Akar Kessell is a major antagonist in The Legend of Drizzt, serving as the main antagonist of The Crystal Shard. He was the powerless apprentice of the sorcerer Morkai the Red, before murdering his mentor and being left to die in the desolate Icewind Dale. There, he found the powerful sentient artifact known as the Crenshinibon and used it to raise and army.
What Makes Him a Hate Sink?[]
- Even before finding the Crenshinibon, he was a short-sighted narcissist who believed that he deserved power, fame, and riches, despite doing nothing to earn these things.
- He tried to practice magic by trying to shoot a lightning bolt at a stray cat.
- He gleefully murdered his mentor Morkai the Red, a man who genuinely loved and believed in him, simply because he was promised power for doing so.
- Although he briefly felt remorse for this later, this only shows that, even if he did care for Morkai on some level, he cared about power more, and was still willing to kill him without a second thought.
- He used the Crenshinibon to enslave the goblin, giant, and barbarian tribes in the area, seeing them all as nothing but tools in his conquest. He constantly showed that he didn't believe them to be people, demeaning and mistreating them to make himself feel more powerful.
- He kidnapped and brainwashed young women into becoming his mindless sex slaves.
- He let lose his horde on the Ten-towns of Icewind Dale, killing thousands and setting an entire city on fire simply to show his power.
- He then arrogantly started calling himself the Tyrant of Icewind Dale, somehow thinking that killing a significant amount of the Dale's inhabitants made him its ruler.
- Despite his army being destroyed by his own incompetence, Kessell refused to accept defeat until the Crenshinibon itself got tired of him and abandoned him.
- All in all, he is a deeply unpleasant individual. He is extremely egotistical, believing that he deserves to rule everything and constantly boasting about power he didn't earn. He seems almost incapable of treating anyone with any sort of respect, even when it would be in his best interests to, and cares nothing for all of the pain and suffering he spreads.
- Unlike most other villains in The Legend of Drizzt, Akar Kessell has almost no "evil is cool moments", constantly showing himself to be an incompetent weakling who greatly overestimates his own prowess and only achieves any level of success because of borrowed power.
Trivia[]
- Kessell is one of the two Hate Sinks from the Forgotten Realms, along with Yinochek.
External Links[]
- Akar Kessell on the Villains wiki
- Akar Kessell on the Forgotten Realms wiki
- Akar Kessell on the Near Pure Evil wiki