Dark Lord (also known as an Evil Overlord) is a name often used in fiction to talk about a powerful villain with evil henchmen, especially when pronouncing the real name is thought to bring bad luck. Such a villain usually seeks to rule or destroy the world, galaxy, or universe.

In a religious context, it usually means Satan or other similar entities who hold power over lesser fiendish creatures and seek to disrupt the comfort and lives of people, sometimes tragically, and definitely maliciously.

Many of the clichés of a dark lord came from totalitarian states with a fascist propaganda and ideology. In a modern setting, they are sometimes megalomaniac dictators whose minions are depicted in outfits resembling Nazi troop uniforms, and the architecture is often in the geometric, modernist style common in the former Soviet Union.

In fantasy novels, Dark Lords have become something of a cliché following the success of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, in which the Dark Lord is Sauron. The case of Sauron also started the habit of characters being too afraid to mention a Dark Lord by name: the Gondorians of Middle-earth as a rule never refer to Sauron by his name: they always call him either "The Enemy" or "The Nameless Enemy", even though they know he has a name. In Tolkien's legendarium Sauron is actually the second Dark Lord; he was the lieutenant of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth, until the latter's defeat. Morgoth's original name was Melkor, "He who arises in might"; "Morgoth" is a title or epithet meaning "dark enemy."

Following the example of Sauron, Dark Lords in fantasy are always depicted as immensely powerful, implacably evil creatures with an insatiable lust for power, who cannot be reasoned or bargained with. Only by their ultimate destruction can peace be restored.

An iconic example of the Dark Lord is Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series. His followers, the Death Eaters, call him by this title. Like Sauron, Voldemort is almost never mentioned by name, and lived in only a noncorporeal form for a period of time following the destruction of his body, only to rise again later as evil and bent on world domination as ever.

Two further examples are Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon and Ernst Stavro Blofeld from the James Bond series.

In Star Wars, Dark Lord is an actual rank that is achieved by those who become Sith Lords. The most well-known Dark Lords of Star Wars are Darth Vader and Darth Sidious.

The F-Zero video game series feature a character who is a Dark Lord type - Deathborn. His subordinate, Black Shadow, also functions as a type of Dark Lord: he has a major henchman, Blood Falcon, in the games.

Dark Lords often do not actually engage in direct conflict with the heroes; frequently, they are dark gods or demons, exist in other dimensions, and/or maintain a dark, inaccessible fortress. They usually rely on a vast, shadowy network of minions, often with an extremely hierarchical structure.

The frequency in which these clichés occur spawned the Evil Overlord List, a popular web site satirizing the mistakes Dark Lords (and any kind of major villain) commonly make.

Frequently, villainous characters in fiction will display numerous Dark Lord mannerisms, but will mainly belong to another genre of fictional villain. However, very few villains in fiction are able to balance out more than one genre of fictional villain. One such rare example is Davros from Doctor Who, whose position as creator of the Daleks and later ruler of their empire marks him both as a Dark Lord and as a mad scientist. Generally, however, villains are either one or the other, not both.

These conditions are usually caused either by the format of the story in which the villain appears, or because of the villain’s modus operandi. For example, Ming the Merciless and Darkseid are alien despots and could fall under the category of alien invaders. However, they exist within stories of such operatic nature, with elements of swashbuckling adventure and mythological analogy, that they are considered specifically to be Dark Lords. Alternatively, comic book villains The Kingpin and the 1990-era Lex Luthor could be considered modern-day versions of a Dark Lord, but more closely fall under the categories of a crime lord or a mad scientist, respectively. This is mostly due to these characters both traditionally seeking a public identity as a businessman, even a philanthropist at time, while keeping their criminal activities secret. This is at odds with one of the hallmarks of a Dark Lord, which is that they act from or deliberately seek out a position of legal authority, albeit often self-appointed (such as Doctor Doom), and even their most nefarious deeds are often public knowledge. Luthor and the Kingpin, however, would both be sought out by the authorities if their activities ever came to light. A similar point could be made about Kim Newman's recurring villain, the media mogul Derek Leech, although he is perhaps closer to the archetype than his comic-book counterparts.

See also

• Evil Overlord List

External links

• The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord - An amusing compilation of Evil Overlord stereotypes

Stock characters | Supervillains

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