The Baddest of the Bad Guys

They say that a hero can only be as mighty as his opponent. Who is this "they" I refer to? Couldn't say; this quote is actually something I read a very long time ago. Still, my pitted memory aside, there's some truth to this saying - you could be the greatest barbarian hero ever to swagger into Valhalla, but if your great nemesis is some average Joe that you walk up to and decapitate with one swing of your ridiculously oversized sword, no one is going to take you seriously. To some extent, it really is the degree of a villain's evil that determines the power and reputation of a protagonist. So it's time to give some credit where credit is due: I'm counting down the five worst bad guys of modern fantasy literature. No, Sauron isn't going to be in here. First of all, I'm clarifying "modern" as "since 1980." Second of all, a big, looming, scary specter of pure evil has never really cut it for me. Don't get me wrong, I've have no problem with books that use that - I use it a little myself in The Perfect Blade - but that's not going to win the evil contest. To really get in the running, I need a guy or girl with human emotions who could have turned out entirely normal, but willingly embraced evil to such an extend that they have raised themselves above most other people in status and power. I want cunning. I want character. I want complexity. I want someone I can love to hate. So let the games begin.

WARNING: SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW!


#5 - Voldemort, from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Okay, so thanks to the (deserved) popularity of the Harry Potter series, it's not uncommon right now to hear someone say that Voldemort is a perfect specimen of evil. I wouldn't quite go that far - you'll see why when you bump into some of the villains further down the list - but Voldemort does make the top five. Why? For starters, he killed his father and grandparents. Notwithstanding that his father abandoned his pregnant mother, killing your own blood family is pretty evil no matter how you slice it. In addition, there's the little matter of his attempt to kill an infant in the cradle. Of course, it was his embarrassing failure there that led to Harry Potter himself. Last but not least, Voldemort is an individual who tortures without a twinge of conscience, and condones others to torture in his name. Any bad guy can kill - hell, most of the good guys do too, and if they don't fantasy books will usually make it a major plot point because it's so unusual - but torture is different. There are situations like self defense where killing can be justified, but not so with torture. Deliberately causing suffering and pain in others, to the point of breaking a victim's mind, definitely gets you on the list.


#4 - Sulepis, from the Shadowmarch triology by Tad Williams

The Autarch of the punitive and violent nation of Xis is revered as the living iteration of a god. He has complete power over his people, his nation, and its vast military forces. And what does he do with it? I'll give you a hint - he does not start a grassroots movement to build low-income housing. When Sulepis' father died, the first thing Sulepis did was to kill his brothers and rivals to the throne, in the fine tradition of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. At the time of Shadowmarch, the first book, he is keeping a menagerie of wives (read: slaves). He has one of his guard tortured for questioning, and when he has his answers, he has the man tortured for fun. Sulepis issues a military order to attack an impregnable city, and when he is told that it will cost the lives of thousands of his own troops, he giggles. Giggling is not a sign of a stable mind. In fact, the only reason Sulepis isn't higher up the list is that he is so insane that I can't be certain that his evil deeds are the result of thought-out choices rather than good old madness...


#3 - Emperor Jagang, from the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind

This is one bad man - Jagang, Emperor of the Imperial Order. He gives us all the classics of evil. He is a conqueror, tyrant, torturer, and slave lord. He sends his troops to rape and pillage conquered lands to ensure unflinching fealty through fear. But with him we go to a new level of evil - the conquest and torture of the mind. Jagang was a dream walker, which let him enter into people's minds and control them like puppets. He took over politicians to subvert their governments, wizards to steal their arcane secrets. He possessed the mind of the Sisters of Darkness and The Sisters of Light, two sects of priestesses, to gain control of their orders and influences. For fun, he will send his concubines naked into the camp of his foot soldiers, and ride along in her mind taunting her through the whole ordeal. No questions here - Jagang is a monster.


#2 - Hekat, from the Godspeaker trilogy by Karen Miller

Unlike the previous three, Hekat doesn't take any special, psychotic pleasure in the torture of others - even when we meet her in childhood, she is as cold, uncaring, and ruthless as a serpent. Hekat starts as a poor girl sold to slavers, but she is a girl with goals - and she has a heartless will and the blessings of a dark god to help her reach them. Hekat doesn't torture; she just does whatever is most convenient for clearing obstacles. The first person who is ever kind to her is a slaver named Abajai, who purchases her. When he becomes a liability, she butchers him in his sleep. She marries the emperor Et-Raklion, then fills her husband's mind with lies about his best friend Hanochek, who sees Hekat for the monster she is. Hekat has the man sent into exile, and when he has nothing left, she crushes him. She finds that the emperor is sterile; to ensure that she will keep power when the Emperor dies she sleeps with two different men to produce sons, whom she tells the emperor are his. And this is why she is number two on the list - her actions towards her sons, who love her dearly and want her acceptance more than anything. One she loves, and one she hates, but it makes no difference - she uses both as mere means to an end. At the end of the first book, Empress, her oldest son Zandakar finds love in a land Hekat sent him to conquer. He returns to his homeland to stand before his mother and beloved (and heavily pregnant) new wife to say that he will not destroy other lands for Hekat. He begs his mother to forgive him, to turn away from conquest and live a life of peace. By way of an answer - in an amphitheater full of people mind you - Hekat carves open her daughter-in-law's belly, disembowels the woman, and stabs her unborn grandson to death before sentencing Zandakar to exile. Nice job, mom.


#1 - Bayaz, from the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie

If you read this series, you'll find plenty of nasty bastards to choose from, and for the first two books and most of the third, Bayaz doesn't really seem like a contender. The First of the Magi, he is a stern man of vast power, who takes it upon himself to coach the spoiled, aristocratic Jezal on the qualities of a good leader. Granted that some of his lessons are a bit Machievellian, but nothing straight-up evil, and to all appearances is preparing to fight an epic battle against Khalul, the dark Second of the Magi and Bayaz's eternal rival. Then we find out everything we know is wrong. In point of fact, Bayaz most likely killed his master, the god-like Juvens who gave the gift of magic to the Magi. Bayaz certainly killed Juven's brother the Maker - he got into the Maker's house by seducing his daughter Tolomei, who Bazay cast down and destroyed before her father's eyes. The rivalry between Bayaz and Khalul is revealed to have likely been caused when Bayaz decided that he deserved to control the world, and Khalul resorted to dark, desperate means to stop him. Bayaz leaves his friend and fellow Magi Yulwei sealed forever in the Maker's House with his undead ex Tolomei, who will spend the rest of eternity feasting on his flesh. Too bad, as Yulwei was one of the kindest characters in the books. In the end, we find out that Bayaz is not a friend but a pupeteer, engineering entire societies to riches or ruin as it suits him. He is the worst kind of monster, because he doesn't see people as pawns to manipulate, victims to torture, or enemies to face - he just sees them as objects to be placed where he wants, and swept aside when they outlive their usefulness. And until the last 50 pages or so of the triology, he does it all in the guise of ally and mentor. They say the deepest circle of Hell is reserved for betrayers of trust...this series (which is a fantastic read, by the way) has Bayaz to show us why that is.

This is the list as I see it. Feel free to comment to agree or argue - I happily take both.


~Blue Nephelim Out