The three best students of the powerful dark wizard Volgera Darkstorm: Equals in power, abilities, ambition and malevolence, they quickly became friends and rivals, choosing their collective name themselves. The more they learnt, the more blatant their evil became, frightening even Darkstorm himself. The ageing wizard tried to limit their learning and exert a calming influence, but in turn they felt he had nothing left to teach them, so they killed him with a Rain of Knives Spell. They ransacked his library and belongings, shared the loot and parted ways, entering a (not so) friendly competition to see who would take over Allansia first.
In a way, they can be regarded as a collective Evil Counterpart to the Star Pupils
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The three
In General
- Antagonist Abilities: Considering how powerful they are, difficulties to face them are to be expected.
- In the second book, Zagor summons up to four Greater Elementals you need special magic to destroy. In the third, his stats are so over-bloated that you must find a way to weaken him to stand a chance. And as if it's weren't enough, he does not fear normal weapons, uses deadly attacks, and risks resurrecting after a while.
- Balthus is a beast in war and magic who masters very advanced spell-work, giving you tons of trouble if you challenge him on this field.
- Zharradan can cower even monsters bred for war with a single spell, and is magically protected against all aggressions.
- Big Bad: Each of their respective gamebook, or gamebooks in Zagor's case, the sod being the most recurring and most emblematic of the franchise.
- The Dark Arts: Three of the best experts of the trade, with most of their spell-work being evil oriented.
- The Dreaded: All three are reviled with abject terror.
- Fear of Zagor subsided after his first death, but came back with a vengeance along with him in the second game. In the third, few people in Amarillia know of him, but someone gathering the remnants of the Bone Demon's armies on the exhausted nations is much feared.
- Evil Sorcerer: Three of the most notable (the first in Zagor's case) in a looooooooong list of them.
- Final Boss: Always the last and deadliest foe of their respective gamebooks.
- Zagor is a powerful foe with skill 11 stamina 18. In the first book you can kill him without fight or drastically weaken him. In the second book fighting is the only way to victory. In the third, skill 16 stamina 20, powerful spells in the first three turns and immunity to normal weapons make him one of the franchise' mightiest villains, making even Snake Demons look like sissies. With no way to match him, you might as well close the book and whistle a funeral march.
- Balthus is a Sequential Boss with skill 12 stamina 19, fortunately, there are ways to gain advantage or kill him without fight.
- Zharradan is a Puzzle Boss only found and defeated through Trial-and-Error Gameplay.
- Master of One Magic: Averted for the three of them, who masters regular magic and The Dark Arts in addition to specialities of their own.
- Zagor specialises in Elemental Magic, being equally proficient with all four classical elements to boot, and in Demonology to summon demons.
- Balthus is a master of Spiritual Magic and Battle Magic.
- Zharradan is equally good (if not even better) with Marrhanga as he is with necromancy.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Demonic Tree is no promise of sunshine. Not to mention their own names...
- Zagor has a classical villainous name that pictures nothing nice.
- Balthus is not named Dire for nothing.
- Zharradan invokes it in-universe, as his name can only be feared by those who know what it refers to, which is exactly what he intended.
- No-Sell: Be very careful with what you attack them, lest they negate it and retaliate painfully.
- In the third book, a feather would be more effective than normal attacks against Zagor, and his counterattack lowers your skill score. Against such a monster, any point you lose is sorely missed.
- Balthus can counter easily whatever spell you throw at him and retaliates viciously. It is how you react if you survive that makes the difference.
- Zharradan's magic mirror is unbreakable by normal means.
- Red Baron: A collective one, as they are known and feared as the "Demonic Tree".
- Sorcerous Overlord: They are tremendously powerful wizards who use sorcery to rule large domains and to prepare the conquest of the continent, spreading terror all the while. Zagor is only this after the second book's Retcon and Balthus inherited (ahem) his kingdom.
- Storm of Blades: In their backstory, they killed their master with a Rain of Knives Spell. Does not sound like a pleasant death... Fortunately,they never casts it against you during the Final Battle.
- Take Over the World: Downplayed, for they only (so to speak) wants to take over Allansia. But even one continent is too much.
- Terrible Trio: They formed one during their tutelage, Averted though, for this trio has nothing quirky and is as competent and dangerous as can be.
- Villain Respect: All three come to respect your talent and valor in earnest. Zagor even comes to recognize you as an equal in the second book, while Zharradan covets your skills for his own service.
- Villainous Cheekbones: A staple of Classic Villains, used with abandon in the franchise.
- Villainous Friendship: They were friends during their tutelage under Volgera Darkstorm. But being the villains they are, it became bitter rivalry as soon as they established their respective power bases.
Rulers
Balthus Dire
Click here to see his alternate depiction
Appears in: The Citadel of Chaos | The Trolltooth Wars
A powerful wizarding warlord who rules the cursed kingdom of Craggen Heights, from the imposing Black Citadel. His ambitions of conquest would see the rest of Allansia fall under his sway. Balthus Dire comes from a long line of powerful Sorcerous Overlords. Right as he returned from his studies, he killed his father to take the throne for himself. To this days, he maintains a strong rivalry with his former fellow apprentice Zharradan Marr. As the best student of the best Wizarding School of Titan in the Forest of Yore, you are the only one who can stand against him...
- All There in the Manual: Much of his background is filled out in Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World.
- Attack Animal: Of the monster variety. Balthus sics a tough Clawbeast on you when you confront him. With skill 9 stamina 14 and being able to entangle your sword in its mane to throw it away and weaken you, it can prove troublesome. But one Weakness Spell and it is a goner.
- Badass Boast: Before you challenge him in a Sword Fight, he states that he will enjoy skewering you on his blade, showing how adept he is in the trade.
- Black Mage: Most of his spells are battle oriented.
- Catch and Return: If you casts a Fire spell against him, he catches the fire you created in his hand to throw a Fireball at you.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Balthus has enormous physical strength, befitting his imposing stature.
- Charm Person: He is capable of using a powerful form of this. And will do if you pretend to swear allegiance to him, making you his slave and causing a game over.
- Choice of Two Weapons: Battle Magic aside, Balthus is equally proficient with swords and daggers. He'd much rather fight with a blade in hand than with magic.
- Despotism Justifies the Means: He wants to rule the continent solely for the sake of power and control.
- Devious Daggers: Balthus usually fights upfront with his Sinister Scimitar, but when he does not bother, he uses this to end defenceless foes or strike In the Back.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He is married to a beautiful enchantress named Lady Lucrecia, by all accounts happily on both sides. Trolltooth Wars implies she is the only person he really trusts.
- Evil Versus Evil: Creature of Havoc implies that he is at war with the Big Bad Zharradan Marr, his former fellow student. The novelization Trolltoth Wars confirms this and makes their conflict the centre of the plot.
- Eviler than Thou: As vile and despotic his father was, Balthus quickly proved much worse.
- Fate Worse than Death: Averted in the gamebook, in which you just kill him. In the novelisation however, Balthus gets lost forever in the Spiritual Planes with no hope of coming back.
- Foil: Balthus Dire and Zharradan Marr are both intelligent and formidable Sorcerous Overlords, but they could not make a bigger contrast if they tried. Balthus is a physically imposing Scary Black Man, Magic Knight and master strategist who prefers direct confrontation. Marr on the other hand is a frail and demonic-looking Squishy Wizard and a schemer who uses people to get what he wants.
- Four-Star Badass: While every Sorcerous Overlord and other Evil Overlord of the franchise commands an army of monsters, there is a real emphasis on the warlord aspect of his character. Just what he looks like screams "badass medieval army commander".
- Genius Bruiser: A brilliant tactician and warlord, an expert wizard, but also physically impressive and more than capable of fighting you with a sword if needed.
- In the Back: He stabbed his father that way, and with a poisoned dagger to boot, as the ageing sorcerer embraced him to welcome him back home. How lovely...
- I Shall Taunt You: A great deal of his dialogue consists in taunts, and jabs at possible failures.
- Magic Knight: A very powerful fighter, in addition to his vast mastery of magic.
- Master of All: Balthus has many tricks up his sleeve: physical strength, weapon mastery, strategy, war leading, sorcery, battle magic and spiritual magic... And he is super proficient in all of them.
- Master Swordsman: A considerably proficient one. Even without his Ring of Swordsmanship.
- Meaningful Name: His last name is Dire and he is indeed someone you'd better avoid.
- Mind over Matter: Balthus has very powerful telekinesis, enough to make the entire room he is in to move like a ship in a storm, without being affected.
- If you're dumb enough to hide behind the curtain under his very eyes, he animates it to choke you.
- Mirror Match: He masters the Creature Copy Spell, that creates a clone of the foe to make them fight. He uses it against you if you pick an item to use, and when you win he takes profit of your distraction to kill you In the Back with a dagger. Not the best choice of action.
- You can cast the same spell on him but Balthus takes control of his clone as it approaches him, only for the both of you to switch control back and forth until it disappears.
- Nightmare Face: One of his signature spells is to shapeshift his face into one of a gorgon, enabling him to turn his enemies to stone.
- Partial Transformation: He transforms his face alone, the rest remain the same.
- Poisoned Weapons: He never does it against you, but he is known for dipping his blades in poison for sure kills. Just ask his father... Oh wait, never mind.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Balthus rules Craggen Heights and is the most powerful being there. Justified by his extensive military and sorcery trainings.
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: Balthus uses a friggin' six-headed hydra as his last line of defence. The giant monster cannot be defeated in a direct battle, as true to the myths its heads keep regrowing 'till they overwhelm you. You need the Golden Fleece taken from Lady Lucrecia, or a magic Myriad to defeat it. If you can cast three Creature Copy Spells, you can clone it and make it fight the real deal. (They have both skill 10 stamina 17, but if yours lose you're toast.)
- Ring of Power: He wears a Ring of Swordsmanship that makes him even better with a sword that he already is. You can take it from him and reduce him to skill 10.
- Samurai Ponytail: Though not a samurai, or even from the Japanese-like culture on Titan, Balthus has a topknot that seems to have been based on this look.
- Scary Black Man: Not actually black per se, but his dark skin tone and his brutish, menacing physique certainly give this impression.
- Self-Made Orphan: Balthus murdered his own father to take his throne. Said father was embracing him in welcome, after he returned from his studies, only to get a poisoned dagger In the Back. Family comes after self-interest to him...
- Sequential Boss: First you must defeat the Clawbeast, then face Balthus. You can either jump to the direct Sword Fight, or add more stages to the Final Battle in a Wizard Duel.
- Shoulders of Doom: Balthus sports impressive-looking shoulder pads.
- Signature Move: The infamous Gorgon face transformation.
- Sinister Scimitar: Balthus uses one as his weapon, with considerable skill.
- Skippable Boss: Downplayed in that you still need to fight him in a Wizard Duel, but you can kill him without fight if you rip the curtain from the window.
- You can also avoid the fight against the Clawbeast, With a Weakness Spell that makes it powerless.
- Spikes of Villainy: He wears a wristband covered in vicious-looking spikes on his right arm.
- Spirit World: Balthus is a master of Spiritual Magic, who delves into the Spiritual Planes to draw power and summon powerful servants in Trolltooth Wars.
- Squishy Wizard: A remarkable subversion, as tough physically as he is magically.
- The Strategist: He sure knows how to raise and lead an army, though he only displays his skills in the trade in the Trolltooth Wars novelization.
- Strong and Skilled: Balthus has enormous strength and raw magic power, along with great expertise of the blade and mastery of magic to complement.
- Summon Magic: Trolltooth War explains that he personally summoned the fearsome Ganjees, and later the even worse Sorqs.
- Taken for Granite: The fate that awaits you if he turns into a gorgon and you don't have a mirror ready.
- Unholy Matrimony: With the aforementioned Lady Lucrecia.
- The Usurper: He killed his father to seize the throne, without bothering to wait for normal succession.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: The aforementioned transformation into a gorgon. Note that he gains the power of what he turns into. Namely the gorgon's Magical Eye.
- Weakened by the Light: Like an undead without being one.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Generations of messing with Dark Magic has left his family fatally vulnerable to sunlight. If you reach the window in the Final Battle, tearing down the curtain is enough to kill him.
- We Can Rule Together: If Balthus corners you, he offers to name you The Dragon. Don't feign to accept, lest he brainwashes you. Refuse and he fatally stabs you without batting an eyelid.
- White Hair, Black Heart: In his alternate look of Trolltooth Wars, Balthus is depicted with long, white hair.
- Wizard Duel: You can engage this against him if you choose to cast a spell. He is much more skilled than you, and will always No-Sell whatever you cast or turn it against you, before launching a dangerous counterattack. If you play well, you can still exploit the situation to gain a priceless advantage or even kill him without fight. But if you play badly, it means game over.
- Worthy Opponent: Balthus' opinion of you improves the more you resist him. It is clear he is having a blast against you... As long as he dominates the fight of course.
- You Got Guts: He congratulates you for being a Worthy Opponent, when he tells you We Can Rule Together. but if he tells you this, it means you have already lost.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He pulled this on his own father, not to mention with his friends on their teacher in his backstory.
Conquerors
Oldoran Zagor
Click here to see him as a Demon Warlock
Appears in: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain | The Trolltooth Wars | Return to Firetop Mountain | Legend of Zagor | The Zagor Chronicles | Literature/Shadow of the Giants (posthumously)
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain: the first and most iconic Big Bad of the franchise (though how evil he is varies from book to book). After completing his studies, Zagor invaded the caves of Firetop Mountain, driving away the dwarves living there and taking over the subterranean lair that once belonged to his great-grandfather, claiming his ancestor's riches and the dwarves treasures while he was at it.
Zagor has returned from the dead twice and appears in more gamebooks than anyone other than the Legendary Wizard Gereth Yaztromo, being the only Big Bad fought thrice. And always confronted by a hero...
In the first two books, he is a pretty by-the-book Evil Sorcerer, in the third however, he is dragged to Titan's sister world of Amarillia, where he fuses with a Demon Lord called the Bone Demon and becomes a tremendously powerful Demon Warlock, more evil and dangerous than ever. He took over the remnants of the Bone Demon's army, and based himself in Castle Argent, the former royal residence devastated by the war, waiting for his transformation to be complete and make him unstoppable. But one of four chosen heroes sent by the Boy King Irian, warned by Yaztromo, will stand in his way no matter what...
Zagor's shadow lingers long after his demise in Shadow of the Giants, in which four titanic and virtually invincible metallic giants which he created as a tool of conquest are released and wreak destruction wherever they go, needing yet another hero to end the threat...
- Achilles' Heel: In most books.
- In the first book, the Eye of Cyclops Gemstone dusts him as soon as you take it out.
- Subverted in the Trolltooth Wars novelisation. The heroes use it against him to force him to bargain, but he manages to suppress its power.
- In the third book, Yaztromo sends to Amarillia Silver Daggers that cost him -2 stamina and Gold Talismans that cost him -1 skill. You can't win without at least three talismans, unless you were lucky enough to gather enough daggers to kill him outright.
- Affably Evil: While taunting, he is quite polite and cordial, especially in the second book. He welcomes you with threatening irony but praises your valour, and becomes outright appreciative after you defeat the Greater Elementals he summons.
- Completely averted in the third book. Having merged with a demon made him short-tempered and violent. He is pissed to see yet another hero challenging him and yells abuse at you. Any welcome he might give you beforehand is completely ironic and insincere.
- All There in the Manual: Much of his original background is filled out in Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World and expanded (and slightly retconned) in The Trolltooth Wars. Even his first name was only revealed in additional material.
- The Zagor Chronicles, whose place in Canon is unclear, disclose a completely different backstory.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: He is no undead, but his chalk-white skin clearly indicates that something is very wrong with him.
- By the third book, his skin becomes teal-coloured.
- Ambiguously Evil: In the first book and Trolltooth Wars, he is not up to anything evil, being portrayed as a paranoid recluse who protects his treasure. In the latter, he even puts an Enemy Mine of sorts with Chadda Darkmane, to defeat Zharradan Marr in a begrudging truce. Then again, he commands monsters and tortures prisoners mostly For the Evulz, clearly indicating that he is not exactly innocent.
- The second book performs a Retcon, stating that he was a standard Evil Sorcerer out to Take Over the World, who was simply biding his time until Balthus Dire and Zharradan Marr destroyed each other's forces, as their common defeat left the field open for him.
- Antagonist Title: The titular Warlock of Firetop Mountain.
- In the third, he even gets the luxury of having a book titled "Legend of" plus his name.
- Art Initiates Life: In the first book, you come across many drawings of hands that detach themselves from the walls to become real and attack you, that he most likely bewitched himself.
- Back from the Dead: Twice, much for everyone's chagrin in all Allansia.
- Badass Cape: Zagor wears one on the picture of the second book, wrapped around him in a creepy way.
- Badass Long Robe: A warlock as powerful as him can't appear in rags. He wears lavish white and gold ones in the first book; black, purple and white in the second and third.
- Baddie Flattery: He is evil, he is ruthless, he wants you dead, but when he praises your merits he genuinely means it.
- Bald of Evil: In the third book.
- Beard of Evil: Zagor sports a villainously stylish goatee in his earlier appearances though he loses it (and indeed any hair) by the time of Legend of Zagor.
- Big Fancy Castle: Castle Argent, former royal residence of the Amarillian monarchs and current headquarters of the Bone Demon's troops was this, but the war and monsters turned it into a derelict ruin filled to the brim with evil and demonic forces.
- Came Back Strong: In the third book, a freak accident sent him to Amarillia and merged him with the recently sealed Bone Demon, and they both return as a single tremendously powerful Demon Warlock.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Zagor submits his prisoners to this. Even in the first book in which his level of evilness had yet to be established, this was a sign that there was something sinister with him.
- Continuity Nod: In the second book, you come across several things that were already there in the first, though time was unkind. You even fight the skeletons of monsters once slain, that rise to fight you.
- In the third like in the first, you can "contact" him, so to speak, through a painting in his likeness, his deck of bewitched cards has plot relevance, and his last line of defence is a mighty dragon, only weaker than he is by 1 sill point.
- In the third, you will also find "Golden Zagors" coins he mints himself and pays his troops with, introduced in the second book.
- Continuity Snarl: Zagor is either a powerful but human warlock who trained with Balthus Dire and Zharradan Marr (all books prior to the Zagor Chronicles) or a 3000 year old half-demon (Zagor Chronicles). Even with former, did he steal his gold or is it rightfully inherited from his ancestor?
- Canon finally established that he is indeed a half-demon, but with a normal life-span, tutored among the Demonic Three. He retook Firetop Mountain from the dwarves established there after his ancestor's death, adding the gold he ransacked to what was left of his ancestor's fortune.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: In the third book, Zagor laughs off most of your anti-boss assets, up to a powerful Genie in a Bottle able to paralyze any foe.
- The Corrupter: In the third book, Zagor gains the Bone Demon's corrupting influence, which blighted Castle Argent, twisted many a noble knight into a Chaos Warrior, and even twisted his victims' tormented souls into dangerous spectres. He keeps this influence active over the castle and makes it even worse.
- Curse: In the second book, you are affected by one which gradually depletes your Life Meter if you read a text, which Zagor himself most likely wrote. You can only lift the curse by eating an orc's fleas.
- Dark Is Evil: In the third book, he is a demon clad in black ruling a bleak and shadowy castle, and is plenty evil. He showed shades of this even before, but this definitely takes the cake.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: The Bone Demon was doubtless high in the demonic hierarchy of Amarillia. And now, he and Zagor are one and the same.
- Demon of Human Origin: Downplayed since he was already was half-demon, but rotten as he was, still a mostly human warlock with some demonic traits. Now he is a hugely powerful Demon Lord.
- Devious Daggers: A greedy, power-hungry, albeit fair-play Sorcerous Overlord fighting with a dagger, when not casting deadly magic.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Believe it or not, but the monstrously powerful Final Boss of the third book is fought before he can reach his full potential. Now picture such full potential and shudder...
- Duel to the Death: He challenges you to one at the end of the second book, with a dagger and no armour, to see who deserves Allansia. He proves a Fair-Play Villain to those he regards as Worthy Opponents, removing his upper robes and giving you a dagger, and you agree to his terms.
- Elaborate Underground Base: Zagor turned the caves of Firetop Mountain into this, with a labyrinth and lavish quarters for good measure.
- Elemental Powers: Zagor is praised by foes and allies alike as one of the greatest elementalist mages to ever walk Titan. While other elementalists cannot normally master more than one element, he masters Air, Fire, Earth and Water with equal proficiency.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: In the second book, you can only overcome the Greater Elementals he summons with Elementals of your own. You need the four golden dragon teeth and the incantation to activate them. You must learn which Elemental can counter which (with a magnifying glass). Oh, and without a throwing dagger to kill a rat that steals one teeth, you are done for. Exaggeration? You bet! Anyway, Fire is undone by Water, Water by Wind, Wind by Earth and Earth by Fire.
- Evil Is Bigger: In the third book, he towers over thirteen feet tall, and has never been more evil.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Enforced posthumously in Shadow of the Giants, as he kept the titular Weapons of Mass Destruction as a closely guarded Sealed Evil in a Can until he could find a way to control them absolutely, without risking a Turned Against Their Masters scenario.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Zagor's voice becomes booming and frightening in the third book.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: But normally he has a low, guttural and unnerving voice.
- Evil Virtues: Challenging a Worthy Opponent to a fair Duel to the Death when he still had dangerous spells to cast sure deserves mention.
- Evil Wears Black: In the last two books, after his evil was firmly established, Zagor wears his Badass Long Robe black and sinister-looking.
- Fair-Play Villain: Averted at first in the second book, in which he summons uber powerful beings to destroy you. But once you overcame all of them, he deems you a Worthy Opponent and challenges you to a fair fight with no armour, making sure that you have what you need. To the point that he could have killed you or at least greatly wounded you with a Thunderbolt Spell but chose not to. Sure, he knew that he would return again should he lose, but that's still admirably honourable for such an evil being.
- Fan Disservice: The Final Battle of the second book unfolds like a Duel to the Death with no armour, so he takes off his upper robes before engaging you. His corpse-like white skin and his horribly bloated scars make him look quite disturbingly horrendous.
- Fangs Are Evil: As a Demon Warlock, Zagor sports nasty-looking ones.
- Femme Fatalons: As a Demon Warlock, Zagor sports a male version with long claw-like nails.
- Fireballs: He throws painful ones in the third book and the video-game adaptation of the first.
- Frankenstein Monster: In the second book, he rebuilt his resurrected body with spare body parts taken from people in nearby villages. Many Bad Endings make you one of the unwilling donors.
- Fusion Dance: He was dragged into the world of Amarillia soon after his second return, by a side-effect of the Bone Demon's magic banishment outside of dimensions. They merged into a single, uber powerful Demon Warlock, adding the former's expertise of magic to the latter's Dark Powers.
- The Gambler: Zagor’s favourite hobby is to play with his bewitched cards, which he also uses as traps over his lair or vessels for his curses.
- Greater-Scope Villain: He's long dead by the time Shadow of the Giants take place, but being the creator of the titular Weapons of Mass Destruction threatening the land make him this.
- Greed: Rapacity is Zagor's defining characteristic. He took over Firetop Mountain to claim his inheritance, also stealing the dwarves' treasures and ransacking nearby settlements for decades. He always keeps gold and valuables with him, going as far as sitting on a gem-incrusted, golden throne in the second book.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Invoked and enforced in the second book. Zagor had to create the McGuffin you use to defeat him, as the dark spell that resurrected him forces the caster to create a way to be killed again. He hid it as well as he could, but you still got your hands on it.
- Horned Humanoid: As a Demon Warlock, Zagor has small, conical horns on the sides of his head.
- Horns of Villainy: The aforementioned horns add to the scary picture, and he is not exactly a bloke you would take for a drink or two...
- Human-Demon Hybrid: The semi-canonical Zagor Chronicles indicates that he is half-demon. He was revealed to be this in Canon as well.
- Hypnotic Eyes: Zagor is implied to have those in the first book, but he does not use them against you.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Fitting Zagor's cold, calculating and composed nature. Unsettling isn't it?
- Insistent Terminology: Warlock, not wizard, sorcerer, etc. In the first book he is almost always referred to as the Warlock, with only one easily missed opportunity to learn his name. His first name was not revealed until he was profiled in the short-lived Fighting Fantasy webzine The Salamonis Gazette in 2003.
- Kill It with Fire: Since merging with the Bone Demon gave Zagor Resurrective Immortality, after you defeat him in Legend of Zagor you must haul his gigantic carcass down all the way to the Heartfires chasm and then cast him into the fires to be destroyed forever.
- Kung-Fu Wizard: Downplayed for he has no martial arts skills, but in the third book Zagor has become freakishly strong, enough to rip foes to shred with his bare hands. As if he needed more.
- Large and in Charge: After fusing with a demon in the third book, Zagor towers over mortal humans, and the hordes of orcs and monsters at his command.
- Level Drain: Not exactly, but in the third book, Zagor can cast a Life-Drain Spell that costs -2 stamina and -1 skill. Given that your skill score is your Power Level, which you went to great lengths to raise to match his enormous might, this causes a similar effect.
- On the other hand, you can't hope to win without doing this to him, using Gold Talismans to decrease his skill score and even the odds.
- Light Is Not Good: He wears white and gold in the first book, and while not exactly a villain he remains a formidable foe. The following books establish him as a Color-Coded for Your Convenience bad guy.
- Looks Like Orlok: His Demon Warlock form from the third book has elements of the classical Nosferatu-like vampire, with bald, bat-like face and sharp nails, though he's at least thirteen feet tall in this setting.
- Mook Maker: In the second book, Zagor created his Right-Hand Attack Dog a mighty Chaos Beast Man.
- In the same book, he coated a huge diamond with a potion of his. If you pick it up, it transforms into a powerful Diamond Sentinel with skill 11 stamina 9, who can only be harmed with a hammer.
- Natural Weapon: In the third book, his claws and fist are worth daggers and cudgels...
- Nigh-Invulnerability: As a Demon Warlock, only magic weapons and spells can harm him.
- Noble Demon: In the second book, once confronted he agrees to an honourable duel with you to decide matters once and for all.
- Obviously Evil: Even in the first book, in which his evil is not firmly established, one look alone tells you that this is one guy to be feared. Played very straight in the second and even straighter in the third.
- One-Winged Angel: In the video-game adaptation of the first book, he transforms into one of the previous bosses, that must be taken down for the Final Battle to resume normally. No less than three times.
- Orcus on His Throne: Like his former fellow students, Zagor feels too important to actually do something about those pesky heroes wandering in his dungeon, killing his orcs and stealing his stuff, until said adventurers actually reach his lair.
- Justified in-story. In the first book, he is waiting for Zharradan Marr and Balthus Dire to fight to the death. In the second, he is rebuilding his body and his forces. In the third, he is waiting for his complete mutation to make him unstoppable, and is gathering the Bone Demon's remaining forces.
- Playing with Fire: In addition to his fire-related Elemental Powers, he uses fire spells. Flames costing -3 stamina in the first books and Fireballs costing -5 stamina in the third.
- Pointy Ears: He had these normally, but they became bigger and more bat-like as a Demon Warlock...
- Poisoned Weapons: In the third book, his dagger is covered in toxin, making his strikes deal - 3 stamina instead of the regular 2.
- Post-Climax Confrontation: In most books, your troubles are not over after defeating him.
- In the first book, you must open his treasure chest. Without the right combination of keys, all your efforts were in vain.
- Averted in the second.
- In the third, you must run back to the magical Heartfires to throw him in there and destroy him once and for all, before he resurrects and kills you.
- Race Against the Clock: After killing him in the third book, you have 800 seconds to drag his humongous mass through each room of the shaking Castle Argent towards the Heartfires. Each room takes a determinate time depending on how well you manage obstacles. If you are still at it after 500 seconds, he partially awakes and seizes you in his clawed hands, greatly slowing you down. And if you fail, he fully resurrects and gleefully rips you to shreds.
- Red Baron: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Exactly What It Says on the Tin but no more is needed. Prior to his resurrection, few people called him by his name.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: In the third book, his eyes become blood red due to now being a demon.
- Red Right Hand: In the second book, Zagor's left arm is skeletal, owing to his original corpse. In the third, that skeletal arm is all that's left of him. It gets sent to Amarilla and sucked into the Casket of Souls, merging with the Bone Demon's corpse and fusing both villains into an even mightier one.
- Resurrective Immortality: Zagor cast a powerful and evil version of the Raise Dead Spell on himself to return from behind the Veil long after his killer would be gone, the reason of both his returns.
- In the third book, he automatically awakes without any spell less than 15 minutes after his death. You must destroy his body by throwing it in the magic Heartfires to get rid of him forever and ever.
- Returning Big Bad: Zagor is harder to kill than a swarm of cockroaches.
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: Zagor uses a different one in each book:
- In the first book, nothing less than a big and powerful fire-breathing Red Dragon, with skill 10 stamina 15. You can defeat it without fight by burning it with its own fire breath with a spell. As the Titan canon developed, it was established as a lesser or depowered kind, the real deal having skill 14 (2 over the normal maximum), and being the weakest dragon type!
- In the second book, he created a very powerful Chaos Beast Man, with skill 12 stamina 13, who turns into an even mightier Chaos Beast Lord if it lands two hits. With skill 14 stamina 14, it becomes absolutely Unwinnable by Design since you cannot surpass skill 12. And the chances not to be wounded twice by such a foe are scarce. Your only hope is to bribing it in letting you pass by offering the sword of the Chaos Lord Darkblade Skullbiter.
- Subverted in the third book. In a Continuity Nod with the fist, Zagor's last line of defence is once again a dragon only weaker than he is by 1 skill point, but this time it is The Dragon in every meaning of the word, with much plot relevance. With skill 15 stamina 20, he is That One Boss through and through.
- Self-Made Orphan: He followed his pal Balthus' book, and murdered his father to steal his riches.
- Sequential Boss: Always.
- In the first book, you can first try some items and course of action, but if he No Sells it, he can retaliate with flames costing -3 stamina. Then you fight him.
- In the second, you must overcome no less than four super powerful Greater Elementals he summons in a row before fighting him.
- In the third, you can first attack him at distance, though failing or using something useless exposes you to a dangerous Level Drain Spell. Then you must climb the stairs towards him, either fighting a monster (ridiculously weak with but skill 6 stamina 6, but Zagor replenishes his Life Meter as you fight it), or attacking him with your magic weapon but it weakens its power boost for the first rounds. Then you must fight him. And finally there is the Post-Climax Confrontation...
- Shock and Awe: He masters the dangerous Thunderbolt Spell. In the second book he states that he could blast you to death with it, and in the third it costs no less than -7 stamina.
- Shoulders of Doom: In the third book.
- Signature Move: Summoning Greater Elementals. This is a huge part of the Final Battle in the second book, and he summoned another in the third as a very powerful MacGuffin Guardian.
- Sinister Surveillance: Zagor can watch you through paintings in his likeness.
- Skippable Boss: In the first book, you can reduce him to dust without fight with the Eye of Cyclops gemstone's magical beam.
- Squishy Wizard: He is powerful but frail and a textbook example of Weak, but Skilled in the first two books, but spectacularly averts this in the third, being now way mightier, stronger, and sturdier.
- Staff of Authority: In the third book, he has a great ornate sceptre covered in runes.
- Strong and Skilled: He might be Weak, but Skilled in the first two books, but having fused with the Bone Demon in the third adds enormous physical strength and evil might to his vast mastery of magic and already considerable magic power, not to mention his fighting skills.
- Summon Magic: During the Final Battle of the second book, he summons four Greater Elementals in a row. Air, Water, Earth and Fire. You need to summon Greater Elementals of your own to counter them.
- In the third book, he summons powerful Elite Mooks known as Hellhorns and a powerful Air Elemental.
- Super-Strength: In the third book, Zagor has gained the Bone Demon's enormous physical strength.
- He does covet the entire world in the third book.
- Tarot Troubles: He owns a deck of cards (which aren't explicitly referred to as tarots) and he seem to rely on them for power. In the first book, burning them ages him into a depowered decrepit geezer. In the third they can either give you a useful item or curse you, while he drops them before fighting you.
- Throne Room Throwdown: He is faced in his throne room in the second and third book.
- Took a Level in Badass: He was already a bona fide badass in the first two books, but his powers skyrocket in the third. And it is all but stated that he has yet to reach his full might!
- A Villain Named "Z__rg": A non-Sci-Fi example. The name Zagor takes all three letters, granted not in that order but hey, same difference.
- Villainous Widow's Peak: Not a vampire but he sports one, nonetheless.
- Voluntary Shape Shifting: He can change his aspect, and uses it to turn into an old man to take you by surprise in the first book.
- Weak, but Skilled: In the first two books, he is frail looking, but very skilled with weapons, and most importantly wields vast magic power and mastery of magic.
- Weaksauce Weakness: In the original book, burning his playing cards ages him into a frail old man with only skill 7 stamina 12, making the otherwise tough Final Boss an absolute joke.
- Weapons of Mass Destruction: Zagor created a crown able to unleash four tower-sized, virtually invincible metallic giants to take over Allansia. He was Genre Savvy enough to keep them well hidden until he was sure to control them without fail.
- Worthy Opponent: He comes to see you as this in the Final Battle of the second book.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He never does it in the books, but he and the other Demonic Three did it to their teacher in their backstory, hinting that he would if he felt so inclined.
Zharradan Marr
Appears in: Creature of Havoc | The Trolltooth Wars
A half-human half-demon necromancer, expert in the vile magical art of Marrangha. After his studies, Marr built himself a subterranean lair and by chance discovered a gold mine that made him enormously wealthy, funding his rule. Marr later learnt about Eren Durdinath, the Hidden Elf Village of the highly magical white-haired elves, and the divine spirits known as Vapours spawned by their queen. He covets the Vapour of Elven Magic, which would make him virtually invincible, and seeks the village and learn all its secrets. Oddly enough, a strange, reptilian humanoid monster without reason or conscience is the only thing standing in his way...
- Agony Beam: He masters the atrocious Torture Spell that inflicts unbearable, excruciating pain, and uses it on anyone who resists him. You need to be covered with Elven Magic Dust to be protected, or else you're powerless against him and have no choice but to give him the McGuffin he needs to take over Allansia.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: He has sickly green skin, due to his unholy heritage.
- Anticlimax Boss: After an incredibly hard and frustrating quest, you're finally facing the Big Bad, who just revealed being behind all your torments... Aaaaaaaaand, resist his spell and destroy his mirror and poof! Victory! Underwhelming much?
- Bad Boss: Notoriously hard to please and unforgiving, prone to execute servants for the smallest slights. He regards servants as but assets to use and discard, even after decades of perfect service.
- On the other hand, when they prove their worth to him he is very generous, makes them wealthy and has their every whim indulged... So long as they remain valuable to his eyes.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: One of the worst villains of the franchise, with one of the vilest magical arts ever experimented as his field of expertise. And no, it's not necromancy.
- Badass Long Robe: He wears a flowing robe, as expected of such a fearsome Sorcerous Overlord.
- Bio Manipulation: Marrhanga is an especially vile variation of this, used via dark magic.
- Charm Person: He masters the powerful Creature Control Spell, which can be used to control someone's actions, and used it to force the exiled white-haired elf Dagga Weaseltongue to sneak into Eren Durdinath and steal the three Vapours birthed by their Queen: the Vapours of Language, Reason and Elven Magic.
- The Chessmaster: Marr is looking for Eren Durdinath to gain the Vapour of Elven Magic. Not only did he took over the Galleykeep to better search for a village atop the trees from the sky, but he used someone to steal the Vapours, and arranged things to have you stumble upon the two he does not need, to test how to gain their power. Better yet, he dug his subterranean lair under the pretence of prospecting to avoid suspicion (finding gold by sheer coincidence), and manipulates many people to return the Vapours that were stolen from his lair to him. Yeah, the sod knows his game...
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Marr enjoys inflicting the normal or magical kind, pretty much For the Evulz.
- Cool Ship: Marr made his headquarters in the Galleykeep, a gigantic flying galleon that houses his generals and most of his troops. It was stolen from you, as you were the ship's original captain before Marr invaded it and turned you into a monster.
- Didn't Think This Through: As smart as he is, not bothering to compel you after making you a monster, while he planned for you to regain your senses when you were governed by instinct, is utterly baffling. Especially considering his mastery of the Creature Control Spell.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He offers you riches and power if you agree to work for him, and is utterly baffled that you could refuse.
- Just because he made you a violent, flesh-eating monster, he cannot understand that you would decline a life of slaughter under his command. Neither can he process that you would crave revenge for what he did to you and your crew, right after gleefully reminding you how he did so.
- Evil Eyebrows: Typical villainous look...
- Evil Genius: Marr is very intelligent, cunning and shrewd, knowing how to use his servants' talents to the fullest, searching for the McGuffin from all sides, and manipulating people to get all intel he needs. Including you, using you as a guinea pig without you knowing.
- Evil Gloating: He spends most of the confrontation with you monologuing about his genius, how his plans worked perfectly and waxing lyrical about how great he is.
- Evil Versus Evil: He is hinted to be at war with Balthus Dire, the Big Bad of The Citadel of Chaos, his former fellow student. Their conflict is confirmed and made central in the novelization Trolltoth War.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Marr is the greatest master of the vile art of Marrhanga: Transmutation, fusion and grafting of living organisms through Dark Magic and surgery to create new life-forms. Not only it is an awful, nearly Lovecraftian Superpower, but it dooms non-viable results (that is to say 98%) to a Fate Worse than Death at best, an And I Must Scream conscious but unable to live at worst. He is known as the only practitioner who created viable life-forms. He sends the results of his experiments in a subterranean jail where they are studied, to judge their abilities and how he can use them. You are the result of his best experiment.
- Fate Worse than Death: Marr's final fate, but considering the character, it is entirely karmic and thoroughly satisfying. You trap him forever in his own netherworld with no hope of ever escaping.
- Faux Affably Evil: Marr is formal and courteous with you, but only because he needs something from you and regards you as his masterpiece. If you defy him, he becomes much less personable.
- Femme Fatalons: A male example sporting the long, pointed nails common among Evil Sorcerers.
- Foil: Balthus Dire and Zharradan Marr are both intelligent and formidable Sorcerous Overlords, but they could not make a bigger contrast if they tried. Marr is a frail and demonic-looking Squishy Wizard and a schemer who uses people to get what he wants. Balthus on the other hand is a physically imposing Scary Black Man, Magic Knight and master strategist who prefers direct confrontation.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Defeated by the creature he calls his "masterpiece", who as he says so himself could have never reached him without the power he granted them...
- Human-Demon Hybrid: Born from a witch and a Hell-Demon.
- Insufferable Genius: This one wants you to know how smart he is and to be suitably impressed, hammering it with little subtlety. He is indeed highly intelligent, but that's no excuse to be so smug.
- It's All About Me: He is so egomaniac that not only did he discard his original last name, the name of his hometown he felt beneath him, but cast a spell to make everyone forget he ever had it. He even retreated to his own netherworld to avoid breathing the same air as lowly common people.
- It's Personal: Downplayed in that exactly how personal it is between you and Marr is only disclosed during The Reveal. You learn mid-quest that you are the product of Marr's experiment, but you only learn (and subsequently remember) that he invaded the Galleykeep you commanded, slaughtered your men and subjected you and your crew to Marrhanga experiments. He gleefully explains that most of the creatures you met and killed were in fact your former friends. Suffice to say that after that, no promise of wealth and power will ever be worth the prize of his ignominious defeat!
- Just Between You and Me: He congratulates you for managing to find him, and explains The Reveal. Even the narration lampshades this, saying that this is like a father teaching his son.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Ending up trapped forever in the netherworld he created as a safe haven, and by the victim of his twisted experiment getting sweet revenge, is deliciously ironic.
- Lean and Mean: Zharradan Marr is deathly thin and an utterly abhorrent bastard.
- Lineage Comes from the Father: Averted. He probably owns his vast power to his demonic daddy, but he is a master of magic like mommy.
- MacGuffin Delivery Service: Marr covets the bag, containing the Vapour of Elven Magic, which you took.
- Mad Scientist: With magic instead of science, but Marr is this through and through. The way he describes his progress with Marrhanga, first small then progressively more ambitious, his eagerness to create new life-forms, and how he studies his new creation to assess their particularities. Sure he wants military assets over all, but it's undeniable. His twisted mixes of man and beast somehow call into mind Dr. Moreau himself, and that's not a flattering comparison... For both.
- Manipulative Bastard: Marr knows how to gain the trust on people he needs, and to use people with them none the wiser including you, whom he uses as a guinea pig and a MacGuffin Delivery Service.
- Meaningful Name: Invoked in-universe by the sod himself. He named himself after Marrhanga, his favourite magic subject.
- He was at first named Zharradan Dree, after the village he was born, for his adoptive aunt was its founder and named it after herself. He despised it for being too low-scale for its tastes. Exaggerated due to the sod's humongous ego.
- Meaningful Rename: Not content with merely changing his name, he performed a ritual to make everyone remember as if he was always called Marr, terminating the name he relinquished.
- Mirror Monster: You must face his mirror knowing that you will find him here to confront him.
- Mirror World: Said netherworld was created from the reflections of a mirror.
- Moral Event Horizon: As if gratuitous slavery and torture were not already bad enough, submitting innocent people to atrocious Marrhanga experiments where they would lose their humanity if not their very sentience and/or self-reliance is all manners of effed-up.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: His mouth is full of sharp, pointed teeth.
- Narcissist: Marr is glaringly self-obsessed and self-aggrandizing. He cares only about himself and regards himself as infinitely better than everyone else, even those whose talent he recognises, wanting them to work under him or die without even considering refusal. He absolutely cannot bear not being in control and is affronted even by a rebuke, especially from his creation, whom he considers his even with their free will intact. In his twisted point of view, only he has a say in every matter.
- Necromancer: His main field of expertise. He is implied to have created zombies you fight that regenerate after being beaten when returning to their graves, and the Master of Hellfire, an undead SNK Boss that must be avoided at all cost.
- No Ontological Inertia: His magic vanishes as he disappears forever, turning you back into a human.
- Obviously Evil: One look at him is enough to know that his company is not of the pleasant sort.
- Oh, Crap!: Marr starts panicking when he realizes that you have the means to end him for good and are fully willing to use them. And to see such a Smug Snake literally shitting himself is a pure joy after all he put you through. (Both as a character and a player.)
- Playing with Syringes: What Marrhanga is all about.
- Pocket Dimension: He retreated in a netherworld he created. You must know about it to confront him.
- Pointy Ears: Long, bat-like ears.
- Pride: The franchise has no shortage of arrogant, over-confident villains, but this one is defined by Pride. He has every reason to gloat about his smarts and successes, but that should not mean never to keep his over-bloated ego in check, especially as it ends up dooming him to no-one's surprise.
- Purple Is Powerful: He wears a purple robe and is a very powerful and experienced wizard.
- Puzzle Boss: Attacking him head-on is a sure way to lose miserably. You need the right item (namely the Crystal Club) to wreck his mirror.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: He is the son of a demon after all. It must be noted that what's red are his sclera, not his pupils as per tradition.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Averted. Marr tries to teleport away when you are about to defeat him, but it's already too late for him.
- Signature Move: The Torture Spell seems to be his go-to reaction when someone won't play by his rules.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: At first, Marr employed normally paid workers in his mines, but Evil Genius Darramous's first action as director was to stop paying them and to chain them to work till they die, with torture and ill treatments to boot. Marr's reaction? Delighted approval.
- Smug Snake: A high-scale one but one all the same. Although highly smart and competent, Marr is waaay too overconfident for his own good. He is clearly too used for everything to unfold All According to Plan, that he makes a glaring mistake due to being unable to fathom things escaping his control.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: He hardly ever raises his voice and keeps a cordial tone, but to his core he is an utterly twisted and vicious monster, who delights in making people suffer to lord over them.
- Squishy Wizard: Being frail and thin but very powerful, Marr looks the part. Downplayed though, as you never fight him, thus never see if he truly is.
- Too Clever by Half: There is no denying that Marr is a very impressive Evil Genius and The Chessmaster. Yet, he is far too prideful and smug, neglecting details he could have noticed and fixed in a heartbeat had he paid a sliver of attention. Predictably and satisfyingly, it comes to bite him in the rear mighty hard.
- Transformation Horror: He inflicts these on the unfortunate victims of his experiments, and the process is implied to be as awful as the result.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: Don't attack his mirror with your fist, use a Crystal Club instead.
- Villainous Breakdown: Marr starts with just a Oh, Crap! seeing you with the sole weapon he fears, but the more he tries to negotiate or stall and the less it works, the more frantic he becomes, ending up screaming in panic. For one who never raises his voice and who looks down on anyone, boy is it cathartic!
- Villainous Widow's Peak: Just to make it clear that Marr is a bad seed.
- Voluntary Shape Shifting: Marr turned into a rhino-man to meet and befriend Daga Weaseltongue.
- We Can Rule Together: He offers to make you The Dragon when you confront him, if you hand him the Vapour of Elven Magic he needs to become invincible. It can lead to a Non-Standard Game Over in which you help him take over and rule by his side... Until he grows tired of you and gets rid of you that is...
- You Have Failed Me: He does not take kindly to mistakes, throwing the former director of his mines in jail when he could not stop thieves' raids. And a lack of result equals a mistake in his book...
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: As soon as a servant no longer meets his very high standards, he gets rid of them at the drop of a hat.
- Marr and his fellow apprentices did this to their master when they felt he had nothing left to teach and when they grew tired of his attempts to calm them.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: When he sees you with a Crystal Club, he immediately stalls with a We Can Rule Together speech, until he can teleport away to escape the destruction of his mirror. He later argues that without him you will never turn back to human and be doomed forever. Played with since none of this works, but he gains points for thinking this all up in the middle of a Villainous Breakdown.
- Zero-Effort Boss: If you have both items you need when you face him, you've already won.
