Lord Voldemort

"*You see? It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father’s name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother’s side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry. I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!*"
— Tom Riddle's transformation into Lord Voldemort

Lord Voldemort is a sobriquet for Tom Marvolo Riddle, a fictional character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels. Voldemort first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was published in 1997. Voldemort appears either in person or in flashbacks in each book and its film adaptation in the series except the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which he is only mentioned.

Tom Marvolo Riddle who was later known as Lord Voldemort was born in 31 December 1926 – 2 May 1998. He was an English half-blood wizard considered to have been the most powerful and dangerous Dark Wizard of all time. He was amongst the greatest wizards to have ever lived, often considered to be the second most powerful wizard in history, his only superior being Albus Dumbledore. The only child and son of Tom and Merope Riddle, Riddle was raised in the Muggle-run Wool's Orphanage after his father abandoned his new family on the streets of London when the potion's influence was lifted, and his mother died moments after giving birth to and naming him after his father and maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt.

Voldemort is the archenemy of Harry Potter, who according to a prophecy has "the power to vanquish the Dark Lord". He attempts to murder the boy, but instead kills his parents, Lily and James Potter, and leaves Harry with a scar on his head in the shape of a lightning bolt. Nearly every witch or wizard dares not utter his name and refers to him instead with such monikers as "You-Know-Who", "He Who Must Not Be Named", or "the Dark Lord". Voldemort's obsession with blood purity signifies his aim to rid the wizarding world of Muggle (non-magical) heritage and to conquer both worlds, Muggle and wizarding, to achieve pure-blood dominance. Through his mother's family, he is the last descendant of the wizard Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is the leader of the Death Eaters, a group of evil wizards and witches dedicated to ridding the Wizarding World of Muggles and establishing Voldemort as its supreme ruler.

Riddle began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1938 and was sorted into Slytherin house. Some of his early activities included the opening of Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets and the use of its monster to attack Muggle-born students, several months' service as a purchasing agent for the Dark artefacts shop Borgin and Burkes, use of the ability to speak Parseltongue, and the attainment of immortality between the years of 1943 and 1998, a process begun upon the creation of his first Horcrux at the age of sixteen.

Splitting his own spirit into a total of eight fragments, Riddle created seven Horcruxes, one unintentionally and without his knowledge — Harry Potter. Abandoning his 'Muggle' name, he became the self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort, which was an anagram of his birth name. He commanded a veritable army of wizards and Dark creatures, committed countless murders and atrocities personally and through his followers, and on one occasion nearly succeeded and on a later occasion did succeed in taking over the Ministry of Magic, installing a puppet Minister, Pius Thicknesse, who was controlled with the Imperius Curse.

Voldemort was ripped from his body in 1981 after attempting to kill Harry Potter. Although unable to die, he was not able to regain a permanent and physical body until 1995, thus spending the intervening fourteen years as "*a shell, less than the meanest ghost*", but alive. He was finally killed by his own backfiring curse after Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter, following Dumbledore's death, succeeded in destroying all of his Horcruxes.

Unknown to most, however, Voldemort's legacy and bloodline would live on through his daughter Delphini, whom he conceived with his loyal follower Bellatrix Lestrange; sometime after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in 1996 and before Voldemort's death at the hands of Harry in 1998.

Riddle's broken and mutilated soul was then trapped in Limbo for eternity, unable to move on to the afterlife or even return as a disembodied spirit.