Bethesda has made a huge name for itself as a gaming company over the years. From its beginning as a company that mostly made video game adaptions of popular movies, such as Home Alone and The Terminator, Bethesda has come a long way with its more modern works across various gaming genres, but particularly RPGs.
Having developed some of the most popular video game franchises of all time, including The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, Bethesda is on top of the world. Their games are known for huge, sweeping worlds and amazing world-building and lore, including some incredibly well-crafted villainous characters.
Games published by Bethesda will also be considered.
7 Frau Engel (Wolfenstein)
The Wolfenstein franchise is hugely underrated and is deserving of more attention from Bethesda fans for the ingenious Dieselpunk style. Irene Engel is a villain who upgrades from secondary antagonist to main between Wolfenstein: New World Order and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.
These new games were the most well-regarded of the Wolfenstein franchise by fans and critics. Frau Engel is a terrifying villain who represents the worst parts of the Nazi regime in the games. She controls a U-boat, is seen executing prisoners while running a concentration camp, and draws a gun on the player in a playful game in her very first meeting with him. An excellent villain who survives a surprisingly long time for someone so reprehensible and hated, Engel is definitely one of the best evil Bethesda creations.
6 Granny Rags (Dishonored)
Dishonored showcases a world where the heroes are in a vast minority. There are an endless number of villainous characters who could be mentioned as the dark and ill-intentioned characters are the best part of the Dishonored world-building.
However, Granny Rags is on another level. The backstory of her fall from power doesn’t stop her still being absolutely terrifying. Voiced by the great Susan Sarandon herself, Vera Moray is partially immortal and completely terrifying to come into contact with. If the player chooses to have Corvo fight her in the sewers, they should beware of her surprisingly tough abilities.
5 Mehrunes Dagon (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion)
It makes a lot of sense to have an actual demon who resembles Satan as the primary villain of an RPG. It made sense to the folks at Bethesda, who decided that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion needed someone intent on violent destruction at the head of the game’s central cult, the Mythic Dawn.
Mehrunes Dagon is one of the seventeen Daedric Princes of Oblivion, and while he isn’t even the most evil of the lot, he is a terrifying demon to square off against. The heroic Martin Septim has to sacrifice himself by merging with Akatosh in order to defeat Dagon at the conclusion of Oblivion. The worst part is that this doesn’t even kill Dagon, just his Avatar who was in the process of destroying the Imperial City. Dagon returns with a Daedric quest hundreds of years later in Skyrim, he simply isn’t able to get back into the realm where Tamriel exists.
4 Laura (The Evil Within)
As the player goes through the events of The Evil Within, the most common enemy they will come up against is Laura. A many-limbed monstrosity whose design was inspired by Japanese horror movies, Laura is a terrifying villain who constantly pursues the player.
The more terrifying thing is the backstory of this creature. Laura was the sister of Ruvik who died after a barn fire put her in a vegetative state. This creature is a reborn version of Ruvik’s sister, who continuously screams due to Ruvik’s final memory of her and hates fire due to the way she was originally killed. Laura is a terrifying idea from the minds at Bethesda which produced many great chase scenes in The Evil Within.
3 Dagoth Ur (The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind)
Morrowind is still a beloved game among the Elder Scrolls community, despite being over twenty years old now. What it has lost with age it has kept with story and world-building, which remains fantastic. Dagoth Ur is the primary villain and a great example of how well-written Morrowind is.
Living in the Red Mountain, Dagoth Ur is a demigod who seeks to free Morrowind from Imperial control. Not as black-and-white as some Elder Scrolls game villains, Dagoth Ur made for a fascinating story in his attempts to sway the player character over to his way of thinking. The killing of Dagoth Ur also had far-reaching consequences, such as the Tribunal becoming mortal again, which led to the entire plot of the first Morrowind DLC.
2 The Master (Fallout)
The original Fallout built a fascinating world that has remained largely intact in the ensuing entries in the franchise. Ghouls, Super Mutants, and the Brotherhood of Steel would all return in later games. The Master was the primary villain of the first game, he sought to turn everyone in the world into Super Mutants, so there would be equality.
A strange gray idea, The Master was trying to trick humans into submission using the Children of the Cathedral cult. The player is tasked with ending the Super Mutant plague and manages to eventually do so by defeating the Master. Nevertheless, his wide-reaching plans affected the world of Fallout forever, and his plot was an intriguing one.
1 Miraak (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
Skyrim had a lot of villainous characters across the many plot lines, and while some of them were great villains in their own right, none were as terrifying or epic as Miraak. The first Dragonborn, found in the Dragonborn DLC, was a massive force to be reckoned with.
Living in the realm of Hermaeus Mora, a terrifying place in its own right, Miraak was able to control (and ride dragons) the minds of many of the people of Solstheim. Nearly overcoming the player’s Dragonborn to become the strongest of their kind in history, Miraak made for the very best of Bethesda villains, and he was only to be found in a DLC.