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 Villains of Lodoss Evil Never Fades Away Where there is good, there is always evil. The Light and the Dark are equal, and neither can exist without the other. To this end, evil exists as an aspect of the natural order of the universe. But evil is selfish and self-destructive, and rarely runs out of control to threaten the balance between Light and Dark. It is those individuals who server neither good nor evil, light nor dark, who threaten to unleash the terrible destructive forces of chaos. And in some resides such darkness and evil that the scales of history can topple and come crashing down in a furry of war and bloodshed. These are movers and shakers of history. The men and women who throw the world into chaos in their relentless climb to power and selfish ambition. Some are not truly evil, others are as dark as the hellish-goddess Kardis herself...
Beld After the First Age of Heroes, Beld conquered Marmo and became know as the Dark Emperor. He formed a great army of monsters, dark elves, and violent men of war. And like the Demon King before him, Beld set out to bring all of Lodoss under his control. His conquering army seemed unstoppable. Fortress after fortress fell. City after city was sacked and burned. But in the climatic final battle between the joint forces of Valis and Flaim against Beld's dark army of Marmo, King Fahn stepped out to challenge his old friend to single combat. Knowing this was the decisive moment that would decide the fate of Lodoss forever, Beld accepted and killed King Fahn. Triumphant, Beld prepared to proclaim his victory. The men in Fahn's army were outraged -- even the valiant knight Kashue, King of Flaim. An arrow losed by one of Fahn's men struck Beld in the arm, and taking this opportunity to strike, King Kashue attacked and slew Emperor Beld while he was distracted. It should be noted that the death of Beld (descirbed above) does differ in the timeline of the Chronicals of the Heroic Knight than that which was in the original OAV series.
But Ashram was not truly evil, not as Beld or Wagnard. Indeed, Ashram was driven by selfish ambition, ambition that led to his downfall, but Ashram held no desire to destroy Lodoss, nor slaughter innocence. It was his dream to unit all of Lodoss under the flag of Marmo, and bring his people out of darkness into a new Golden Age. Such is not the dream of madmen or tyrants, but of true heroes. The Black Knight held no aligence to light, nor to any god or goddess -- he fought for his own believes and for his lost people. And though his heart was cold as ice, there was one small candle burning in his heart that would one day thaw his tragic soul...
After Beld was slain in the War of Heroes, Ashram took the Demon Sword and returned to Marmo to lay claim to the island. Ashram was able to master the Demon, and so the Demon did not control him. But his ambitious drive overcame him when the evil Wagnard tempted him into partaking in the quest for the Scepter of Domination. Ashram set out to claim the Scepter, for he who controls the Scepter controls all of Lodoss. But in the battle against Shooting Star, the Scepter of Domination was lost. Mortified, Ashram tried to commit suicide by throwing himself in the volcano of Fire Dragon Mountain. However, Groder, his loyal subject, teleported him to safety shortly before his death. In the years that followed, Ashram continued is fight to unit Lodoss. He over threw the mad nobleman charged with governing the Marmo occupied lands of Kanon, and helped the war's refugees find safety on Marmo and other territories. As the war began to turn badly for him, Ashram took a fleet of ships with his followers and loyal subjects, setting sail to find a new land to begin again...
Wagnard's plans are eventually foiled when Spark, Parn, and the others face off with him in the heart of the Temple of Kardis. Though he failed to ressurrect the Goddess of Destruction, he succeeded in conjuring Naneel, Priestess of Kardis, who finishes the ritual. Fortunatly for all, the powers of darkness are eventually over come by the light, as Neese invokes the Everlasting Light of Marfa. Wagnard's slightly pointed ears suggest that he may in fact be a half-elf, with a dark elf some where in his ancestry, but this is never made clear.
Karla Karla truly believes that only through chaos can the balance between Light and Dark be maintained. She believes that if either side becomes too powerful Lodoss will be destroyed, just as Kastuul was destroyed. When Light and peace become the dominant force in Lodoss, Karla creates war. When Darkness and evil become to powerful, she helps create peace. And so the cycle continues, with endless battles between good and evil, war and peace, driven by the mad whims of the ancient Sorceress of Kastuul. Though she truly believes she is protecting Lodoss, and that what she is doing is good and right, few share her belief, and she is considered to be a threat to the unification Lodoss.
After the Demon King was destroyed, the balance of power in Lodoss remained stable for thirty years. When the next threat emerged from Lodoss, Beld's army and Wagnard's plans to resurrect Kardis, Karla was there to guide her kings and pawns to stopping them, and bring stability back to the balance between Light and Dark. Karla still lives on, moving from body to body, waiting, watching, and guarding. If the balance between Light and Dark ever tips again she will be there to guide a new band of heroes to play her games of destiny, fate, and war.
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Before his corruption to Darkness, Beld was a noble knight who fought at King Fahn's side to destroy the Demon King of Marmo. It was Beld himself who slew the mighty Demon King, but he paid a terrible price. He and his mighty sword were bathed in the blood of the dying Demon, and the last remnants of its soul possessed him and turned him to evil. The sword became enchanted with the Demon's power and was thereafter know as the Demon Sword Soul Crusher. He who wields the Sword rules Marmo, but the Demon rules the wielder!
Ashram
Pirotess, a beautiful dark elf warrior, swore her undying loyalty to Ashram. Though neither could open admit it, there was a bond of love forming between the two. But as a subordinate, Pirotess could not proclaim her love to him. The two stayed close through the wars and battles across Lodoss, guard each other's back in combat.
Pirotess
Wagnard
Karla, the Grey Witch, has lived for well over five hundred years. She was a powerful sorcerer in the Kingdom of Kastuul, and is its sole survivor. Her body has long since died, but she lives on, her soul enchanted upon a magical circlet. Whoever wears the circlet immediately comes under Karla's power and she lives though that body.
Since the fall of Kastuul, Karla has influenced the development of Lodoss, starting wars and ending wars as the centuries passed, using kings, heroes, and armies as pawns in the never-ending game of fate. Thirty years ago, Karla surfaced to personally take part in a war to destroy the evil Demon King of Marmo. The Demon King was such a powerful threat to Lodoss that Karla could not leave his fate in the hands of mere mortals. She joined a band of heroes (Fahn, Beld, Wort, Neese, and Frepe) on their quest to destroy the Demon King. She would not tell them her name, for if they knew she was in fact Karla, they would have tried to destroy her. Only the powerful wizard Wort recognized her as Karla, by the circlet upon her head, but he did not tell the others. Wort knew why she had come, and knew that her presence would be invaluable in destroying the Demon King.
