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| “ | No... I won't do it. I finally see the truth. I find myself here at these horrifying crossroads because I have followed a dark path. And worse of all, I have led my beloved daughter down this path. No more dark magic, never again! I am done with it. And I am done with you! | „ |
| ~ Viren understanding the wrongs he has committed and choosing to resist Aaravos and his influence. |
| “ | Viren: I can't. Despite all this, I am changed. I woke up feeling free for the first time in a very long time. I know I have led my sweet, brilliant daughter down the wrong path. I have led you by the hand, and I have led you by my example. Perhaps now, if I walk the path of freedom, you will find your path someday too. Claudia: What do you mean, "path of freedom"? Viren: The path of freedom is the path of truth. I must face my truth... in Katolis. |
„ |
| ~ Viren decide to face his judgement in Katolis before leaving Claudia. |
| “ | I am a servant. I am a... servant. | „ |
| ~ Viren's last words before dying from his heroic sacrifice. |
Lord Viren, also simply known as Viren, is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside his daughter Claudia) of the 2018 Netflix's original fantasy series The Dragon Prince, being the main antagonist of the first three seasons.
Viren was the former high mage of Katolis and advisor of the late King Harrow. He is Claudia and Soren's father as well the archenemy of Rayla. In the beginning of the series, he was an arrogant and ambitious mage, who wants to go to war on Xadia and views the stolen egg of the dragon king as the highest threat to humanity. He teams up with the mysterious and malicious Startouch elf, Aaravos, to complete his goals.
After his inevitable death and being resurrected by his daughter, Viren develops a new point of view on life and wishes to be with Claudia instead of continuing on where he left off. He starts to regret his actions and now seeks atonement for all he has done. In the end of season 6, he saved the citizens of Katolis from the threat of Sol Regem but with the cost of his life.
He was voiced by Jason Simpson, who also voiced Crocodine in Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai.
Personality[]
| “ | My whole life, I've been chasing after things I didn't have. Influence, Status, Power. Now that I'm here, and I may have only 30 days left, do I really want to spend all those days chasing? Maybe I should stop... and appreciate what I do have, a month of life. Living each day to the fullest, watching beautiful sunsets together. Laughing, and enjoying every moment with my daughter, who is the most special person I have ever known. Uh, we could travel the countryside and try the seven cakes of Xadia! (sighs) I've spent my whole life striving to become someone different. Maybe it's time to accept that I am who I am for the days I have remaining. And when I reach the end, I will be at peace. And it... it will just be my time to let go. | „ |
| ~ Viren admitted to Claudia about how much he's going through and decide to move on from the past. |
Viren is a highly intelligent but ambitious and complicated man. In the beginning of the series, Viren was the high advisor of King Harrow and high mage of Katolis, who solves many problems through his "creative solutions." He considers himself a pragmatist but is incredibly stubborn when he receives criticism from others, mainly from Opeli and Amaya. For the first three seasons, Viren is a arrogant, selfish, and manipulative man with a delusional point of view that he is a savior of humanity. He has a low opinion of the creatures in Xadia and views them as a threat to humans. He kept the egg of the dragon king to himself so he can harness it's power, though he originally wanted to destroy it he was convinced by a member of the Dragonguard to take it. He had both of his children to get it back right after it was stolen by the princes and an Eleven assassin. Even after Harrow's death, he manipulated the situation to benefit himself and his agenda for war. He also lied about the princes status, saying that they were killed by the assassins.
Viren craves power with his eyes on the empty throne of the kingdom but can't crown himself because it was discovered that the princes are alive, much to his disappointment. As a pragmatist, he uses fear in order to gain information from someone as he did with Runaan when he showed him the cursed coins. But when Runaan continue to refuse to answer Viren's questions, he gets placed in a coin. Viren is shown to be rather sadistic when doing the action and having a smirk when he and Harrow killed Avizandum, the king of the dragons. In fact, killing Avizandum and stealing his egg escalated the cycle of hate and violence between humans and the xadians. Viren argues that he was doing whats best for humanity but this is a lie as he only sought power and status.
By the time he fails to convince the other kingdoms into going to war, he loses hope and relies on a different source of help, that source would be Aaravos. The Startouch elf does what he can to help Viren in his goals but in the process amplified his already arrogant and power-hungry attitude. After becoming king and heads to Xadia with his huge army, Aaravos asks him if he plans to conquer Xadia, though Viren refutes this statement saying he just wants a better future for humanity, this is just his cover of wanting to poach the many creatures there and is using this war to do just that. With Aaravos help, he plans to steal the magical essence of Azymondias and his mother, Zubeia. While at his moment of "victory" Rayla pushed the arrogant sorcerer off the storm spire, leading him to his death.
Despite his actions, Viren wasn't always bad and has genuine care for others, with Harrow, he viewed him as family specifically a brother and wanted to help him before he tragically died. Viren's relationship with Harrow's wife Sarai was neutral but they did respect each other and Viren was deeply upset by her death when she was trying to save him from Avizandum, it got to the point where he want to avenge her by killing the dragon with Harrow's help. Viren strongly loves his family, in which he was willing to commit questionable or vile acts to protect them from harm, his quote "I've always done what protects my family, however dangerous, however vile" show this. Viren strongly loved both his children and his wife, Lissa, he even described it as peaceful until Soren got sick from an unknown disease. Viren and Lissa work tirelessly for a cure until he discovered a spell that would cure him. He stole the staff of Ziard from his mentor and ruthlessly took the ingredients to cure Soren, one of those ingredients is Lissa's tears. Though he cured Soren, it ruined the peace in his family with Lissa becoming afraid of him after witnessing his destructive desperation. After his wife divorce him, Viren became a cold person and blamed his son for his wife leaving them. Over the years, Viren has been treating Soren harshly while favoring Claudia and manipulating them for his plans.
When resurrected by his daughter, Viren gains a new perspective on his life and confessed that everything he did was for power and status while wanting to be look up to by others. He was shock by the length that Claudia took to bring him back from death and tried to comfort her, though he was surprised she has an elf as her boyfriend. Viren is told by his daughter that the resurrection is not permanent and must find Aaravos so he can stay alive but Viren refuses as he does not want to continue where he left off and does not see the point anymore. He tells Claudia that since he has 30 days to live, he would like to spend his last moments with her so he can be at peace when his time finally comes. Of course, Claudia refuses as she does not want to be left alone again and lose another family member. Viren slowly develop some kind of friendship with Terry, at first Viren was just tolerating him for Claudia's sake but he later grew to respect the Earthblood elf after Terry confessed on being transgender and choosing his name. Throughout season 4, Viren refuses to use dark magic and shows extreme hesitates when the subject is brought up.
After escaping Umber Tor, Viren falls into a coma after using dark magic for the first time since his resurrection. In his dark magic coma, he is confronted by his dark past and actions. He hears a child's voice saying Daddy, Viren tries to look for the child until he runs into his old mentor, Kpp'ar. Through this confrontation, Kpp'ar tells his former student that he does anything for power while excusing his actions, Viren rejects this idea and continue to think that he will doing anything to protect his family until he heard the child again. Later on, he meets Harrow in the dream much to his shock. Harrow confesses on being too harsh on Viren and should have reconsidered his feelings since what he said to him hurt his feelings. Viren told him that he always viewed him as family and was willing to do anything to save him until he was surprised by Harrow pulling out his staff and chanting "your soul is my treasure" spell on him. While awakening in the next section of his dream, Viren meets a young Soren Viren was so glad to see him and played around with him. This shows that despite what he put Soren through he did cared for him as a father deep down. When Soren started coughing and turned into dust, Viren was deeply upset to the point of using dark magic to bring him back but when he did Soren was horrified by his dark form. In another section of the dream, Viren receives some visions relating to Claudia and how she is turning into a dark reflection of himself, this makes him realized that she is following his footsteps and making the same terrible decisions he made.
In the end of his dream, Viren sees his younger self and tells him that the path of fate is already chosen, meaning that all of the decisions and actions he has committed were predestined in a way that he did not have a choice. But his younger self argues that the path he took in his actions was made by his own choices and that he is free to stop and not continue. This self-reflection help Viren understand that he lead himself and his daughter to a dark path that is both self-destructive and harmful to others. He also realizes the consequences of his actions and came to regret them even more than before. When Aaravos finally confronted him and tells him to kill his child to keep the resurrection spell permanent, Viren becomes furious and tells Aaravos that he would never harm his children for something like this. But Aaravos knew this thats why he revealed that the homunculus is their child and was specifically made for this spell. Viren ultimately refuses and tells the Startouch elf that he is giving up dark magic for good and is done with him. In the end, Aaravos tells Viren that he will die in the next morning with Viren tearing up knowing he will. Viren has failed as a friend of King Harrow since he nearly destroyed his legacy, he failed as a father since he is responsible for ruining the peace within his family with his kids being divided against each other, and failed as a suppose leader of humanity as he did things for the sake of power and harming those around him without much thought.
In the next morning, Viren finds out that he is still alive but with a feeling that he has not felt before, freedom. He hugged Terry and express excitement on seeing him, he heads to see his daughter to tell her that Aaravos lied about the resurrection and that they should not listen to him anymore. Much to Viren's shock, Claudia actually killed the homunculus to make the spell happen but Viren becomes more shock that she lost a leg, leading him to think that she also sacrifice her own leg for the spell. He panics and tries to convince her that the path she is following is not worth it and should not destroy her well-being like that, Viren tells her he found a path that helped him have a deeper understanding on his life. Viren knows that he can't convince his daughter with such ease and wants to give her time to adjust while he heads to Katolis to face punishment for his past atrocities. Before he leaves, Viren tells Claudia that he loves her and hopes that she change her ways by following his example for atonement.
By the time he arrives at Katolis, Viren is immediately arrested by the guards with Ezran offering no mercy to him and place him in the dungeon. When Soren confronts him, Viren confesses that he is a changed man and doesn't seek redemption but proud that despite everything he put Soren through, his son did not follow his footsteps. He admits that he does not seek forgiveness from those he hurt and just want to pay for his actions. During his time in the dungeons, Viren believes that he is away from Aaravos's control after receiving nightmares from him but when Sol Regem attacks Katolis, his son returns to him but with his staff. Soren asks his father to use the hearts of cinder spell, the spell he used to enchant his soldiers during his attack on Xadia, but Viren is hesitant as he gave up dark magic. Viren then tells him that it requires a human heart to cast it, shockingly, Soren offers his heart but Viren refuses by sacrificing his heart to make the spell happen. While casting the spell, Viren thought of his family and how much he loved them right before he dies. His last words were him telling himself that he is a servant.
Overall, Viren has showed that he was capable of change and can commit to an action to help others. His final act shows that he is a changed man, who now views himself as a servant of the people, a trait he now shares with his best friend, Harrow.
Appearance[]
Viren's normal look as high mage of Katolis.
Viren by the near end of season 3.
Viren is a tall thin man with fair skin and grey eyes and brown hair. He sports a goatee with some greys on it and wears a robe that consist of dark grey, black, and red, around his shoulders is a gorget with a purple gem tying it together. He has two belts around his torso, which has a small satchel on it. After years of using dark magic, Viren's appearance drastically changed for the worse. He now has dark grey skin with purple markings on it and has completely black eyes, his hair also gain some greys on some spots. This new appearance makes him look similar to that of a corpse, so he hides it through a glamor spell, which resembles his normal self.
In season 3 when he and Aaravos corrupted the light within Lux Aurea, Viren gains a white robe with a golden staff that was once owned by Pharos, the former priest of Lux Aurea. After his death and then resurrection, the robes have become tattered with one of the sleeves ripped and wears a small piece of cloth around his neck as to represent how much he has fallen. When he returned to Katolis in season 6, Viren grows a full but messy beard during his time in the dungeons.
Gallery[]
Promotion[]
Concept Art[]
Series[]
Quotes[]
| “ | Opeli: Viren, you are not above the law! Viren: I'm afraid you have misjudged the situation terribly. I am...the law. |
„ |
| ~ Viren to Opeli as he crowns himself the king of Katolis. |
| “ | I always seem to capture the same expression defiance, giving away to absolute fear. | „ |
| ~ Viren talking to a horrified Gren about Runaan's expressions after being trapped in a cursed coin. |
| “ | Terry: When I was just a little one, the other elves saw me as a "doe" but I knew...I always knew that I was a "buck." I choose the name "Terrestrius." Viren: It's a strong name. |
„ |
| ~ Viren respecting Terry's confession as being transgender. |
| “ | He'd been stupid to even consider making this sacrifice. The king didn't consider him a brother or even a friend. In the King's eyes, he was worthless. He was nothing. Viren's heart turned as cold as the stone beneath his knees. | „ |
| ~ Viren's perspective after his final conversation with Harrow in the Dragon Prince Book 1 novel. |
| “ | Please...I'll do anything to save my son! I'll do anything. | „ |
| ~ Viren showing his care for Soren. |
| “ | Aaravos: Well played. She will be a valuable asset. Viren: She is not an asset. She is my daughter. |
„ |
| ~ Viren showing his care for Claudia towards Aaravos. |
| “ | I've known Viren longer than anyone here. I mean, because he's my dad. But it took me a long time to understand who my dad really is. And it was hard to see, because I really...I really looked up to him. He's smart, and the way he talks, you really believe that he's a good person, that everything he does is to protect his family, his home, or all of humanity. He makes you think that as long as you do what he says, you must be doing the right thing. Even when he asks you to do something bad. Something... evil. So, the truth is, someone who wants you to do horrible things, and convinces you that they're good, that's a villain. My dad... is a villain. And he's only gonna get more powerful, and the more powerful he gets, the more people will listen to him, and believe him, and follow him. So... maybe we could run and we'd be safe for a while but he's not gonna give up. It seems hopeless but our only chance is to fight him here. But were all together. The only way to stop this is to look evil in the face and say "no more". | „ |
| ~ Soren's speech about Viren. |
Trivia[]
- His last words is reminiscent of Harrow, who Viren called a servant king due to Harrow's need to help others and what his friend told him that he is a servant of the kingdom.
- Originally, Viren was going to have purple eyes but it was changed to avoid confusion that he might be an elf.
External Links[]
- Lord Viren on the Villains Wiki
- Lord Viren on The Dragon Prince Wiki
- Lord Viren on the Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
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