Sorcerous Overlord

Take an Evil Sorcerer, mix with Evil Overlord, place against one incredibly physical and muscular protagonist and leave to stew in a realm of Creepy Crows, palantirs and monstrous minions. The Sorcerous Overlord is probably one of the most common variations of Evil Sorcerer due to the strong themes that come out of having a single hero or small Ragtag Bunch of Misfits against a ruler whose power comes from a vague, nebulous and potentially ever-pervasive source. They can always have a number of devices to keep inserting their presence into the plot: Magic Mirrors, evil animal minions, setting up magical warriors. Every element of the overlord's realm can be a more direct extension of themselves (with inherent Always Chaotic Evil) and they can come up with various ways of sending a threat against them. They also make good foils for the strong hero who fights through mainly physical stabbing-meaty-things-with-pointy-things methods. On the other hand, this can make it hard to explain why there are any limits on the sorcery when fighting the hero. See also The Magocracy, which often has one of these figures at its head. If the magical overlord is also a Lich then their realm doubles as The Necrocracy, a domain ruled by the undead. Contrast Benevolent Mage Ruler where a magic-user rules benevolently, and Court Mage, where a magic-user is a ruler's advisor rather than the ruler themselves. For a smaller-scale version, when the magical overlord is the master of only one or a few ordinary humans, see Muggle in Mage Custody. Compare Emperor Scientist, who has science instead of magic. (However, Sorcerous Overlord and Emperor Scientist are known to overlap quite often.)