Dynast Grausherra

The central antagonist in the final arc of the Slayers Novels. Supreme King Dynast Grausherra is one of the five Mazoku Lords (Demon Lords) created by the Ma-o (Demon God) Ruby Eye Shabranigdo. Like any other mazoku, his goals are to awake his dormant God and to destroy the world, so that the mazoku kind could dwell the Sea of Chaos: the source of all creation. He manipulates the events from the shadows, since the beginning of the ninth novel to the end of the thirteenth one, where he is defeated by the protagonists. However, it is only in the fourteenth novel that his true scheme is put into motion, which results in awakening the fragment of Shabranigdo dormant within a young mercenary named Luke.

Overall presentation
Supreme King Dynast Grausherra is the Mazoku Lord of War and Ice, who rules over the frozen wasteland of the north, the Slayers counterpart of the North Pole. In the Slayers Novels, he only appears under the appearance of Wells Zeno Gairia, the King of Dills whose place he usurped to serve his scheme. Under this disguise, he is described as a muscular man in his thirties, with long black hair and aristocratic support.

Like any other mazoku in the series, Dynast Grausherra isn’t a flesh and blood being but an Evil spirit who resides in the Astral Plane of the Slayers World. As such, he musts create an avatar of himself to be present on the Physical Plane. Being a high-ranking mazoku, he can shapeshift his avatar to any aspect he wants and makes it imitate any lifeform perfectly.

His human-like earthly avatar is depicted as a very young man with short black hair, stern face and aristocratic manners, clad in rich black and white clothes or in a silver armor. His true astral form is depicted as a purple-eyed giant, with a dark spiked armor; and is described in the novels as a huge shadowy figure. Personality-wise, Dynast is described as cold, calculating, arrogant, refined and cruel. He is extremely intelligent, cunning and manipulative, rivaling with Shabranigdo's right-hand-man Hellmaster Phibrizzo in terms of intellect. (He also shares a remarkable actor talent with his "brother," given that they both pretend to be genuine humans in a very convincing way.) This intelligence is demonstrated by the complicated multi-layered plan he devised in the Slayers Novels and its near-perfect fruition.

Dynast wields all the powers and the Black Magic befitting a demon of his level. These powers include: to retreat into the Astral plane, to act on the Physical plane while he remains in the Astral, to teleport, shapeshift and make levitate his earthly avatar, (as well as other things and people) to create things, to change the weather, to open a sub-dimensional plane, among others. Being the Demon Lord of War, he is also extremely skilled with swords and other weapons, and well versed into war and military strategy. He also completely controls the element of Ice, and even controls the element of Lightning to a lesser extend. The Black Magic Spells that draws upon his own power are the Dynast Breath (a devastating ice attack which freezes the target solid and shatters it) and the Dynast Brass. (a devastating pentagram of lightning)

Birth and Background
At the beginnig was the Sea of Chaos and its personification, the genderless Lord of Nightmares. (refered to as a she in spite of her masculine title) Through her dreams, the Lord of Nightmares created four different Worlds with a Demon God, embodiment of Evil, and a Dragon God, embodiment of Good, in each one of them.

In the Slayers World, the Demon God, Ruby Eye Shabranigdo battled the Dragon God, Flare Dragon Ceifeed during many millenia. At some point around 5000 years before the events of the Slayers series, Shabranigdo created five Mazoku Lords: Hellmaster Phibrizzo, Supreme King Dynast Grausherra, Chaos Dragon Garv, Greater Beast Zelas Metallium and Sea Queen Deep Sea Dolphin. At the same time, Ceifeed created four Dragon Lords: Aqualord Ragradia, Airlord Valwind, Earthlord Rangort and Firelord Vrabazard. Shortly after, the two deities defeated one another, Ceifeed being having his body destroyed and his spirit scattered all around the world, and Shabranigdo being divided in seven parts which were sealed into human souls.

The Demon and Dragon Lords established themselves in the world and created subordonates; each Demon Lord spawning two high-ranking demons to serve them, one Priest and one General, except Zelas who created one mazoku to fulfil both roles, this mazoku named Xellos, is as such the strongest high-ranking demon below the Mazoku Lords themselves.

Over 1000 years before the start of the Slayers series, Hellmaster Phibrizzo staged a war between several human nations. He then worsened the conflict, before swarming the lands with lesser demons. His objective was to gather enough negative emotions to awake the fragment of his master, which he had discoverd sealed in the archmage Lei Magnus. He eventually succeeded and the newly awoken “Demon King of the North” took command of the demon armies in a worldwide war against the dragon kind. So began the War of the Monster’s Fall, perhaps the worst conflict in history.

During this war countless of dragons, demons, humans and other creatures were killed, including Dynast’s Priest and General. The five Demon Lords managed to make the knowledge of Holy Magic (the most useful weapon against them) almost disappear from the world, by destroying many of Ceifeed’s temples. After that, Dynast joined Phibrizzo, Zelas and Dolphin in the creation of the Mazoku Barrier: a gigantic forcefield which separated a huge portion of the world from the other continents. This barrier cut the Slayers World in two and prevented the dragons trapped inside from casting Holy Magic, thus drastically weakening them.

The war ended with no defined winner after the death of the Dragon Lord Ragradia. The Demon Lord Garv has been fused with a human soul and Lei Magnus-Shabranigdo has been sealed forever in the everlasting ices of the Kataart Mountains.

Dynast later created another Priest and another General (who is named Sherra) in order to replace the two who fell during the war. Other sources states that he directly created two Priests and two Generals, who are as such much weaker than the other high-ranking mazokus, but these sources were contradicted by Hajime Kanzaka, the creator of the Slayers Series.

Dynast then spent the following millenium recuperating the power he used to create his new servants, and he also served as a sort of spokeperson for Lei Magnus-Shabranigdo, who is imprisoned near Dynast's own domain.

Dynast Grausherra's masterplan
The ninth Slayers Novel begins some time after the death of Hellmaster Phibrizzo. It's worth nothing to note that the third and fourth seasons of the Slayers anime series, which describes event unrelated to the novels, can be inserted between. The primary protagonist, the sorceress Lina Inverse and her friend the swordsman Gourry Gabriev are looking for a powerful magical sword for Gourry, whose legendary Sword of Light was taken away. They soon befriend two fellow adventurers: a powerful, young swordsman and sorcerer named Luke and his girlfriend, the sorceress Millina.

The four of them notes that the land is swarming with mazokus, half-demons, and that several mysterious people clad in black are plotting something linked to this unnatural mazoku activity. These guys in black are looking for a magical sentient sword, able to turn anyone it strikes into half-mazoku chimeras, and are targetting a young girl named Sherra; whom the protagonist protect, but who ultimately appears to be a high-ranking mazoku and the actual owner of the sentient sword. She is revealed to be Dynast Grausherra's General. To which Lina mockingly replies that the Mazoku Lord lacks imagination when it comes to name his subordinates.

The protagonists then discovers that several people all around the world are plotting to raise armies and take over their lands.

First, they are hired as bodyguards by Larvas, the ruler of the city of Solaria. But they soon learn that Larvas is an impostor, and the leader of the guys in black. Larvas' true name is Bergis and he wants to raise a powerful army of chimeras for military uses. He was the king of the country of Ruvinagard, until his own people discovered his schemes and exiled him as well as his royal guards, (who are now the guys in black) The protagonists manage to kill Larvas and his followers, who all turned themselves into powerful chimeras, but only to discover another plot in Crimson Town.

Cairius, the chief counselor of the lord of Crimson Town is leading a rebellion in the Sorcerer's Guild to take over the city. Later, a young girl named Bell uses a magical sword that absorbs people abilities and turns them into half-mazokus, to kill Cairus, whom she was forced to marry. It is then revealed that Bell is the true head of the plot and that the sword she uses is the very same that the sword owned by Sherra, Dynast's General. This sword is actualy a mazoku named Doogolfer, who assumes the physical form of a sword.

The protagonists later goes to Gairia, the capital of the kingdom of Dills. The city was almost destroyed by mazokus, and the king of Dills, Wells Zeno Gairia is raising a huge army of mercenaries to protect his country. Among these mercenaries, an extraordinarily skilled female warrior named Sherra, has quickly risen to the rank of general. Knowing Sherra's true nature and fearing that she might manipulate the king, like she seemingly manipulated the other conspirators, the gang resolves to investigate. Helped by two high ranked warriors of the army of Dills, they discover that many of the king's advisors have been turned into half-mazoku by Sherra and her mazoku-sword. They manage to confront Sherra whom they defeat and who dies with a smile on her face. The king of Dills rewards them for that.

But the crisis isn't over yet in Gairia. The city is still swarmed with mazokus and the warriors who helped the protagonists to defeat Sherra have been turned into half-mazoku. There is obviously another high-ranking mazoku hidden in town.

The gang later meets Milgazia, leader of the Gold Dragons of the Dragon's peak, and Memphis a lady elf who owns a perfect Zanaffar Armor: an immensely powerful artifact which can cancel magic by severing the links to the Astral Plane and can also summon a huge beast of light. These two newcommers joins forces with the gang in order to put and end to the mazoku's plot.

They all return to Gairia and ultimately discover that the king is in fact Supreme King Dynast Grausherra in disguise. All the recents events were manipulated from the shadows by the Demon Lord, as parts of a complicated scheme to start a second War of the Monster's fall:

- Dynast first impersonated the king Wells Zeno Gairia but kept him alive, most likely to learm how to act exactly like him. (He cursed the real king, turning him into a giant chunk of flesh, immortal but condemned to an endless suffering.)

- As the king of Dills, Dynast now held a great political power in the human side. He had mazokus destroy the town, in order for him to raise an army pretending to protect his kingdom. This would enable him to start a war between humans and mazokus with a feet in both sides, to better control the situation.

- He then ordered Sherra to travel all around the continent and manipulate more or less directly several plots, where some people would try to take over their land or their city and if greedy enough, they would also raise armies and try to extend their conquest. Thus adding several sides in the upcoming war.

- Pretending to be a mercenary, who rose in rank in the army of Dills, would enable Sherra to remain in constant contact with her lord without raising suspicions, and would attract the attention on Sherra only, should the plot be discovered.

Lina and her allies engage a fight against the Demon Lord, but even at six versus one they are absolutely no match for him. Memphis manages to put her Zanaffar Armor on Dynast, cutting him from the Astral Plan and preventing him from using his formidable magical powers, but even with his sole physical strenght and skill with weapons, Dynast's earthly avatar still overwhelms them. The tide turns when Dynast breaks Gourry's blade, revealing an extremely powerful magical weapon, known as the Blast Sword underneath. (This sword was so powerful that it couldn't be controlled, so it was encased in another blade.) Lina ultimately manages to destroy Dynast's avatar with the Ragna Blade spell. Dynast doesn't die but he can no longer manifest himself in the Physical Plane until he has completely recovered.

Now that Dynast Grausherra's ambitions are stopped, Milgazia and Memphis depart after having rewarded the four protagonists. But this isn't over yet.

The gang soon arrives in Sellentia, a city famous for its temples; one for the Dragon God Ceifeed and one for each Dragon Lord. It appears that the city's Head Priest died in a fire that also destroyed the temple of Ceifeed, and that the High Priests of the four Dragon Lords are fighting for the position. Later, Airlord Valwind's High Priest is killed and Luke and Millina are hired as bodyguards by Aqualord Ragradia's High Priest, Kereth Rolentio.

Earthlord Rangort's and Firelord Vrabazard's High Priests soon declare war to each other and hire assassins to fight for them. During one of the ensuing fights Millina is fatally wounded with a poisoned dagger and the only one able to save her, Rangort's High Priest refuses to do so because she works for one of his rivals. Millina dies and Luke, overcome with grief and hatred kills Rangort's and Vrabazard's High Priests. Rolencio himself only owes his life to Lina's and Gourry's intervention.

It is then revealed that the fire which destroyed the temple of Ceifeed and killed the Head Priest was caused by a mazoku following Dynast Grausherra's orders. This mazoku also influenced all four High Priests to wage war against one another, by making them hear voices which sounded like divine orders. These voices were telling them to become the next Head Priest even if it meant killing the others. The entire situation was in fact another one of the many coups d'état staged by Dynast.

Dynast Grausherra's main goal now becomes clear. He wanted to awake the fragment of the Demon God Ruby Eye Shabranigdo, which he discovered within Luke's soul, all along. To do so, he instructed all the mazokus overseeing his many coups d'état to have Millina killed, so that Shabranigdo would be awoken by Luke's grief and hatred. Which worked flawlessly. Dynast most likely hoped that Luke-Shabranigdo would take command of the mazoku armies, and would finish the second War of the Monster's Fall that Dynast himself started. One can also guess that Dynast hoped that Luke-Shabranigdo would fuse with Lei Magnus-Shabranigdo.

Hopefully Dynast Grausherra's plan doesn't end the way he wanted to. In fact, Luke's mourning over Millina proves to match the Demon God's evil influence and Luke retains sufficient control long enough for him to choose to let fate decide. He then challenges Lina and Gourry to a fair fight and Lina ultimately manages to destroy Luke-Shabranigdo, using her friend's longing for death as a weapon and granting his final wish.

212.198.143.218 19:04, March 21, 2010 (UTC)