Evil Sorcerer: Difference between revisions
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The
He, or sometimes she, is the mage who has delved too deeply into [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]] and mastered [[The Dark Arts]]. He has achieved great power, but at the expense of [[Our Souls Are Different|his soul]]. He deals in [[Black Magic]] and might well have made a [[Deal with the Devil]]. Evil Sorcerers are very dangerous foes, as they are creative as well as clever. From them, one can expect anything; hordes of demonic [[Mooks]] as the bluntest tool, [[More Than Mind Control]] as the subtlest one, and anything between those two and beyond. He will probably be a [[Sorcerous Overlord]], dwelling in an [[Evil Tower of Ominousness]] and ruling the land with an iron - but also magical - fist, though he may also show up as an [[Evil Chancellor]], using his powers to subvert the throne more subtly.
The
The
It's likely that every sorcerer will be this if [[Magic Is Evil]]. Compare the [[Wicked Witch]] and (for the more modern descendant) [[Mad Scientist]]. An undead
{{examples}}
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** Blackbriar Thorn (actually an evil ''druid''), a minor [[Batman]] foe from the '80s.
** Deimos, arch-enemy of [[The Warlord]].
**
* In the [[Marvel Universe]]:
** Baron Mordo, arch-rival of [[Doctor Strange]].
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** The most dangerous and powerful probably being Thoth-Amon. He turns up by name and fearsome reputation in several Conan tales, and although Conan faces several of his dooms by chance and the character himself is met in "[[The Phoenix on the Sword]]," the very first Conan story, he and Conan never directly encounter one another in Howard's stories, although he is a common antagonist in later derived works.
** Salome from "[[A Witch Shall Be Born]]".
** In ''[[The Hour of the Dragon]]'', Xaltotun. He scares even his own allies into stealing his Artifact of Doom. There's a reason why [[Robert E. Howard]] was the [[Trope Maker]] for [[Sword and Sorcery]]
* [[War of the Dreaming|Azrael de Gray.]]
* All literal sorcerers in the ''[[Dresden Files]]'', as the term means a spellcaster whose magical abilities are limited to mostly destructive uses, lacking the subtlety of a true wizard. Most of their abilities also involve breaking one or more of the Laws of Wizardry, each of which carries a death penalty. Most notably Victor Sells from the first book, and Kravos from the third. Two full wizards who also fit this trope are Harry's former mentor Justin DuMorne and Cowl, a recurring enemy.
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** In the movies, he makes deals. In the books, [[The Starscream|he thinks that he can be the Dark Lord himself]]. Gandalf even points out that Saruman had turned Orthanc into a [[The Theme Park Version|Poor-man's]] Barad-dur.
*** Oh, he thinks he can be the Dark Lord in the films, too. He just tries (and arguably fails) to be craftier about it.
** In ''[[The Hobbit]]'', we're led to believe that the vile Necromancer is an
** Though he's actually a [[Physical God]], Sauron ''is'' called a sorcerer in ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' as well, probably due to the largely mystical/spiritual nature of his particular power set. The Nazgul all are also called sorcerers, though it's unclear whether they had their powers before getting their rings.
* Lord Voldemort from the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' novels. [[The Dragon|Bellatrix Lestrange]] also counts. Or basically ''anyone'' who regularly uses the Dark Arts.
* Pryrates from the ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn|Memory Sorrow and Thorn]]'' books, who gets to be a trifecta: evil priest,
* Theleb K'aarna, Yyrkoon and Jagreen Lern in Michael Moorcock's ''[[Elric]] of Melniboné'' stories.
* Raistlin of the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' series (after his [[Face Heel Turn]]), as well as Fistandantilus.
* [[Clark Ashton Smith]] had lots of these in his short stories. They include Eibon, Malygris, Namirrha, Dwerulas, Ossaru, Azédarac, Mmatmuor and Sodosma, Abnon-Tha, Vacharn and his sons, Sarcand, and Maal Dweb. Some of them are [[Villain Protagonist
* Kasreyn of the Gyre in the ''[[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]''.
* Arawn Deathlord and Queen Achren from ''The [[Prydain Chronicles]]'' by [[Lloyd Alexander]].
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* ''[[The Death Gate Cycle]]'' is ''full'' of magic-using characters, but while several of them are villains, most are given [[Anti-Villain|sympathetic backstories and motivation]]. There are, however, two definite examples of this trope- [[Card-Carrying Villain|Sinistrad]] and [[Omnicidal Maniac|Kleitus]].
* Vadim Maur from the ''[[Tairen Soul]]'' series is a standard example of this trope, and manages to be quite frightening despite (or rather ''because'') he is such an [[Obviously Evil]] [[Card-Carrying Villain]].
* Parodied in ''[[Discworld]]'' with Dr Hix of the Unseen University's Department of Post-Mortem Communication ([[Suspiciously Specific Denial|and certainly not necromancy]]), who is officially the University's Bad Person, and is therefore permitted to [[Poke the Poodle|perform mild acts of "evil"]], such as practical jokes or saying what everyone else is thinking. The thinking is that, PMC being what it is, it's better to have someone sensible playing a role<ref>The aspect of his personality that most worries the other wizards is his enthusiasm for amateur dramatics</ref> than run the risk of an ''actual''
* Several villains from ''[[The Saga of the Noble Dead]]'' practice sorcery, notably Chane, a vampiric [[Psycho for Hire]] and [[Magic Knight]], and his partner {{spoiler|Welstiel}}, who specializes in crafting magical items. The character from the series who most fits the stereotypes, though, is Ubad- [[Necromancer]], [[Evil Old Folks|old]], [[Black Cloak]], [[Deal with the Devil|pact with the dark forces]], etc. ''Not'' a guy to cross.
* In [[Lord Dunsany]]'s ''[[The Charwomans Shadow]]'', the magician does not tell the hero what taking his shadow entails and describes, elegantly, how honored great magicians are in [[Hell]].
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* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' ''loves'' this trope. By campaign setting:
** [[Dragonlance]]: As mentioned above, Raistlin and Fistandantilus.
*** And Dalamar, Maladar, Galan Dracos, most Renegades, and the entire Order of the Black Robes (though the latter are admittedly often [[Affably Evil]] [[Anti-Villain|Anti Villains]] or [[Anti-Hero|Anti Heroes]], as most are more self-serving and amoral than [[Complete Monster
** [[Forgotten Realms]]: Halaster Blackcloak, Manshoon([[Cloning Blues|s]]), the ruling council of the city of Shade, Szass Tam and the rest of the Red Wizards of Thay. And these are just the most notable/infamous. There's probably hundreds of 'em.
** [[Greyhawk]]: Vecna (who eventually [[A God Am I|ascends to godhood]]), Rary the Traitor, the infamous [[Tomb of Horrors|Acererak]].
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*** As well as almost every lich ever - [[Moral Event Horizon|the terrible things the ritual requires to be done]] makes it a prerequisite.
** [[Eberron]] kind of subverts the trope (like it does with about every other trope) with Vol, who is not only half elf and half dragon, but also undead. And some people believe she was turned into an undead creature as a child.
* ...and ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' loves it almost as much. The most prominent is Lim-Dul, the Necromancer, whose hordes of [[Zombie Apocalypse|undead]] and [[Demonic Invaders|demons]] plagued the continent of Terisiare during the Ice Age; {{spoiler|Lim-Dul is later revealed to be another
** [[Big Bad]] Nicol Bolas takes it [[Up to Eleven]], being an
* Iuchiban in ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]''.
** Daigotsu was literally raised from birth to be the embodiment of this trope. I mean, the guy serves an evil god ''willingly''...
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* Several ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' antagonists such as [[Fire Emblem Akaneia|Gharnef]] and [[Fire Emblem Elibe|Nergal]]. Some may overlap with [[Sinister Minister]].
* The Dragonlord from ''[[Dragon Quest]]'', Hargon from ''[[Dragon Quest II]]'', Dhoulmagus from ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'' ({{spoiler|though for him it's mostly a case of [[Demonic Possession]] by the true [[Big Bad]]}}).
* First
* ''[[World of Mana]]''
** ''[[Final Fantasy Adventure]]'': Julius
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* Ba Rouryuu, the [[Big Bad]] of the [[Girls Love]] [[Visual Novel]] ''[[Aoi Shiro]]''. [[Harsher in Hindsight|If no one stops him, a tsunami of unbelievable magnitude will hit all of Japan in no time]].
* Druaga in ''[[The Tower of Druaga]]''.
* [[Nietzsche Wannabe|The Nihilist Priesthood]] in ''[[Lusternia]]'' is a whole ''church'' full of
* Seath the Scaleless in ''[[Dark Souls]]'' is a dragon credited with inventing sorcery. He's an insane wreck in the present after vainly trying to solve the mystery of the scales of immortality that every dragon ''but'' him possessed.
* At one point in his campaign, Gauldoth Half-Dead of ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic|Heroes IV]]'' lampshades the tendency for necromancers to become the evil [[Take Over the World]] overreaching villain. That said, it's not ''that'' common an affliction: over the course of the six games taking place on Enroth, a grand total of ''one'' character (Sandro) fitting this trope shows up, and even he survives the ordeal and aims for more modest goals after that.
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* Skeletor in ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'' is a borderline [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|sympathetic]] variant on this.
** Also Evil-Lyn.
** He's somewhat more competent, dangerous and evil in the recent remake series; we also get to see two other [[Big Bad
* Hex from ''[[Ben 10]]''.
* Mr Crocker becomes one of these in the ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]'' episode "Timmy the Barbarian".
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* The Archmage from ''[[Gargoyles]]''.
* Wrath-Amon and Ram-Amon from ''[[Conan the Adventurer (animation)|Conan the Adventurer]]'', the latter being an obvious [[Expy]] of the Conan books' Thoth-Amon.
* Both [[Big Bad
* Blackwolf in [[Ralph Bakshi]]'s ''[[Wizards]]''. He's the [[Evil Twin]] of Avatar.
* No Heart from ''[[Care Bears]]''.
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