During the investigation of recent hollers in the Complete Monster thread, it's become apparent to the staff that an insular, unfriendly culture has evolved in the Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard threads that is causing problems.
Specific issues include:
- Overzealous hollers on tropers who come into the threads without being familiar with all the rules and traditions of the tropes. And when they are familiar with said rules and traditions, they get accused (with little evidence) of being ban evaders.
- A few tropers in the thread habitually engage in snotty, impolite mini-modding. There are also regular complaints about excessive, offtopic "socializing" posts.
- Many many thread regulars barely post/edit anywhere else, making the threads look like they are divorced from the rest of TV Tropes.
- Following that, there are often complaints about the threads and their regulars violating wiki rules, such as on indexing, crosswicking, example context and example categorization. Some folks are working on resolving the issues, but...
- Often moderator action against thread regulars leads to a lot of participants suddenly showing up in the moderation threads to protest and speak on their behalf, like a clique.
It is not a super high level problem, but it has been going on for years and we cannot ignore it any longer. There will be a thread in Wiki Talk
to discuss the problem; in the meantime there is a moratorium on further Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard example discussion until we have gotten this sorted out.
Update: The new threads have been made and can be found here:
Please see the Frequently Asked Questions and Common Requests List before suggesting any new entries for this trope.
IMPORTANT: To avoid a holler to the mods, please see here for the earliest date a work can be discussed, (usually two weeks from the US release), as well as who's reserved discussion.
When voting, you must specify the candidate(s). No blanket votes (i.e. "![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_up_emote.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
to everyone I missed").
No plagiarism: It's fair to source things, but an effortpost must be your own work and not lifted wholesale from another source.
We don't care what other sites think about a character being a Complete Monster. We judge this trope by our own criteria. Repeatedly attempting to bring up other sites will earn a suspension.
What is the Work
Here you briefly describe the work in question and explain any important setting details. Don't assume that everyone is familiar with the work in question.
Who is the Candidate and What have they Done?
This will be the main portion of the Effort Post. Here you list all of the crimes committed by the candidate. For candidates with longer rap sheets, keep the list to their most important and heinous crimes, we don't need to hear about every time they decide to do something minor or petty.
Do they have any Mitigating Factors or Freudian Excuse?
Here you discuss any potential redeeming or sympathetic features the character has, the character's Freudian Excuse if they have one, as well as any other potential mitigating factors like Offscreen Villainy or questions of moral agency. Try to present these as objectively as possible by presenting any evidence that may support or refute the mitigating factors.
Do they meet the Heinousness Standard?
Here you compare the actions of the Candidate to other character actions in the story in order to determine if they stand out or not. Remember that all characters, not just other villains, contribute to the Heinousness Standard
Final Verdict?
Simply state whether or not you think the character counts or not.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 31st 2023 at 4:14:10 AM
Lies and Violence!
Yes to all the GA dudes (read that run a few months ago, knew we'd have some good keepers when you eventually got to them), Lupus, Eiri, Mansa, and Malcolm.
What's the work?
A Practical Guide to Evil is set on the continent of Calernia, where general fantasy tropes have become ingrained laws of fate and common character archetypes (or "Names") such as the Black Knight and Evil Chancellor act as empowering roles to those who would claim them. I'll explain more context for later posts.
- Evil:
- The Dread Empire of Praes: the most prominent and most fucked up worshippers of Evil on the continent. Betrayal is their forte, Stupid Evil is their religion, and atrocities are their Tuesdays.
- The ratlings of the Chain of Hunger: an Always Chaotic Evil species of giant rat monsters that want to eat everything.
- Keter: the Kingdom of the Dead ruled by the ancient necromancer Neshamah. Universally regarded as the champion of Evil.
- Good:
- The Kingdom of Callow: your average Good Kingdom, founded by the Alban dynasty. Later succeeded by the Fairfax dynasty, for... reasons we're about to get into.
- The Duchy of Daoine: an isolationist vassal state of Callow.
- Various tribes on the western half of the continent.
- The elves of the Golden Bloom: xenophobic assholes exiled from their homeland across the seas. Word of God has compared them to Nazis fleeing to Argentina.
- The Gigantes of the Titanomachy: a reclusive race of giants, and the most magically advanced species on the continent.
- Neutral:
- The dwarves of the Kingdom Under: the only people on (well, under) the continent that have claim to being an actual global player. In most cases, to wage war on them is to basically commit suicide.
I'm starting a deep dive into this series for the MB thread, but there are four characters who fit in here as well. So let's start out with the easiest one, from the hellhole that is Praes! And when I say hellhole... christ, is it a hellhole. Sometimes literally. The Dread Empire of Praes is ruled by Evil-aligned lords from the eastern half of Calernia.
The best summation of Praesi rule is that devils can and will be forced to pay taxes on the capital gains made by trading souls. On top of all the horrors you may expect from that being a regular thing, the Empire's nobility are constantly backstabbing each other at the slightest opportunity, with even the smallest hint of weakness likely leading to a "tragic accident" that will see your totally grieving and most definitely innocent cousin taking your place. All of this, of course, is part of the struggle to climb the "Tower" and become Dread Emperor — usually at the expense of the previous Emperor's life — whose main qualifications are being better at killing people before they themselves can be killed.
There have been a lot of Dread Emperors, ranging from the laughably moronic to the competently average to the utterly nightmarish. Fortunately, each chapter opens up with an In-Universe historical quote or excerpt, giving us a bit of insight into some of these figures. There have been a lot and they all have their own brand of insanity, but you know who's universally agreed to be the worst?
Who is Dread Empress Triumphantnote , First and Only of Her Name?
Starting out as an unnamed girl from the Praesi city of Wolof, the woman who would become known as the Empress Most Dread made her debut by killing one of the Empire's seven ruling High Lords, unrepentantly taunting his house and daring they challenge her. Rather than arrest her, the Sahelians were actually impressed by her brazen murder of their leader — I can't stress enough how weird Praesi are — and took her in. Pretty soon, the girl's sheer ruthlessness led to her climbing the Tower and taking up the name of Dread Empress Triumphant, setting her sights on expanding her rule across all of existence.
What made Triumphant special was her mastery of diabolism — devil and demon summoning. In the Angels, Devils and Squid trio, demons are the Squid. They're technically from the Hells, but no one knows what they actually are, and their mere presence permanently scars reality. Triumphant pioneered the art of "Lesser Breaches", where instead of summoning and binding them one by one, you can open a temporary portal to a Hell with bindings woven into it, ensuring any eldritch monstrosity that passes through will follow your orders. On top of having an army of devils at her beck and call, Triumphant held her demons in "Hell Eggs" — standards used by the Praesi Legions. Their sheer destructive power rechristened the Legions as "The Legions of Terror."
When Triumphant took over, her first act was consolidating power over the pit of vipers that was the Praesi nobility through sheer force of might. Under her rule, there was no scheming Chancellor nor any rebellious High Lords — "All had been united in terror of the monster of monsters." It's heavily implied she crucified at least half of them and bound devils to the rest.
From there, she moved on to the Kingdom of Callow, riding a flying fortress to the capital of Laure. There she released a demon of madness, killing nine out of ten inhabitants in the city and wiping out the ruling Alban dynasty.
After finishing completely eradicating Callow's knightly orders and wiping out half of the Daoine population, Triumphant moved on to the various tribes of the west. Leaving a trail of bloody destruction in her wake, Triumphant was eventually confronted by a massive collection of priesthoods, who summoned a Seraphim from the angelic choir of Judgement.
... She somehow killed it, before writing "her rage in blood across a hundred trembling tribes" and inviting the Dead King, an ancient lich god, to leave his personal Hell and command his undead hordes in wiping out her enemies.
Next were the giants, who went to war with their mightiest spellsingers. Their battle created a massive pond, killing hundreds of thousands of nearby civilians before Triumphant struck down a fifth of the giants' population. To give them an eternal reminder of the cost of defying the Empire, Triumphant cursed two with endless hunger and endless healing respectively, before binding the two to the top of a mountain so their screams could be heard by all within the Titanomachy. They're apparently still alive in the present.
The dwarves she handled by flooding their tunnels with demons, forcing them to pay tribute (Catherine reasons this was less out of genuine fear and more them just throwing money at a mild headache until it went away, but that she managed to force them to pay in the first place is still impressive).
The elves... phased their entire kingdom out of reality. Triumphant wiped out two random cities in her fury.
The ratlings of the Chain of Hunger she reduced to one tenth of their original population, and when they still refused to surrender she burned down as much of their land as she could.
It took ten years, but eventually the entire continent was more or less hers. She lost it in five.
A lot of Triumphant's reign was spent subjugating and massacring the populace. She was fond of "having children crucify their own parents as a sign of obeisance," forcing the young Duchess of Daoine to do so to her father after he didn't bow low enough for her tastes. Crucifixion was a punishment brought over by an overseas empire that had enslaved the people of Calernia before being kicked out by a nascent Dread Empire, so her using it was basically saying "you are all rowdy slaves to me." Before long, she began to eye said overseas lands, already considering how she could expand her rule.
This backfired. The Duchess and a young knight named Eleanor Fairfax rallied the conquered nations of Calernia to rise up against the Dread Empress' rule. Aided by two overseas nations offended by Triumphant's hubris, Eleanor led an army of heroes in a crusade against the Tower, taking on the red cross as a symbol of defiance against her twisted rule.
Eventually, Eleanor's heroes lay siege to the Praesi capital of Ater, where the Legions of Terror were broken after a great battle. In a final act of spite, Triumphant released all of the bound demons in Praes before bringing down the Tower on top of her killers, hoping to wipe them all out. After all, "If Creation is not mine, what need is there to be a Creation at all?"
Here you lie upon the blood-soaked ruins of your dominion, surrounded by the corpses of the legions that once swarmed over the world. Hundreds of thousands dead for the sake of your wretched ambition, your mad design to bring to heel the kingdoms of man. In all the history of Creation no one woman has been so wicked as you, and I will have my answer.
Why, o Empress of Ruins?"
She shrugged.
"Why not?"
An empty boast.
To be good at!
There is the glory
even in devilry."
cast the word as you
would a stone;
seek to bury under
scorn of herded
multitude, and yet
forget my Name:
most dread,
savage ruler of
yet fiercer race;
did you expect
meekness of me?
speak it a curse
as if Hells were
grasping instead
of grasped;
as if I had knelt.
I am tyrant,
bringer of calamity;
crowned and
crowning glory
of mine empire
tremble; for
my reach is long
my wrath is great
patient but
unrivalled
above or below
Triumphant"
Mitigating factors?
Not a single shred of a hint of a redeeming quality. Triumphant was a hateful woman who cared for nothing but her reign. The only person she had even a vaguely positive relationship with was the Dead King, and he's... well, we'll get to him. It was very much an In Love with Your Carnage kind of deal.
Oh, and don't worry about any of this being Offscreen Villainy! The impact of her reign is still being felt in the present:
- The Principate of Procer was formed from the weakened tribes of the west of Calernia, who were forced to band together lest they be cannibalized by neighboring enemies eager to take advantage of their massacred state.
- The giants wasted hundreds of years of accumulated magic in their fight with the Empress, leaving most but a decade away from death in the present should they not constantly observe old rituals.
- While most of her demons where released upon death, some Hell Eggs remain in Callow and Procer. The modern day head of the Sahelians, Akua, found one and unleashed a demon of corruption on Catherine to horrifying effect.
- The Dead King was given a means of communication with Praes, which eventually led to him becoming one of the Big Bads of the series. We'll get to that later.
- The other Big Bad, the Intercessor, converts the corpse of that angel she killed into a superweapon to wipe out all life on the continent.
- Her fall crippled Praes for generations, and not helping matters were the evils she inflicted on the populace — they weren't excluded from the horrors of her reign. Even to this day, all Praesi fear and despise her, leading to a delightful cultural superstition where any utterance of her name must immediately be followed by a "May she never return." Seems a little unlikely, but weirder things have happened in Praes.
Heinousness?
Sooooo... the standard for this series is pretty jacked. Take Kairos over on MB for instance. He sparks an unnecessarily brutal civil war and orders the slaughter of 4,662 people — men, women and children alike — to fuel magical siege weapons.
It's still horrible... but it isn't exceptional. Mass murder and ritual sacrifices are disturbingly common in this setting, and with a heavy focus on military campaigns, the average fight scene still claims thousands of lives. Even ignoring all the worldbuilding put into the horrific reigns of the Dread Emperors of the past, Kairos' atrocities pale in comparison to the likes of Akua, who massacres over a hundred thousand innocents to raise an undead army and plans to open hellgates across the continent. (He's also disqualified because I find his interactions with Cat a touch too genuinely affable; he has a sympathetic backstory; and he accepts his death with grace despite having the means to wipe out half the continent in a final act of vengeance if he had so wished, but the heinous standard is still the bigger issue. Akua also doesn't count, as the story is just as much about her overcoming the twisted teachings of the Wasteland as it is Cat reforging the continent.)
Oh, and let's look at a handful of other random Emperors!
- Sanguina, the Gourmet, famously responded to food riots by remarking that "I do enjoy when a problem is its own solution," and made it a capital offense to eat subpar food.
- Massacre burned the inhabitants of a rebelling city alive.
- Nefarious had young women kidnapped to be raped.
- Nihilis' epithet was "the Tanner," and while I absolutely could go into more detail, I really don't think I need to.
- Revenant created a spell that would crash the moon into the planet — he never used the spell, but that he made it in the first place is still pretty horrible.
So what makes Triumphant stand out? Well... she won. She's the only person to have ever successfully conquered the entire continent, with explicit acknowledgement given to all the death and devastation one would expect from an accomplishment like that. Combine that with her various cruelties and she's easily the most vile person in the series, with only the Dead King and the Intercessor coming close to topping her — and even they would be content to just wipe out all life on the continent and leave it at that. Triumphant unquestionably wanted to spread her bloody conquest across the entire world. She holds claim to the greatest loss of life in the extensive history of the setting, and — despite being constantly emulated — is still regarded by the Praesi as a monster even they wouldn't tolerate kneeling before.
Final verdict?
A long-awaited yes to the Tyrant of all Tyrants, may she never return.
Edited by EmeraldEmperor on Apr 5th 2022 at 4:13:36 AM
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
Malcom and Scott.
While I'm at, I got a couple of trim job to do with my older entries. From Orphan Black.
Current entries.
- Season 4's Big Bad, Evie Cho, is the ambitious, high-ranking, Neolutionist CEO of BrightBorn. A survivor of a birth defect, Cho developed a perfectionist view, which inspired her goal to control the future of human evolution. Cho developed mechanical, worm-like devices to alter people's DNA and can quickly but painfully kill its host if ruptured. When Beth Childs was investigating the Neolutionists, Cho tried to get her to kill Susan Ducan, so she can usurp Duncan as leader of Neolution. Failing that, Cho blackmails her into killing herself by threatening the other clones. It's also revealed that she had Delphine Cormier shot at the end of season 3. When Cosmia explores BrightBorn facilities, she discovers Cho is keeping pregnant women in maternity labs for illegal human experiments. When these experiments result in the babies being born deformed, or any other imperfection such as blindness, Cho would have the babies euthanized to cover it up. Cho has Cosmia's research to help cure the clones diseases destroyed, and has Kendall killed and incinerated in front of Cosmia, making it impossible for the clones to find cures. To further wound her, Cho tells Cosmia that Delphine is dead. She plans to put her devices into millions of people and alter their DNA without their consent. She has Donnie arrested with threats of having him killed in jail to blackmail Allison. When two women escape her maternity lab with evidence that could expose her, she sends assassins after them. When exposed and given the option to resign and absolve BrightBorn of any wrongdoings, she refuses, her Villainous Breakdown when the project might move forward without her showing she doesn't so much care about controlling human evolution, as much as she cares that she's the one doing it.
- Percival T. "P.T." Westmoreland, actually John Mathieson, the Big Bad of the 5th and final season, is the ultimate villain of the series, posing as the founder of Neolution and has been behind all its atrocities. Stealing the real Westmoreland's identity, he goes on to create a cult to his name on an isolated island while he runs Neolution behind the scenes. Seeking immortality, he sustains himself by taking the blood of the children of his cult, resulting in some of them dying, and even experiments and tortures a boy named Yanis, driving him feral before eventually killing him in front of Cosima. His next plans is to find, harvest and fertilize eight year old Kira's eggs, to spread and study the "Fountain of Youth" gene in her offspring, something he is steadfast in, even when his true identity as Mathieson is exposed. Viewing the project LEDA clones as little more than experiments, he feigns a fatherly affection to Rachel, while secretly spying on her every action through her prosthetic eye. When the truth of Neolution is exposed, he becomes more unhinged; has Helena abducted to force her to give birth to her twins for further experiments; kills his backers to cover his tracks as much as possible; and has Dr. Virginia Coady kill Mark now that the project CASTOR clones served their purpose. It's revealed his end goal is to create a serum that would permanently reverse cell damage for the upper class—mainly himself—and have the rest sterilized by the CASTOR pathogen. Ultimately, John Mathieson is little more than a selfish madman that manipulates an ideology and orchestrated atrocities for little more than his personal power, and the expansion of his own life.
While these two do have a lot to their names, I hardly say they warrant such bloated entries. They just barely reach the 200+ club. So here's my rewrites.
- Season 4: Evie Cho, is the ambitious Neolutionist CEO of BrightBorn. A survivor of a birth defect, Cho's perfectionist view inspired her goal to control human evolution. Cho developed mechanical, worm-like devices to alter people's DNA which can kill its host if ruptured. When Beth Childs investigated the Neolutionists, Cho tried to get her to kill Susan Ducan, hoping to usurp Duncan as Neolution's leader. Failing, Cho blackmails Beth into killing herself, later having Delphine Cormier shot and seemingly killed. It's revealed Cho is experimenting on pregnant women in BrightBorn's labs; when these result in the babies being born with imperfections, from deformities to blindness, Cho would have the babies euthanized to cover it up. Cho destroys Cosmia's research to cure the clones diseases, and has Kendall killed and incinerated to erase the cure completely. To further hurt her, Cho tells Cosmia that Delphine is dead. Intending to put her devices into millions of people and alter their DNA without their consent. When two women escape her labs, she puts a kill order on them. When exposed and Neolution gives her the option to resign, absolving BrightBorn of any wrongdoings, she childishly refuses, her breakdown showing her for being a selfish glory seeker to their cause.
- Season 5: Percival T. "P.T." Westmoreland, actually John Mathieson, is the ultimate villain of the series, posing as the founder of Neolution. Stealing Westmoreland's identity, he creates a cult to his name and Neolution behind the scenes. Seeking immortality, he'd take the blood of the children of his cult to sustain himself; even experimenting and torturing a boy named Yanis, driving him feral before eventually killing him. He plans is to harvest and fertilize eight year old Kira's eggs, to spread and study the "Fountain of Youth" gene in her offspring, even when his true identity is exposed. He feigns a fatherly affection to Rachel, while spying on her through her prosthetic eye. When the truth is exposed, he becomes more unhinged; having Helena abducted to force the birth her twins for further experiments; kills his backers to cover his tracks; and has Dr. Coady kill Mark when the project CASTOR clones served their purpose. His end goal is to create a serum that would permanently reverse cell damage for the upper class and have the rest sterilized by the CASTOR pathogen. Ultimately, Mathieson is simply a selfish madman that manipulates an ideology and orchestrated atrocities his personal power, and the expansion of his own life.
Edited by Beast on Apr 5th 2022 at 11:05:45 AM
"It's like...a cliff, and if I do it, I'm just gonna...fall." "I think we're already falling."
Unofficial Wiki Curator for Complete Monster
Yes to Malcolm.
I'm sorry, but you GOTTA trim that EP. Over 3600 words. One think I will ask: Just because she won doesn't necessarily make her the most heinous. Also, if Akua doesn't count because of the Wasteland's teachings, why doesn't that stop Triumphant from possibly counting?
Edited by ACW on Apr 5th 2022 at 2:42:16 PM
CM Dates; CM Pending; CM Drafts
Dread Empress Triumphant. Sounds like quite the piece of work.
to Sgt. Scott Notting, Malcolm Deconnard and Dread Empress Triumphant.
Showtime!
to the Trailer Park Shark guy. Not reading the Practical Guide to Evil ep until it's shortened
Unofficial Wiki Curator for Complete Monster
Also, Beast, please add the rewrites (with potholes) to the Drafts.
CM Dates; CM Pending; CM Drafts
Lies and Violence!
Shit, so sorry about that. I knew it was long, but I posted it before I went off to a class and didn't check just how long. Will get on that later, give me a bit.
Unofficial Wiki Curator for Complete Monster
No worries. I understand it's a big work, so a little longer is okay, but even 2,000 is stretching it. 3,500+ is too much even for Stretch Armstrong ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
From 'Ell's 'eart Oi stab at ye!
Triumphant. Ah, that effortpost reminds me of my first Overlord effort.
Scott, Malcolm and Triumphant.
Lies and Violence!
Got it a little over 2k. If that's still too much, please let me know, otherwise Imma start work on fixing the one I did on MB. Once again, I sincerely apologize for letting that slip, I've been working on this for a few weeks now and got excited to start without consideration to shortening the text.
- Triumphant's conquest killed hundreds of thousands; her reign involved murder, torture, and fates worse than death on a regular basis for anyone who displeased her; her final act was a spiteful attempt to kill as many people as she could by unleashing hundreds of eldritch monstrosities to run wild; and she's the only villain who explicitly wanted to bring the horrors of Praes to the entire world, not just the continent. She's the worst.
- Akua doesn't count because she redeems herself, not because a Praesi upbringing brainwashes you to be the worst person ever or something.
Edited by EmeraldEmperor on Apr 5th 2022 at 4:21:23 AM
Unofficial Wiki Curator for Complete Monster
I'll read the revised EP later.
CM Dates; CM Pending; CM Drafts
Goku Black
Empress Triumphant.
Notting, Malcolm, & Triumphant
I’ve notice that the darkling from grisha trilogy still has a quote on the quote page, despite being cut.
Auctioneer, Mansa, Notting, Deconnard and Triumphant
Switching to ![[tdown]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_down_emoticon_3571.png "[thumb down]"){kind=small}
Eiri
Got a quote:
Thoughts?
Wild Child
I like it.
Classy, Refined, Unstable
Mansa, Malcom, Scott, Truimphant, the two above quotes, Auctioneer
Edited by WetFlannels on Apr 5th 2022 at 1:55:07 PM
Oh, Mr. Kennedy, you entertain me. To show my appreciation, I will help you awaken from your world of clichés.
Lies and Violence!
Second one, and... I'm genuinely unsure on this guy.
The second half of the series can be summed up as follows: Cat, after murdering enough armies, finally convinces the nations of Calernia to stop trying to kill her and leads their forces into war against the two greatest evils of their time:
- Neshamah, the Dead King, is an ancient lich who rules the Kingdom of the Dead, Keter. Having finally discerned his ancient enemy's greatest desire, he now leads his hordes in an effort to wipe out every possible threat to his godhood on the continent (i.e. every single living thing, as even the lowliest of orphans can be twisted into a weapon by the Intercessor).
- The Intercessor, aka the Wandering Bard, appears to be an unassuming drunk heroine but in actuality is an eldritch, body-hopping servant of the Gods. For thousands of years she has subtly manipulated the stories that govern this world to raise heroes and crumble empires, throwing crusade after crusade at Keter with nary a thought given to the countless innocents she's sacrificed in her efforts to slay the Dead King. However, a job like that can get pretty tiring after a while, and she's looking for a way out. How would one accomplish that? Well, maybe if there was no one left to tell stories...
That won't really be relevant until two more EP's, but just to give some background context here. Anyway, as part of this war effort, Cat and the White Knight attempt to gather every hero and villain they can find. Since there's a bit of concern as to whether this is just a trick by the heroes to gather all the villains for a purge, they have to promise pardons for the past crimes of every villain that joins up, lest some of the nastier but more useful ones be too afraid to pitch in. Which leads us to this asshole.
Who is the Wicked Enchanter?
The Wicked Enchanter is villain who specialized in "domination magics." The Enchanter would travel across the countryside, "where he slew and robbed and raped his fill in the villages around the outskirts" of the southern region. The tortures and rape he inflicted on one girl in particular turned her into the heroine known as the Red Axe, who was destined to someday get her revenge on the villain.
Then, one day, the Enchanter was visited by the Wandering Bard, who warned him that his "joys in the wild" had finally been noticed. Deciding to seek amnesty with the war effort against Keter — after bringing his "court" to three more villages, implying he keeps some of his brainwashed victims around — the Enchanter quickly proves to be an unlikeable, cowardly prick who disgusts even other villains, but his presence reassures some of the tamer ones that the offered protection is genuine. Eventually, he was assigned to their research center, the Arsenal... where he just so happened to meet the recently recruited Red Axe, who killed him in public. Long story short, it's all part of a complicated plan by the Bard to accomplish ten unrelated goals at once, the Red Axe all too happy to comply with dismantling a system that would protect such monsters (and while in any other situation I would sympathize, there is absolutely no need to be so smug about sabotaging the efforts to stop the King of Death from marching to wipe out all life. You idiot.).
Mitigating features?
Here's the big problem. We never actually meet the Enchanter aside from his briefly reanimated corpse — all his actions are relayed to us posthumously, and aren't delved into with too much detail. The "slew and robbed and raped his fill in villages" bit is about as in-depth as we get, save this later exchange:
"What was done to me," the Red Axe snorted. "Do you know, Black Queen? What it is he's tiptoeing around?"
"No," I admitted.
I had suspicions, though. Rape and torture highest among them. What sparse details we’d found of how the Wicked Enchanter had lived on the lawless outskirts of Procer had been a sickening read.
Pretty vague. That said, rape is still a fairly unique crime in this setting. There are only three other serial rapists that I can recall:
- Some random city guard, who is merely known to have "done it before." No number given; could be ten, could be three. Repugnant as it is, he also has redeeming qualities, as his first thought upon realizing he could get in trouble was to worry about who would provide for his kids, and he's hesitant when he realizes he'll have to actually kill his victim to keep her quiet.
- Some random lord from the Saint of Swords' backstory, who was said to rape young men then hang them as thieves. He's just a Noodle Incident in her journey to becoming a ruthless Knight Templar and only mentioned at the bottom of a long list of slain monsters and fae, notable solely for the fact that he was human yet still capable of such evil.
- The Dread Emperor Nefarious, after a particularly disastrous failed invasion of Callow, was left feeble-minded from an enemy spell and spent the rest of his reign "filling the ranks of his seraglio." The current Dread Empress, Malicia, was originally kidnapped to serve as a concubine after her father was nailed to their family inn's floor. Again, no exact number is given, and even then it's pretty lackluster compared to prior Dread Emperors.
The Enchanter — somewhat — escapes their issues: he has something resembling a victim count (at least four villages, definitely more, and it's acknowledged that they held hundreds of people); while his actions are Offscreen Villainy, they nevertheless drive the plot of the first half of the sixth book by giving motive for the Red Axe to ally with the Bard; and he accomplishes this with fuck all for resources. He's also able to showcase a little personality through his reanimated corpse: he's the one who refers to his crimes as "joys in the wild," and expresses a mild desire to kill the Axe before his spirit is put back to rest.
Don't know if that's enough, but the EP required barely any effort and I figured I might as well put it out there while I work on the fun ones.
Edited by EmeraldEmperor on Apr 5th 2022 at 11:35:55 AM
Gotta think on Enchanter.
From 'Ell's 'eart Oi stab at ye!
I could go either way but for now, Enchanter.
to the Enchanter
Yes to the new winner of "funniest anticlimax death ever" award. A very prestigious one, may I add. Yes to Scott, too.