| “ | If I am truly a god, then this body doesn't matter. If I am a mortal, life isn't worth living. In either case, I'm taking you with me... | „ |
| ~ Damien, to Grace. |
Damien is the first major villain in the webcomic El Goonish Shive. He appears only in one arc, Painted Black. He's one of the seyonulu, powerful chimeras that combine elements of humans and an alien species called uryuoms. He has three minions, Vlad, Hedge and Guineas.
Damien is the most evil villain in El Goonish Shive. He is so evil, Dan Shive initially intended him to survive and escape, but him returning would've made the story too dark.
Biography[]
Damien was created as one of the seyonulu. That was before the lespuko made it possible for seyonulu to transform, meaning that he does not have transformation powers. There was a prophecy among the seyonulu that a Master of Fire would appear to conquer the world and release the seyonulu. Damien believed that he was summoned on Earth to become both Master of Fire and a god. He caused a big threat and a group of scientists, among them a human named Dr. Sciuridae and an uryuom named Mr. Guyur, attempted to create lots of seyonulu in order to defeat him. Eventually, after many tests with first attempts (that gave birth to Guineas, Vlad and Hedge), they were ready to create an enemy to Damien known as Shade Tail. However, this was ruined by Dr. Sciuridae, who used his dead daughter's DNA to create Shade Tail instead of a naturally strong soldier. Damien ended up kidnapping Vlad, Hedge, Guineas and Shade Tail and killing Mr. Guyur.
Years later, Shade Tail escaped and ended up living with the Verres family, calling herself Grace after the name of Dr. Sciuridae's daughter (who technically counts as her mother). Eventually, Hedge ended up kidnapping Elliot and the good guys started to make a plan to save him. Damien and Dr. Sciuridae told the whole story to Grace and she, realising that she failed to save Mr. Guyur, who was technically her father, went against Damien in all rage. Eventually she ended up killing Damien.