Darkhell

"I sometimes happen to give a second chance... But never a third one."

- Darkhell (sending a servant who failed him too many times fall to his doom)

Darkhell the Dark Sorcerer is the central antagonist of the French comic book series Les Légendaires (The Legendaries) and its sequel Les Légendaires : Origines (The Legendaries: Origins). He is the most prominent villain of the series, with almost every other antagonist being linked to him in one way or another. Darkhell is an extremely powerful sorcerer and the archenemy of the series' eponymous protagonists the Legendaries. Before the start of the story he ruled the country of Shiar and sought to take over the world of Alysia, but he was defeated by the Legendaries and sought dead. He was eventually revived and sought an ancient divine artifact to destroy the Elven Dimension, only to get defeated again. During the Anathos Cycle, he was recruited by the divine Guardian to prevent the return of the God Anathos.

Reing of Terror
Darkhell is a powerful sorcerer, who lived for more than one hundred and twenty years thanks to a powerful spell he cast on himself, a spell that made his skin chalk-white. At some point in the past, he took over the gloomy and hostile country of Shiar and built himself a fortress which he called the Cast-Hell. (Almost all his creations and aliases end with -Hell, causing many puns. For instance, Cast-Hell is pronouced the same way as "Castel" an old French word for "Castle".) He built an immense army of monsters that he created himself, and set out to conquer Alysia. He razed many towns and villages, sometimes making it pass for the action of other marauding armies, and built himself a frightening reputation all over the world.

Little is known about Darkhell's past. It is revealed that he used to fight against the Demon Warlock Skroa for dominion over the world, until he defeated him and turned him into a powerless bird. He then took Skroa captive and used him as a lab-rat for his experiments and other unspeakable tortures. Darkhell also came in contact with the Native-American-like tribe called the Comashawas (a pun on "Comanche" and "Comment ça va ?", French for "How do yo do?") to gain magical plants and knowledge on shamanic magic from them. Not knowing about him, the Comanshawas kept their part of the bargain but he slaughtered them all when he had no longer use for them. The only survivor of the tribe, Shaki, attacked Darkhell and gave him the scar on his right cheek, only to get stuck down with a spell and left for dead. At one point, Darkhell also created the powerful parasite known as Abyss, but he lost interest in it and left it in a bottle.

Finally, Darkhell secretly bargained with Queen Adeyrid ("a des rides", French for "has got wrikles"), the mage queen of the kingdom of Orchidia who could not bear children. Darkhell conducted experiments to enable the queen to bear a child without insemination, but he has no interest for providing a heiress for the throne of Orchidia. What he really wanted was an offspring of his own, born with the huge magical potential of Orchidia's royal line. When the child was born, Darkhell took her away by force and brought her to Shiar, calling her Ténébris and raising her as his daughter. As years went by, Ténébris became one of Darkhell's highest ranked generals, captain of his flying ship called the Hydarkos. At some point, when a young barbarian slaughtered the Army of the Thousand Wolves that razed his hometown (a crime in fact caused by Darkhell's armies, who planted false evidences), she approached him and convinced to become Darkhell's right-hand man, known and feared all over as Korbo the Red Shadow ("corbeau" being French for "crow"). Korbo and Ténébris led Darkhell's armies side by side and eventually fell in love, but Korbo defected when he learnt the truth about the attack on his hometown, taking back his original name and swearing to kill Darkhell by his own hand to atone for his crimes.

Eventually, Darkhell realized that old age would catch up to him before he could conquer Alysia. He then looked for ways to regain his youth. To that end, Darkhell went to the cursed land of Klafooty (a pun on "Clafoutis" a kind of French cake) and won the trials of the Guardian, the divine protector of the six Mystical Stones that hold power over all things. He took the Stone of Jovenia, in exchange of creating a race of plant-like beings called the Zar-Ikos ("Les Zar-Ikos" being a pun on the pronounciation of "les haricots", the French for "the beans") to populate Klafooty. Darkhell also created a magical time-travel device called the Tempor-Hell, but was unable to make it function without a power source.

Darkhell's monsters
Darkhell's army is made from batallions of powerful monsters that he created:
 * Dragonites: Large and powerful monsters looking like wingless dragons. They serve as the base of the Dark Sorcerer's army.
 * Darkhellions: Darkhell's most powerful and dangerous creations. These are giant winged monsters looking like dragons, whose spit can encase anyone in a ice-like crystalline substance to capture targets without killing them. They are also able to fire venomous stingers that turn anyone into a demonic Chaos Shade.
 * Chaos Shades: Anyone struck by a Darkhellion's stinger will automatically turn into a demonic and bloodthirsty Chaos Shade, bound to serve Darkhell for eternity. Chaos Shades look like humanoids made of shadow that can only be destroyed by spells and enchanted weapons.

Personality
Darkhell appears as a rather typical Dark Lord: cruel, ruthless, scornful, ambitious, deadly serious, cold and very threatening. He seeks power and personal gain no matter how many lives he tramples, and as Shaki puts it in, his idea of an association is to order someone around as long as he needs them and then mercilessly slaughter anyone he was involved with; to the point that the mere mention of his name is enough to frighten anyone on Alysia. Despite this, he can be very courteous to his allies, or to give genuine praises to allies and foes alike when impressed enough. He also has a strong liking for irony. Darkhell is very clever and manipulative and can play people into doing what he wants very well, as he did with the Comanshawas, Queen Adeyrid, or even Razzia-Korbo the Red Shadow who became his second-in-command because of his manipulations.

Darkhell is very collected and rarely gets angry. However, he is extremely prideful and he reacts poorly when he feels that he is mocked or worse, becomes absolutely livid whenever he gets struck in the face. And making him angry makes him much more dangerous that he already is. It must be noted that he is very cautious with his foes and tends to get ready for the worse even when the odds of him getting bested are extremely scarce.

It must also be pointed out that Darkhell has a real respect for his subordinates, as seen when he laments Korbo's desertion, and even his enemies to some extent. Something extremely rare for this kind of villain however, is Darkhell's deep, genuine love for his daughter Ténébris. A fatherly love even stronger than his thirst for power and control. They have a very close relationship and should someone be skilled enough to defeat Ténébris he would ensure an extremely painful demise as soon as Darkhell finds it out.

Powers and Abilities
Darkhell is an incredibly powerful sorcerer, who despite being human born was able to defeat the mightiest Demon Warlock of Alysia. He displays both immense magical potential and skills with sorcery, potions and other magical experiments. He gives enough proof of said skills with all the monsters he created and the abilities he granted them (mostly Abyss'), including that of turning anyone into a soulless demon, and the magical devices he created: It was most likely Darkhell himself who devised the powerful bewitched weapons wielded by Ténébris and his other henchmen. Also, he has extensive knowledge of the legends of Alysia and the various kinds of magical and divine artifacts.

Darkhell is a frighteningly dangerous fighter, able to best a large group of highly trained and powerful warriors with ease. In battle he uses blasts of purple energy of variable intensity, ranging from "mere" bolts of magic able to knock out a hardened fighter to tremendous onslaughts, enough to kill several targets. It is repeatedly assumed that he was even more formidable back in his prime, and it shows when he is turned back to a child by the Jovenia Incident.

When he served under the Guardian during the Anathos Cycle, Darkhell was made even more powerful than he already was by the divine entity. He was granted a pair of demonic-looking wings enabling him to fly without any spell and gained access to seemingly divine magic and even deadlier magical attacks, including devastating Spheres of Destruction. Still, despite this vast increase of power he was no match against the God Anathos, until he fused back with his "Good Half" Elysio. At that point, they became so tremendously powerful that they overcome the effect of the Jovenia Incident and were able to fight equally with Anathos, forcing him to resort to underhanded tricks.

Danael
Origins describes Darkhell's conflict with the Legendaries in itself. Being unable to regain his youth from the Stone of Jovenia alone, Darkhell resolved to abduct Jadina, the mage princess of Orchidia (and Ténébris' unknown little sister, born from a similar spell) to get her Eagle Staff, an extremely powerful magical artifact that he could use to activate the Tempor-Hell or use on the Stone of Jovenia. However, all of his men's attempt failed.

Darkhell orders one of his henchmen, Raptor the Green Shadow (a mighty lizard-man armed with a magical spear able to fire devastating enegry blasts), to bring him Jadina and the Eagle Staff with the promise of making him his right-hand man if he succeeds. (Darkhell knows full well that Raptor plans to use the Eagle Staff to overthrow him but he does not see him as a threat and counts on this as a bigger motivation.) It turns out that Jadina is escorted by the elite knights known as the Silver Falcons, among whom the primary protagonist Danael, his older brother Ikael and his girlfriend Saryn. Raptor sends his soldiers to distract the Silver Falcons and kidnapps Jadina, killing Saryn's father in the process. Danael and Saryn (who befriended Jadina) rush after Raptor but they are no match for him and Danael only owes his life to the intervention of Calende (the enigmatic woman who would help the Legendaries against Anathos). Saryn eventually kills Raptor, but she got stung by a Darkhellion's stinger and turns into a Chaos Shade. She then attacks the horrified Danael and prepares to kill him, only to get destroyed by a grieving Jadina. Danael and Jadina then decide to create a group of hero above political intrigues that they call the Legendaries, and set out to defeat Darkhell and his army to honour the memory of Saryn.

Darkhell's defeat
In adventures that have yet to be published, Danael and Jadina would eventually recruit the beast-man Gryf, the Elementary Elf Shimy and the barbarian Razzia (the former Red Shadow) who share their goal. Together, they manage to storm Cast-Hell and to defeat Darkhell after a tremendous fight. Unfortunately, the Stone of Jovenia was shattered in the fight, causing everyone in Alysia to turn back into a child.