Most Evil Character in Fantasy

[The Mad Hatter]

So... who is the most evil character you have read about in a Fantasy novel?

OK, how about Falconsbane (link takes you to Last.FM where there's a filk song written and sung by Michael Longcor about the character).

Wayne aka The Mad Hatter

[eclipse]

Any new contenders 

[Rostum]

I think part of my re-ignited interest in the Genre was moving away from the good vs evil.
White hats vs black hats got very boring. The good guys killing things and stealing stuff never made one jot of moral sense.
I like a character who will sacrifice anything or one to achieve their aims. Not inherently evil but prepared to do monsterous things to acheive their goals.

Hence why I am waiting on a number of authors to release books next year.

[eclipse]

I think raistlin was quite an evil bugger

[Lanko]

Not exactly, "most evil in all Fantasy', but from what I read this year:

- From Harry Potter, Dolores Umbridge made me more furious than Voldemort/Snape/Percy and Harry's parents combined.
I think that while we expect the big powerful dude to abuse people, it really hits a nerve when a common person abuses her power and authority for their own sheer delight against people who can't react in any way.
Even worse when it's someone not allied with the villain in any way (in fact, someone who was supposed to be fighting him and thought was doing so), doing things that you didn't even saw the villain doing.

- From the Farseer Trilogy: Regal in book 2.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Has his own father slowly killed, runs in delight when he hears about Kettricken having an abortion, the way how he killed Fitz, all the while destroying his own kingdom. Unfortunanely, I don't like how he was presented in book 3. One could also say about the characters passivity in book 2, but Regal was at the top of his game in that one. 

- From Prince of Thorns trilogy: King Olidan. Tries to kill his own son and the dog scene, of course.

Spoiler for Hiden:

I even thought he was the one who had raped Katherine, just to turn her against Jorg. Jorg x Olidan should have fought, even if he refused to kill his father, if only to make him live in shame or to show how well he learned his "lessons".

- From Chronicles of Arthur, from Bernard Cornwell: Lancelot. Nothing so infuriating as a coward and liar getting the credit for everything you did and at the same time is spreading lies, inciting everyone against the heroes, who were the ones that actually fought, sacrificed and saved everyone.

- From Night Angel trilogy, can't go wrong with Rat/Roth and how Hu Gibbet treated Vi her whole life. That sculptor woman was also disgusting.
I actually thought the Godking was super awesome. He carried the 2nd book by himself. Loved his displays of power and the harem he made, even thinking to include his own daughter in it.

[Yora]

The most evil character if fantasy is most probably from the most appallingly disgusting  fantasy book. But as far as complex and intriguing protagonists go, Kane is deliciously evil. After having read two or three books you probably start to figure out what exactly he really is, but there never is any doubt that he is evil. He's been around for probably thousands of years and over the centuries has become an incredibly strong and powerful warrior, warlord, and sorcerer. And he's also the kind of guy who can actually be cursed by never aging. He could die in battle, be executed, or just kill himself, but that would mean accepting that he can't bear his existance anymore. So he keeps on going just out of spite, but he has absolutely no regard for anyone else when it comes to saving his own life. But since he's also extremely intelligent he gets easily bored and regularly goes around poking around in holes avoided by any sane person or stirs up trouble just to distract himself. And when a sorcerer warlord is looking for trouble and doesn't really care if he has to build a new empire from scatch if he screws up, you're really getting a lot of trouble for absolutely everyone.
He doesn't randomly stab people on the street or summons hordes of demons for no reason. But when he has an idea and needs a couple of dozen human sacrifices to try it out, he'll do without second thoughts.
It helps that he's not doing any of the really terrible stuff during the stories, but every time other characters find out who he really is there's a major freakout. He gets called more demon than man and never has any real objection to it. That's just who he is and he has no plans to change it.

[JMack]

Firstly, I find myself embarrassed about how little detail I recall from so many books I've loved. 

But let's give a shout-out to the Joker as inhabited by Heath Ledger. As in, what the f? Heath Ledger... who knew?

And I'm not arguing for "most evil", but I find myself seeing more interesting evil in Saruman than in Sauron. But if we're looking for really nasty wizards, I'm just fascinated with Abercrombie's Bayaz. That dude was chill and terrifying.

Meanwhile, one of the most interesting villains in Fantasy is Achren from The Chronicles of Prydain. She starts beautiful, prideful and power-hungry. She is brought low, and spends time quietly gardening at Caer Dalben. Will she actually rehabilitate herself? Life's not that easy.

[ultamentkiller]

Firstly, I find myself embarrassed about how little detail I recall from so many books I've loved. 

This. I can only go back so far.
I almost gave Jorg the cake, but forgot about his Dad. Gosh I hate him!
I think a lot of us have forgot someone. Ramsay Bolton. Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! He's just... Just... I can't even. I think in the show, he's even worse than he is in the books. I mean, he actually made me feel sorry for Theon. That's hard to do.
The God King from Night Angel didn't really bother me that much, nor did Roth. I mean, they were both terrible, but meh. They didn't kill anyone I really cared about.
Well okay, there was that thing that happened in the beginning of the book. That was messed up. Hmm. Maybe I could answer this better after I reread all my books and did a tally on who did the worst things. My memory sucks.

[JMack]

Firstly, I find myself embarrassed about how little detail I recall from so many books I've loved. 

This. I can only go back so far.
I almost gave Jorg the cake, but forgot about his Dad. Gosh I hate him!
I think a lot of us have forgot someone. Ramsay Bolton. Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! He's just... Just... I can't even. I think in the show, he's even worse than he is in the books. I mean, he actually made me feel sorry for Theon. That's hard to do.
The God King from Night Angel didn't really bother me that much, nor did Roth. I mean, they were both terrible, but meh. They didn't kill anyone I really cared about.
Well okay, there was that thing that happened in the beginning of the book. That was messed up. Hmm. Maybe I could answer this better after I reread all my books and did a tally on who did the worst things. My memory sucks.

Yes. The winner for "most evil"
Ramsay Bolton of the TV show.

[Rostum]

Rees Bolton is probably more calculating than Ramsey has no redeemin g qualities and a desire to impress his father.

[Mr.J]

Although pretty much everyone does awful things in GoT it's hard to look past The Mountain for me, he's head and shoulders (literally) above most.

Though I know he's different in the comic book Alias, Kilgrave (The Purple Man) in Jessica Jones was horrific, a chilling and terrifying villain. He went for every single piece of shit evil thing you can do and justified it to himself, genuinely believing he is a sympathetic victim. It adds a whole other level to his horror. Smile.

Bright Yilling from Half a War by Joe Abercrombie, only half way through and he seems a colossal hand of evil. Unless the book takes a huge turn his easy going, relaxed attitude about burning everything for a God because 'reasons' is pretty horrific. A giant turd.

Prince Regal from the Farseer books by Robin Hobb, less said about that evil shithead the better.

Finally though, the greatest evil genius to breathe in fantasy: Locke Lamora. He steals money from everyone, is selfish, arrogant, egotistical, self pitying, dangerously rash and impulsive, petulant and will manipulate anyone to get his way. He is also a master escape artist, liar, pirate, election rigger and will essentially just cheat if necessary. I think he's awesome and I love him. 

[Revan]

The Limper - Glen Cook's The Black Company Series Books 1 to 3.5

Certainly. In a series of books where pretty much everyone had a large dose of evileness, Limper was comfortably the most evil one.

Padan Fain from WoT is showing himself to be pretty durned evil, though insane also definitely fits the bill with him.

He is insane and corrupted by that monster. I don't count him as pure evil, similarily how I wouldn't count Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII.

- From the Farseer Trilogy: Regal in book 2.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Has his own father slowly killed, runs in delight when he hears about Kettricken having an abortion, the way how he killed Fitz, all the while destroying his own kingdom. Unfortunanely, I don't like how he was presented in book 3. One could also say about the characters passivity in book 2, but Regal was at the top of his game in that one. 

- From Prince of Thorns trilogy: King Olidan. Tries to kill his own son and the dog scene, of course.

Spoiler for Hiden:

I even thought he was the one who had raped Katherine, just to turn her against Jorg. Jorg x Olidan should have fought, even if he refused to kill his father, if only to make him live in shame or to show how well he learned his "lessons".

I found Regal like the selfish arrogant kid (similar to Joffrey) more than pure evil.

Agree for Olidan though. The piece of shit. The only regret I had from those books is that Jorg didn't finish him.

Does Ruin from Mistborn count? Or Shai'tan from Wheel of Time? Or basically any Dark Lord in any book?

Have to mention The Mountain (ASOIAF) and Elvirah (Raven's Shadow).

Bayaz is also an interesting one. He is probbaly not exactly Hitler though.

Darth Sidious is probably the most evil one in any form of entertainmnent, despite that I quite like him.

[Nighteyes]

Your mum?

[Rostum]

Pratchetts Auditors. Destruction on a universal scale and they are unpleasant to boot.

[leterile]

Good call on The Limper. Loved that character. Also liked Darken Rahl. He was really evil.