Plans for the next live action Dungeons and Dragons the adaptation has been on hold since Paramount made the mistake of canceling its D&D show, and there are many theories about what the property’s next steps will be. While much of the theorizing is based on broad strokes, such as wondering which of the D&DAs for the various 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.
Good villains define games Dungeons and Dragonsso much so that some of the most iconic characters in D&D history are villains like the lich Vecna, who tormented adventurers in multiple editions. Another undead villain of yore received far less attention from D&D fans in recent years, but now is the perfect time for the Knight of the Black Rose to be resurrected.
Death Knight Lord Soth is a ruthless villain for a live-action Dungeons & Dragons show
It has a great story arc
Born as a mortal man in the world of Krynn, Dragonlance campaign setup, 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 to be with an elven woman who also carried his child.
When the gods gave Soth the chance to redeem himself and stop the impending Cataclysm, an apocalypse that the gods themselves triggered, he 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.
As a death knight, Soth is an implacable enemy, with a cursed blade and terrible magic at his disposal. His own aura is one of fear, and he has hordes of lesser undead bound to his will. He also appeared outside the Dragonlance scenario when he spent time in the world of Ravenloft as one of its ruling Dreadlords. This means that one D&D the show wouldn’t need to be set on Krynn to feature Sothas the barriers between the worlds mean nothing to him.
Lord Soth’s story offers pathos where other villains just twirl their mustaches
Your character arc adds emotional weight to an episodic story
Lord Soth is not a great villain because of his power, but because of his tragic past. He’s more than a mindless horror; he is a tortured soul, a man who abandoned oath after oath until all that was left of him was an ember of self-loathing within blackened armor. In his castle of Dargaard Keep, three banshees keep eternal vigil, singing hideously beautiful melodies every night to remind him of how he let the world burn. He loves his only true ally, the Dragon Lord Kitiara, but that love is as sad and twisted as the rest of him.
Although the setting of the eventual live action Dungeons and Dragons show remains undecided, and there are plenty of other powerful villains in the D&D files, it would be worth including Lord Soth in some way. About that, D&D Players looking to get involved with the Knight of the Black Rose can find his Fifth Edition stats in the Shadow of the Dragon Queen adventure module.