Emperor Antares

Emperor Antares is the main antagonist of the series. Formerly the former ruler of Brandor, Antares held the title of Emperor before his defeat in Swords and Sandals: Emperor's Reign, and he was resurrected in Swords and Sandals: Crusader.

Early Life
Very little is known about Antares so far. At some point during the series, he became the emperor of Brandor.

Reign as Emperor
Antares played a supporting role in Emperor's Reign for the player. Throughout the game, he would usually award the player large sums of gold for every arena champion that he/she defeated. Eventually, the player is forced to face him in the final arena battle, which ultimately results in Antares' unexpected death.

The Crusades
After the death of Antares, the colosseum in Eldor Hath was demolished and brought a wave of joy and pride across the people of Brandor. Eldor Hath was then seemingly abandoned, which resulted in Arglaxx to flee from the town and settle down in Taj Brandhir. At some point, Arglaxx formed an alleigance with HeChaos and delivered Antares' corpse to a group of Dark Priests at Eddengarth, in an attempt to resurrect him. However, thanks to the incompetence of HeChaos, it was not until later on in the crusades when Antares would be resurrected, following the several brutal defeats of Arglaxx's and HeChaos's military forces. Lacking a proper military force, he used dark magic to raise an army of his own and name it the Death Imperium, a force consisting of undead gladitators who died fighitng in his arena. As Antares continued to wage and instigate war in Brandor, his forces met a quick defeat against the Sons of Frost.

Following King Lionel's defeat at the hands of the Sons of Frost, Arglaxx, HeChaos and Antares then began a plot to take over Brandor. Antares later realized that HeChaos was proving to be more of a liability than a helpful resource and ordered Arglaxx to betray HeChaos for him, which Arglaxx reluctantly agreed to. Seeing that Arglaxx was also proving irrelevant to him, Antares ran out of options and decided to send a group to assassinate Arglaxx, which was foiled eventually. Understanding that Antares betrayed him, Arglaxx eventually managed to defeat Antares' marching army after witnessing that he and HeChaos have now been rendered as enemies to one another.

Intending to further fuel his rampage, Antares set forth to find the Decanter of Tears to summon the Lord of Sorrow in battle. After a long and tiring search, Antares managed to recover the Artifact in Messeth. Feeling confident and battle ready, he launched another colossus tournament across the realm, defeating all of the colossi except Arglaxx's colossus.

Antares then launched a campaign to lay siege to the kingdom's of his former allies. After a long, bloody and brutal invasion against his former allies, he captured both Arglaxx and HeChaos and transported them to the torture chambers in Eldor Hath, imprisoning them both. Antares even captured Lord Celen and Bors, after seeing them as threats to his plans. At one point, he attempted to say siege at Phaetor, a reserve cavalry force lead by Sir Belgrave flanked Antares' forces, forcing Antares to retreat.

Witnessing the destruction of his forces, Lionel stormed into Eldor Hath to face of against Antares in the arena. In a battle that was long and tiring, Lionel dealt a blow which decapitated Antares, ending his reign of terror once and for all, allowing peace to come once again in Brandor.

Post-crusades
Antares, shockingly managed to escape imprisonment shortly when the Automatons arrived in Brandor. There, Antares made his last attempt to wage chaos by placing himself as an Arena Champion. His plans were not very successful, and he was imprisoned later on.

Powers and Abilities
Antares possesses an incredible superhuman amount of strength and endurance that exceeds the capacities of any character portrayed in the series, along with vast agility, stamina, durability, and reflexes.

In Swords and Sandals II, Antares' main weapon of choice was the Blade of the Empire, a sword with incredible slashing ability. His sword was also enchanted with Wraith magic, making him a much more formidable opponent in combat. He would also carry several spells in combat as well.

Appearance
Antares is best described as a tall, intimidating figure, with bright purple-pink skin and long, black hair. After Antares' death in the Crusades, he became an undead figure, possessing the body of an animated skeleton. In Swords and Sandals II, it is revealed that Antares stands at 9 feet 10 inches tall, suggesting that Antares is not a human, but of another race.

Personality
Antares is an evil, ruthless, tyrannical and measured individual with no apparent goal other than to destroy all forms of life on Brandor. As shown through Swords and Sandals: Crusader, he is extremely truculent and aggressive, taking immense pleasure in deliberately damaging and waging war on anything that he sees, suggesting his general insanity and love for warfare and death. He is also very selfish and two-faced, never caring about the goals of his allies and chooses to go as far as betraying his allies all for his own selfish and desirable purposes.

Trivia

 * Antares is one of the most popular character in the series.
 * It is unknown what race he was originally before he became undead.
 * Antares has bright pink-purple coloured skin and long black hair.
 * Antares does not fight with a ranged weapon.
 * In [|Swords and Sandals: Crusader], if you play "Conquer the Realm" mode, you can see Antares does not attacking any province excepting Vale of Shadows and Skulden when it is captured.