Warning! It's complicated! Lord Vile is an immensely powerful Necromancer and was one of the Three Generals for Mevolent. Lord Vile was also said to be the Death Bringer, the Messiah for the Necromancers, but was stripped of that title after he betrayed the Necromancers to serve under Mevolent. It is revealed in Death Bringer that he is actually Skulduggery consumed by anger and grief by Auron Tenebrae. After being brought back to life, thanks to the trick played on Nefarian Serpine by High Priest Auron Tenebrae, Skulduggery Pleasant, consumed by rage, dons black armour, and starts training to become a Necromancer and creates the alias Lord Vile. After mere months of training Vile becomes immensely powerful, thus leads the Necromancers to believe that Lord Vile is the Death Bringer. But before Vile can even learn about The Passage, he joins Mevolent's forces as one of The Three Generals, in order to express his rage. While doing this, he also kills Ghastly Bespoke's Mother. After killing millions, Lord Vile turns back into Skulduggery. Skulduggery then hides the armour and vows to redeem himself for his wrongdoings. He also abandoned his family crest until he felt he had earned the right to use it again. After this, for a long time Lord Vile was trapped in Skulduggery's subconscious. Tenebrae states that it was because of Skulduggery being trapped in a dimension with the Faceless Ones that unhinged him. Which consequently, allowed Lord Vile's armour to surface from inside Skulduggery himself. In The Faceless Ones Ghastly says that he faced Vile in the war, after his mother's death, but Vile didn't kill him, the conversation is interrupted but it can be presumed that this was when Skulduggery came to his senses and Vile "disappeared." I love copy paste