This Overlord is a fallen hero that became the third Overlord known to have existed, as well as being the Eighth Hero in the Wizard's Group .he had a symbiotic relationship with the Tower Heart , with the tower heart increasing his power as his evil energy overcame the tower lands.
History
This overlord's story before his fall is unknown. He was, at some point, probably as tired as other heroes of the Overlord's cruel domain, he joined the Seven Heroes led by the Wizard , who was once an honorable man, together they freed all the Overlord's domains from his control. Later he joined the heroes assault on the Dark Tower ,the Overlord's seat of power, where they battled fiercely, and finally made it to the throne room, where the Overlord was cornered. He then, unfortunately for bravery or for pride/overconfidence he took a great fall to kill the Second Overlord by grabbing him and jumping from the top of the Tower. The only thing he suceeded in doing that was incapating himself for a long period of time and giving the other Overlord a second chance by possessing the Wizard when he inspected his corpse. He was then left for dead by the other heroes except for Oberon,the Elven King and Hero,who wanted to save him,or at least recover his corpse to give him a proper burial since he fought at their side,with Sir William,the paladin saying that's not necessary,since they vanquished the evil(for now) and that their friend had 'earned his rest',and Kahn wanting to scavenge everything they can and flee.
Overlord
After the Dark Tower was plundered of its riches by the Seven Heroes and left as a crumbling ruin, Gnarl took matters into his own hands: Discovering that the Eighth Hero was still alive, he saw a potential successor and had the minions revive him by putting him into a sarcophagus in the Crypt in the Dark Tower's Foundation. After some years, when he was awakened and crowned Overlord, Gnarl told him how his predecessor was killed by the Seven Heroes to give him a feeling of revenge, and set his course to rebuild the Dark Tower and reconquer his old domains, but that he still needed the Tower Heart to teleport to the other realms. Unfortunately it was looted off from its original location, and the Overlord went to the Mellow Hills to take it back and a much needed crane, since the once mighty tower was reduced to a crumbling ruin.
The Heroes, in their celebration of defeating the Second Overlord, have become increasingly corrupt and self-indulgent, believing that being a Hero makes them better than other people. Melvin the Small, now known as Melvin Underbelly, indulges in the sin of gluttony, and has enslaved the residents of Spree for work in his kitchens. Once the Overlord found the Tower Heart and took it back from the Halflings , he discovers Spree and the Steel Smelter, which is blocked by flame walls powered by the Reds, so he decides to raid Melvin's work camp to save Spree's Citizens, and captures a crane to start the rebuilding of the Dark Tower. He then proceeds to raid the Halfling Homes to retrieve Spree's food, either keeping it or giving it to the peasants. In the process he goes to save the Reds in Melvin's Kitchen and kills Melvin, dispatching a large number of halflings in the process and retrieving the reds hive. The villagers of Spree will either view the Overlord as a hero or feared tyrant, depending on the actions he takes.
When the nearby Castle Spree comes under attack by Ruborian Desert raiders, the Overlord investigates the matter further. Once there, he meets Rose, who was harbouring refugees from Heaven's Peak . Apparently the city has fallen under some terrible plague . After clearing the castle of the mysterious invaders, Rose wants to come to his tower and asks him to check out the plague, because she doesn't care if people die, but if the plague manages to reach other areas, there will be a great chaos. She then heads off towards the city.
The plague is a terrible affliction turning people into zombies, the indirect result of the actions of Sir William the Black, who indulges in the sin of lust. Apparently unsatisfied with mortal women and tired of denying himself the pleasures of life, Sir William has summoned a Succubus Queen for his pleasures, but unbeknownst to him the Queen has infected a majority of the town's population. After stomping out the Queen to end the plague, the Overlord moves on to crush Sir William.
The Overlord then discovers Sir William's fiancée and Rose's sister, Velvet, who attempts to seduce the Overlord into taking her back with him, resulting in the player having to choose which mistress to bring back to his Tower, although in Overlord 2 the dark tower ruins are Velvet's upgrades and means the Overlord has dumped Rose- Gnarl says that Rose is the mother of the Fourth Overlord,although he could have mistaken or lied for unknown reasons,since Rose remained for a quite time in the Dark Tower,and for his desire for seeing both mistresses in the tower as Overlord's 2 events seem to go against this choice.
Seeking to expand his territory, the Third Overlord explores Evernight Forest, discovering the once verdant land has transformed into a dank, dark place of misery due to Oberon's tree draining energy from the forest. Dwarven invaders from the other side of the forest once came into the land seeking riches, and a war with the elves ensued. Oberon Greenhaze, another one of the Seven Heroes, refused to fight and indulged in the sin of sloth. Nature itself began to grow around Oberon, transfiguring him into a large tree with magical properties. Eventually, creatures from Oberon's nightmares took physical form, driving out the invaders and leaving Evernight dangerous for the unwary. Cutting the roots of Oberon's tree to weaken the magical barrier protecting him, the Overlord took the fight to Oberon, showing no mercy and broke him,'freeing him from his torment', paving the way into the Golden Hills.
Despite the dwarves having been driven out by Oberon nightmare creatures, they still managed to make off with many spoils of war, including enslaving the elves that survived. Seemingly, the war launched by Goldo Golderson, a hero indulging in the sin of greed. Plundering the mines and fortresses of the Golden Hills, the Overlord fought his way to Goldo himself, and his war 'pet', Rollie. While tenacious, Goldo fell to his might.
However, the fight had weakened the structure of the cavern they were in, and the threat of a collapse was immediate. Aside from Goldo's horde of treasure, the supposedly "last" female elves were also stashed cave. Torn between untold treasures and the potential extinction of an entire race, the Overlord chose presumily to save the elves and made it out just time(although the player could've to decide to save the gold instead).
The Overlord sets his eyes on one last land, the Ruborian Desert. Though initially seeming like a wasteland with little value, it is home to the Ruborian Desert raiders and their leader, Jewel the Thief, the corrupted hero of envy. When Jewel is aware of the Overlord's presence, she completely avoids a confrontation and relentlessly sends her men after him. Using brains instead of brute force, however, the Overlord tricks Jewel straight into a Tower Portal, who is then captured and held prisoner.
Jewel's boyfriend, Kahn the Warrior, who is also the corrupted hero of wrath, is enraged at the capture of his beloved, and attacks Spree in retaliation. When the Overlord goes to stop him, he is led into a trap by his subjects, and finds out that Kahn has already moved on to Heaven's Peak. The Overlord defeats the opposition, and is left to choose to either forgive or punish his subjects for their cowardice.
At Heaven's Peak, the Overlord faces a taxing challenge to bring Kahn down, who has already destroyed most of the city. Though the battle is arduous, the Overlord is successful in destroying him. Gnarl then informs the Overlord that his presence in the Tower is required immediately.
At the Dark Tower, the Overlord comes face to face with Wizard, the seventh and final hero... Only it is not the Wizard at all, just his body. The current soul residing in it is none other than the Second Overlord, who, at the apex of his defeat, transferred his soul into the Wizard's body, then snuffed his soul out of existence. Pretending to be the Wizard, the old Overlord manipulated the remaining heroes into becoming self-centred and had masterly spread chaos on a scale never seen before. While in the meantime he had ordered Gnarl to make the Eighth Hero into an Overlord so he could do the hard work of gathering the scattered Tower items, repair the Tower and dispose of the now expendable heroes, essentially restoring everything to the way things were before his attempted assassination. In this way the Second Overlord would turn defeat into ultimate victory, and he shows great pride in how he had manipulated everyone.
However, the Third Overlord resisted, not prepared to let everything he worked for be usurped. This conflict between two Overlords resulted in the brutal "Minion Civil War", taking place within the Minion Spawning Pits. Though the two sides seemed equal in power and command of minions, ultimately the Third Overlord prevailed, finally achieving the status he strived for.
If the Player went more to the evil path, the ending slides will show the Overlord rising in power, leading to his true evil potential, killing and destroying everything without mercy to become 'evil incarnate', or the will of evil impersonified as his power increases dramatically, thanks to the Tower Heart.
if the Player went more to the 'good' path, the ending slides will show the overlord gaining praise from citizens, his minions multipling, and evil becoming part of the life.
Overlord: Raising Hell
After killing Melvin Underbelly and conquering Spree, Gnarl alerted the Overlord to a large intimidating Dark energy emanating from Mellow Hills. The Overlord rushed to the hills to discover what appeared to be a gateway to heaven, and the peasants of Spree going into it. Upon going through, the Overlord realized it was not a gateway to heaven, but a gateway to some sort of Abyss. The Overlord then proceeded to explore all the newly formed abysses of his domains. After conquering every abyss and taking the Abyss Stones of every abyss, the Overlord investigates the final abyss in the Ruborian Desert, the Infernal Abyss. After going through the abyss and destroying Kahn again, the Overlord discovered the domain of none other than the Forgotten God. The Overlord battled the Forgotten God and killed him by stabbing his sword into the god's mouth, raging an enormous flame through the sword, and consuming the god in flames, hus ending the reign of the Forgotten God. The abyss then started to crumble and the Overlord tried to escape, but just before stepping onto the abyss portal, the Overlord looked up to see Jester leave, destroying the gate, and abandoning the Overlord in the Infernal Abyss. Despite being trapped, he gained complete control over the Wraiths in the abyss and possibly became a god himself. Gnarl believes the Overlord will find another way out of the Abyss and by the end of Overlord 2, he might be have been able to escape thanks to Solarius' Death,because Gnarl comments that someone is biding his time to destroy the Overlad, coming from shiny cities and 'Deep Abysses, and that someone is 'waiting the right moment, and he won't stop this fall, because Evil always finds a way
Legacy
The Third Overlord's son, Overlad / Fourth Overlord.
Even after being stuck in the Infernal Abyss, the Overlord's minions mourned over him.
His son, the Fourth Overlord, destroyed the Glorious Empire and took control of the dependent regions. Gnarl believes the Third Overlord can and will find a way to escape the Infernal Abyss (Although the only known gate was destroyed.) He could use Evil Energy (what caused the abysses gates to emerge) to open another gate as the Forgotten God did, but he would need to wait that someone realeases so much evil energy from a said evil person/creature (it could be Solarius or the Overlad's Death) as he did with the Seven Heroes before to open a gate to allow him to escape.
Relationships
Velvet -her relationship to the Overlord depends on the player's decisions, if he chose her, she gets to show off his more evil side, she loves evil and darkness as much as he does, and appreciates the Overlord should be truly evil, and later becomes love, giving him his son, the boy that would have become the Witch-boy .
Rose -Velvet's elder sister and the Overlords first mistress. She shows his less evil side, and appreciates a less-corrupt Overlord.
Gnarl-at first, the Overlord and Gnarl seem only to have master and servant relationship, which then grows to an attachment from Gnarl to him due of his unbreakable will and the nearly impossible tasks he accomplished, and the fact that he survived what many Overlords failed to defeat,even surviving an overthrow and killing a much older overlord, and approves of him even if the Overlord is truly corrupted, and probably he's the only master that Gnarl is loyal to.
The Wizard-it's unknown how far it was their relationship, but they would have probably been friends since they had traveled together for a while before the Wizard got possessed.
The Second Overlord-he despises this Overlord, saying that he was useful only as a pawn.
The Seven Heroes-the heroes and this Overlord were good friends, especially with Oberon.who was best friends with him ,he wanted to find him and rescue him from the ruins of the Dark Tower and by the unused dialogue 'you had the strength to do for me what i couldn't do for you,thank you my friend', but the rest wanted him to have a rest because he had earned it,proving that they were in very good terms.
The Minions:
The minions were inspired by and loved their master,despite them being enemies once,proven by the minion civil war with the majority of the minions siding with the third overlord, except for Jester, who doesn't respect him since he 'killed' his favourite master,but he starts respecting him if he should do evil deeds and even when the overlord wasn't dead but trapped,the minions were deeply saddened by the dissapeareance of their master
Personality
The Third Overlord's Personality was entirely chosen by the player, it could be the evilest and most powerful being ever to appear (surpassing even the Second Overlord) on the land causing the Extinction of the Elven Race, the permanent Corruption of the Evernight Forest, the downfall of the Dwarven Empire, the suppression of Spree, destroying everything and killing without mercy, causing the world shake with fear and putting it into a chaotic dark era, with his power growing endlessly and his name whispered, or he could have been a nice ruler, balancing the world and putting it into a new golden era.
Considering that the Overlord who was once a hero at first had no magical power and had immense physical strength, it can be assumed that he was once a knight or a hero.
References
It is a possibility that the Third Overlord was based heavily on Sauron from Lord of the Rings. This theory is supported by the facts that, like Sauron,he wasn't always evil,but became it afterwards. The Third Overlord also has armor and a helmet just like that of Sauron. Both are also able to command a vast horde of evil creations made, or rather spawned, in pits. This is the same as the Orcs of Lord of the Rings. The Dark Tower is also similar in design to the Tower of Barad Dur(which in mordor launguage means Dark Tower), which is also set in a large wasteland although only one (Mordor) is actualy given a name. Both towers are also refered to as "The Dark Tower" both built in rocky wastelands with spiky mountain range. Also, should the player choose the Mace as his weapon, it looks much like that wielded by Sauron, as seen in the beggining of The Fellowship of the Ring.