I'm surprised that no one proposed the wicked witch of Dunwall, oh well. Today, I want to propose Delilah Copperspoon, one of the main antagonist of the Dishonored series. She was the main villain of the "Knife of Dunwall" and "Brigmore Witches" DLCs of the first game and the main antagonist of the second game. It's been a long time since I made a proposal in this site due to changes relating to the making of proposals through blogs instead on the discussion tab, not that I have a problem with that.
What is the Game?[]
Dishonored is a stealth video game series made by Arcane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The first game focuses on Queen Jessamine's bodyguard, Corvo Attano, who is targeting on the perpetrators of Jessamine's assassination while trying to prove his innocence that he did not kill her. He works with group of conspirators that assist him in his quest. The second game takes place years after the main events of the first game with Emily Kaldwin, Jessamine's daughter, or Corvo, trying to retrieve the throne of Dunwall from the threat of Delilah and her conspiracy.
Who is Delilah?[]
Past[]
Delilah and her father Euhorn Kaldwin.
Delilah Copperspoon is the half-sister of Jessamine Kaldwin and the bastard child of Emperor Euhorn Kaldwin. In their youth, they play games with each other but due to Delilah being the daughter of a servant, she had to live in the servant quarters while Jessamine resides in Dunwall Tower. No matter how much she begs, Euhorn refuses to let her live in Dunwall Tower but promised her she be allowed to court "next year" every time she asks. Obviously, he never granted this promise because it bring great shame to the Kaldwin family if Delilah's existence as a bastard is discovered. In the end, Delilah never quite understand why she was treated this way. When playing with Jessamine, a vase was broken which caught the attention of the royal spymaster. He asked who broke the vase with Delilah saying it was Jessamine but she refused to confessed and blamed the accident on Delilah. The royal spymaster dragged Delilah to the garden house and whipped her until she bleed, this later resulted in her mother being fired from her duties. They were casted out from Dunwall Tower and later end up the debtor's prison. Her mother died due to the harsh treatment she faced Delilah tried to find someone to help her poor mother but they all refused. Afterwords, Delilah swore revenge on those who wronged her specifically her dear sister, Jessamine Kaldwin as she blames her for her shortcomings and suffering.
Later on, Delilah started working in a brothel, where she starts her talent in painting. Her skills was so good it earned the attention of Anton Sokolov, who then takes her in as his student. Around this time in her youth, she meets Luca Abele, the arrogant son of the Duke of Serkonos at the time, Theodanis. She made a close bond with him and he became her most trusted friend. In a unspecified moment in her life, she meets the Outsider who granted her his mark, giving her magical abilities from the void. Later, she meets Breanna Ashworth of the wealthy Ashworth family and like Luca Abele, she became Delilah's most trusted friend. Delilah shared her magic with Breanna, turning her into a witch just like herself. During this time, Delilah roamed the lands with Breanna and granting her powers to other women, which led her to create her witch coven and reside in the abandoned Brigmore Mansion.
The Knife of Dunwall[]
Daud in his attempts of stopping Delilah and her malicious plans of taking over Dunwall.
During Daud's quest in finding who Delilah is, he discovered that the ship Bundry Rothwild owned once belonged to Arnold Timsh, who named the ship after Delilah. Daud heads to the district where Timsh is at and interacts with a statue of Delilah made by the aristocrat. She warns Daud to stay out of her way because if he looks into her more she will bring harm to him but tells that he can have Timsh as she no longer have use for him. Daud returns back to base with the information he has on Delilah but discovered that the hideout is being attack by Overseers and being led by Overseer Hume. After freeing his comrades and defeating the invading Overseers, Delilah shows up and reveals that she is the one who revealed the location of the base to the Overseers as she was concern of Daud knowing more about her. She also reveals that Billie Lurk, Daud's second in command, betrayed the Whalers by revealing their hideout to her. Despite being amused by the situation, Delilah warns Daud that she will kill him if he continues any further in his investigation.
Brigmore Witches[]
After finding out that Delilah and her coven reside in Brigmore Manor, Daud hires Lizzie Stride so she can take him to Brigmore Manor on her boat. Once there, Daud discovers Delilah's plan of creating a ritual to takeover Emily Kaldwin's mind so she can finally rule Dunwall but under the guise of her niece. Daud travels to her realm in the Void where she is nearly done with the ritual and, depending on the player's choice, he can fight her or mess with the painting she using without her knowledge. Canonically-speaking, Daud switched the painting of Emily Kaldwin with a different one, however if the player fought her, Daud finishes the ritual himself or just switched the paintings and watched her do the ritual herself. Either way, Delilah is banished to the void and is never heard of again.
Dishonored 2[]
Despite her defeat, Delilah is still alive but her spirit wanders deep in the Void for 12 years. She arrives at a location that is said to be the birth of the Outsider, this side of the Void changes Delilah's spirit and made her powers much stronger than those marked by the Outsider. Delilah would then contact her old friends, Luca Abele, who is now Duke of Serkonos, and Breanna Ashworth. Breanna would create a group of conspirators to help bring Delilah back to the real world. The conspiracy consisted of Breanna, Luca, Kirin Jindosh, and Grim Alex. They create a ritual in Aramis Stilton mansion and were successful of pulling Delilah from the Void to the real world. From there, Delilah separates her soul from her body and placed it inside a sculpture with her likeness. Her action of separating her body from her soul resulted in her becoming unkillable. Afterwards, Delilah hatches a plan with her conspirators of overthrowing the now Empress of Dunwall, Emily Kaldwin.
Three years has past and the kingdom of Dunwall is having anniversary on Jessamine Kaldwin with many aristocrats attending the ceremony. Emily and her father, Corvo, are visited by Duke Luca Abele and his clockwork soldiers. He reveals Delilah to Emily saying she is his gift to the Empress but Emily and Corvo are surprised because Jessamine never mentioned she had a sister. Delilah claims to be Jessamine's older sister, making it seem that she is supposed to be the ruler of Dunwall and not Jessamine nor Emily. Though Emily tells her she can stay in the castle, Delilah denies her offer and says she has come for the throne. Corvo tries to attack her by using his sword to stab her but they realized that Delilah is invulnerable. She then drains the Outsider's magic from Corvo. Duke Luca's guards and Emily's corrupt guards killed everyone inside the room, Emily's guards were being lead by Captain Mortimer Ramsey, who is part of the coup. Only Corvo and Emily are left standing, depending who the player chooses, one of them will be turned into stone by Delilah while the other is dragged away to a different room to be locked in with the purpose of being sent to Coldridge Prison. Corvo/Emily would successfully escape to Serkonos to uncover Delilah's conspiracy.
During the events of the game, High Overseer, Yul Khulan, gathered many overseers from the Abby as he can to stand up against Delilah and take back Dunwall castle. As hard as they can to fight Delilah's witches, Delilah was able to defeat them by turning half of them into stone while the rest were killed by her clockwork soldiers. While Delilah is trying to continue on her plans, many of conspirators have been eliminated and her soul being retrieved. Corvo/Emily return to Dunwall to confront Delilah by returning her soul, which made her mortal again. Delilah then used this opportunity to open a giant portal through a painting she was making and enter it. It turns out that the painting reflects her desire of remaking the world in her image and is making a ritual just to do that. At this moment the player is given two options on how to defeat her, either they simply kill her or they alter her ritual as to trap her in a false reality within the painting as a way to grant her what she wanted.
Heinous Standard[]
Since Delilah is the main antagonist of the series, she, of course, would have a big list of crimes from the DLCs of the first game and then the second. I feel the only person that is close to her sense of evil is Hiram Burrows, the royal spymaster and main antagonist of the first game. He was responsible for the rat plague to happen by bringing plague-infested rats from the Pandyssian Continent so they can kill the city's beggars and poor citizens mainly because he hated them. Out of fear that the Empress would find out, Hiram hires Daud to assassinate her and kidnaped Emily so he can frame Corvo for the crime while working in a conspiracy to make himself regent of Dunwall. His rule over Dunwall is shown to be highly oppressive and the people he works with are really corrupt individuals.
For Delilah, she created a witch coven right after getting the mark of the Outsider and shared her powers with her followers. In her quest of revenge against the royal family, Delilah plotted to takeover Emily Kaldwin's mind to deceive everyone that she is Emily while taking her place as ruler of Dunwall. She manipulated Arnold Timsh, a person she once knew, for her own needs by using her painting of him to possess Timsh, she did this as to experiment the power of her paintings so she can use it for future rituals. This explains Timsh's niece, Thalia, suggesting that her uncle was actually afraid of Delilah despite admiring her and that he was haunted by her. She even explains that her uncle thought he saw her in the same room with him before suddenly disappearing. If Daud speaks to her statue she would not only warn him but give out threat on his investigation on her while telling him that he can do whatever she wants with Timsh as she no longer has use for him. After Billie Lurk revealed the location of the Whalers hideout to her, Delilah used that information for the Abbey of the Everyman which led the hideout to be infiltrated by Overseers. She revealed to Daud that Billie Lurk betrayed him and expresses amusement at the situation but warns Daud once again that she will kill him if he continues his investigation.
After being brought back from the void, Delilah severed herself from her soul and placed it in a statue to make herself invulnerable while starting coup against Empress Emily Kaldwin and her Corvo Attano. She drains the magic from the mark of the outsider on Corvo basically depowering him and had all those loyal to her in the ceremony killed. Depending on who the player choose to play as, Delilah will turn either Corvo or Emily into stone. Delilah would completely obliterate an entire group of Overseers from the Abby by turning half into stone while the others were killed by her clockwork soldiers, she did this because they attempted to take back Dunwall and defeat her. At the end of the game, Delilah reveals that she plans to reshape reality into her own image by making a ritual with a painting that reflects the reality she wants, which is where she is loved by all the people of Dunwall as Empress.
Preventions[]
The main reason she cannot be PE is her two redeeming qualities. Her love for Breanna Ashworth and her tragic backstory. She was the illegitimate offspring of Euhorn Kaldwin, she begged him several times if she can be in Dunwall Tower and be in court like her sister, Jessamine, but Euhorn never fulfilled his promises to her. One day when Delilah and Jessamine are playing around, Jessamine broke a vase which caught the attention of the royal spymaster. Delilah tells him that Jessamine broke the vase but she denied this and blamed Delilah for it. Afterwards, the spymaster dragged Delilah to the garden house where she is whipped until she was bleeding, this would result in her mother being fired from her duties as servant to the royal family. Delilah and her mother struggled to survive and landed in a debtors prison. From there, Delilah tried to get people to help her poor mother but many of them refused, leading her mother succumbing to her wounds. Her struggles would become the catalyst in her quest of revenge towards the Kaldwin family and her half-sister, Jessamine.
Dishonored 2 heavily implies a romantic relationship between Delilah and her faithful follower, Breanna Ashworth, who is a confirmed lesbian. If the player killed Breanna in any way Delilah will express anger and tells the player that they will never understand what Breanna meant to her. This confirms that Delilah deeply loved Breanna as a person and not as a servant.
Verdict[]
I say yes for Delilah as she was a powerful witch, who created a powerful covenant and sought revenge on her sister. She attempted to take over her niece's mind so she can rule Dunwall under the pretense that she is Emily Kaldwin. She returns from the Void and created a coup against Emily and successfully took over Dunwall with the help of her conspiracy, but she later plans on making a ritual where she would change reality itself in her image. Despite that she genuinely cared for Breanna and having a tragic story of being an illegitimate daughter of King Euhorn Kaldwin.