Plans for the next live-action Paramount made the mistake of canceling their D&D show, and there are plenty of theories about what the next steps for the property will be. While a lot of the theorizing is based in broad strokes, like wondering which of D&D's many settings the show will be set in, or how meta a show should be, there's another important consideration to be made – who the villains should be.
Vecna, who has tormented adventurers in multiple editions. Another undead villain of yore has gotten far less attention from D&D fans in recent years, but now is the perfect time for the Knight of the Black Rose to rise again.
The Death Knight Lord Soth Is A Relentless Villain For A Live-Action Dungeons & Dragons Show
He Has A Great Story Arc
Born a mortal man in the world of Krynn, from the Dragonlance campaign setting, the man who would become the Knight of the Black Rose was once a noble Knight of Solamnia. A proud paladin, Soth succumbed to jealousy and temptation, killing his wife and newborn son in order to be with an elven woman who was also carrying his child.
When the gods gave Soth a chance to redeem himself and stop the impending Cataclysm, an apocalypse the gods themselves had set in motion, he instead fell victim to his paranoia and accused his second wife of infidelity. As their castle burned around them, she cursed him to suffer "one life for every life lost" that night, and he was transformed into an undead mockery of what he had been in life - a death knight.
The Cataclysm reshaped the world of Krynn. The gods, angered by mortal hubris, hurled a flaming mountain at the world, obliterating a massive portion of the continent of Ansalon and causing natural disasters worldwide. Then, the gods retreated from the world, leaving society in ruins for three hundred years.
As a death knight, Soth is an implacable foe, with both a cursed blade and terrible magic at his disposal. His very aura is one of fear, and he has hordes of lesser undead bound to his will. He also appeared outside the Dragonlance setting when he spent some time in the world of Ravenloft as one of its ruling Dreadlords. That means that a D&D show wouldn't have to be set on Krynn to feature Soth, since the barriers between worlds mean nothing to him.
Lord Soth’s Story Provides Pathos Where Other Villains Just Twirl Their Mustaches
His Character Arc Adds Emotional Weight To An Episodic Story
Lord Soth isn’t a great villain because of his power, but his tragic past. He is more than a mindless horror; he’s a tortured soul, a man who forsook oath after oath until all that was left of him was an ember of self-loathing inside a blackened suit of armor. In his castle of Dargaard Keep three banshees keep eternal vigil, singing horribly beautiful melodies every night to remind him of how he let the world burn. He loves his only true ally, the Dragon Highlord Kitiara, but that love is as sad and twisted as the rest of him.
While the setting of the eventual live-action Dungeons & Dragons show remains undecided, and there are plenty of the Shadow of the Dragon Queen adventure module.
- Created by
- E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley
- First Film
- Dungeons & Dragons
