Voivod

Voivoid the Waster is the main villain and final enemy of the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Legend of the Shadow Warriors. He is the Demon of War of the World of Titan and an avatar of some sort of death itself. He once conquered the entire world of Titan, until he was sealed away by the Gods. The player must stop him once and for all as he is about to be freed by his fearsome generals, the Shadow Warriors.

Background
Voivod, also remembered as the Waster, numbers among the most powerful evil forces to ever plague the world of Titan, to a higher level than the Demon Princes themselves. He was a major, if not the most prominent, servant of Death. (The elder of the High Lords of Evil and Chaos: the Demon Gods Death, Disease and Decay, named after what mankind deems the worst scourges in existence.) He is always surrounded by his frightful Shadow Warriors, who serve as his generals and his bodyguards.

Voivod is mentioned in the Tale of the First Battle, (which opposed the Gods and the Demon Gods and ended when the Demon Gods were cast into the Void) in which he fought as one of the Demon Gods' most frightful champions. When the war was over, he managed to escape banishment and disappeared for eons. What he did after that is not known.

What is sure is that around two thousand years before the start of the gamebook, Voivod had invaded the entire world of Titan. It is said that he took down the best protected fortresses and that he reanimated the corpses of the armies that fell under his own to increase his ranks, depriving the departed of the fair rest they deserved. It is also said that wherever he went, grass and vegetation were not to grow again before long.

One day, the God King Titan and the Earth Goddess Throff fought and defeated him, though unable to kill an avatar of death they sealed him into a jail known as the Zarrikiz Shrine. The Shadow Warriors disappeared never to be seen again, but they were not imprisoned and would one day resurface to set their lord free.

Appearance and Characteristics
Voivod is a demonic personification of Death, War and Chaos. He is only represented in a picture at the very end of the gamebook, when the player manages to free his human host, (or former self) with one half demon and one half human, but he is seen tall, threatening and formidable. He wears a spiked armour darker than shadow itself, with clawed gauntlets and a diabolical-looking horned helmet, and the narration states that merely looking at him is a shattering experience.

Considering the fact that when Voivod's evil is fully destroyed he becomes human again, it can be guessed that either he was once a human corrupted to a point that no other reached before or after him, or used as a vessel by the Demon Gods to create the entity known as Voivod; or that he is an evil ethereal entity that must possess a host in order to interact with the world.

He is a formidable warrior and strategist, who fights with his armed gauntlets. (An in-universe illustration also depicts him with an axe and a sword.) As the Master of Death and War, Voivod can absorb the life force that his enemies lose under his blows and can reanimate and control undeads at will. Even worse, he cannot be defeated in a regular fight. Even if someone brave and skilled enough were to perform such a feat, he would die a gruesome death and would likely serve as the Waster's new host.

To defeat Voivod for good, one must first banish the five Shadow Warriors who protect him into the limbo. Indeed the fearsome demon is linked to his generals and cannot be defeated as long as they walk the earth. Then, should the hero survive to these encouters, Voivod can only be defeated by infusing him with lifeforce, as the weapons crafted to bring death only fuel his evil.

In Legend of the Shadow Warriors
"Be warned! Violence can never be the final answer. Evil must be left to consume itself. Your duty is to help, not to beget further chaos."

- Jack-in the-Green, the spirit of nature, telling the player how to end Voivod's evil

The story begins five years after the gruesome War of the Four Kingdoms, during which the kingdoms of Brice, Femphrey and Lendleland waged war against the prosperous kingdom of Gallantaria: the former center of the continent of the Old World, whose king was killed during the war.

Peace has returned but there is still some xenophobic conspirators who plot against the newly created alliance. More importantly, the War was violent enough to trigger the upcoming freedom of Voivod. The demonic Shadow Warriors resurfaced and laid waste on the village of Karnstein, looking for their lord's prison. As no one believes in the Shadow Warriors, who are only rememered as mere bogey men from children nursery-rhymes, the people of Karnstein's pleas for help resulted in nothing but laughter.

The player, who is a famed Gallantarian warrior and mercenary, accepts to investigate on what is happening in Karnstein (though, he or she believes that this is nothing but disguised bandits) and starts the quest. The game itself begins in Royal Lendle, the capital of Gallantaria. When the player and the villagers exit the city, theiy are attacked by the Shadow Warriors, who slay the villagers in no time. The player only survives by escaping the scene and heads towards Kartstein alone and humiliated, swearing to avenge those he could not protect.

During his/her quest, the player is approached by the Gods of Titan, who chose him/her as their champion against the Shadow Warriors and their evil lord. The player needs to find the Astrakkan Numeris, a book written by the blind numerologist Parcleasus (or to find Parcleasus himself) in order to learn where he/she could find Voivod when the time comes. The player also needs to learn everything about Voivod himself and must not waste any time. Later the Gods grant the player the mighty Spear of Doom, the holy weapon able to give life to what is dead and give death to what lives.

Depending on the path chosen, the player will have to face many evil creatures who raised because of the evil energies spread by Voivod's imminent return. Among these evils are the Mandrakes, plant-like monsters who use the cover of the Circus of Dreams to visit town where impersonate people and take their places. (The Mandrakes are based on the Pod People from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.) There is also the vampire-witch Urtha, who raised an army of Haggworts, (powerful chaotic warriors who look like scarecrows) the mad doctor Kauderwelsh, (a scientist woman who created a dangerous Frankenstein-like monster) the fearsome Nightmare Master, a Gorgon and finally a warmongering orc who is manipulating several veterans of the war.

When the player finally reaches Karnstein, exiting the dangerous mountains of the Witchtooth Line, it's already too late. Voivod has been freed by his demonic generals and if the player does not know where to find him, the earth swallows him and the game is lost.

Facing Voivod
Voivod is found in a former battlefield, where ten thousand men died and were buried, and he plans to raise them from the grave as skeleton-warriors, in order to invade Titan and take it over once more. The player can try to destroy the cursed bell that Voivod uses to raise the deads, but should he/she fail, Voivod will reduce him/her to dust in one strike. If the player attacks Voivod, he may be targetted by the skeletons that the Warlord of the Apocalypse has already raised.

Then the player must battle all the Shadow Warriors that remain to this point, and without the Spear of Doom or at least the ring of Rabbam, that cancels the ghastly creatures' special powers, these fights will prove quite hard.

Voivod himself is a powerful and dangerous enemy. He has 10 in skill (level of power) and 10 in stamina (life point) and he gains the stamina points that the player loses during the battle. Given Voivod's incredible power, his stats could have been expected higher given that he is 2 points below the maximum level of skill. (Several powerful demons exceeds this maximum.) However, one must keep in mind that with his life-devouring ability, Voivod would be nearly invincible if he were to have 12 points of skill or more. Moreover, defeating the fearsome Chaos Lord in a regular fights only leads to a failed game, as Voivod is death itself and one cannot kill death.

To defeat Voivod, the player must succesfully strike him with the Spear of Doom, without regard for his skill and stamina points, though if he/she fails Voivod will strike and absorb the lost energy. If the player depletes the Spear's lifeforce, the weapon vanishes and the only choice left would be a regular fight that cannot be truly won. Should Voivod be struck by the Spear of Doom, his evil instantly vanishes and his human host (or human self) is finally free to live normally again.

Trivia

 * "Voivoid" is a slavic term that means "warlord" or "army leader" and was used in all central and eastern Europe in Middle-Age. A fitting name for the Demon of War.
 * Voivod shares similarities with two other Fighting Fantasy villains Mortis of Balthor and Belgaroth, who are also powerful dark knights defeated long ago, who return and need a magical spear to be defeated. Belgaroth is more similar, as he is also a Chaos Lord who commands a formidable group of warriors, and whose return cause the rise of many evil creatures. Although Voivod is the most demonic, the most influent and the most overall powerful of the three, he is the medium hardest to defeat and the weakest in terms of skill and stamina.