Most Evil Character in Fantasy

[Overlord]

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

[missoularedhead]

OOOh, that's tough.  Largely because most 'evil' characters have some reason for being evil.  Sauron comes to mind, though.  Not a single redeeming quality I can think of. 

[Bryndled1]

I have to vote for Emperor Jagang from The sword of truth series.

#1 Believes that any evil action is justified for the greater good as he sees it
#2 Encourages the basest impulses of his men as long as they serve him to the death
#3 Tortures any mind that has magical abilities so they are forced to serve him against their will
#4 Repeatedly rapes and nearly beats to death the "love" of his life and blames her for making him do it
#5 supports Ja'La a game encourage to maim or kill people. the loosing team gets flogged unless its HIS team and then they are all beheaded.
#6 when he discovers the Ja'La ball has been changed by his adversay so that children can play looses a deadly plague among the kids.

I could go on and on about atrocities commited by this character however truly the scariest part about jagang is his absolute belief that he is a hero and a knight in shining armor to the poor and huddled masses. neverminding the fact that he made them all poor and huddled.

[Overlord]

It's quite a hard one, because most evil characters tend to have a 'good' side to them eventually.

The Godking in 'The Night Angel' trilogy was pretty damned evil... but in saying that, you could argue that 'Roth' was just as bad... if not worse, he just had less power to use his 'evilness'.

[jswinds]

Sauron comes to mind, though.  Not a single redeeming quality I can think of.  

Sauron is obviously the good guy!  The Lord of the Rings is the great fictional Marxist tragedy of our time. Party Chairman Sauron obviously wants to liberate Middle Earth. His Five Year Plans, as seen working in Mordor, will rapidly push forward economic industrialization across the entire continent. Sauron's enemies ( who we are tricked into assuming are the good guys ) are decadent, aristocratic Gondorians who are concerned with maintaining the feudal status-quo reminiscent of medieval Europe; ensuring their own families positions permanently at the top of the pile, keeping the traditional labourers in their menial positions.

[pornokitsch]

jswinds: Nice!

I'm going with Vaatzes from KJ Parker's Engineer Trilogy. He's the protagonist. And he's empathetic. But he's a terrible, terrible person.

[billdoor]

Sauron's enemies ( who we are tricked into assuming are the good guys ) are decadent, aristocratic Gondorians who are concerned with maintaining the feudal status-quo reminiscent of medieval Europe; ensuring their own families positions permanently at the top of the pile, keeping the traditional labourers in their menial positions.

"Help help I'm being repressed, come and see the violence inherent in the system!"

[Vryka]

Personally I think that the Imperator Kurkas Aan in Karen Wehrstein's Philospher in Arms and my Eclipse Court is the most evil.  But then I'm biased.

I'm just given the whillies by an emotional two year old with ultimate power in a fifty-three year old man's body.  He seens no one else as real.

To quote a certain cartoon duck: "But I'm different from everybody else! Pain hurts ME!"

[The Mad Hatter]

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

Wayne aka The Mad Hatter

[TankSpill]

Though I agree with a previous poster that Jagang, from SoT was pretty evil-ish, I just have a hard time taking seriously anything that Goodkind writes. 

For me, for pure, undiluted evil, Pryrates from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn takes the cake.  He's very obviously in it for nothing but the Ultimate Cosmic Power, and will crush anything (including puppy heads ) that stands in his way.

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

And then there's the world-consuming evil of villains like the Valheru in the Riftwar Saga

And finally, there's the kind of evil that human minds can't understand - various "Dark Ones," "Dark Lords," whathaveyou in fantasy that play the role of the opposite of God.  The Elder Things in Lovecraftian mythos.

[Mark Lawrence]

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

Tough question. A lot of fantasy characters are evil because they were made that way - they're demons, or dark overlords like Lord Foul or Sauron. They might do a lot of evil things, the head count and the nastiness might be very high & they can be great fun to read about, but I don't think they count as the most evil. For me the characters that really make me feel it are the ones who are most like us, who have true choices, true chances at redemption, and carry on anyhow. Steerpike from Peake's 'Gormenghast', and Alex from Burgess' 'A Clockwork Orange' spring to mind. 'Real' people who interact with other real people on a very human level - and then get nasty.

Though going back on that, Randal Flagg from King's 'The Stand' was great

Mark

[Rhevian]

Oh yes, I like he suggestion of Steerpike here.

[Zefiris]

Not a book so it may not count but Warren from Buffy springs to mind.

Here's a kid who can do whatever he wants. Super intelligent, good at making machines he could get a well paid job and make a fortune with an honest living (seriously, the government would pay millions for some of his inventions)

Yet, he decides to use his abilities for crime, to take the easy option to riches. Plus, over the course of Series Six he slowly becomes more and more evil, sending a demon to kill Buffy, trying to kill Buffy with the invisibility ray, planning to frame Jonathan, murdering his ex-girlfriend and framing Buffy for it and eventually, shooting Buffy and Tara.

All the while he shows no regret over any of his actions and only cares about himself.

He's an awesome character and his evilness is all because of his own selfish actions. He wasn't born evil like some characters, isn't a demon, didn't have a particularly bad upbringing etc and doesn't really have any redeeming qualities at all.

[kevinjamesbreaux]

Skeletor!  I mean that guy is just plain bad. Look at the company he keeps. Beast-Man, Clawful, Whiplash and Stinkor!  Yeah, Stinkor alone, you have to be plain evil to hang with that smelly bastard.  If we wasn't evil enough as Keldor, the guy lost his face trying to smite good King Randor!  He has my vote, with Mum Ra the Everliving getting a close second. 



Kevin James Breaux

[professional-liar]

Skeletor!  I mean that guy is just plain bad. Look at the company he keeps. Beast-Man, Clawful, Whiplash and Stinkor!  Yeah, Stinkor alone, you have to be plain evil to hang with that smelly bastard.  If we wasn't evil enough as Keldor, the guy lost his face trying to smite good King Randor!  He has my vote, with Mum Ra the Everliving getting a close second. 



Kevin James Breaux

I think whoever gave Stinkor his name is evil.  He obviously can't help it.