Characters / Fighting Fantasy Antagonists The Pit

Main Character Index | Forces of Order: Celestial Court | The Hero's Band | Allies (The Star Pupils) | Rulers | Forces of Chaos: Dark Gods | The Pit | Allansia (The Demonic Three) | Khul | The Old World | Other Dimensions

This is a page for the demons of the Fighting Fantasy universe. First the generals of Death, Disease and Decay, who escaped banishment to the Void after the First Battle. Second the Demon Princes, who escaped and took over the Pit, the name given to the Demonic Planes of Existence: The superior Snake Demons and the subservient Night Demons. Finally the individual Demons serving the Demon Princes. All this pretty (ahem) world being hellbent on causing either an Apocalypse How or even worse Hell on Earth, only to get opposed by you, The Hero...

Given the nature of the gamebooks, any vital plot-relevant twists and weaknesses (especially weaknesses) should be kept under spoiler tags.

---

---

Demonic Generals

In the Beginning of Creation, the Gods of Evil created and/or corrupted incredibly powerful beings serving as their highest-ranked generals, commanding their forces during the First Battle. Most of them were slain with no hope of resurrection or sealed in the Void, but two of them escaped and were sealed somewhere else.

Being actually fought in the franchise, they somehow serve as Greater Scope Villains for the series as a whole, while the Dark Gods serve more as this in the Creation Myth and larger expanded universe.

The Night Dragon

^{Click here to see the Night Dragon Skull}

Appears in: Night Dragon | Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World

A nightmarish, eldritch monster from before Time came to be and the Evil Counterpart of sorts to the Dragon God Kilanirax himself. Along with the equally nightmarish Black Gargoyle, the Night Dragon was the mightiest and most formidable general of Death, Disease and Decay. It escaped banishment to the Void, for it was defeated during the war or shortly after and entered a slumber that should have lasted for eternity.

Alas, eons have passed and it is now on the verge of awakening. An Apocalypse Cult is working to bring about its return and the legendary Conclave of Dragons gathers to find a hero who could prevent it. You. If the Night Dragon resurfaces, everything will be blown away like dust under the icy northern wind. Will you be worthy and skilled enough to stand against such seemingly unsurmountable odds? Time to find out...

---

• Achilles' Heel: There are three Sacred Weapons designed to fell this titan: A Sword to slay it, a Shield to withstand its Breath Weapon and a Chainmail to withstand its blows. It was already defeated once at the Dawn of Times by a divine hero wielding these and is so afraid of the sword that the mere sight of it makes it lose the first attack round. Each one is an Infinity +1 Sword in and of itself that grants a huge power boost, but you need at least two to stand a chance in the Final Battle.
• Ancient Evil: Like the other examples on this page, the Night Dragon predates Titan.
• Antagonist Abilities: Nothing less than the mightiest foe fought head on in the franchise for starters. Packed with a devastating Breath Weapon, deadly blows, shadows around it deflecting your strikes and powerful magic. Long story short, this is not a Final Boss you will forget anytime soon.
• Antagonist Title: That's its name. No more is needed.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The Night Dragon is easily twice the size of a normal dragon, themselves already way over eighty feet. Talk about Serial Escalation...
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: You can fight an oneiric projection of the Night Dragon in the Dreamtime. If you break a statuette in its likeness in the Black Corridor. Destroying it weakens the real one.
• Beast of the Apocalypse: If it awakes, you can kiss Titan goodbye. Simple as that.
• Big Bad: It remains in slumber for most of the story and is only encountered in the end, but it is still the greatest threat Titan ever knew since the First Battle and its influence expands all over the land, even beyond the actions of its worshippers.
• Black Magic: It can cast magic at you, in retaliation for shooting it, rusting your Sacred Chainmail and reducing its power boost. If the Pyramidal Cell is destroyed, the Dragon can no longer spellcast.
• Body Horror: Even by dragon standards, the Night Dragon is a huge pile of body horrors. Its aspect alone is alien to all dragon species.
• Breath Weapon: A given for a Dragon. It can breathe fire, Cold Flames, Deadly Gas and probably more.
• Casting a Shadow: Has power over primordial shadows and darkness. It can conjure shadowy threads costing -4 stamina and surrounds itself in defensive shadows. You can dispel the defensive shadows with a Sphere of Light, or prevent it from conjuring them all together by destroying the Pyramidal Cell.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: After you kill it, its severed skull animates itself and grows a series of spidery appendages, to resume attacking you. Thankfully, it's considerably weaker in this form.
• Cold Flames: Its oneiric projection breathes cold fire as deadly as its regular breath. If you deflect it with the Sacred Shield, it will be useless against the real deal. Fortunately, this one can be dodged.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: A repellent abomination coloured in pitch black, silver and cold blue.
• Cosmic Entity: The Night Dragon is a threat even to the gods themselves and is more of an eldritch avatar of destruction in dragon form than anything else.
• Covered in Gunge: The Night Dragon spent its eons of slumber wrapped in a disgusting cocoon of acidic slime, further emphasizing how alien it is.
• Creepy Awesome: It sure is impressive despite (or precisely because of) being so damn scary.
• Dark Is Evil: Pitch black with darkness powers and pure evil.
• Deadly Gas: Downplayed. It exhales them in its Clipped-Wing Angel form, but they don't harm you.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: What you're up to when you face it. And it sure feels great to succeed. Justified, since the monster, despite its ludicrous scores, is only half-awake thus not at full power.
• Destroyer Deity: Not exactly a god per se but close enough. The Ancient already was an evil draconic deity out to destroy the world, long before Alduin made it cool.
• Divine Ranks: At full might, the Night Dragon would be roughly on par with the lesser-to-normal tier Gods, at least. And it is worshipped by evil doers.
• Don't Wake the Sleeper: ...Or else we're all screwed. Too bad some whacky cultists are hellbent to do it...
• Draconic Abomination: A living Nightmare Fuel in the shape of a gigantic, demonic dragon who does not fit any normal draconic type, as well as a Walking Wasteland whose mere presence plagues its surroundings, twists its lair into something as eldritch as it is and corrupts the Dreamtime.
• Dragons Are Demonic: Plays this trope straight as an arrow, in stark contrast with the Conclave of Dragons who fall under Dragons Are Divine.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Believe it or not, but this monstrously overpowered behemoth is only half-awake. It is heavily implied that it would be even mightier if it was fully conscious. One shudders to think how nightmarish it would be at full power and in full possession of its mind and senses...
• The Dreaded: Downplayed, since very few remember the Ancient's existence, but those who do are absolutely terrified of the prospect of its awakening. Even the Always Chaotic Evil Dark Elves side with you to prevent it and given how bad they are in other books, you know what kind of mess you are in.
• Dream Walker: The Night Dragon can roam the Dreamtime at will.
• Dream Weaver: The Night Dragon's mere presence in the Dreamtime reshapes it in its likeness. It can swarm it with oneiric monsters and having to fight a horde of specters looking like evil versions of your loved ones indicates that it can influence your own dreams.
• Elaborate Underground Base: The Night Dragon slumbered for eons in a cavern network beneath the Dragon Reaches, invested by the cult so as to awake it and now almost as eldritch as the Dragon itself...
• The End of the World as We Know It: The Ancient would obliterate the entire world. It would start with the Physical Planes but the other Planes of Existence are in danger as well, starting with the Dreamtime.
• Evil Counterpart: It is this to the Dragon God Kilanirax, nothing less!
• Evil Is Bigger: It is absolutely gigantic and there is no greater evil this side of the Dark Gods.
• Evil Is Visceral: The Night Dragon's Elaborate Underground Base looks like a beast's entrails, complete with pulsating organ-like pipes if not much worse, likely twisted and assimilated by its demonic influence. It is organized like a dragon's body, with the Ancient resting in the "brain" and The Dragon in the "eyes". Steer clear of the "jaws" if you know what's best for you.
• Evil Takes a Nap: Exactly why it was put to slumber is not explained, but this was clearly against the Ancient's will. Considering it was felled before with the Weapon of X-Slaying, it can be guessed that it had to slumber to survive its wounds. What's sure is that it will be in a really bad mood if it awakens.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: With the Night Dragon being the oblivion threatening to engulf all and the dark elves being the evil who want something left to dominate.
• Eviler than Thou: The Dark Elf in the prologue makes it clear that it's far and away the worst threat ever to Titan. Compared to the Night Dragon, every other villain, be they Demon Princes, archmages, or the dark elves themselves, look positively cuddly.
• Final Boss: By far the mightiest in the franchise. The Night Dragon is an immensely powerful enemy with skill 17 (5 points over the normal maximum!) stamina 32 (Already 8 over the normal maximum! And can further increase depending on how long you took to reach it.) Even worse, its blows costs -3 stamina and it surrounds itself in shadows that can deflect your blows 1 in 6 times. Boy does it packs a mean punch... With only one Legendary Weapon, let alone zero, a snowball stands a better chance of survival in an oven. Fortunately, with the three weapons and having weakened it beforehand, you can defeat it with no trouble.
• Final Boss Preview: Fighting its projection in the Dreamtime gives you a taste of what to expect. It is a very powerful and dangerous enemy with skill 12 stamina 16, who breathes Cold Flames costing you no less than -6 stamina. This could make for a tough Final Boss in any other gamebook, but here it is only a starter. Destroying it weakens the Night Dragon by -1 skill and -2 stamina, making the Final Battle easier.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Its front paws look more like humanoid hands than anything else.
• Giant Flyer: You never see the Ancient fly, but it is ginormous and its wings are not here to look pretty.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Cold blue eyes glowing a creepy light.
• Greater-Scope Villain: One of the very few beings who dwarfs the Snake Demons, who can be regarded as the Big Bad Ensemble of the franchise as a whole.
• The Heavy: While Villains Act, Heroes React is the norm in gamebooks, the mere prospect of its imminent return is enough to kick-start the plot without it needing to even act. The Apocalypse Cult tries to accelerate it and the Conclave of Dragon and the dark elves tried to prevent it.
• Heavy Sleeper: It has been slumbering for eons and eons to revive and everyone would rather it never awakens. Alas, its slumber shall end soon.
• Horns of Villainy: It has two pairs atop its skull and two more on the sides, to make it look even scarier.
• It Can Think: Even half-awake and acting mostly out of instinct, it displays some cunning, trying to weaken your power boosts and using defenses, when its awesome might alone should be more than enough to steamroll any opposition. It recognises your Legendary Weapons and has likely grown wary of their wielder. All this hints that it might be a full-fledged Genius Bruiser when fully awake.
• Lazy Dragon: The Night Dragon spends most of the gamebook in slumber. Justified in that it spent eons slumbering to recover from the First Battle.
• Leaking Can of Evil: The Night Dragon's influence is already spreading. It plagues the Dreamtime with nightmares and rises monsters all around. It is all but stated outright that the undead warrior's clan's shaman was corrupted by its influence and that the basilisk who petrified the dwarves was sent by it after they Dug Too Deep near its resting place. All of this without its worshippers' interference.
• Living Relic: Only divine beings survived the Age of the Gods. The forces of Evil of which the Night Dragon was part of brought its end.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Vanquishing the Night Dragon causes the Very Definitely Final Dungeon to collapse and explode in a volcanic eruption, which you must escape.
• Made of Evil: Clearly so.
• Marathon Boss: Its stamina score is as huge as it is at 32 (8 points over the normal maximum!) and can rise even further if you were too slow to reach it. Fortunately, it can also be decreased.
• Monster Lord: The first evil dragon in Titan and far and away the most powerful and influential.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: One of the most normal aspects of the character.
• Mysterious Past: Whether the Night Dragon was created by the Gods of Evil twisting Kilanirax's designs, or corrupted after its creation (and if so how) is never explained.
• Natural Weapon: Its claws and fangs are bigger than a human arm and sharper than blades and its spike-covered tail can crush rocks effortlessly.
• Nightmare Face: Just in case you haven't noticed. This. Thing. Is. Bad. News. Even a normal dragon's face would seem cute in comparison.
• Nightmare Weaver: As explained above, the dream it creates are far from the pleasant sort.
• No Name Given: And it could hardly care any less.
• Obviously Evil: Anyone who fails to grasp its alignment in a single glance should seriously consider an eye-check. Provided they still can...
• Oh, Crap!: The Night Dragon steps back in fear upon seeing the Sacred Sword in your hand, still remembering the damage it caused all those eons before. You won't complain as this allows you to automatically win the first attack round.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Mortals, animals, plants, living, undead, Good and Evil, the Night Dragon won't leave anything alive on its wake.
• Orcus on His Throne: Justified in that the Night Dragon is still slumbering for most of the story and must rely on its cultists' armies of Stalkers to do its will.
• Our Dragons Are Different: A lesser-to-normal-God-tier dragon and one of the most eldritch beings in the series.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Or should we say, being of mass destruction, for lack of a better word... with the power to easily devastate the entire world.
• Physical God: Basically an evil dragon god worshipped by an atrocious sect of fanatics.
• Playing with Fire: It breathes fire, as expected from a dragon. You need the Sacred Shield to deflect the fire, or suffer a crippling -6 stamina.
• Post-Final Boss: After you kill the monumental beast, its severed head animates itself and grows spider legs. With skill 11 stamina 12, it is powerful, more so considering your weakened state after the tremendous Final Battle, but nonetheless an absolute joke for someone who could defeat such a titan. Then, you must safely exit the caves to finish the game and savour your victory.
• Power Glows: The Night Dragon's claws emit an unnatural blue light.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: It used to lead the forces of Evil against the forces of Good and wields the power to make it work.
• Red Baron: The Night Dragon is also referred to as the Ancient.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: All the more so with an ungodly abomination looking like a monumental reptile.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: A can whose lid is about to open soon.
• See the Invisible: Don't waste your time with Invisibility Potions...
• Sequential Boss: First you must climb down the depths of its cave and avoid a powerful attack of darkness. Second you must deflect its flaming Breath Weapon or lose -6 stamina. Third you must fight it in a tremendous battle. And fourth you must fight its animated skull.
• Shout-Out:
  • Its looks and the description of its lair calls to mind a Xenomorph.
  • Its final form is meant to be a tribute to The Thing (1982) instead.
• Spider Limbs: Its skull grows a set of these to walk around and fight you after you slay the main body.
• Spikes of Villainy: Its body is entirely covered in pointed protrusions, fitting its demonic nature.
• Throat Light: Its mouth radiates a cold and creepy blue light and exhales luminescent fumes, as if its power could not be contained and was permanently seeping through it. Eldritch we tell you.
• Time Abyss: It already existed when Titan was created by the Gods and is older than Time itself.
• Walking Wasteland: The Night Dragon's very existence is a threat to Titan. Even when slumbering, it twists its Elaborate Underground Base into its image and turns the Dreamtime to a cesspit of nightmares. Better not to think what it would do when awake, even when just being there.

Voivod

Yup, the half-picture is no mistake

Appears in: Legend of the Shadow Warriors | Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World

The High Lord of Death, War and Chaos and one of the most frightening Champions of Death, Disease and Decay. Voivod and his fearsome Co-Dragons, the Shadow Warriors, managed to escape banishment to the Void after the Gods' victory and millennia later invaded the world of Titan. The Gods sealed him within the Earth.

Alas, two thousand years later, following the gruesome War of the Four Kingdoms, the Shadow Warriors are resurfacing. They set out to free their demonic lord to doom Titan. However, the God King Titan and the Earth Goddess Throff have chosen a champion to rise against him and break his evil once and for all...

---

• 24-Hour Armour: Justified, as it is for all intent and purposes, his body.
• Achilles' Heel: Only the Spear of Doom Forged by the Gods, granting death to what is alive and life to what is dead, can fell him. In an unusual aversion, this is not due to its divine might but to its life-giving salves.
• All There in the Manual: The story explains who Voivod is and how he was sealed, but not how he came to be. The ending reveals that he was once human though. The guidebooks explain that he was a human demigod corrupted beyond return by the Gods of Evil. And after all those eons, you make him human again.
• Ancient Evil: Like many others, he was around when Titan just came to be.
• Animate Dead: He can raise the dead and has the nasty habit of doing it to the corpses of his every victim.
• Antagonist Abilities: He increases his Life Meter by decreasing you own. And fighting him normally is a sure way to a game over.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Of the evil aspects of Death, War and Chaos. What a nice fellow...
• Anti-Climax Boss: While he is indeed very powerful and dangerous, his stats seem lacklustre when the narration describes him as such an obscenely powerful Evil Overlord, touted as second only to the Dark Gods themselves. Averted in that you are in for a world of pain if you fight him normally, but even with the Spear of Doom, all you need are enough charges and boom, he's gone. Enforced by the author, Stephen Hand, who deliberately averts the Violence is the Only Option trope so prevalent in such games. As such, the point is to redeem him, not to destroy him.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: Death, War and Chaos are not exactly what you can call positive forces.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: An exceptional warrior, who fights with his armed gauntlets and needs nothing else.
• Big Bad: Though he doesn't appear until the end, his Shadow Warriors are roaming the Old World trying to find his tomb and resurrect him. Worse, his influence is spreading, causing the rise of many monsters that cause disasters around.
• Boss Rush: You must face the five Shadow Warriors one after the other before facing Voivod at last. Minus the ones you could banish permanently.
• Brought Down to Normal: He loses his powers when turned back to a human and could not be any happier.
• Demon of Human Origin: He was a human demigod and becomes a normal human in the end.
• Divine Ranks: At full might, Voivod would be roughly on par with the gods. To the point that Major Deities had to put their foot down for him to be stopped.
• The Dragon: He used to be this to the Highest Demon God Death, during the First Battle.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Like the Night Dragon, Voivod is implied to be weakened by his millennia of captivity. A Physical God normally does not parade around with only (relatively speaking) skill 10.
• The Dreaded: Downplayed. Just like the Night Dragon, too few people even remember his existence, to the point that those who try to warn people about him are only met with ridicule. But those who do are quaking in dread at the prospect of his return.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: He plans to invade the entire world, but warfare and conquest in and of itself seems to interest him more than power and control.
• The End of the World as We Know It: The return of Voivod would spell the doom of everyone in Titan.
• Enemies with Death: He is described as "death itself" and cannot be truly killed. He is not the real Grim Reaper though, more of an Evil Counterpart.
• Evil Counterpart: Of no less than three deities. The Warrior Gods Telak, God of Warriors, Oiden, God of Victory and of the Watcher of the Gate. The Gods are more powerful than he is, but he embodies the worst aspects of their three domains.
• Evil Overlord: Of the world-threatening kind. He has no domain but seeks to correct it by invading Titan.
• Evil Wears Black: Voivod is covered from head to toes in a black suit of armour.
• Fallen Hero: Voivod was a human demigod fighting for the side of Good at first. After you defeat him, he turns back to a human old man without powers, free to enjoy life at last.
• Final Boss: With skill 10 stamina 10, he makes for a powerful enemy who gains the stamina he makes you lose. If you fight him normally, you die even if you manage to take him down. You can only truly beat him with the Spear of Doom granted by the Gods.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Voivod is this to the series as a whole, being one of the few remaining superiors to the Snake Demons, the Big Bad Ensemble of sorts.
• Heel–Face Turn: Resurrecting him with the Spear of Doom breaks his evil powers and turns him into a harmless human old man, overjoyed to feel alive again at last.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: If you don't have the Spear of Doom or do not have enough charges on it, you cannot win. Even if you fell him, you cannot stop his armies from destroying everything and it is heavily implied that he will rise again very soon.
• Horns of Villainy: On his Rage Helm, to complete the demonic vibes he gives off.
• I Have Many Names: He is titled the Waster, the Warlord of the Apocalypse, the Master of Death and the Lord of the Shadow Warriors... Sounds friendly isn't it?
• Instrument of Murder: Played with (no pun intended). Voivod does not use his cursed bell kill, but to Animate Dead doing the deed for him.
• Leaking Can of Evil: His power spreads over the kingdom of Gallantaria, causing much chaos and making many dangerous monsters rise or resurrect. Even the spirits of the earth are awoken and used as Mooks by a vampire Wicked Witch, when they usually protect the earth from mortals' abuse.
• Life Drain: Any stamina point you lose under his blows is added to his own score. This would have been a huge Game-Breaker had he been more powerful and even as it is, can give you nasty headaches.
• Life Drinker: Voivod feeds off the wounds and death he inflicts.
• Living Relic: One of the few survivors of the First Battle, who caused the end of the Age of Gods.
• Made of Evil: He is an entity of pure evil in the shape of a man in a demonic armour. The entity known as Voivod at least, the one corrupted to create it is not.
• Magic Knight: Downplayed, as you don't see him using much magic. It is made clear that he wields incredible dark powers, though he prefers the more direct physical approach when dealing with foes.
• Meaningful Name: "Voivod" is a Slavic word meaning "army leader", most used in Central Europe during the Middle-Ages; a fitting name for a demon of War and Death. Basically, he is a warlord named "warlord".
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Even if you defeat him, his armies won't stop and Titan will be doomed. Besides, it is clearly stated that you cannot kill him, for he is for all intent and purpose, death.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: His name sure does not bring promises of peace and love... And the least we go on his many titles the better.
• Night of the Living Mooks: He intends to raise an army by animating the corpse of the ten thousand men who died long ago in a nearby battlefield and were hastily buried.
• Obviously Evil: A towering figure in black armour with spikes and horns can be nothing but bad news.
• One-Hit Kill: Voivod reduces you to ashes in a single blow of his gauntlet, if you try to pry him away from his cursed bell and fail. Fortunately, he does not use it when fighting you.
• Our Demons Are Different: Voivod is a high-ranking one, but one nonetheless. Let's see... Dark Is Evil? Check! Evil Overlord? Check! Made of Evil? Check? Walking Wasteland? Check! Out to cause The End of the World as We Know It? Checkmate!
• Physical God: To the point that even Major Deities ganging up on him could not fully destroy him.
• Rage Helm: An evil-looking helmet figuring a demonic face, complete with large horns.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: He is the Lord of the Shadow Warriors, themselves a powerful Badass Crew and is even mightier than them.
• Red Baron: He has several, all creepier than the previous. His most prominent would be "the Waster" once used to refer to him without naming him.
• Revive Kills Zombie: He is a manifestation of the evils of Death and weapons designed to kill only fuel his evil. You can only defeat him by infusing him with life-force.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: He was buried and sealed within the Earth for millennia, but the nightmarish War of the Four Kingdoms weakened the seal.
• Sequential Boss: Before confronting him at last, you must know where to find him, lest he raises his army before you can stop him. Then you must destroy the bell he uses, or pry him away from it. Finally, you must engage a Boss Rush against the Shadow Warriors ending with him.
• Spell My Name with a "The": He is mostly referred to as Voivod, but sometimes as "the Voivod."
• Soul Jar: The Shadow Warriors are this to him, as you cannot defeat him before banishing them all. He is this to them as well, as they can only be destroyed when he is. The problem being how?
• Spikes of Villainy: His armour is covered in spikes.
• Strong and Skilled: Voivod has enormous strength and might, but is first and foremost an expert warrior.
• Take Over the World: Voivod wants to invade Titan and subjugate everyone, as it was in the beginning.
• Tears of Joy: If you manage to successfully revive him, he cries "of the simple joy of being alive", delighted to rediscover the simple pleasures of life he had long forgotten.
• Time Abyss: Voivod's existence predates Titan.
• Tin Tyrant: Clad from head to toe into a menacing black armour.
• Undead Abomination: He looks like a guy in a creepy armour, but he pretty much is undeath personified.
• Walking Wasteland: It is said that he withered nature by simply being there, to the point that nothing could regrow on the path he walked.
• The Warlord: He's the demonic embodiment of everything wrong with the character, conquering and slaughtering for conquest's sake. That's even his name.
• Was Once a Man: Was once a human, or a human-like demigod, but he is now a thing of pure evil.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Upon awakening he tries to reanimate the corpses of ten thousand soldiers buried in an ancient battleground, to form the basis of an endless army of zombies, ghouls and wraiths that would lay waste upon the earth, growing further with each casualty they cause. You must find him and defeat him before he can raise it.

The Demon Princes

In general

The tropes common to each and every Demon Prince, be they Snake Demons, Night Demons, or unsorted. This also includes the evil beings who are not part of the specific group but are more or less of equal rank.

---

• All There in the Manual: The Demon Princes' creation, takeover of the Pit, and role in the history of Titan is only described in the supplementary materials.
  • In the story proper, Orghuz is presented as if he made a Face–Heel Turn and became an Evil Overlord. The narration states that he is full of Malice, but no further explanation is given. Exactly what is the Malice and how Orghuz became what he is now is only explained in supplementary materials.
  • The Tale of the First Battle explains that Quezkari is subservient to the evil Goddess of Sorcery Shekka, and fought alongside her against the God of Learning Hamaskis.
• Ancient Evil: They were all created in the Dawn of Times, while the world was being shaped. With the exception of Zanbar Bone and Ulrakaah who ascended. This is never outright stated for the Malice and the Shadow King, but it makes little doubt if at all.
• Bad Boss: The Demon Princes treat their followers like dirt staining their feet, no matter how well they serve them. Ishtra makes a point in being equally feared by servants and enemies alike, while Relem and the Shadow King practice the You Have Outlived Your Usefulness almost religiously. Just to name a few. Sith is described as the worst.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The three Snake Demons can be seen as this for the franchise as a whole, due to their influence over most Final Bosses, lesser Demon Princes included, and their responsibility in pretty much everything bad that befalls Titan. They are in competition to rule the world and dedicate most of their plots to gain advantage over the others.
• Complete Immortality: Demon Princes cannot be killed, period. Should they be destroyed, their essence returns to the Pit to regenerate. Fortunately, the process takes centuries and is very painful, preventing a Karma Houdini situation.
  • Ambiguous in the Malice, the Shadow King and Quezkari's cases, and averted with Zanbar Bone who instead runs on Resurrective Immortality. Ulrakaah is the only one whose death is final. For now...
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: The Demon Princes are the most powerful and influential of their kind, known as Primus in the Circles of Hell, ruling the Pit from the inconceivable Palace of Agony.
  • The Snake Demons are the Big Bosses.
  • The Night Demons are the second rank, direct subordinates to the former.
  • The others stand outside the hierarchy. Whether they are equals to the Snake Demons or the Night Demons remains unknown and depend on each individually.
• Dimension Lord: The Demon Princes each rule a Demonic Plane of Existence, while the Shadow King and Quezkari rule in the Spiritual Planes and Zanbar Bone post ascending seems linked to the Plane of Pain where the Palace of Agony is located. And they all covet dominion over the Earthly Planes.
  • Ishtra rules the Plane of Ichor, and indirectly the Plane of Bile ruled by the Night Demon Shakor.
  • Muyrr rules the Plane of Rust, and indirectly the Plane of Obsidian ruled by the Night Demon Kalin.
  • Sith rules the Plane of Steel, and indirectly the Plane of Blood and the Plane of Platinum ruled by the Night Demons Relem and Vradna.
  • Ulrakaah took over the Realm of the Dead, in which she was exiled. The Rough Guide to the Pit guide sets it in the Plane of Obsidian, but whether she obeys Kalin is unclear.
• Divine Ranks: They are of demigod status, and are worshipped by evil-doers all over Titan. Save from those who ascended.
• The Dreaded: They all cause abject terror to mortals and monsters alike.
  • Even you, a veteran Knight in Shining Armor go Oh, Crap! when you see your parents in Myurr's grasp.
  • Few people remember Ulrakaah, but those who do are very much afraid.
• The End of the World as We Know It: They all threaten Titan as a whole, planning to overrun it with demons and lay waste on the mortal races. Myurr, Sith and Relem plan to unleash Hell on Earth, with a dash of Omnicidal Maniac for Sith who wants to kill all mortals, while the Shadow King prefers The Night That Never Ends. The Kurakil goes for obliterating all in its path, Zanbar Bone is content with seizing a land and spreading chaos all around, and Ulrakaah favours the good ol' Zombie Apocalypse.
• Evil Is Bigger: The Demon Princes stand between thirteen to sixteen feet tall and are among the vilest beings in existence. Even the Malice's host and Zanbar Bone are much taller than normal. Played up to eleven with Ulrakaah. Even the already tall others hardly reach her waist.
• Evil Overlord: They all have the dark powers and armies of monsters that come with the package, and while the Snake Demons lack a domain in the Earthly Planes, their influences is felt everywhere. Myurr commands the dark elves and has an Evil Tower of Ominousness. Sith controls the Snake People and the highly dangerous Desert of Skulls is pretty much her playground. Ishtra controls the Lizard Folk and turns the sacred Affen Forest into a creepy variation of The Lost Woods. Ulrakaah invaded the Invisible City, forcing the denizens to hide and leaving free reign to her monsters.
• Fighting a Shadow: The problem with the Demon Princes you risked life and limb to destroy, is that they are just Earthly Projections of themselves, while their essense remains in the Pit, where it is virtually indestructible and free to regenerate. Still, destroying the projection cripples the real deal big time.
  • Same with Quezkari and possibly the Shadow King, but averted with the others, who are faced and destroyed for real. The problem here would be to make them stay dead.
• Large and in Charge: Huge and towering Evil Overlords.
• Living Relic: Only divine beings survived the Time of Gods. The Demon Princes, their peers and their demonic masters are to blame for its end.
• Made of Evil: Demons are born from corruption of the gods' creation.
• Mook Maker: They like to create their servant themselves.
  • The Demon Princes give life to the half-human half-insect/arachnid Elite Mooks known as the Accursed and the Ishkarim.
  • Ishtra creates monsters of any kind with Dark Magic.
  • Sith created all sorts of snake-like monsters, which she sometimes lends to her comrades. More importantly, she created the Snake People, the only mortal race she is willing to spare from her plans of Apocalypse How.
  • After you kill Magrand the Necromancer, one of Myurr's Moon Demons raisesds him into a very powerful Undead Abomination, which is implied to come to existence only through the power of a Demon Prince. Even if you stop the ritual, Myurr plays Diabolus ex Machina to make it happen nonetheless and start one hell of a Boss Battle.
• Our Demons Are Different: The rulers of the demon kind, who can assume any aspect they want. The Shadow King and Quezkari are of the spirit-like variation. Zanbar Bone is both a demon and a undead and Ulrakaah is... Ulrakaah.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: They were created to rule the demon kind, with all the power and influence needed to make it work.
• Time Abyss: They are all as old as the world of Titan itself.
• Walking Wasteland: Their evil influence blights entire countries with plagues and disasters and turns their surroundings into desolate landscapes straight out of horror movies.
  • Myurr goes as far as planting eldritch Living Factories, to further twist and corrupt the land until it becomes exactly similar to the Pit.

The Snake Demons, Rulers of the Pit

The Big Bad Ensemble, the Monarchs of Hell, the direct or indirect superiors to every individual Big Bad of the franchise. Among countless plots to take over Titan and wreak havoc, nearly three hundred years before most gamebooks take place they attacked the three continents. This resulted in the nightmarish Chaos Wars, which brought such destruction that Titan is still affected when the gamebooks take place.

Long story short, they are the most influential villains that the player can face. They lord over the Night Demons, who serves as their seconds-in-command, and keep trying gaining dominion over both the Pit and Titan.

Ishtra

Appears in: Phantoms of Fear | Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World

The most warmongering of the Snake Demons, Ishtra rules the Demonic Plane of Ichor, commands the Night Demon Shakor and is equally influential on the Pit and the Earthly Planes. It was he who stole the Lizard Folk from the Lizard God Suthis Sha, becoming their main idol. He has immense control over the Dream Realm and commands Morpheus the Lord of Nightmares. Ishtra strives to gain control of Dark Magic and the forces of Nature.

He is now out to take every monster in the continent of Khul under his command to ignite a second Chaos War, and it is up to a young elf titled the Eldenurin (Defender Shaman) to stop him...

---

• Achilles' Heel: The best way to defeat him is with the power of nature, which he ironically covets.
• Animal Motifs: Crocodiles and lizards. His main aspect is that of a demonic crocodile, and he stole the lizard-men from their creator god Suthis Cha by appearing to them under the shape of a two headed lizard-man wielding a Flaming Sword.
• Antagonist Abilities: Not only is he virtually invulnerable and immune to anything you can dish out, but he has an enormous power score, and masters magic and the Dream Realm even better than you.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Played with. On one hand, gaining a big enough power score to face him in the Dream Realm is hard, and gathering all the relics that can banish him on the Earthly Planes is way harder. On the other hand, he has but skill 10, which is lower-tier for a Final Boss and meagre compared to the other Demon Princes at skill 14. And once you cast the ritual he is a goner without a fight.
• Anti-Magic: You cannot spellcast in his lair, due to his evil influence.
• Ball of Light Transformation: He often appears as a huge, intense energy ball, showering sparks around.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: You can confront him in the Dream Realm during the Final Battle, but only if your power score exceeds his own, which is easier said than done.
• Big Bad: The Snake Demon blighting the sacred Affen Forest, in a bid to restart the nightmarish Chaos Wars, whom the Goddess Galana tasked you to stop.
• The Dark Arts: Ishtra is the Demon Prince who masters them the bests, as he experiments to discover and control the secrets of all forms of Magic. Many a Sorcerous Overlord are revealed to work for him.
• Dream Walker: Ishtra can enter the Dream Realm and have access to every dream. Also, Morpheus, the Eldritch Abomination Lord of Nightmares serves as The Dragon to him.
• Dream Weaver: Ishtra can influence and twist the Dream Realm to create and control dreams. Mostly bad dreams of course.
• Emperor Scientist: The fantastic variation: Ishtra is an Evil Overlord using The Dark Arts in his Evil Plan. His knowledge of magic helped him in no small part in building his power base.
• Evil Tainted the Place: Ishtra's demonic influence blighted the sacred Affen Forest to the point that it has yet to fully heal long after his defeat.
• Fighting a Shadow: If you confront Ishtra in the Dream Realm, you only fight a weaker oneiric projection. Fortunately, it works in your favour, since you can hold your own against him, and destroying said projection banishes him back into the Pit.
• Final Boss: You can either confront him in the Dream Realm, in which you stand a chance against him in a direct battle, provided your power score is at least of 22. If it’s the case, his oneiric projection has skill 10 and power 21 (substitute for stamina). While powerful, it is quite weak for a Demon Prince. If your Power score is lacking, you must find another way, lest he incinerates you. If you can't fight him in the Dream Realm, you need six relics representing the powers of Fire, Water and Earth, placed in the correct disposition, and have enough power to invoke a ritual blasting his physical incarnation into oblivion and banishing him back into the Pit. If you can't do this either, you're toast. In every sense of the word...
• Fireballs: He fights by hurling fireballs of variable size. If you cannot fight him in the Dream Land or the real world, he reduces you to ashes with a huge one.
• Flaming Sword: He appeared to the lizard-men as wielding one. While you never see him with it, it made a big enough impression to make Fire Swords the weapons of lizard-men royalty.
• Hellfire: His main weapon.
• Horns of Villainy: His goat face sports those.
• Hypno Trinket: If you confront him wearing a Green Pendant, it compels you to obey him and he drains your magic power, life-force and soul, all at once, killing you without fight.
• Keystone Army: He treats his armies so badly that only his magic sway and their fear of him keeps them assembled. When you defeat him, they quickly collapse due to infighting.
• Knight of Cerebus: One of the few villains who threatens the world at large. His influence, the blight he spreads and the nightmares he swarms create a bleak and gloomy atmosphere all over the story.
• Lizard Folk: Ishtra turned the lizard-men to evil, being their main idol, and often assumes the aspect of a demonic one.
• The Magnificent: His worshippers call him "Ishtra the Almighty". He is not all-powerful, not by a large margin, but still has more than enough might to threaten Titan by himself.
• Mana Drain: He can absorb your magic, and will if you wear a Green Pendant, killing you on the spot.
• Marathon Boss: Over 20 life-points make for a long battle.
• Mind Rape: His evil influence is so bad that it can drive people to sheer madness. You might fight a few poor sods to which it happened.
• Multiple Headcase: When he assumes the shape of a demonic lizard-man with two heads. He made such an impression that only two-headed lizard-men are allowed to become priests in the Lizard-Man Empire.
• Natural Weapon: His claws, tail and horns.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: His most recurring aspect, which he assumes in the book, is that of a gigantic, bipedal crocodile with the head of a red-eyed goat, with green fire burning all over his body.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Nothing you can dish out, not even your powerful magic sword or your mightiest spells, can even scratch him. Unless you can confront him in the Dream Realm that is. Otherwise, you must perform a ritual to call the powers of nature to destroy his physical incarnation.
• Nightmare Weaver: Not interested in good dreams the slightest.
• No-Sell: Trying to fight him in the Earthly Planes is useless and only results in a painful death.
• Obviously Evil: A demon looking malevolent and threatening? Who would have thought?
• Oh, Crap!: Ishtra has a thoroughly satisfying moment of sheer horror, when you destroy his physical incarnation and banish him back into the Pit after winning the Final Battle.
• Playing with Fire: Ishtra creates and controls fire, that he likely conjures from the Pit itself.
• Playing with Syringes: Ishtra uses the dark magic variation to create his monsters, out of any poor schmuck unlucky enough to fall under his clawed hand.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: He has bright red eyes.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: He looks like an overgrown crocodile and is atrocious through and through.
• Skippable Boss: If you can cast the ritual, you destroy his physical incarnation without fight.
• Strong and Skilled: He has enormous might and he knows how to use it. Especially apparent with both his enormous raw power and mastery of magic.
• Supernatural Fear Inducer: His influence has such effect, when it's not outright Mind Rape...
• Technicolor Fire: Ishtra is covered with green fire.
• Worthy Opponent: Ishtra grudgingly recognizes you as one as you fight him in the Dream Land, since contrary to demons your potential is not fixed and you were able to surpass his power score. As such, he goes straight for the kill as soon as you confront him, not wasting time in taunts.
• Wreathed in Flames: Ishtra is covered in green Hellfire and fights with it.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Beware, for he can kill you in the Dream Realm as easily as on the Earthly Planes. But at least there, you can retaliate and defeat him.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: He steals the souls of his victims, and steal yours if you wear a Green Pendant.

Myurr

Including the faces of his captives and hooded servants.

Appears in: Dead of Night | Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World

The smartest of the Snake Demons, Myurr rules the Plane of Rust in the Pit, commands the Night Demon Kalin, is worshipped by the Dark Elves, and is more influential on the Earthly Planes. He once planted false evidence of royal descent and assumed a human aspect to take the throne of Atlantis as a Hidden Backup Prince, spreading such sheer destruction that the Gods were forced to sink the entire continent, splitting the original continent of Irritaria into the Old World, Allansia and Khul.

In Dead of Night, you play a Holy Warrior known as the Demon Stalker, who earned Myurr's burning hatred for thwarting too many of his plans. He begins the story by sending you a vision of your parents in his grasp, and you immediately set out to save them and settle your score. But Myurr is spreading chaos all over the country of Gallantaria, and his plans go beyond mere Revenge. You will need to overcome many, many troubles, before being reunited with your family...

---

• Achilles' Heel: If you unveiled Myurr's treachery to the Netherworld Sorcerer, you are given the only weapon he fears, the Demon-Slaying Sword. An Infinity +1 Sword granting you +4 skill against demons, no less! Beware though, for Myurr prepared a trap to deprive you of it at his tower's entrance.
• Amphibian at Large: Myurr favours the aspect of a gigantic toad, taller and larger than a human.
• Animal Motifs: He is a Snake Demon, but his personal symbol is the Toad, and believe it or not, he manages to make it creepy. The Demon-Slaying Sword you must use against him is even found embedded in the back of a toad statue, symbolizing how you use it to defeat him.
• Antagonist Abilities: He is enormously powerful, beyond the normal maximum, nigh-invulnerable, and highly resilient even with the Weapon of X-Slaying that can harm him. And as if it weren't enough, his four arms enable him to strike you multiple times at once.
• Apocalypse How: His control of Atlantis and resulting global invasion led the Gods to sink his kingdom and split Irritaria into the three current continents, causing a continental one. Titan survived, but people spent centuries rebuilding it, weakened further away from the wonders of the Golden Age.
• Archenemy: You and Myurr have this dynamic, giving refreshing depth to the conflict. As The Paladin who defeated several of his lieutenants, thwarted one scheme of his too many and being one of the few mortals able to stand up to him, he swore bloody revenge against you. As for you, you hate demons since one killed your beloved brother, and everything he puts you and your parents throughout the story really makes you want to kick his scaly butt. And boy, does it feel good when you do.
• Batman Gambit: Myurr is frighteningly good at predicting his foes' and victims' actions, and designing his plans and traps accordingly.
  • Knowing that knowledge of your parents' plight would garner sympathy in your hometown, he fakes their death to cover it up. And he curses the village for good measure, leaving you as a scapegoat.
  • Following the above, he knows that you will investigate the curse he cast on your hometown. So he leaves a false clue leading to a dangerous trap, for you to find if you do break it.
  • So, you gained the Weapon of X-Slaying, the only thing that can harm him? He set a trap at the entrance of the Very Definitely Final Dungeon to deprive you of it and leave you powerless.
  • He creates an image looking like your late brother's ghost giving you advice, that in fact lead you to jump through a window with predictable results.
• Berserk Button: The sod does not like being thwarted. Not at all.
• Big Bad: The Demon Prince spreading disasters across Gallantaria to get back at you, and Titan only knows what more, whom you must defeat to save your parents.
• Big Red Devil: Of unspecified colour, but the rest fits. Myurr's favourite aspect is that of a giant, humanoid demon of effective though quite classical aspect, with bat-like wings and the head of a snake.
• The Chessmaster: He proves incredibly cunning and crafty, laying layers of traps all over Gallantaria. Not to mention all his Batman Gambits. Not only did he abduct your parents, but he replaced them by shape-shifted demons to fake their death, cursing your hometown in the same move. Much worse, after reaching him at last, he reveals that your hardship were but incentives to lure you where he needed, to use your soul to unleash Hell on Earth and take over. You thought that he did it all for Revenge? Think again...
• The Corrupter: Myurr is known and feared for doing this regularly, through manipulation or dark influence.
  • Before Dead of Night he tried this trick with a human king, turning him into a ruthless madman, but was stopped by the Demon Stalker.
  • He turned the formerly neutral Netherworld Sorcerers into slavish husks of what they once were, who crumble into dust when he is defeated.
  • In the backstory, he used his position as king to turn the peaceful Atlantis, the only kingdom to retain its Golden Age glory, into a violent and warmongering nation, dead set on conquering everything else and slaughtering thousands. It did NOT end well.
  • Much worse, he just need to look into someone's eyes to corrupt them.
• Crazy-Prepared: He devised a way to deprive you of the only weapons that can harm him.
• Demonic Possession: Myurr can either assume a human aspect to go around, or directly possess his target, which he did in the backstory.
• Devil in Disguise: Myurr spends a lot of time shape-shifted as a mortal to meddle with their affairs.
• Evil Genius: One of the smartest villains of the franchise, feared for his diabolical intelligence and traps.
• Evil Gloating: He takes great delight in rubbing the truth of his schemes to your face.
• Evil Is Visceral: He creates an atrocious living factory powered by human captives, with flesh-like walls and a heart-like core, that twists and corrupts its surroundings. And he plans to build many others.
• Evil Plan: Use your parents as hostages to lure you to him and settle your score. Or so it seems, but he in fact wants to combine the Netherworld Sorcerers' magic, your parents' life-force and your soul to open the Pit upon the Earthly Planes. Revenge is just icing on the cake.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: Myurr built one that serves as the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: When he appears to Magrand the Necromancer, the illustration depicts him as a toad-like demon with creepy eyes on his shoulders.
• Final Boss: Myurr is a highly powerful enemy, with skill 14 (2 over the normal maximum) stamina 25, no less. Worse, he strikes twice in the same attack round as if you were facing two equally powerful enemies. You can only harm him with the Demon-Slaying Sword, and the power boost it grants is the only way to stand a chance against him in the first place. But fortunately, there are ways to defeat him without fight.
• Genius Bruiser: Myurr is super smart, and more than strong enough to squish the best warriors like flies.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: I would never have thought...
• Hellish Pupils: To make him even more evil-looking.
• Hell on Earth: His ultimate goal is to create a gateway linking Titan to the Pit, to let the demons flood in, terraform Titan into a second Pit, and rule over both.
• Holy Burns Evil: You can harm him by throwing vials of Holy Water at him. Each successful shot costs him the result of a dice-roll in stamina.
• I Have Your Wife: He kidnaps your parents to lure you out.
• Impersonation Gambit: Shape-shifting as a mortal to infiltrate a community and wreak havoc from within is doubtless his favourite trick. And he is very good at it. Just see how well he did in Atlantis or in the intro.
• It's Personal: When you mess up with his schemes too much to his liking, he adopts this attitude and the results are not pretty. You spend the story experiencing it first-hand. But his ultimate goal is a massive invasion of Titan. Using you as a catalyst is just a juicy bonus to make the deal sweeter.
• Knight of Cerebus: He is the Big Bad of a very dark and bleak horror-themed gamebook. His influence is felt all over, corrupting everything and causing all sorts of plagues and disasters. He targets your parents, your best friend and your very soul, and threatens the entire world.
• The Legions of Hell: He plagues the country with demons. His Mooks are two steps ahead wherever you go, killing your allies, attacking innocents For the Evulz and putting you through all kinds of ordeals.
• MacGuffin Delivery Service: With an interesting twist. You, or to be more precise your soul is the McGuffin he needs to complete his scheme. All the ordeals he put you through were but incentives to lure you to his tower, for him to take. But not so fast! You won't surrender it without a fight.
• Magical Eye: His gaze increases the inner evil of those whose eyes he looks into. He does it to you if you try to destroy the Pyramid of Bones, and you must win a test of evil score to escape, lest he turns you into a Chaos Knight and makes you into his trusted lieutenant.
• Manipulative Bastard: A consummate expert of the trade, very good in pushing the right buttons to play his victims. In the story he tricked the True Neutral Netherworld Sorcerers, the guardians of the Balance Between Good and Evil themselves, into siding with him, by making them believe that Good has gained so much influence that it threatens the balance, while it is in fact the complete opposite happening, and all because of him. Sure, he bypassed their spells of True Seeing first, but still, that is an impressive feat.
• Marathon Boss: He has a huge stamina score, meaning that trouble galore for a long Final Battle.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Has four arms and hits like a train. Twice in a turn...
• Natural Weapon: His claws and fists. Also, he uses them less, but his kicks can send you flying into a wall for high damage.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Only two things can harm Myurr: the Demon-Slaying Sword and Holy Water.
• No-Sell: Attacking him even with your regular blessed blade does not even tickle him.
  • Even worse, making use of the Dark Veil against him will only cause your fall into evil, for casting an evil spell against such an evil being can only end in disaster.
• Obviously Evil:
  • Played straight with his demonic forms.
  • Averted with his human disguises which he makes as innocuous as possible, favouring the aspect of a teenager precisely to avoid suspicion.
• Paranoia Gambit: He starts the story by showing you a vision of your beloved parents suffering in his grasp. The fear of what he can do to them prompts you to go and save them, kickstarting the story.
• Plague Master: He spreads a deadly pestilence in a city, causing countless casualties mostly For the Evulz. What a piece of filth...
• Punched Across the Room: Kicked in fact, but same difference. If you search for his Soul Jar but miss, he kicks you hard enough to send you crashing against a wall, costing -5 stamina.
• Puzzle Boss: He becomes this if you opt to destroy his Soul Jar rather than keep slashing at him. You must find and destroy the relic that maintains his projection on the Earthly Planes, to banish him back to the Pit and win without fight. Beware though, for any failed attempt exposes you to a painful retaliation.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: He's a massive and repulsive-looking snake-faced demon with large wings and four arms, as well as one of the vilest inhabitants of the Pit.
• Revenge:
  • Myurr strives to get back at you, and he is hellbent on making you suffer. And using you as the catalyst for his master plan is just even better.
  • You yourself, spend most of your time as The Paladin in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against demons, and after being put through the wringer with Myurr's tricks, you are ready to go to Hell and back to make him pay for what he did to your parents and yourself. Future will tell who will have one hell of a time, getting back at the other.
• Revenge Before Reason: Subverted. Myurr hates your guts and craves bloody vengeance, but he would be fine corrupting you and using your skills for his benefit. His Evil Plan targets you specifically, but merely uses you as a mean for his greatest scheme yet.
• Shoulders of Doom: He wears those on the book illustration.
• Skippable Boss: You can avoid fighting him if he proves too powerful or impossible to harm. By destroying the jewel in the Bone Pyramid.
• Sore Loser: Myurr takes defeat very badly, pulling anyone who thwarted him to the wringer.
• Soul Jar: He owns many items, one of which enabling him to walk on Titan, albeit in a weakened form. Destroying it can sever the link and send him back into the Pit. Namely, the Bone Pyramid. Beware though, for without a Priest Ring or the Demon-Slaying Sword, you might die in the resulting explosion.
• Sssnake Talk: He ssspeaksss like thisss, being a snake-faced Snake Demon. Notice a trend? Still, he does make it quite creepy.
• Strong and Skilled: He has enormous might and he knows how to use it.
• Throne Room Throwdown: You barge into his throne room to settle your score once and for all.
• Voluntary Shape Shifting: He frequently changes his aspect, and assumes a mortal appearance.
• Winged Humanoid: He is this under his favourite aspect.
• Xanatos Gambit: Either he gets your soul to unleash Hell on Earth, or you get killed by one of his many ambushes, and he gets his revenge. And even in the latter case, he still might be able to seize your soul. Your only hope to prevent both is to defeat him, which only you can succeed.

Sith

Appears in: Tower of Destruction (mentioned only) | Phantoms of Fear (mentioned only) | Curse of the Mummy | Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World

The cruellest of the Snake Demons and the origin of their title, Sith rules the Demonic Plane of Steel and commands the Night Demons Relem and Vradna, being as such the most influent in the Pit. She created every Snake People race of Titan who worship her, chief among them the Caarth, and was part of the Djarat Pantheon, the Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Ancient Egypt, as Sithera the Goddess of Evil.

She never appears in person but is behind many a Big Bad. Still, that does not mean that her schemes cannot be thwarted...

---

• Animal Motifs: Mostly cobras, but every venomous snake.
• Creepy Souvenir: Sith wears a necklace made of thirteen human skulls. What a lovely taste in jewellery she has...
• Diabolus ex Machina: After you thwart Akharis' resurrection, Sith puts her foot down and does it herself.
• Eldritch Location: Her palace made of snake scales in the Plane of Steel complete with Alien Geometry; it drives mad any mortal who gazes upon it.
• Evil Wears Black: She wears a Black dress of Ancient-Egypt style.
• Familiar: Her pet, the Immortal Python Sussussurr, forsaken son of the neutral Snake Goddess Vermistra.
• Fate Worse than Death: Captives of her worshippers who did not die in a Human Sacrifice would wish they were soon. Said worshippers are infamous for turning innocent into hideous, snake-like Half-Human Hybrids, barred forever from a normal life.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: The eyes of the statues in her likeness glow malevolently, as if Sith herself was glaring at you through them. Which might very well be the case...
• God Guise: She was worshipped as the snake-headed Goddess of Evil Sithera in Djarat, before the splitting of Irritaria, with Akharis being her strongest follower at the time.
• God of Evil: Downplayed as she is not the real deal, but she was worshipped as such among the Djarat Pantheon. And her rule was, well, let's settle with not exactly nice.
• Gorgeous Gorgon: Sith has a hideous snake face, Glowing Eyes of Doom, four arms, a gigantic size...and a perfectly shapely body clad in fine silk robes. Among the Demon Princes, only the sole female fits some standards of human beauty, compared to the conventionally monstrous males.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Unlike Ishtra and Myurr, Sith is never directly involved into her schemes. In Tower of Destruction she lets Relem do all the dirty job, while in Curse of the Mummy her worshippers act on her behalf. Though in the latter, she does animate her idol to crush you after you've dealt the finishing blow to Akharis; the closest thing to appearing in person in the entire franchise.
• Hell on Earth: Sith's ultimate goal, pursued by Relem in Tower of Destruction, is to open a gateway between Titan and the Pit to unleash The Legions of Hell over the world and terraform it into a second Pit.
• Human Sacrifice: She demands them from the cults worshipping her. Not because she needs them, just because she enjoys it. Yes, she is that repulsive.
• I Have Many Names: Sith, Sithera.
• Lady of Black Magic: As far as Demon Princes go, she is the only one who bothers with refined clothing, and she wields fearsome dark powers.
• Little Bit Beastly: Contrasting the fully hybrid Snake People she would create, only her head is that of a snake.
• Living Statue: She animates the giant statue in her likeness to crush you after you deal with Akharis to fight for her or to act by proxy.
• Misanthrope Supreme: She hates all mortal races equally, and even despises the non-demonic evil races.
• Monster Lord: Sith created and rules over the Snake People, having made them in her likeness.
• Monster Progenitor: Sith created the Snake People of Titan, the only beings whose very existence she does not loathe.
• More Deadly Than the Male: Sith commands two Night Demons, hence three Demonic Planes, while Ishtra and Myurr only command one. As such, she has more resources than her rivals, at least in the Pit.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Downplayed, she has four arms, sometime even six, and she is incredibly dangerous, but she never fights you so you never can see how she uses it to her advantage in battle.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Like the other Demon Princes, only very powerful magic weapons and artefacts designed specifically to fell divine beings can harm her. Though you never do use them against her. Unless you count the Ankh.
• Obviously Evil: Goes without saying considering what and who she is.
• Omnicidal Maniac: In all gamebooks she is featured, her goal involve extinguishing all mortal life on Titan. Knowing her, it is even doubtful that she plans to spare even the evil races working for her and her cultists, save from her Snake People.
• Orcus on His Throne: She never involves herself in her plans more than she absolutely must, never even leaving the Pit. She prefers directing her minions and using her powers from afar.
• Poison Is Evil: She and her creation use venom and poison as weapons, and could not be more evil.
• Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Many skulls and skull-shaped silvery ornaments decorate her clothing.
• The Smurfette Principle: She's the only female member of the Demon Princes.
• Snake People: Sith looks like one and she created the rest of them by blending snakes and humans together, chief among them the powerful and dangerous Caarth that seem to be her favourites.
• Snakes Are Sexy: Snake-face aside, she is as beautiful as she is evil. Enough for some statues of her to represent her naked.
• Snakes Are Sinister: She's a snake-themed demon, and one of the most dangerous threats to Titan.
• Transformation Horror: Sith and her priest can awfully mutate innocent people into snake-like hybrids, barring them forever from a normal life. The process is implied to be excruciating.
• The Unfought: As she never involves herself directly, nor even deign walking the Earthly Planes, you never get to kick her scaly butt. The closest you get to fight her is when she animates a Living Statue in her likeness to crush you, though she would clearly be much tougher to take down than that.

Night Demons and other Demon Princes

The Night Demons are the lower tier of the Demon Princes, who serve as the strategists of the bunch and spend most of their time observing Titan through a misty pool and planning their next course of action. The Kurakil is part of a triad of equal rank and similar nature, and the resurrected Zanbar Bone is stated to have become a Demon Prince, albeit of unknown standing.

The Kurakil

Appears in: Spellbreaker | Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World

A Demon Lord of equal standing to the Demon Princes themselves. During the First Battle, he and similarly-ranked demons kept Time captive, until the gods blasted it. With the Gods of Evil banished in the Void, the Kurakil escaped with the Demon Princes to settle in the Pit.

He roamed the world and spread untold devastation, but was eventually trapped in the Casket of Shadows sometime after the Chaos Wars, by a hero called Enthus the Martyr. After over two centuries, he is about to be freed by the Warlock Nazek, but a warrior with a score to settle with Nazek sets out to prevent it...

---

• Achilles' Heel: The Holy Sword Deliverer.
• Antagonist Abilities: He has max skill and his tail mows down your Life Meter even quicker. No wonder why he is widely viewed as That One Boss.
• Bad Moon Rising: He can only be freed during the night of Shekka's Moon, also called the Witches' Moon: A gloomy event once every thirty-seven years, in which a blood-red moon spreads the power of the Goddess of Sorcery Shekka across Titan and vastly empowers practices of The Dark Arts. If you take too long to reach Nazek's lair, it will be too late.
• Beast of the Apocalypse: The Kurakil's return would spell doom for Titan as a whole.
• Big Red Devil: The Kurakil is represented as classical as a demon can be. Bat-like wings? Check! Goat-like legs and horns? Check! Huge and scaly? Checkmate! He adds a wolf-like head and a draconic tail, to make it look even more devilish. Then again, he needs no original looks to be scary as hell.
• Climax Boss: He might not be the Final Boss, but he definitely is the mightiest enemy of the gamebook, whose return must be stopped. He is a very powerful foe with skill 12 stamina 18, and with the power boost granted by the Infinity +1 Sword being rather low, he is a nightmare to fight without very high stats.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: He is evil, he is frightening, he is powerful, he is dangerous... And that's it. He is only there to provide a tremendous Boss Battle. While other Sealed Evils like Voivod, Xakhaz or the Night Dragon made their presence felt and spread their influence all over the setting, here there is demonic activity all over, but this is more Nazek's doing than his influence. Even his origins and place in the demonic hierarchy is not clearly defined, contrary to the others.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: He sports those in the most recent illustration, to make him even scarier.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Guess which side of the fence he leans in?
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Kurakil is far and away the most powerful foe faced in the book, but he spends the entire story as a Sealed Evil in a Can and has little to no influence on the plot. In a supreme bout of Irony, one of the rulers of the local Hell serves here as little more than an attack dog for Nazek.
• Hellfire: He is represented surrounded by demonic fire in the illustrations.
• Horned Humanoid: Classic, devilish goat-like horns.
• Horns of Villainy: He is a Big Red Devil, what did you expect?
• I Have Many Names: The Kurakil is also known as the Infernal Beast, and Miphreas the Soul Destroyer.
• Knight of Cerebus: He is featured in one of the darkest gamebooks of the series. Full of plagues, innocents being nearly burned at the stake, vicious religious fanatics, and very Dark Magic.
• The Legions of Hell: He is always followed by a horde of demons who were trapped along with him and escape when he is released.
• The Magnificent: Miphreas the Soul Destroyer. It's all part of his name.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Having a wolf-like head full of sharp fangs.
• Mysterious Past: Where exactly did he reign in the Pit and what exactly did he do between the First Battle and the moment he got sealed is never explained.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The last syllable in his name is a good summary of the character. Not to mention his other names...
• Natural Weapon: His claws, horns and tail.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Only the mightiest magic weapons and blessed blades can harm him. Without the Holy Sword Deliverer, the local Infinity +1 Sword, you are pretty much screwed.
• No-Sell: Do not waste time in using trinkets against him and go straight for the kill. Nothing else will work, unless you seek a painful Game Over...
• Obviously Evil: Well duh...
• Omnicidal Maniac: His goal is pretty much to wipe out all mortal life.
• Praetorian Guard: The Legions of Hell that were sealed with him serve as this. You need a page torn from the Black Grimoire to cast a spell that seals them again, lest they tear you to shreds.
• Prehensile Tail: His Dragon-like spiked tail is one deadly Natural Weapon. See Tail Slap below.
• Pre-Final Boss: Nazek is left to deal with after you've taken down the Kurakil. This is a rare instance in which the Climax Boss is much more powerful than the Final Boss, more likely because two unforgiving battles in a row would be too much, even for such a difficult gamebook.
• Race Against the Clock: Arrive too late and you're doomed. Along with all of Titan for good measure.
• Sequential Boss: You must deal with his Praetorian Guard before facing him. And that's without counting Nazek's coven before and Nazek himself after...
• Silent Antagonist: As soon as he is set free, he does not even acknowledge Nazek. He sees you and moves in for the kill, without bothering for pesky words.
• Spell My Name with a "The": He is not called Kurakil but the Kurakil. Both the narration and the characters refers to him that way.
• Tail Slap: When you fight him, he swipes his dragon-like tail at every attack-round, causing additional damage 2 in 6 times, depending on a dice roll. As if he was not hard enough...
• Timed Mission: You have four days to catch up with Nazek and defeat him, or else he unleashes the Kurakil and lets him loose on the world, backed by his own forces.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Subverted. His eyes are a demonic yellow, but there is nothing remotely sneaky about this hulking ugly brute.
• Winged Humanoid: Classic bat-like wings.

Relem

Appears in: Tower of Destruction | Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World

The only Night Demon to be featured in a gamebook. Little to nothing being known about the other three.

Relem rules the Plane of Blood and serves the Snake Demon Sith. He directs the mad wizard Zeverin's efforts to build a gigantic Tower of Destruction to wreck Titan, gifting the Earthly Planes to his mistress. But he will find a hero in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge crossing his path...

---

• Achilles' Heel: The best weapon to face him with is a restored Ice Sword, enchanted against demons. It provides a power-boost without which you stand no chance, and deals greater damage.
• Antagonist Abilities: Not only his stats are way beyond the normal maximum, but he deals greater damage than normal, and blasts lightning before fighting, needing special protection to avoid huge damage.
• Big Bad: Although Zeverin appears at first to be this, it is soon revealed that the real main villain is Relem, the Night Demon who aims to unleash Hell on Earth.
• Big Red Devil: A towering, dark-red, muscular humanoid with bat-like wings? Yeah, he fits the mold.
• Blood Magic: Relem masters it, using blood to power his Weapon of Mass Destruction, and fuels it with the never-ending supplies from the Plane of Blood.
• Co-Dragons: Sith commands two Night Demons, Relem, ruler of the Plane of Blood, and Vradna, ruler of the Plane of Platinum. They are bitter rivals, ready for the worst to one-up the other and gain her favour.
• Deal with the Devil: He struck a deal with Zeverin to grant him his current level of power, and likely his Resurrective Immortality, in exchange for his expertise in building a magical Weapon of Mass Destruction.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: After defeating him, Zeverin of all people, who was dead as you fought Relem, appears to attack you. The best explanation is that Relem raised him as a vengeance.
• The Dragon: He is this to the Snake Demon Sith, the Greater-Scope Villain of the gamebook.
  • Zeverin serves as this to him.
• Dragon-in-Chief: With Sith remaining in the Pit, he is the one who enacts her goal and calls the shots, while controlling Zeverin.
• Evil Genius: He is very clever, crafty, manipulative and strategic.
• Evil Plan: He first appears to "merely" want to destroy all in his path, but destruction is in fact the mean to a much worse end. Him playing Zeverin like a violin and using him as a smokescreen to divert suspicion proves that the Night Demons did not usurp their position as The Strategist of the demon kind.
• Final Boss: As per Keith Martin's tradition, he is an enormously powerful foe with skill 14 (2 points over the normal maximum) stamina 25, whose claws cost -3 stamina instead of the usual 2. Without the revived Ice Sword, he is a formidable That One Boss. If the sword was enchanted against demons, you gain an even bigger power boost and each blow costs him -3 stamina. With the sword, an Ice Bird to distract him and a Speed Potion to strike twice per turn, you'll enjoy setting the battle's pace.
• Genius Bruiser: A highly powerful demon and a very smart and scheming Manipulative Bastard who acts through proxies to better control the situation from behind the scenes.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Fittingly evil black bat-like wings.
• Hell on Earth: Relem's and Sith's ultimate goal is to use the destruction caused by the Tower to tear through time and space, and open a gateway linking Titan to the Pit, so that the demons could flood in and terraform Titan into a second Pit for Sith to rule both unopposed, with Relem as her second in command.
• Load-Bearing Boss: His defeat causes the titular Tower to collapse and crash down on the mountain. Justified since it cannot fly when he is no longer there to power it up.
• The Man Behind the Man: Relem struck a deal with Zeverin, raising his power and lifespan to have him build a Weapon of Mass Destruction for his use, using him as a front while he remains in the shadows.
• Manipulative Bastard: Relem played Zeverin's ambition and megalomania flawlessly, using him like a pawn, a smoke-screen and a meat-shield while luring him with prospects of power and control.
• Marathon Boss: Relem's stamina score exceeds the normal maximum, making him hard to take down.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Two sets of dragon fangs. See below...
• Multiple Head Case: Two draconic heads.
• Natural Weapon: His claws. He does not need more but he also uses even deadlier lightning.
• Obviously Evil: Being a demon binds him to the trope.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Relem and Sith do not expect leaving any mortal alive, be it sapient or animal. The Demon Princes being notorious Bad Bosses, it is dubious whether they intend to spare even the evil races worshipping them.
• Post-Climax Confrontation: After banishing him, you must escape the collapsing tower and fight servants on your way out. Then you face Zeverin of all people, and need the Ice Sword to survive his energy blast. Fortunately, you can hardly reach that point of the story without it, guaranteeing victory.
• Sadist: Relem takes great delight in the suffering he inflicts.
• Shock and Awe: He blasts you with demonic lightning before fighting, with specific items being needed to avoid great damage. The Ice Shield deflects the first bolt and the Ice Sword deflects the second, both costing -4 stamina. Then with an Ice Ring you take one dice roll worth of damage instead of two.
• Slasher Smile: Relem is described doing one, on each of his heads, as he goes for the kill.
• Strong and Skilled: He has enormous might and strength, he masters his dark powers perfectly, and boy does he know how to fight.
• Super-Empowering: Zeverin owes him his power boost and likely his many lives.
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: The titular Tower of Destruction is this, a gigantic flying tower raining fire and death to obliterate entire cities in mere minutes. Zeverin builds it, but it is Relem who powers it and makes it function. When you banish him, the tower can no longer fly, causing it to fall down and explode. It is essential for his and his mistress' Evil Plan.
• Winged Humanoid: Once again, being a demon binds him to the trope.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: He has (four) yellow eyes, and he is a very cunning schemer, who has Zeverin in the palm of his clawed hand.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: What he has in store for Zeverin, the second he stops needing him. Everyone can see it, from Zeverin's former apprentice to his own Dragon, but Zeverin is delusionally persuaded that he will be rewarded with control over what's left of Titan.

Zanbar Bone

See his entry on the Allansia page under Rulers.

Unsorted Demonic Monarchs

Other demonic Evil Overlords on the same footing as the Demon Princes, albeit of a different, more spiritual nature, aside from Ulrakaah who is a Demon of Human Origin. Their exact rank remains unclear and depends from one to another.

Orghuz of Gorak/The Malice

Appears in: Chasms of Malice | Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World (for The Malice)

Once in the continent of Khul, Tancred The Magnificent and his younger brother Orghuz saved the underground-dwelling Gaddon people from an ethereal Ancient Evil only known as the Malice. Orghuz was killed and his corpse became the demonic spirit's vessel, that it immediately used to attack his brother's newly founded kingdom of Gorak.

The Malice, now one and the same with the once great hero, was sealed along its seven demonic servants known as the Khuddams. Alas, eight hundred years later, they are about to resurface and destroy the continent. It is now up to the last descendant of Tancred to destroy the Malice and the Khuddams once and for all, and release Orghuz's soul from his torment...

---

• 24-Hour Armour: He is always seen with his armour, which for all intent and purpose has become his second skin.
• Achilles' Heel: He can only be killed by the Twin Sword of Light that belonged to his brother Tancred, wielded by his last descendant.
• Aerith and Bob: Tancred is a legit name, if very old fashioned and hard to come by nowadays. As for Orghuz on the other hand...
• Antagonist Abilities: Orghuz is a very powerful foe, who cannot be fully defeated unless all seven Khuddams are killed. And even then, defeating him is not enough to fully destroy him.
• Antagonist Title: Not Orghuz himself, but the Malice.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The Malice likely possessed Orghuz because he was a talented enough warrior to serve as its host.
• Attack Its Weak Point: After defeating Orghuz in battle, you must strike his weak point to fully destroy him. It's his left knee. If you hit anywhere else you damage yourself and must guess again or, if you killed him with a sword tempered in the Heart Flame of Minosaddur, fight him again.
• Badass Cape: He wears a long, black cape.
• Bash Brothers: He used to be this with Tancred. Together they defeated the Malice, but at a dire price.
• Big Bad: Orghuz is the mighty Evil Overlord invading your entire country and threatening the entire continent, if not Titan as a whole, who can only be killed by his brother's heir. In truth, he is but an undead carcass that the Malice is using as a vessel to interact with the World and exert its evil.
• Black Knight: He fits all criteria, except that is armour is not black.
• Boss Rush: Orghuz is one all by himself. You must face him once, then again for each Khuddam you did not slay. On the other hand, if you tampered your sword into the Heart Flame, you just skip to the final part where you guess his weak spot after killing him once. But guess wrong and you'll have to fight him again.
• Carry a Big Stick: One of the images he creates of himself carries a huge mace.
• Cool Helmet: He wears a classy helmet with horn-like ornaments.
• Cool Sword: Orghuz wields one of the Twin Swords of Light, forged for his brother and him.
  • You wield the one that belonged to your ancestor Tancred, as it is the only weapon that can slay him.
• Demonic Possession: The Malice uses Orghuz as a shell to walk around.
• Doppelgänger Spin: Of the magical variant. Orghuz creates two images of himself from his reflections in mirrors when you confront him, and you must find the real one. It’s the one on the right. Choose wrong and the image shatters like the glass it comes from, hurting you with the fragments.
• Dying as Yourself: When you destroy his Malice-possessed shell, his soul is set free and what remains of him is buried with the royalty of the kingdom. As for the Malice, the gods cast it into the Void for eternity.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: The Malice wants to invade the continent of Khul, but not to rule it in the political sense of the word. More to spread chaos and destruction all over For the Evulz, likely To Create a Playground for Evil.
• Evil Is Hammy: Like you would not believe.
• Evil Laugh: Orghuz mocks your failed attempt at striking him down.
• The Evil Prince: The king's lil' bro who went bad for a bid towards the throne? How new...
  • Averted when learning about the Malice. Too bad it is never explained in the story proper.
• Evil Sounds Deep: His voice is booming and cavernous.
• Explosive Leash: Of course, the Slave collars he creates kill people if they go against his will.
• Eye Beams: Downplayed. His eyes emit continuous beams, but they do not affect you in battle.
• The Faceless: You never see what his face looks like under that helmet of his.
• Fallen Hero: Orghuz was a once great hero, trusted brother-in-arms to Tancred in more ways than one.
• Final Boss: He is a powerful foe with skill 10 stamina 12, who can only be destroyed by Tancred's Twin Sword of Light wielded by his descendant. You must fight him several times if you did not kill all Khuddams, or if you didn't temper your sword into the Heart Flame earlier on.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: He was reckless and overenthusiastic, which sadly got him killed.
• Frontline General: He takes part in battle ahead of his troops, and confronted his brother this way. This is likely the way he faced the Malice.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Orghuz is super evil, mega dangerous and what have you, but even with the family feud meant to pepper-up things, he lacks characterization, coming of as a generic Final Boss and little more. Worse, what exactly is the Malice is not even fully explained, leaving it as a mere bi-dimensional "super evil thingy from eons ago".
• Horns of Villainy: He wears stylized ones on his Cool Helmet, and huge ones as Shoulders of Doom.
• Knight in Shining Armor: He was one, but now he is the Black Knight through and through.
• Laser Blade: Downplayed. Orghuz wields a normal (if magic) blade, but it glows a magic light that gives a quite similar impression.
• Leaking Can of Evil: He is still trapped there but he can now roam the Chasms as he pleases, with the Khuddams being even able to venture outside, and he sends monsters to destroy the True Shield.
• Light Is Good: He was a shining example of the trope when alive.
• Light Is Not Good: He wears a wondrous glass and diamond armour and wields a Sword of Light, but is now an Evil Overlord through and through.
• Lord Country: Orghuz of Gorak, brother to the King of Gorak Kingdom.
• Magic Knight: Downplayed. He is a powerful warrior with enormous dark powers, but he does not use much magic in the story proper.
• Master Swordsman: An expert with that magic blade of his.
• Meaningful Name: Not Orghuz, but the Malice, which is indeed what defines best the evil spirit.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Orghuz already sounds quite ominous, but the Malice takes the cake and parties with it.
• Nemesis Weapon: Orghuz still wields the Twin Sword of Light forged for him, while the second was meant for Tancred, fitting the Sibling Team they once were. You now wield Tancred's sword which has become Orguz's Achilles' Heel, fated to cross his own for the fate of the continent, if not the world.
• No Body Left Behind: Orghuz scatters into ashes after you give him true death.
• No Name Given: Not Orghuz obviously, but the Malice is never given a proper name.
• Only I Can Kill Him: The only one who stands a chance against Orghuz is you, The Hero, last descendant of his brother.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: That in no small part because only a descendant of Tancred can wield the Twin Sword of Light, the only weapon that can harm him.
• Our Spirits Are Different: The Malice is an evil, shapeless, ethereal force that needs to possess a victim to interact with the Earthly Planes. It is described as the diluted spirit of a Dark God who got destroyed during the First Battle.
• Post-Climax Confrontation: After defeating him, you must destroy him for good. Then you must identify the traitor in the Badass Crew of Royal Knights. If you fail to identify him he will sink his dagger to your back out of desperate revenge. It's the third one, with the crossed daggers emblem.
• Prepare to Die: He says this word for word before the Final Battle.
• Puzzle Boss: Before fighting, you must find him among his doubles, and after, you must strike his weak point to finish him off. The question being where to strike?
• Reduced to Dust: There is nothing left to bury after you're done with him.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Malice was that when Tancred and Orghuz fought it. Orghuz-as-the-Malice was this again for eight centuries, but the can is leaking.
• Sequential Boss: First, you must find the real deal among his doubles. Second, you must fight him as many times as needed until he and all his Khuddams are mincemeat, but that can be bypassed if you plunged your sword into the Heart Flame. Third (or more), you must strike his weak point and finish him off. If you miss his weak point having tempered your sword, go through part 2 again.
• Shoulders of Doom: He sports enormous horns on his shoulder-pads.
• A Sinister Clue: Orghuz wields his weapons in his left hand.
• Slave Collar: He uses those to compel people into serving him. This is the gloomy fate that befalls the head of the royal Praetorian Guard. Or could befall to you if you're not careful.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Orghuz captures people and makes them work as slaves in the mines, to unearth the iron he needs to create Slave Collars. If he has his way, everyone in Khul will wear his collars.
• Soul Jar: Orghuz is bound to the Khuddams, and cannot be fully destroyed as long as at least one walks Titan. Making them multiply exponentially would not only give him the unstoppable army any Evil Overlord would dream of, but would make him indestructible as well.
• Spell My Name with a "The": "The" Malice. Justified in that it is not a proper name.
• Tin Tyrant: An Evil Overlord covered from head to toe in dark armour.
• The Undead: Orghuz is an undying carcass kept alive, for lack of a better word, by the Malice.
• Undead Abomination: A long dead corpse animated by an ancient formless entity of pure evil.
• Undeath Always Ends: Orghuz's ends when you put an end to his misery.
• The Wise Prince: Subverted now, but as you gathered by that point, he was in fact a noble and caring Royal Who Actually Did Something when alive.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: He can trap you in a room where his dark powers give life to your worst nightmares, to torment you endlessly until you die.

Quezkari

Appears in: Bloodbones | Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World

The evil death deity of Voodoo worshipped by Captain Cinnabar, who collects the souls of his adepts' victims. He is a demonic being of Death and Dark Magic, more or less on par with the Demon Princes. Will your Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Cinnabar make you cross his path?...

---

• Achilles' Heel: He can only be taken down by the Bone Sword Nightdeath. And only if you could unlock its true power. Otherwise you are history.
• Antagonist Abilities: He has superhuman stats, is immune to even the Infinity +1 Sword unless a specific condition is fulfilled, and his blows cost greater damage.
• Avenging the Villain: Let's just say that he is not taking the death of his best follower and his High Priest very well.
• Cool Crown: Quezkari wears one made of feathers and skull ornaments.
• Dark Is Evil: Very much so.
• Enemies with Death: Downplayed. He is not the true god of death of the franchise, but he is the death spirit of Titan's Hollywood Voodoo religion, and he wants you soul.
• Everybody Hates Hades: The local Death Idol of Voodoo is a demonic, soul-stealing dark spirit.
• Feed It with Fire: Do not use the Skeletal Artefact, lest it boosts him with +1 skill and +3 stamina.
• Final Boss: He appears right after you settle your score with Cinnabar. With skill 13 (1 over the normal maximum) stamina 18, he is a truly fearsome enemy, whose blows cost -3 stamina instead of the regular 2. Fortunately, the Infinity +1 Sword and a wristband of white feathers grants you power-boosts, he does normal damage if you own a Lion Talisman, and you can use a Blue Jewel to make him lose -3 skill -6 stamina. With all of the above, you will easily mop the ship's deck with his ugly mug.
• Fog Feet: He has no legs, and floats over the ground in a cloud of black smoke.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Quezkari is plenty evil, powerful and dangerous, but that's it. All in all, he is pretty much only there to provide a tremendous Final Battle, while Captain Cinnabar is the root of the conflict, the object of your Roaring Rampage of Revenge, and a powerful foe to face in his own right.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: As if he were not creepy enough.
• God Guise: At one point it's mentioned that he's not really a god, but he has enough evil power to masquerade as one.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Big Bad worships him and he has followers all over, including his powerful High Priest whom you must fight, but he lets them do as they please and only appears for the Final Battle.
• The Grim Reaper: Downplayed as he is not this in the pantheon of Titan, merely (so to speak) in the local Voodoo religion, and he does wield power over death and departed souls.
• Hollywood Voodoo: He is the main idol of Voodoo practitioners around. The main death idol, to be precise, but there is no mention of others, nicer ones.
• Human Sacrifice: His followers sacrifice the souls of everyone they kill to him.
• Lean and Mean: He has a shrivelled, skeletal frame, that only serves to make him even creepier.
• Mind Rape: Not by Quezkari himself, but his Ichor, the mystical substance flowing through every being and setting their amount of power, which he gives to his High Priest. Anyone who drinks it risks becoming raving mad, and corrupted into serving him.
• Monochromatic Eyes: Creepy dead-like eyes.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: A quite impressive set of fangs, fitting his demonic nature.
• Natural Weapon: His claws.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Only the most powerful magic swords and blessed blades can harm him. If you cannot unlock the Infinity +1 Sword's power by calling its name, Nightdeath, you are doomed.
• No-Sell: Attacking him with a normal weapon is useless, and he laughs off most trinkets you can use. When they don't power him up.
• Obviously Evil: As an evil idol, he could not be anything else.
• Our Spirits Are Different: He is an evil Arch-Spirit, worshipped by evil-doers.
• Slasher Smile: He sports a wide open one, that clearly marks his appetite for your soul.
• Soul Power: Quezkari reaps souls and controls them.
• Super-Empowering: Cinnabar owes him his immortality, and his High Priest Ramatu channels his power to cast dangerous spells.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: He steals the souls of his followers' victims. It is implied that he needs them to sustain himself, or at least to manifest on the Earthly Planes.

The Shadow King

Appears in: Night of the Necromancer

A highly powerful Lord of Death ruling from beyond the Veil, worshipped by many evildoers across the continent of the Old World and possibly Titan as a whole. Currently, a mysterious Necromancer who made a Deal with the Devil with him, controls a Death Cult worshipping him and plots to bring about his reign over the Earthly Planes.

You play the Lord of Valsinore, a Templar of the Warrior God Telak killed by a cultist when returning to your domain, after a crusade against the Death Cult. Now a ghost, you have until dawn to unmask the Necromancer and destroy the cult and their wicked idol once and for all...

---

• Achilles' Heel: Your magic sword Nightslayer and the Amethyst Blade scythe adds +1 skill against him. The former deals -3 stamina and the latter -4 instead of the regular 2, making the Final Battle easier.
• Animate Dead: As a Lord of Death, he can do it easily, and does it to Unthank if he killed the wretched Necromancer himself.
• Antagonist Abilities: He has supernatural stats, is immune to normal weapons, and can break your spirit beyond repair with his gaze alone.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: The Shadow King embodies the evils of Death and Afterlife.
• Badass Boast: He boasts that he will teach you the true meaning of fear before facing you. Interestingly enough, this is an answer to your own Badass Boast, in which you told him that he will fail to subdue you like his goons failed.
  The Shadow King: You may not fear death. But during an eternity of servitude you shall learn to fear me.
• Badass Longcoat: The shroud he wears covers him like a dark cloak, to make him even more impressive.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: He is a demonic Evil Overlord, and uses power over death, undeath, nightmares, evil spirits and all that jazz...
• Big Bad: While the titular Necromancer Chamberlain Unthank appears at first to play the part, he is in fact The Dragon. The Shadow King is the one who really calls the shots from behind the Veil, whose influence plagues your beloved domain and whose monsters you fight throughout the gamebook.
• Black Swords Are Better: He wields a black Zweihander.
• The Blank: The Shadow King has no face at all, just darkness and red Glowing Eyes of Doom.
• Dark Is Evil: The Shadow King could not be any darker, and is very evil.
• Convenient Eclipse: The Shadow King can only enter the Earthly Planes if the ritual is performed during a lunar eclipse. Fitting as he wants to cover Titan in everlasting darkness...
• Deal with the Devil: The Necromancer struck one with him. He sold his soul and that of everyone in his village, to live forever, and pledged himself to serve him and bring about his reign.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: If you unleash a swarm of tormented souls by shattering the Spirit Stone or using the Codex Mortis, they overwhelm and destroy his earthly manifestation. The narration even states that while he is infinitely mightier than them, they are far too many and too furious even for him to contain.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: The Shadow King plans to rule Titan, but as a darkness-ridden Necrocracy where the soul of everyone belongs to him. Sweet dreams.
• Enemies with Death: He is a demonic Lord of Death who embodies the evils of Death, and has power over it. Fortunately, since he is not the real Death God, more of a weaker aspect, he can be defeated.
• Energy Weapon: He does not use them himself, but the spear of black energy that kills you at the beginning is strongly implied to be conjured from his power.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Not even the Shadow King can stand the smarmy Necromancer. Cue You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.
• Evil Counterpart: Being a manifestation of everything wrong with death-themed deities (i.e. evil and omnicidal) makes him this to the Watcher of the Gate: The divine lord of The Underworld tasked to send the souls of the departed to the Afterlife they deserve.
• Evil Is Hammy: His dialogue consists mostly in loud taunts and threats.
• Evil Laugh: His own is described as sounding like rolling thunder. To the point that you take some time to realize he is mocking you.
• Evil Sounds Deep: His voice is booming, reverberating all around the circle of stone you fight him in.
• Expy: He basically looks like a ghostly and shadowy Witch King of Angmar from The Lord of the Rings.
• Final Boss: The biggest threat and most powerful enemy of the story, who controls the evils plaguing Valsinore. With skill 13 (1 over the maximum) stamina 18, and being immune to normal weapons, he is a formidable foe. Fortunately, there are ways to weaken him. If you splash him with Midnight Oil, he loses -2 skill and -6 stamina. If you use the Spirit Stone or the Codex Mortis, you release thousands of restless souls who destroy him without fight.
• Foil: The Shadow King embodies all bad aspects of death in fiction, being a Big Bad Evil Overlord who had a hand in your death and covets the soul of everyone. This in Stark contrast to the Watcher of the Gate, a Reasonable Authority Figure merely playing his role of Psychopomp, who can let your return to the Land of the Livings and even help you.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: The Shadow King is plenty evil, powerful, dangerous, and has influence over the plot, but that's it. All in all, he is pretty much only there to provide a suitably climatic Final Battle, while the Necromancer is the centre of the conflict and the one you wanna take down.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Described as glowing like two twin dying suns. Talk about macabre.
• The Grim Reaper: Played with. He is not the real deal, that would be the True Neutral Watcher of the Gate, but he is his Evil Counterpart and does wield power over death and departed souls.
• I Have Many Names: The Shadow King is also referred to as the Lord of Death, the Lord of Shadows, the Ruler of the Night, the Undead Lord and the Greater Undead. His worshippers also call him the Finisher. Sounds positively delightful don't cha think?
• Jackass Genie: The Necromancer who dedicated his life to bring him to Titan wanted to become undying? He turns him into a shambling, witless undead. Undying yes, but he never precised how...
• Karmic Death: Doubly so...
  • Being banished by a victim of his cult, a spirit whom he could not control at that, is sweetly karmic.
  • Using the Codex Mortis releases thousands of restless souls who tear him to shreds. They are implied to be that of his and the Necromancer's many victims, making it just desserts.
• Kneel Before Zod: The first thing he does is ordering you to bend the knee, and knowing that you won't compelling you with his Magical Eyes. If you resist, you essentially tell him to get bent.
• Magical Eyes: His gaze can break your spirit and turn you into a Chaos Knight at his command. He does that before fighting you, and you must resist
• Magic Knight: The Shadow King has immense magic powers, but he is also highly skilled with weapons.
• Master Swordsman: The Shadow King is one hell of a swordsman.
• Mysterious Past: Little is known about him, when or where he comes from, or even what he is exactly.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Any of his numerous titles basically screams "incoming evil dread of dooooooooom!" Subtlety? Foreign concept...
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Only powerful magic weapons designed to fight demons, spirits and manifestations of Death can destroy him. Anything else harmlessly passes through him as if hacking through mist.
• Nightmare Weaver: He is implied to be source of the nightmares plaguing the slumber of the denizens of Sleath Village. Nightmares awful enough to manifest as a spiritual entity that must be destroyed.
• Night of the Living Mooks: How he intends to raise the army that would kill everyone in Titan.
• The Night That Never Ends: Not only does he wants to take the soul of everyone, but he wants to cover Titan in the darkness of an everlasting night, rising during a moon eclipse that would never stop.
• No Name Given: He is never referred to by anything else than his title, or another of his many aliases.
• No-Sell: Attacking him with normal weapons only gets you a violent beating, and a game over if you have no other way to face him.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The Shadow King wants to kill everyone in Titan to take their souls.
• Our Spirits Are Different: An evil spirit looking like a wraith made of darkness.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: No-one in their right mind would hold his murder of Unthank against him. Come on! The freak had it coming a thousand times.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Prepare to learn what an eternity of torment is really like!" says he before the Final Battle, hinting that what you suffered as a ghost is child's play compared to what he has in store for you... Make sure it's not a Pre-Mortem One-Liner...
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: He is all black, with blood red Glowing Eyes of Doom. This does not bode well, does it?
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: And glowing, as if it weren't enough.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Played With, as he can act however he pleases and sign Deal with the Devil with his followers, but he cannot enter the Earthly Planes on his own. Which makes him sealed at least away.
• Skippable Boss: You can destroy him without fight with the Spirit Stone or the Codex Mortis.
• Soul Power: He controls dead souls and spirits.
• Summon Magic: He can call forth evil or tormented spirits of all kinds, and basically everything nasty that can be found beyond the Veil.
• Super-Empowering: He made the Necromancer The Ageless, and his worshippers can channel his power to spellcast. The spear of black energy that killed you at the beginning for instance.
• Take Over the World: He coverts Titan as a whole, but not to rule over people oh no.
• To Create a Playground for Evil: He strives to make Titan his own playground, full of spectres and undeads for him to rule.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He wastes no time in killing Unthank as soon as he rises, complete with disparaging insults.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: He claims the souls of his victims and that of his worshippers' Human Sacrifices. And he covets that of everyone alive.
• Zombie Apocalypse: What he has in mind, but you defeat him before he can proceed.

Ulrakaah

Appears in: The Gates of Death

Shortly after the Chaos Wars devastated Titan, Ulrakaah was a drop-dead gorgeous but vain High Priestess of the Earth Goddess Throff, set in the highly magical Invisible City. Alas, she grew proud and learnt The Dark Arts, becoming a full-fledged Evil Overlord. The priests of Throff sealed her in a Plane of Existence behind the titular Gates of Death.

Nearly three hundred years later, she is now a Demon Queen who causes an outbreak of the atrocious Demon Plague from her prison, turning people into bloodthirsty demons and spreading like wildfire across Allansia. But a young apprentice healer, tasked to bring the antidote to Throff's temple in the Invisible City for mass production, will soon cross her path...

---

• Achilles' Heel: She can only be harmed by one of the Khopeshes (Egyptian sickle-bladed swords) she forged.
• Alien Blood: Her blood is black and sticky, illustrating how far she has fallen.
• Antagonist Abilities: She is so gigantic that each of her blows is a One-Hit Kill impossible to dodge normally. Worse, she is nearly invulnerable and cannot be defeated under her normal shape.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: She turned to The Dark Arts specifically to invoke the trope. But as a Demon Queen, she leads her horde as the reverse one.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Attack of the fifty to sixty foot woman/demon/overlord... All in one.
• Ax-Crazy: She is blood-thirsty, twisted and unhinged something big.
• Badass Cape: She wears one on the cover art, as seen on the picture, befitting the Evil Overlord she is. She does not wear it in the book illustration though.
• Badass Army: Ulrakaah's Demon Horde gathers thousands of powerful demons and mutated monsters, riding equally monstrous mounts. It counts as a single foe boasting the obscenely overpowered skill 400 stamina 800! And it is stated to be much weaker in their prison dimension than they would be on the Earthly Planes. A sugar would fare better in an anthill than you facing it head on, Infinity +1 Sword or not. You must use the Fertility Goddess Galana's Seeds to halve its stats as many time as you can, then your Infinity +1 Sword divides them further by ten. Only the Seed of Change and the Seed of Doubt can halve its skill score though. Without both, skill 40 or even 20 is still waaaay too huge for you.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: An Evil Overlord horribly twisted inside and outside, who unleashes The Virus to turn everyone into her cursed, demonic slaves.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Spectacularly averted, as it was being so beautiful in the first place that led Ulrakaah to Pride and to Face–Heel Turn.
  • Subverted and lampshaded during the Final Battle. You turn her back to her gorgeous human self and she thanks you profusely, apparently freed from evil, but it is a ploy to make you drop your guard.
  Ulrakaah: "Just because I'm beautiful, it does not make me a good person."
• Beauty to Beast: She went from the World's Most Beautiful Woman to an absolutely repulsive and atrocious Demon Queen.
• Big Bad: The Demon Queen threatening the entire world with The Virus, whom you must destroy.
• Blood Knight: Ulrakaah revels in violence and battles, and reacts with delight at the prospect of crushing you. Now that's a way to attract marriage proposals...
• Brought Down to Badass: Even when no longer a demon, she retains the skills and powers she had before becoming one, and you'll see for yourself that she was already no stranger to battles.
• Brought Down to Normal: You turn her back into a human, breaking her enormous dark powers. However, she remains far from harmless...
• Character Catchphrase: "Ulrakaah". Yes, that's right. She's so full of herself that she uses her very name as her battle cry... And so does her horde.
• Cool Helmet: She wears a definitely wicked-looking one, in all senses of the word.
• Cool Sword: The two magic Khopeshes she forged. They were once the mightiest magic weapons in Allansia and even now, remain very powerful, giving you +1 skill normally and +2 skill and costing -3 stamina per strike against demons.
  • The cover art depicts her with glowing, greenish yellow twin swords. Definitely Evil Weapons, but you got to admit they suit her. The book illustration however depicts her with simple sabres.
• Dark Action Girl: A demonic and atrociously twisted one, but one nonetheless. She becomes a Bona Fide one after you turn her back to human.
• The Dark Arts: She learnt those to force everyone to revere her like the godsend she fancies herself as.
• Demon of Human Origin: To think that she used to be a normal human and the World's Most Beautiful Woman... Key word there being used. After being sealed, she syphoned the demonic energies in her prison to become even mightier and more monstrous that she already was, resulting in the borderline Humanoid Abomination you face in the gamebook.
  • The victims of the Demon Plague also count, being mortals transformed into demons. Your antidotes can reverse the transformations though. The plague spawns a demonic spirit possessing and transforming the victim, who can be expelled and destroyed. The question being how?
• Distracted by the Sexy: She weaponizes it after you turn her back to human, counting on her stunning good looks to distract you and make you drop your guard.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: While already enormously powerful and dangerous in the Dead Realm, Ulrakaah and her Demon Horde would be way mightier on the Earthly Planes. One shudders to think how nightmarish they would have become had they escaped.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: She has become an Evil Overlord of considerable power, and she relishes in every minute of it.
• Dual Wielding: Ulrakaah fights with a sword in each hand.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: She would stop at nothing to turn every living soul in Titan, animals included, into violent and twisted demonic monsters that would blindly obey her every word for all eternity.
• Evil Is Hammy: She is loud and bombastic, most of her dialogue consisting in taunts, treats and disparaging insults. Even when turned back into a human.
• Evil Is Petty: She feels entitled to command and be revered by everyone, and is more than ready to let Titan go down in flames for this. And screw anyone who would dare to object. Why you ask? Because she was beautiful! And now that she is no longer gorgeous, no-one can be and everyone must be ugly so she can be uglier. Seriously, if this isn't a thousand shades of effed-up, nothing is...
• Evil Makes You Monstrous: She was the World's Most Beautiful Woman, but The Dark Arts took their toll. After nearly three centuries trapped behind the Gates of Death, the demonic energies she absorbed turned her into a gigantic, repellent monstrosity. So much for beauty...
• Evil Smells Bad: Her domain beyond the Gates of Death reeks, and herself and her Mooks emit an even fouler stench. How delightful...
• Evil Sorcerer: She first became a female example after her Face–Heel Turn, but she then became a thousand times worse.
• Evil Sounds Deep: She has a loud, booming voice.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: Ulrakaah is the oblivion threatening everything alive, while Lord Varek Azzur wants to protect his domain (and use her power for his own good.)
• Evil Weapon: Her two Khopeshes are made of purple steel from the Pit and black steel from the Dark Elf Kingdom respectively. They are extremely dangerous Infinity Plus One Swords, and must be destroyed after she is dealt with, lest they corrupt you and turn you into the next Evil Overlord of the Dead Realm.
  • Her twin swords are evil-looking and glow a creepy hue.
• Fairest of Them All: Played With. She was the World's Most Beautiful Woman and wanted everyone to revere her as such, but had no rival to antagonise.
  • Now that she is a repellent demon, she unleashes The Virus to make everyone as hideous as she is. If she cannot be the fairest, she will be the ugliest. Talk about petty...
• Fallen Hero: She was once the High Priestess of Throff, one of the most powerful and benevolent deities of Titan, but grew so vain and selfish that she became an Evil Sorceress, and then a straight-out Evil Overlord out to Take Over the World.
• Fangs Are Evil: She sports threateningly large fangs, and is a downright repulsive piece of work.
• Femme Fatale: She is heavily implied to have been this prior to becoming a demon, using her good looks to seduce and use people.
  • She immediately tries to entice you with her beauty after you turn her back to human.
• Final Boss: The final enemy of the gamebook. You must wound her with one of her Khopeshes coated with the "Pretty as a Picture" potion, or dodge her ginormous swords before wounding her thrice, to turn her back to human. However, if the corpse you possess gets destroyed, your spirit is sent back to the Earthly Planes, leaving you able to try again. Despite losing a great deal of power and being weaker beyond the Gates of Death, she remains a powerful foe with skill 10 stamina 10.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Granted, the High Priestess of a Major Goddess ruling a magic city is not exactly "nobody", but there are thousands of influential high priests and priestesses, and only Ulrakaah became a world threatening female Evil Overlord, on par with the Demon Princes themselves.
• Genius Bruiser: Ulrakaah has powers and fighting skills, but Large Ham she might be she proves much smarter than she first appears. She became a master of The Dark Arts and forged extremely powerful Evil Weapons on her own. After being sealed, she wasted no time in building herself a new realm, which she used to grow mightier until she could escape. She spreads the Demon Plague mostly to have enough minions on the other side for them to pry open the Gates of Death. She even shape-shifted demons she sent to the Invisible City into humans, to pass as denizens and deceive denizens and heroes alike.
• Giant Foot of Stomping: Ulrakaah tries to crush you with her foot when she engages you. You need magic boots of speed or jumping to dodge, or get Trampled Underfoot with no hope of escaping.
• Giant Woman: Of the demonic variety. Even among demons, she dwarfs giants standing over 50 feet.
• High Priest: She used to be this to the Earth Goddess Throff. Once again, emphasis on the past tense.
• Horned Humanoid: Ulrakaah sports a pair of enormous ones, looking like creepy, gnarled tree branches.
• Horns of Villainy: Of course.
• In Their Own Image: She wants to reshape all of Titan following her horribly warped designs.
• Knight of Cerebus: Ulrakaah is the Big Bad of a gloomy gamebook, in which The Virus turns everyone into awful, vicious monsters howling for blood. Allies will turn against you, or get slaughtered by loved ones before your very eyes, forcing you to fight to the death. It gets worse if you heal them, because they go into desperate My God, What Have I Done? Brace yourself for many punches in the guts.
• Lady of Black Magic: Monstrous as she is, she is regal, imposing, and wields deadly dark powers. She fully fits the trope when fighting you.
• Lady of War: Monstrous as she is, she is regal, imposing, and a deadly warrior. She fully fits the trope when fighting you.
• Leaking Can of Evil: Ulrakaah has grown powerful enough to open herself the leaks in her seal. She sends her demons on Titan through dimensional gates to take over the Invisible City and spread The Virus, intending to gather enough servants on the other side to destroy the Gates and set her free.
• Lovecraftian Superpower: She can turn anyone and anything into hideously warped and bloodthirsty version of themselves. Sweet dreams...
• Magic Knight: In addition to her immense dark powers, she is an expert swordswoman.
• Master Swordsman: Suffice to say her twin swords are not for show.
• Mighty Glacier: She is enormously strong and powerful, but slow and brutish. But still too huge for you to dodge her blows without magic boots. With those you can engage a risky hit-and-run match.
• Monster Lord: As a Demon of Human Origin, Ulrakaah is this to the demons spawned from The Virus.
• Monster Progenitor: Her Demon Plague is turning everyone on its wake into demonic and murderous versions of themselves, and is spreading across Allansia at an alarming rate.
• Moral Event Horizon: Turning people into monsters howling for blood who viciously attack random strangers and loved ones alike cements Ulrakaah as one of the worst villains of the franchise. Which is saying a lot!
• Narcissist: She is very much in love with herself, only caring about herself, fancying herself as the best in all domains. Being the World's Most Beautiful Woman was not enough and she would not be satisfied until she became the uber powerful queen of everything. And she is ready for the worst to make everyone revere her as such, willingly or not, mostly to feed her humongous ego. Not to mention her Catchphrase... This bitch is beyond self-absorbed and thoroughly loathsome.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Nothing can harm her save from her own Khopeshes.
• No Body Left Behind: As you kill her, her corpse dissolves into a hideous purplish goo, clearly indicating that she has nothing human left, even when she's reverted to a human aspect.
• Obviously Evil: Her every feature inspire dread and disgust.
• Post-Climax Confrontation: Before leaving her foul realm, you must destroy her Khopesh in the magical fire to fully succeed, lest you get corrupted into her successor.
• Red Baron: Known as the Queen of Darkness, the Demon Queen, and the Mother of Demons.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: For a demon, this is a given.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: She is trapped in the Dead Realm behind the Gates of Death, but is still active in her prison. She spent the last three centuries harnessing demonic power and building her Demon Horde. If you are foolish enough to open the Gates of Death, Ulrakaah's Demon Horde crushes you and she unleashes The End of the World as We Know It. Refreshingly, the can is never opened. Instead you must find a way to enter her realm and confront her there, by having your spirit leave your body to go beyond the Gates of Death and possess a corpse there.
• Sequential Boss: You must first destroy her Badass Army with Magic Seeds, then you need magic boots of jumping or speed to avoid being Trampled Underfoot. And then you must either strike her with her Khopesh coated in the "Pretty as a Picture" potion to turn back into human. (Or wound her before winning a test of luck to dodge her swords and wound her again, twice, or get squished flat.) Then, you can attack outright or fall for her faked redemption trick and get wounded, before fishing her once and for all.
• Shoulders of Doom: Ulrakaah wears huge shoulder-pads, one shaped like a wolf head and the other shaped like a raven. (both are wolf-shaped in the book illustration.)
• Spikes of Villainy: Her Cool Helmet sports many long ones over the forehead.
• Strong and Skilled: She had magic mastery and expertise with weapons, but becoming a demon added strength and might to the mix.
• Super-Strength: Even given her size, Ulrakaah is freakishly strong. She can crack the ground by stomping her foot, and her mere sword swipe can reduce you to mincemeat or send many foes flying at once.
• Swallowed Whole: If you get trapped in one of her dimensional gates and cannot escape with magic, you end up in her realm. Right next to her. And you'll end as this. No need for a gravestone...
• Take Over the World: Her ultimate goal, wanting to transform everyone into her demonic slaves.
• Thinking Up Portals: She can open portals between her Dead Realm and the Earthly Planes, using them to send her demons to Titan.
• Took a Level in Badass: As a High Priestess, she already was powerful, but she took two that made her one of the mightiest villains of the franchise.
  • The first one by becoming an Evil Sorceress
  • The second after being sealed, by becoming a Demon Queen close the Snake Demons' level themselves.
• Vain Sorceress: Played with. She was absolutely gorgeous, but instead of trying to remain like this forever, she sought to become as powerful as she was pretty.
• Viral Transformation: Everyone wounded by a demon of the plague is doomed to turn sooner or later.
• The Virus: She unleashes a Demon Plague, turning everyone into rabid demonic beings. There is an antidote, which you carry, but even if you healed everyone, Ulrakaah would simply restart it. As such, you must destroy her once and for all before doing the healing.
• Was Once a Man: She used to be human, but is now an atrocious, borderline Humanoid Abomination.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: Believe it or not, she was this once. Too bad it got way over her head.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: When turned back into a human, she immediately pretends to have turned good to trick you into giving her an opening for a sneak attack.
• Zombie Apocalypse: With sentient demonic beings instead of shambling, witless zombies, but really, same difference. In a city where the entire population was turned, you end up having to evade hordes of transformed victims out for your blood. Fortunately, victims can be cured.

Greater Demons

Powerful and influential Greater Demons with unique aspects, abilities and characteristics, contrary to the common demonic kinds who pretty much all look and behave the same. They are the step below the Demon Princes in the chain of command.

Agglax

Appears in: Armies of Death

A powerful Shadow Demon, servant of the Demon Princes who was sealed in a jar inside a temple, but accidentally released by a scavenger named Drek. He immediately sets out to raise an immense army of monsters to spread ruin all over the continent of Allansia. However, The Hero of Trial of Champions, now rich and powerful, learns of his threat and decides to recruit an army of their own to handle him...

---

• Achilles' Heel: The Crystal of Light.
• Antagonist Abilities: Gotta grant him that, as pathetic as he can be when you get the better of him, he is still able to One-Hit Kill you with his freezing Breath Weapon.
• Anticlimax Boss: You never face him in a direct battle, having to chase after him after he runs away like the Dirty Coward he is. With the right items, he shall fall with little trouble.
• Badass Army: He amassed quite an impressive horde of all sorts of evil beings. Ploughing through waves after waves of monsters to reach the sod is in fact the actual challenge of the Climax. First using your archers against fire-breathing fire imps. Then engaging your knights against a cohort of chaos warriors. (The White Knights can Curb Stomp them like mincemeat.) Then, without more than 100 soldiers left, goblins kill you with catapult-thrown spears. Then, one of your allies will sacrifice themselves for you. (If you did not recruit them you're toast.) Finally, you can only prevail by throwing your gold to distract his forces. Then, it is time to settle your score with the wretched Shadow Demon at last.
• Badass Long Robe: Subverted. Agglax does wear an impressive-looking black robe, but is far from badass. He even trips on his robe when fleeing, enabling you to catch up with him.
• Big Bad: The Greater Demon who seeks to destroy the continent with his armies of monsters, whom only your forces can stop.
• The Blank: He is described as having no face, only a dark void with two Glowing Eyes of Doom.
• Breath Weapon: He can breathe very dangerous clouds of frost.
• Cool Mask: He covers his head with a creepy demonic skull. Note that the mask is only seen in the illustration, as the narration describes him as In the Hood instead.
• Cowardly Boss: He turn tails as soon as things go south, and you must run after him.
• Dark Is Evil: He is one of the Shadow Demons, is made of darkness, wears a black robe, and is cruel, ruthless and thoroughly despicable.
• Dirty Coward: As soon as things go south, Agglax tries to flee like the pathetic, spineless coward he is. And he trips on his robe as he runs for the hills, for additional pathetic points. Clearly, he is meant to be loathsome and despicable but not awe-inspiring...
• The Dreaded: Most people you speak to know of Agglax and his forces, and are very scared. This work in your favour, since some recognize your armies as their best hope against him and will help you.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: He wants to reduce the world to ruins and make mortals prey to monsters everywhere. Most likely To Create a Playground for Evil.
• Evil Overlord: A very powerful demon who controls an enormous army of monsters and all sorts of evil creatures, using them to spread chaos and ruin. He has no defined domain but more than qualifies.
• Final Boss: The last enemy faced in the game, but you don't fight him directly. You must overcome his guards with your own, before using the Crystal of Light and the Banishing Enchantment that goes with it.
• Frontline General: Subverted. He is always in the battlefield with his troops, but does not take part in the battle proper, and needs his goons to do the fighting.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: As if he did not already look evil enough.
• Good Hurts Evil: The only thing that can snuff him is a Crystal of Light.
• An Ice Person: The clouds of frost he breathes can freeze you solid and kill you on the spot.
• Keystone Army: His troops fall apart as soon as he dies, with factions blaming one another for their defeat and others trying vainly to seize power in the mess.
• Living Shadow: Agglax is a mass of shadow and darkness clad in a black robe.
• Logical Weakness: Shadow undone by light... Gee! Never heard of that before!
• Made of Evil: Demons are born from the corruption of creation.
• No Body Left Behind: His physical incarnation dissolves as you banish him back to the Pit forever, leaving only his black robes.
• Not Worth Killing: Drek, the man who freed Agglax from his jar in hopes of finding a treasure, states that he left as soon as he was freed, barely sparing him a glance.
• Obviously Evil: A sinister figure with red eyes, clad in a black robe and wearing a skull-like mask? Agglax sure doesn't strike as a jolly good fellow...
• Our Demons Are Different: Contrary to most demons of monstrous appearance, Agglax looks like a creepy, evil-looking humanoid with no physical substance.
• Praetorian Guard: He is protected by powerful chaos warriors and fanatical ninjas.
• Puzzle Boss: Without the Crystal of Light and the incantation that can banish him, you cannot defeat Agglax, who freezes you solid.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Subverted. He is indeed very powerful, but only in terms of influence over evil. When it comes to fighting, he is an absolute joke who needs his forces to be a threat.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: His armies spread death and ruin wherever they go, mostly For the Evulz. Most goblins joined for the pleasure of slaughtering people, and you come across settlements that they razed as a testimony of the threat they pose.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Another indication that this sod is bad news. He is a demon after all.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He turns tail without looking back, as soon as you display the Crystal of Light that can destroy him.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: He was this for centuries, trapped in a jar inside a temple, until he was released by accident sometimes before the start of the story.
• Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Wearing skull-ornaments always scream "baddie" ten miles around.
• Smug Snake: Easy for him to act tough with thousands of monsters at his beck and call. But when he finds his match, he becomes much less puffed-up, revealing how pathetic he is.
• The Strategist: Say what you will about his bravery on the battlefield, but he knows his way around leading and equipping armies. He organizes his troops and moves them expertly in battle, and knows how to lay many traps for you and your soldiers.
• To Create a Playground for Evil: He does not need his armies to Take Over the World, but to spread as much chaos as he can, paving the way for the Demon Princes to sweep in.
• Too Important to Walk: He sits around in a palanquin throne, carried by four zombie minions.
• The Unfought: He does not even try to resist during the Final Battle, leaving the fighting to his Elite Mooks. While other Big Bads that you don't properly fight do actively confront you, Agglax only uses his lethal Breath Weapon after you failed to defeat him, when he is sure that you are no threat.
• Weakened by the Light: Being a Shadow Demon, a magic light artefact does no wonder to his complexion.
• Wolverine Claws: The illustration depicts him with long and pointy claws on each finger.
• Zero-Effort Boss: In the right conditions, you have won as soon as you reach him. Get what you need and know how to do it and Bob's your uncle.

The Archmage of Mampang

See his entry on the Old World page under Rulers.

Ikiru

Appears in: Sword of the Samurai

A very powerful Greater Demon (and one of the franchise's SNKBosses) aiming to unleash chaos on Hachiman, the Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Sengoku-Era Medieval Japan. He resides in a gloomy mountain lair called the Pit of Demons, evoking the Pit. He stole the Dai Katana called Singing Death, with which he could rule the country should he unlock its power. As such, the Shogun sends his champion to retrieve the blade and slay him...

---

• Antagonist Abilities: He is a huge powerhouse who can make the Final Battle increasingly harder with his skill-decreasing strikes. Without the Infinity +1 Sword, the battle becomes an outright ordeal, each of his strikes being a potential One-Hit Kill. And he is mighty enough to land many hits. Not to mention his nasty Summon Magic and his Shock and Awe attack before fighting.
• Badass Armfold: He sits on his throne with his arms folded under his jointed sleeves.
• Badass Long Robe: He covers his entire body, or lack thereof, in a flowing robe, for a creepy effect.
• Big Bad: The demon who stole the Infinity +1 Sword to bring about utter chaos and destruction on the continent of Khul, who must be destroyed at all costs.
• Black Swords Are Better: Ikiru certainly thinks so, given the colour of his own.
• The Blank: Ikiru has literally no face under that hood of his, for additional creepy points.
• Casting a Shadow: His main power is to create and control shadows, including shadowy beings.
• Cool Sword: Ikiru's own might be an Evil Weapon through and through, but it undeniably looks wicked in more ways than one. It is even depicted in illustrations. Don't we all agree that Black Swords Are Better and that Katanas Are Just Better?
• The Corrupter: Ikiru can corrupt people into becoming his slaves, by appealing to their greed and magically influencing them. And he tries this with you by summoning a shadowy Evil Knockoff of yourself to tempt you.
• Dark Is Evil: Very much so. Just look at him...
• The Dreaded: Ikiru is feared all over Hachiman.
• Evil Knockoff: He shapes one of his Living Shadow summons in your likeness, reflecting your evil side to tempt you and make you his slave.
• Evil Laugh: He mocks you with a creepy jeer, sounding like the swishing of dead leaves.
• Evil Overlord: A vastly powerful Greater Demon who rules a Mordoresque land and threatens the country with legions of evil Mooks. Yeah, he fits the bill all right.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: His voice is low and hissing, like a rattling noise.
• Evil Weapon: He wields a demon-forged, black long sabre ornate with glowing red runes, that channels his power to conjure waves of darkness that Level Drain you, at best, or threads of darkness that straight-out One-Hit Kill you, at worst.
• Evil Wears Black: It does not show on the illustration, otherwise he would only appear as a dark blot, but Ikiru's robes are described coloured as black as his shadows.
• Final Boss: He has skill 12 stamina 12, making him very powerful and dangerous. If you fight him without Singing Death, you must win a test of luck whenever he strikes you, or get killed in one blow. With Singing Death, you must win a test of stamina whenever he strikes you or lose -1 skill and -1 luck above all else. On the plus side, Singing Death will One-Hit Kill him if you win a test of luck after striking him.
• Ghostly Glide: He moves by gliding on the ground.
• Gratuitous Japanese: His name is the strangest occurrence in a Japanese setting that had until now remarkably avoided this pitfall. See Meaningful Name below for explanation.
• Holy Burns Evil: The Infinity +1 Sword can grant you the hefty bonus of +2 skill +2 luck and +4 stamina. And with a high enough honour score, you cut through his shadowy spawns like a walk in the garden.
• Holy Hand Grenade: Singing Death can destroy him in one blow, by hitting him and winning a test of luck.
• In the Hood: His hood is always on, masking his lack of face.
• Katanas Are Just Better: His weapon is never described as such, but a long sabre in a fictional Medieval Japan setting could hardly be anything else.
• Lean and Mean: Ikiru is deathly thin, and rotten to the core.
• Level Drain: Both his black lightning and his black sabre can decrease your skill and luck scores, making him considerably dangerous.
• Living Shadow: Several instances...
  • Ikiru is basically a sentient, solid shadow, wearing a robe to delimit a physical form.
  • He can summon and control lesser shadowy beings.
• Load-Bearing Boss: His lair crumbles and collapses when you destroy him.
• Made of Evil: Demons are born from corruption of the gods' creation.
• Magic Knight: He is a highly powerful demon, as well as an equally talented warrior.
• Master Swordsman: He sure doesn't wield that sabre of his just for show.
• Meaningful Name: Strangely played with and subverted: His name does mean something in Japanese, namely "to live", but it does not fit the character at all... For further weirdness points, it is the name of a 1952 movie by Akira Kurosawa.
• Mind Control: If he succeeds in tempting you with We Can Rule Together, you fall under his thrall and he orders you to off yourself.
• Mind Rape: He inflicted this to Eleanor the Enchantress, magically turning her mad. If you make her Drink the Waters of Knowledge to heal her, she helps you against the Dai Oni.
• No Body Left Behind: Ikiru disintegrates, leaving only his robes, when you deal the finishing blow.
• Obviously Evil: I don't know, he seems positively charming to me... Too shy to show his face maybe?
• Oh, Crap!: He freaks out whenever you thwart his attempts on your life, especially if you take Singing Death from him by knowing its secret. He practically soils himself when you use Singing Death to block his attacks before fighting him.
• One-Hit Kill: Several instances...
  • If you fight him without Singing Death, you must test your luck with each strike he deals. Lose only once and he conjures threads of darkness from his sabre, to crush and strangle you to death.
  • You can have the delight of returning the courtesy, if you fight him with Singing Death, while he cannot do it in this battle. Now who's laughing hey, hood face?
• Orcus on His Throne: He spends the entire story studying the Singing Death Dai-Katana, to the point that most of the troubles you face before the Very Definitely Final Dungeon are not directly his doing.
• Our Demons Are Different: He is never described as a demon straight on, but he clearly cannot be anything else. Contrary to most demons, he is neither fully physical nor fully spiritual.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: The leader of the demons and monsters is unsurprisingly the mightiest of them, both in terms of fighting skills and magic powers.
• Razor Floss: Ikiru can channel his power through his black sabre to send burning threads of darkness that can One-Hit Kill the target.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Not Ikiru himself, who favours Evil Wears Black, but his black Evil Weapon covered in red runes definitely fits the bill.
• Red Baron: The Master of Shadows. Well deserved.
• Sequential Boss: The Final Battle unfolds following several stages, rather different whether you could take Singing Death or not.
  • Without Singing Death, he first summons a tough Shadow Demon for you to fight; then a shadowy double of yourself to tempt you; then he blasts you with black lightning you cannot dodge; and finally fights you, being a SNK Boss that will haunt your nightmares. Good luck, you'll need it.
  • If you know Singing Death's secret, you can take it and pocket a hefty power-boost. He first summons the Shadow Demon; then he summons ten shadow monsters, leaving you the choice of throwing your weapon, rushing through them, or waiting and fighting; then he blasts you with black lightning, but your sword can deflect it; and finally, he fights you in a thankfully much easier Final Battle.
• Shock and Awe: He hurls bolts of black lightning harming your body and spirit, costing -4 stamina, -2 skill and -2 luck. With Singing Death, you only lose -1 skill and -1 luck, or deflect it with 6+ in honour.
• SNK Boss: Depends on how well you fare against him, but a pushover he is not.
  • Fighting Ikiru without Singing Death is outright Unwinnable by Design. He blasts you with black lightning, greatly weakening you while you need very high skill and luck score to stand a chance, as losing a test of luck when he strikes you means a One-Hit Kill. Having the maximum skill score, he is bound to melt your luck score like snow under the sun and subsequently leave you wide open for a One-Hit Kill, if he does not kill you before. You will learn to fear this SOB...
  • Averted with Singing Death, which makes him fortunately much easier to dispose of. But while his black lightning is less dangerous, and you can One-Hit Kill him for a change, he remains able to decrease your skill and luck scores with his strikes, which can still turn the tide in his favour.
• Soul Power: His attacks can harm your soul as much as your body. Worse, he steals his victims' souls to summon them under his control as he pleases, likely turning them to a Living Shadow minion or worse.
• Summon Magic: He can summon evil shadows from the Pit and lesser Shadow Demons.
  • He first summons a ghastly, Horned Humanoid Shadow Demon, with skill 9 stamina 10, who three in six times loses only -1 stamina when struck, making it a tough foe. With Singing Death and 5+ honour, you kill it without fight.
  • If you took Singing Death, he then summons ten shadow beings. They all are tough foes with skill 9, but only have stamina 1. If you rush through them without waiting, you destroy them all without fight.
  • If you lack Singing Death, he then summons a shadow in your likeness to tempt you into serving him with its Compelling Voice, appealing to your darkest desires. You need at least 5 in honour to resist.
• Throne Room Throwdown: An Evil Overlord worth their salt is confronted before their throne.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works:
  • Averted. If you throw Singing Death at him, he dodges it and you cannot use it any longer, losing the power-boost it grants. He retaliates by summoning an Evil Knockoff to corrupt you, leaving you no choice but facing him in SNK Boss mode.
  • Averted if you throw it in the dark well from which Ikiru calls forth his shadowy minions. You do destroy him but the sword is lost forever, and Hachiman falls prey to even worse chaos that he could inflict.
• To Create a Playground for Evil: His goal is unclear, but he seeks to unleash untold chaos and destruction, most likely reducing the kingdoms of mortals to dust to let monsters and demons roam freely.
• Villainous Valor: Ikiru might be terrified of Singing Death when you take it from him, but he still fights you with everything he has got without flinching.
• We Can Rule Together: He offers to make you his new right-hand before fighting you, promising wealth and power through an Evil Knockoff of you to tempt you. Of course, this is pure Schmuck Bait, and should you succumb to his lure, he orders you to off yourself. If you can resist, you tell him to get bent.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: Ikiru's victims, including you if the worst happens, have their soul sent to the Pit for him to summon as his slave whenever he gets the fancy, condemning them to a Fate Worse than Death.

Demonic Servants

Any Evil Overlord worth their salt need powerful enforcers, and those who rule in the Pit can select the best among the demon kind, or even create their own. Here they are.

The Dai-Oni

^{Click here to see his spectral form, the Shura}

Appears in: Sword of the Samurai

A powerful, human-shaped Oni serving as Ikiru's main general. He leads his liege's armies of monsters and confronts you in a memorable Boss Battle, just before facing the Big Bad. He is notable for being surprisingly honourable and polite for such an evil being, and a Foil of sorts to your honourable and duty-bound Samurai character.

---

• Affably Evil: He is impeccably courteous when speaking to you, and very honourable altogether, yet a very powerful demon striving for chaos.
• Antagonist Abilities: Not only is he a powerful fighter, but his additional attacks and his spells decreasing your luck and skill score are frankly a pain somewhere.
• Badass Long Robe: The illustration depicts him with a lavish oriental one, like those worn by nobles of Ancient Japan, fitting his high place in the Sorting Algorithm of Evil.
• Black Eyes of Evil: The Shura has black, void-like eyes.
• Blood Knight: He sure loves battles and bloodshed.
• Boss Rush: You must confront his three dangerous demon familiars before facing him. Don't expect to survive all alone, you need Summons of your own. And after you kill him, you must fight his spirit, who rises as a spectral Shura.
• Brought Down to Badass: Even without his powers, he remains an expert fighter who can still give you a solid run for your money.
• Carry a Big Stick: He wields a huge tetsubo (a Japanese long club or mace) covered with spikes, with great proficiency.
• De-power: Summoning the Ki-Rin breaks his power and makes the fight easier. Beware though for you won't be able to call it if you destroyed his last familiar on your own.
• The Dragon: He is this to Ikiru, being his main general, his mightiest follower, and his last line of defence.
• Emotion Bomb: He can cast a confusion spell that costs you -1 skill, making the battle more dangerous.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He is called by his kind's name... Not unlike a Pokémon, funny enough.
• Evil Counterpart: To you, The Hero, being both formidable warriors with special abilities. You play as the honour-bound Shogun's best samurai, devoted to serve your master at all cost; he is the honour-bound main villain's right-hand, devoted to serve his master at all cost. It reflects in the way you fight him, Familiars against Summons.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He speaks in a loud, booming voice.
• Evil Virtues: Even though it might be due to the rules of the Place of Battle, he stays true to his word and answers your last question as a sarcastic yet Benevolent Genie.
• Familiar: He has three that you must confront one after another. You can fight the last ones normally, but you cannot survive without using Familiars of you own.
  • Graalsch the Demon Toad is resilient, jumps high and swallows enemies whole. You cannot fight it alone, as your enemies are too many. It is immune to fire but deathly afraid of snakes. Do not call the Tatsu, the Phoenix, the Golden Company or Eleanore the Enchantress, but call the Giant Snake or the Sabretooth Tiger, which is too fast for it to catch.
  • K'rllk the Mantis Demon is super fast and attacks with its strong claws and mandibles. It has skill 8 stamina 10, and its hard skin makes him lose only -1 stamina when you strike it. It does not fear lightning so do not call Eleanore the Enchantress, the Ki Rin, or the Golden Company, but it is deathly vulnerable to fire, so Tatsu or Phoenix galore!
  • Gargantus the Bronze Man, a goat-legged giant with Super-Strength. It is a tough foe with skill 9 stamina 12 in stamina, who blasts you with Eye Beams costing -4 stamina at each turn, if you roll an uneven dice number. Eleanore the Enchantress' lightning blasts or alternatively the Golden Company's teamwork and numbers will do the trick.
• Final Boss, New Dimension: He is only the second-to-last boss of the game but still. He confronts you in a different space called the Place of Battle, which follows a strict set of rules, and enables you to visit several places in the country to get help before facing him.
• Flunky Boss: He fights you with his familiars.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: He does this in the illustration, albeit in a much less dramatic way than usual. Still, doing so clearly indicates the challenge he is issuing you.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: He is described with scary, shining purple eyes.
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: He is depicted with a "yellow peril" style moustache and goatee.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Rushing to face him and his familiars all alone is pure Suicidal Overconfidence, even for a warrior such as you.
• Horns of Villainy: The Shura sports those.
• Light Is Not Good: The Dai Oni is described as clad in pure gold and silver clothing, and is a Greater Demon who seeks to destroy your country.
• Literal Genie: The Dai Oni is duty-bound to answer a question by the one who defeats him, and he does truthfully, but never more than what you asked and don't expect much detail.
• Made of Evil: He looks human but is a demon, born from the corruption of creation and radiating pure evil.
• Magic Knight: He is not only a fearsome warrior, but also wields dangerous dark powers.
• Meaningful Name: His title means "Greater Demon" and is... surprise, surprise, a greater demon.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: The Shura has a mouth full of large fangs.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Played with in that the Dai Oni never meant to die. But should it happen, his death is the new beginning of his spiritual existence as a Shura. It's then up to you to make it short...
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: His title tells you upfront: "I'm a big, dangerous demon".
• Noble Demon: Literally, as he is a demon. He is very honour-bound, to the point that he agrees to answer one question after you slay him. If you ask him for help against his master, he even complies, raising your luck score, that indeed is much needed in the Final Battle. Only him can tell you the secret of the Dai Katana, which makes the nightmarish battle against Ikiru much more manageable.
• Noble Top Enforcer: The Dai Oni is The Dragon to Ikiru's Big Bad, but as evil and cruel as he is, he is a honourable and respectful warrior.
• No Name Given: Dai Oni is in fact the title given to the type of demon he belongs to.
• One-Scene Wonder: You never hear of the Dai Oni before he challenges you, but the battle against him and the recruiting of allies beforehand is quite possibly the most memorable moment of the gamebook.
• One-Winged Angel: Downplayed, his spirit becoming a Shura after you kill him is somehow this, but while still a tough foe he is weaker in this form, with skill 9 stamina 8 and can be dealt with without fight. If you own a Tatsu Amulet, you can summon a Jizo Monk who exorcises him.
• Oni: His aspects and actions are closer to Western Oni than demons, being a Blood Knight Noble Demon taking an attractive human aspect.
• Only Flesh Is Safe: The Shura's strikes only damage your life-force and soul, not your body.
• Our Demons Are Different: The Dai Oni looks perfectly human, but he is a powerful demon.
• Our Spirits Are Different: His spirit rises as a spectral Shura after you kill him, looking more demonic than his own physical appearance.
• Pre-Final Boss: The Dai Oni is fought directly before Ikiru. He is a powerful foe with skill 10 stamina 10, who casts a spell when he strikes you: either an electric blast from his mace, a spell of bad luck, or a confusion spell. And then he goes One-Winged Angel... It is highly advised to De-power him, as he is strong enough to land many blows that would weaken you not only against him, but against the unforgiving Final Boss.
• Secret-Keeper: He knows the secret of the Dai Katana Singing Death, but cannot reveal it willingly, for anyone who does that would be destroyed along with the sword, which is essential for his master's plan. He tells it to you if you ask him as he lays dying, honour-bound to answer one question.
• Sequential Boss: You must defeat his three familiars one after the other, before fighting him, and then he rises as a Shura.
• Shoulders of Doom: He wears those on the illustration.
• Shock and Awe: He hits you with bursts of electrical energy to be precise.
• Skippable Boss: You cannot avoid the fight against the Dai Oni himself, but you can destroy his Familiars and even the Shura, if you use the right summon.
• Soul Power: Turning his dead soul into a vengeful Shura. Worse, the Shura directly harms your soul without so much as scratching your body when it lands a blow.
• Spell My Name with a "The": He is called the Dai Oni. Justified in that there are others of his kind but he is the only one you meet.
• Stating the Simple Solution: When you ask the Dai Oni how to defeat his lord after you kill him, he just laughs and tells you to fight him. Justified in that he might be bound to answer truthfully, but his loyalty still goes to Ikiru above all.
• Sword Beam: Well, Mace beam if you want to nitpick. The Dai Oni can hit you at distance with lighting blasts channelled through his Tetsubo mace, adding -2 stamina to the normal wound.
• They Look Just Like Every One Else: He looks human but is anything but.
• Tin Tyrant: The Dai Oni is described as wearing an armour, but the illustration depicts him with an ornate Badass Long Robe instead.
• Undying Loyalty: He is absolutely devoted to Ikiru. While honor-bound to answer a question that helps you take him down after you defeat him, he only does that grudgingly because he has no choice, and rises as a Shura in a last-ditch effort to take you down after that.
• Villainous Breakdown: The Dai Oni starts the battle against him as collected and courteous, and becomes increasingly enraged and unhinged as you destroy his demon familiars one after the other.
• Winds of Destiny, Change!: He casts spells that costs you -1 luck during the battle. He can raise it by 2 if you ask for his help against Ikiru as he lays dying, honour-bound to answer one question.

The Khuddams

^{Click here to see Friankara}

Appear in: Chasms of Malice

Seven mighty beings serving as the Co-Dragons to the evil spirit known as the Malice. They are named Friankara, Barkek, Churka, Geshra, Griffkek, Gurskut and Kahhrac. Their master possessed Orghuz of Gorak, younger brother of King Tancred the Magnificent, but Tancred sealed them in the Dark Chasm. Eight centuries later, the seal is weakening. Should the Khuddams break the True Shield preventing them from multiplying without end, Orghuz would Take Over the World with an army of them. Fortunately, Tancred's line is not as extinct as was believed...

---

• Ancient Evil: Spawned by the Malice at the Dawn of Time.
• Badass Cape: They all wear a long, billowing black cape. It is the only thing that remains after you destroy one.
• Badass Crew: A group of mighty warriors and gifted generals.
• Blood Knight: They love battles, and love even more killing foes in violent ways. Positively charming...
• Climax Boss: Your goal is to take down as many as possible, so each one you fight is this. They all predictably attack you on sight. They have skill 10 stamina 12, making them powerful foes.
• Co-Dragons: To Orghuz, and to the Malice before it possessed him. They carry on his will inside the Chasm, lead his troops, and hunt down the hero.
• Creepy Souvenir: Friankara wears skulls on her belt, likely those of people she killed.
• Dark Action Girl: Friankara, like any other Khuddam, is a formidable fighter.
• The Dragon: Their leader Friankara is Orghuz's true second-in-command and the "lady" of the bunch.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: The Khuddams' voice is described as hissing and guttural.
• Expy: Seven demonic, wraith-like beings serving the Big Bad and masquerading as humans as they look for a way to kill the hero? Kinda like the Nazguls, huh?
• Flunky Boss: Subverted as you can confront some surrounded by their soldiers, but they send them all to Zerg Rush you to death without bothering to involve themselves. You can only defeat them one-on-one.
• Four-Star Badass: The Khuddams lead Orghuz's Fell Army under his command.
• Frontline General: They fight the battles ahead of their troops.
• Gorgeous Gorgon: Friankara is depicted as much prettier than her male comrades.
• Gotta Kill Them All: You must track them down and kill as many as you can before facing Orghuz. Except you cannot kill them all, the most you can destroy is six out of seven.
• Ignored Enemy: One of the earlier Khuddams can be met and fought in a tavern where he's seemingly about to ambush you when noticed... except that only fight him if you choose to, and you can just turn your back on him and walk out, with the Khuddam doing nothing to stop you.
• Innate Night Vision: They can see in the dark as clearly as you can see in broad daylight. Learning to fight in the dark is highly recommended.
• In the Hood: They cover their faces with the hood of their cape.
• Living Relic: Among the few survivors of the First Battle.
• Magic Knight: Downplayed. The Khuddams have vast dark powers in addition to their exceptional fighting skills, but they never use them against you.
• Master Swordsman: They are all consummate experts with the blade.
• Meaningful Name: "Khuddam" means "servant" in Arabic, fitting their obedience to the Big Bad.
• More Deadly Than the Male: Played with. Friankara is described as direr than the other Khuddams, but she shares their stats and lacks additional power. If you face her with your weapon, the fight is exactly like the others. If not, she is indeed the deadliest foe of the game, with skill 12 stamina 16.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: They all have a mouth full of sharp fangs.
• Natural Weapon: Contrary to the others, Friankara does not wield a Sinister Scimitar and fights with her poisoned claws.
• No Body Left Behind: Dead Khuddams crumble into dust, leaving only their hooded cape.
• Poisoned Weapon: Subverted. It is said that Friankara's claws are poisoned, but they don't deal any additional damage or poison status whatsoever.
• Praetorian Guard: They serve as this to Orghuz. Should the True Shield be broken, they will become a veritable army, unstoppable not only due to their sheer numbers but also to their might.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Much less quirky and much more dangerous than the usual examples of the trope, but they still qualify, if only by virtue of being all identical and arguably Creepy Awesome.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: They command Orghuz's hordes and are more than mighty enough to be obeyed.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Blood red and definitely menacing.
• Reduced to Dust: Their final fate. Convenient, no need for a grave...
• Satellite Character: They are not developed beyond their evilness and obedience to the Malice, carrying on orders and no more. At least the Shadow Warriors take the matter in hand and show initiative.
• Self-Duplication: They have the power to multiply exponentially into hordes of thousands. Only the True Shield is preventing them from overflowing.
• Serrated Blade of Pain: Just to make them even more menacing.
• Sinister Scimitar: Their weapon of choice.
• Skippable Boss: While you can encounter the seven Khuddams across the Chasm, it's possible to complete the game without having to fight even one.
  • However, it's a bad idea if you didn't upgrade your sword with the Heart Flame of Minosaddur, as Orghuz will automatically revive when killed, sacrificing a Khuddam in his place. If you did temper your sword in the Heart flame, you can bypass this and kill them all at once.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The Khuddams use captured people as slaves in the mines, to unearth the iron Orghuz needs to create Slave Collars. If he has his way, everyone in Khul will wear said collars.
• The Smurfette Principle: There is one female Khuddam, Friankara, who is the leader of the bunch.
• Soul Jar: They act as one for Orghuz, as the Malice can revive him by sacrificing their lives. If you didn't temper your sword in the Heart Flame, you must fight Orghuz at least seven times.
• Spikes of Villainy: They wear spiky bracelets.
• Sssssnake Talk: They sssspeak thisssss way.
• Time Abyss: They fought in the First Battle before time came to the world.
• Undying Loyalty: The Khuddam live and breathe to serve the Malice, and Orghuz its current "host".
• You All Look Familiar: They have basically no physical distinction whatsoever.
• Was Once a Man: The Khuddams are mortals from the Time of Gods, corrupted beyond return.

The Shadow Warriors

Appear in: Legend of the Shadow Warriors

Five ghastly knights who fought under Voivod in the First Battle. They escaped banishment to the Void, and laid waste on Titan until the gods themselves sealed Voivod away, two thousand years ago. Alas, with the continent of the Old World scarred by the gruesome War of the Five Kingdoms, the Shadow Warriors resurfaced and spread destruction, searching for their lord. But with no one believing in their existence, finding someone who can rise against them proves tricky... Until a hero chosen by the God King Titan and the Earth Goddess Throff enters the picture...

---

• All There in the Manual: Their link to Voivod is explained in the gamebook, but their role during the First Battle along their lord is only explained in the guidebook.
• Ancient Evil: The Shadow Warriors fought against the forces of Good, long before Time existed.
• Antagonist Abilities: They are tough fighters, but it is their distinct special skills makes them really stand out.
  • The first is so fast and skilled in martial arts that he strikes twice in each attack round, as if you were facing two equally skilled enemies, making him arguably one of the most dangerous.
  • The second wields daggers at close range, but throws one at each attack turn, causing additional damage 2 in 6 times, depending on a dice-roll.
  • The third strikes with both swords at once and deals double damage at every strike, no matter your armour or any test of luck, making him one of the most dangerous.
  • Before fighting, the fourth strikes your sword so hard it breaks if you're unlucky. (He deals massive damage if you already lack a sword.)
  • Before fighting, the fifth throws a cursed shuriken that One Hit Kills you if you get hit, by gradually tearing you apart, making him arguably the deadliest one.
• Antagonist Title: They are the crux of the conflict, so the book is of course named after them.
• Badass Crew: The Shadow Warriors are powerful fighters and highly competent enforcers. If you end up against the five of them, you're already as good as dead.
• Badass Longcoat: They wear a funerary shroud like this.
• Blood Knight: They were created for war and crave for battles.
• Boss Rush: During the Final Battle, you must fight them one after the other, excluding those you banished before taking on Voivod himself. Fortunately, by this time, you might have banished several, have an artefact to De-power them or even the Infinity+1 Spear to One-Hit Kill them.
• Brought Down to Badass: Even when de-powered, skill 9 is nothing to sneeze at.
• Co-Dragons: They serve as this to Voivod.
• Cool Mask: They all wear one, which is more than a mere ornament.
• Creepy Awesome: Undead Chaos Warriors are creepy, but martial arts and shurikens tend to be awesome, and they still are a fearsome Badass Crew.
• De-power: The Ring of Rabbam cancels their power for the Final Battle, making them normal foes.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Voivod being a Sealed Evil in a Can who only appears for the Final Battle, it is them who look out to set him free, send assassins after you and track you down. They take care of every detail.
• The Dreaded: Subverted as most people only know the Shadow Warriors as mere bogeymen from children stories, and scoff at the mention of them being around. Double Subverted for those who did not believe... Until they witnessed first-hand how real and deadly they are. You included.
• Establishing Character Moment: At first you don't believe in them, thinking they are but disguised bandits... Then, as soon as you leave the capital with the farmers who hired you to protect them, they appear, slaughter your employers and nearly kill you, forcing you to escape. For the info, yes they are real. Yes they are as fearsome as you were told. And yes, they are playing for keeps.
• Exotic Weapon Supremacy: Played straight for the fist, who uses martial arts, and the fifth who use shurikens. Who could picture a Nazgul Expy fighting like Jet Li or with ninja weapons? Averted for the others, who use more common weapons.
• Expy: Of two distinct evil teams.
  • Of the Nazguls from The Lord of the Rings, being a Badass Crew of undead demonic Knights, blindly devoted to an Evil Overlord Time Abyss who fought under the local God of Evil in the dawn of times.
  • They also look exactly like the titular Seven Golden Vampires of the Hammer movie Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires. Given Stephen Hand's love for Shout Outs to horror movies of all kind, this is no coincidence. Even the title of the gamebook is a clear reference to that of the movie.
• Glowing Eyelights of Undeath: dead eyes and glowing pupils, made even creepier by their masks.
• The Heavy: They drive the plot and have their name in the title.
• Hellish Horse: The Shadow Warriors' favourite means of transport.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: If you choose to take on the five of them at the beginning, you end up dead. Your only hope is to run away and find a way to evade them.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: The Shadow Warriors number among the most competent and dedicated Dragons of the franchise. You could almost swear they learnt the Evil Overlord List by heart. Don't expect them to be fooled by simple tricks, to let go potential threats that just might become troublesome, or to depart without checking whether their victims are really done for.
• Implacable Man: When the Shadow Warriors want someone dead, they do not relent until they are. No matter how far you go, they keep finding you. Always look over your shoulder...
• It's Personal with the Dragon:
  • After they ruthlessly slaughter the poor farmers who hired you to protect them, you are affronted and swear not to rest until they are destroyed, to bring justice to the ones you failed. Defeating Voivod just comes with the package.
  • The Shadow Warriors also make your escape a big deal, and put you on top of their hit list.
• Living Relic: Among the few survivors of the First Battle.
• Mask of Power: Their creepy masks serve as their anchors to the Earthly Planes. Take it off after defeating one of them and he will be banished into the Land of the Dead for one hundred years.
• Mook Chivalry: You fight them one after another in the Boss Rush that is the Final Battle. Odd after they so readily ganged on you at the start, but it is explained that you go great lengths to enforce it, targeting them one by one.
• No Name Given: A bunch of shadowy fighters referred to as the Shadow Warriors... Even individually, they are only referred to by their respective number.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: They are undead, they are Chaos Knights, and they are demons... All at once.
• Our Zombies Are Different: While they look like Revenant Zombies, whether they are undead and more specifically what kind they are exactly is not specified. They also give a clear demonic vibe and wield enormous dark powers, making them much worse.
• Pre-Final Boss: They are collectively this, being Voivod's last line of defence. From the first to the last, then ending with their lord, it makes one heck of a Boss Rush.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Much less quirky and much more dangerous than the usual examples of the trope, but they still qualify, if only due to their Exotic Weapon Supremacy.
• Recurring Boss: One of them will appear at several points of the story to fight you. You must roll a dice to know which one, and even those you defeated will resurface for a rematch lest you banished them permanently. With skill 9 stamina 9 and their special powers, they are a force to be reckoned with.
• Resurrective Immortality: Should you defeat a Shadow Warrior, he would disappear but return shortly after. Unless you took off his mask.
• Revenant Zombie: They are (or at least look like) sentient, intelligent undeads who don't decay, but are far worse than mere revenants.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Do not expect to escape them for long. They keep tracking you down throughout the story and will attack you everywhere. Fortunately, you only fight one of them at a time, until the Final Battle that is.
• Silent Antagonist: They never utter a word in the entire gamebooks, only "communicating" through horrible wails and screams.
• Soul Jar: Several instances...
  • Their iron mask serves as this.
  • The Shadow Warriors themselves are this to Voivod, as he cannot be destroyed before they are all banished into Limbo. He is this to them in turn, as they can only be truly destroyed when he is.
• Time Abyss: They were created by Voivod during the First Battle, at the very dawn of history, even before Time came to the world.
• Undying Loyalty: They do everything Voivod commands. Their first reflex as soon as they are back into action was to try and set him free.
• Weapon Specialization: Each Shadow Warrior wears a different weapon.
  • The first is a master of martial arts.
  • The second wields a battery of daggers.
  • The third wields two broadswords.
  • The fourth wields a huge spiked mace.
  • The fifth throws shurikens made of a deadly metal.
• You All Look Familiar: You can only differentiate them by the weapon they wield.
• Was Once a Man: It is never explicitly stated, but their undead aspect strongly hints that they were once mortal warriors. Just like their master.