Fantasy novels/series with memorable villain teams

[MasterGhandalf]

With The Wheel of Time having wrapped up a few months ago, I've been reflecting about its villain cast, particularly the Forsaken. I was wondering if anybody could think of fantasy novels with similar villain groups, namely a group of servants of the Big Bad who possess a certain legendary stature in their own right (yes, I know that you can- accurately- say some pretty unkind things about the Forsaken's actual level of competence, but that isn't the topic at hand) and distinct personalities (in other words, I'm not looking for groups like the Ringwraiths or Thomas Covenant's Ravers, where each memeber is essentially identical to the others, or like the Death Eaters, who are, with a couple of exceptions, pretty much just thugs with magic). The Ten Who Were Taken from the Black Company novels, the Chandrian from The Name of the Wind and the sullanciri from the DragonCrown War Cycle would be other examples of the kind of villain groups I'm looking for.

[Cespenar]

Anime and manga love this trope, as do Japanese games. Heck, it would take less time to count examples of works that don't use this trope than those that use it.

From more western works, not many comes to my mind. The Bloody Mummers from A Song of Ice and Fire, perhaps? Or the Big Coffin Hunters from The Dark Tower? Not legendary in the least, both of them, but memorable and are arguably game changers on their own.

[Friv]

Well, there were the Ten Who Were... oh, you got them.

Tolkein? Not the ringwraiths, but most of the bad guys have their own legends and stories - Shelob, Saruman, the Balrog or the Goblin Kings.

[Kitten Champion]

The Steel Inquisitors become this in the Mistborn novels, the Heralds of Galactus in Marvel, Darkseid's personal guard and generals in DC. Homunculi from FMA, Akatsuki from Naruto, Espada from Bleach.

[Man on Fire]

Ten Who Were...oh.

Well, there is Fate/Zero novels and anime, where bad guys team ended up being composed of legendary Church assasin, one of more respected wizards of the setting, Gilgamesh (that one) and one of world's most legendary assassins, and later Lancelot.

Fionavar Tapestry has this in spades - most of the bad guys have some legend or history to them, many of which are quite mythological or legendary. Starting with Rakoth Maugrim, the Unraveler, through Galadan The Wolflord, black swan Fordaetha of Ruk to their team wizard, all of them are interesting and legendary. There is also Uathach, white Urgach, but he is new guy and enigma, so he doesn't have a legend - doesn't mean he's not interesting.

Seven Dieties from game Asura's Wrath all have dinstinctive eprsonalities and aren't just famous - they are literally worshipped as gods.

[endoperez]

What about Black Company's Ten ... oh.


Hmm. I got nothing. Maybe the Amber series.

[Telonius]

Neverwhere had Vandemar and Croup, mercenaries for ... the Big Bad.

Avatar: the Last Airbender had Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee, all servants of Ozai. (Not sure if you mean to include TV stuff as a "series"...)

[kitep]

Star Wars had lots of memorable people working for the emporer.

BSG had several different models working for the Cylons

[Brewdude]

Black Company's Ten who...sigh...conservation of ninjitsu says my thread beats up all the threads that ninja'd me.

Dresden Chronicles has a number of good villain teams, in addition to just pretty good villains: the demons that the three sword bearers fight, the Summer and Winter Courts, the White, Red, and Black Courts...

[Traab]

The Belgariad/Mallorean had this. The big bad Torak had 3 disciples, each had their own sphere of influence, power, danger, and reason to hate them.

*EDIT* In fact, most of eddings work had this. The Elder god Azash had Otha, an immortal glutton with massive magical power, an entire country that obeyed him, and a fairly unique downside. Him being so fat that he literally couldnt walk anywhere. He was carried everywhere on a throne by a large number of porters. The Tamuli also had its own collection of lesser big bads working for THE big bad. Redemption of Althaus had an entire team of bad guys in service to the big bad.

[oblivion6]

I wouldn't call them "teams" exactly...They hated each others guts. However, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY suggest these books. As I am likely to say anywhere else they are mentioned, they are the best books ever written and I read them all atleast 6 times a year. Only slightly less so with his other novels.

Edit: The hating each other part was regarding the Belgariad/Mallorean and to a lesser extent, the Elenium. He is right on the other.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

You tend to see these a lot more often in Western comic books, which are a particular sort of fantasy fiction by my judgement.

I definitely agree on the Dresden Files' Denarians; they fit your description to a T--legendary beings with distinct personalities and schticks.

There was also this one series, I can't place the name right now, but they had this evil team of adventurers called...uh...what was it...

It was a Guild. The Angular Guild, maybe? No, that's not quite it...

[endoperez]

I wouldn't call them "teams" exactly...They hated each others guts. However, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY suggest these books. As I am likely to say anywhere else they are mentioned, they are the best books ever written and I read them all atleast 6 times a year. Only slightly less so with his other novels.

Edit: The hating each other part was regarding the Belgariad/Mallorean and to a lesser extent, the Elenium. He is right on the other.

They're decent, but quite average. I like them, but describing them as "best books ever written" is a disservice for Eddings. It's like saying Tarzan books are a scientifically accurate description of African wildlife - claiming there are no mistakes will make all the faults of the otherwise enjoyable book to stand out like a sore thumb.

[oblivion6]

You do have a point I suppose, but when it comes to this I tend to just blurt out things without thinking.

[Traab]

I wouldn't call them "teams" exactly...They hated each others guts. However, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY suggest these books. As I am likely to say anywhere else they are mentioned, they are the best books ever written and I read them all atleast 6 times a year. Only slightly less so with his other novels.

Edit: The hating each other part was regarding the Belgariad/Mallorean and to a lesser extent, the Elenium. He is right on the other.

True true, they were all rivals, but they still ultimately served the same big boss and did as he ordered them too. The elenium was a bit more everyone in it for themselves so i guess that probably wouldnt count, as they are only on the same team about as much as good versus evil. They were all in it for themselves and trying to use each other for personal gain. Krager is my favorite. He was the ultimate cockroach, always had enough of an angle to stay alive no matter what happened.