User blog:Grizzhly/Pure Evil Proposal: Vilgefortz of Roggeveen

So, while Vilgefortz is already under the P.E. category, he apparently has not been validated yet and since I re-read the books recently, I thought I'd give it a go: Here is the proposal for Vilgefortz, the main antagonist of the Witcher novel series.

What's The Work?
While the Witcher series might be known to many through the video game series, the video games are actually based on a series of books written by Andrzej Sapkowski. The story is based in a medieval alternate universe filled with monsters, war, racism, prejudice, betrayal and political intrigue.

The main character, Geralt of Rivia is a witcher, a mutant trained to fight and kill monsters. He is connected to the young girl Ciri, through whose body flows the magical Elder Blood. Another important character is the sorceress Yennefer. Politically, the world is divided into the Northern Kingdoms and the southern Empire Nilfgaard, led by Emperor Emhyr var Emreis, which is expanding north and trying to conquer the Kingdoms.

All of these nations and people are somewhat connected to Vilgefortz and every single one is manipulated by him in order to achieve his goals.

Who is the Candidate? What They Did?
Vilgefortz is a young(ish) mage in the Northern Kingdoms and the leader of the Chapter of Sorcerers. He is extremely skilled, intelligent and charismatic and most of the sorcerers and sorceresses admire him. In addition, Vilgefortz is a war hero since he led the mages into the battle at Sodden Hill, where they fought back Nilfgaards invasion under his leadership. Vilgefortz seems to be a polite, intelligent and fair person, however, it is eventually revealed that he is a sadistic, and treacherous egomaniac. He is arrogant, vile and cruel and enjoys verbally torturing and bragging to his captives. He also admits that in his youth, he was a mercenary, spy, assassin and even raped people during his missions.

After orchestrating a meeting of the sorcerers of the Northern Kingdom under the pretext of trying to avoid war, Vilgefortz is revealed to have been conspiring with Emhyr for years. During the meeting, Vigefortz and some other loyal mages attack the Northern mages and it comes to a brutal battle. During the battle, Vilgefortz manages to escape and tries to kidnap Ciri but is stopped by Geralt of Rivia who he then brutally beats up and almost kills, only leaving him alive so that the pain can be a lesson to him.

Throughout the series, it is revealed that Vilgefortz experimented on dozens or even hundred cof young girls and women, cutting out embryos out of pregnant women or artifically impregnating them in order to further his experiments into birth, pregnancy and elder blood. The experiments were apparently so disgusting that it even bothered Sigismund Dijkstra, a veteran spymaster, and none of Vilgefortz' victims survived the experiments. Additionally, Vilgefortz also created a magic portal in the ocean to draw in nearby boats. None of th people aboard the boats survived the teleportation, but after he no longer needed it, Vilgefortz kept the portal open anyways simply because he could not be bothered to close it again.

His plan for Ciri is to artificially impregnate her in order for her to develop a placenta, which he the n plans to cut out of her. Ciris survival is not in his interest whatsoever and he makes clear that after this is done, he does not care what happens to her - he wants to sell her to the conspirator Stefan Skellen, who wants her dead. With Ciri's blood, Vilgefortz plans to perform a ritual that allows him to traverse dimensions as to be revered as an interdimensional ruler.

While initially cooprating with Nilfgaards emperor, Vilgefortz eentually betrays Emhyr since in truth, he was working for his own goals from the start. In addition to beating Geralt and hunting Ciri, Vilgefortz also captures and tortures Ciri's adoptive mother Yennefer for months while gloting and later plans to send her to skellen as a brainwashed assassin to kill his former master emperor Emhyr. When he is eventually konfronted by Geralt and his companions who want to save Ciri and Yennefer, Vilgefortz brutally engages them in battle and rips apart the vampire Regis, making especially sure that he has no option of resurrecting. In both battle with Geralt, Vilgfortz uses a fighting staff instead of killing Geralt quickly, just to prove his superiority and draw out Geralt's pain and death. During the battle, he is eventually killed by Geralt.

Despite his death, Vilgefortz' actions have severe repecussions, as his betrayal during the magical meeting cause the Northern rules to mistrust their mages drastically. His actions also weaken the North and allow Emhyr to start another war and invade the North.

Freudian Excuse/Mitigating Factors
Vilgefortz generally does not care about other people and only uses them for manipulation to his own advantage. He is not played for sympathy in any way. As a child, he was a street urchin, but was adopted by druids and raised by them, yet this minor "inconvenience" does not in any way explain or legitimize his vile actions.

The only midgitating factor I can think of is that it is mentioned that he is aware that his assistant Lydia is in love with him, but pretends he does not know so Lydia is not embarrased. However, that does not really count much and during the battle at Thanedd, Vilgefortz uses Lydias love for him to convince her to commit suicide as a distraction, so she was just a tool for him after all.

Heinous Standards
The world of Witcher is a pretty brutal world that depicts the horrors of war. Most characters are morally grey and have good and bad sides and there are some pretty bad people around. Nonetheless, I still think that Vilgefortz stands out, as none of the other villains reach his level of villainy. The only person who comes somewhat close is Leo Bonhart, who has made it his goal to break and then kill Ciri, but even he does not go as far as Vilgefortz. Vilgefortz' systematic humans experiments, his utter lack of mercy and respect for life and him betraying everyone just to rule really cements his role. He also seems to take glee in commiting his plans and watching them unfold, as he quite often brags about his superiority and his intellect.

While every other villain, like Ehmyr, Avallac'h or Eredin, want Ciri in order to have a child with her that should carry the Elder Blood, Vilgefortz' plans are far more disgusting and brutal, he wants to inseminate her, cut her open and then use her blood without any regards to Ciri's survival.

Final Verdict
For me, Vilgefortz definitely counts, as he is easily the most vile and evil villain in the Witcher series without any redeeming qualities. The rest, I leave up to the community. --Grizzhly (talk) 18:53, September 26, 2019 (UTC)