Israphel

Israphel (aka The Dark Lord) is the main antagonist of the Minecraft series. He is noticable for his pale, ghost-like skin, creeper-like mouth, glowing red eyes, and is known for his mysterious antics. He's known to be a bit of a voyeur and a puppet master of sorts, preferring to work his evil from "the shadows" while keeping a keen eye on Xephos and Honeydew. Throughout the series, his name can be seen in the backgrounds of videos. Although he started out as a small annoyance and a mysterious menace, he has now become something of a grand evil, responsible so far for many horrific acts. He is the leader of the Cult of Israphel. He seems to resemble Voldemort from Harry Potter.

Backstory
Israphel's backstory is shrouded in mystery. He was born on January, 1, 1905. On his Facebook page it is known that he worked for Professor Grizwold. When the professor's experiments went wrong it summoned a creeper, which killed Israphel. He has a grave in the sandstone ruins of Grizwold's lab (his grave calls him Lehparsi, backward for Israphel) and also a grave in the Crypt of Terrorvale. He appears to be a ghost-like figure, but it is unknown whether he has always looked like this or exposure to the Desert may have changed him. It is unlikely he has always had this appearance, as his father, Reverend John, was a human. His story also seems to be contradictory, as it is implied that he is the entity which was created by The Sands, but yet that was at least a hundred years ago. He was apparently dead for five years prior to the story's beginning. Prior to the events of the story, Israphel kidnapped, and possibly killed, Karpath Peculier's wife and attempted to do so later with Isabel Peculier, although his attempt at possible murder was stopped by Pirate Tinman.

It is also possible the Israphel is simply the latest being to be controlled by the Dark spirit of The Sands. The visage Israphel currently holds is simply the work of that possession.

Israphel seems to hold a grudge against Verigan Antioch‘s male descendants, his son Karpath, and his grandson Knight Peculier. He has kidnapped, or attempted to kidnap, every female linked with them; first Karpath's wife, then Knight Peculier's love Daisy Duke, and then Karpath's daughter, Isabel Peculier. This may be to side-track and distract them from his efforts, as each has played a role in battling his evil. He also did something similar with Honeydew's love Granny Bacon. And by something similar, we mean that he turned her into a zombie and forced Honeydew to slay his love.



Story
Israphel is first known, not as a character, but as a strange player on the server who built the Pyramid, the Mysterious Tree, Stonehenge, the Igloo, and who skilfully rigged the back entrance to the Yogcave with TNT. His first real appearance is in Part 17, when he attacks the pair in the Yogcave, and he gets a slightly bigger role in Part 18, when Honeydew and Xephos try to chase him. He isn't seen again until Part 21, when he again attacks them at the Yogcave, this time leading them to Terrorvale, and Old Peculier, who would coincidentally also go on to become a major character in the series.

It is revealed in Part 26 that he has kidnapped Daisy Duke, and in fact has a fortress underneath Terrorvale, the entrance to it hidden behind his tomb. Despite Lewis and Simon's best efforts, he escapes with the kidnapped Daisy and takes her through a Hellgate in the Cave of Terror that the boys had built earlier, to The Nether. Her fate is yet unknown.

Israphel is not seen in Season 2, but Old Peculier and Skylord Lysander arrive during Part 11 of Survival Island and reveal their plans to stop him.

He has a much bigger role in Season 3, (his name being in the subtitle) and is played as a much bigger antagonist. In the very first part, he is revealed to have almost completely destroyed the Yogcave, with only a few bits of it still standing. After this leads the four heroes (Lewis, Simon, Old Peculier and Skylord Lysander) to Mistral City, he is not seen for quite some time, though he continues to command acts of evil. He orders Jock Fireblast to burn down Mistral City in Part 10, framing Lysander in the process according to Part 24, and orders the capture of Granny Bacon, later turning her into a zombie and forcing the two boys to kill her. He also resurrects his father, Reverend John, as an undead, who is also killed. After watching Israphel himself follow Old Peculier (now known as Knight Peculier) into a tunnel, they chase after him. After having a few antics in the Carnivale Del Banjo and gaining a prophecy each from Madame Nubescu, they go to Verigan's Hold, where they read the Tale of the Sands. In Part 15, Israphel gets his first big appearance, as he attacks the trio with a few minions as they try to rebuild The Wall. It is in this appearance where they actually fight, Lewis getting within a few feet of him and attacking him with his sword. After the three of them retreat, he waits at the wall, still damaging it.

His face is spotted briefly by Lewis in what may be a different desert, and they take chase. But a sudden storm hits, and they lose sight of him, however, and instead find a humongous Stone Dragon and a temple, with a tomb that reads "The Tomb of The Dark Pharaoh Lehparsi." Several Yogscast fans discover that Lehparsi is simply Israphel spelled backwards. It is possible the storm was caused by Israphel to escape from the group, especially his old foe Pirate Tinman.

He later converted Skylord Vitali to his side, ordering him to kill all the other Skylords, and to bring him the Skyhold to serve as his fortress, and air ship.

At first it was unknown why Israphel made a Facebook page, recently however he has led an attack on multiple Minecraft servers using his many Facebook fans as low-level cult members. Also, please keep in mind that any info he posts to his Facebook may be lies/inaccurate. He is evil, after all.

The (possible) Future
In a vision given to Xephos and Honeydew by Verigan, through the medium of his map, a possible future was shown. In it, Israphel was victorious, leading an army of Evil Robots, dragons and other dark creatures. The robots had a striking resemblance to Pirate Tinman. In the vision the world resembled the Nether.

Trivia

 * Israphel's in-game skin appears to be an albino creeper.
 * He was discovered on the Yogiverse Museum server, where a small army of fans chased him down, once cornered he loudly announced "...Shit" He then answered (mainly from the hounding of the Yogscast fans) that when he died "Satan" told him that the world was rightly his and resurrected him. This "Satan" may be truly the Devil, or may be the Evil under the sands. Even though, with this kind of evil backing him up, his threat seems to be much larger then originially anticipated. This may just have been a lie: he's evil, they do that.
 * Israphel occasionally appears in the Yogbox Mod, attacking the player with a rain of arrows, a gold sword, and explodes like a Creeper when killed.
 * Israphel is similar to Voldemort from the Harry Potter series. These similarities are wearing black cloaks, a pale bald head, red eyes and being called the Dark Lord.
 * It is believed a small number of traitors operate within Israphel's dark army. Research is being done to confirm or disprove the theory.
 * Israphel is an exceptionally good bowman, as proven in "Shadow of Israphel" Part 16: A Beacon of Hope
 * When appearing in the 'Yogbox' modpack, it always rains when he spawns.
 * It is currently unknown who plays Israphel, as it has never been announced.

Appearances

 * Season 1
 * Part 17: Yogcastle Construction Interrupted
 * Part 18: Chasing Israphel
 * Part 21: Ceiling Construction Interrupted
 * Part 26: The Tomb
 * Season 3
 * "Shadow of Israphel" Part 15: The Battle of the Breach
 * "Shadow of Israphel" Part 16: A Beacon of Hope
 * "Shadow of Israphel" Part 22: The Betrayer
 * "Shadow of Israphel" Part 38: The Hand