Garv's human form.
Chaos Dragon Garv is one of the five Mazoku Lords created by the Ma-o, Ruby Eye Shabranigdo and one of the main antagonists of Slayers NEXT, who is manipulated and ultimately killed by the primary antagonist Hellmaster Phibrizzo. As Garv was sealed in a human body thousand years ago, he betrayed the other Mazoku Lords and set out to take over the world that they want to destroy.
Garv's main servants are his priest, Raltark and his general is Rarshart, the two high-ranking mazokus he spawned shortly after his own creation (That do not appear in the anime). Despite being a traitor to the Mazoku, he still controls many lesser ones.
Apperance[1]Edit
[2]Garv's true form
Added by Balthus Dire
Since Garv is a Mazoku (a genderless demonic spiritual entity) he does not possess a true physical form. As he resides in the Astral Plane of existence he must create an earthly avatar in order to interact and represent himself in the Physical Plane. Much like his elder sibling Phibrizzo he can shapeshift and perfectly imitate his earthly avatar in any aspect in order to imitate any lifeform perfectly.
He appears mostly in his human form though there are few rare glimpses of his beast form. In Garv's case his beast form would be that of an enormous crimson red dragon with three heads. His human form is that of large, muscular man with a strong build and long crimson red hair tied near the end of it. He wears a long, flowing trench coat and carries a long broad sword.
Creation and Background[3]Edit
Chaos Dragon Garv and the other Mazoku Lords were created some time during the Shinma War, the great conflict between the Dragon God Flare Dragon Ceifeed and The Ma-o (Demon God) Ruby Eye Shabranigdo, which began at the moment of the world's creation and concluded at approximately 5000 years before the start of the Slayers series. Both Gods having been created themselves by the hermaphrodite Lord of Nightmares, the Supreme Deity of the Slayers universe.
At the War's end the Dragon God Ceifeed had split Shabranigdo into seven individual pieces which were scattered into human bodies. However this act had drained Ceifeed of all his strength and he sank into the Sea Of Chaos, (the source of all creation) but not before he created four Dragon Kings in order for them to rule the other shinzoku (dragon kind) in his place and to maintain peace in the world. These Dragon Kings were Aqualord Ragradia, Firelord Vrabazard, Airlord Valwin, and Earthlord Rangort. Likewise Shabranigdo created 5 Mazoku Lords to rule in his absence: Hellmaster Phibrizzo, Chaos Dragon Garv, Greater Beast Zelas Metallium, Sea Queen Deep Sea Dolphin and Supreme King Dynast Grausherra.
Around a thousand years before the start of the series, Hellmaster Phibrizzo ignited the Koma War (the War of the Monster's Fall in english) in order to resurrect a piece of Shabranigdo which lied in one of the Five Wise Men Of The Age, the archmage Lei Magnus. Although he did awaken the piece of Shabranigdo, it was ultimately sealed in an impenatrable block of ice in the far north forever. During the final battle of the war, the Dragon Lord of Water Aqualord Ragradia was destroyed in a battle against Garv and Shabranigdo, but he managed to seal Garv and seal him into a human soul.
Shortly after the Koma War ended, Garv betrayed the other Mazoku Lords. Some assume that with his new powers, he tried to force additional liberties from the others, although the possibility that Garv was foolish enough to think that he could achieve complete independance also cannot be ruled out entirely. Others theorize that with Garv locked into a human form, his mentality became more and more human-like, conflicting with the Mazokus' desire to destroy the world. Since then he is hidding from the other Mazoku Lords who want to destroy him.
Personality[4]Edit
Garv seems to love war the most out of all the other Mazoku Lords. (With the possible exception of Dynast Grausherra.) He has a wild, bloodthirsty, ruthless, obsitate and extremely violent personality. Like all Mazokus, he loves spreading destruction and chaos throughout the world and he feeds on the negative feelings like pain, fear and hatred. He also seems to love to fight no matter what the danger is, viewing said danger as a challenge.
Garv plans to destroy every piece of Shabranigdo one by one, beginning with Lei Magnus and possibly the other Mazoku Lords, in order to take over the Mazoku race. What is sure is that he wants to rule the entire world. To do so, he has his Mazoku servants strike a deal with many rulers and nobles all over the world, so that they would serve as puppet kings, while Garv and his servants would wield the real political power. This shows that Garv seems to have a Machiavellian personality.
Powers and Abilities[5]Edit
Being a Mazoku Lord, Garv he posesses all the powers of such a being, including the abilities to teleport with items or even people and to maintain an incredibly detailed projected form, which he can transform into perfect replicas of any living creature. Other abilities include, retreating into the Astral Plane, striking someone in the Physical Plan from the Astral Plane, teleporting his earthly avatar wherever he wants and making it fly, seeing and talking where he is not physically present, making people and objects levitate or appear out of nowhere, creating a sub-dimensional space, and changing the weather.
Garv also posesses enormous physical strength and speed,in addition to his skills with weapons, particularly swords. He also seems to posess an extreme level of durability as he withstood an attack from Lina's Ragna Blade which had cut an large wound in his shoulder and survived. After which he still had more than enough power to destroy Lina and her friends.
As the Demon Lord Of Fire, Garv has full control over this element. Garv can fire spheres of fire that are highly flammable and explosive. He also releases waves of pure heat that can incinerate anything, a kind of swirling fiery shockwave or blasts of fire. Moreover, he can release high pressure winds from his hands in order to blow enemy's away. Garv can project energy and can sense another mazoku's presence or at least he used to before merging with a human soul. Garv's sword is apparently infused with his power, as he can use it to wound Mazokus that are impervious to normal weapons.Finally, Garv can fire spheres of energy that can range from a fairly medium size to enormous spheres of destruction.
Role In Slayers Next[6]Edit
Before the start of Slayers Next, Garv's servants who were spying on Hellmaster Phibrizzo told him that the elder Mazoku Lord planned something against him which involved using the series primary protagonist, the sorceress Lina Inverse. Determined to thwart this plan, Garv resolved to kill Lina. He ordered all the mazokus under his command to track her down and to destroy her before Phibrizzo could enact his plan. Little did he knew that by doing so he fell right into Phibrizzo's snare.
Actually, Garv's servant only learned this (false) information because the cunning Hellmaster wanted them to. In fact, Phibrizzo wanted to use the threat that Garv posed upon her life to force Lina to cast the Giga Slave: a spell of absolute devastation that used the power of the Lord of Nightmares, the creator of the universe, which Phibrizzo could use to destroy the world.
[7]Xellos
Added by Balthus Dire Phibrizzo borrowed Xellos, the main servant of his "sister" Zelas Metalium and the strongest high-ranking mazoku in the world, second only to the Mazoku Lords themselves. He ordered Xellos to pose as a "trickster priest" in order to watch over Lina and her friends, protecting them against the mazokus that Garv sends after her and guiding her to the Claire Bible, the source of every knowledge in the world, so that Lina would learn to fully master the Giga Slave spell. All of this slowly but surely, not to raise any suspicion.
[8]Seigram the Formless
Added by Balthus Dire As Lina and her friends were trying to find the Claire Bible, they soon discovered that Garv was attempting to expand his power in the the world in places like Atlas City and even Saillune. In Atlas City, one of Garv's major followers Seigram the Formless made a pact with the powerful sorcerer Halciphom the White, sealing Halciphom's life in his mask to make immortal. Seigram planned that Halciphom would take over the Guild of Magic of the city, and likely the city itself, while controlling him from the shadows to rule it on Garv's behalf, but Halciphom's main goal was to resurrect his dead wife Rubia and he killed himself after failing to do so.
In Sailune, the country of which Amelia, one of the serie's protagonists is the princess, they discover that Amelia's father Prince Philionel has gone missing and is believed by all to be dead. Philionel is in fact hiding from demons who attacked him. Philionel's younger brother Christopher is suspected to have ordered these attacks to seize the throne but it is ultimately revealed that the real culprit is Christopher's son Alfred, who allied himself with (in fact manipulated by) two high-ranking Mazokus under Garv's orders Kanzel and Mazenda. After killing Alfred, the two Mazokus reveal that they expected to use Alfred to rule the country as a puppet king under their command and that Garv has ordered every Mazoku he controls to kill Lina.
As Lina and her friends came to terms with the events taking place, Xellos finally revealed the location of a complete manuscript of the Claire Bible at the Temple Of Sand, an ancient temple that houses a pocket dimension with a desert terrain inside and a seemingly infinite number of lithographs, which is the complete Claire Bible manscript. However the manuscript of the Claire Bible is recorded in code and it seemed quite difficult to translate. Even worse, it could take a lifetime to find the right lithograph..
Lina and her friends then came across an elderly woman known as Auntie Aqua, the guardian of the manuscript whom agreed to help Lina and her friends find the information they need to defeat Garv. When nighttime came and the others were resting Auntie led Lina to a specific tablet in which she learnt that miscasting the Giga Slave would anihilate the world. This convinced Lina not to use the Giga Slave unless there was absolutely no other way. At this point, Seigram The Formless attacked them, only to get locked in battle against Xellos. But Garv himself appeared on the battlefield, since the Mazoku Lords would not locate him in this pocket dimension. The Former Mazoku Lord eventually revealed that Lina was the center of a Plan devised by the Mazoku Lord known as the Hellmaster to get rid of him, explaining why he wants Lina dead so badly.
Xellos faced Garv to prevent him from going after Lina, but he was no match for Garv's power. Meanwhile Lina and her party faced Seigram, who proved to be nearly impossible to defeat due to the power he had recieved from Garv. Garv easily beat Xellos and demanded to know what Hellmasters plan was, to which Xellos responded by "That is a secret."
Garv unleashed an enormous sphere of swirling energy but Auntie Aqua revealed her true identity as a remnant of the deceased Dragon Lord Ragradia. Auntie teleported Lina, Xellos, and their friends out of the dimension, telling them to head for the Kataart Mountains where the true Claire Bible is located in the Dragon's Peak.
Unfortunately for the group they couldn not find a path to the mountains as the area around it is an endless maze. They dared not risk flying as Garv would spot them easily. As they pondered their predicament they came across a young pickpocket who tried to steal Lina's wallet. He eventualy failed and was forced to rub Lina's shoulder's, but when he told her that he knows where the Dragon's Peak is located. Lina went ecstatic and paid him hansomely in exchange for a map.
Minutes later, Martina cornered the boy, asking if he had seen Lina's group. Unable to find a bribe, she ended up guided personally to the Dragon's Peak by the boy, closely following Lina's group.
As Lina's group arrived at the Dragon's Peak, populated by hundreds of Dragons, they encountered a golden dragon known as Milgasia who fought in the Koma War and who accepted to lead them to the true Claire Bible, mostly because he fears Xellos. (Xellos singlehandedly exterminated a large, large number of dragons during the War.)
As Lina entered the dimensional warp which contains the true Claire Bible, the others (Gourry, Amelia, Xelloss, and Zelgadiss) were attacked by Seigram, who summoned two sentient orbs forming a dangerous offense-and-defense combo before engaging a midair Mazoku-style firefight against Xellos.
Lina finally got her hands on the - sentient - Claire Bible and was told everything about the Koma War, Garv's and Ragradia's past, the Lord of Nightmares and the Giga Slave. She then held a conversation with Milgasia and Auntie Aqua, which was rudely interrupted by Garv, who has suddenly appeared. Aqua and Milgasia blocked Garv's fireballs and threw Lina (and Martina) out of the dimensional warp, only to get pursued by Garv, determinate to put an end to Lina and the knowledge she acquired.
As Lina's friends managed to destroy Seigram's orbs and are getting healed by Milgasia, Lina finally destroys Seigram with the Ragna Blade, another highly powerful spell using the power of the Lord of Nightmares but much less dangerous than the Giga Slave. Meanwhile, Xelloss got backstabbed and severly wounded by Chaos Dragon Garv, who has just returned.
Xelloss then teleported away. As for Lina, she overexerted herself in her battle against Seigram, given that the Ragna Blade brings her ever closer to the Lord of Nightmares each time she casts it. Garv approaches the weakened Lina, but Gourry and Zelgadis walk up as well, to defend her. Garv smiles, welcoming the challenge, and Gourry and Zelgadis begin their assault.
Lina's friend then gave everything they have in the battle but not to avail as Garv is far too strong for them all and beat them all up with little trouble. Lina eventually joined the battle again, chanting the Laguna Blade. She managed to cut through Garv's torso and wound him greatly, seemingly vainquishing him but he reappeared and prepared to finish the whole group off when he got backstabbed by a blade of dark energy sent by the boy who had guided the group to the Dragon's Peak.
Garv then recognized the "boy," who was carefully hidding from him until now and who is then revealed to be none other than Hellmaster Phibrizzo. Phibrizzo then taunted both Garv and Lina's group and constating that Garv could never be a pure Mazoku again, remorselessly incinerated him in a burst of dark flames with a mere snap of his fingers, putting a final point to Garv's threat only to replace it by a much bigger one.