The Shadow Lord, born as Malverlain, is the main antagonist of the Deltora Quest book series and anime TV show.
He resides in the Shadowlands and has spent centuries attempting to rule Deltora alongside his Shadow Army. He succeeds a few years after Endon is crowned King. Most of the Delta Quest series involves Lief and his allies attempting to free Deltora from The Shadow Lord's control and evil, even after he is banished from Deltora.
He is killed at the end of the TV series, but not in the book series.
In the anime, he was voiced by Mike Shepard.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
Both book and TV series[]
- He is easily the most henious villian in the series. Almost all the other villians in the series are his minions, and he is responsible for almost all the bad things in the series across the entirety of Deltora. Furthermore, he is always treated seriously and has no comedic moments.
- Hating all things that are beautiful.
- Attempted to conquer Deltora across centuries, with a countless number of resultant deaths.
- He does succeed for about a 15-year period until Lief banishes him after reassembling the Belt of Deltora. During this time, he was a terrible and cruel ruler, showing no concern for its inhabitants whatsoever, only interested in power.
- Slowly corrupting the rule of Deltora under Adin's descendants over centuries.
- Repeatedly attempts to kill Lief, Barda, and Jasmine.
- Capturing and sending many Deltorian inhabitants to the Shadowlands as prisoners. There, he forced many of them to fight in the Shadow Arena; almost all of those who fought were killed.
- Almost killing off the entire Jalis population, who had fought valiantly but unsuccessfully against the Shadow Lord.
- Implied to have increased Thaegan's already impressive magic abilities, which indirectly contributed to many of her atrocities (and which may have not been possible without this increase), most notably:
- Transforming the inhabitants of D'Or into the Lake of Tears, their leader into her loyal sea serpent Soldeen, and his wife into a statue, losing all memories of their previous lives.
- Preventing all Ralads and their descendants from speaking.
Book series exclusive:[]
- Separating and imprisoning the four Sisters, Flora, Viva, Aqua and Terra, on four separate corners on the island, because he hated their beautiful singing.
- After the above failed to stop their singing, he killed the four sisters.
- This unintentionally lead to the destruction of the island by releasing a beast who was soothed by their singing.
- Challenging his older brother Annoltis for the role of Chieftain to Dorne and attacking his two brothers for this, despite Annoltis being the rightful heir.
- Conquers the land of Pirra, transforming it into the Shadowlands.
- Attempted genocide of all dragons.
- Although he thought he had succeeded, seven had remained thanks to Doran the Dragonlover.
- Conquering Pirra by manipluating the Pirran, its original inhabitants, to separate the Pirran Pipe into three parts, leading Pirra vulnerable to the Shadow Lord's invasion.
- Tansforming Pirra into the Shadowlands, a desolate wasteland where he produces his Shadow Army.
- Experimented on many Deltorian prisoners in the Shadowlands. This included physical and mental torture, transforming some prisoners into members of his Shadow Army, forcing many to fight to the death and mass murder.
- Attempted to brainwash many if not all Deltorians as part of the Conversion Project, succeeding with a few temporarily.
- Manipulated Jasmine to trap herself, Lief and Barda by posing as an illusion of her fake sister, Faith.
- Attempting to gradually destroy Deltora through the four "Sisters" that he created.
- Manipulating Lief and his allies to destroy the four Sisters, most notably after the third Sister was destroyed, as an attempt to destroy Deltora more quickly through the grey tide.
- Mentally and sadistically tormenting Lief at multiple occasions throughout the story.
- Attempting to conquer Dorne again after the grey tide was destroyed.
Trivia[]
- He and Laughing Jack are the only two Pure Evils in the Deltora series, the latter being his minion and both being human (originally in the case of the Shadow Lord).
External links[]
- Shadow Lord at the Villians Wiki
- Shadow Lord at the Deltora Wiki