YMMV / Arrethtrae

• Complete Monster:
  • Lucius the Dark Knight is the traitorous general of the King who sought to overthrow his superiors and take over for himself. After this murderous coup resulted in his banishment, he sets his sights on the land of Arrethtrae, seeking to dominate it through any means simply because the King wants to bring peace to its people. Lucius employs a variety of evil tactics in his schemes, from mass murder to slavery to genocide, and fully endorses his nightmarish Shadow Warriors and the vile brands of evil they bring upon Arrethtrae. After his initial plan to conquer Arrethtrae and subject its people to an eternity of torment and dictatorship fails, Lucius returns with the goal of wiping out all life in the world except himself and his army, his lust for power leaving thousands dead in his wake and attempted countless more.
  • Kifus is a self-righteous fanatic who uses the name of the King as a means of subjugating the people of Chessington. As leader of the Noble Knights, he "protects" Chessington through his own designed methods, involving oppressing and starving the people, torturing and maiming them for small infractions, and ignoring the plights of anyone outside of Chessington, even leaving a family to be butchered and the survivors sold into slavery because they aren't under his jurisdiction. After being humiliated by the Prince during a duel, Kifus has the Prince hanged, then begins persecuting anyone who follows the Prince's teachings, eventually deciding to kill them all, from active spreaders of the Prince's harmless messages to completely unarmed and defenseless prisoners. Kifus has no problems ordering Noble Knights be mutilated and killed if they show sympathy for the followers of the Prince, and, in his most vile act, attempts to hang an entire family—children included—just to spite a former Noble Knight who had become a follower of the Prince.
  • The Kingdom Series: Zane, the eldest brother of Leinad, is introduced trying to murder Leinad for fun. Zane hands his own father, Peyton, over to Lucius to be executed as revenge for Peyton banishing him when he killed his own twin brother. Given the go-ahead by Lucius to lead a war campaign against the city of Chessington, Zane happily tries to slaughter the entire city, only being stopped by Leinad in a duel. He promises to pull his forces back in exchange for Leinad sparing his life, only to then stab Leinad's Love Interest Tess in the gut and order the attack on Chessington to continue as soon as Leinad shows mercy. Though a minor villain in the overall story, Zane was the first purely evil villain Leinad met, and one of the worst.
  • The Knights of Arrethtrae:
    • Sir Kendrick and the Castle of Bel Lione: The Shadow Warrior Lord Ra is the ruler of the Bel Lione castle, a depraved stronghold where he lures in people by the thousands who, should they give into his vast array of inhibition-lowering activities and magics, are locked in his dungeons and kept barely alive, starved, and tortured for the rest of their lives. Ra keeps his prisoners alive as long as possible, forcing them to experience as much pain and despair as possible before they die, and turns any with the potential for evil into Vincero Knights, who he sends out to cause chaos across the land, entailing the massacres of entire villages among other atrocities. Killing any Vincero Knights who try to flee his control and having thousands of victims, Ra cheerfully boasts that he had no true goal to his crimes, he simply enjoys putting people through intense pain and despair.
    • Sir Bentley and Holbrook Court: Avarick is a Shadow Warrior who goes undercover in the kingdom of Holbrook to manipulate Lord Kingsley into oppressing and terrorizing his citizens. Ordering the Lucrums to kill many people of Holbrook to keep the city in fear and in "need" of his protection, Avarick taxes the citizens to the point of starvation, and happily has women and children taken and sold into slavery if a household can't pay. When his true identity as a Shadow Warrior is exposed, Avarick murders Kingsley and one of his daughters, before ordering his army to wipe out every living thing in Holbrook, even the "weak and crippled children", simply because he can.
    • Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart: Lord Drox, real name Skia Ek Distazo, is the Shadow Warrior in charge of Lucius's most secure prison, where he abuses and tortures any and all Knights of the Prince he captures. Drox always leaves the cells of the prisoners unlocked, offering them the chance to flee at any point, but those that do are then tracked down by him and his hounds as a sick "hunt" before being butchered, with their family and friends being targeted if he can't find the escapee himself. Often feeding prisoners alive to his vicious dogs and birds, Drox is confronted by the Knight Sir Dalton and, after realizing he is beaten, orders the dozens of his weakened, defenseless prisoners to be killed where they stand to spite Dalton and ensure that no one ever escapes his prison or grasp.
    • Lady Carliss and the Waters of Moorue: Lord Malco is a handsome, alluringly charming Shadow Warrior who seeks to destabilize Arrethtrae by drugging its waters, city by city, with esca venom, a poison secreted by esca lizards that make those who ingest it have vivid hallucinations of their greatest fantasies. Slowly corrupting the city of Woodrue into becoming nearly entirely dependent on the poisoned water Malco is supplying them, he is also secretly breeding the esca lizards and, needing a food supply for them, resorts to kidnapping men, women and children by the dozens and feeding them alive to the lizards. Malco plans to eventually plunge all of Arrethtrae into mass hallucinations, leaving countless people defenseless to be fed to his ever-growing esca lizard supply, with his noting that he will never stop breeding the lizards, and so will always needs fresh victims to feed to them.