"Look how they run!" The God of Darkness laughed. "Look how they die." Troubled, the God of Light did what he could to repair the damage and rebuild the lost lives, but each time he did, the God of Darkness invented some new catastrophe to destroy them-and worse, make them suffer as they died. All while his Dark nightmare beasts multiplied and spread throughout the world.
— God of Darkness, Fairy Tales of Remnant, "The Two Brothers"
The world of Remnant has seen many legendary heroes throughout the ages, but with them, it has seen monstrous villains who manage to be just as legendary.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Web Series
- Adam Taurus is the embodiment of spite and cruelty. A high-ranking member of the Faunus liberation group, the White Fang, Adam begins verging into extremist terrorist attacks with no care for innocents who die, prompting his Love Interest, Blake Belladonna, to flee the group. Adam later assists in the attack on Beacon Academy, during the Vytal Festival, unleashing Grimm on the city. When encountering Blake, Adam vows to kill everything she loves, maiming Yang when she tries to defend Blake and trying to murder Blake herself. When the high leader of the White Fang, the well-intentioned Sienna Khan, objects to what Adam has done, Adam murders her and takes her place before ordering Blake's family killed to "keep his promise" to her. Adam then leads a White Fang attack to destroy Haven Academy, spitefully attempting to detonate explosives to kill himself, Blake and all the Faunus present, White Fang or innocent, when he's cornered by the authorities. Adam later savagely slaughters his own former followers of the White Fang when they question him and returns to stalking Blake, hellbent on murdering her and making her suffer for "ruining his life".
- Jacques Schnee is a sociopathic businessman representing everything wrong with Atlas. He was once a wealthy socialite who married his way into the Schnee family for the money, convincing Nicholas Schnee to give him control of the Schnee Dust Company. Jacques turned the once-honest company into his own personal empire, using a vast Faunus labor force who are treated like slaves and forced to work in nightmarish conditions that regularly cause injuries and even mass death. Jacques continues this vicious system for years, with his hellish business practices sparking a brutal war with the White Fang. Jacques is also horribly abusive to his family, driving his wife to alcoholism and trying to mold his children into being his heirs; at one point he even forces Weiss to fight a Grimm-infused robot when she desired to leave, nearly killing her and resulting in her being permanently scarred across her face. Finally, when running for councilman, Jacques allies with Arthur Watts to steal the election for himself, with Jacques using mass layoffs in an economic crisis to try to force the people of Mantle to vote for him, resulting in riots across the city.
- Doctor Arthur Watts is a high-ranking member of Salem's inner circle, assisting Cinder in her actions in Vale to throw the city into chaos and facilitate a Grimm invasion. Once a former Atlas scientist, Watts was furious that Ironwood would acknowledge Pietro Polendina's genius over his, leading to him faking his death and eventually joining up with Salem. Returning to Atlas and Mantle, Watts schemes to have the vicious Tyrian Callows murder the supporters of Robyn Hill and frame Penny Polendina for the killings, shutting down Mantle's heating grid to allow countless citizens to freeze to death to rely on chaos and negative emotions to bring about a Grimm invasion of slaughter to further Salem's schemes. He later implants a virus into Penny when she has the Winter Maiden powers to force her to open the Relic vault and self-destruct; aids Cinder and Neo in slaughtering the Atlas command center; and reactivates the bomb to blow up Mantle.
Literature
- Before the Dawn: Jax Asturias, the mastermind of the Crown, is a childish and envious man with delusions of grandeur. Manipulating his close friends and sister into going along with his plans to restore the Vacuo monarchy with him in charge, planning to purge the "weak" and anyone who wasn't loyal to him, Jax uses the Crown to have countless people, including children with notable Semblances, trafficked and enslaved with his Semblance, leaving them conscious but bent to his will. As part of his plan to attack Shade Academy, Jax turns several citizens and minions who displease him into "Aura vessels" to make himself stronger, hoping to use his army to crush the other Kingdoms under his heel, bury them in the sands and rule all of Remnant once he's king. When his plan is failing, Jax "settles" for using his Army to go out destroying Shade and his enemies out of spite, even attempting to kill his own sister when she tries to save herself—an act he had also attempted when they were children.
- Fairy Tales of Remnant:
- "The Infinite Man": The warrior is a thuggish Blood Knight who invades the Circle's town to "fight a God", attacking men, women, and children alike to draw out the Infinite Man. She then manipulates the Man, claiming that she will spare the Circle if he allows her to kill him, only to go back on her word and massacre the whole community, killing everyone but the Man's right-hand-woman so she could tell the story, but not before the warrior mutilates her, slicing off her arm and cutting out her eye.
- "The Two Brothers": The legendary version of the God of Darkness is a malignant sadist of a deity who sees all of creation as a toy box to torment for his entertainment. Desiring to destroy everything Light created, Darkness wipes out early life on Remnant several times with gleeful relish, raining down fiery ash, boiling the oceans, and creating horrific beasts known only as "the Grimm", who exist only to kill and destroy everything good. After creating humanity with Light, he torments them with disasters like earthquakes and creates more Grimm to wipe them out in experiments. In a fight with his brother, which causes catastrophe and death throughout the world, he nearly allows the world to burn simply to continue fighting Light. After nearly destroying all of creation so that the Gods could regain their essence and leave, Light strikes a deal with Darkness to give Humanity a chance, with Darkness only agreeing on the condition that everything will burn if humanity does not achieve perfection.
- Roman Holiday: Paul Parrot is the psychopathic leader of the Parrot and Mouse Syndicate, having killed his uncle to take it over. For years, Parrot would have his enemies taken to his basement and eaten alive by his captured "Capivara Grimm", which he recorded, as he enjoyed watching his victims die. Admitting to Roman Torchwick that he enjoys his war with Lil Miss Malachite as it reminded him of the "good old days", Parrot then tries to have Roman and two children fed to his beast.
Other Media
- Grimm Eclipse: Dr. Merlot is a scientist who is obsessed with the Grimm, believing that their neverending rage and strength make them the superior species. In his desperation to study them, Merlot attracted Grimm to the Mountain Glenn settlement; this eventually led to the fall of the city, with the countless citizens within being massacred by the Grimm. Those who fled underground were slaughtered as well, resulting in the "world's largest tomb". Surviving the fall, Merlot continues his research into augmenting the Grimm to be even more dangerous, eventually releasing these specimens without caring about the potential damage. When Team RWBY track him down and defeat his Grimm, Merlot decides to detonate the facility in the hopes that he can kill them alongside him.
- The Official Manga: Roman Torchwick, lacking his show counterpart's redeeming qualities, is a destructive sociopath and one of the most infamous criminals in Vale. He teams up with Cinder Fall and executes her schemes, organizing an attack on the city of Vale and planning to blow up a large section of the city's downtown area. At one point, he has Ruby Rose tied up, intending to have the White Fang torture her to death, and gleefully reveals that the purpose of the attack on Vale was to cause a Grimm invasion, which would destroy not just the city but the entire kingdom.
- Justice League × RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen: Dr. Arthur Watts is a genius scientist who escaped his death by uploading his mind into cyberspace, and Kilg%re is an AI determined to kill the Justice League; the two team up to kill both their respective enemies. Watts trapped both Team RWBY and the Justice League in a digital world with Kilg%re to kill them, trapping Kilg%re there as well to ensure he finishes the job while Kilg%re possesses the Flash and forces him to try to kill his own friends. After this fails, they then launch a Grimm invasion on Earth, attacking cities all around the world with Watts intending to conquer the Earth and rebuild it according to his vision, while Kilg%re possesses several other heroes to kill their friends, before the two turn on each other after Kilg%re learns the truth about Watts trapping him in the simulation.
