Thanatos is the main antagonist of the 1993 action role-playing game Secret of Mana and its 2018 remake of the same name.
He is a mysterious, undead sorcerer who initially appears to be one of the four generals of the Vandole Empire, but is in reality the mastermind behind their plot. After he kills Emperor Vandole when he no longer needs him, he is revealed to be but a vessel to the incredibly powerful Dark Lich, who covets the world of Fa'Diel.
He is the counterpart of the Masked Mage, another masked evil sorcerer with similar looks and personality who share the exact same goal, and who turned himself into the Dark Lich.
Appearance[]
Thanatos is a tall, lanky and gaunt man with ageless features and long, light purple hair, hiding his face behind a creepy, horned skull mask displaying three bright white eyes. In the original, he wears white robes and a cape fixed to metallic shoulder-pads, hiding his arms and expanding his frame. In the remake, his eyes are red, his shoulder pads are skull-shaped and his robes are dark purple with golden trimming. Besides, his breastplate shaped like a ribcage and the stars and moon motifs on his robes evoke his true form.
He looks human, but his eyes glowing through the sockets of his skull mask, and in the remake the skeletal left hand he hides under his cape, his eyes and his dark aura, hint something much worse. Indeed, the being known as "Thanatos" is in fact nothing but an undead vessel for an evil spirit only known as the Dark Lich.
The Dark Lich is an immense, demonic, ghastly skeleton clad in a luxurious yet torn dark red coat with green and gold trimming. He is so tall the heroes could fit in his hand, he has no legs and his coat is filled with a starry night, with a creepy glowing light under his ribcage. He sports claws, glowing red eyes, lime green hair, and two green short horns protruding from a red gem on his forehead. In the remake, he is grey with a bone membrane on his shoulders, his hair are forest green, his horns become devilish and the gem is replaced by a third eye.
Nature[]
Artwork of Thanatos as the host of the Dark Lich in the remake.
The Dark Lich is the ancient spirit of an evil sorcerer who long ago sold his soul to the Demon World of Mavolia for eternal life. He was once human but is now a wraith-like demon warlock, strongly tied to Dark Magic and Necromancy, who feeds on hatred and destruction.
His spirit manifests by taking over people, killing them in the process. The more he body-switches, the more his evil grows. His evil might is too much for normal vessels, who must subsist on stolen life-force and always end up falling apart. As such, he seeks a host from both Light and Darkness who could sustain him forever and tremendously boost his might. He needs a vessel to subsist and being destroyed under his true spiritual form would terminate him once and for all.
Personality[]
Thanatos is cold, imposing and callous but formal. Worse, he is cruel, wrathful, taunting and power-hungry. He remains hidden and acts through proxies, skilfully manipulating enemies and allies alike and only acting in person for important tasks, never meeting the heroes until they confront him. He recognizes their merits, but never sees them as threats and despises their defiance.
Powers and Abilities[]
Thanatos has incredible powers and control of Evil, Dark Magic and monsters, being able to curse countries, to drain life-force, to empower his servants, to brainwash and corrupt people, and to see and talk somewhere else. He drains life-force and the power of Mana to spawn monsters. He has enormous influence over Mavolia, and secretly controls the dark forces that the Empire are using.
Role in the Story[]
Secret of Mana[]
| “ | Every few decades, there is one born in the shadow of Darkness. A human capable of augmenting my power beyond comprehension! Dyluck is one such human! His dark powers were sealed as a child. Now he possesses a foolishly naïve sense of justice. But no matter. With his body I will use the Mana Fortress to rule the world! | „ |
| ~ Thanatos revealing his plan before the final battle. |
The story begins when the hero Randi draws the fabled Sword of Mana from a rock, unknowingly lifting the spell keeping the monsters from Mavolia at bay. The evil Emperor Vandole seizes profit of it to take control of the monsters, sending his generals break the seal on the Seeds of the Mana Tree (the earthly avatar of the Mana Goddess), spreading destruction on their wake.
The Emperor aims to release the Mana Fortress: an ultimate flying castle and warship sealed eons prior under a sunken island. With that and the powers he gained by selling his soul to Mavolia, he could take over Fa'Diel. Randi learns that only the legendary Mana Knight could have drawn out the sword. As such, he sets out to restore the sword’s power and stop the Vandole Empire.
Randi and his partners, the girl Primm and the sprite Popoi, defend several nations from the Emperor's generals. One of them, the extremely powerful Mystic Knight Thanatos is draining the citizens of Pandora of their life-energy, turning them into zombie-like slaves to topple the kingdom from within.
The heroes confront Thanatos in the original.
The heroes learn about him from the wicked witch Elinee, who captured the royal soldiers sent against her. She teleports their captain, Primm's boyfriend Dyluck, to Thanatos, as he proves too strong for her. They defeat Elinee, who is in fact Thanatos' corrupted pawn, but she lost her powers and cannot help them.
Randi and his friends confront the evil wizard in the Ruins of Pandora. Amused, he pits them against the Demon Wall he created with the life-force he stole, but they destroy it, lifting his spell over the kingdom. He recognizes Randi as the Mana Knight, but teleports away with his hostages, unimpressed.
The heroes wonder what he could be after, acting so different from the other imperial generals. Upon confronting the heroes, Geshtar states that Thanatos warned the Imperial Court about them. They later learn that Thanatos works apart, and that the Empire used to be peaceful up until fifteen years ago, hinting that something happened…
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Artwork of Thanatos in the remake
Thanatos sends a brainwashed Dyluck drain the life-force from the denizens of Northtown, prompting the heroes to storm the Northern Ruins. There, Dyluck drains an unsuspecting Primm’s life-force and teleports her to Thanatos, who needs her blood for his magic, but Rand strikes him with the Sword of Mana, briefly restoring his mind.
Randi and Popoi rush to her help, but Thanatos knocks them back telekinetically and paralyzes them. Fortunately, Dyluck sends them enough power to break Thanatos' magic. Irked, the wizard pits them against a powerful vampire and again, teleports away with Dyluck.
The Emperor later breaks the Seeds' seal, but Thanatos's fellow general and accomplice Fanha kill him right after, as they no longer need him. Thanatos reveals that everything was in fact his doing. He was controlling the monsters while manipulating Vandole as a smokescreen, having likely influenced his deal with Mavolia and corrupted him from the start.
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The heroes confront Thanatos in the remake.
Thanatos seals the magic that could fully revive the Mana Sword, and leaves Fanha to deal with the party in her immensely powerful demon form. He later forces them to fight Geshtar, whom he turned into an undead cyborg, and reactivates the Mana Fortress.
Thanatos waits for the heroes to reach the Mana Tree to destroy it before their very eyes with the Mana Fortress' energy beam, while telepathically taunting them. The dying tree reveals that Randi is from the Mana Clan, with his father Serin being the previous Mana Knight, killed by the Emperor and Thanatos at the start of the war. It then uses its last power to restore the Seeds and the Sword.
The heroes can storm the Fortress and face Thanatos, who is about to replace his crumbling vessel with Dyluck, the perfect host he needs. Adding Dyluck's sealed power to his own and controlling the Mana Fortress would make him unstoppable.
The Dark Lich in the original.
Primm severely wounds him, but he still possesses Dyluck who bids her a tearful farewell and forfeits his life before Thanatos can assimilate him. Without vessels, the Dark Lich attempts to possess one hero, but they end his blight for good. Alas, the Mana Beast is awake and must be stopped.
Dark Lich and the Fortress are ended, but so is the Mana Power and with it Popoi and the sprites. Randi and Primm return to Pandora to usher an era of peace, but Mana will only return once the Mana Tree is regrown.
Boss Battle[]
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The Dark Lich in the remake.
The Dark Lich is considerably powerful, but easy to defeat with heroes at the right level. He has 6666 life-points, spams fearsome Shadow, Water, Wind and Earth level 8 spells; causes burn, poison, sleep, shrink, petrify, freeze, paralysis, confuse, or change into harmless Moogles; and dispels magic buffs. Curing and healing is necessary.
Dark Lich is weak to the Light element, so cast Light Magic on weapons, and attack him constantly with the Lucent Beam spell at least at level 6. Weapons only work when he is materialized. Shadow Magic is useless at beast and heals him at worst.
When he vanishes and phases his flaming hands through the ground, it can knock out and kill the heroes in seconds. He can be attacked with spells when his head appears, so do it quickly to make him reappear.
Other Media[]
Circle of Mana[]
Thanatos is playable in this card-based role-playing game. Each character is played as cards series to save the Mana Tree from monsters, and can evolve and gain power, equipment and Class Changes.
Echoes of Mana[]
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Thanatos' artwork from Echoes of Mana.
Thanatos appears in this mobile game, in which the Mana Goddess tasks two amnesiac twin heroes to travel through echoes all continuities (in fact games of the series) and restore the multiverse before it fully vanishes. However, this hides in fact a plot by the False Goddess Dema to take over.
Thanatos can be unlocked as a playable character, but never interacts with the party outside of battle. As the Stealthy Shadow, he uses the Dark element. He strikes with surges of yellow energy or wields staves at close range. He can buffer himself up with STR Boost, and he can strike many foes with his Evil Gate and Dark Force spells. His mightiest attack, Dark Grip, conjures the Dark Lich’s giant skeletal hands from the ground sending giant dark surges.
As just Thanatos, he uses the Fire element and fights the same at close range. He can buffer up his magic stats stat with INT Boost or Arcane Wisdom, and he casts Fireball or his best move Scalding Palm, conjuring the Dark Lich’s flaming hands from the ground.
Crossovers[]
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The Dark Lich in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.
The Dark Lich makes a cameo in spin-offs gathering heroes from many games to fight iconic monsters. He always appears in a boss rush gathering several bosses from Secret of Mana, being fought second-to-last before the Mana Beast, as in his game of origin.
In Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, the Dark Lich is fought in the Mana Mystery mode. He is highly powerful and resists status effects, but easily dispatched by a quick succession of attacks from a team of sufficiently powerful characters.
Of course, he resists Dark but is weak to Light. He dispels magic buffs and casts dangerous spells, including Syringe that drains the heroes' life-points, Thunderbolt that strikes all heroes at once, Evil Gate that deals percent damage, and the self-explanatory Sleeping Gas that must be dispelled.
In Final Fantasy Record Keeper, he is fought in the Mana's Quests, much more resilient and challenging than in the previous. He can cause Petrification, Confusion and Sleep; he casts very powerful spells like Earth Glide (all targets), Thunderbolt, Evil Gate and Syringe. He can disappear and phase his flaming hands through the ground, escaping physical attacks and dealing huge damage and sleep effect with his Hand Crush move, but fortunately less lethal than the original.
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The Dark Lich in Last Cloudia
Finally, in Last Cloudia he is fought in the Secret of Mana Event under an aspect unique to this game. He is considerably powerful and resilient, and he teleports often, but his life-bar appears on screen.
He waits a long time to attack and can be dealt with with little trouble if the character spam powerful techniques. His spells are mightier than in his game of origin, striking and inflicting status (for some like Poison Gas and Freeze Ray), but they can be dodged.
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 Villains
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Final Fantasy Adventure / Sword of Mana Secret of Mana Trials of Mana Legend of Mana Dawn of Mana Heroes of Mana Echoes of Mana Visions of Mana | ||
 Villains
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Loug Zeus faction Other: Crossover: | ||