D'Sparil

A D'Sparil in Doomsday

D'Sparil is the final boss of Heretic, and is boss of Episode 3: The Dome of D'Sparil. He is also the first and the youngest of the trio of Serpent Riders, relying a lot on cunning and deception to initially gain dominance of Parthoris, the world of Heretic. The Raven sequel, Heretic II, begins with D'sparil's death and shows D'Sparil cursing Corvus.

The player, as Corvus, fights D'Sparil in a wide arena with a large trident-shaped ledge in the upper-middle, and various teleporter destinations scattered around the map. D'Sparil initially is seated upon a Chaos Serpent, which are prevalent in Hexen. The Serpent is the most powerful of any Chaos Serpents in the series itself, able to belch fireballs, at first in single units, and then after falling below half its Health, shoot a line of three scattered fireballs at the player. The Serpent can also make a bursting charge of speed towards the player when stunned by attacks.

D'Sparil on Chaos Serpent

Player confronting D'Sparil without his Chaos Serpent.

When the Serpent dies, D'Sparil will electrify and rise up, and start attacking the player. His abilities are a mix of offensive and defensive tactics, one being to fire a blue, trailing bolt of electricity for extreme damage to unarmored players. He can also shoot a pair of purple rings which turn into Disciples of D'Sparil, and teleport himself to 5 or 6 specified locations in the area. These locations are actually preset landing points in the map. As he is damaged more, he will teleport more often. When D'Sparil finally dies, he explodes into a pile of bones in a burst of electrical energy, all the other enemies on the level will instantly die, and the portal to the end of the third episode will be revealed.

D'Sparil's entire fight is 5500 Hit Points; 2000 Hit points for the Chaos Serpent, and D'Sparil himself having another 3500 Hit Points.

The demonic incantations of D'Sparil are actual phrases recorded backwards:

• SORSIT - This sound is hard to understand, but some possible interpretations are "Now ravens shall chew your flesh" and "I will torture your flesh"
• SORACT - "Surrender to D'Sparil"

Uses outside of Heretic

• D'Sparil appears in two forms in the EarthBound Doom modification. He appears both as a 'weaker clone' with identical stats to his Heretic self, and later as a much more powerful form(although both look virtually identical). His Chaos Serpent also has this luxury. The enhanced D'Sparil has powers including bolts that can split into many more bolts after traveling a set distance, and the strongest form of D'Sparil can spawn enemies outside of the Disciples to assist him. The D'Sparils also use a different method of 'teleportation', which no longer use teleporting spots. As a final note, the 'true' form of D'Sparil in EBDoom speaks with his sounds in the unreversed form, to identify him as the real D'Sparil.
• D'Sparil also appears in the Carnage Galore 3 expanasion for Hexen. Initially he is dead, but after performing a ritual involving the Heart of D'Sparil gem and a container of liquid designed to pollute the blood and corrupt the ritual, he is revived without the Chaos Serpent steed. His attacks have also been changed slightly. In addition to the usual electric bolt and summoning spell, he also launches a slow moving and homing red blob, which can slow down the player's movements for a short time if it hits. Once he loses around half of his health, the blue bolt is replaced by a burst of 5 red energy balls, which explode in an ever-expanding sphere of electricity on impact. When he dies, the Heart of D'Sparil shatters and his staff drops to the ground, allowing the player to pick it up and use it.