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The Briarwoods
In General
- Arch-Enemy: Inarguably Percy's most hated foes, responsible for massacring all but one of his entire family.
- Arc Villain: They are the main villains of the first season, and Percy's most personal foes as the ones responsible for massacring his family.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: A pair made up of an immortal vampire and a Black Mage that made a pact with a demonic entity, murdered the de Rolos and nearly destroyed the city the de Rolos previously ruled over.
- Bad Boss: Neither care about the well-being of their servants at all. Sylas throws Desmond off of their carriage and leaves him for Vox Machina so the unrepentant couple can escape and in "A Silver Tongue", Delilah, in retaliation to Vox Machina freeing Cassandra and Keyleth creating the De Rolo crest with the clouds, angrily calls for her steward, only to murder him in cold blood and use as a sacrifice to raise an army of murderous zombies to battle Vox Machina and by extent punish the citizens of Whitestone. Judging by Sylas' nonchalance towards his wife dragging the corpse of their employee and leaving a trail of blood, it's more than likely that poor boy was not the first servant Delilah's murdered.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Sylas and Delilah are the dual main villains of the first season as the masterminds behind the Whitestone coup and Percy's primary targets for revenge, which also makes them indirectly responsible for Orthax becoming a secondary threat as the demon preys on Percy's festering hatred to gain a hold over him. While Sylas is the physical powerhouse, Delilah is the driving force behind their reign of terror responsible for the horrors they subject Whitestone to through her necromancy.
- Faux Affably Evil: They act polite and cordial to most everyone they interact with, but are quick to reveal their monstrous nature. Best exemplified when they invite some of their subjects to a banquet, only to kill them and hang them on the Sun Tree to mock Vox Machina.
- Sword and Sorcerer: Sylas is the dangerous vampire swordsman, while Delilah is the necromancer.
- Unholy Matrimony: By all accounts, the love between these two dark terrors is genuine. They compliment each other, praise their dark deeds, and admire their unholy powers. Delilah in particular compliments Sylas after slaughtering a group of bandits that had no idea what they were messing with. When Sylas finally dies permanently at the hands of Grog and Keyleth, Delilah voices a cosmos-tearing shriek of outrage and despair and, in her grief, attempts to summon The Whispered One to bring Sylas Back from the Dead.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The Briarwoods, thanks to Sylas' Charm Person abilities, are seen as the legitimate rulers of Whitestone by the denizens of Emon, resulting in Vox Machina getting into trouble after their fight with the nobles.
Lady Delilah Briarwood
Lady Delilah Briarwood
"The Whispered One is coming."
Voiced by: Grey DeLisle
Race: Human
A powerful necromancer from Wildemount with grave intentions for Whitestone.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: In the original campaign, Delilah's hair was auburn while in the TV series, it's dark brown.
- Arc Villain: Of season 1. Even though she shares this role with Sylas, her decision to turn Sylas into a vampire and start their descent into villainy makes Delilah the main antagonist of the first season and the Whitestone arc.
- Black Mage: She became one by making a pact with the Whispered One.
- Casting a Shadow: Her magic is black and purple, and it's explicitly shown to be evil. In Episode 4, she summons wraiths to track down one of her lost books with an unholy sigil on the ground.
- Despair Event Horizon: Sylas' final death at Keyleth's hands causes Delilah to take a terrifying freefall plunge into furious, howling insanity.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Delilah was willing to sell her soul to necromancy in order to save her husband Sylas from illness, and her love for him remains her only great redeeming quality even years later.
- Evil Counterpart: Like Percy, Delilah made a Deal with the Devil out of love. Percy for vengeance for his family, Delilah to save Sylas' life. Unlike Percy who unwittingly bargained and was shocked upon his revelation, eventually managed to heal from his grief and anger and values his friends as his new family, Delilah knew what she was doing and devoted herself to her bargainer, shamelessly doubled down on the deal afterwards and instead of friends has expendable minions.
- Ghostly Wail: Her magic is accompanied by banshee-like screaming.
- Goth Girls Know Magic: She wears a gothic black Victorian dress and uses demonic magic powers.
- Hypocrite: Her entire motivation is the desire to never be separated from her beloved husband, a fate she considers to be worse than death. But that doesn't stop her from forcing countless innocents to suffer similar losses and then some.
- The Illegible: Scanlan, who wields similar arcane magic to hers, remarks while deciphering her book that her handwriting is "the worst".
- Karmic Death: She dies at Cassandra's hands, after killing her entire family and controlling her for years.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Courtesy of Cassandra stabbing her in the throat with a saber. Delilah is proudly proclaiming that "the rivers will flow with the blood of-!" before Cassandra provides her pointed counterargument.
- Lady of Black Magic: Delilah is an elegant and sophisticated woman with dark demonic powers.
- Licked by the Dog: A little girl Delilah has called to her presence is delighted when given the gift of a necklace by Delilah who acts sweetly towards the child. Shame the girl is the victim Delilah has picked out to be an analogy for Pike for Vedmire to murder and string up dead on the Sun Tree. The necklace was a simulation of Pike's Holy Symbol.
- Love Makes You Evil: Delilah’s immense love for Sylas was what drove her to turn him into a vampire as she did not want to lose him when he fell ill to a fatal disease. It also drove her to become a wicked dark sorceress who dabbles in necromancy.
- Moral Myopia: Delilah's logic operates like this: If she kills and tortures hundreds of people regardless of age? Oh well, you can't make a good omelet without breaking some eggs. You kill her husband? Then you're a heartless, immoral monster who took away her reason for living and no one has it worse than her.
- Necromancer: Delilah is a very powerful necromancer, raising dangerous wraiths to retrieve her missing book and a giant horde of undead to snuff out the rebellion in Whitestone.
- Necromantic: She became a necromancer to save the love of her life, Sylas, and bring him back from the dead as a vampire.
- Of Corsets Sexy: She wears a purple corset over her black dress, accentuating her hour-glass figure.
- Purple Is Powerful: She's a powerful arcane caster in a position of authority (Lady of Whitestone) and has purple eyes. Her black magic has purple edges as well.
- Talk to the Fist: She's mid-rant towards Vox Machina and preparing to cast another dark magic spell when Cassandra shuts up Delilah with a rapier through the throat. Delilah can only feebly choke and gurgle on her own blood before Cassandra nearly takes her whole head off pulling the blade out.
- Villainous Breakdown: Delilah is beyond distraught when Keyleth kills Sylas, and attempts to summon her patron the Whispered One...only to fail at the last second. She invites Percy to kill her because he can't possibly take any more from her, but his Orthax-induced threats of torturing her to death frighten even her.
- Would Hurt a Child: Orders the death of two children (which Duke Vedmire is only too happy to perform) as part of her attempt to send a message to Vox Machina. She has a Whitestone civilian murdered for each member of Vox Machina—hung on the Sun Tree in the center of town and using two human children as the analogues for Scanlan and Pike.
- Wicked Witch: Delilah’s use of necromancy and dark magic along with wearing dark colored outfits indicates that she is indeed an evil witch.
Lord Sylas Briarwood
Lord Sylas Briarwood
"You are a curious one... And you look delicious."
Voiced by: Matthew Mercer
Race: Human vampire
Delilah's husband, a powerful vampire and ruthless swordsman in his own right.
- Adaptational Badass: In the first fight against Vox Machina in Critical Role, he took one heck of a beating and only barely escaped. In this show, it's a Curb-Stomp Battle in his favor. The only thing that happens to Sylas is a small cut from Grog's axe that his vampirism can't heal, and it doesn't even seem to bother him all that much.
- Beard of Evil: A well-trimmed goatee, fitting for an evil vampire lord.
- Black Swords Are Better: Wields Craven Edge, a black blade that feeds on blood to grow bigger and can be magically summoned to his hand.
- Charm Person: He has a vampire's innate charm abilities, which he demonstrates by mentally dominating the Sovereign over dinner into leaving Whitestone's independence unchallenged and later making Vax leave himself defenseless to be bitten.
- Cool Sword: He has a black-bladed sword that feeds on blood (not only making it larger with more blood it "feeds" on, but also changing its appearance slightly) and can be magically summoned to hand. After Grog helps Keyleth kill him, he decides to keep it in addition to his Axe.
- Devilish Hair Horns: Downplayed in that Sylas' hairstyle isn't shaped like horns, but he has two thin, grey streaks of hair that resemble thin horns from certain angles.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the webshow, his body was downed by Percy's gunfire before Keyleth destroyed his gaseous form with Sunbeam. Here, while he still dies from the same spell, Grog grabs Sylas and holds him in place for Keyleth to incinerate his body directly.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The love that Delilah has for him is very much mutual on his part.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Downplayed, but he does seem rather perturbed, albeit briefly, by Delilah murdering their steward to use as fuel for her necromantic ritual.
- He seems taken aback when Grog accuses him of seducing him during their rematch.
- Fangs Are Evil: He has the typical vampire fangs and he uses his bite to mind-control others.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Pay attention when he and Delilah are returning to their room and one can notice his distinct lack of a reflection in a mirror they pass, a few minutes before his vampiric nature is revealed by biting Vax.
- Healing Factor: Conventional weapon attacks will just be healed a few seconds later. That being said, these attacks definitely still hurt, even if they aren't fatal; Grog slamming his axe into the vampire's stomach stuns Sylas long enough for Grog to grab him, which sets up Keyleth using an enormous beam of holy light to render Sylas Reduced to Dust.
- Holy Burns Evil: Since he's a vampire, holy-based attacks hurt him in a way that his Healing Factor can't regenerate from. When Pike enchants Grog's axe with holy energy, a slash to Sylas on the midsection doesn't heal. Grog even says "I'll bet that hurt!" upon seeing it. He's also Killed Off for Real when he's hit with a massive beam of holy light from Keyleth.
- Hungry Weapon: While not very explicit, his blade is also a bloodsucker like he is and it actually grows bigger once it consumed enough of Grog's blood during the first fight between Vox Machina and the Briarwoods."My blade thirsts."
- Kill It with Fire: A variation. He is completely incinerated by Keyleth's light magic going at full power when Grog has him restrained.
- No-Sell: His reaction to Grog's balltag is an annoyed look and nothing more.
- Reduced to Dust: Keyleth's spell chars his body to a partially skeletal husk which quickly turns to dust in Grog's arms.
- Vampires Are Sex Gods: Played with; the scene where he charms Vax and bites his neck while Delilah looks on is framed rather erotically, but during the battle at the ziggurat when Grog outright claims that the vampire swordsman is trying to seduce him, Sylas is momentarily baffled, either because he has his limits or because Grog accused him so casually.
Associates
Professor Anders
Professor Byron Anders
Voiced by: Stephen Root
Race: Human
The former tutor of the de Rolo children who betrayed the family to the Briarwoods.
- Adaptational Badass: In the original, he's only able to charm one person at a time, but here he takes control of all members of Vox Machina sans Percy. Had he bothered to control Percy as well instead of trying to draw the latter's demise out, he likely could have defeated the whole party by himself.
- Break the Haughty: Over the course of one episode, Anders goes from being a pompous, sadistic, arrogant son of a bitch to a bug-eyed, cowering worm at the mercy of the kid he helped imprison and torture, who is now grown up and out for his blood.
- Caught Monologuing: Downplayed. After Anders takes control of Vox Machina, he can't resist indulging in some Evil Gloating, which Percy draws out by appealing to his massive ego. Anders realises what Percy's doing in playing to his ego, but Anders has already given Percy all the time he needs to pull off his trick shot.
- Charm Person: Thanks to the Briarwoods gifting him with a magical tongue, he is able to take control of first Grog, then the rest of Vox Machina to turn them against Percy.
- Composite Character: Downplayed, but Anders has a manor in Whitestone, and invading it to take him down requires Scanlan rampaging through Duke Vedmire's mansion as a distraction; in the original campaign, that role belonged to Count Tylieri, and the battle with Anders to rescue Cassandra instead occurred in Whitestone Castle itself.
- The Dragon: As their first collaborator, the primary betrayer of the de Rolo family, and the one who benefits the most from the new management, Anders functions as this to Delilah and Sylas.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: His motivation for joining the Briarwoods and turning on the de Rolos, as he believed Percy's parents saw him as a mere tutor and repeatedly turned down his proposals to increase residuum production.
- Facial Horror: Percy blows his face in half, tearing his tongue out and unhinging his jaw in the process. And this doesn't even kill him.
- Faster Than They Look: He's a middle-aged, heavyset man who looks like Humpty Dumpty, but is quick and agile enough to dodge many of Percy's shots.
- Fat Bastard: Overweight and very, very evil.
- Flunky Boss: While Anders does briefly fight personally against Percy, he spends the rest of the fight standing in the back and letting his minions fight in his place. Mixed in with his Charm Person capabilities that also extends to using Percy's own friends against him.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: The Briarwoods gave him a literal silver tongue that has the power to mind-control others, allowed him to pursue his experiments and treated him as a valued ally. However, after Percy shot him out of the window turning his head into a bloody smear on the pavement neither Delilah nor Sylas mourn him that much, if at all. We see Delilah become angered when the de Rolo crest was formed in the clouds, courtesy of Keyleth and her weather magic, but more so because of Vox Machina's victory instead of vengeance for Anders.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Wears round glasses and he's a despicable individual who betrayed his patrons and aided in the murder of the de Rolos.
- Hate Sink: While Anders did believe the de Rolos looked down on him and didn't appreciate him, his personal feelings pale in comparison to the amount of despicable things he did. He betrayed the de Rolos, including their children; he worked with the Briarwoods to oppress Whitestone; he slit Cassandra’s throat in front of Percy; and he attempted to force Vox Machina to kill Percy out of pure sadism.
- It's Personal with the Dragon: For Percy, it's very much personal with all five of his targets, but as he points out to Anders before giving him an explosive Coup de Grâce through the head, being his personal tutor and then outing him and Cassandra to the Briarwoods out of spite against his family when they trusted him to see them safe cut him deep. Having just sliced Cassandra's throat in front of him and then trying to give him a sadistic drawn-out death at the hands of his friends didn't improve his feelings towards his old teacher either.Percy: We trusted you. You were our teacher. We would have done anything you asked. And you betrayed us when we needed you most. You're the face I saw when murder entered my heart.
- Karmic Death: For as long as the audience has seen him, Professor Anders has been associated with talking. As he teacher, he gives long lectures to the de Rolo children, is fond of doling out The Reason You Suck speeches to Percy and Cassandra and a posthumous one to their deceased mother, calling her a "bitch" and most famously uses his literal silver tongue to mind control others to his will. He dies by getting his jaw shot off which severs his tongue, his most valuable tool, completely from his mouth.
- Living Apart: More dying apart than living apart, but when Percy shoots off Anders' magical tongue it tries to crawl off and escape on its own; Grog stabs it with an arrow while Percy deals with the rest of Anders.
- More Despicable Minion: Delilah and Sylas are no doubt the main antagonists who commit enough evil acts of such heinousness to shock a Mafia hitman, yet both Briarwoods have many fans because of their charisma, sympathetic backstories and genuine love for each other. However, no one has anything nice to say about Professor Anders. For starters, he blames Cassandra and Percy for their parents denying his scientific ambitions, which seem to be only fueled by Ander's overbloated ego and irrepressible desire for power instead of society's benefit, shows no appreciation for the de Rolos supposed free room and board in their castle,murders most of the De Rolos and turns Percy and Cassandra over to Dr. Ripley and the Briarwoods to be imprisoned and tortured for information neither one had, wholeheartedly aids in oppressing the citizens of Whitestone, slits Cassandra's throat right in front of Percy and mocks them about it, calls Percy's mother a "bitch" and mind-controls Vox Machina to attack Percy. Needless to say, no one was sad to see Percy take Anders off the list.
- Personality Powers: In Percy's flashback in the prior episode, Anders demonstrated frustration at Cassandra ignoring his lesson to mess with Percy, as well as Lord de Rolo refusing his suggestions to improve residuum production—in other words, a dislike of people ignoring him or disobeying his commands. The Briarwoods’ gift ensures that nobody can ever ignore him or his orders ever again. Ironically, Percy, the one person who apparently always listened to his lessons and behaved himself as a model student, is the one person he never controls with the ability, out of a sadistic desire to torment him.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Anders attempts to kill Cassandra and Percy because he felt slighted by their parents after all of his greater ambitions were shut down. Cassandra and Percy had been nothing but loyal to Anders, Percy even saying "we would have done anything you asked". But Anders wanted his vengeance and his ego sated, and it cost him dearly.
- Smug Snake: Anders is smug and confident throughout the entire encounter with Vox Machina, toying with them and taking his time with killing them. His overconfidence proves his undoing as he doesn't mind control Percy but instead intends to let his friends kill him, only for Percy to shoot him with a trick shot.
- Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: While all five of the targets Percy is hunting are terrible people, Anders' slimy and treacherous actions make him stand out among the others as a particularly despicable piece of work. Especially since Anders
- Villain Ball: While having the last target of revenge at his mercy, Anders saw fit to draw out the demise by making Percy's friends kill him instead, which gave Percy an opening to shoot his jaw off.
- Wicked Cultured: As a professor by trade, Anders is incredibly erudite, intellectual, and well-spoken, and his voice actor Stephen Root emphasizes this with an upper-class accent circa early 1900's America, not unlike what old recordings of the Presidents sounded like. He's also a petty, sadistic traitor and easily one of the most unlikable people in the entire first season.
- Your Head Asplode: A point-blank shot through the roof of his mouth into his head is what kills him after Percy blasts Anders with the List, sending him out a window. When the camera shows his corpse, his head is nothing but a red smear on the ground.
Kerrion Stonefell
Sir Kerrion Stonefell
Voiced by: Darin De Paul
Race: Duergar
Captain of the guard for the Briarwoods. A disgusting, evil mess of a man.
- Adaptational Ugliness: Is human and described as having an almost boyish charm in the original campaign, but in the animated series is a fat bald man who is described as a disgusting, evil mess.
- Adaptational Villainy: Much more openly sadistic and cruel in the animated series.
- An Arm and a Leg: His left arm is severed at the shoulder just before Percy kills him.
- Bad Boss: At one point he kneecaps one of his own men in order to bring the poor sod down to the proper height for Stonefell to use him as a human shield.
- Bald of Evil: Adding to his ugliness and his evilness, Kerrion has no hair at all on his head.
- Composite Character: His Adaptational Ugliness is largely the result of taking on the rotund form and disgusting physical appearance of Count Tylieri. His nature as a hammer wielding Duergar who serves as the arc’s Starter Villain also harkens to the unnamed Duergar General from the stream’s Underdark arc.
- Fat Bastard: Stonefell is small, pudgy, and singularly repulsive in looks, morals, and personality.
- Gonk: Kerrion is a grotesque and disgusting mess of a man, as ugly as he is evil.
- More Despicable Minion: Sylas and Delilah are obviously a more serious threat and commit plenty of monstrously evil acts on-screen, the ending of "Fate's Journey", anyone? However, Delilah's descent into villainy was to save her beloved husband from succumbing to a rare fatal disease which makes her motive a bit more sympathetic with fans than if she turned to villainy simply for power or other selfish desires. Also, both Sylas and Delilah are still openly affectionate with and protect each other even after all these years, and are charismatic and entertaining enough to endear themselves to fans and casual viewers. Meanwhile, Stonefell has no love for anyone beyond himself (he is respectful and obedient to the Briarwoods, but mainly because they let him run a pseudo Spanish Inquisition for rebels who try to take Whitestone back), commits sadistic acts of torture and murder for no other reason than sheer enjoyment, which he even admitted in an episode and has little to no characterization beyond being a sadistic, murderous toadie for the real antagonists.
- Race Lift: In the original campaign he is a human, but the blueish-grey color of his skin, his brutish features and especially his short size paired with his stocky build imply that he is a Duergar in the series.
- Starter Villain: The first named antagonist to be confronted in Whitestone.
- Stout Strength: He has a notable girth, but wields his hammer with enough strength to bash someone's head in with a single strike.
Goran Vedmire
Duke Goran Vedmire
Voiced by: Rory McCann
Race: Goliath
A mercenary turned lord under the Briarwoods with a knack for torture.
- Actor Allusion: Thanks to Scanlan, Vedmire loses about half of his face to burn scars and comes out looking nearly identical to his actor's most famous role. He's also bald with massive sideburns, like Tywin Lannister, as well as freakishly strong and outlandishly violent, like Gregor Clegane.
- Adaptational Badass: In the original webshow, he was only a mild threat to Scanlan when the latter raided his mansion, and was defeated and captured offscreen by the people of Whitestone. Here, Scanlan barely makes it out with his life during the first encounter with him. Later, Goran returns with a pack of giant zombies, nearly kills Scanlan again and kills Archie in combat.
- Bald of Evil: Being a goliath means he has no hair and he's a brutal enforcer of the Briarwoods.
- BFS: Vedmire wields a large executioner's greatsword with a rounded and wide tip. Very fitting for a person serving as enforcer and executioner for the Briarwoods.
- Death by Adaptation: In the webshow, he was spared by the people of Whitestone in exchange for him being forced to help rebuild the city. Here, after killing Archie, Percy shoots him in the leg and then lets the citizens of Whitestone do the rest.
- Egomaniac Hunter: Implied. His mansion is filled with taxidermies and trophies of various creatures, and he makes a remark about usually being the one hunting beasts in their domain as a polymorphed Scanlan wreaks havoc inside.
- Hero Killer: Kills the rebellion leader Archibald Desnay
- Karmic Death: Percy incapacitates him in retribution for Archie's death, but because he's not on Percy's revenge list, he decides not to kill him personally, instead calling upon the citizens of Whitestone, whom Vedmire had helped to brutally oppress, to have their way with him. They oblige, and Vedmire is hanged from the Sun Tree just as he had done to many innocent townsfolk.
- Neck Lift: Vedmire lifts up Archibald by the neck during his interrogation, slamming him against the wall and choking him.
- One-Handed Zweihänder: Being a super strong goliath, Vedmire has no issue swinging around that large greatsword of his with just one hand.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Attempts this when the battle turns against the Briarwood forces, only for Percy to shoot out his leg and then leave him to the mercy of the long-oppressed people of Whitestone.
- Toilet Humour: In the episode "Scanbo", Scanlan tries to sneak into Vedmire's house to create a distraction for the rest of Vox Machina. Unfortunately, he finds himself in the privvy, and Vedmire is on the toilet itself at the time taking a poop.
- Trophy Room: Has a room in his house filled with trophies of beasts and animals that he's hunted, including the skull of a triceratops somehow. After Scanlan ends up pissing him off with his intrusion, he intends to add his head to the wall.
- Villainous Gold Tooth: He noticeably has a few gold teeth, implying he lost them in a fight and replaced them once he became a wealthy lord under the Briarwoods. A former mercenary, he has a knack for torture and works as a brutal enforcer/executioner.
- Violent Glaswegian: Rory McCann tones down his powerful native accent to a growling burr that is nonetheless audibly Scottish. As for the "violent" part, he tears a man's ear off with his fingers in his opening scene.
- Would Hurt a Child: Reveals that he strung up the children from the Sun Tree while taunting Scanlan in "Scanbo".
Doctor Anna Ripley
Doctor Anna Ripley
Voiced by: Kelly Hu
Race: Human
An ally of the Briarwoods, and one of the targets on The List.
- Adaptational Villainy: Sat out the conflict with the Chroma Conclave in the original stream, but here she actively aids Umbrasyl in stealing a Vestige of Divergence.
- Adaptation Expansion: Takes a bigger role in the Chroma Conclave arc. In the stream, she was the Arc Villain of one of the many subplots during this storyline, providing Vox Machina with competition in chasing the Vestiges of Divergence, but she did this with the aid of mercenaries and her own bargain with Orthax, remaining uninvolved in the affairs of the Conclave. Here, she's directly connected to one of the dragons and takes a more prominent presence in the storyline.
- An Arm and a Leg: Lost her right hand while trying to create her own firearm.
- Artificial Limbs: After her escape she replaces her missing hand with a metallic one.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Downplayed with her alliance with Umbrasyl. The Chroma Conclave are the overriding villains in Season 2, but it is Ripley's deal with Umbrasyl that poses the biggest immediate threat after she informs him of Vox Machina's quest for the Vestiges of Divergence and the strength the weapons could grant him, resulting in the two teaming up to hunt down the artifacts and oversee the pillaging of Westruun in their mutual pursuit of greater power. Umbrasyl, for his part, seems to consider Ripley a legitimate partner, allowing her to ride on his back and backtalk the likes of both the Herd and even Thordak himself.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Acts as one of the main villains, along with Thordak and Umbrasyl, for Season 2. While Thordak is the clear overriding threat, and Ripley herself never personally interacts with Vox Machina in this season, her alliance with Umbrasyl is what causes him to interrupt the hunt for the Vestiges, severely derailing Vox Machina's plans and creating a secondary threat when Umbrasyl's ambitions begin causing him to split from his master.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Percy is talked into letting her live when they find her imprisoned in the castle dungeon because she's the only one who has even the faintest idea of what the Briarwoods' endgame is.
- Dragon Ascendant: Ripley served as one of the Briarwoods' very first conspirators, a chief player in both the slaughter of the de Rolo family and the torture of the survivors, and one of the architects of the ziggurat summoning ritual, though this alliance has considerably soured and she has lost the role to Anders by the time Vox Machina arrives in Whitestone. She is nonetheless the only one of the Briarwoods' associates to escape the city unscathed, going on to enact her own plans with the Chroma Conclave as one of the main villains of season 2.
- Enemy Mine: After she was thrown in the dungeon by the Briarwoods when her usefulness came to an end, Ripley had no love for them and offers her aid in helping Vox Machina thwart their scheme. It takes a lot of convincing to persuade Percy to stay his hand long enough to reach the Ziggurat.
- Evil Counterpart: Like Percy, she's a brilliant engineer. She was even trying to make her own guns.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: In Season 2, after learning of Vox Machina's plans to collect the Vestiges of Divergence via scrying, she informs Umbrasyl of the party's intentions and encourages the vile black dragon to collect the Vestiges for himself. Ripley, however, seems to have other plans for the relics, and mentions in episode 11 that she's helping the dragon in exchange for "resources." Regardless of whether this refers to his aid or the Vestiges themselves, it's clear she's got her own scheme on the go, and there's no telling what it is.
- Horrible Judge of Character: After everything she's put Percy through, including murdering his parents and (seemingly) his little sister right in front of him, she genuinely believes she can talk Percy into becoming partners in episode 11. Percy's answer is obviously 'no'.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: When torturing Percy for information doesn't work, she moves to torturing Cassandra in front of him (and vice-versa, according to Cassandra's traumatic memory flashes).
- Karma Houdini:
- Zig-zagged. Working with the Briarwoods to dispose of the majority of the de Rolos got her thrown into a dungeon when she attempted to leave after the job was done. However, she is the only one out of the Briarwoods' henchmen who survives the events in Whitestone and escapes unscathed to live another day.
- After manipulating Umbrasyl into collecting the vestiges, which results in massive strife for Vox Machina and those around them, Ripley escapes completely undetected when the dragon is killed, free to regroup and continue her plans again.
- Manipulative Bitch: She feeds Umbrasyl promises of vast power that the Vestiges could grant him after leading him to Mythcarver, sending the black dragon into an obsession with the artifacts and driving a wedge between him and Thordak—although the Hope Devourer is slain before she can get him to outright turn against the Cinder King.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Ripley's lack of fighting prowess or magical abilities means she generally stays out of direct conflict. She instead manipulates Umbrasyl into doing all of the heavy lifting in recovering the Vestiges, never once confronting Vox Machina throughout season 2—the only interaction they have with her is when Scanlan spies on her and Umbrasyl meeting with the Herd, and he completely fails to recognize her.
- Pet the Dog: She saves Percy from being impaled by one of her traps. Though knowing her, it's likely she was just attempting to manipulate him into letting her go.
- Psycho for Hire: Ripley is no more than an exceptionally talented, exceptionally amoral mercenary who helped the Briarwoods massacre the de Rolo family for her own benefit.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- After leading Vox Machina to the ziggurat, Ripley makes her escape before the battle with the Briarwoods is joined, saying that that was more than she signed up for.
- She tries convincing Umbrasyl to escape with her and cut their losses after he flees Vox Machina's trap. When he refuses and decides to stay and fight, she doesn't involve herself and leaves unscathed while he is killed by the party.
- The Sociopath: Outright called this in the series itself, and it's not hard to see why. Ripley seems to have no emotional attachment to anyone at all, betrays whoever she must and switches sides at the drop of a hat to save her own skin, and is willing to murder and torture for personal gain without so much as a change in expression. She also doesn't seem to process fear to any rational human degree, taking Percy's Orthax-empowered threats to her life and later scaling a lake of acid in cold, professional stride.
- Torture Technician: Brutally tortured Percy and Cassandra when they were children.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: She escapes before the final confrontation with the Briarwoods, Percy being unable to stop her without his pepperbox alerting the Briarwoods, and promises him that We Will Meet Again.
- Villain Respect: She acknowledges Percy as a brilliant fellow scientist and attempts several times to converse with him about weapon technology. In episode 11 she even goes so far as to offer him a partnership, and seems honestly disappointed when he declines.
- Villain Team-Up: Ends up forming an alliance with Umbrasyl in the second season, helping him to track down Vox Machina and steal the Mythcarver.
- Would Hurt a Child: She tortured Percy and Cassandra for information about the De Rolo family and the properties of residuum. In Episode 10, this is shown with a flashback of Ripley slicing a young Percy's chest open with a hook.
Craven Edge
Craven Edge
"I hunger always."
Voiced by: Matthew Mercer
Sylas Briarwood's personal sword, later claimed by Grog after the noble's death. Unfortunately for him, the blade is more than it appears.
- Adaptational Badass: Craven Edge was just a sentient, bloodthirsty sword in the game, and any control it exerted over Grog was simple, mundane manipulation. Here, it is able to magically influence the Barbarian. Even when it is destroyed, it unleashes a massive burst of magic that drains Grog's strength.
- Adaptational Seriousness: While it was a pretty horrifying weapon in the stream, it was treated as The Comically Serious and its hold on Grog and his attempts to hide it from the others was oftentimes source for dark comedy. Here, the corruptive hold it has on Grog is more readily Played for Drama and treated not unlike a drug addiction.
- Adaptational Wimp: Craven Edge’s last action is to sap Grog of his strength. In the stream, Craven Edge sucked out his soul and killed him.
- Black Swords Are Better: Not only is it a black blade, it also feeds on blood, growing bigger and meaner-looking the more blood it drinks, and can be magically summoned by Sylas.
- Compelling Voice: The sword can communicate with Grog, but he just assumes is a normal thing to communicate with an evil black sword taken from an even more evil vampire like it was his closest friend. Later, when he fights off the fish-people, the sword talks again and compels Grog to kill as much and as brutally as possible to feed its own hunger for blood.
- Cool Sword: It feeds on blood (not only making it larger with more blood it "feeds" on, but also changing its appearance slightly) and Sylas can magically summon it to hand.
- The Corruptor: Begins influencing Grog into more unnecessary, sadistic violence, something that Pike notices rather quickly, leaving her quite disturbed by her companion's sudden change in behavior.
- Death by Adaptation: Gets snapped in half by Grog, rather than being sealed in a demiplane like in the original stream.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: For the life of it, Craven Edge can't understand why Grog won't just kill Pike and Scanlan to feed him and increase Grog's strength.
- Evil Weapon: Craven Edge is nothing else than a malevolent sword who forces its wielder to kill nonstop.
- Hungry Weapon: Craven Edge has a mind of its own, constantly hungering for more bloodshed.
- Not So Above It All: Despite its corruption of Grog being played dead seriously, it actually sighs when Grog farts in its presence.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Like Percy's pepperbox in the season before it, Craven Edge is a sentient, malevolent weapon that tries to corrupt its wielder.
- Stupid Evil: For all its manipulation, Craven Edge isn't quite as intelligent and long-planning as you may think. Craven Edge made no attemp to curb its hunger and eventually demanded Pike's blood when Grog couldn't feed him right away and even soaked up some of it after she was near-fatally impaled by Grog and Craven Edge. This is the first sign to Grog that the sword stolen from an evil vampire might not be on the up-and-up. One Youtube commentor has this to say:This could've worked if the damned sword made out an agreement to only feed on the blood of their enemies instead of being a gluttonous bastard and asking for EVERYONE'S blood.
- Taking You with Me: Screams this at Grog when he musters up the nerve to destroy it. While it tries to make good on this, Grog survives, albeit reduced to an emaciated husk.
- Weapon Wields You: Craven Edge takes control over Grog's mind several time and makes him kill everything in his path.
The Whispered One
The Whispered One
- Race: Lich
The undead patron of the Briarwoods and the true mastermind behind their plans in Whitestone.
- Anti-Magic: The black orb that manifests in his location after Delilah's ritual failed has this effect, nullifying Scanlan's bardic magic, banishing Pike's Astral projection, and negating any magical effects caused by their healing elixirs. This is a problem, as Delilah ran Keyleth through with a spike of dark magic before he was summoned, forcing Vox Machina to retreat a safe distance from the orb until they can use magic again to try and heal her.
- Composite Character: Even moreso than in the source material, the Whispered One has elements of both the classic D&D Vecna (the ability to be an ethereal presence, vaguely divine-esque powers including anti-magic, and eye and hand symbology) and of Pathfinder's Tar-Baphon (heavy use of proxies and a dedicated group of necromancers and other students of undeath, deep hatred of other divinities, needing to be "unsealed" to act upon the world again, and the use of "whisper" in his title).
- The Corrupter: Very heavily implied. Though the show doesn't give viewers a completely clear read on what the Briarwoods were like before Delilah made her pact with her patron, what little we do see of her, at least, is very far from the deranged, tyrannical Hypocrite she became under the Whispered One's influence.
- Deal with the Devil: It was sheer desperation and heartbreak that drove Delilah to seek any means to bring back Sylas, leading to her bargaining with the Whispered One to return her husband in exchange for the couple entering his employ to summon him into the world.
- Early-Bird Cameo: He makes two very short appearances far earlier than his debut in the livestream, once when Delilah's performs her ritual and earlier when he scares Pike (and the audience) half to death by rushing towards her at lightning speed during her communion with the Everlight.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Delilah and Sylas are the chief antagonists of the story arc in Whitestone and Vox Machina's targets, but the duo are ultimately the servants of a higher power.
- The Unfought: Vox Machina never gets the chance to come to blows with the Whispered One, as Delilah's ritual only briefly manifests him before his image quickly dissipates upon appearing.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Much like how Sarenrae is only ever referred to as her title of the Everlight, the Whispered One's true name as Vecna is never once uttered.
The Chroma Conclave
In General
A fearsome pact of dragons who collectively have the power to raze all of Tal'Dorei.
- Achilles' Heel: Two variants.
- Vax discovers through a flowery poetic verse that dragons can be slain "where the twin rivers meet", realising during the fight with Brimscythe that it's referring to a particular spot on the base of their necks where the dragon's Breath Weapon charges up. Hitting this spot greatly incapacitates Brimscythe and causes his lighting to spew out haphazardly, but the elder Ancient dragons prove their scales are tougher than his, with Grog's attack on Raishan's own weak point breaking his axe instead.
- Furthermore, the other members of the conclave prove to be skilled in magic, with Raishan and Umbrasyl casting dispel, invisibility and polymorphing throughout season 2. This allows them to use healing magic as well, meaning that even if their tough hides can get damaged, all they need is a rest period to recover like the fight never happened. However, this depends on them being capable of casting magic in the first place. Umbrasyl recovers from Vox Machina's trap after a few moments of healing, but Scanlan firing a Sword Beam off inside his skull fries his brain, leaving him with a lethal wound and in no fit state of cast magic to recover from it, meaning their brains are the most reliable targets to kill them.
- Adaptational Badass: While the dragons on stream were extremely formidable, they take it up a level in the show, with each having an array of new abilities that make each of them a flying cataclysm. To give a reference, based on his size and power, Brimscythe is what would likely be classed as an Ancient Dragon in the tabletop game, while in the home game he was merely an adolescent dragon, but this is not a case of him getting an Age Lift, and when the actual Ancients show up, they easily dwarf him in power.
- Breath Weapon: Comes with the territory. Each member of the Conclave having their own depending of their type.
- A God Am I: The end goal of the Conclave is to rule the world as god-kings, with Thordak in particular believing them to already be gods.
- Greater-Scope Villain: As Brimscythe's elders and partners, they were behind his attacks on Emon in the two-part pilot, which laid the groundwork for their eventual assault on the city in the beginning of Season 2.
- Humans Are Insects: The lynchpin of their collective philosophy, and they make sure everyone knows it.
- Kaiju: They are each exceptionally large and powerful even by dragon standards, and are fully capable of laying waste to a major city.
- Knight of Cerebus: The Chroma Conclave are the darkest villains in the series. Brimscythe firmly established that the series wasn’t going to be a fantasy comedy, and the rest of the Conclave’s attack on Emon is the most harrowing scene in the entire series, firmly establishing season 2 as Darker and Edgier.
- Our Dragons Are Different: All of them are ancients and powerful dragons, noted to be far more powerful than Brimscythe from season 1. Each is of a different colour and possess a different set of Elemental Powers. Their appearances are also notably distinct from the original tabletop game.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Between the four main members, they reduce the city and castle of Emon to variously burned, melted, noxious and flash-frozen rubble in a matter of hours.
- Red Baron: Each of the dragons have their own impressive titles; Brimscythe dubs himself the "Iron Storm", Umbrasyl uses "Hope Devourer" and Thordak styles himself the "Cinder King".
- Smug Super: They are extremely egotistical and arrogant creatures. However, as evidenced by their effortless assault of Emon, they are each individually so overwhelmingly powerful that it's hard to say their egos are unjustified.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: As Season 2 progresses, it becomes obvious that the Conclave is anything but united, with Umbrasyl, thanks to Anna Ripley, becoming more interested in obtaining the Vestiges than his loyalty to the group, and Raishan getting tired of Thordak's megalomaniacal nature to the point of proposing an alliance with Vox Machina. Justified Trope, as chromatic dragons are so egotistical they never usually work together, with the fact that the Convclave existed at all being terrifying because of this.
- Walking Wasteland: Each of the four ancient dragons are the walking embodiments of their destructive elements:
- The sheer heat of Thordak's body can melt anything in his presence, and that's before he supercharges his fire breath.
- Raishan is clouded in thick toxic fumes that spread out for miles beyond her body.
- Umbrasyl is covered in acidic mucus which rains upon anything and everything that's beneath his wingspan.
- Frost and snow forms around Vorugal's presence before the dragon himself appears to brutally freeze anybody in his path.
- Villain Team-Up: What makes the conclave such a threat is that individually, they're all massive dangers to entire towns or countries from their array of magical and natural advantages, such that each one of them required Vox Machina working as a team, and several strokes of luck, to survive against, much less kill any of them. Thordak being able to unite them all towards a common goal makes them practically unstoppable, and a dangerous threat to the whole world that entire armies have to be assembled against to stand a chance.
- Big Bad: Thordak, the Conclave's leader who keeps them in line towards a common goal despite chromatic Dragon's normal temperament, implied to be through force, and is presented as the overarching menace behind the Conclave's threat overall.
- The Dragon: Pun aside, Umbrasyl. The most prominent front-line attacker of the four ancient dragons, tasked with handling their efforts to seize gold and riches beyond Emon's borders, and serves as the main threat to Vox Machina throughout season 2. He proves to be skilled in both magical and physical might, though not to Raishan and Vorugal's level, nearly killing the party multiple times, and is cunning enough to plan to use the Vestiges of Divergence against them.
- Evil Genius: Raishan. The most skilled magic-user of the Conclave, and depicted with a preference for using her intelligence to achieve her goals rather than force. Recognising Vox Machina as Brimscythe's killers, she stealthily follows them to Whitestone and infiltrates their safe haven, revealing herself and her plans to undermine Thordak to them only once they have proven themselves worthy of working alongside by slaying Umbrasyl, and after incapacitating anybody who might interfere. She furthermore points out she could have destroyed them and their allies at any point, and they are clueless about Thordak's ultimate goals as incentive to work together, leaving them with little choice to refuse.
- The Brute: Vorugal. The most heavyset of the Conclave, and showcases a preference for smashing victims with his might or his freezing ice blasts.
- The Sneaky Guy: Brimscythe. Showcased as the weakest of the Conclave, and their scout and spy within Emon in preparation for their eventual assault, weakening its mighty army under the disguise of General Krieg, and manipulating several different parties without suspicion for an extended period of time.
- You Don't Look Like You: Likely done to make them visually distinct from the depiction of dragons in D&D, and to give each one more visual flare, they look considerably different from how they were depicted in the stream's official artwork.
Thordak
Thordak, the Cinder King
Voiced by: Lance Reddick
A tyrannical red dragon and leader of the Chroma Conclave. Race: Red Dragon
- Adaptational Villainy: Even crueler than his original incarnation. In the stream, Vorugal attacked refugees at Greyskull Keep on his own, with Thordak having to stop him to get him back on track. Here, it's strongly implied that Thordak explicitly ordered Vorugal to kill anyone trying to flee Emon. Additionally, while in the original campaign Thordak was perfectly content on letting the citizens live after the initial attack, here, Thordak incinerates a large amount of civilians in Emon as the Conclave no longer had use for their offerings.
- Badass Boast: Introduces himself with one:"People of Emon! Thordak demands capitulation! Submit to the Cinder King!"
- Big Bad Ensemble: Thordak acts as the main antagonist of the start of Season 2, leading the Chroma Conclave in laying siege to Tal'Dorei and plundering the continent's riches. However, while his attack kicks off Vox Machina's quest for the Vestiges, his lack of interest in hunting them down, gathering the Vestiges for himself, or doing much of anything other than taking over Emon and having the rest of the Conclave bring him treasures means that Umbrasyl and Ripley are instead the preeminent threats opposing the party, diverging from the Cinder King's goals with their own ambitions of gaining power from the Vestiges. Season 3 is set to have him take a more active role with his plan to create an army of dragons.
- Breath Weapon: As a red dragon, Thordak breathes out flames and uses it to lay waste to Emon. He's also able to supercharge his fire breath, turning the flames blue in order to completely burn through Emon's royal palace along with the mountain it sits on.
- Dragons Are Demonic: While it could be said of all the members of the Conclave, due to their malignance, Thordak's design makes this trope especially clear in his case, with his horns drawing a direct comparison to a devil.
- Dragon Hoard: After conquering Emon, he proceeds to amass all its gold, as well as that of the the neighboring lands. As it turns out, he's not doing this out of simple greed. Rather, he's using the gold to brood a large clutch of eggs to raise an army of dragons.
- Energy Weapon: Going way above the level of lore-accurate red dragons, Thordak can focus his fire breath into a supercharged, Shin Godzilla-style death ray capable of melting through an entire mountain width-wise.
- Evil Is Burning Hot: As his title suggests, Thordak is a red dragon that immolates all before him. His body emits such incredible heat that he can passively melt steel and stone just by remaining in its vicinity.
- Gem Tissue: He has a massive glowing jewel embedded in his chest. It seems to be connected to his power as it lights up when he supercharges his fire breath.
- A God Am I: When Umbrasyl brings him Mythcarver and insists that the Vestiges of Divergence will assure their ascension to Godhood, Thordak snaps that they've already assured their ascension.
- Kneel Before Zod: He spends much of the attack on Emon delivering booming speeches to this effect.
- Large and in Charge: As leader of the Chroma Conclave, Thordak is a huge dragon who towers over the rest.
- Orcus on His Throne: After the devastating attack on Emon, Thordak is content to remain in the background as the rest of the Conclave brings him riches. He's uninterested in dealing with Vox Machina himself, delegating the task to Umbrasyl once he finishes pillaging Westruun, and doesn't care for the power of the Vestiges that Ripley promises them, with the black dragon having to go out of his way to personally claim them for the Cinder King.
- Power Crystal: Thordak has a massive glowing red crystal embedded in his chest.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: He was previously sealed within the Fire Plane by a group of heroes led by Allura, but later escaped, wreaking havoc on Pyrah in the process.
- Walking Wasteland: The sheer heat of his body melts and burns everything around him.
- Wave-Motion Gun: He can supercharge his fire breath to create such an effect, using it to completely destroy Emon's palace.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He burns the citizens of Emon, when he no longer needs their offerings.
Raishan
Raishan, the Diseased Deceiver
Voiced by: Cree Summer
The all-seeing green dragon. Race: Green Dragon
- Actor Allusion: Cree Summer once again plays an evil dragon bent on world domination.
- Breath Weapon: As a green dragon, Raishan breathes out poison gas. It is less directly destructive than her fellow dragons, but proves just as deadly when breathed in.
- Deadly Gas: She belches poisonous fumes that suffocate anybody who breathes it in, as fitting for a green dragon.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Her eye briefly appears in a magical communication stone in Brimscythe's lair in the second episode, before she makes her first proper appearance in the Chroma Conclave's attack a full season later.
- Enemy Mine: Forms an alliance with Vox Machina to kill Thordak due to him becoming increasingly insane and irrational.
- Evil Sorcerer: Is an accomplished spellcaster in addition to her draconic strength and abilities.
- Green and Mean: She's a green dragon, a poisoner and an evil strategist.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: Though she helps destroy Emon and clearly thinks little of everyone around her, she offers aid to Vox Machina and has possibly been helping Whitestone for weeks in the fight against the Conclave, having grown weary of Thordak's increasing madness.
- If I Wanted You Dead...: When introducing herself to Vox Machina as an ally, she assures them they can trust her because if she wanted to kill them, they'd have been dead as soon as they stepped in the room.
- I'm a Humanitarian: She eats people alive, and says she enjoys the taste of (their) fear.
- Is That the Best You Can Do?: Asks this verbatim as she easily disspells Scanlan's attempt to keep her mouth shut, displaying her own sorcerous prowess. Later, when Vax tries to assassinate her with a surprise attack, she actually groans with annoyance at the display.
- The Kingslayer: Raishan is directly responsible for Sovereign Uriel's death, as he dies to her poison gas.
- Poisonous Person: Her green gas is potent enough to kill an adult within second in an extremely violent fashion.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Her head and neck resemble a cobra which fits with a being who is both cunningly evil and spews toxins.
- Weredragon: Like Brimscythe, she is able to transform her appearance, using this ability to pose as a green-eyed child refugee first, then as Keeper Yennen. It's a lot more powerful than Brimscythe's as Vex was unable to sense anything amiss until Raishan decides to reveal herself.
- Women Are Wiser: The sole female member of the Chroma Conclave and one of the most intelligent members. Raishan poses as Keeper Yennen and goes to Vox Machina for aid when she tires of Thordak's madness, a considerably better move than Umbrasyl's decision to trust Ripley.
- Would Hurt a Child: A mother and baby are among the many victims of her poison breath.
Vorugal
Vorugal, the Frigid Doom
Voiced by: Liam O'Brien
The brutish white dragon. Race: White Dragon
- Aniaml Motifs: Vorugul has a strong similarity to rhinos. He has a large crystal on his nose like a rhino's horn and he is the most armored out of the Conclave.
- Breath Weapon: As a white dragon, Vorugal breathes out a beam that freezes anything it hits.
- The Brute: Vorugal is a beast of few words and acts more animalistic than his kin. He's also the most heavily built of the Conclave.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: As expected of a white dragon, his breath weapon is an icy blast that freezes and shreds its victims.
- Freeze Ray: An especially brutal version of this where his ice blasts explode his victims from the inside out before they're instantaneously frozen in a giant block of ice.
- Husky Russkie: Liam O'Brien accentuates Vorugal's brutality with a rumbling, growling Russian accent.
- Out of Focus: He's the least active of all four dragons.
- Smarter Than You Look: Despite being the least executively functioning than the other dragons in the Chroma Conclave, Vorugal has moments of intelligence that prove he's more than a lumbering, mindless brute. For instance, he single-handedly tracks down Vox Machina and the surviving refugees to Greyskull Keep to unleash a full-out attack and he easily saw through Scanlan's illusions of himself and Vex'ahlia. Something even Brimscythe couldn't do and he deceived not only the Tal'Dorei council, but even Sovereign Uriel.
- Un Dying Loyalty: Ultimately, Vorugal is the only dragon in the Chroma Conclave who steadfastly obeys and defers to Thordak since Raishan eventually gets fed up with Thordak's megalomania and [[ Enemy Mine proposes an alliance with Vox Machina to slay Thordak]] and Umbrasyl starts defecting from Thordak in favor of collecting the Vestiges Of Divergence to achieve godhood.
- Would Hurt a Child: Fires his breath weapon at two young children, though Pike manages to save them.
Umbrasyl
Umbrasyl, the Hope Devourer
Voiced by: Matthew Mercer
The sadistic black dragon. Race: Black Dragon
- Acid Attack: He spews a corrosive acid that melts his victims into fleshy goo, as expected from a black dragon. He also seems to secrete acid from his wings which rain down on his victims as he simply flies overhead.
- Adaptational Intelligence: In the webshow, he was The Brute and explicitly more for brawn than brains. In comparison, the show version, while still a sadistic and brutal monster, is considerably more intelligent. He's the only one of the Conclave to recognize the Vestiges as being important and is even clever enough to use Mythcarver to track Vox Machina when they slip away from him during the battle in his lair.
- Arc Villain: While the other members of the Conclave are threats on the entire world as a whole, Vox Machina spend a good amount of time dealing with his immediate machinations from the moment he kills Kamaljiori and steals Mythcarver, making him the main villain for the majority of Season 2.
- Attack Its Weakpoint: After tanking unholy amounts of punishment, the only way Vox Machina manages to land a fatal wound is Scanlan stabbing him in the eye and using the wound to attack his brain directly.
- Bad Boss: To the Herd, whom he sees as diposable minions at best and insects at worst. Umbrasyl promises Kevdak rule over Westruun should the Herd keep bringing him tithes, but as the half-giants scoure the city ever cleaner and their tithes get progressively smaller, Umbrasyl's patience wears thin. He at one point grabs an unfortunate raider and melts his face with acid just to show he can, and judging by the others' reactions this wasn't the first time he'd murdered wantonly.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Downplayed with his partnership with Ripley for Season 2. Umbrasyl is not the true Big Bad, but he is still The Heavy for Thordak, as the Cinder King is an Orcus on His Throne unconcerned with fighting Vox Machina or seeking out the Vestiges of Divergence. Umbrasyl's alliance with the doctor sends him on a quest to personally claim the powerful artifacts for the Conclave, and he enters into the Villain Team-Up with seemingly genuine good faith in contrast to his subjugation of the Herd.
- Big Bad Ensemble: He, Thordak, and Ripley are the main villains for Season 2. Umbrasyl is technically in service to the Cinder King, who is unambiguously presented as the greatest source of problems for Vox Machina despite his inactivity, but his own ambitions for power lead to Ripley turning him to hunting the Vestiges, making him a far more pressing, semi-independent threat.
- Breath Weapon: While his wings also drip with flesh-melting acid, he's able to spew a far more concentrated dosage of it from his mouth to melt through solid stone buildings.
- Composite Character: He borrows some traits from Ghurrix the Pit Friend from the stream's City of Brass arc: acting as the Climax Boss in Scanlan's character arc and being killed by him with a newly-awakened Mythcarver.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Scanlan kills him by stabbing Mythcarver into his left eye and letting loose a huge magic burst inside his skull, pretty much obliterating his brain and burning the other half of his face off.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: As the most active member of the Chroma Conclave, Umbrasyl shows himself to be vastly powerful but not invincible. During the attack on Emon, Allura manages to knock him out of the sky before he brings a tower crashing down on her. At Rimecleft, he completely dominates Grog in their one-on-one duel, but Grog does manage to get a few cuts in.
- Dark Is Evil: He's a black dragon who enjoys raining down or breathing acid on his unfortunate victims.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the webshow, Grog kills him by cleaving through his skull with Kevdak's Bloodaxe. In the cartoon, it's instead Scanlan who kills the dragon, stabbing him in the eye with Mythcarver and letting off a massive magical burst inside his head.
- Desecrating the Dead: After killing Kamaljiori, he tears off his head and impales it on a spike in his lair as a trophy.
- Evil Sorcerer: While not as proficient as Raishan, Umbrasyl demonstrates a considerable knowledge of magic. He is shown to be able to dispel Scanlan's Hand, turn himself invisible, and heal his own wounds.
- Eye Scream: Scanlan kills him by stabbing Mythcarver into his eye and letting off a massive magical burst inside his skull. The burst obliterates his other eye and most of the right side of his face.
- Facial Horror: When Scanlan let's loose a burst of magic inside of his head, it explodes out the right side of his face, leaving it little more than a scorched, bloody mess.
- Fatal Flaw: His sadism. In his battle with Vox Machina, he so utterly overpowers them that he could have killed them anytime he wanted to, but is content to draw it out for his amusement. This gives Scanlan the time he needs to make the crucial decision to save the rest of the group.
- Godhood Seeker: Part of the reason Umbrasyl is so insistent on claiming the Vestiges is because he thinks they can be used to ascend the Conclave into true gods, and he indicates that the entire reason he joined the other dragons is because he thinks Thordak's plans will bring them all to godhood.
- The Heavy: Thordak is the leader of the Chroma Conclave, but Vox Machina is nowhere near powerful enough to take him on when the dragons begin their assault on Tal'Dorei. Umbrasyl, working with Ripley, is instead their primary opponent for Season 2 as he is tasked by the Cinder King to hunt the group down, leading to him stealing one of the Vestiges of Divergence needed to oppose the Conclave. The black dragon's attack subsequently splits the party, sending half into the Feywild and half to oppose the Herd of Storms who are pillaging the land on his behalf, and freeing Westruun from his conquest becomes the central conflict for the season's climax.
- Hero Killer: Kills the sphinx Kamaljiori after a vicious brawl and proves to be a utterly terrifying foe who almost kills Vox Machina.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Downplayed. His obsession with collecting the Vestiges of Divergence brings him into direct conflict with Vox Machina without any of his fellow dragons around as backup, which eventually gets him slain by Scanlan. He does manage to nearly wipe out the party by himself, however.
- Ignored Expert: Umbrasyl, acting on Ripley's advice, attempts to convince Thordak to prioritize locating the Vestiges so that the Conclave could "ascend to true godhood", but Thordak ignores this in favour of increasing his hoard's size.
- Invisibility: Umbrasyl uses magic to turn invisible after Vox Machina and the Herd of Storms get the drop on him, and he uses it to terrifying effect in his own lair.
- Jerkass: He is easily the most abrasive and unpleasant member of the Chroma Conclave, matching his acidic theming. Shown even when talking with his so-called allies in the Herd of Storms, he's very impatient with how they are handling their takeover of Westruun and melts one out of sheer annoyance.
- Lightning Bruiser: Umbrasyl proves to be terrifyingly fast for such a a large creature. Even on the ground he's fast enough to hit a Deathwalker's Ward-wearing Vax, and in the air he can fly faster than either Vex's broom or Keyleth's giant eagle form.
- Near-Villain Victory: To emphasize the vast difference in power level between the young adult Brimscythe and the ancient Umbrasyl, Vox Machina goes into their final battle with Umbrasyl far more powerful that they were when they took down Brimscythe with a fairly tough fight. Even with that increase in power, Umbrasyl nearly annihilates the entire party without too much difficulty and is only defeated due to a lot of luck and a last ditch rescue by Scanlan.
- Oh, Crap!: There's a close up of his eye going wide with the iris narrowing as he sees Scanlan about to embed said eye with Mythcarver.
- Phlegmings: He's constantly drooling acid even when he's not spewing it on his victims.
- Spikes of Villainy: He's covered in spines that drip with acidic mucus.
- The Starscream: Begins showing signs of resentment to Thordak's rule once he decides to seek out the Vestiges, with Ripley encouraging his ambitions for power. He dies before he's able to truly turn against his master.
- Unwitting Pawn: He becomes a victim of Ripley’s manipulations, convincing him to seek out the Vestiges of Divergence, which has him show resentment towards Thordak and his rule.
- Villain Team-Up: Ripley approaches him with a warning about Vox Machina's plans, setting him on the party's tracks in their search for the Mythcarver. The two subsequently make a long-term alliance, working together to find the remaining Vestiges.
Brimscythe
Brimscythe, the Iron Storm
Voiced by: David Tennant
Race: Blue Dragon
The blue dragon who is terrorizing Emon. And he didn't come alone.
- Adaptational Badass: In the original home game, Brimscythe was roughly the dragon equivalent of a teenager, matching Vox Machina's level at the time. In the animated series, Brimscythe is much larger than a standard "young" or "adult" dragon would be and proves to be a much bigger threat than the original, though the appearance of the rest of the Conclave in Season 2 clarifies that he's still in no way considered an "ancient" dragon like them.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Is only half the size of any one of the other Chroma Conclave.
- Badass Boast: Uses his own title as a boast while fighting Vox Machina, proclaiming himself to be the Iron Storm.
- Breath Weapon: As a blue dragon, Brimscythe breathes lightning out of his mouth, leaving devastation in his wake.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: A Slashed Throat courtesy of Vax killed him in Critical Role, before the show began. In this show, that slash certainly deals quite a bit of damage, but it takes Vex shooting him with a blessed arrow and Grog splitting Brimscythe's head open with his axe to finish the job.
- Knight of Cerebus: Despite being the Starter Villain, he firmly establishes this isn’t just going to be a fun and comedic fantasy.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: He was able to singlehandedly terrorize the armies of Emon and required a good deal of trickery to defeat but when the rest of the Chroma Conclave show up, they're all at least twice as big as Brimscythe was and the tricks that worked on him are completely useless against them.
- Shock and Awe: He has the ability to breathe lightning. On top of that, he can No-Sell getting hit with a thunderbolt from Keyleth. If anything, it made him even more powerful.
- Starter Villain: Brimscythe is the first major villain to be fought by Vox Machina in the animated series.
- This Cannot Be!: "What? Impossible!" is the only thing that Brimscythe can muster up once Vox Machina manage to trick him with Scanlan's illusion magic.
- Those Were Only Their Scouts: He's a deadly threat and takes a massive amount of effort to finally put down. Season 2 shows that Brimscythe was actually the weakest member of the Conclave and his four, much larger and stronger partners were still on their way. Brimscythe was just preparing the way for them.
- Violent Glaswegian: David Tennant normally has a fairly subtle accent, but he slams the dial all the way past eleven here, accentuating Brimscythe's brutality with roaring Scottish pronouncements.
- Walking Spoiler: The identity of Brimscythe or his ally on the Council is a key question for the first two episodes. He's actually General Krieg or at least was actually posing as Krieg.
- Weredragon: He can shapeshift his form in whatever he wants, especially humans.
- Your Head Asplode: As he's charging his lightning breath, Grog does a huge overhand swing with his axe, causing all the lightning in Brimscythe's mouth to be redirected back into his skull. By the time the dust clears, Brimscythe's head has been split straight down the middle.
The Herd of Storms
In General
A ruthless band of raiders that are working under Umbrasyl's wing.
- Adapted Out: Kevdak's right hand man, Greenbeard, is absent in the cartoon. As is Zanror's girlfriend Worra.
- Due to the Dead: The remaining Herd members create a memorial to those killed by Umbrasyl outside of Westruun.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: There appears to be a couple of non-goliath members in a normally purely goliath herd. As the herd value strength above all, even blood, it appears that they welcome any race or gender should the individual be strong enough to raid.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While normally sadistic and merciless raiders, the rest of the Herd can't bring themselves to watch Kevdak brutally beat Grog to an inch of his life. Similarly, many look away at Kevdak beating down his own son, Zanror.
- Heel–Face Turn: Once Kevdak is slain and Grog appoints Zanror as the new Thunderlord, they happily switch to Vox Machina's side to slay Umbrasyl and celebrate Grog's victory despite cheering it on beforehand.
- The Horde: They're the classic fantasy marauders that value strength above all and pillage anything in their path. Even their name evokes this trope.
- Karma Houdini: Zig-Zagged. Once Grog defeats Kevdak and Zanror takes over the Herd, everybody seems to forget that the entire Herd was involved in massacring hundreds of people and destroying their settlements, though it's unclear if they were like this before Kevdak took over and were siding with Kevdak to keep out of his murderous wrath. However, most of the Herd get dissolved by Umbrasyl after Percy's trap fails, leaving only Zanror and a handful of survivors.
- Might Makes Right: Rigidly follow this as their guiding philosophy. The biggest, toughest warrior is in charge, and everyone else has to do what they say — that is, unless someone even bigger and tougher kills them in single combat and becomes the new leader.
- Pelts of the Barbarian: Many of them wear fur coats to go with their raider lifestyle
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Their alliance with Umbrasyl is very strained, with the dragon ready to wipe them out the moment they stop becoming useful and many members of the Herd, including Kevdak's own son, clearly unhappy with being forced to serve someone else and judging by the Herd's joy of Kevdak's death, it's most likely they weren't thrilled to be with working for him either.
Kevdak
Kevdak
Voiced by: Ralph Ineson
The Thunderlord of the Herd and Grog's uncle.Race: Goliath
- Abusive Parents: Ready and willing to beat his son and nephew nearly to death for any slight.
- Adaptational Badass: Downplayed, but still there. During the livestream, when Kevdak's arm was severed, he attempted to retreat and recover. In the animated series, he tears it the rest of the way off and tries to beat Grog to death with it.
- Ambition Is Evil: While the rest of the Herd isn't good, per se, Kevdak is set apart from them by a desire to rule Westruun rather than remain nomadic, and is especially evil.
- An Arm and a Leg: Grog nearly slices his left arm off just above the elbow. Kevdak rips it the rest of the way off and tries to beat Grog to death with it.
- Bad Boss: Is unafraid to beat any insubordinate members of the Herd to near death with the Titanstone Knuckles, including his own son. Because of this, no one in The Herd mourns Kevdak's death, not even his own son whom he physically and verbally abused almost repeatedly. Hell, they even celebrate his death with Vox Machina over drinks and live music.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Despite his ambitions of ruling Westruun in Umbrasyl's name, Kevdak's efforts to appease the dragon are all for naught, as the Hope Devourer intended to kill him and steal the gauntlets the moment they had collected enough gold for the Conclave's plans.
- Climax Boss: Kevdak is the climactic opponent for Grog's character arc in season 2. After struggling with Craven Edge's corruption and Earthbreaker Groon's question of "where does [his] strength come from" throughout the entire season, Grog's duel with his uncle is what gets him to realize his strength comes from his friends, throwing off Craven Edge's curse to engage in an epic battle that escalates into the entirety of Vox Machina taking on the Herd of Storms, which culminates in Grog killing the tyrannical Thunderlord in a final rejection of the marauder ways he almost slipped back into under the black sword's sway.
- Death by Looking Up: Only has a single moment to look up just as Grog comes down from high in the air to bisect him vertically with an ax swing.
- The Dragon: Umbrasyl's primary tool through which he plunders Westruun. Unlike the black dragon's alliance with Ripley, which he seems content to treat as a partnership, it's obvious who is in charge in his dealings with the Herd.
- The Dreaded: On top of being the ruthless leader of a gang of murderous marauders, he invokes a special amount of fear from Grog after nearly killing him for his refusal to murder Wilhand. Wilhand himself is naturally just as scared when Grog brings him up.
- Early-Bird Cameo: He's shown in a few short flashes two episodes before he properly appears in "A Test of Pride": in Grog's dream and Scanlan's vision of the Vestiges.
- Evil Counterpart: The embodiment of everything Grog fears and regrets from his past life with the Herd, a merciless warlord who values strength above everything and everyone else. While he's being corrupted by Craven Edge, Grog at one point sees a vision of Kevdak congratulating him for his ruthlessness, further signifying just how close he is to going off the deep end.
- Evil Is Petty: Insults everything from Grog's appearance to his dead dad just to get a rise out of him. Not to mention that his solution to a squabble between two teenage boys is to try and murder one of them...
- Evil Old Folks: Kevdak was fairly old even in Grog's flashbacks, which logically had to have been a good twenty years ago, and he's positively elderly in modern day. He's still a ruthless monster of a man and he's still built like a grain silo.
- Evil Sounds Deep: In cast full of scary baritones, he certainly stands out.
- Evil Uncle: To Grog, who he raised to be a violent, ruthless barbarian in his marauder days.
- Foil: To Wilhand. They're both the patriarch and have served as some kind of Parental Substitute to Grog, but Kevdak was an abusive monster who nearly killed Grog while Wilhand saved him and helped shape him into the man he is.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Like Pike he has a scar on his eye. However unlike Pike's clean-cut line down her eye that she can still see out of, Kevdak's scar covers a quarter of his face and partially blinds him. Though considering his solution to his arm being nearly severed is to rip it off and use it as a club,
it's clear that the Herd doesn't pride themselves on medical care. - Half the Man He Used to Be: As in the campaign, Grog bisects him vertically with an ax swing from high in the air.
- Hate Sink: Unlike most of the villains in the series (such as the Briarwoods who mutually cared about each other, and even Thordak who is a badass that had greater goals), Kevdak has zero admirable, sympathetic or redeeming qualities that makes him at least a likeable villain. He is a brutal, war-mongering, tyrannical, ruthless, savage, cruel, selfish, horrible and petty monster of a man that raids countless villages and murdered numerous innocent people for no reason than to fuel his wallet and bloodlust. Members of the Herd also despised him for his willingness to work with Umbrasyl. Even worse, Kevdak is extremely abusive and even murderous towards his own family when they disobeyed him and turned against him, subverting his initial care to Zanror in the process. Working with the Chroma Conclave isn't helping either, since he made a deal for selfish reasons and gleefully returned to his old life of a despoiler once more. Needless to say, his death at the hands of his nephew, also one of his most miserable victims, is more than satisfying to watch.
- Implacable Man: He can be hurt. He can be wounded. But in combat, he cannot be stopped. Any injuries inflicted on him, no matter how severe, can be shrugged off, endured and the favour returned tenfold upon his attacker. Grog slicing out his eye seemed more to startle and anger him than effect his combat prowess. Grog almost cutting his arm off just leads to him tearing the remainder off and using it as a bludgeon to smack him away with a scowl on his face, and he's still presented as a formidable force that is barely restrained from turning the tide by Vex's vine arrows. Ultimately it took Grog cleaving him vertically in half with a blow powerful enough to crater the ground to kill him, and going by Kevdak's expression, if he'd still had an arm on the side his head was on, he'd have tried to swing at Grog even on death's door.
- It's Personal: His alliance with Umbrasyl puts him in Vox Machina's way, but his relationship to Grog is the central part of his antagonism.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: He is a cold, pragmatic monster with ambitions of ruling. His son, on the other hand, seems to be a likable, gregarious guy with no such ambitions.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He absolutely loves dishing these out at every chance he can get. Grog gets one when he is exiled from the Herd, Zanror suffers a slightly less severe version after questioning his leadership, and Grog gets two more during their battle, before and after regaining his strength.
- Papa Wolf: Protective of Zanror to the point of beating his own nephew to death when they fought as teens. As an adult, it's a different story.
- Power Fist: Wields the Titanstone Knuckles and asserts his dominance by beating anybody in his way with his fists.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Zig-Zagged. It gets him accused of cowardice by both the Herd and Grog, but ultimately, Kevdak is proven to be correct that the Herd allying with Umbrasyl is better for them than going against him. Even when Grog takes his Titanstone Knuckles and attacks the black dragon with the Herd in a coordinated trap, along with the additional vestiges wielded by the rest of Vox Machina, he proves too powerful to contain, kills large numbers of the Herd, and very nearly killed Vox Machina in a protracted fight, only failing at the last second by Scanlan's near Heroic Sacrifice and a lucky shot. Kevdak attacking him with his single vestige would have decimated the Herd in the end. However, Kevdak's tyrannical rule over the Herd Of Storms and even his own son would eventually come back to bite him since he savagely beat or murdered any Herd members who showed even the slightest bit of resistance and deviance of Kevdak's barbaric rule that none of the remaining Herd members mourn Kevdak or avenge him and his ways after his death at Grog's hands and they immediately welcome and celebrate Zanror as the new leader.
- Unskilled, but Strong: It becomes apparent that for all his sheer strength, Kevdak isn't all that skilled. Once Grog regains his strength, Kevdak struggles to land an actual hit on him due to Grog having became much more skilled. It takes using the Titanstone Knuckles to power up enough sheer brute strength is all he needs, and even then Kevdak has trouble hitting him.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Kevdak had little trouble dealing with Grog years ago. In their rematch, once Grog gets his strength back, its shown Kevdak is completely outmatched in terms of skill and fails to land a hit. If he hadn't had the Titanstone Knuckles, then he likely would've lost outright, and even with them he has trouble hitting him. And this was after Grog had already taken a beating and been impaled, implying Kevdak likely would've done worse had Grog been at full strength from the beginning.
- Villainous Valor: Say what you will about Kevdak - and there's a lot to say, given he's a cruel, monstrous bandit king - but there isn't a speck of cowardice in his body when it comes to a fight, and he battles Grog and Vox Machina until the bitter, bloody, gruesome end. This is especially pronounced here as opposed to his livestream incarnation; there, Kevdak tried to retreat after losing his arm, whereas he rips it off and uses it as a war club instead here.
- Would Hurt a Child: Happily beats down his teenage nephew and son.
- Writing Around Trademarks: A minor case here. In the original game, part of what made Kevdak so disgustingly durable was being a Barbarian like Grog; specifically, a Totem Warrior (Bear) Barbarian, a subclass not covered in the 5e OGL. It is adapted out here in favor of making Kevdak just that damn tough, though it is alluded to with his bear skin pelt.
Zanror
- See his folder on Allies and Other Characters.
Others
Orthax
Orthax
Voiced by: Matthew Mercer
Race: Demon
A malevolent spirit that is guiding Percy's path of vengeance.
- Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed. While just as dangerous as before, in the original web series, Orthax was capable of leaving the host's body if it wanted to engage in combat. Here, he requires the host's body to fight.
- Berserk Button: Being denied a soul he was targetting. When Grog and Keyleth kill Sylas before he and Percy could, he flies into a rage.Orthax: THAT KILL WAS MINE!!
- Blank White Eyes: They're reflected in Percy's mask, and the Scary Shiny Glasses trope is also used to suggest his influence because of the resemblance to him.
- Bottomless Magazines: While Percy normally needs to reload between his revolver's six shots, he never once stops firing after Orthax starts to take his hold on him. Vex comments on this oddity, implying that Orthax is magically augmenting the pepperbox for infinite capacity.
- The Corruption: Twists Percy into a nightmarish avatar of vengeance whenever he executes a target on The List.
- Cycle of Revenge: It's a demon of vengeance, and constantly adds names to Percy's kill list. At one point, it adds Cassandra's name to the list for her apparent betrayal, though she was being controlled by the Briarwoods at the time. Later, it adds the names of Percy's companions in Vox Machina.
- Dark Is Evil: It's a black, smoke-like demon that corrupts Percy into vengeful rage.
- Demonic Possession: Feasting on Percy's desire for vengeance against those who murdered the De Rolo family, Orthax keeps Percy focused by feeding this desire into Revenge Before Reason.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the original web series, Orthax was killed in combat by a combination of Grog and Trinket. In the cartoon, Orthax retreats to Percy's gun after Percy shoots himself to harm Orthax, and is dissolved with Percy's weapon after Scanlan throws it in acid.
- Evil vs. Evil: Orthax wants to help Percy kill the Briarwoods and their associates, but only because doing so strengthens its hold on Percy and gives it souls to feed on.
- Final Boss: With the Briarwoods defeated in the penultimate episode, the first season's finale centers around Percy overcoming Orthax's influence as the demon possesses him to fight the rest of Vox Machina.
- The Heavy: Acts as this in the first season through its possession of Percy. The Briarwoods are the Big Bads with farther reaching plans, but the demon drives the plot by encouraging and enabling Percy's obsessive quest for revenge. Its growing influence causes the de Rolo heir to begin using excessively violent methods that put him at odds with his teammates, and it ultimately eclipses the usurper nobles as the climactic (if lower-stakes) Final Boss of the season when Vox Machina challenges it to save Percy's soul.
- Moving the Goalposts: Played for drama. No matter how many people Percy kills, The List will always gain new names for him to hunt down thanks to Orthax wanting to consume more souls. It even adds the names of Vox Machina for a perceived slight, and gradually takes over more of Percy's mind as he kills more people on the List.
- No Name Given: It is never named out loud on the show, referred to only as "The Smoke" or "The Demon" by other characters, but is still listed as "Orthax" in the credits and subtitles.
- People Puppets: It has at least some control over Percy's body. Percy has to fight to prevent Orthax from shooting Vex with The List, tries and fails to kill himself with The List when he just barely stops, and has to shoot through his own hand just to shock himself out of the Demonic Possession.
- Soul Eating: Devours the souls of whoever Percy kills with The List.
- Super Smoke: Manifests itself as black smoke whenever Percy finds a target of his revenge. At first Percy dismisses it as smoke from the black powder when Keyleth brings it up, but eventually the smoke is so visible and plainly wrong that none of the team can deny its presence.
- Writing Around Trademarks: He's clearly based on an invidiak/shadow demon from both D&D and Pathfinder (and was one in the tabletop games), actually leaning a bit more toward the PF interpretation of such a creature (which makes sense, since Vox Machina began as a PF campaign and this is when Taliesin likely would've pitched the initial idea to Matt). He's never referred to as anything other than a "demon" generically in the show, however, and his show design has some notable divergence from standard invidiak design. Specifically, his show design places a far greater emphasis on being smoke-like and suggestive of inner fire, to follow on thematically with him helping inspire Percy to make black powder wepaons that he forges and metal-works himself, all elements that call back to glowing embers, fire, and smoke.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: It consumes the souls of those Percy slays with The List.
Hotis
Hotis
Voiced by: Matthew Mercer
Race: Rakshasa
Vax's "strangest kill".
- The Cameo: Makes a minor appearance in episode five in the flashback montage of the party's strangest kills.
- Demoted to Extra: A brutal encounter in the stream that took half the party and members of the Slayer's Take to kill, here he's just a minor throwaway gag.
- Destination Defenestration: Falls out of a window after getting a dagger through the head.
- We Will Meet Again: Claims he will return for vengeance once Vax defeats him. Whether he will make good on this promise like in the original campaign remains to be seen.
Saundor
Saundor
Voiced by: Sendhil Ramamurthy
Race: Archfey
The prince of the Shademurk Bog.
- Adaptational Villainy: Saundor's tragic past and all sympathetic qualities he had from the webshow are completely removed here. Additionally, rather than trying to genuinely establish a bond with Vex like he did in the webshow, in the cartoon he attempts to Mind Rape Vex to persuade her, while leaving the rest of the party to die to his traps.
- Alien Blood: The same black mud that fills the Shademurk Bog runs through Saundor's veins and seeps out of him whenever he suffers a blow.
- Attack on the Heart: As a heart-broken recluse, there was no better way for Vex to kill them to first reject his predatory advances and then stab him straight in his broken heart.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Saundor's eyes lack irises, but are simply pools of black tar. As he corrupts Vex, her eyes also begin to turn black.
- Bottomless Magazines: Saundor has no need for a quiver, since he can create wooden arrows from his body on a whim.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the stream, Grog killed him with a javelin of lightning. Here, Vex is the one to kill him, stabbing him in the heart with an arrowhead Percy made for her.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Saundor initially offers Vex'ahlia unconditional love and everything her heart desires, but the second she turns him down, he explodes into an enraged tirade about how she's "just like all the rest" and tries to kill her while calling her
- Fisher King: The dark, creepy bog reflects the prince's desperate, depraved nature.
- Green Thumb: Most of Saundor's powers unrelated to Fenthras seem to involve manipulating the massive tree he resides in. He can summon Treants to fight for him, send vines to incapacitate his opponents, or even create massive walls of wood to protect him from attacks.
- If I Can't Have You…: It seems Saundor has made a habit of this, since not only does he begin a rampage against Vex at the slightest rejection, but he makes note that she is just like "the rest." The skulls sunken into the bog were probably potential lovers who spurned Saundor and met his wrath.
- Love Hungry: He latches onto Vex immediately, offering her everything she wants and insisting they would be perfect together and that he can fix her. When she breaks the spell, he snaps and tries to kill her while screaming at her for rejecting him. Judging from his comments and the skulls in his bog, she's probably not the first person he's attached himself to and then killed. Keyleth comments that even the plants in his domain radiate longing.
- Monster of the Week: He serves as the main antagonist of "Echo Tree" as the wielder of the Fenthras longbow, but is killed off before he can leave any greater impact on the story.
- Not Good with Rejection: When Vex refuses to join him, he immediately starts trying to kill her and her friends, focusing the entirety of his attention on her in the ensuing battle.
- Plant Person: The cancerous tree has seemed to grown around and into Saundor, turning his elven skin to bark and causing branches and roots to pierce through his back.
- Villain Has a Point: While Saundor was mostly being a manipulative creep, he's right when he tells Vex that her father will never approve of her, and that running herself ragged to earn his love is a losing game.
- Villainous Crush: Saundor is taken with Vex'ahlia and hopes to exploit her sorrows to make her his new mate.
- We Can Rule Together: He actually freely offers his bow, Fenthras, and his aid in fighting the dragons if Vex'ahlia is willing to forsake her friends and join him.
- Wicked Heart Symbol: Saundor's heart is as black as soot and pumps similarly wretched tar throughout his wooden body. Fittingly, he is depicted as a sorrowful figure who preys on the misery and broken-heartedness of others.
