| “ | Everything will continue to be fine as you remember who's the boss, and who's got the power. | „ |
| ~ Randall Flagg demonstrating his demonic magic to show all who is in charge. |
| “ | SeeD... SeeD......SeeD...... SeeD, SeeD, SeeD! Kurse all SeeDs. Swarming like lokusts akross generations. You disgust me. The world was on the brink of that ever-elusive 'time kompression'. Insolent fools! Your vain krusade ends here, SeeDs. The price for your meddling is death beyond death. I shall send you to a dimension beyond your imagining. There, I will reign, and you will be my slaves for eternity. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. | „ |
| ~ Sorceress Ultimecia to the "Legendary SeeDs" who dares to undo the Time Compression and tear her new "eternal" kingdom apart. |
Dark Lords, also sometimes known as Evil Overlords and Dark Overlords, are a powerfully popular theme of evildoers who are each a villain or an antagonist of near-omnipotence with evil henchmen within his or her realm, who seeks to utterly dominate the world; he or she is often depicted as a diabolical force, and may, indeed, be more a force than a personality, and often personifies evil itself. The effects of his or her rule often assert malign effects on the land as well as his subjects. Besides her or his usual magical abilities, she or he often controls great armies. In particular, it is used as a moniker in universes where it is thought that pronouncing the villain's real name will bring bad luck or represents a negative omen. Such a villain usually seeks to rule or destroy the universe around them. While most Dark Lords are male, except in parody, there are Dark Lords whom happened to be female, which made them better known as Dark Ladies. It is the polar opposite of Light Lords.
The term Dark Lord has appeared in religious context, where it refers to Satan/The Devil or other similar malevolent entities who hold powers over fiendish creatures and seek to disturb comfort and lives of people.
In fantasy literature, Dark Lord term have become something else of a cliché stemming from the success of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The main antagonist of the book, Sauron, was often referred as the Dark Lord.
On occasion, the people of Gondor in Middle-earth refer to Sauron as "The Enemy" or "The Nameless Enemy" in spite of knowing his true name, arguably starting the practice of avoiding pronouncing a Dark Lord's actual name. The reason behind it ranges from bringing up horrifying memories pertaining Dark Lord in question at best to downright triggering a disaster such as alerting the Dark Lord and his/her high-ranking minions to the speaker's location, latter which popularized by the Scottish Trope in courtesy of Lord Voldemort of Harry Potter fame.
Following the example of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings, Dark Lords and Dark Ladies that featured after him in other fantasy fictions are always depicted as immensely powerful and implacably malevolent being with a great desire of power.
Trvia
- In Japanese media and in standard Japanese fantasy settings, Dark Lords are usually referred to as "Demon Kings" (in Japanese: 魔王, Maō), "Sorcerous Kings" (in Japanese: 魔術王, Majutsu-ō), "Sorcerer Kings" (in Japanese: 魔術師の王, Majutsu-shi no ō), "Demon Emperors" (in Japanese: 悪魔の皇帝, Akuma no Kōtei), "Devil Kings" (in Japanese: デビルキングス, Debirukingusu), and "Devil Emperors" (in Japanese: 悪魔の皇帝, Akuma no Kōtei).
- In Japanese media and in standard Japanese fantasy settings, Dark Ladies are referred to as "Demon Queens" (in Japanese: 悪魔の女王, Akuma no Joō), "Sorcerous Queens" (in Japanese: 悪魔の女王, Akuma no Joō), "Sorceress Queens" (in Japanese: ソーサレスクイーンズ, Sōsaresukuīnzu), "Demon Empresses" (in Japanese: 悪魔皇后, Akuma kōgō), "Devil Queens" (in Japanese: ), and "Devil Empresses" (in Japanese: ).