My favorite antagonist in a Fire Emblem ROM hack? It’s hard to say, honestly. There are so many great villains in great hacks out there. But out of all of them, if I have to pick a favorite, I suppose I’ll say…
Forben from Embers Entwined first appears in the game’s prologue, and is even then a fun character - a cackling maniac of a monster-summoning dark mage, who’s not quite as competent as he thinks he is. As the plot goes on, he manages to piss off just about every faction, die and un-die at least once, and even spend a stint in the player’s army. Forben goes through a long string of trials and tribulations over the course of Embers Entwined, and is a gleeful, fun-to-watch backstabbing bastard all the while.
Maybe I’m a bit biased, since due to EE’s nature as a telephone project, I ended up writing a lot of Forben’s story myself at both the beginning and end of his arc. But one of Embers Entwined’s best features is how over-the-top its story is; the characters concoct insane schemes, grand betrayals, legendary duels, and massive speeches on the morality of their actions. And this surprisingly deep dark-magic user is the very epitome of that glorious, glorious lunacy.
Also, I made his portrait, as you can see in the screenshot above. And it looks pretty darn cool.