“ | There's no way out. Hahahaha... You are noble and beautiful... Can't you see? My body is trembling with joy. | „ |
~ Alhazad |
Alhazad is a central antagonist of the video-game Wild ARMs, working as researcher for the demons. Alhazad is not merely a backroom mad scientist but will show up; throughout the game to attend to work himself. He is the archenemy of the hero "Jack" due to the central part he played in Jack's tragic past. While the leader of the demons named Zeikfried oversees the itinerary of the demons and acts on behalf of their slumbering overlord MOTHER, Alhazad is by far and away the most sadistic of the bunch. Zeikfried eventually tries to pull a coup d'état on MOTHER when it looks like she will be sacrificing her children yet it is left unclear if Alhazad's actions following the attempted coup are for Zeikried's sake, MOTHER's or just his own personal enjoyment.
Artica Castle[]
Alhazad is first encountered as part of the hidden screen-play for events that occurred prior to the game in Arctica Castle, on land to the north-east of the main content. The screen-play showing the events will not show unless the players leave the main-menu alone for about a minute, with no response. In the back-story displayed, the Fenril Knights of Arctica are fighting an invasion of metal monsters - they refer to the monsters as "demons". Though the knights are able to deal with the less demons, Alhazad continually hounds them, and kills each one (or worse) each time he catches up to the group. Eventually only two knights are left, Sir Garrett and Sir Elmina. Able to lose Alhazad for a time, Elmina tends to Garrett's wounds and the two make a pledge to escape the castle - their Lord already killed and their fellow knights all gone, the last of them, Asprilla, fighting Alhazad to give them time to escape, telling them to let the world know what happened there. As they he leaves the gate closes on Sir Garrett - closed by Sir Elmina, to act as yet another barrier for between her and Alhazad as he caught up to them. Sir Elmina shouts to Sir Garrett to leave and that she will give Alhazad a mighty fight, enough time for him to get too far for Alhazad to find. With no way to get back in, Sir Garret has no option but to make sure Sir Elmina did not die for nothing and gets lost in the snow as his castle burns and Alhazad cackles at the last of the knights to stand against him with glee at the hopelessness of the struggle.
It is revealed Alhazad actually accomplished his goal when he disposed of the Lord of the castle, who held his queen, MOTHER, he had continued to seek out and kill off the other knights in the castle, purely for his own amusement. Those who were not fully dead, were bought to his lab to be torn apart as test-subjects for Alhazad's future plans for turning humans into demons against their will.
Main Game[]
Alhazad is actually not encountered until well after the more well known general, Berserk is dealt with. Alhazad is revealed to be one of the demon "Quarter Knights" - the four chosen ones of MOTHER. Though Berserk played a much more commanding role, he was Alhazad's equal as another of the four. The other two are Lady Harken - an expert one on one killer, and Zeikfried - chief knight of the troop. Though Alhazad has a role as the researcher of the four, he is no greater or weaker in MOTHER's eyes. Alhazad is encountered many, many times. From raiding his lab of monsters (some artificial, some mutated from biological life-forms), to wiping out entire towns by transforming humans into monsters and then forcing them to murder the rest, to destroying the Guardians (localized gods), who might have stopped the demons otherwise; But his most focused efforts are on getting the Tear Drop of Cecilia - one of the three main characters. The Tear Drop focuses holy energy through it. Alhazad wanted the Tear Drop to reverse engineer it and create a version that did the same with unholy energy for the Quarter Knights' ultimate goal of not merely finding, but awakening MOTHER.
Late in the game it is revealed MOTHER does not intend to rule the planet but destroy it, the Quarter Knights are established to keep her safe and revive her when she lands on a planet. Upon awakening she "devours" - absorbs and possesses, one of her Quarter Knights. In the new body, she drains the life-force from the planet launches herself into space to find a new planet, the energy used drains her and she creates four new demons while she goes into hibernation and then restarts the process over again. Though Ziefried is disturbed their Mother intends to possess one of them and kill the rest along with the planet they thought they were going to rule, and reel at the realization that their home-planet was destroyed by MOTHER, Lady Harken is upset that she may be destined to be eaten, Alhazad is actually not discouraged. Alhazad lives to satisfy his curiosity with experiments, what MOTHER does or does not plan to do is of no consequence to him, even if that means he will be killed or possessed, all that matters to him is how much he can discover before he dies, and how much pain he can inflict on others along the way. In the end Ziefried is the one chosen to be MOTHER's new host body, and Alhazad is the last obstacle before fighting "Motherfried", at the end of the game.
Personality[]
Alhazad is a sadist of the highest variety. He delights in forcing dear friends to kill each other, plunging people into despair and playing on fear and paranoia. It is highly ambiguous as to whether Alhazad preformed his duties so well because of some deep-seated loyalty to the demon's cause to revive MOTHER or whether doing so simply aligned well with his desire to cause others pain. Though he possesses many forms of magic, he plays the part of an arcane mad-scientist. Alhzad spends nearly all of his time advising Zeikfried, otherwise creating new terrors in his lab. However, just because Alhazad is content to let others do the work he is by no means resigned to isolation. Alhazad will give those lower ranking than him (virtually everyone other than Zeikfried and MOTHER) a task to help him complete his research, but will be glad to step in himself, either completing what tasks his allies cannot or just using them as a distraction while he attends to dirty work himself. It is briefly implied Alhazad wished to have his way with one of the humans he turned into a demon, but the game never explicitly states if such an event happened or if it his pondering such an act was hypothetical, either way, the notion at the very least is erotic to him.
Powers and Abilities[]
Alhazad's favorite skill is his teleportation ability. He appears in a bright light that warps him into various areas in the game with seemingly no limitations on where he can choose to be. The one place his teleportation seemed to be unable to take him was the town of Saint Centour due to its town-wide ward. In the case of Saint Centour, Alhazad was not deterred by the ward and simply planned his way around it, for Alhazad's most dangerous skill is unquestionably his cunning. Not only is Alhazad a mad genius, but he possesses extreme strategic insights and is a master of manipulations, sizing up foes, predicting their actions and playing his foes like his personal puppets. Alhazad is not just good at manipulating his foes but delights in actually brainwashing people. Alhazad has created body possessing viruses, zombifying soldiers and mentally reprogramming fallen adversaries turning any who fail to kill him into an asset. He specializes in creating monsters, whether said monsters used to be innocents or were simply grown in a test tube is often impossible to tell.