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Belt of Deltora300
Adin knew that he was the one who must fill the medallions in the belt.

Shadow Lord is in need of more information! Shadow Lord is lacking info in History: the events in the alternative future seen in The Silver Door.

Map of Deltora500
There is no denying that Deltora can be dangerous for the unwary or ill-informed!

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"I have many plans, Drumm. Plans within plans, and all of them with one aim. Deltora must be mine. I need it for the gems and metals beneath its earth, and for its calm southern harbours, perfect for launching ships of war."
— The Shadow Lord to Drumm.[1]

Malverlain
Shadow Lord
Biographical information
Alternative name(s)

Malverlain (birth name)
Verlain (shortened nickname)
The Lord of Shadows (by Deltorans)
Shadow Lord (by Deltorans)
The Enemy (by Deltorans, and later the people of Dorne)
The Master (by servants)

Home

The Shadowlands
Deltora's Mountains (formerly
Dorne (formerly)

Status

Alive (immortal)

Physical description
Species

At least five-eighths Fellan, three-eighths human

Gender

Male

Hair colour

Red

Personal information
Relatives

Peregrine (father)
Alenan (mother)
Garth (grandfather)
Annoltis (brother)
Eldannen (brother)

Allies

Grey Guards, seven Ak-Baba, Thaegan, servants, more...

Enemies

Annoltis
Eldannen
Adin
Lief
Jasmine
Barda
Kings and Queens of Deltora
People of Dorne
People of Deltora

Weapon of choice

Magic, magic staff

Chronological and political information
Profession

Sorcerer
Ruler

Position

Ruler of the Shadowlands Ruler of Deltora (formerly)
Heir apparent for the chieftainship of Dorne (formerly)

Affiliation

Shadow Army

First appearance

The Forests of Silence (mentioned)
Dread Mountain (vision)

Last appearance

The Third Door

Voiced by

Banjou Ginga (Japanese)
Mike Shepard (English)

The Shadow Lord, born as Malverlain,[2] is the ruler of the Shadowlands and has constantly attempted to invade and rule Deltora. He is the son of Chieftain Peregrine and the Fellan woman Alenan, and the brother of Annoltis and Eldannen. Born in Nerra, in Dorne, he was banished and, upon finding the Land of Dragons, set to conquer it. Choosing to take over Pirra, he resided in what has become known as the Shadowlands and constantly made plans to take over Deltora.

After his plans were thwarted and four of his Ak-Baba killed, the Shadow Lord retreated back to the Shadowlands. Although his plans failed, he still poses a threat to Deltora.[3]

History

Early life

Malverlain was born to Chieftain Peregrine and the Fellan Alenan (shortened to Alena), in Nerra, Dorne. Malverlain saw his older brother Annoltis as his rival and his younger brother Eldannen as nothing more. He studied and read many books and was trained in sorcery; he also developed a fascination with dark magic. When Annoltis was sixteen, Alena died and was put to rest in Dann's Mirror, located in the Fell Zone. Soon after, Peregrine passed away in his sleep. Knowing that Annoltis would be favored to become Chieftain, Maverlain challenged his older brother. He believed it was his right to become Chieftain and that Annoltis had stolen the throne from him. Using magic, Malverlain attacked Annoltis, and Eldannen sided against him. After a long battle, the two brothers defeated Malverlain, for together they were almost invincible, and they decided his fate.[2]

Banishment from Dorne

In secrecy, Annoltis and Eldannen (shortened to Olt and Dann) took Malverlain down to the shore underneath the Fortress. There, standing shoulder to shoulder, they held the banishment spell, pointing out to sea. Sick with rage and bitterness, Malverlain conjured up a boat with a grey sail marked with red and headed out to sea. The power of the banishment spell sped him on his way, and as he cursed his two brothers, he vowed he would return to take vengeance. He turned and sailed west, knowing of other islands lying that way, including the Land of Dragons.[2]

The Isle of the Four Sisters

The Beast250

Malverlain woke the giant beast from its slumber.

In his search, he chanced upon a beautiful island serving as home to four sisters: Flora, Viva, Aqua, and Terra. They were beautiful singers, but Malverlain, hating all beautiful things, and furious with what his siblings had done to him, imprisoned each on a separate corner of the island. However, the sisters still sang to one another from a long distance. Enraged, Malverlain hurried to each corner and struck them down, one by one.

Unbeknownst to Malverlain, their singing actually soothed and sealed a great beast in the centre of the land; by killing them and silencing their singing, Malverlain had enraged and released the beast. It rose, crushing the beasts, smashing the mountains, and cracking the rock the island rested on, causing it to start sinking. Malverlain, not yet powerful enough to face the beast, fled into the Silver Sea, conjuring up a small wooden boat with a grey sail, marked with red.[4]

Arrival at the Land of Dragons

Del250

The Shadow Lord encountered an Emerald dragon on his arrival at Deltora.

One day, he washed ashore on the Land of Dragons. He landed on the northwest side, in the territory of the Amethyst. The Torans, who inhabited this territory, conjured a banishing spell against him; and Malverlain, still weak from his ventures at sea, was forced to use his magic to transport himself away. He materialised in the territory of the Emerald and immediately decided this was the land that he wanted to rule. However, he was soon approached by an Emerald dragon. Malverlain tried to convince the dragon to work for him by conjuring all the treasure his dark magic could produce, but the dragon refused and burned him. Malverlain was forced into the mountain range that separated the Land of Dragons from Pirra. He hid there for many years, gathering followers in the many bandits and killers also living in the mountains. He forced them to spy on both the Land of Dragons and Pirra for any weaknesses he could exploit, and steadily worked to grow his powers.[4]

The birth of the Ak-Baba

One day, on a snowy peak, Malverlain found what he thought at the time was a dragon egg, which he had beforehand already sent many of his servants in search for, only for them to return empty handed and face his rage.

Ak Baba200

Finding an Ak-Baba egg on top of a mountain in the Barrier Mountains, the Shadow Lord raised it himself.

He was very pleased with his discovery, thinking that he could raise his own army of dragons to conquer the Land of Dragons. What he did not know was that dragon nests are always lined with human hair. When he brought it to his cave and the egg hatched, he quickly realized this was not a dragon at all; it was a kind of bird, specifically, an Ak-baba from distant lands across the seas. Though disappointed, and furious, he soon realised that this bird could be useful in its own way since he saw the potential for its children to become the cunning, devoted servants he wanted. With his magic, he created seven new birds from the flesh of this ak-baba bird, which he caused to grow even larger than its already huge ancestor, as well as gave them teeth and spines. The bird had already been a salvager, eating only dead flesh, and had already had a great lifespan of a thousand years. These qualities were retained in the seven new Ak-Baba. He also caused them to have a magical mental link to his mind, so he could always see what they saw and directly order them without having to speak with them.

By this point, his powers had become so vast that he no longer felt the effects of cold or heat, though his body would still suffer from exposure.[4]

The Shadowlands

Pirra

The shadows of the Shadow Lord creeping in over the land of Pirra, about to be twisted into the Shadowlands.

Through his network of spies, Malverlain learnt of the weaknesses of both the Land of Dragons and Pirra. He decided Pirra would be the easier of the two to invade, since the source of its defences, the Pirran Pipe, needed to be played by a Piper to work. His chance came when the Piper died, and three new candidates were offered. Despite days of voting, the people of Pirra were split between their three choices and would not relent, a result that had been at part thanks to Malverlain, who had been encouraging each of the three parties to continue to hold out. Malverlain then stepped in, cloaked, hooded and bent over as a result of the constant playing and suggested that the Pirrans split the Pipe into three pieces, so that each contestant could hold the honour of being Piper, which the tired and angry Pirrans accepted. As his suggestion was carried out and the followers of Keras, Auron and Plume seperated, Malverlain rubbed his hands together and disappeared into the darkness. On the next day, he invaded and smothered Pirra in shadow. He was unable to capture the Pirrans, however, as they used their magic to escape to a series of underground seas.

Malverlain ruled the now-vacant Pirra, which he warped and twisted into the Shadowlands. After a time, his body was consumed by his ever-growing powers, but his mind lived on. His gender also became basically nonexistent in a way that "he" instead became an "it", although many of the now-it's enemies still considered the thing that was once Malverlain male at least in theory. In the Land of Dragons, it was granted the title of "the Lord of Shadows,” which was later simplified to "the Shadow Lord".[4]

The invasion of the Land of Dragons

With the conquest of Pirra and the further development of its dark powers, the Shadow Lord felt it time to invade the Land of Dragons. In the Shadowlands, it built a factory from which it spawned creatures such as Vraal, Green Beasts, and Greers, each of which became staples of its Shadow Army. The Generals of the army consisted of humans who had converted to the Shadow Lord's will, although it allowed such individuals to retain their individuality. Its air force consisted of the seven Ak-Baba, modified with teeth and spines to make them effective killers. They were also connected to their master via a mental link, allowing the Shadow Lord to see what they see and guide them without a spoken word. Prior to its invasion, the Shadow Lord had its Ak-Baba observe the land of its desires, learning from them and its human servants that the country was divided into seven tribes who almost never crossed each other's borders. The Shadow Lord also had its human servants launch sudden raids on the territories of the Dread Gnomes, Ralads, Plains, and Mere People, capturing and taking slaves. In his vile domain, the Shadow Lord either recruited, enslaved, or experimented on these captives. Several of these mutated Deltorans were driven to madness and became known as Wild Ones, although the Shadow Lord apparently retained a small rabble of these man-beasts as its servants.

Shadowlands250

The Shadow Lord's Factory in the Shadowlands leading up to the Battle for Deltora

Confident that its Greers—though imperfect compared to human troops—were enough to conquer the Shadowland's neighbor, The Shadow Lord commanded its army to attack the Land of Dragons. They swarmed through the northern lands, killing any who resisted them and plundering every settlement they could find, bar the strongest, such as Dread Mountain, where the Shadow Army met a literally crushing defeat. The Greers—under the command of Sheela and Wrass—raided what the Shadow Army believed was Raladin, capital of the Ralad tribe, and destroyed the town, but failed to capture or confirm to have killed any Ralads. As a result, the Shadow Lord left its two human commanders with a collection of Greers in 'Raladin' for the winter. The only tribe in the north that remained untouched by the Shadow Lord's evil was the Torans, who had long kept themselves secluded in their marble city and chose not to bother themselves with what lay outside its walls.

Only the dragons were able to stand against the Shadow Army effectively, but they only ever attacked alone or in small numbers. This made them easy pickings for the seven Ak-Baba, who tore at them like a pack of wolves and fled when the numbers were unfavourable. It was only with the arrival of winter that the Shadow Army was halted, thus preventing them from swarming into the Topaz and Diamond territories, as the Greers who made the bulk of the army froze in their thousands.[4]

During the winter, a blacksmith named Adin dreamt of a belt containing the seven tribal gemstones of the Land of Dragons. He forged it in secrecy, then set off to each of the seven tribes to convince them to add their gem — Diamond, Emerald, Lapis lazuli, Topaz, Opal, and Ruby — to the Belt. Only the Torans refused to hand over their gem, the Amethyst, as they felt no need to concern themselves with the world outside their city, despite one of their youngest members, Zara, feeling differently and believing that the Torans' act dishonored the truth their gem symbolised.

The Battle for Deltora

Main article: Battle for Deltora
Battle for Deltora300

The Shadow Lord's army vastly out numbered Adin's.

When the spring came, the Shadow Lord dispatched its Ak-Baba to bring it reports of the Plains Territory, Dread Mountain, and Tora, the latter of which had remained untouched by the Shadow Army thanks to its people's magic and sent fresh Greers to the Land of Dragons to join the army, and commanded the lead general, Trell, to take Hira, the capital of the Plains territory, and the last place of resistance in the north, before advancing further south. However, the army they faced against was made up of Plains, JalisDread GnomesMere and Del warriors and the workers of the Ralads, who were able to hold out so long that the Shadow Lord was forced to transport new soldiers, seven of its first Vraals (a perfected version of Green Beasts) and the Ak-Baba to the battle in a wave of red-tinged smoke. Even with the sudden arrival of an Opal dragon, who had flow to challenge the invading Ak-Baba, the battle still seemed lost for the people of the Land of Dragons, despite the moral raised by the arrival of Adin.

It was at that moment that the Torans finally arrived and added the great Amethyst to the Belt. With all seven together, they created a magic so old and powerful that it forced the Shadow Lord and its armies rolling back to the Shadowlands, its Ak-Baba fleeing behind it, the remaining Greers slumping dead to the earth. Adin was then crowned king of the Land of Dragons, which was named Deltora after the order of the gems and wore the Belt always, never forgetting that "the Enemy was clever and sly and that to its anger and envy a thousand years is like the blink of an eye".

Setting the plans in motion and recruiting allies

Though the Shadow Lord was defeated by Adin, it had not yet been destroyed. It spent many years in the Shadowlands watching Deltora, making its plans and improving its creatures, and learned that, while the Belt offered a powerful defense, it was not invincible. The Belt's power could only be used by the descendants of Adin, but it was tied to the people's faith in their ruler. If they were to lose faith, then the protective magic would weaken enough for the Shadow Lord to begin to reach into Deltora, and shatter and allow it to invade again.

To accomplish this goal, the Shadow Lord waited several generations, until Adin's descendants began building the Palace of Del. It created shape-shifting beings called Ols and inserted them as the chief advisors to the royal family. The first of these traitors and a possible predecessor of the Ols was a woman named Agra, who advised/manipulated King Elstred, then Queen Adina and began the series of events that led to the Shadow Lord's servants restricting the royals power. The Lord of Shadows also created the Crystal, a device that allowed it to keep in contact with its spies. The chief advisors began setting a series of laws that limited the king and queen's contact with the people, and its palace followers burnt all letters that expressed complaints or pleas for help. They also began limiting the number of times the Belt of Deltora would be worn to the day the King or Queen ascends the throne till it was worn only on their coronation. The Shadow Lord went on to dispose the chief advisor after a period and replace him or her with a new servant.

The chief advisors also made sure that the kings and queens of Deltora had only one child each, so as to weaken the strength of Adin's bloodline; the sole known exception was the brothers Elstred and Ballum, who Agra was able to drive away. What the Shadow Lord did not know or else did not concern itself with, however, was that that Adin himself had five children with Zara. This meant that, even if the main bloodline was destroyed, there would still be another branch somewhere in Deltora. It is unspecified whether the Shadow Lord ever considered the possibility of Ballum's family, now the leaders of the Masked Ones, being heirs to the throne, though it might have found comfort in the fact that the Masked Ones utterly loathed the Royal family.

The Shadow Lord also took the time to begin setting other plans in motion as well as recruit others to its service. It created the Four Sisters, and had its servants hide them on the four corners of Deltora, like it had done with the sisters it had met on the island, who the Shadow Lord found amusing to name its sources of poison after. It also sent the Seven Ak-Baba to kill off Deltora's dragons, who posed the only threat to its plans. This massacre served two dual purposes: it would rid Deltora of its greatest protectors and permit the Shadow Lord to exact a long-desired revenge of the dragons for their refusal to serve it when it first came to Deltoran shores. The Ak-Baba killed all but one member of each tribe of dragon, who were convinced to hide themselves by Doran the Dragonlover. When Doran tried to destroy the Four Sisters, the Shadow Lord cursed him to become the guardian of the Sister of the West, placing the Sister inside the Dragonlover and sentenced him to a gruesome fate of living an undead life guarding the very source of evil he had attempted to destroy, which the Shadow Lord saw as a worthy fate.

Once the Four Sisters were in place, the Shadow Lord had nine of its servants infiltrate the city of Hira as ratcatchers and create a plague of rats inside the city where it's first invasion had met it's end to manipulate the people to give the power of leadership to the ratcatchers and leave. They set up a new city of Noradz, which was run by the Shadow Lord's nine servants and kept in a constant state of fear and oppression. To ensure the city was kept in such a state, the nine were bestowed immortality by their Shadowlands master, though this form of eternal life appeared to be only a safeguard against natural causes (i.e. old age, sickness, etc) and the nine could apparently perish as a result of events such as contact with Scarlet Night. Meanwhile, in Hira — now dubbed the City of the Rats — the Shadow Lord placed a device called the grey tide, based off the monster that had destroyed the Isle of the Four Sisters. It also discovered or created the snake Reeah, and granted it control over the City of the Rats in exchange for service. The Crystal, meanwhile, was made so that, should it ever be destroyed, it would reveal the existence of the Sisters in a recording of a conversation between the Shadow Lord and its current advisor spy, Drumm, to whom the Shadow Lord entrusted a fragment of the map that Doran had drawn before his last doomed voyage, chronicling the general locations of all four sisters. The Lord of Shadows would meanwhile scatter the remaining three pieces of Doran's map so that they could only be secured if the sisters and whomever guarded each one of them were destroyed. It hid the part that identified where the Sister of the South was hidden with Doran on the Isle of the Dead, entrusted to Drumm the task of hiding the fragment detailing the location of the Sister of the East and would ultimately entrust the remaining to scraps of parchment (leading to the Sisters of the North and West) to the guardians of the East and North respectively. Through this invisible trail of breadcrumbs, the Shadow Lord ensured that if the Four Sisters were ever discovered and someone set out with the intent of destroying them, than the outcome would either way end favourably for it: either the person in question would die in their attempts to put an end to the sisters, or their success would end the sisters song and thus awaken the grey tide, triggering the Shadow Lord's contingency protocol.

Also, during this time, the sorceress Thaegan came to the Shadowlands after running away from her home and mother, who was upset with her daughter's fascination with dark magic. When she left, she decided to settle in Deltora's north, now more powerful than ever, and with thirteen monstrous children, who also entered the Shadow Lord's service. The Shadow Lord and Thaegan formed an alliance, with the Shadow Lord increasing her powers and including her in its plans; as early as a hundred years prior to the scattering of the gems of the Belt of Deltora, she informed the people of D'Or of the Shadow Lord's intentions before transforming them into monstrous creatures and their former home into the Lake of Tears.

The Shadow Lord also encountered or captured a female soothsayer who foretold that one day, a king would follow in Adin's footsteps and rise from the people to defy it. In response, the Lord of Shadows tore out the fortuneteller's tongue, then presumably killed her. It took comfort, however, that even if this were to come, his plan with the Four Sisters and Grey Tide would see this king watch as his land either starved to death or was destroyed.

However, while the Sister of the West was protected within the cursed Doren, and Drumm and his succeeding chief advisors were assumed to have safeguarded the Sister of the South, it is unconfirmed whether guardians were similarly appointed to defend the other Sisters since their placement. At an unknown point in time soon shortly before or during its second seizure of power, the Shadow Lord came into contact with a young girl from Shadowgate named Kirsten, who had fled into the Barrier Mountains in shame after being abandoned by Bede, and her loathing of her past lover drew the Shadow Lord's attention. Seeing a kindred spirit in this girl who was so full of hate, the Shadow Lord offered Kirsten a place in its service and enlisted her, offering to fill the void created by Bede's desertion with power and riches. It would also give her mastery of the Emerald Territory, permitting her to construct a castle within the area of Shadowgate as well as granting her various powers, the most notable being to conjure forth a masked phantom. Eventually, the Shadow Lord appointed Kirsten as the protector of the Sister of the North, which it allowed her to hide within her palace, and gave her Doran's writing directions to the Isle of the Dead for safekeeping.

The Shadow Lord also reached out to and recruited a Capricon named Rolf as Guardian of the East, speaking to the cloven-hoofed being one evening and seducing him with the offer to restore Rolf to his inheritance as lord of the destroyed Capra, as well as ruler of all the East. Just as it had with Kirsten, the Shadow Lord granted Rolf the power to take another form, in his case, a deformed red dragon, which might have been purposefully selected by the Lord of Shadows as mockery for the Dragons refusal to serve him. Although he too was entrusted with the map of Doran's map that would point the way to Shadowgate, Rolf, however, did not seem to share the same confidence his master had in Kirsten, who the Shadow Lord even gave authority over some of its lesser servants, a rarity among the humans that followed it.

To keep the Royal Family, who were now confined by 'The Rule' to the Palace from discovering that their land was beginning to deteriorate as a result of the Four Sisters, the Shadow Lord had Reece and its other eight Noradz servants conduct an 'inspection' of the walled city kitchens. Apart from a small portion of food the Ra-Kacharz claimed was edible, all of the meals made were secretly shipped by followers of the Shadow Lord to the Palace of Del, furthering the lie that Deltora was still prosperous.

The stolen gems

By the time of King Alton, the people's faith in the king was hanging by a thread. Most of the population was in poverty, and thanks to the Four Sisters, food had become very scarce, leaving Deltora utterly defenseless in the form of military might. The Shadow Lord also placed a fog over the palace, which caused anyone who looked outside to see a happy land and people, further blinding the ruling family of the suffering of their kingdom.

On the Shadow Lord's orders, chief advisor Prandine ordered the destruction of the Deltora Annals, which left the royal family ignorant to their country's past, though the librarian Josef was able to secretly escape and smuggle the Annals away with him. Prandine first poisoned the queen, then the king, which forced his young son Endon to take the throne at an age where he was easily manipulable. He also forced out Endon's best friend, Jarred under the claim of Jarred being an assassin, which removed any voice of opposition left in the palace. After the coronation, the Shadow Lord spoke with Prandine through the Crystal, asking if the "idiot boy" Endon had been crowned, then inquired about the Belt when Prandine confirmed this, sighing in satisfaction when Prandine reassured his master that the Belt, again in the tower it was held, now awaited the Master's pleasure.

By the time Endon reached adulthood, the last respect the people of Deltora had for their king was gone and the barrier shattered. The Shadow Lord sprung at once, sending the seven Ak-Baba to attack the palace. They destroyed the tower where the Belt of Deltora was kept and shattered the Belt, massacring a huge portion of the palace guard in the process. Each Ak-Baba then took one of the gems and scattered them across Deltora in seven of the most dangerous places in the land: the Forests of Silence; the Lake of Tears; City of the Rats; the Shifting Sands; Dread Mountain; the Maze of the Beast and the Valley of the Lost, where they each found their way into the clutches of a terrible guardian, some (like Reeah and Gellick) Shadow Lord servants, others (like Glus and the Hive) wild forces of nature. However, Endon and his pregnant wife were able to escape thanks to Jarred and his wife Anna, despite the Shadow Lord posting guards on the roads leading west that were to kill any women who were pregnant.

Shadow lord brand

The mark of the Shadow Lord.

With the Belt gone, the Shadow Lord took over Deltora and kept it in a state of oppression, appointing a Grade 3 Ol made in the face and form of Prandine named Fallow as its representative and mouthpiece. Its new soldiers, the Grey Guards (modified from Greers, but with greater intelligence and skill), patrolled the streets of every town, and abducted people to be brought back to the Shadowlands for experimentation or enslavement and many horrors were beheld during these days. The Guards were supplied with venom from an Ooze Toad named Gellick, who ruled over the Dread Gnomes, manipulating them into unknowingly aiding his master. James Gant, another servant of the Shadow Lord, was sent several days before the belt's destruction to force-via-blackmail Red Han, the keeper of the Bone Point Lighthouse, to extinguish the light in order to isolate Deltora from the rest of the world. When Red Han and his daughter Verity still continued to defy Gant, even when he held Verity captive on his ship, the Shadow Lord denied his servant the pleasure of enacting vengeance on the keeper as punishment, instead giving orders on the day of his invasion for The Lady Luck to make for the Tor and await further instructions. A brief mutiny, however, combined with the sea storm provoked by Verity's murder left James Gant floundering in the sea, begging the Shadow Lord to save him, which his master answered. Despite calling his follower a fool who deserved death, the Lord of Shadows relented, claiming to still have need of the captain's services, and spirited him away. Later, James Gant transformed Red Hans into a horse, leaving the Bone Point Lighthouse (which had enchantments that required its current keeper to publicly resign at Tora before a replacement could be found) inactive and thus robbing Deltora of trade partners from the west. The Shadow Lord further destroyed the risk of Deltora receiving foreign help by burning the Del navy, though it failed to annihilate the Rosalyn Fleet, which, under the guidance of Mab, had fled Deltora on the dawn of the invasion and gone into hiding. The Shadow Lord also sent its armies to the lands of the Jalis after they refused to submit to it, killing all who stood against them and taking the rest as prisoners. The Palace of Del was made the Shadow Lord's headquarters and harsh laws were imposed on the city, including a curfew placed the very day the Shadow Lord took power.

The Shadow Lord also made sure people would lose faith in their king coming back to save them by having Fardeep — a former games master from Rithmere who it had found and pursued to give into his dark side by reminding him of what he had lost — pretend to be Endon and guard the Diamond in the Valley of the Lost. The Shadow Lord had also already had its bandits seized control of the The Champion Inn in Rithmere from Fardeep years ago and set up the brutal Rithmere Games as a means of identifying fit slaves for combat in the Shadow Arena, with the servant it had appointed in Fardeep's place, Mother Brightly, tricking Champions and finalists into the clutches of Grey Guards. What's more, the Shadow Lord also placed the skeleton of a man, woman and baby (possibly its creations or victims of its invasion) in a small shack between Del and Tora, planting on them a letter claiming the bones were those of Endon, Sharn and their newborn. A pod of guards was placed on the nearby road to force travelling rebels (who would be most likely unwilling to be search) off the road, where they would find the skeletons and read the letter. It also created the Grade 3 Ol, Dain, to infiltrate the Resistance under the alias of a half-Del, half-Toran boy orphaned in a bandit raid and act as a false heir to the Belt, should the need arise.

Indeed, the only true thorn in the Shadow Lord's side was an organized, wide-spread Resistance movement founded more than seven years after the Shadowlands invasion begun by Jarred, King Endon's childhood friend who had escaped slavery in the Shadowlands but lost his memory and taken the name Doom. The group was widespread and had various assets, despite it being forbidden to trade with the Resistance, yet it — and its leader especially — also believed that royalty and magic had been the cause of Deltora's downfall, thus making them an annoyance to the Shadow Lord, but an annoyance that did not have a chance of truly driving the tyrant out. Prior to Doom's Resistance's formation, another group was formed within Del's pottery that plotted a futile attempt to unseat the Shadow Lord. This movement, however, was exposed by the Enemy, who henceforth had the surviving rebels taken to the Shadowlands as slaves, a fate that also befell most of the royal guards that survived the Ak-Baba's attack. Another group of partisans was also formed in the Shadowlands from slaves that had escaped where they were held. The group, led by Claw, a Del potter taken prisoner and experimented on by the Shadow Lord, but escaped with his life and sanity, routinely launched minor raids on encampments.

The Shadow Lord permitted Thaegan to continue her control of the Ruby Territory as long as she continued to answer to it and increased her power by a hundredfold. Eventually, desiring the building skills of the Ralads, the Shadow Lord sent its Grey Guards to enslave Raladin and bring the citizens to the Shadowlands. However, the Shadow Army was again fooled by the Ralads construction skills and found only an empty village, the Ralads having moved their entire home beneath the earth. Noradz continued to be run as it always was under the control of the Nine Ra-Kacharz, its people completely ignorant of how the world outside had changes. However, instead of royals and nobles, the food transported to Del instead fed the forces of the Shadow Lord.

Though the Shadow Lord searched futily for Endon and Sharn and continued to keep an eye on the seven hiding places of the gems, its greed and thirst for more power eventually led to the Shadow Lord, after sixteen years of reigning over Deltora, turning its gaze towards Deltora's neighbors (Dorne possibly among them) and began ready warships for launch, amassing its Grey Guard army in Del.

Second banishment from Deltora

Unbeknownst to the Shadow Lord. Endon and queen Sharn were able to hide themselves and their child by taking the identities of Jarred and Anna. They lived in Del for sixteen years, raising their son, Lief, among the people so that he could grow into a better king than those before him. On his sixteenth birthday, he set out with Barda, a surviving palace guard, and later Jasmine, the daughter of Jarred and Anna, to collect the gems for the reforged Belt of Deltora.

One by one, the companions were able to gather the gems, destroy many of the Shadow Lord's minions, including Thaegan, her children, Reeah, Gellick, and free Fardeep from his cursed state, though rumors of a grown man, a boy and a wild-haired girl in the company of a raven swiftly spread following the death of Reeah and destruction of the City of the Rats. The Shadow Lord had Fallow — Prandine's replacement after his death — capture Lief's parents in an attempt to interrogate them, but both proved to have a stronger will then anticipated. It chose to hold off its invasion plans to deal with the immediate threat and sent its Ak-Baba and many Ols and Guards in hunt of the three, though it lost sight of them after their liberation of the Lapis Lazuli from the Hive.

Fortunately for the Shadow Lord, Dain was able to fool Lief into thinking he was the heir to Deltora. With the help of Ichabod, the strongest and last remaining of Thaegan's children, Dain tricked the resistance into thinking he had been captured just as Lief was about to pass on the belt, which led to them staging a rescue operation into the city of Del. One by one, they fell into the Shadow Lord's traps, until only Lief was left.

As Fallow prepared to publicly execute the resistance members, Jasmine, Barda, 'Jarred' and 'Anna', the Shadow Lord itself appeared to watch the event with its Ak-Baba in the tower that formerly held the Belt. However, Lief was able to figure out the secret of the Belt, and rearranged the gems into their correct order. When he put it on, the Belt recognized him as the heir to Deltora, and banished the Shadow Lord back to the Shadowlands, sending the Lord of Shadows rolling back into its domain with a cry of baffled rage.

The Pirran Pipe

After the newly crowned King Lief's victory, the Shadow Lord took hundreds of Deltorans back to the Shadowlands to add to the captives it already had, which numbered in the thousands. Among these newly enslaved was the entire community of Noradz, who the Shadow Lord had commanded its eight remaining Ra-Kacharz (Reece having perished mere week before his master's expulsion from Deltora) march to the Shadowlands after destroying all the food so as to deny a hungry Deltora food. The Shadow Lord had Grey Guards and Ak-Baba remove all the slaves previously held in The Mines and escort them to the Shadow Arena, where the more rebellious of them were incarcerated. As for the more peaceful of it's captives, such as the citizens of Noradz, the Shadow Lord had them perform servants' work, though it selected some for experimentation. The Shadow Lord also discovered one of the two hideouts belonging to the Shadowlands Resistance and its servants captured the vast majority of them and take them to the Factory.

It used them in various experiments, including the Conversion Project, a new, stealth based way for it to invade Deltora by brainwashing those enslaved, who would then be sent back to Deltora to infect more. Among them were the captured Resistance fighters and Tira, a girl who had helped Lief, Barda, and Jasmine in Noradz. Tira was among the first batch of the perfected Conversion Project, which the Shadow Lord intended to use as a replacement for Ols, who had failed it on multiple occasions now, and the Shadow Lord subsequently placed her in charge of supervising the creation of Grey Guards and advancements on the Conversion Project with 3-19, a Grade 3 Ol. Members of the imperfected Conversion Project, mainly rebels, were sent back to Deltora to attempt assassinations of Lief, with none succeeding and attempters perishing, although, until the death of Amarantz, none of the Deltorans were aware of the presence of the Carrier Worm. The Shadow Lord also had its remaining human spies inflame a demand for Lief to lead an army into the Shadowlands to rescue the enslaved and, in the chance this occurred, it cast a shutting spell over his border that would allow an intruder to enter the Shadowlands, but seal them within, where the Shadow Lord could pick off the Deltorans at its leisure.

After a time, the Shadow Lord realized that to kill Lief, it would need him to come to it. During Lief's attempts to destroy the Crystal, the Shadow Lord was able to go into his mind, where it learnt of his love of Jasmine. It also studied Jasmine's mind and personality in great detail, eventually discovering her loneliness and impulsive nature, which the Shadow Lord realized it could exploit to lure Jasmine to the Shadowlands, since it now knew wherever Jasmine went, Lief would follow. Using this, it created an illusion from itself in the image of a younger Jasmine named Faith, which the Shadow Lord intended to use when the time came.

Its chance came when it sensed Jasmine in a rage over the capture of the Noradz citizens and Lief's alleged "proposal" to a Toran girl and the Shadow Lord, as Faith, contacted Jasmine mentally through the Crystal, urging her onwards towards the Crystal and it. As Jasmine found the Crystal, the Shadow Lord assumed the form of 'Faith' and spoke to the girl, calling 'herself' Jasmine's younger sister who had been born and raised in the captivity of the Shadowlands. Wearing the illusion of a fearful girl desperate to fulfil her dead mother Anne's wish to reach 'The Crystal', the Shadow Lord/Faith pleaded with Jasmine to come rescue 'her' and the other prisoners, claiming the Enemy had decreed that all its slaves would be put to death in an act of vengeance for the defeat it had experienced in Deltora. To fully draw Jasmine into the lie, the Shadow Lord, still wearing the illusion of an alleged younger sister, nourished Jasmine's anger at Lief with the claimed Lief had known about 'her' existence for some time but kept the information from Jasmine out of fear of the Enemy, then made it seem as if 'she' must leave to avoid discovery, claiming in the last seconds before the message ended to be named Faith. The Lord of Shadow's plans were a great success and its lies prompted Jasmine to set off to the Shadowlands. Lief and Barda followed after her, as predicted, and during their travels in the underground sea, they reformed the Pirran Pipe after meeting each of the Pirran tribes, who gave them their parts of the Pipe.

The Shadow Lord received word from the Bak Pod that the moldering guards in the garbage mounds had raised an alarm declaring how they had sighted a girl and black bird. Knowing instantly that this must by Jasmine, who it was sure Lief would be with, the Shadow Lord instantly set his trap and called for the Conversion Project to be unveiled in the Shadow Arena. The Shadow Lord planned to draw the companions out into the open by having Tira and Hellena - another successful perfected slave - demonstrate the Project on Pi-Ban and Faith. It rigged the Arena to contain the friends and slaves and all the Project went ahead, the Shadow Lord was present, instantly quelling the cries of anger prompted by Hellena's denial of the release of more Vraals with a clap of thunder. It subsequently bore witness to the Baks revealing the travelling cage containing not only the Dread Gnome Pi-Ban, but now also Lief, Barda and Jasmine, yet continued to maintain the Faith illusion as Hellena made a speech to the slaves concerning the Shadow Lord's "gift". Members of the Shadowlands resistance, however, instigated a revolt among the captives and Lief attempted to dissuade 3-19 from releasing the Carrier Worms with the remainder it would mean the end of his kind, which caused the Grade 3 Ol to hesitate. Furious at this show of defiance, the Shadow Lord struck down 3-19, releasing the worms, but a note played by Lief with the Pirran Pipe instantly killed the creatures before they could reach the slaves and released the infected from the Shadow Lord's control. Swiftly regathering strength, however, the Shadow Lord then spoke to Jasmine through the figment of Faith, revealing its plans and sneering at how she had unintentionally brought Lief into its hands, then revealing Faith was nothing more than a phantom. Appearing in the clouds as a mass of smoke centered around a pair of eyes that gleamed with evil, the Shadow Lord, quickly adjusting to the surprise of feeling the Pirran Pipe again after so many centuries, set to quell the uprising itself. Lief, however, handed the Pipe over Keron, Emlis, a far more skilled musician. While the Pipe could not defeat the Shadow Lord in its own land, nor restore Pirra after so long in the shadows, the magic weakened it long enough for the Pirrans to hear the music and teleport all the captive Deltorans into their underground sea, depraving the Shadow Lord of the chance to gain thousands of new followers and eventually gain control of the minds of all of Deltora.

The Four Sisters

Despite freeing his countrymen from the Shadowlands, Lief was still plagued by the voice of the Shadow Lord through the Crystal. It tormented Lief relentlessly, jeering at the 'little king' and his companions achievements and the half-starved state of his people, encouraging him to turn and run like the 'sniveling son of a blacksmith' it claimed he was and explaining that soon it would be expanding to other, weaker willed Deltorans, expressing its twisted eagerness to paying with such people. Even others, like Barda, though they could not hear the Shadow Lord, could sense it as a bad feeling and as he and Lief discussed this, the Lord of Shadows vowed that, with the Crystal still in place, Lief was never to be rid of it. The very presence of the Crystal forced Lief to close the entire third floor off, never to be used again while such a window to the Shadowlands was in place.

On the night of the Full Moon Meeting, Lief finally thought of a way to destroy the Crystal: by burning it in the fires of Adin's forge. That night, the Crystal was moved to the forge, but despite the risk of its device's impending destruction, the Shadow Lord continued to whisper in Lief's mind, hissing that it was too strong for Lief. As it burned, the Crystal replayed past conversations, including the one about the Four Sisters, as it was recorded to, and before this, the conversation between the Shadow Lord and Prandine after Endon's coronation. This prompted Lief, Barda, and Jasmine to set out again to destroy them.[1]

With them gone, the Shadow Lord had its servant, Paff, a young and lonely orphaned the Shadow Lord had brainwashed into serving it, begin to sow dissent in the capital. She turned Lief's allies against one another with rumors and whispered and slowly built-up resentment towards Tora. The Shadow Lord, meanwhile, gave the task of destroying the trio to Rolf, commanding him to infiltrate the companions' party by throwing himself in their way and allow himself to be captured by Granous, trusting their instinctively good natures would prompt them to save its servant. Despite Rolf's best attempts, the companions were not only able to kill him, destroy the Sister of the North and discover the location of the Sister in the North, but also reawake the last surviving Topaz and Ruby dragons. The Shadow Lord then gave the task of killing Lief to Kirsten, its second Guardian, apparently promising her control over the whole of the North if she were to succeed, and giving her the authority to command various others, including Laughing Jack and Fern, another former slave that Kirsten had manipulated into serving her and her master as a spy implanted within the Masked Ones. Lief, however, with the help of Honora, the last dragon of the Emerald, killed Kirsten and destroyed the Sister of the North.

On The Shadow Lord's orders, Paff inserted a magic glass bead into Kree, Jasmine's raven, so that the Shadow Lord could watch them constantly. This allowed it to try and kill Lief when he arrived on Bone Point, by sending a hurricane wind to blow him and the Kin carrying him out of Deltora's borders, where the gems would kill him. Paff also began to spread rumours of a plague sent by the Torans in Del, falsifying symptoms of such a catastrophe with poison that she secretly administered to many citizens of Del through their food supplies. This way, if Lief died, the people of Del would not accept his heir, Marilen, as their queen and cracks would begin to form in the barrier against the Shadow Lord. It also guessed the shopkeeper Tom would direct the companions towards his sister Ava out of a feeling of responsibility for the actions of his brother, James Gant (now known as Laughing Jack) and henceforth sent Jack to the coast to help defend the Sister of the West — the only one among the Four not to be defended by a willing guardian — offering him the chance to regain its favor after failing it in the north.

Despite all these plans, Lief was still able to destroy three of the sisters with the aid of the last dragons of Deltora, releasing Doran from his tormented half-life and bringing about the deaths of several Shadow Lord servants, including Rolf, Kirsten and Laughing Jack. The companions also freed Red Han from Laughing Jack's spell, permitting the Bone Point Light to shine again. With three of the Four Sisters destroyed and the likelihood of foreign ships coming soon, the Shadow Lord, impatient to spring its backup plan now that so-little damage could be inflicted with the remaining Sister, withdrew power from the Sister of the South at a crucial time and abandoned Paff to continue fight on alone and eventually commit suicide to release herself from her tormented life. With the Sisters gone, the grey tide awoke and began to cover the land in poisonous slime but met resistance from Hopian, Fidelis, Lief, Jasmine and Barda. The Shadow Lord even used its powers to allow the seven Ak-Baba to defy the Belt and cross the border do battle with the dragons, who's power the Shadow Lord feared could thwart the tide, and as its seven creatures came swooping in with howls, Lief believed he could hear the sound of distant, wicked laughter, which presumably was the laughter of the Shadow Lord. The Ak-Baba initially proved to have the upper hand with their natural weapons, numbers and decades of experience fighting dragons. But they were outmatched when Lief, using their true names, summoned Joyeu, Fortuna and Honora, to whom he gave the aid of the Belt, and four Ak-Baba were slain before the remaining three fled back to the Shadowlands after sighting the incoming Veritas and Forta, after which the dragons destroyed the grey tide.

And so, the Shadow Lord's plans were ended, and Lief married Jasmine, who became queen of Deltora. But knowing that the Shadow Lord was still a threat, and, despite the deaths of four of its most invaluable servants and the return of Deltora's greatest guardians: the Dragons, still plotted its next attack on Deltora, Lief never removed the Belt.[3]

Attack on Dorne

After its failure in Deltora, the Shadow Lord set its sights back to its homeland of Dorne for the time being, which till that time had been a secondary interest at best to it. It sent a series of spies to increase hostilities between humans and Fellan and had one of them, a trader named Barron who was the last in a long line of secret Shadow Lord spies, infiltrate Farr's advisory circle and advise the Chieftain there to attack the Fellan, for the Fellan protected the island from the Shadow Lord, encouraging resentment between humans and Fellan. Luckily for the people of Dorne, five heroes from Weld exposed the Shadow Lord's plan before it could be carried out.

Alternate Future

In an alternate future where the Shadow Lord succeeded, it destroyed Weld and discovered the Skimmers living within its wall. Realizing they were natural creatures who could succeed where his creations of sorcery could not, the Shadow Lord set about breeding them to be able to survive in daylight and extreme cold. This way it could use them to attack Deltora.[5] Henceforth, it constructed a vast and complex base of operations on ruins of New Nerra: the Harbour, where its servants used jells to adapt Skimmers to fly in sunlight and winter. It placed a man named Brand in control of the operation and enslaved thousands of people to work in the Diggings under the eyes of Grey Guards, with its slave-hunter Kyte rounding up new captives. Much like how it had with the Crystal in Deltora, the Shadow Lord contracted its servants through a small black box kept in Brand's possession. It also sent its remaining Ak-Baba to Dorne, presumably to act as overseers of the skies in order to pick out escapes or intruders. As the testing for the new variety of Skimmers approached, the Shadow Lord sent five of its servants to join the workers of the Harbour, but the ship carrying them ran afoul and was shipwrecked, leaving only one survivor.

Sometime after this, the Shadow Lord spoke with Brand, inquiring if Brand could guarantee success.

Physical appearance

Shadowlordanime

The Shadow Lord, as it appears in the anime.

On arrival at Deltora, Malverlain wore a large cloak of shadows and carried a magic staff.[4] [nb 1] Though once dark-skinned with red hair, over the years, anger and hatred completely consumed his physical body. Towards the end of Lief's journey to find the lost gems, the Shadow Lord appeared floating in the air, surrounded by dark grey clouds edged with scarlet and appearing as nothing more than a hooded figure.[6]

Anime

In the anime, the Shadow Lord is depicted as a massive, demonic entity with glowing red eyes, a body made out of darkness and as having a deep sinister voice.

Personality

The Shadow Lord was always proud and stiff, thinking that it was his right to rule Dorne. After fleeing from Dorne, the Shadow Lord became very bitter and sick with greed. Desperate to rule, the Shadow Lord became a megalomaniac, willing to do anything to get his way. Hating everything good and beautiful, its soul is dark and filled with jealousy. Over the years, its hatred has grown and, to it, a thousand years is like the blink of an eye.[4] The Shadow Lord can arguably be seen as the ultimate personification of manipulation as it is able to carefully plan and execute the steps required to manipulate the 'pieces' involved to do its bidding, whether if said 'pieces' realize it or not and despite its lust to take Deltora as its own, it knows when it is best to be patient and wait for centuries to instigate another invasion, exploiting these decades of silence to slowly rebuild its power and garner further strength.

Deriving pleasure from mentally tormenting Lief, it appears to be very sadistic and cruel, going by the policy that if it cannot have something, it will simply destroy it, evident from its deciding to destroy Deltora with the grey tide, then rule over the wasteland. However, it claims that to take the people of Deltora alive would be preferable to destroying them, as they could provide slave power and satisfy it's enjoyment of sadistic entertainment, with the Grey Tide being a last resort launched only when its other plots had failed. The Shadow Lord cares nothing about its subordinates, viewing them as simple pawns in its plans and dismissed the death of an entire ship of servants without a flicker of grief. If servants failed it, the Shadow Lord demonstrated a willingness to kill servants who failed it. An exception to this may be the Ak-Baba, if for their strength and loyalty if no other reason, as Grey Guards note that the Shadow Lord would be greatly displeased, if not furious, to discover that its "pets" had not been permitted to hunt. The Ak-Baba, furthermore, do not seem subjugated to the fear of punishment if they failed.

The Shadow Lord has a tendency to hold long grudges, despising both his brothers for banishing him from Dorne and continuing to hate the Royal Family for the actions of Adin. It also drew malicious pleasure from how Annoltis had descended into darkness and been overthrown by the very people who once adored him, as well as for how Eldannen had been banished like he had by Annoltis, describing both fates as fitting. The Shadow Lord also clearly believes that despite becoming something other than human, it was far superior and lived on past its brothers "in greatness".

Abilities

Studying and reading into sorcery at a young age, Malverlain was a very powerful sorcerer. Strengthened by Fellan blood, he could perform killing spells and conjure objects. He was also able to burn the minds of people.[4]

By the time of the series, the Shadow Lord had grown in power to being able to kill miles away from itself, and could share its power with others. It also possessed power over the weather, and was able to send a powerful wind to blow Lief and the Belt away from Deltora in Isle of the Dead and demonstrated certain power over thunder, which it often used to demonstrate its power or cow its servants and storms. It shared a mental link with its seven Ak-Baba, which it extended to its Greers during the Battle for Deltora, allowing it to guide both with its thoughts alone. The Shadow Lord could also separate fragments from itself and conjure phantoms such as Faith from them, which it could speak through. It could also teleport others from one place to another, at least when its powers were not held back, as shown by its saving of Laughing Jack from a sea storm.

In The Sister of the South, the Shadow Lord used its power to defy the Belt of Deltora and sent the Ak-Baba to attack the dragons. This is an impressive feat itself, as the Belt is the very object preventing the Shadow Lord's invasion. It could also grant others powers, such as the ability to morph into or summon forth monstrous creatures, though the strength of such creations were often dependent on the Shadow Lord's power and if it withdrew strength, such powers would be weakened.

The Lord of Shadows was an immensely manipulative figure who was able to persuade various humans and creatures to serve it, often in exchange for power and riches. It often inspired a great sense of loyalty in many of its followers, quite a few of whom were willing to fight to the death for it. Arguably its most dangerous weapon, however, was the Shadow Lord's cunning and strategical mindset, with almost every one of its plots containing with in it a double bluff or contingency protocol set in place to nullify the failure.

The Shadow Lord is also a master engineer and biologist. Inside its Shadow Factory, it creates all forms of monsters and servants for its army. Many captured slaves are also experimented on, usually ending up as mindless and misshapen beasts. In the alternate future seen beyond the silver Door, it was able to breed Skimmers that could survive in daylight by using jell.

During the sixteen years in which it ruled Deltora, the Shadow Lord had access to much of the land's (albeit limited) resources and could use them as it saw fit. Indeed, for decades before it took power, the Shadow Lord, through its servants, most prominently its Ol Chief Advisors, controlled the monarchs and many of the various leaders of Deltora's communities, effectively making it the ruler of Deltora, though with the limitations that it could not reveal its hand, and its palace spies could not directly defy the direct orders of the monarch they were manipulating.

Besides creating monsters, the Shadow Lord was also able to create advanced weapons like the sparking rod.

Relationships

Main article: Malverlain's relationships

Relatives

Garth
   
   
Unknown
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
Rosalyn
   
   
Unnamed half-Fellan
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
Peregrine
   
   
Alenan
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
Annoltis
   
   
Malverlain
   
   
Eldannen
   
   
   
   
   
   

Appearances

Deltora Quest

Deltora Quest

Deltora Quest 2

Dragons Quest 3

The Three Doors

Supplementary books

Trivia

  • The Shadow Lord's true name was only revealed in the new edition of Tales of Deltora, and in The Three Doors series.
    • The Shadow Lord's true name, Malverlain, uses the prefix "mal-", which comes from Latin mal- from the Latin adverb male, from malus, meaning "evil", "malicious" or "unpleasant". It may also have been derived directly from the English word "malicious", meaning "evil", "evil intent" or "something intended to be evil".
  • Because Rosalyn is from Deltora the Shadow Lord has Deltoran blood in him/it. He even has ancestors from the city of Del, the capital of Deltora.
  • The Shadow Lord is the main antagonist throughout all three Deltora Quest series.
  • The Shadow Lord's most loyal servants are the seven Ak-Baba.
  • Various similarities exist between the Shadow Lord and other "Dark Lord" characters from various works of fiction:
    • Like Sauron from The Lord of the Rings, he has various servants capable of flight or magical ability that travel to do his bidding while he usually remains within his domain, a country utterly ruined by his machinations. He also possessed a magical means of communicating with said servants and later his enemies, similar to the Palantíri of The Lord of the Rings
    • Like The Sword of Shannara antagonist the Warlock Lord, he was once a human who dabbled in dark arts only to eventually get consumed to the point that none of his humanity remained. However, unlike the Warlock Lord, the Shadow Lord has no known weaknesses by which he may be destroyed, with various magical defences serving only to weaken or repel him/it.
    • Like Makuta Teridax from BIONICLE franchise (specifically Generation 1), he is a brilliant schemer and manipulator with "schemes within schemes", where, if one failed, another would succeed. And like Teridax, the Shadow Lord is depicted as a megalomaniacal, sadistic and arrogant psychopath desiring nothing more than to rule all of creation.

Notes

  1. The Shadow Lord's staff resembles the staff of Maia Gandalf in film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Rodda, Emily. Dragon's Nest. Scholastic Australia. 2004.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Rodda, Emily. The Golden Door. Scholastic Australia. 2011.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Rodda, Emily. The Sister of the South. Scholastic Australia. 2004.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Rodda, Emily. Tales of Deltora. Scholastic Australia. 2005.
  5. Rodda, Emily. The Silver Door. Scholastic Australia. 2012.
  6. Rodda, Emily. Return to Del. Scholastic Australia. 2002.

See also

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