Shadow King (Fighting Fantasy)

The Shadow King is the main villain and final antagonist of the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Night of the Necromancer. He is a demonic Death Lord who seeks to enter the Physical Plane and take it over. He is worshipped by a doomsday cult which seeks to bring about his reign, but the ghost of the Lord of Valsinore, killed by one of the acolytes, managed to thwart them.

About the Shadow King
Not much is known about the Shadow King in himself. He is described as one the Death Lords, who rules over the Realm of the Damned and all the cursed souls sent here for the afterlife. He might be one of the minor evil deities who sided with the High Lords of Evil and Chaos: the three Demon Gods Death, Disease and Decay; or at least a being of Demi-God status. What is sure is that he is on a more or less equal footing with the Demon Princes themselves, who is worshipped by many evil doers in the continent of the Old World, and perhaps in the entire world of Titan.

The Shadow King is described as a ghastly creature made of pure darkness with no visible face except from two bringt eyes; wearing a shroud and a dark armour with a crown-like helmet. (His look being likely inspired by the Nazguls and the Witch-King of Angmar.) He is a highly powerful being, whose influence alone is enough to trouble the rest of the departed souls and to cause the rise of many demons. He is able to raise undeads from the grave at will, to open gates between both sies of the Veil to send his servants to the Earthly Plane, to prevent his followers from dying, and to

Given his influence over death and afterlife, it can be guessed that he was one of Death's champions, probably linked to Death's major lieutenant Voivod the Waster. He most likely took part in the First Battle: which opposed the Gods of Titan to the Demon Gods, and escaped after his masters were banished into the Void just like Voivod and the Night Dragon, and might have forced to retreat into the Realm of the Damned.