed up.
• Regent for Life: He wants the title of Lord Protector rather than King as he's not of the royal bloodline, but he clearly intends on keeping it and decides to kill the princes to do so, as he believes they're too young and naive to rule. Interestingly it seems that Amaya is in a similar position and would become Queen Regent if she chose to take the throne, with the High Council acting as the true power until the princes were found and instated. He falsely claims to have been appointed Regent to grant legitimacy to his request to summon the Pentarchy. When he's found out, he's stripped of his position and arrested.
• Secretly Selfish: While his main goal is to help humanity, to a degree, he is also heavily motivated by his own ego. He enjoys the idea of gaining political (not to mention magical) power and raising to the throne and the fact that people will follow him in battle.
• Senseless Sacrifice: He attempts one in a flashback during the retrieval of the Magma Titan's heart. When Queens Annika and Niha make their own Heroic Sacrifice to delay Thunder long enough for everyone else to get to safety, he stays back to help them. The thing is, he's the only one who could cast the spell they needed the Titan's heart for so Queen Sarai has to perform a Heroic Sacrifice of her own to save him.
• Single Tear: Sheds one as he's turned to stone in the season 4 title sequence.
• Snowballing Threat: Viren's accumulation of power amounts to this, and is directly called out as such by Soren.
• Sorcerous Overlord: Manages to become one in Season Three, although he's eventually defeated.
• Soul Power: This is how dark magic is cast. Since he's a virtuoso at it, he is able to capture people's (or at least, elves') souls in gold coins.
• The Straight Man: In just about any conversation with his children. Temper aside, he's one of the show's more stoic characters.
• Tantrum Throwing: Explodes when things stop going his way, as he is incapable of seeing any other viewpoints that don't align with his own, resorting to insults and dismissal even towards Queen Aanya when she refuses to senselessly sacrifice her armies in a war he is intent on starting because he refuses to acknowledge that she has a point.
• Trauma Button: As of Book 4, Viren has become terrified of heights, as a result of having fallen to his death form the top of a tall mountain. Naturally, the first thing he has to do after his revival is recovering his magic staff...which is at the very top of the exact same mountain he fell to death from. He's so traumatized by this that he contemplates giving up on a permanent resurrection and just living out the 30 days he's got left...but Claudia slaps him and insists that she won't let him die after everything she's done to revive him.
• Toxic Friend Influence: The flashback that reveals how he finished the spell that managed to kill the dragon king showed he enabled Harrow's hatred of him for killing the queen, enforcing that he enabled some of Harrow's more negative tendencies with enthusiasm. Even after getting revenge, he quickly finds a reason to justify killing the child as well.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Lies, manipulates and bullies his way to the crown, starting a war against Xadia and inflicting a mark of shame on those who refuse to join his campaign.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: He wants to defeat the elves and end the war, and is willing to emotionally abuse and discard his children, assassinate rulers, create fearmongering, and even assassinate children of the man he greatly cared about for this goal.
• Villain Has a Point: Viren's plans might be extreme, but he is the only one of the human leaders in Book Two who acknowledges that hostilities with Xadia have already begun with the murder of the King of Katolis, and who attempts to undertake any action in response to this. However, season 3 ends up implying he's actually wrong, as Janai has no idea what humanity was planning or why they had a secret base in Xadia, questioning why Amaya was there. The assassination was done to appease the dying dragon queen, showing that the escalation of the conflict was as much the result of their own reactions as the elves and dragons fighting back.
• Villainous Valor: Viren is entirely willing to put his life on the line for his cause. When surrounded by soldiers and having several arrows stuck in him, he only stops fighting because Aaravos stops supplying him with magic. On two separate occasions he's ridden into battle against the Dragon King himself and he agreed with Aaravos' plan to enter Lux Aurea alone so only his life, and none of his army, was at risk.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He takes a lot of cruel actions over the course of Book One, but most of them seem to come from a genuine belief that he has to take control during a crisis to save Katolis, and by extension, humanity. Instead of being a redeeming quality, this actually makes him more dangerous, giving him something akin to Heroic Resolve and making him impossible to expose. This is best shown in season three, where a conversation with Aaravos has him repeatedly describe his ambitions as lofty and noble ideals of uplifting humanity while Aavaros points out that they are currently trying to conquer Xadia and goads Viren to acknowledge the discrepancy between that and his more benevolent sounding goals.
• What You Are in the Dark: Played with in an interesting way. For all his ambition, Viren has shown multiple times to be ready to give his own life for his kingdom and his beliefs. He even risked his life to try and save Queens Annika and Neha, despite it going completely against his usual pragmatism. However, this side of him only shows himself in really dire and tense circumstances, but otherwise Viren will adapt more pragmatic solutions, and search for the way that gives him more power as an added bonus.
• Would Hurt a Child: He stole the Dragon Prince egg, reasoning that it would have become a powerful enemy one day. He later orders Soren to kill Ezran and Callum so that he can take power.
• Your Days Are Numbered: When Claudia resurrects him with dark magic in Season 4, his revival will only last for exactly 30 days. That's how long they have to free Aaravos, who claims he can restore Viren's life permanently.

---