Dominator

The Dominator was the most powerful sorcerer to exist for ages beyond count. The Lady described him as one of only two forces she had encountered that was far beyond her own power; the other being Father Tree. Dominator was the ruler of the Domination, controlling much of the world through the sheer force of his sorcery.

During the Domination, the Dominator created the immortal sorcerers known as the Ten Who Were Taken, absorbing the ten most powerful sorcerers of his day as his personal servants (exception, of course, The Lady, to whom he possessed a political marriage).

The Dominator was eventually defeated by the White Rose, a general who led the resistance against his rule. Although he was too powerful for the White Rose to destroy, she possessed the strength to entomb the Dominator, The Lady, the Taken, and all of their lesser servants in the land known as the Barrowland.

Hundreds of years later, the Dominator was left interred in his grave when the The Lady was freed by the wizard Bomanz. Betrayed by The Lady, the Dominator began to seek other methods of escape from his imprisonment. First, he managed to exert his influence over members of the Taken, perhaps believing that Soulcatcher would free him. However, The Lady easily anticipated the influence the Dominator would have over the female Taken, and responded accordingly.

With this gambit defeated, the Dominator's next strategy revolved around the growth of the Black Castle in Juniper. The inhabitants of that castle sought to create a portal powerful enough to simply draw the Dominator, alive, whole, and in the fullness of his power, out from the shadows of the Barrowland and into the waking world. However, the scheme in Juniper was foiled by the odd customs of the region, which made it hard for the Black Castle to collect corpses needed to power its gateway. When it finally began to grow close, it drew the attention of The Lady and her Taken, and by extension, of the the Black Company. In the end, the combined forces of The Lady's Empire defeated the Dominator's creatures, and left him suborned once more.

The Dominator tried his escape one final time, using his power to exert influence on the whether of the Barrowland, flooding the Great Tragic river toward the Barrowland and naturally eroding his prison. In addition, he managed to awake a powerful minion, Toadkiller Dog, when Raven began to investigate the Dominator's stirrings. Before getting too involved, however, Raven dispatched all of his findings and speculations to Croaker. Based on the information Raven had gathered, Croaker managed to convince The Lady of the danger, which ultimately led to the Battle of the Barrowland, which both destroyed the Black Company and any chance of the Dominator's return.