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| “ | I will do anything for my family, however dangerous, however vile. | „ |
| ~ Viren's most famous quote. |
| “ | 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. |
| “ | I am a servant...I am...a...servant! | „ |
| ~ Viren's last words before his death. |
Lord Viren, also known simply as Viren, is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside his daughter Claudia) of Netflix’s The Dragon Prince franchise.
He was the High Mage of Katolis, an adviser of the late King Harrow, and a master of dark magic who has vision for the future of humanity by ridding the world of Xadian creatures. He's also the father of Claudia and Soren, and Rayla's archenemy.
However, during a final battle at the Storm Spire, Viren was thrown off a cliff by Rayla, leading to his death. Two years later, he was revived by Claudia for 30 days, and they, alongside Claudia's boyfriend Terry, go to free Aaravos so Viren's resurrections spell can become permanent. During Claudia's journey, Viren began to regret going down the path to darkness and realized wrongs and consequences of his actions and crimes.
Filled with bitter regret at having brought Claudia down the same path, he renounces dark magic all together and chose to succumb to his fate. Alone in a forest, Viren passes out, believing he is to die, however, unbeknownst to him, Claudia has performed the ritual to save him. He later returns to Katolis to atone for his sins, apologizing to his son before sacrificing himself for a dark spell spell to save the people of Katolis from an attack by Sol Regem.
He was voiced by Jason Simpson.
Appearance
A tall, slender, middle-aged man, Viren has pale skin, steely grey eyes, and brown hair with a greying goatee. He normally wears a grey and black robe with a gorget around his shoulders, and carries a long, silver staff that has a purple gem embedded in the center.
After years of practicing dark magic, Viren's appearance has changed drastically. In his true form, his skin is pale grey, and his eyes are jet black with dark spots and streaks around them.
One of his eyes also becomes grey with Aaravos' caterpillar's silk and also dons the crown of Katolis. He also gains white robes and a golden staff with an orb of light at the top from the Sunfire Elf captial of Lux Aurea during his time in Xadia. From season 4 and onward, the robes have become tattered due to being dead for two years, he wears a small piece of cloth around his neck. When spending his time in the dungeon of Katolis, he grew a full beard.
Personality
| “ | 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. |
Viren is a highly intelligent, ambitious man who considers himself a pragmatist and believes any problem has a "creative solution" - in this case, using Dark Magic. However, his insistence on using Dark Magic puts him at odds with King Harrow and leads to a rift between them. Though Viren tries to fix this, a misunderstanding leaves the two on bad terms before Harrow's death. However, Viren is still implied to care for his friend, despite trying to have his two sons killed. In the past, when trying to save thousands of people from famine, Viren tried to save the queens of Duren from Thunder the Dragon King at great risk to himself.
During that time, it's implied that he was more optimistic and kinder, as he was shown to be excited when telling Harrow a solution to the famine, and not only helped his daughter Claudia in learning magic, but also hugged her and apologized to her for not spending much time with her and Soren after their mother left them. However, for unknown reasons, likely Sarai's death, Viren became more distant and cold towards the people around him.
Viren is utterly dogmatic in his protection of humanity, to the extent of wishing to see all Xadia destroyed once and for all, even committing treason. However, despite these good intentions, Viren also craves power and respect, and has his eyes set on the throne of Katolis. It is also implied he harbors insecurities about his abilities and sees himself as useless. He also hated Avizandum for Sarai's death along with the deaths of the Queens of Duren, ignoring the fact that the Archdragon was only doing his job as King. His attitude towards Avizandum is made clear when Viren labeled Avizandum as a "Monster" when explaining the story of Avizandum's death to Aaravos. Unlike Harrow, Viren was also shown to take sadistic pleasure in watching Avizandum turn to stone. Another notable example of Viren's cruelty, is his outright admitted pleasure in turning elves into coins.
For all his faults, Viren does love his family, especially his daughter Claudia, as he is proud of her loyalty and skills, and even angrily stands up to Aaravos when the latter calls her as an "asset." However, he is much harsher with Soren, often belittling his stupidity and even telling Claudia to choose the dragon egg over him should it be necessary. Despite this, it is implied that he does care for Soren deep down (or at least used to), as he once used dark magic to save his son from a fatal disease, which cost Viren his beloved wife, Lissa's trust, and led to their divorce. Viren is shown to be still heartbroken about the divorce even years afterwards, even though he never reflects on the fact that it was his fault.
Despite all Viren's claims that he is doing what is best for humanity, he is unaware that he is the cause of many threats to humanity and Xadia alike as his "creative solutions" lead to lots of collateral damage and deaths of innocents because of his negligence and shortsightedness to the consequences of his actions, also by directly doing the murders, betrayals and attacks on innocent people and by spreading lies and biased speeches about Xadians to convince humans to kill innocent Xadians. He also is hypocritically willing to kill any human that defies and criticizes him, meaning that instead of protecting humans, he is using them for his personal agenda and to prove himself right in his hatemongering, in reality Viren doesn't care about innocents dying for his cause.
Despite claiming that he doesn't want to conquer Xadia, he hypocritically tries to do it anyways and in reality he is using his invasion of Xadia as an excuse to poach all the magic creatures he wants as he never had a plan or intention to stop killing Xadians. He is also shown to take sadistic pleasure in killing his victims as seen through his clear euphoria while attempting to kill Zym. Viren neither seems to know and/or care for the environmental impact that his poaching does as he never has mercy for magic creatures.
After arguing over dark magic being the root cause of their problems, Viren betrays Harrow by trying to have the princes, Harrow's sons, killed. Viren believed that they needed to die so he lead humanity in the right path as he assumed they'll take "weak choices" (making peace with Xadia). This shows that he is unable to take criticisms of his flaws and mistakes, he is deluded to believe that he is the only one smart and strong enough to protect humanity and he lied about not wanting to conquer Xadia to not be portrayed as a warmonger.
After being resurrected, he starts to reconsider his choices and becomes humble enough to not try to conquer Xadia anymore, but this stems more from being traumatized by his own death than from having remorse of his actions and the people he killed from his conquest of Xadia. He has initial bias against Terry because of his hatred for elves, but as he is trying to be a good father to Claudia, he was willing to tolerate Terry to make Claudia happy, which also made him slightly to change his perception of elves and warm up to Terry.
Viren now rejects the power he tried to obtain for all the series as he now fears it will corrupt him again and make him make horrible choices, as he refused to take his staff, but as soon as he grabbed it, he got corrupted again. The artwork in the credits makes an allegation that Viren is struggling against the corruption. After the corruption, he falls into a coma and dreams about his life, his past mistakes, and beliefs. Afterwards, Viren starts to accept his flaws and now understands that dark magic has ruined his life and others including Claudia. He also begins to realize that his decisions in the past years came more from hubris, greed, and denial than actual care for humanity.
He see's that he was wrong and that there was always a choice in life and he had been free to make them. When Aaravos tells Viren that he must kill his child, Viren express extreme anger at this but when Aaravos reveals that Sir Sparklepuff is their child, Viren is shocked by it. Aaravos tells Viren to kill the homunculus to restore his life though it would be simple for him he refuses. He renounces dark magic and is done with Aaravos and walks off to die. Viren tears up in the end feeling that he has failed as a parent for his children, as friend to Harrow as he nearly destroyed his friend's legacy, and as a leader for humanity because he didn't care that innocents died. He realizes that it is his fault that humanity was about to be killed by Xadia in retaliation of the mistakes he denied.
The next morning, he finds out he didn't die and finds himself with Terry and, for the first time in his life, he feels a sense of joy and freedom. He hugs Terry and goes to tell Claudia about his feelings until he notice that Claudia killed the homunculus. Shocked and horrified by this notion, he tries to convince her that there is a different path for her and that she shouldn't sacrifice her well-being like that. Viren then leaves his daughter to head to Katolis to pay for his past actions. When he returns to Katolis and is placed in the dungeon, he tries to reconcile with his neglected son by trying showing that he is a changed man. Though he is not expecting forgiveness from those he hurt, he really wants atonement and believes that he is far from Aaravos's control. When Sol Regem attacks the kingdom, Soren asks Viren to use the spell that was done to his army during his invasion on Xadia, though Viren was hesitant at first he goes through with it in order to save lives. Viren creates the hearts of cinder spell by sacrificing his own heart so the people would not be effected by Sol Regem's fire blast. In the end, Viren used his final moments to save lives and reconcile with Soren while thinking only of his family before he dies. This shows that Viren is a changed man, who finally views himself a servant of the people, a trait that he now shares with his friend, Harrow.
Relationships
Claudia
| “ | 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. |
Viren and Claudia deeply love each other and have a close father-daughter bond to each other throughout the entire show. He has taught his daughter dark magic and all sorts of knowledge. When she was young she witnesses the divorce between her parents and was told to stay with her father by her mother. This event effected Claudia so much to the point of wanting to keep her family together no matter how bad her father's actions are. Unlike Soren, Viren trusted her to put retrieving the egg over her sibling's life. Even the mention of that made Claudia upset and uncomfortable. He even lied to her about telling Soren to kill the princes and states that he misheard him, leaving Claudia to automatically believe him without being skeptical about it. When he became "King" he and Claudia have a heart to heart moment until Aaravos confronts him and called her an asset. Viren rejects this and tells the Startouch Elf that "she is not an asset, she is my daughter", showing that he does not want to use her as a tool.
By the time of the final battle on Xadia, he tells Claudia that he loves her and that he is glad to have her by his side. Viren had her create a fake version of himself so he can climb up of the Storm Spire while everyone is distracted with his fake self. After his utterly painful death, Claudia retrieves his body and resurrected him with the help of Aaravos. Viren is in shock when he is brought back, especially when Claudia told him the many horrible things that she had to do just to revive him. He comforted her and tried to make her feel better until he was given news that he has 30 days to live unless they free Aaravos from his prison. When he meets Terry he was disappointed with her for dating an elf but was willing to tolerate him for the sake of his daughter. Viren, at this point, is not motivated to continue where he left off and just wants to be with Claudia and explore Xadia, so he can die in peace with full satisfaction of what he had left in life. But Claudia rejected this since she is unwilling to give up what she had left in her life. Viren follows Claudia's lead throughout season 4 but after his dream of Aaravos calling Claudia an asset, it can be believed that Viren is only with her to prevent Aaravos from taking further control of her.
By the time of season 5, Viren becomes extremely concerned for Claudia's wellbeing in his dark magic coma. He receives visions relating to her and accepts that he has lead her down a dark path. Viren even saw her as a dark reflection of himself and understands how his actions have affected her. In one of his visions, Claudia sinks into the sea and he tries to save her symbolizing that Claudia is sinking deep into darkness with Viren trying to save her but realizing his mistakes too late. In season 6, Viren was horrified that Claudia killed the homunculus just to save him. He tries to tell his daughter that there is a different path in life and that she shouldn't sacrifice her well-being for the sake of protecting her family. Viren argues that it is not worth it and wants her to understand that while he heads to Katolis to face the consequences of his actions. Despite his departure, his conversation with Claudia did stick out to her and she feels a bit hesitant in killing animals for dark magic, to the point of not doing so even when it seemed her life was in danger. Interestingly, she decides to head to Katolis, so she can listen to her father one final time about the right path but it is too late because by the time she arrives, Viren is already dead.
Soren
| “ | Please...I'll do anything to save my son! I'll do anything. | „ |
| ~ Viren showing his care for Soren. |
Viren's relationship with his son is best described as complicated. He gets annoyed by Soren's lack of intelligence and maturity and seems to favor Claudia over him. Though he does not entirely hate his son since he still values him to a certain extent and hoped one day that he would become king and take his responsibilities seriously. According to Claudia, he saved Soren from an incurable disease that was effecting him greatly so he used dark magic to save him. Despite that it was strange and unreasonable to have Soren kill the princes since he would not be capable of a task like that. This task from his father left Soren horrified.
Though he does try to kill the princes he was still unable to carry out the task and was glad of his paralysis so he couldn't fulfill his task or be told to hurt the princes again. Soren feels that he is nothing but a disappointment by his father and is trying his best to gain appreciation, validation, and/or love from him. Soren was stunned when his father attempted to gaslight him by telling him that he misheard him about killing the princes. Soren starts to question his allegiance to his father and finally leaves after Viren horrifyingly tried to mutate him with dark magic after the fall of Lux Aurea. Soren finally admits that his father is villain and joins team Zym to help defeat him. Soren was horrified during the battle when it seemed like he was left no choice other than to kill his father as Viren was about to kill Ezran. After "killing" Viren it is revealed that the "Viren" he killed was just an illusion.
After the events of season 3, Soren admitted that he was glad that he didn't have to kill his father but now he feels that he should have, seeing how big of a threat he became. When Viren saw Soren again, Viren calmed Soren down when he was having trouble breathing and told him to breathe more calmly, but Soren refused his help. After Soren asked him why he didn't stay dead, Viren took a deep breath before trying to talk to Soren, although he failed to say much to him due to being interrupted by Aaravos' homunculus' screams.
In season 5, Viren sees a vision of Soren as a child and starts expressing his love for him before he starts coughing and crumbling away. This shows deep inside that Viren does love Soren and was willing to risk himself to make a dark spell to save Soren's life from a terminal illness. But after restoring him to full health Soren saw his father's corrupted face and became terrified of him. He ran away from him with Viren feeling upset but argued that he did not have a choice in the matter still saying that he is willing to risk everything to protect his family. Aaravos even confirms that he knows that Viren would never kill Claudia and Soren as a sacrifice to make the resurrection permanent.
In season 6, Viren returns to Katolis after discovering his new found freedom as he wants to reconcile with Soren. He spends time in the dungeon trying to tell Soren how much he has changed as a person and the realization of the abuse he put Soren through. He does not seek forgiveness from him but wants him to know how much he changed. He writes a letter to Soren where he explains much of his past with his family and how he use to be a happy man until Soren got sick. He explains that he and Lissa looked for everything to find a cure but nothing worked, suddenly Viren found a spell that would cure Soren. But, as he explains, the things that he did to get the ingredients were horrific. He explains that the reason he was so cold to him is that he blames him for his wife's departure. Viren deeply regrets such an idea and wants to let Soren know that he should not blame himself for what happened. After finishing, he asks a guard to get Soren. When he showed up Viren was hesitant to give him the letter and decides to burn it, showing that he did not want to hurt Soren even further by confessing on what he had to do to cure him. Soren shows up to his father one final time during Sol Regem's attack on the kingdom, he asks Viren to use the hearts of cinder spell, the spell he used to enchant his army during his invasion on Xadia, to save the people of Katolis from Sol Regem's fiery attacks. Viren was hesitant at first since he gave up on dark magic and tells Soren that it requires someone's heart as a sacrifice for the spell to work. Soren offers his own heart for the spell but Viren looks horrified at the mere suggestion of Soren sacrificing his life.
In the next scene, Viren used his own heart for the spell and successfully saved the citizens from being killed by the flames. Soren then helps them escape while realizing that his father has changed for better and respected his sacrifice for the people.
Lissa
Lissa is Viren ex-wife, who hailed from the kingdom of Del Bar. She often argues with him about his constant use of dark magic and the negative effects it can have. These arguments would later lead to their divorce, leaving both Claudia and Soren motherless. Lissa argued with Viren on his stance on dark magic and how he used it to save Soren's life from an illness. Because of this, it caused her to fear her husband and his dark methods while also being aware of its side effects.
While Viren never mentions her to anyone, the novelizations show that he deeply misses her, with Viren wanting to see her by his side again. When Opeli confronted him for lying about being the regent of Katolis to the other leaders of the Human Kingdoms, Viren thought for a moment that Opeli's voice was that of Lissa's, only for him to call himself foolish when he saw who it was. In season 6, Viren reveals that the reason Lissa was afraid of him was the drastic measures he was taking to cure Soren from his sickness and the terrifying outcome on himself. This included his dark form and him getting a single tear from Lissa by violent force in order to make a spell to cure their son. He's still horrified for what he put her through and blames himself ruining the peace within his family.
Callum and Ezran
Not much is know of Viren's relationship with the two protagonists, but he seems to have a low opinion on them. He was willing to have them assassinated because he fear that they might bring down humanity with poor leadership and decision making. His low opinion of them is shown when he called Callum an ungrateful spoiled child and a "mongrel." According to Callum's spellbook, he viewed Viren as an uncle and, because of his close relationship with Soren and Claudia, he viewed them all as one a huge family. He goes further to state that Viren was a good and kind man, but he believed that dark magic corrupted his soul. This proves that Viren was not always a cruel and demanding man which gives credence to the fact that dark magic really did corrupt him. Even Ezran was willing to spare Viren and was not planning to kill him even though the latter wanted him dead. Despite this, both were never manipulated by his lies and knew that he was up to something with the dragon egg.
Now that Rayla was traumatized with the thought of Viren returning to kill all her loved ones, Callum promised her they would hunt him down together. However, Rayla left him to find and kill Viren to not risk Callum's life. After 2 years, Rayla's decision to hunt Viren alone strained their relationship and led to their break-up. Once the two of them saw Viren alive, Callum nodded at Rayla granting her permission to kill him. In turn, their relationship was amended since Rayla was right about Viren and together they would try to kill him. When Viren returned to Katolis, he calls Ezran his king suggesting that he no longer views someone like Ezran in a bad light and wasn't expecting any mercy from him. Uncharacteristically, Ezran does not grant Viren mercy this time showing that he has grown jaded towards Viren after all of the horrific things that Viren has done.
Harrow
| “ | 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. |
Viren and Harrow used to be pretty close to each other despite both having different positions. He was there during Harrow's corronation as king and has never left his side. Viren cherished his friendship with Harrow and was shocked when Harrow asked him to stand by his side as an equal during the making of his official portrait. Though Viren did admit that Harrow is "stubborn" he still cared for him and just wanted to protect him. However, they are different people that contrast each other. The perfect scene to illustrate this is when Viren purposes a plan to have Harrow's soul placed in the body of a random guard with the help of a Soulfang Serpent but Harrow does not like the plan because he views himself switching bodies with another as a sign of cowardice and a rejection of his role as a servant of the people of Katolis . They had an argument about their current situation until Harrow asks Viren if he could sacrifice himself for Harrow but Viren hesitated. Harrow, disgusted by this response, tells him to leave the room.
This scene alone shows the contrast between the two. Harrow wants to die honorably while defending himself from the assassins, while Viren tries to give him an alternative. Harrow is viewing the situation on an emotional and personal level saying that he deeply regrets his past actions and feeling that he deserves to be punished. But Viren views it as another situation that needs solving, not understanding Harrow's perspective and what he has gone through over the years. However, Viren does accept his decision when he felt that he has to stand with Harrow in his end just like the beginning. He tries to tell Harrow that he cares for him more than friend but as a brother. Before he continues what he was about to say, Harrow completely silences him. Harrow feels that Viren is trying to manipulate him again and views himself as someone special. He tells Viren that he is a servant and must accept it by kneeling. Their relationship ended with them as enemies. Their conversation is expanded in the book 1 novel, where he really did view Harrow as a brother and confirms that he wanted to sacrifice his own life for Harrow's through the plan with Soulfang Serpents. In season 5, it's shown that he saw Harrow as family and wanted to protect him that badly.
In Chapter 9 of the novelization called "Viren's Sacrifice," he tried to comfort Harrow and tells him to stay alive for the sake of his children. Despite the sudden end of their relationship, Viren still cared for him and cherished their relationship, this is evident when Viren enters Harrow's room and picks up a picture of Harrow and his family while sitting down on the bed.
Terry
| “ | 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. |
Viren and Terry have a neutral relationship with each other as Viren is a dark mage brought back to life and Terry is an elf, a species that Viren strongly does not like. In the beginning of season 4, Viren was surprised that Claudia is dating an elf but only tolerated the relationship as he is not motivated to continue where he left off and wanted to respect Claudia's decision as a father. Terry tried his best to understand Viren or at least cheer him up but it does not work as Viren is experiencing trauma from his death. In one moment, Terry tells Viren that he killed someone, who was attempting to take Claudia's life and said that he deeply cares about her.
Viren relates to Terry's situation as he confessed that he is willing to do anything to protect his family but feels a sense of pain in those moments suggesting that he has taken lives before. Terry becomes curious, asking if there is a way to get rid of the sense of pain that he is feeling right now. However, Viren replies coldly by telling Terry to "get a grip" and goes back to sleep. While they were waiting for Claudia's return to the camp, Terry and Viren have conversation about their previous interaction. Terry tells him that he disagrees with his "get a grip" philosophy, but Viren does not seem to have a problem with that.
When Claudia did not return to camp, both Viren and Terry went to find her. While doing that Terry tells Viren that other Earthblood elves viewed him as a doe but knew he was a buck and, in doing so, comes out as transgender. He continues to say that he choose the name Terrestrius and Viren respond back saying "it's a strong name", showing his respect for him despite being an elf.
Aaravos
Viren and Aaravos relationship can be describe as a business-like relationship since Viren is now seeking power from another source to achieve his goals and Aaravos is willing to offer. At first, Viren was suspicious of Aaravos as he is a mysterious being of unknown origin and tries to look into him but all of Aaravos history is blacked out, preventing Viren to figure out who he is. He then gives up from talking to him as he tries to get the other human kingdoms to go to war with Xadia but as expected it fails. Loosing hope within himself, he returns back to Aaravos willing to listen on what the elf has to say. Surprisingly, Aaravos offers his advice to Viren and helps his chance to get an advantage into things. For example, he tells Viren to lie to Claudia and Soren in order to keep them on his side.
Despite this, Aaravos views Viren and Claudia as pawns he shows this by calling Claudia an asset but Viren refutes this by saying she is his daughter. Not only this shows his care for Claudia but telling the Startouch elf to back off. In season 5, Aaravos tells Viren that he must kill the homunculus creature in order to create a spell to keep his resurrection permanent. But after experiencing his dark coma and accepted his flaws, he refused to listen to the Startouch elf and decided to not kill the creature saying that he has lead Claudia and himself to this dark path and regrets it. He gives up dark magic and walks away to accept his death. In the end, Aaravos express disappointment towards Viren and tells him that he will be dead by the next morning with Viren tearing up knowing the fact that he will.
After Viren was fully revived by Claudia who kills the homunculus to do so, Viren tries to convince Claudia to not help Aaravos and give up on her path of dark magic. This lead to Claudia thinking about giving up on her plan to free Aaravos and even giving up on doing dark magic. Aaravos understood that if Claudia met with Viren again, she would go too far into the side of her father that she would no longer listen to him, so he decides to manipulate Sol Regem into killing Viren. Even after his death, Aaravos makes it clear that while he tries to come of as approachful to Claudia and act like he is saddened by his death as well, he has no respect for her mourning nor any of Viren's wishes, the latter of which Terry calls him out on.
Abilities
Viren is highly skilled in the art of Dark Magic, a corrupted form of magic that is fuelled by the life essence of magical creatures. He has performed spells such as briefly stealing the voice of Prince Callum, extinguishing fire, and lighting a candle. The staff he carries amplifies and strengthens his spells. He is also a capable close-range fighter, as he was able to temporarily hold his own against Rayla's parents, Lain and Tiadrin. Althougth he was ultimately outmatched and forced to use magic to defeat them, the fact that he was able to hold his ground against them, however briefly, is quite impressive considering the fact that he was not only facing two opponents at once, but a pair of elite elven warriors.
In addition to his magical and physical abilities, Viren is highly intelligent, and skilled at manipulation and persuasion, as he convinced the citizens of Katolis that elves in Xadia were their foes, and later dropping a small hint to Soren and Claudia about one of his does: getting back the Dragon Prince's egg at all costs. He is a good storyteller and often uses flattery as a means of accomplishing his ends. Viren is also highly perceptive, as he was able to deduce the reason why Thunder wasn't at the Xadian border, something Harrow, a wise and intelligent individual in his own right, was unable to do. Despite this, Viren's abilities at manipulation ultimately prove inadequate in convincing the Pentarchy, mainly young Queen Aanya, into uniting against Xadia, leaving him fuming with rage. Those wise to him are very capable of seeing through his manipulations as well, such as General Amaya.
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. |
Trivia
- In the Graphic Novel Through the Moon, it's revealed that Viren killed all the Moonshadow Elves that attacked Katolis outside of Runaan and turned them into magic spells.
- The Mystery of Aaravos intro shows Viren being turned to stone with him shedding a tear in the last moment. This is ironic, or maybe symbolic karma, as this was how Avizandum reacted during his death at the hands of Viren and Harrow.
- It's never been revealed how long Viren has been hiding his true appearance in part one. Given he immediately hid in the shadows after creating the curse to kill Avizandum, Viren may have heavily pushed himself at that moment; due to the heavy toll of the dark magic.
- Season 6 revealed that it was the price for sealing Kpp'Ar in a coin.
- Viren's name means "leader of heroes" in Sanskrit. This is ironic due to his morally grey nature to many situations and viewing himself as some kind of savior for humanity. He keeps thinking that his actions would benefit everyone even though he manage to make things worse.
- The core theme of his character is sacrifice. Aaron Ehasz wanted to do a different take on the common theme of sacrifice, where instead being a good thing it's now a morally grey question due to Viren's self destructiveness in using dark magic to solve problems and serving humanity. Along with this, Viren's true face is meant to reference this theme mentioning his corruption and dark nature.
- His final actions support this:
- Viren didn't want Soren to feel responsible for their family breaking apart. Viren drove Lissa away due to his new looks and forcibly taking her tears as part of a spell to cure Soren's fatal disease.
- He even sacrificed his own heart to cast the spell to make all of Kotolis immune to Sol Regen's flames
- His final actions support this:
- Viren has a mentor named Kpp'Ar, who was mentioned in the Book two: Sky novel and appears in the "Old Wounds" episode but as an aspect of Viren's dream.
- It's also revealed that Kpp'Ar is trapped in a coin like Rayla's mentor and parents but it is unknown why Viren placed him in there.
- Season 6 revealed that Viren placed Kpp'Ar in a coin so he won't tell King Atticus, Harrow's father, that he stole the relic staff to cure Soren.
- Viren's death is highly unrealistic as his body would not stay intact from that high of the storm spire. The storm spire itself is possibly 4500 to 5000 meters high so realistically Viren's body would've been destroyed by that point. Claudia only said that his body was "more bent and broken than" his crown. Although this may have justified Claudia having to do horrible things in order to restore his body in addition to bringing him back to life.
- Viren has a jar of peanut butter in his dungeon alongside the items he uses for dark magic.
- During one section of Viren's dream, he wakes up as a king surround by red curtains followed up by the homunculus passing by dancing and Opeli speaking backwards. This is a small reference to Twin Peaks, where they reference the red room and the man from another place.
- Originally, Viren was going to have purple eyes but was changed to avoid any confusion that he might be an elf.
External Links
- Viren on the Dragon Prince Wiki.
- Viren on the Heroes Wiki.
 Villains
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