Ruby Eye Shabranigdo is the overarching villain of the Slayers franchise. He is the God of Evil, the creator of demons and monsters and the direct or indirect source of everything wrong in the world. Having been sealed away by his archenemy the Dragon God Ceifeed, his demons seek to awake him or to destroy the world on his behalf.
Appearance[]
Shabranigdo is never depicted in the original novels, with his aspect only being suggested to be hardly fathomable.
When one of his fragments takes over his host, he only keeps their aspect if they are in perfect symbiosis, otherwise, he induces nightmarish mutations, reducing them to a monstrosity.
Whether every faulty rebirth takes the same form or depends on his host is not known. The only one seen awfully melts his host, to become a creepy, purplish-red, stone-like demon with huge spikes on his shoulders and a skull-like face.
In the anime, Shabranigdo's complete aspect is only glimpsed in flashbacks. He appears an eldritch, mountain-sized, amalgamation of demonic bodies, claws, snake-tentacles, and tails, covered with spikes and eyes, and sporting a head even more monstrous that that that of his fragments.
In the anime, awakened fragments painfully mutate their host into a grotesque, building-sized, dark reddish-brown demon, sporting an insectoid, shell-like skin, large leathery wings, four arms with long fingers, oversized gnarled horns, glowing red eyes and big protruding fangs. Being sealed reverts them to the host's aspect however.
In the video game, Shabranigdo looks closer to his novel counterpart, with a grey, stone-like body, huge spikes on his shoulders, and a white, skull-like, red-eyed face. As in the anime, his skin has layers of insectoid shell. He sports an amor-like chest, and huge, amorphous white forearms.
Nature[]
Ruby Eye Shabranigdo and his demons are spiritual beings from the Astral Plane, who can project themselves into the world. How many places they can reach at once and what form they take depends on their rank in the hierarchy. Slaying their earthly projection is just a setback, for only powers able to strike their astral form can harm them, and they regenerate.
Shabranigdo's fragment in the anime.
All demons are attracted to negative emotions, which feed them and fuel their might. On the other hand, positivity harms them. As spiritual beings, their power is tied to their will, with just a doubt hampering their abilities.
They could strike foes away from the Astral Plane, but reject it, viewing it as an admission of inability to win head on, thus a proof of weakness.
In Slayers, magic works by drawing power from nature, cosmic forces and magic beings. Black Magic is drawn from demons and its mightiest spells from Shabranigdo himself: the Dragon Slayer or Drag Slave (a red blast as destructive as a nuke), and the Ruby Eye Blade (channelling his power to bewitch swords or make a giant energy blade, cutting through everything).
Powers and Abilities[]
As the Demon God, Ruby Eye Shabranigdo is tremendously powerful. He created the demon kind as an extension of himself, and is the cause of all negativity. His presence alone is enough to twist his surroundings and corrupt everyone in the vicinity, eventually turning them monstrous.
Shabranigdo has all the powers he granted to high-ranking demons, albeit vastly superior. He can access to, see, talk and influence everywhere from the Astral Plane, shift Planes at will, sense auras and suppress his own. He can fly, teleport and transform his earthly projection or his hosts any way he wants and perfectly mimic all life-forms, or turn it invisible or intangible, but he never bothers with the latter three.
He can spawn (and reabsorb) demons, monsters, and things of all sort and size from his essence; warp distances and dimensions; control, alter or reshape his surroundings and the weather as he pleases; transform, twist, corrupt, brainwash, or levitate things and people to a huge extent.
Even his much weaker fragments can spawn monsters; warp things and people; empower servants; create pocket dimensions; cover entire lands in darkness; create dark clones of themselves; and reflect back or hijack spells. They wield the Starving Bone Staff: an incredibly powerful weapon he made from his essence, that channels his power and can be resized, reshaped and transformed at will.
Shabranigdo can only be harmed by a power equal or higher than his own. In battle, he spreads corrupting miasma withering everything around, or forming a powerful sphere around his hosts for both offence and defence.
He can conjure thousands of titanic oriental dragon-spirits, that act independently and can fuse into a mightier one; raise energy barriers before or all around him; breathe deadly energy blasts; unleash tremendous energy waves in front or all around him, devastating elemental attacks, and city-levelling atomic explosions. His physical strength is such that he triggers deadly tremors, and blasts or huge shockwaves of pure pressure with just a blow.
Personality[]
Ruby Eye Shabranigdo is awfully cold, callous, uncaring, impatient, cruel, ruthless, hateful, violent, and sadistic. He enjoys cowering foes, testing and taunting them before crushing them, savouring their despair. He wants to destroy the world, so that he and his kind could dwell in the Sea of Chaos: the primeval void, source of all creation.
Still, he is collected and courteous, if harsh and demanding, he knows how to tempt people, greatly respects worthy enemies and takes defeat surprisingly graciously, praising his victors in earnest (though he yearns for a rematch). He regards his servants as tools, yet praises their loyalty and generously rewards good service.
Background[]
Ceifeed fighting Shabranigdo in the Dawn of Times.
At the beginning was the Sea of Chaos and its incarnation, the genderless Lord of Nightmares (Referred to as female despite her masculine title.)
Through her dreams, the Golden Goddess created four worlds, each with a Demon God embodiment of evil and a Dragon God embodiment of Good.
In the Slayers world, Ruby Eye Shabranigdo fought Flare Dragon Ceifeed for eons, wrecking the planet in what is known as the War of the Gods and Demons. Five millennia before the story, Shabranigdo spawned five vassals:
- Hellmaster Fibrizo, Demon Lord of Death and Departed Souls, the mightiest one.
- Greater Beast Zelas Metallium, Demon Lady of Monsters and Evil Beasts.
- Dynast Grausherra, Demon Lord of War and Ice.
- Chaos Dragon Garv, Demon Lord of Fire and Destruction.
- Deep Sea Dolphin, Demon Lady of Sea and Water.
After some time, the two deities slew one another, Ceifeed dividing himself into four Dragon Lords and scattering his soul over the world, and Shabranigdo being split in seven shards sealed into human souls, in the vain hope to purge his evil. The Demon Lords built their domains and spawned two high-ranking demons each as their main enforcers, one Priest and one General, aiming to free their liege or enact his goal.
Role in the Story[]
In the story, three fragments of Shabranigdo have awakened.
The First Fragment[]
Lei Magnus-Shabranigdo, sealed in ice, holding the Starving Bone Staff.
Over a thousand years before the series, Hellmaster Fibrizo discovered a fragment of his liege sealed in Lei Magnus, the greatest archmage to ever live, inventor of the Drag Slave spell.
He staged a worldwide war, using it to make Lei Magnus fall to despair and awake the Demon God who took over, being known as the Demon King of the North.
Shabranigdo took the reins of the demons and created monsters to attack the Dragon Lords and their kind. So began the gruesome War of the Dark Lord's Resurrection (War of the Monster's Fall in the anime), the worst conflict in the Slayers world and a turning point in history. It killed countless dragons, elves, dwarves, humans, monsters, demons and other creatures, and the Demon Lords destroyed most of Ceifeed's temples to erase nearly all knowledge of Holy Magic (the best weapon against them).
The Demon Lords raised the Demon Barrier: a gigantic force-field cutting the world in two and cancelling Holy Magic, drastically weakening dragons. Shabranigdo rewarded Xellos (Zelas's right-hand-man) for single-handedly slaughtering hundreds of golden dragons, by offering him the Demon Bloods Talismans: four extremely potent magic amplifiers, drawing power from the Demon Gods of each Four World created by the Lord of Nightmares.
Ragradia, Dragon Lady of Water, was killed in battle against Shabranigdo and Chaos Dragon Garv, but not before fusing Garv with a human and sealing forever Lei Magnus in the everlasting ice of the Kataart Mountains (near Dynast Grausherra's domain). So ended the war, with no real winner. Since then, the still sentient Lei Magnus-Shabranigdo keeps ruling demons, still able to use his power around his jail and cursing any fool coming by.
The Second Fragment[]
Rezo the Red Priest
Another fragment of Shabranigdo was sealed within Rezo the Red Priest, again a powerful archmage, with the strange consequence of making him incurably blind.
Not knowing the cause of his ailment, Rezo devoted his life to an increasingly frantic search for a cure. His mounting frustration awoke Shabranigdo, who slowly gained control without him knowing.
Over time, Rezo persuaded himself that freeing Shabranigdo was the only way to see at last. Still, he believed that the fragment had been sealed in his tower, and devised a plan to destroy him right after. It is even explained that by the time Rezo met the heroes, he was reduced to a shadow of his former self, almost fully controlled by the Demon God.
In the first novel (or the first story arc of the anime and manga), Rezo has his great-grandson, the powerful mage-warrior Zelgadis Graywords whom he transformed into a chimera, search the Philosopher's Stone: a potent magic-amplifier with which he could awake Shabranigdo.
Resenting Rezo for his mutation, Zelgadis joins side with the heroes: the mighty teenage sorceress Lina Inverse and the master swordsman Gourry Gabriev, who found he Stone. Alas, Rezo threatens Lina's life in the novel, or to petrify entire populations in the anime, if they do not hand it over.
Rezo's atrocious mutation in the novel.
Shabranigdo takes over as soon as Rezo opens his eyes. He offers the heroes rewards if they pledge fealty or death, but they refuse and Zelgadis' friend Zolf casts the Drag Slave.
Alas, attacking Shabranigdo with his own power is stupid (Lina explains it is like asking him "Hey! Help me kill you!"), and he deflects it. Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis escape and are forced to flee.
Shabranigdo spreads darkness and gathers every monster around under his command, planning to reunite with his fragments, before destroying the world. The following day, he sends hordes of trolls after the heroes, before appearing to deal with them himself, just for the sake of it.
Shabranigdo effortlessly overwhelms them, shrugging off their attacks, up to stopping Gourry's fabled Sword of Light with his bare hand. In the novel, he first toys with them by animating tree roots, before engulfing Zelgadis in a blaze (who survives due to being a chimera), conjuring explosions and many energy spheres. In the anime, he wrecks swathes of land in a single blow, reflects back spells tenfold or spawns monsters from them, before blasting them with barrages of countless yellow energy darts.
Lina kills Rezo-Shabranigdo in the novels.
In the end, Lina channels an imperfect Giga Slave (a spell drawing power from the Lord of Nightmares herself) through the Sword of Light. Zelgadis calls for Rezo, whose lingering soul keeps the Demon God from blocking the attack.
Impressed Shabranigdo finally crumbles into dust.
Shabranigdo's Ghost[]
In Slayers Revolution and Evolution-R, an anime-exclusive story arc using characters left out from the adaptation, it is revealed that Rezo devised an artifact called the Hellmaster's Jar to store and safeguard his soul after his death. Alas, Shabranigdo's fragment sealed in his soul survived as well.
Decades prior, Rezo had sealed the population of Taforashia Kingdom in magical crystals, to protect them from the Durum Sickness wiping out the country. He also removed the soul of Pokota (portmanteau of Posel Colba Taforashia) the heir to the throne, from his sick body and put it in a stuffed toy, so that he could free and heal his subjects when a cure is found.
The heroes find the jar and Rezo possesses Pokota's human body, to let him free and cure everyone. Alas, Rezo cannot contain the Demon God for long and he opens his eyes, counting on the heroes to kill them for good. Shabranigdo tells Lina that his hatred and fear of her sustained him and he wants revenge. Still, this is an incomplete, nearly mindless remnant that cannot be fully restored and threatens everyone, demons included.
Lina confronts the Demon God once more.
He wreaks havoc in Taforashia with waves of pressure, lightning storms, giant lava streams, countless blazing rays, thousands of draconic spirits, and nuclear explosions.
Finally, Pokota's soul returns to his body to help Rezo restrain Shabranigdo, allowing Lina to kill him once and for all with a nearly complete Giga Slave. (Rezo returns Pokota's soul to the toy to save him.)
In the manga adaptation, Shabranigdo awakes shortly after Rezo possesses Pokota's body. However, it is but a mindless remnant, still formidable albeit a lot weaker. He surrounds himself with an impenetrable sphere of miasma and unleashes draconic like spirits, until the heroes use a nearby Holy Tree Flagoon, able to purify his miasma, to break his defence.
Pokota returns his soul to his body, he and Rezo holding Shabranigdo long enough, while Lina's friends protect her, enabling her to destroy the remnant with a Drag Slave, thanks to Rezo taking the hit, negating the Demon God's immunity to his power. In the end, Pokota possesses the body of his late friend Duclis.
The Third Fragment[]
In the never-adapted third cycle of the novels, Lina and Gourry become friendly rivals with fellow young treasure-hunters, equally gifted in sorcery and swordsmanship: Luke, a master in Black Magic and Mileena, whom he loves, a mistress in Shamanistic Magic.
As the heroes are searching for a magic sword powerful enough to replace the lost Sword of Light, they often clash and join forces with the other duo. The four unmask and defeat the Demon Lord Dynast Grausherra, who was impersonating King Wells Xeno Gyria and using Dils Kingdom as an asset, in a complex scheme to ignite a new War of the Dark Lord's Resurrection.
In Sellentia City, they get dragged in the crisis to name a new Head Priest, staged by Grausherra. Mileena dies poisoned, and Luke, overcome with hatred, slays most of the priests before Lina and Gourry drive him away. It turns that demons are still active, but oddly opposing one another, while strange phenomenon happen all across the continent.
A disguised Shabranigdo attacks Gourry with his staff.
Lina and Gourry are finally dragged into a pocket dimension looking like Sairaag City, in which they are greeted by an ominous figure wielding the Starving Bone Staff, clad in a red cloak and a white, faceless, red-eyed mask, who introduces himself as Shabranigdo.
In this dimension vastly boosting their might, Lina spell-casting without end and Gourry using his newfound Blast Sword to its full potential, they battle Shabranigdo, who hurls magic winds and cancels spells with a swipe of his staff. However, a furious Gourry recognizes Luke from his fighting style.
It turns out that Luke held a fragment of the Demon God, that Grausherra found and wanted to awake all along, hence why he set up many conflicts. (Luke knew of Shabranigdo's presence, and asked Mileena to kill him, if it awoke. Also, he died his ginger hair black for she disliked the colour.)
Luke explains that his loathing from the world that took Mileena matches Shabranigdo's, resulting in a symbiosis that lets him keep his human form, him and Shabranigdo speaking alternatively.
Luke-Shabranigdo, with the Bone Staff, his mask and his natural ginger hair.
At the same time, his love for Mileena and his hatred for both humans who killed her and demons who staged it, let him decide on his own to challenge his friends to a fair fight, for the fate of the world. If he wins or they decline, he will let Shabranigdo take over, fuse back with Lei Magnus, and end everything.
This is why Luke led them to this power-boosting plane, to give them a sporting chance, and wears this mask to spare them the pain of fighting a friendly face. This is also why demons sharing Lei Magnus-Shabranigdo's irritation with his choices oppose those obeying him. But even empowered, Luke-Shabranigdo is too powerful and knows the heroes too well. He turns his staff into a sword and spawns dark clones he can make explode.
In the end, Lina breaks open the four Demon Blood Talismans, (which she forcefully bought from Xellos previously) unleashing the power of all four Demon Gods, Shabranigdo included, to deal the finishing blow. As Luke lays dying, a grieving Lina helps him realize that with his longing for death exceeding Shabranigdo's influence, he let his own power destroy him (indeed helping Lina kill him). Luke apologizes for the pain he caused his friends, happy to see Mileena again, and the third fragment is no more.
Role in the Video Games[]
Ruby Eye Shabranigdo plays a role, from minor to central, in several video games, all stated to be part of alternate continuities.
Slayers (SFC)[]
After beating Zelas Metallium, the final boss of this Super Nes game, Lina (who was captured and replaced by a clone) complains that she had nothing to do. So begins a post-game quest to find seven keys leading to a treasure. In fact, they free Lei-Magnus-Shabranigdo from the Kataart Mountains (with Copy Lina comically ignoring him). So the party kills him and gets his riches.
Lei Magnus-Shabranigdo's human and demon forms in the video-game.
Lei Magnus is very difficult, so the party must be over level 60, and include the healer Sylphiel.
He has 55300 life-points and deals around 4000 damage casting La Tilt and Fire Storm (on every target), but Stick hits with the Bone Staff for around 5000 damage, and he heals with Recovery. Cast Valmaceid to resist magic, Astral Vine to boost weapons, and heal or revive every turn.
When beaten, he turns into Shabranigdo and the battle gets even harder. He has 50700 life-points, is highly tough and sturdy, and deals from 4000 to 6000 damage. He hits very hard with Dark Impact, rains lightning with Dark Blaze, and hits all targets with Black Plasma and Hell's Flare: a deadly blue wave. La Tilt is the only spell that works, so casting Astral Vine, boosting the party, and healing or reviving every turn, especially with Sylphiel, are the best bet.
The Slayers Royal Duology[]
In the first game, Lina and his friend save Lark, an elf boy whose sister Rynea was abducted by the powerful demon Diol, who covets the magical Lezariam Pendant he owns. With it, Diol could revive Shabranigdo (whether it would free Lei Magnus or reunite all fragments is left unsaid). In the end, the heroes kill Diol and destroy the pendant to prevent the Demon God's return.
In the second game, the heroes are framed by imposters who stole an amulet. Robert, the High Priest of Dortohaut City hires them to find it, for it opens the way to six ancient towers built by Lei Magnus, each containing an orb of immense occult power. They are opposed by a girl named Alicia, in fact seven clones of an ancient sorceress, protecting the towers. It turns out that Priest Robert covets that power, so the heroes kill him and restore the seal.
[]
|
| ||
|
Deities Shabranigdo's Generals Greater Demons and Major Villains Demon-Worshiping Cult | ||
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}