Nominations are Open for the 11th Annual Silmaril Awards: Nefarious Villains

Hear ye, hear ye! The Silmaril Awards… the longest running fantasy book character awards show… is back for its eleventh year in a row, and I am sure that this year will be the best yet!

11 years!

How is it possible that we have been doing this for eleven years?!

But wait! Some of you are new, and you are wondering, “What are the Silmaril Awards?”

The Silmaril Awards were dreamed up by our very own D.J. Edwardson, who many and sundry years ago (11, to be exact) brought forth upon the interwebs, a new notion: that readers of fantasy books should have an outlet for naming their favorite characters in a grand forum.

And so, we have the SILMARIL AWARDS. Each year, 10 bloggers get together and we each host a different category of characters for the month. We agree to house and feed these characters (thankfully, they are imaginary) for the month of September until the final award ceremony, at which point, they generally disperse back to their various book realms.

Today, we open nominations across the interwebs, and begin a week-long race to see which characters will be on this year’s ballot.

And this is where YOU come in, dear Reader!

Because it is up to you to visit each of the 10 locations on the internet to find each of the ten categories (don’t worry, I’ll give you a map in a minute) where you will nominate your favorite characters in each category. If a character you love has already been nominated, you can second that nomination. At the end of the week, when the clock strikes midnight (or possibly slightly before or after depending on how much of a night owl each fairy godmother or godfather is) the TOP FIVE most nominated characters in each category will move on as finalists to the voting round!

This year, I am pleased (and mildly nervous) to be hosting the MOST NEFARIOUS VILLAINS!

And while I’m a bit worried that I will get tied up, thrown into a volcano, or possibly worse… there is just something about villains. Without them, our heroes and heroines wouldn’t have anything to overcome, now would they?

But wait… I can see your fingers itching to type, however… there are a few guidelines and regulations you must follow first. Please read the following rules to make sure that ALL your nominations and seconds count!

The Rules

Only literary fantasy characters are allowed to participate for the Silmaril Awards. Characters from sci-fi, contemporary, romance, dystopian, etc are not eligible. We love these characters too, but this is a fantasy awards event. Also, if a character is from a TV show or a Movie, they are ineligible unless the tv show or movie is based on a book that came first!
On that note: NO characters from Lord Of The Rings can be nominated! LoTR characters are to us the Gold Standard of fantasy characters, and they also co-host and present the awards, so make sure your nominations aren’t from Tolkien’s universe!
As of several years ago, all Narnia characters were granted lifetime Silmarils and are thus also ineligible to be nominated. They have often swept the awards and they were getting a little embarrassed by all the attention, so we had a special ceremony and granted them Silver Status. Some of them may still show up at the ceremonies to help present awards, but that is up to the characters and their hosts to decide.
You can nominate as many characters as you wish for each category! The sky’s the limit! Nominate to your heart’s content! You can also second as many characters you wish for each category! (or third, fourth, etc…. though you don’t have to keep track, if you see a character that has been nominated, you can just say you “second” them, even if you’re actually fifteenthing them… it’s up to us hosts to count up all the nominations and seconds)
If you’re a Fantasy Author, we would love to have your character in the Silmaril Awards! Our only request is that authors don’t nominate their own characters. However, please feel free to let all your fans know about the awards, and which characters you feel might do well in which categories, and direct them to nominate and second! (If you bribe them with cookies, we won’t tell)
Please mention which book/series your nominee is from within your nomination! We hosts/bloggers read a lot, and we even read a lot of fantasy, but we haven’t all read ALL the fantasy (sadly) so we may not always know who you’re talking about. We would like to know who to give the vote to, but you’d be surprised how many fantasy characters actually have similar or even the same name (and some characters even have more than one name… it’s fantasy, it’s confusing, we love it… but we also need a little help sometimes!)
Please make sure to keep your nominations for the correct categories on each blog. For example, I am hosting the Villains. I do not want Dragons invading my house and banding together with the Villains to help burn the place down or take over the world. I will not accept dragons who show up at my door unless they are ALSO Villains and being nominated for the Villain category. If you want to nominate dragons for the Most Magnificent Dragon category, please go do so on the blog hosting the dragon category!
Silmaril Awards are lifetime achievement awards. This means that previous winners cannot win again.

In that vein, here is a list of all the characters who have already won the Most Nefarious Villain category across the past 10 years!

2025 Gnag the Nameless from Wingfeather Saga
2024 Bonifer Squoon from Wingfeather Saga
2023 Prince Humperdinck from The Princess Bride
2022 Lady of the Green Kirtle from The Chronicles of Narnia
2021 Dolores Umbridge from The Harry Potter Series
2020 Voldemort from The Harry Potter Series
2019 Death in Life from Tales of the Goldstone Wood
2018 Queen Levana from The Lunar Chronicles
2017 Shift from The Chronicles of Narnia
2016 The White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia

I believe that is all the fine-print. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Now. Go forth and nominate!

Nominations are open starting TODAY until September 12th. Tallying up the nominations is a big job, and late nominations will not be counted (probably), so make sure you vote early! And get your friends involved! Please help us spread the word about this fantastical and fun event!