Most Evil Cosmere Villian

[The Stick]

I am curious to see who everybody believes is the most evil villain. Try to keep in mind that some like Marsh were forced to do evil when you make your rankings. Some of my top are:

Moash

That Honorspren who tries to deny Maya and convict Adolin.

Hoid (It depends on the day if he is villainous

Nale (Edgedancer make me question this though)

Lezian

Bluefingers

Denth and his group

Treledees to an extent

Straff is despicable 

Aesudan, although Yelig-Nar's involvement may cloud this.

Same for Amaram

Anybody who denies Lift food

Anyone who denies Stick whatever it's godly form desires.

This is super controversial, but I have no issue with Taravangian.

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by The Stick

[Cinnamon]

54 minutes ago, The Stick said:

This is super controversial, but I have no issue with Taravangian.

Huh? No issue? Like you don’t see any problem at all with him? Nothing?

Now I agree that he may not be the worst villain in the Cosmere, not by a long shot but you have “anyone who denies Lift food” and Hoid on there! Again I agree that withholding food from the indescribable awesomeness that is Lift is definitely not cool but… how is that worse than Taravangian?
You said the ‘most evil’ villian and withholding food from a child is certainly rude, but evil? Killing people slowly because with their dying breath they may say something that furthers your cause is evil. Also I really don’t think Hoid deserves to be on there he may be… a character but he’s not specifically malicious or evil in his intentions. Same thing with Amaram, I suppose, and the other sons of Honour. The man sucks don’t get me wrong but he thought he was doing the right thing. I guess it is the same situation with Taravangian though, but you cannot discard their deeds entirely. If you did no one would be evil I suppose. I think that no one is completely evil everyone has a bit of grey area. But you didn’t ask for completely evil, you asked for most so I think you definitely have some good(or should say bad) contenders there. But it kinda feels to me that you didn’t really properly think this list through and just wrote it on the fly, picking people who weren’t very nice but that’s just me. 
Huh. This incoherence of a rant was fun to write so thanks.  

Some people I’d have as contenders for the Cosmere’s most evil would be:

Sadeas. I don’t even think I need to explain this.

Straff is absolutely loathsome. I agree. eating children and abusing women? No thank you.

edit: I meant “beating” but “eating” works too  

The Lord Ruler

Dilaf

I’m actually quite curious as to why you don’t mind Taravangian so could you tell me?

have a good day!

Edited March 13, 2023 by Cinnamon

[The Stick]

I do agree that Taravangian has done awful things, I cannot possibly deny that. What I mean is that he ultimately trying to save Roshar. While his methods are despicable, I hardly think he can be called entirely evil, because he is working for a good cause

[The Stick]

Amaram I disagree with you. He may have been corrupted by Yelig-Nar and his Sons of Honor motivations are questionable but hr still had Kaladin's squad murdered in cold blood.

[S. Stormy she/her]

1 hour ago, The Stick said:

I am curious to see who everybody believes is the most evil villain. Try to keep in mind that some like Marsh were forced to do evil when you make your rankings. Some of my top are:

Moash

That Honorspren who tries to deny Maya and convict Adolin.

Hoid (It depends on the day if he is villainous

Nale (Edgedancer make me question this though)

Lezian

Bluefingers

Denth and his group

Treledees to an extent

Straff is despicable 

Aesudan, although Yelig-Nar's involvement may cloud this.

Same for Amaram

Anybody who denies Lift food

Anyone who denies Stick whatever it's godly form desires.

This is super controversial, but I have no issue with Taravangian.

 

I'm... gonna have to go with Straff. The very thought of him makes my insides turn into house centipedes and my heart into a 600-day-old apple.

I mean... he's just evil.

Also, @The Stick, avoid posting twice in a row, just quote by either highlighting what you want to quote and clicking "Quote this", it'll appear in a text box at the bottom, or you can click the + Quote button at the bottom of whatever you want to quote, then click "Quote 1 post" to stick it into your post! Did that make sense?

Quote

Amaram I disagree with you. He may have been corrupted by Yelig-Nar and his Sons of Honor motivations are questionable but hr still had Kaladin's squad murdered in cold blood.

Oh and I'm not saying I entirely disagree with you here, but this post (the second one down) makes some very interesting points.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Shallan Stormblessed

[PinkPlasma she/her]

ima have to go with rashek. he just... literaly genitically altered most of the popullation, so that he could stay dominant. and then he like creates horrible people around him like nobobdys buisness. even the protaganists in the story are moraly gray. he single handedly ruined all of society just to prove a point about how much better he is. like... he's almost irredeemable for me. he literally made a law that said "yea you can rape the women, just make sure to murder them after!" ...He's so bad

[alder24]

17 hours ago, The Stick said:

This is super controversial, but I have no issue with Taravangian.

Oh yes, good guy Taravangian, building public hospitals, taking care of homeless people, and stepping in as a new ruler of a neighboring country to stop a brutal civil war that came out of nowhere. If only we had more politicians like him...

 

What I love about Brandon's antagonists is that they are three dimensional characters, most of them have understandable goals and motivations, but their actions are what defines them. Like Taravangian, he wants to save Roshar - like Dalinar, but their methods are drastically different. Taravangian is ready to do everything to save even part of it, including killing thousands, spreading chaos everywhere and betraying his allies. Dalinar is not. He would rather fail than stain his hands with innocent blood. So I think it's hard to find true evil villains in Cosmere. But there are some, here is my list, not list of evil characters, but bad people in Cosmere:

1. Straff Venture - If evil in Cosmere had a name, it would certainly be Straff Venture. I mean abusing people, raping women to make his own army of metalborns or out of pettiness, beating his kids, treating everyone like tools, including his own son, whom he was prepared to kill, but when it got too hot he ran away. His motivation was to only gain more power. He is for sure a true evil villain in Cosmere.
2. Gavilar - terrible husband, terrible father, terrible brother. He is using everyone as his tools. And his motivations? Religious zeal, and immortality. He is ready to bring the literal end of the world to Roshar just for his "gods" to come back, to make religion strong again. He was playing with forces that he didn't even understood.
3. Sadeas - I won't call him a truly evil person. His motivations are aligned with the good of a kingdom, he helped to build it, he was ready to sacrifice his own life for his king and friend, and even during WoK/WoR he was convinced that what he was doing is for a betterment of the kingdom. However his actions were despicable, yet even Dalinar called them trully Alethi-like, so it's not that Sadeas is evil, it's that Alethi are prone to these actions. (Edit:) What made him really bad is after discovering Urithiru he was still convinced that what he was doing was right, and opposing Dalinar was the right way to go. Still he is corrupt and bad man.
4. Rashek - with my broken heart, I have to include him. I love him as a character and a villain. He is a conflicted person. On the one hand his actions were motivated by the urge to save Scadrial from Ruin, he prepared plans and was successful in slowing Ruin's advance enough to save Scadrial, he cared for his people, even Skaa, and wanted them to survive the incoming apocalypse. Over millennia he slowly became corrupted by Ruin's whispers. On the other hand he was a power hungry, jealous and pitiful man, especially in early years. He created a terrible society, enslaved most of the population, and for 1000 years treated them inhumanly. He didn’t even care about noble warring with each other, and saw it as a useful tool. He conducted a homicide on his own kind and bred them like animals. He used hemalurgy to kill unspeakable amounts of people just to construct more useful tools. He did truly terrible things, but I wouldn’t call him purely evil.
5. Taravangian - I mean killing innocents in back rooms of his white hospitals, sending assassin to kill every monarch on Roshar and destabilize whole world knowing that Desolation is coming, manipulating his allies and betraying them, ultimately Ascending and his very first thought was to use his new, unlimited power to "save them all". Even though he has good motivations, his actions are just despicable.
6. Dilaf - I haven't read Elantris in a while, and I don't remember a lot now, but he was a pitiful, zealous man, motivated only by ambitions and hatred. He brought death and destruction to Arelon and Teoras. (edit2: I think that Dilaf should switch with Sadeas. Sadeas has some redeeming qualities, but Dilaf I don't think so, and Sadeas influence was a bit smaller than Dilaf, after all Dilaf wanted to kill all Elantians, Arelonians and subjugate both kingdoms under foreign, religious rule. But I had to reread Elantris to make that judgement. And it feels weird to place Sadeas above Rashek and Taravangian)
7. Edwarn and Telsin Ladrian - they are not good people. Kidnapping women to breed them for metalborn, like it was said in AoL. Scheming an unrest among cities of the Basin. Torturing Malwish ship crew and stealing their ship. Using hemalurgy, killing dozens of people to gain powers. Bringing a foreign god that is dangerous and unpredictable, who wants to assume control over Scadrial. And sending assassins and personally trying to kill their own family member - Wax. 
8. Moash - he wasn't manipulated to commit terrible acts, he chose to do them. He chose to free himself from emotions as it was an easy way out, abandon his consciousness, escape from his guilt. He is a coward. He chose to be like that. His struggle is however understandable. Divided between his urge for revenge and guilt of failing his friends. I can understand him. But that's why I know he chose the easy way out, he didn't fight, he ran away from responsibility. He chose it.
9. Tonk Fah - I mean sociopathic, sadistic person, enjoying torture? He has to be on this list, even if he didn't do as much as others.
10. Bluefingers/Kelsier - I know, it's controversial, Kelsier? The bad guy? Why? Before you throw me into the Pits of Hathsin, hear me out. The more I think about Bluefingers the more he reminds me of Kelsier. A person wanting to free his people from slavery and exploitation by an upper class? Ready to kill a god and slaughter innocents on his way to achieve his goals? Being disgusted by how the ruling class behaves and what they represent? Head of a revolution, who started a terrible war? They are both very similar, their motivations, feelings, and even actions. The only difference is that we read Mistborn from Kelsier's PoV, while in Warbreaker Bluefingers was the villian. I can't condemn Bluefingers as a villain without doing the same to Kelsier. Kelsier did become a much better person thanks to Vin and he shined the most after his death.
11. Denth/Vasher - and again, controversy, I love Vasher, but he isn't a white knight. Denth did terrible things, like betraying Vivenna, working on starting a war, killing and manipulating people. Well, and Vasher? He was one of the people that started Manywar, killed countless during that war, including Shashara, his loved one. He used Nightblood left and right to clear his way among petty thefts and sad, corrupt men that didn't deserve to die. He killed Arsteel, a friend who only wanted to reconcile him with Denth. While Vasher's intentions were certainly noble, he committed wrong acts left and right.
12. Amaram - pretending to be a noble man, but inside he is just worse than others. Killing those who saved his life from certain death, just to gain some fancy tools, and then swiping it all under the rug. Taking up the mantle after Gavilar's death and leading his group to bring Desolations back, just so his puny gods can return and assume control over Vorin Church. To make Vorinism great again. Even though Dalinar treated him unjust in OB and he could avid handing Amaram over to Odium it was likely his decision to side with Odium, against what his gods were fighting for millenia.
13. Aesudan - it's hard to judge her, after all she was under the influence of 3 Unmades, but letting them torture her own son is just a bridge too far. Even before all this mess, there were some serious problems with her and her rule. Jasnah didn't trust her, ardent Pia noted every flaw she had, so there is enough for me to be sure, she was not a good person, and she should never have become the queen.
14. Roshone - we can't miss this guy. Pitiful and greedy man, he had bad influence over Elhokar which resulted in the death of an innocent elderly couple, and waged a pity "war" with Kaladin's family, even if he was right, he took it 1 step too far - drafting Tien into the army. Thankfully he changed, he became a better leader and took care of villagers in most dire times. He swallowed his pride and managed to work with both Lirin and Kaladin.
15. Blackthorn - I mean setting an entire city ablaze, killing thousands of innocents just to set "an example", and being so blood hungry that he didn’t even notice or care for his pure wife sneaking into that city? He didn't appoint guards to protect her? Rathalas was a horrifying crime, and he couldn't face it and chose an easy way out - drinking and forgetting, which hurt his sons more. Fortunately, he did change, he took responsibility for his crimes and became a better, noble man. But I still think he should be higher on the list because of Rathalas.
16. Whoever named Szeth-son-Neturo a Truthless! He deserved to be Nightblooded!

 

I won't count Vessels, Fused, Heralds or Spren in this as they are more like forces of nature, ruled over by their own intent and singular desire. 

I wonder if I missed someone on the list. There are a lot of bad people in Cosmere, some are present more on pages, some are only mentioned here and there. It's hard to keep track of them all, when so many pale in comparison to those on top. I can still think of a few more antagonists, but I don't think they deserve to be placed on this list.

Edited March 13, 2023 by alder24

[Stick The Savant]

14 hours ago, The Stick said:

Amaram I disagree with you. He may have been corrupted by Yelig-Nar and his Sons of Honor motivations are questionable but hr still had Kaladin's squad murdered in cold blood.

I don't think this should absolve him if his wrongs. Dalinar was also influenced by an unmade and had to atone in Oathbringer. I want to rank amaram highly on the villain list but most of that is because he was so horrible to Kaladin specifically.

[Heilven he/him]

8 minutes ago, alder24 said:

 

1. Rashek - with my broken heart, I have to include him. I love him as a character and a villain. He is a conflicted person. On the one hand his actions were motivated by the urge to save Scadrial from Ruin, he prepared plans and was successful in slowing Ruin's advance enough to save Scadrial, he cared for his people, even Skaa, and wanted them to survive the incoming apocalypse. Over millennia he slowly became corrupted by Ruin's whispers. On the other hand he was a power hungry, jealous and pitiful man, especially in early years. He created a terrible society, enslaved most of the population, and for 1000 years treated them inhumanly. He didn’t even care about noble warring with each other, and saw it as a useful tool. He conducted a homicide on his own kind and bred them like animals. He used hemalurgy to kill unspeakable amounts of people just to construct more useful tools. He did truly terrible things, but I wouldn’t call him purely evil.
2. Taravangian - I mean killing innocents in back rooms of his white hospitals, sending assassin to kill every monarch on Roshar and destabilize whole world knowing that Desolation is coming, manipulating his allies and betraying them, ultimately Ascending and his very first thought was to use his new, unlimited power to "save them all". Even though he has good motivations, his actions are just despicable.

I agree with you almost entirely. Might be a hot take, but I think Rashek is better than Taravangian. Rashek is definitely not good, but it is very clear that he cared about people. He was never a good man, and was certainty a power hungry person. But just about everything he did during the final empire was for the survival of Scadrial. It seemed ot me that he didn't even really care about power toward the end, choosing to stay in the shadows and let his society work itself. I also think that if allowed to ascend again, he would likely change a lot of stuff about how society worked. His society was the work of an uneducated man working with limited time. And in the meantime he had a pretty good plan to stop Ruin from completing his goals.

Taravangian, on the other hand, is far more self centered. He suffers from intelligence without proper compassion, and not just because of his boon and curse. I think that cultivation was attempting to teach Taravangian that without compassion and empathy, your intelligence might trick you into thinking there is only one solution. What I mean by this is the ethical issue of the ends justifying the means. Taravangian is certainly a big believer in the ends justifying the means, but by believing too much in that, you can accidentally not consider ever option. If you come up with a solution that requires you to do terrible things to do something good, you might conclude that the good you will do justifies the horror you caused. You may certainly even be correct. But you might land on that solution, accept that the ends justify the means, and never look for a different solution. Perhaps there is a way to do the same good, but without all of the horror you inflict. This is Taravangian's problem. He lands on a solution where the ends justify the means, but doesn't continue looking to see if there is a better solution that requires less terrible means. We are told that the diagram is the only way to save Roshar, but we are told that by people who have already accepted that unconditionally. When Taravangian created the diagram, he was the most intelligent he had ever been. Meaning he was as unempathetic as he has ever been. I find it perfectly likely that he simply didn't think it necessary to explore other solutions because the one he came up with was just fine, and the ends ultimately justify the means. Everyone else simply has to accept that, because they couldn't predict the future like Taravangian could in that moment. Cultivation was attempting to teach that lesson to Taravangian so that he could be a better Odium, and I think her plan completely backfired. Odium already suffered from the same problem, believing that he must save the cosmere, which required doing a bunch of terrible things. Cultivation hoped that Taravangian could see past that, but I think this failed horribly.

Ultimately I think Rashek was a simple man tasked with far more than he was capable of, and failing with power he should have never held. Taravangian failed to learn a lesson about compassion, and actively chose to do horrible things despite having the capacity to see that it wasn't necessary. Ultimately your first paragraph is completely correct, Sanderson's villains are well written and generally 3 dimensional. Neither Rashek nor Taravangian is a good person, yet neither are truly evil. This is just my justification as to why Rashek may deserve more respect than Taravangian.

[StanLemon]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

Straff Venture - If evil in Cosmere had a name, it would certainly be Straff Venture. I mean abusing people, raping women to make his own army of metalborns or out of pettiness, beating his kids, treating everyone like tools, including his own son, whom he was prepared to kill, but when it got too hot he ran away. His motivation was to only gain more power. He is for sure a true evil villain in Cosmere

I agree completely with this, Straff is Sanderson's most mustache twirling villain. Cowardly, unnecessarily cruel, power hungry, etc. He practically is the definition of evil

Edited March 13, 2023 by StanLemon

[The Stick]

I have to agree with Sadeas and Gavilar. I have more sympathy for Sadeas because while he was awful, he did as his culture normally did and he sincerely did want to safeguard the kingdom he built. Rashek is a tough one, because he is awful, but you cannot deny his methods did save Scadrial for over 1000 years. I am somewhat inclined to believe you have a point on Kelsier, although we do not know enough about the Ghostbloods yet. (Brandon has to give us more information in book 5). Vasher is ultimately good though, his conversation with Kaladin in Rhythm of War attests to this.

[Frustration he/him]

Moash doesn't deserve to even be in the top 10. The worst thing he did was kill Jezrien, and that one other radiant and just about every other villain has killed orders of magnitudes more innocents. Gavilar wasn't evil, just painfully stupid, and even then only because Brandon decided to assassinate his character.

1. Odium, sorry but this isn't even close no one else is responsible for the death of billions of people
2. Rashek, genocide, various other crimes, litterally Cosmere Hitler.
3. Raboniel, multiple counts of attempted genocide
4. Sadees
5. Sadeas, yes they are two different people
6. Taravangian. I will not debate this one, Taravangian is scum, who kills people because he doesn't want to go through the effort to do anything else and refuses to accept that anyone other than him can do anything to satisfy his ego.
7. Dilaf, the man litterally leads a suicide cult, and has people killed to save himself fifteen minutes of walking, and takes pleasure in torturing people.
8. Wyrn.
9. Straff, enough said.
10. Bluefingers, probably.

 

[The Stick]

You cannot include Odium

[Frustration he/him]

6 minutes ago, The Stick said:

You cannot include Odium

Why not?

[The Stick]

Including Odium would be like saying a hurricane is evil for knocking down buildings. Odium does awful things, but he has no choice. His Vessel has little control; the Intent is not to be blamed. This would like accusing Ruin of being evil by Ruining things, it is part of his Intent, he must. I think this should also extend to Fused, their behavior is very influenced by Odium's investiture animating them.

 

[Frustration he/him]

4 minutes ago, The Stick said:

Including Odium would be like saying a hurricane is evil for knocking down buildings. Odium does awful things, but he has no choice. His Vessel has little control; the Intent is not to be blamed. This would like accusing Ruin of being evil by Ruining things, it is part of his Intent, he must. I think this should also extend to Fused, their behavior is very influenced by Odium's investiture animating them.

 

Rayse is very much in control, we see in RoW that he is forcing the Shard to do things that it doesn't want to do, that was part of why he was so vulnerable.

[The Stick]

1 minute ago, Frustration said:

Rayse is very much in control, we see in RoW that he is forcing the Shard to do things that it doesn't want to do, that was part of why he was so vulnerable.

He does admit that breaking the oaths the power wound bond too would open his soul, allowing Cultivation to kill him. He is bound by the Intent, although we do know he was an awful man before he ascended, Dragonsteel may give more context. 

[Frustration he/him]

Just now, The Stick said:

He does admit that breaking the oaths the power wound bond too would open his soul, allowing Cultivation to kill him. He is bound by the Intent, although we do know he was an awful man before he ascended, Dragonsteel may give more context. 

He is still limited by his power, but so is Kaladin, but he still has free will.

[The Stick]

I suppose you are right, same for Dalinar. The Stormfather is not meant to be summoned as a Blade but Dalinar ignored this. We do know that while Hoid was once friends with him, Hoid considers him loathsome now. Considering his and Harmony' coalition of Shards they are attempting to form, I do think Rayse could be considered evil.

 

[SwordNimiForPresident the sword/that sword]

Adonalsium.

Allowing it's self to be shattered resulted in untold (or I guess it has been fairly thoroughly told given that Brandon has written sever books about it) suffering. All of the terrible deeds committed by the lesser villains can therefore be attributed to Adonalsium, making it the evilest thing to exist in the Cosmere.

[The Stick]

Well, the only good way to know is to ask a Shard, Hoid, Frost, or the Aether's. Unfortunately, all of these groups are quite biased in some way. Technically, whatever created Adonalsium was eviler because that caused it. The only way to know at that point is through Aethers.

[Frustration he/him]

2 minutes ago, SwordNimiForPresident said:

Adonalsium.

Allowing it's self to be shattered resulted in untold (or I guess it has been fairly thoroughly told given that Brandon has written sever books about it) suffering. All of the terrible deeds committed by the lesser villains can therefore be attributed to Adonalsium, making it the evilest thing to exist in the Cosmere.

Did he allow himself to be shattered? It hasn't really been confirmed either way.

And did he know what would happen afterwards?

[SwordNimiForPresident the sword/that sword]

6 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Did he allow himself to be shattered? It hasn't really been confirmed either way.

And did he know what would happen afterwards?

I mean, if you're the only Shard level entity out there, your future sight should be pretty on point. There aren't many things that could throw up blind spots.

[The Stick]

Maybe Dawnshards can be used for future sight somehow?

[alder24]

9 hours ago, SwordNimiForPresident said:

I mean, if you're the only Shard level entity out there, your future sight should be pretty on point. There aren't many things that could throw up blind spots.

Odium's future sight was blinded by Renarin's future sight. It's a fairly good assumption that Adonalsium's future sight could also be blinded enough by a simple human future sight to prevent him from seeing his Shattering. With Dawnshards it could give far greater future sight than we've ever seen humans had, on Shard's level even. We don't even know if Adonalsium was a good entity, nor if he had a Vessel like later Shards have to have. So If Adonalsium had a Vessel, he would be as limited in accessing his powers as Shard's vessels are, and he wouldn't be much better at future sight than Shards, despite all of that extra power.