The Torment


An ancient and enigmatic sorcerer, the Torment is a misanthropic recluse who lives in an underground building beneath the sordid village of Roarhaven. The building itself was intended to be a new Sanctuary by a group of dissenters in Roarhaven who attempted to overthrow the Elders. The plan failed and the building itself sank in decay. The Torment believes that sorcerers should rule over mortals and believes that his kind are weak to hide from humans when they should be conquering them. He fought against Mevolent in the war however as he reasoned that if the Faceless Ones came back, no-one would be safe, even him. He claims to despise the Ancients as much as the Faceless Ones however and because Valkyrie is a descendant of the Ancients he demands that Skulduggery destroy her in exchange for information on the whereabouts of the Grotesquery. Skulduggery pretends to kill her by shooting her reflection and when the Torment learns that Skulduggery tricked him he comes after the undead magician for revenge but is defeated by Skulduggery and Tanith Low.



The Torment is a Shapeshifter with an affinity for spiders and is capable of transforming into a giant three-eyed spider himself. He fights the Grotesquery as a spider, but is defeated (by being scalped). It is not known whether the Torment survived, as he is not mentioned in any of the subsequent books.