Henry Stauf

Henry Stauf is the main character from the 7th Guest series and also serves as the games' main antagonist. Unlike most villains, Henry Stauf almost never engages with the protagonist of either games directly. A psychopath, Stauf uses puzzles and games to confuse his victims and offers them a twisted version of their "heart's most secret desire" should they subscribe to his demands.

Personality
Henry Stauf is very clearly an evil person. He is first depicted as a homeless drunkard who does not hesitate to murder a church choir woman to steal a twenty dollar bill. Psychotic, sadistic, cruel, unpleasant, manipulative and unclean, Stauf is almost never seen in a positive light, although one might say that he is remarkably witty.

7th Guest
It is implied in the first game that Stauf was sexually abused by his father, who he still holds malice feelings towards. Clearly disturbed, even from the beginning, Stauf was willing to murder a woman for only $20. It was during this time that Stauf started to hear "voices" which advised him to create a doll out of wood. Stauf complied and created the doll. He took the doll and his stolen $20 to a bar to squander his money on booze. The shop owner was so impressed with Stauf's doll that he offered him a roof over Stauf's head should he continue to make more dolls and toys for his daughter, an offer that Stauf excepted.

Eventually, Stauf received more visions which advised him to make more toys and eventually puzzles. Stauf was an instantly successful with every one of his creations, "a Stauf toy is a toy for life" and every body wanted one. Then, completely out of the blue, Stauf closed his toy shop unexpectedly indefinetly. Immediately afterwards, every single children who had a Stauf toy ended up dying from a strange virus. Most of the children died still clentching their Stauf doll close to their body.

Stauf closed his mansion door shut and was never seen again.

Fifteen years later, Stauf mysteriously sent out 6 invitiations out to selected unrelated guests--each of them with skeletons in their closet--for a dinner party at his mansion. He promises to provide for them "their heart's most secret desire" should they come to the mansion. Relunctedly, every guest showed up at the mansion.

Stauf rudely never played the role as host as the guests had expected him to do so. He instead, left a bowl of soup and a slice of cake for each designated guest in the dinning room. Included in the room where letters addreessed to each guest, which had Stauf privately delivering them a innocient yet disturbing introduction to their purpose.

Stauf was never seen until the second half of the game, although he uses his influences to kill off all the guests one by one. He pulled Martine through the bathroom drain, apparantly killing her, and used his magic to reanimate her corpse to have her seduce Edward. He taunted Ellinor by using her fear of blood against her and eventually transformed her into a manniquin and he indirectly manipulated Julie to murder Temple, who in turn murdered Edward, who in turn murdered Dutton, who was convinced by Stauf to stab Edward.

It was strongly implied that out of all the guests in the house, Stauf had the strongest connection with the protagonist of the game, who was delibertly kept a mystery until the last second of the game. This 7th guest turns out to be Tad, a young boy who was dared by his friends to crash the dinner party uninvited, although all he really wants to do is leave the house alive. Apparently, Stauf needed a soul, and not just anyone's soul but Tad's specific soul. The reason for this has never been specified, although it's implied that Hell itself will literally break loose.

In the scrapped bad ending of the game, Stauf manages to snatch Tad's soul for himself. He laughes maniacally as Tad's body withers and deteorates. The player (who was Tad's soul in adult form all along) would automatically turn and attempt to escape the attic and down the stairs, the walls will be pulsing and have an appearance that is similar to flesh. Although the player would never have gotten past the foyer stairs, as the screen would fade to black as Stauf's laughter increasingly gets louder.

In the canonical good ending, Stauf loses to Tad and as such loses his physical body. Stauf is now forced to apparate only in the proximity of his house as a ghost, as was seen in the sequal of the game which takes place over 50 years later.