Zordrak

"I will have the Dreamstone. The end of nice dreams, there will only be nightmares."

- Zordrak

Zordrak is the primary antagonist of the animated television series The Dreamstone. He is the Lord of Nightmares and the mortal enemy of the Dream Maker, bent on filling every slumber in the world with nightmares. He rules the Land of Nightmares of the Sleeping World from the Black Mountain of Viltheed.

Zordrak looks like a blue, humanoid dragon, with red and yellow eyes and two tusks at the tip of his snout, clad in navy blue robes and a cloak with metallic shoulder pads. (His cloak is sometimes coloured purple.) He is truly gigantic, standing over twenty meters high and speaks in a deep, frightening voice.

He is voiced by Gary Martin.

He was once part of the council of the Dream Makers, but he was banished to the Land of Nightmares by the sentient Planet Dreamstone itself, for turning peaceful dreams into nightmares for his personal gain. From then on, he established his realm there and entered an open conflict with the Dream Maker.

Zordrak is immensely powerful, so much that his mood is enough to influence his surroundings. He can breathe purple, thunder-filled clouds over entire lands, cast spells, turn people into stone and hurl bolts of energy, among other things. He is also able to separate his mind from his body, with his mind appearing under a purple mist-like shape able to possess sleeping people, and his body turning to stone. If he were not to return his body in due time, it would crumble into dust, a prospect that his servants quite enjoy.

Zordrak commands the Urpneys, an entire army of humanoid soldiers with fat noses and reptilian tails, who are all goofy, clumsy and cowardly, making a striking contrast with their frightful lord. Yet, being such a little threat enables them to enter the Land of Dreams without triggering the Dreamstone's wards. He also controls the Argorribles, living nightmares looking like purple spectres, and the shark-like Frazznats.

The most notable Urpneys are Urpgor, a green-skinned mad scientist, and Sergeant Blob, the overweight commander of Zordrak's army. Urpgor and Blob hate each other and are constantly fighting for Zordrak's approval. There is also Blob's underlings Frizz and Nug who would rather spend their time at home than in missions.

Zordrak wants to steal the magical Dreamstone, the source of all dreams, from the Dream Maker's tower. If he were to destroy it, nothing could keep his nightmares at bay any longer and he would be able to shape every slumber following his own design. With the Dream Maker being as powerful as he is, and the Planet Dreamstone preventing him from leaving Viltheed, he is forced to entrust his soldiers to steal the Dreamstone for him. He also sometimes sends his men to capture someone he wants to add to his collection of statues.

In almost every episode, Sgt Blob, Frizz and Nug go to the Land of Dreams and use Urpgor's latest invention in an attempt to steal the Dreamstone. But in several episodes, Zordrak takes the matter in his own hand and things get much more dangerous: like when he possesses Amberley, the primary female protagonist, when he creates a solid Argorrible powerful enough to destroy the Dream Maker's palace, or when he leads his entire forces in a full-scale attack against the Land of Dreams. At first, Zordrak threatened to feed Blob and his underlings to the Frazznats, (like he did with Blob's predecessor Captain Crigg) or to turn then into stone should they fail. Yet, he later decided that punishing them for their repeated failures would be counter-productive, considering that despite all odds they got their hands on the Dreamstone more times than any Urpney before them.

Throughout the entire show, Zordrak manages to successfully steal the Dreamstone four times, one for each series. And when each time he tries to do something with it, each time the Noops protagonists Rufus and Amberley manage to rescue it.
 * Series 1: The Dreamstone Special (Into Viltheed): The Dreamstone was to be forever hidden in the Pit of No Return.
 * Series 2: Albert's Ailment: The Dreamstone was to be destroyed in a Pulverizer that Urpgor provided.
 * Series 3: A Day Out: The Dreamstone was to be taken to the Nightmare Planet to be converted to evil, and from there would make Zordrak powerful enough to be Lord of the Universe.
 * Series 4: The Spider Mobile: Same as Series 3, but this time to be taken to the Planet of Doom.

During the last episode of the fist season, Zordrak got lost in space after his failed invasion, but he eventually found the evil Nightmare Stone, which he used to turn the tides. Fortunately, the protagonists managed to steal it and cast it into space. He manages to take it back at the end of the season but the protagonists, and Urpgor who did not take being fired too well, ended up sending Viltheed as a whole into space. In the final episode of the show, he managed to enter the Dream Maker's mind thanks to a special device but before he could succeed, he got trapped up into Uprgor's mind.


 * Zordrak was first meant to be named Nasta Shelfim, an anagram of "Satan himself," but the idea was eventually dropped in order not to offend anyone.
 * In one episode, Zordrak sent his mind into space to recharge his powers. He got caught in a whirlpool of time on his way back, which turned him good. As such, when his men presented him the Dreamstone which they successfully stole, he asked them to return it with apologies and flowers. Unfortunately for everyone, this did not last. And Zordrak was not pleased the slightest by this turn of events.
 * Zarag.jpgak has a sister called Zarag, whom he imprisoned in a bottle for five hundred years for disagreeing with him. She is as evil as him, but she is very vain and she wants the Dreamstone as a hair ornament for grand occasions. Despite having a rivalry with her brother, she sometimes returns as his (begrudging) ally. She is hinted to have been the Dream Maker's love interest before both siblings turned evil.