Multiversal Conqueror

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

There are forces in The Multiverse far beyond anything you've ever dealt with. Ancient, mindless evils that fill in the cracks and eat dimensions just for a snack. Monstrous deities and empires spanning Universe after Universe have risen and fallen in the span of forever! But there is still one individual, one being that they are all horrified of! When I saw him coming near my universe, I fled. Muhahahhahahha. Weep for your Universe, Linkara! Weep for all Universes! For Lord Vyce is coming! Hihihi. And all that he sees, he conquers! HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!

—Doctor Linksano, Atop the Fourth Wall, Tandy Computer Whiz Kids: Fit To Win Review

Sometimes an Evil Overlord, Galactic Conqueror, Dimension Lord, demon lord, archdevil, Physical God of Evil or Eldritch Abomination decides there's only one evil goal big enough to suits him - bring The Multiverse to its knees. Not only our Earth, but every dimension, every alternate reality, every single planet and life form in the whole multiverse. He may want to conquer it. Or he might want to destroy it. In both cases he's the ultimate threat, more powerful than anyone else our heroes has ever met. He can destroy planets, blow up entire cities with one finger, erase whole dimensions. To show how strong he is he can even kill the Guardian of the Multiverse, very first person that will oppose him. And when he says A God Am I, he's being modest. Fighting with him is usually our hero's greatest task ever. To defeat him there's usually a gathering of the greatest army of heroes that multiverse has ever seen. If he comes back after being defeated he will most likely be a shadow of his old self.

Is often used as an Original Generation villain or a Legion of Doom for a Intercontinuity Crossover.

Compare with Omnicidal Maniac.

This is one of the two highest-ranking Authority Tropes, the other being Guardian of the Multiverse. The next rank down is Dimension Lord.

Note: Technically, the Universe means everything in existence, so if two "universes" have any connection, they are one universe. "Dimension" would be more accurate for a parallel "universe", but this is one of those comic book things you have to let slide. (Although some modern physical cosmological models, such as M-Theory, are beginning to dispense with the classical definition of a universe as "everything" and are now more adapting to the definition of "one everything". Science Marches On.)

Examples of Multiversal Conqueror include:


Anime & Manga

  • Several characters in the Digimon series:
    • In Digimon Adventure, Vamdemon decided that conquering the Digital World wasn't enough, he also wanted to conquer the Real World.
    • Digimon Tamers: The D-Reaper attempted to delete Earth in accordance with its purpose once it was accidentally brought over into it.
    • The real king of this trope is Millenniumon who, as revealed in the WonderSwan games, eventually aspired to conquer all alternate-reality Digital Worlds (that is to say, effectively the alternate worlds of every Digimon canon ever). He comes dangerously close to succeeding, being particularly successful in being The Man Behind the Man as far as almost every bad thing in the Digimon Adventure canon is concerned.
    • Digimon Xros Wars: Baguramon is probably the closest in the franchise to rival Millenimumon in this aspect, and is probably second in power to Milleniumon as well.
  • Yubel in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
  • Byakuran of Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
  • The titular character of Noein who snapped after looking through countless universes to find one that didn't end in tragedy. After failing to do so he decided it would be better to tear down the multiverse and return everything to the void.


Comic Books

  • The Anti-Monitor from DC Comics Crisis on Infinite Earths. Superman's Evil Counterpart Superboy Prime from its sequel, Infinite Crisis. And Mandrakk the Dark Monitor from Final Crisis. Yes, DC loves this trope.
    • Infamous Countdown to Final Crisis gave us Monarch, who gathered an army of supervillains from the whole multiverse to fight its protectors, the Monitors. At the same time one of the Monitors, Solomon, plotted with Darkseid to conquer the multiverse. It's hard to say which one was worse.
    • Monarch was actually introduced much earlier in the (not very well-received) Crisis Crossover Armageddon 2001, but he had nothing to do with the Multiverse (or the current Monarch, either).
    • Darkseid, while normally a Galactic Conqueror, ascends to a Multiversal Conqueror in Final Crisis.
  • In a Fantastic Four storyline, the Marquis of Death traveled through Alternate Earths, destroying them, killing everything, or any sort of villainy he felt like. All for fun.
  • Another Marvel villain, Abraxas, wants to conquer the whole multiverse, but is kept in check by Galactus - as long as Galactus lives, Abraxas can't even exist. Also yet another Marvel villain, the Beyonder. Marvel loves this trope too.
  • Exiles enemy Hyperion was a member of another team sent to repair alternate realities who killed everything in his world and become both a Dimension Lord and completely alone. However, instead of helping alternate realities he tried to conquer them.
  • The Marvel Zombies, after their Zombie Apocalypse conquered their own universe, started looking for a way to spread it across the whole multiverse, and tried to attack both the Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe. It's hard to say if they are Multiversal Conquerors, or if it's The Virus that controls them.
    • The "Marvel Zombies Return" mini subverted that: the zombies are struck between two Earths - when they conquer one, they end up being sent to the second's past in an endless circle.
  • And then you have Hyperstorm, another Fantastic Four villain who's the future son of Franklin Richards and Rachel Summers. Let's drive this point home, shall we? Daddy can alter reality with his mind, and mommy is a cosmic-level telepath/telekinetic that can access the Phoenix Force. Obviously, their kid was tremendously powerful and conquered several universes in his adult life.
  • Another Marvel villain who semi-fits this trope is Kang The Conqueror, time-traveling military genius who's conquered entire universes, not through raw power, but through tactics and strategy.
  • Yet, another Marvel villain - Amatsu Mikaboshi, Chaos King, who is a void that existed before creation of the first Universe and The Multiverse and seeks to destroy it all, until nothing but him will remain.
  • And another Marvel villain, or rather bunch of those - Many-Angeled Ones of Cancerverse, beings that killed Death and conquered their Universe, and wanted to do the same to other Universes, starting with main Marvel Universe. Shuma Gorath is probably the most well known, and is the ruler of over a hundred universes.
  • Another one - Doctor Strange's Arch Enemy Dormammu, Eldritch Abomination and God-Emperor of the Dark Dimension.

Literature

  • Possibly H.P. Lovecraft's Mi-Go. In The Whisperer in Darkness it's mentioned that the ones present on Yuggoth are but a small outpost of an impossibly ancient and powerful civilization that originates from outside our universe. It's implied that they conquered their own universe and possibly others, and are now invading ours.
    • They don't seem that ambitious, at least on Earth, possibly because it's the reserved playground of Cthulhu et al. They're universally widespread, but don't seem interested in outright conquest unless it brings them extremely good payoff.
  • The "Black Hats" from Robert A. Heinlein's The Number of the Beast. They don't openly rule, but they have agents on many worlds who assassinate anyone else trying to develop interdimensional travel.
  • Arguably the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's Mark II.
  • Appears in Skulduggery Pleasant as an unintended consequence of banishing the Faceless Ones. Although thousands of years ago they were thrown out of the main universe, it taught them the secret of dimensional travel, and for the past few millienia they have been jumping from universe to universe, devouring them entirely as they go...
  • In the Tramorea saga, this is what the Dark God actually a Sufficiently Advanced human Tubilok aims to do.
  • In the Magic Kingdom of Landover book, Witches' Brew, Rydall of Marnhull claims to be one of these, planning to make Landover his next conquest. Turns out he's actually a local nobleman, working with the titular witch to overthrow Ben.

Live-Action TV

  • The Dai-Shocker organization and its leader Tsukasa Kadoya from Kamen Rider Decade.
  • Davros fills this role in the series 4 finale of Doctor Who, although he wants to destroy them rather than rule them, leaving only Daleks.
    • In the Eighth Doctor DWM comic The Glorious Dead, the Master seeks to remake the entire omniverse in his image.
  • The Kromaggs in Sliders.
  • Gorm conquerer of a 1000 realms in Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension.

Tabletop Games

  • Josh from Chaos is an extremely rare heroic Multiversal Conqueror, and kind of an odd example of this trope, despite being perhaps the most extreme one ever created, bar none. See, it's kind of a long story. Josh used to be God (of the “God Is Good” variety), until He got into a bit of a Gotterdammerung with seven gods of evil and achieved a Pyrrhic Victory that resulted in all of them having to trap themselves as mere humans just to keep their divine essences from being annihilated forever. This war in heaven also destroyed the original multiverse, leading to a new omniverse having to be created—one that's under no one's control, not the forces of good or evil. So now Josh has to lead a Great Crusade to retake all multiverses before Marcy can destroy them all. Because the Chaos omniverse canonically contains every other possible reality, fictional and otherwise, Josh will eventually defeat every other Multiversal Conqueror listed on this page and countless more and absorb their empires into His Union (at least from the point of view of Chaos canon).
    • No, the Omni-bunny is an multiversal-omniversal which can not be beaten no matter what. You can't affect other fiction.
  • The Champions verse had Tyrannon, an immensely powerful dimensional lord who seeks to conquer all dimensions. His being manifests in 888 bodies at once, of varying levels of power; his primary or "true" form, which resembles a gigantic tree and cannot move, lives at the heart of Thulkos, his native dimension. When he conquers one dimension completely, he merges it with his home dimension and forces its inhabitants to worship him and commit sacrifice. Doing so increases his power and his hunger.
  • In Magic: The Gathering, there's Elesh Norn, the Grand Cenobite. She has seen that Mirrodin will merely be the first plane to fall to the new Phyrexia.
    • She inherited this from Yawgmoth, who built the old Phyrexia and set off to conquer every plane he didn't destroy. For their own good, of course.


Videogames

  • The Guardian from Ultima Underworld II is capable of spanning multiple planes of reality at once and aims to conquer each one.
  • Dark Brain from Super Robot Wars game series travels through alternate universes and destroy them. Subversion, since Dark Brain doesn't care much about conquering the universes as seeking the 12 keys.
  • Several of the Kingdom Hearts villains.
    • This is actually what Xemnas becomes when he absorbs the titular MacGuffin in Kingdom Hearts II, given the multiversal nature of the Disney worlds in the series mythos.
  • Dissidia Final Fantasy: Most Final Fantasy Big Bads have nothing to do with this. Emperor Paramekia/Palamecia wants to rule the world. Cloud of Darkness and Exdeath want to make everything fall into the Void. Kefka wants to destroy everything For the Evulz. Ultimecia wants to conquer the structure of time and create a world where past, present and future are one. But thanks to Chaos who gathered them all, revealing that there's more than one Universe, they started to think at a completely new level. Oh Crap indeed.
  • Count Bleck from Super Paper Mario. He's only going to conquer part of it, and then use the power gained from that portion to destroy the entire multiverse so he can not make a new one. Dimentio also counts.
  • Tyrant Overlord Baal from the Nippon Ichi-verse. Most high-level Overlords can and will conquer any netherworlds they'll get their hands on, but Baal is the most well-known, showing up as a Bonus Boss is almost all of the Nippon Ichi games.
    • Overlord Zenon from Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories used to act this way in his youth, but seems to have settled down by the beginning of the game and is content with ruling only Veldime -- or so everyone thinks up until it's revealed he's a fake and the real Overlord Zenon tries to go right back to destroying everything once released.
  • The Combine of Half Life 2 and its episodes fit the bill as parallel-universe conquerors, having already taken over an unknown number of realities and adopting their lifeforms for use as highly-specialized weapons or slave labor, and stripping the realities of their resources until it's nothing more than a lethal rock. They're also capable of quick travel between these universes, but it's rather limited. The Xen and Race-X aliens (and arguably even humanity) of the original Half-Life games may be parallel-universe warmongers on a smaller scale.
  • 99, the Big Bad of Namco X Capcom. When player finally faces it, 99 is still missing half of its essence and instead use Saya for replacement. Yet it still has enough power to merge four dimensions together and resurrect groups of Big Bads to aid it upon its awakening. And this is just the beginning of its process to rule new - single - world.
  • YHVH is implied to be this in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. Untold billions of Earths rise and fall at his command only to rise again, all to create a perfect society that will never question his rule.


Webcomics


Web Originals

  • In The Spoony Experiment and Atop the Fourth Wall, Alternate Doctor Insano was once trying to destroy entire Multiverse with Warrior #1 comics.
    • It was recently revealed that Mechakara was attempting this as well.
    • Ano now, as seen at page quote, Lord Vyce. Of course, it's revealed by none other than Vyce himself that he only does this to protect the multiverse from something worse. And he takes out Pyramid Head with a single stab from his weapon, in between beating Linkara senseless with his bare hands.
      • Vyce may be a subversion: In a later episode, Linkara says that he did some checking and discovered that Vyce would only conquer a couple of planets before moving on to the next parallel world. Vyce makes the point that conquering an entire universe would cost a lot of time and resources that he didn't have, but Linkara still uses it to mock him for not being as awesome as he claims to be.
  • The Sunflower Emperor, leader of the PPC's Evil Counterpart, the Enforcers of the Plot Continuum.


Western Animation

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003: While the Shredder isn't nearly as powerful as the average Multiversal Conqueror, he still decides to give it a go after discovering the multiverse in Turtles Forever. Unfortunately for the multiverse, all he needs to do in order to destroy it is to kill the turtles in "Turtle Prime", the universe of the first issue of the original TMNT comic book.
  • Towards the end of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, a different universe Carnage-Spiderman goes psycho (more than usually Carnage goes) and tries to destroy all the Universes. It's up to a group of alternate-Peter-Parkers to stop him.
  • In Transformers, Unicron is a Planet Eater who wants to eat everything. One planet at a time, one timeline at a time, one universal stream of branching timelines at a time, in sequence. When he says he wants to be completely alone, he damn well isn't beating around the bush. Even if he's destroyed in any one universe, he just gets shunted to another to start over again thanks to mucking about with different flows of time across the multiverse. Oh, sure, there are a few permanent methods of dealing with him, like trapping him in a physical form to slow him down, but if they go horribly wrong, well...
    • One Comic has another Multiversal constant state that he has so far consumed some 47% of the known Multiverse. Yeah. Not mucking about.
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