Redcloak

Redcloak is one of the main antagonists in the D&D themed fantasy webcomic ''The Order of the Stick. ''He is the goblin advisor to the undead sorceror Xykon, the comic's main antagonist.

Start of Darkness
We first see Redcloak (who at this point has no such title) 34 years before the main comic takes place living amongst a small society of goblins. The goblins are suddenly invaded by a small force of elite Sapphire Guard paladins. Nearly all the goblins are slaughtered, including Redcloak's mentor, the bearer of the Crimson Mantle. As his friends and family are murdered around him, Redcloak sees a vision of the spirit of his former mentor, who instructs him to don the Crimson Mantle. Redcloak obliges warily, and as he does, suddenly learns all the secrets of the goblin deity, The Dark One. Thanks to his new found power, Redcloak can esacpe the paladins, and as he so he saves his little brother, who has had one eye sliced out by one of the paladins. The two are the only ones to survive the massacre.

Four years later, Redcloak and a small army of goblin warriors are preparing to lay seige to an Azurite fort. Just before they launch their attack, they are interrupted by a group of lizardfolk who begin killing the humans. Redcloak and his brother's attention is then diverted to Xykon, who is flying up above. They see him start slinging destructive spells at humans and lizardfolk alike. The two goblins manage to negotiate an alliance with Xykon, and receive the name they will be known as for the rest of the comic: Redcloak and Right-Eye.

Redcloak and Right-Eye take Xykon to an evil diner, where Redcloak reveals a plan to take over the world. He seeks control of The Snarl, a god-killing abomination locked inside the planet. He needs Xykon to do the ritual which will unlock the gate holding The Snarl in its prison, and then he can use The Snarl as a weapon to create an equal world where low-level humanoids receive the same privilages as the humans, elves, dwarves and halflings.

The threesome and their goblin batallion enact this plan three years later. The gate is within Lirian's Glade, and guardded by a large group of elves and forest creatures. Though the goblin army originally has the upper hand, they are defeated by Lirian's 'Guardian Virus', which removes the magic from the goblin spellcasters, and most importantly Xykon, whose unequaled power is lost, reducing him to a feeble old man. He and the goblins are captured and locked in an underground prison from which they seemingly can't escape. However, due to the Crimson Mantle, Redcloak is unaffected by the Guardian Virus. He conducts a ritual to transform Xykon into a lich. As an undead, Xykon is no longer affected by the virus, and retains all his former power. He blasts the goblins out of their prison. Redcloak goes straight away to seize the gate, but accidentally destroys it in a forest fire. He believes all is lost, but is wrong - for Xykon has just obtained the knowledge that Lirian's Gate is jsut one of five gates dotted across the world, so they have more chances to gain power over The Snarl.

After becoming tiresome of Xykon's unrelenting evil, Right-Eye leaves 'Team Evil' to start a family in a small goblin village. Redcloak does not join him until eighteen years later, after Xykon goes missing. Still keen to carry out 'The Plan', Redclaok has his eyes on a mysterious monster who resides in the shadows. He is childlike in nature, but Redcloak knows him to be extremely powerful. One night Redcloak, assisted by his nephew Ridiziak, breaks the Monster in the Darkness out of the circus he belongs to. After the mission is successful, Xykon arrives in the goblin settlement. He orders everyone out their homes to join his army. Redcloak, Right-Eye and his family reluctantly accept.

Redcloak's final scene in Start of Darkness is set some six months before the start of the comic. Xykon, Redcloak and Right-Eye are trying to coax the mage Dorukan out of his castle, the location of the next gate. Right-Eye now hates Xykon passionately, after he watched and laughed as adventurers killed his family. As Xykon and Dorukan engage in a duel, Right-Eye flies up to kill the lich. Torn, Redcloakultimately decides to kill his own brother, believing it to be for the good of the goblin people. When queried about Right-Eye's death, he lies to Xykon, telling him that he fell while flying up to help him. He refuses to animate his brother as a zombie. Xykon knows the truth, and delivers Redcloak a speech on how he will never be able to accept the truth, and thus Xykon will always have power over him. Redcloak grudgingly accepts this as Team Evil takes Dorukan's castle.

Dungeon Crawlin' Fools
When The Order of the Stcik reach the bottom of the Dungeon of Dorukan, the team leader Roy throws Xykon into the gate, blowing him into pieces. The Order is unaware that he actually still lives in the phylactery Redcloak wears round his neck. As they leave, Elan destroys the gate and the castle in the process.

No Cure for the Paladin Blues
Redcloak and Xykon travel to a library in tower containing a book with the locations of the rest of the gates. By a mad turn of events, Redcloak ends up Supreme Leader of tens of thousands of hobgoblins. He leads the march to the next gate - in Azure City.

War and XPs
To be completed after editing