Beldam

**Beldam** appeared in 2004 video game called *Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door*. Beldam is the main antagonist of *Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door* and the leader of the three Shadow Sirens, which consists of herself and her sisters, Marilyn and Vivian (who is later replaced with Doopliss). She is more than 1,000 years old and is the oldest of the three sisters. She and the Shadow Sirens work with the X-Nauts to find the Crystal Stars and open The Thousand-Year Door. Beldam and her sisters are reoccurring enemies that appear many times throughout Mario's adventure in *Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door*, making numerous attempts to halt his progress. She and her Sirens always appear during even numbered chapters and are fought a total of two times. In the end, Beldam is revealed to have been the one who arranged for the events of the story, using even the X-Nauts as pawns in her scheme.

Goombella states in her Tattle information that Beldam has several negative personality traits. Beldam is extremely rude, bossy, and often plays favoritism, treating all group members except for Marilyn as scurrilously as possible. She tends to be very absentminded and will often blame her own mistakes on Vivian. Beldam will constantly disrespect her, talking about how "ugly" and "useless" she is. Presumably because of this disrespect, she also seems to keep Vivian in the dark about her true plans about using Sir Grodus.

Beldam will do whatever it takes to accomplish her goals, regardless of how many innocent lives are taken in the process. Beldam has also shown a blatant disregard for other lives by planning to release the Shadow Queen in the first place, knowing that the planet will get plunged into anarchy, knowing that it will result in the deaths of hundreds of millions. Beldam also seems to care very little about what will happen to Sir Grodus after the Shadow Queen has been released, since she only sees him and his organization as nothing more than pawns to be manipulated.

As leader of the Shadow Sirens, Beldam is the "brains" of the group and she is the one who usually comes up with their plans. Despite Beldam's constant forgetfulness and displays of incompetence, she has still proven herself to be a highly intelligent individual. Beldam is able to take advantage of Sir Grodus's desire for power and control by tricking him into releasing the Shadow Queen. This, of course, results in Sir Grodus trying to command the Shadow Queen, getting blasted to pieces, and nearly getting himself killed in the process.

## Powers and Abilities

Although Beldam is physically weaker than the other members of her team, she makes up for it by using powerful magic abilities. Beldam possesses cryokinetic abilities, which she uses to freeze Mario and his partners, causing them to be immobilized for at least two turns. Beldam has various other abilities as well, such as increasing the size and attack power of her teammates, as well as giving them more attack turns. Beldam also has the ability to do the exact opposite to Mario and his teammates. Her other magical abilities are slowing Mario and his partners down, giving her teammates "fast" status, and the ability to poison her opponents. As with her sisters, Beldam also has the ability to use the Veil technique, where she can sink through the shadows and eavesdrop on other peoples' conversations (as she demonstrates in Chapter 6, where she hears from Mario and his partners that the next Crystal Star was at Poshley Heights). However, she has never been seen utilizing that ability in combat and only uses it during the various cutscenes that take place throughout the game.