Dark Lord

"In fiction and mythology, a dark lord is an antagonistic archetype, acting as the pinnacle of villainy and evil within a typically heroic narrative." The type, "sometimes capitalized as Dark Lord or referred to as an evil overlord or evil emperor," is a setting's "embodiment of evil, darkness, or death" holding "a position of immense power," and The Encyclopedia of Fantasy notes such a being is often "already defeated but not destroyed aeons before." The archetype crystallized in 1954 with Sauron, from whom the name largely derives, and the roll call runs through Morgoth, Lord Voldemort, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine to Darkseid and Skeletor.

The dark lord is fantasy's load-bearing wall: the outer scale every smaller villain and the whole quest answer to, which is why he belongs at the top of antagonist and villain tracking from the first arc. The craft risks are distance and staleness. Distance: an embodiment of evil still needs a voice, a plan and time on the page, or the finale defeats a stranger. Staleness: the Sauron silhouette is the genre's most familiar furniture, and finding what makes a dark lord yours is one of the standing jobs of how to write fantasy.