Zoma

"I am Zoma, master of the Realm of Darkness. Lord of the Underworld. And so long as I will it, your realm shall never be free of the pall of night. Now... SUFFER!"

- Zoma

"Very well. It seems only right that I, who will take such pleasure in your death, should deal the killing blow myself. Now come! Come to me, and show me how beautifully you die!"

- Zoma before the final battle

Zoma is the true villain and the final boss of the Famicom video game Dragon Quest III (localized as Dragon Warrior III for the NES) and its Super Famicom, Game Boy Color and iOS/Android remakes.

He's revealed to be Baramos' master; who was thought at first to be the main villain. Zoma is an even greater threat to the surface world, and this has been demonstrated by having covered the underground world where the Kingdom of Alefgard rests, in darkness and opening the Great Pit of Giaga to let the monsters invade the surface world as well. He is also involved with the disapperance of the Hero's father.

Zoma resides beneath Charlock Castle, in an underground lair called Zoma's Citadel; within Alefgard, the land of eternal darkness.

Appearance
He has blue skin, just like the Dragonlord's sorcerer form and Hargon, his eyes are black and has four fingers on each hand with long, white claws. He wears an orange robe with a prominent collar, pink shoulder pads and a salmon cape. Around his neck, circling his robe's collar, is a horned skull necklace. Finally, he wears a black helmet with bone-colored horns and an eye design in its center.

It's implied that he's really huge, but his size has varied from game to game: In Dragon Quest III, he's large enough to rip through Earth's mantle and his field sprite is bigger than any other. In the Monsters games, however, he's also remarkably tall but he's only twice as big as the Dracolord or Hargon. He usually adopts the stance he originally had in DQIII (the monster's sprites were immobile in the earlier DQ games), looking at the player with his hands up front. This is how some of the works that parody Dragon Quest usually reference him (see Trivia).

Other appearances

 * He can be fought in Dragon Quest IX as a Legacy Boss if his map is obtained. It can be earned from a bird in Cringle Coast after completing Quest #167, "Who's a Pretty Boy?".


 * In Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2, he's an X-Rank monster of the Unknown family that can be synthesized by using a Malroth and either a  Captain Crow, a Wight King or a Dullahan in Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2


 * He's one of Nokturnus' finest warriors in Dragon Quest Battle Road Victory and the final boss of the Dragon Quest III story arc.

Trivia

 * Tenshizoma.gif from Touhou Project with Zoma's pose in a DQIII parody.]]Zoma is not that known outside of Japan, but within its country of origin, it is one of the most popular villains in videogames; Dragon Quest III ranked third in a videogame player's choice poll made by Famitsu; this made it the highest Famicom game in said poll.
 * His fame is even referenced in his Dragon Quest IX Bestiary entry, where it states that "His unparalleled evil made him very popular with monsters, but he left the lands above to escape his screaming fans."
 * Due to this level of fame, he has been the subject of numerous fanworks, parodies and all kinds of references in other media, both official and unofficial. Usually when this happens, the bad guy will adopt Zoma's stance, even when the work in question is not an RPG per se.
 * The Ancient Ones from the horror thriller, The Cabin in the Woods, are remarkably similar to Zoma: both are monsters who have been given a god status, both live at the earth's core and are gigantic enough to have claws that can tear through the earth's mantle. Both are always vigilant on how their pawns are managing the world above; and the eeriest part, though not entirely verified for DQIII, is that both could have used their minions as means of entertainment as they could easily destroy the world whenever they felt like it: The Ancient Ones held different rituals for each region and even then, the monsters The Organization sends for each ritual are different. Given the fact that Baramos was not the only one of its species, and Zoma having other minions like King Hydra at his disposal, it is possible that the Hero's world was not the only one he sent his minions to terrorize.