Tropes shared by all Doomdreamers
- Axe-Crazy: All Doomdreamers are insane to some degree, some more than others. If they aren't upon joining the cult initially, they become such eventually, as the nightmarish visions they experience drive them off the deep end.
- Chekhov's Gunman: They were first mentioned by the Demonic Guardian towards the end of Power Primordial and were featured in the final Shadowchaser file until they made full-fledge appearances as the main antagonists of Torment.
- Cool Helmet: True Doomdreamers wear a horned helmet that covers the entire head, but only for ceremonies.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Not them, but other Shadowkind criminals. It is said that even some of the most cruel Shadowkind criminals would not want to associate themselves with the Doomdreamers.
- Omnicidal Maniac: In a nutshell, Doomdreamers seek the destruction of all existence, much like Tharizdun does. Reasons for this vary by member; some believe they will be spared, while others are misanthropes who hate everyone, but all are insane.
- Religion of Evil: Worships an omnicidal deity, conduct human sacrifices, and happily collude with demons.
- Terrible Trio: Tiberius, Lorelei and Lareth. The Triad can also qualify.
Ulysses Maxwell Tiberius
Head of the Temple of All-Consumption, he is the most visible antagonist in
Shadowchasers: Torment and the orchestrator of the villains' plans.
- Affably Evil: During his duel with Penelope in Ascension.
Penelope: "Why are you being so polite, anyway?"
Tiberius: "Why not?" "What, do you want me to start acting like the run-o-the-mill maniacal villain? The type who goads and dares his foes, and usually makes a fool out of himself in the process? I never liked such people… That behavior is so… undignified…"
- Beard of Evil: He has a goatee in Torment.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: In Torment, he's the regional manager of the Chicago branch of Technology Research Unlimited Enterprises, using the Chicago branch as a front for the Cult of Tharizdun. However, at the end of that fic, it's clear that the actual CEO of TRUE is an Honest Corporate Executive, as he fires Tiberius, and starts a fund to help anyone the cult has hurt.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Uses a Rock deck in Torment.
- Dying as Yourself: He briefly regains his sanity and sees an image of Yolanda in Red Feather one last time before he dies.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Apparently, there are things so vile that they disgust even Doomdreamers. While in prison, another inmate says something to him that implies that he burned books, and Tiberius angrily replies that he has never done that, saying that he is "no Nazi".
- Hates Everyone Equally: It says so in the last entry of his journal, and Lorlei confirms it. He hates everything, and is likely why he ever considered becoming a Doomdreamer. The one person he possibly doesn't hate is Yolanda, the Air Force medic he had feelings for long ago, which may have been another thing that drove him over the edge.
- Killed Off for Real: After losing to Red Feather in a Shadow game in Ascension.
- Manipulative Bastard: And quite good at it; his plan to escape from Jalie's stronghold and sneak into Shadowchaser Headquarters involved fooling three of Jalie's men by making tempting offers to them. Seeing as devils pretty much invented this kind of trick, that's not easy to do.
- My Hero, Zero: Uses an Infernity deck in Ascension.
- Sinister Minister: He was previously an Air Force Chaplain; Dugan's theory as that he was driven mad by the contradictory nature of his job.
- Stupid Evil: After the Chigago Shadowchasers learn about their plan to replace Chicago with Dark Chicago, Dugan immediately expresses the stupidity and possible failure of their plan, even comparing it to famous historical failures such The Little Bighorn and Charge of the Light Brigade.
Lorelei DeLuc
Second in command to Ulysses, Lorelei was sired specifically to lead the Cult of Tharizdun. Unlike Tiberius, she was
born evil.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: In a rare case of this trope inflicted upon a villain, at the end of Torment, Lorlei accepts a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty, and is inflicted with the same fate as her victims, transformed into a cat, and then resigned to a private cage-sized cell in the Shadowchaser prison. The spell is supposedly irreversable... But no-one can prepare for every contingency...
- Deceptive Disciple: She was a successful one, and it was bizarre in more than one way. Her father was a Doomdreamer who was warned in one of the nightmarish omens that all Doomdreamers get that an apprentice he took would likely betray him. To try to avoid this, he decided to raise his daughter with the intent of being his successor, going so far as to make a bargain with a succubus to carry his child. Lorelei became only too good a Doomdreamer - she was the one who betrayed him. What makes it truly bizarre is the fact that, even though she turned him into a cat and kept him like a pet, he never had any regrets, and was actually proud of her, feeling he had succeeded as a father. (Doomdreamers are insane, of course...)
- Enemy Mine: Briefly does this with the Shadowchasers by telling them Jalie's plans in Ascension.
- Fallen Angels: Used a Darklord deck in her duel with Taka.
- Forced Transformation: Her preferred method of dealing with victims is to use dark magic to turn them into cats or other powerless animals; her first such victim was her own father, another Doomdreamer, when she took over his position. Even worse, while she expressed a desire to keep Nichole for at least a while, there were hints she might have killed a few victims later. Nichole later realizes that her joke that "the ASPCA would be mad at us" for building the Tabernacle of Utter Darkness might have been a subtle and dark hint at what she had done with them.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Her mother was a succubus, who his father "hired" to carry his child.
- Healing Factor: A gift from Tharizdun, but it stops working when the altar in the Temple of All-Consumption is desecrated.
- Killed Off for Real: After losing to Penelope in a Shadow game in Ascension.
- The Legions of Hell: Uses a Dark World deck (which is her real deck in Torment and her only one in Ascension).
- Mechanical Lifeforms: Used a Motor deck during her Riding Duel with Karl.
- Undying Loyalty: She shows this in spades, especially when Jalie's true plan which involves killing Tharizdun is revealed. She refuses to help Rule-of-Three win the duel against Ophelia, because doing so would help Jalie. Then she tells the Shadowchasers every detail she learned about Jalie's plan in hopes that they stop him, even though the best offer that Jalal gives her is to reinstate her original sentence, which would mean being turned back into a cat and spending the rest of her life in a cage.
Lareth the Beautfiul
A notorious and infamous cult-leader, he is the chosen heir of the Dark God.
- Signature Card: Demon King Dragon Beelze in his Sealed Beast deck.
- Threat Backfire: Telling a former Marine that he "doesn't have the guts" to use the magical blunderbuss he's pointing at you is not a good idea, as he quickly finds out when it turns out that Dugan does have the guts.
- Vader Breath: Sort of. Due to spending years in a place where the air is unsuitable for breathing, Lareth tends to breathe heavily as a result.
The Dread Emperor
Whether he's a Doomdreamer or not is unclear, but he's at least an ally of them, and he deserves special mention.
- Ambiguous Ending: Like Leorin, his fate by the end of Torment is left unknown. It is up to the reader to determine whether or not he was killed or was victorious in his battle with Leorin.
- Authority in Name Only: He doesn't seem to be the emperor of anything. In fact, he not only answers to the Triad, he's very much afraid of them.
- Berserk Button: And very easy to press. He's been known to level a whole city block if even one resident of it makes him angry.
- Brainwashing for the Greater Good: The Dread Emperor's stragety in duels. He summons Lava Golem and Grinder Golem to his opponents side of the field and then uses Owner's Seal and Remove Brainwashing effects to return them to his side.
- Epic Fail: By blowing up the bar he was in, the Dread Emperor accidentaly created a dead magic zone, rendering magic useless. Being stuck in it is why he duels Ben. Or so he and everyone else believes. In truth, the Triad created the zone and let him sweat it out until the last minute as punishment for disobeying them at some point in the past.
- Expy: Of the Dread Emperor from certain Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks. The only differences between the Shadowchasers and D&D versions is that the former has black armor and is a duelist (sometimes) while the latter has gold armor and fights without card games.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Exactly what he's up to isn't known, and he seems to be working independently from the Triad, even though he ultimately answers to them. He seems to be looking for something, and is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way while he looks for it, but no-one knows exactly what.
- Insane Equals Violent: Wanted posters with his description say that he's a "sociopath and extremely dangerous", and they aren't kidding. After an ogrillion tries to apprehend him on his own, Duncan lambasts the poor guy while he's receiving medical attention.
- Magic Knight: He is capable of magic, and very powerful magic at that.
- Meaningful Name: Inverted. He does not appear to be an emperor at all.
- Obviously Evil: If his scary, black armor isn't enough of a clue, the four children that are bound to his belt by Slave Collars and clearly under some form of mind control clinches it.
- Stupid Evil: Not exactly Stupid Evil, but more like "Obvious lapse in judgement" evil. The Dread Emperor runs across Ben while trying to escape the dead magic zone he created, and despite knowing the authorites are around looking for him, he duels Ben. The only reason why the duel continues when the Shadowchasers do find him is Ben's chance to get information about his past.
- Would Hurt a Child: It's almost a certainty. The four children chained to his belt under Mind Control don't look like they've been treated well, and after the spell holding them is broken, all they can do is scream hysterically until a medic can force them to sleep using sedatives.
- "You!" Exclamation: His reaction when Leorin confronts him in the final scene of Torment.
Marcus Hape
A mysterious man who alllies himself with the Doomdreamers and provided the Dark Forge cards used in
Torment.
In truth, he is Leorin's Mortality, cast off from Leorin when Ravel made him immortal. However, he likes being immortal, and will do what is nessecary to make sure Leorin remains cursed.
Madame Xane
A mysterious old woman who is an enigma even to other Doomdreamers.
It is later revealed that she is actually a follower of St. Cuthbert and was waiting to see if Leorin was worthy of redemption.
Panik
Roxy
A young recruit of the temple, she has personal reasons to oppose Nichole.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Uses an Insect deck during her first appearance.
- The Rival: To Nichole.
- Signature Card: Insect Queen
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: In a rare case of a villain doing this to another villain, she tells Panik to clam up in the middle of his villainous rant at the end of Torment as they are both taken into custody.
Graves
Not truly a Doomdreamer, he works for them out of a self-imposed belief that he owes them a debt.
- Anti-Villain
- Battle Butler: While not really a butler, he does seem to act like this for Tiberius.
- Heel–Face Turn: After Nichole promises him that the Shadowchasers would help him clear things out with his wife and daughter. By the end of Torment, he is willing to testify about the activities of the Doomdreamers.
- Noble Demon: Despite working for the Doomdreamers, he still maintains a sense of honor and righteousness. It is revealed that he only helps because he feels indebted to Tiberius for curing his daughter Sandra of a major illness. Later on though, he realizes that Tiberius probably had a hand in causing the illness in the first place and is ashamed with himself for serving a man who was clearly a monster.
- Only Sane Man: He is quite likely the only truly lucid person working for the Doomdreamers who isn't plotting against them.
- Samurai: His deck motif.
- Signature Card: Determined Daredevil
- Token Good Teammate: Among the Doomdreamers considering he isn't even one.
Shelly Kirkson
Another young recruit who joined the Doomdreamers for the reason the members of most cults do, only to get in over her head.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: A runaway, scared and confused, taken in by a doomsday cult and subjected to a horrifying proceedure that tore off her left arm and replaced it with a demon's arm... Compared to most examples of this trope, she lucked out.
- Escape Artist: After getting her demonic graft, her behavior was erratic even by the cult's standards, so Tiberius had her locked up in a cell in room with a magical item that had a calming effect on such members. However, Shelly kept breaking out and leaving the Temple of All-Consumption for "fun", apparently doing so three times in one month. After being brought back after the third time, after the Shadowchasers learned too much, Tiberus threatened her with the usual punishment for failures if it happened again. That apparently convinced her to stay put.
- Harmful Healing: Her deck revolves around using Nurse Reficule the Fallen One's effect to turn cards that give the opponent Life Points to instead damage them.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: After the fall of the Temple of All Consumption and becoming far more lucid, all she - and her parents - want is to put the whole thing behind her. However, doing that means first getting rid of the demonic graft that has replaced her left arm. At the end of Ascension, this is successfully done.
- Naughty Nurse Outfit: In "Ascension", Huszi gives her a Fusion Monster called Death Injector Reficule, a fusion of Nurse Reficule the Fallen One and Injection Fairy Lily. The monster is Lily in an outfit that look more like a slut than anything this sort of costume typically suggests.
Tharzidun
The Mad God himself. Imprisoned long ago by the other gods, he is unable to do little more than communicate with her followers whom try to release him. If where to ever be released from his prision, bad things would happen.
- Ax-Crazy: Along with most of his worshipers. It's a requirement for being a Doomdreamer, pretty much.
- The Dreaded: His name is almost universally feared and reviled by most sentient races, and even by most divine beings old enough to remember the original conflict. He has very few worshippers because of his reputation, and has often had to fool mortals into worshiping him by using pseudonyms to hide his identity and using cults of more respectable evil gods as fronts for his. Only the most insane and nihilistic of mortals who worship him truly know who they are devoting themselves too.
- Eldritch Abomination: Before he was imprisoned, Tharizdun's most powerful servants were demons called the Brotherhood, monsters that were created by Doomdreamers from captive humans in foul rituals. They were hideous even comapared to other demons, and incredibly clever. Fortunately, when Tharizdun was imprisoned, the ritual used to create them was lost, and all but the most powerful Doomdreamers became unable to control the ones that remained. The creatures appear in the final chapter of Torment, when Lareth uses Monster Cards that depict them.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Tharzidun is not happy about the Triad's plan to leave Tiberius, Lorelei, and Lareth behind after Chicago switches with Dark Chicago. He tells the Triad he will provide enough energy to transport the Temple of All-Consumption as well but Dugan, Nichole, and Karl must be defeated in battle to be used as sacrifices.
- Although the real reason is that he wanted Lareth to become his Avatar.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Describes him in a nutshell, along with anyone who worships him.
- Sympathy for the Devil: According to an obsucre myth, Tharizdun was once a celestial being of goodness and light, but was corrupted and driven mad by the Great Old Ones. The gods who opposed him could not kill him, despite the danger he caused, because doing so would cause even greater evil to regain the power they invested in him.
The Triad
The leaders of the Doomdreamers (aside from Tharzidun), the Triad's goal is to break the seal imprisoning their master, the Mad God Tharzidun. If you see them, it usually is a bad thing. Talking to them makes even other Doomdreamers nervous, while humans who aren't Doomdreamers are often too frightened to move in their presence. The members of the Triad are the First, an old man with vast magical power, the Second, an aboleth, and the Third, a young woman.
- Blow You Away: The Third is a genasi, a rare type of Shadow-Touched whose Shadowkind parent was an elemental spirt; in her case, a Wind Spirit. Her mastery over this element is supposedly so great, that she was able to defeat the Lord and the Bride of the Yokai House of the Howling Gale at the same time in a wizard's battle by herself.
- Deadpan Snarker: The First seems to be one at times. Although the Second can be one as well.
Second: "Now this is entertaining."
First: "You said that about the War of 1812."
First:"I hope we never go through that again,"
"'Our god appointing an avatar, and then him being soundly defeated?'" asked the Second.
The First and the Third looked at the aboleth.
"No," said the First, annoyed. "The War of 1812…"
- Karma Houdini: They were never apprehended at the end of Torment, and as of the latest fic in the franchise, have yet to appear again.
- Oh, Crap!: The Triad have a collective one when Tharzidun manifests an avatar in a rage in response to their You Have Out Live Your Usefulness attempt below.
- Orcus on His Throne: At least this is the case in Torment, where there is no conflict between them and the protagonists at all. However, there are hints that they occasionally take a more hands-on role in running the cult.
- The Smart Guy: While all three of them are rather intelligent, the Second would probably be the most intelligent, due to it's extremely long lifespan.
- Stupid Evil: Not exactly stupid, but one of their ideas was something that probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but went very wrong. They stole a Talisman of Pure Good and thought that if they soaked it long enough in a liquid that was basically distilled Evil, it would turn into a Talisman of Ultimate Evil. To say such a thing was dangerous for the Doomdreamers to have around was an understatement, and after finding true redemption, Leorin was eventually able to use it to send Lareth to his doom.
- The Unfought: The Shadowchasers never actually fight or confront them directly in Torment; they only view the three-on-three as spectators from another place.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Triad's plan in Torment was to switch Chicago with it's Evil Counterpart. However, they never planned on transporting the Temple of All-Consumption in the process, thus leaving Tiberius, Lorelei, and Lareth at the mercy of the Shadowchasers and the U.S. Army. Tharzidun does not approve.
