Emperor Belos

* Monster
* Philip
* Unmasked
* Debut

### Fate

* Stomped to death by Eda, King and Raine after being dissolved by boiling rain.

### Voice Actor

* Matthew Rhys
* Alex Lawther (as Philip Wittebane)

### Last Appearance

* "Watching and Dreaming"

“
Don't just stand there! ARGH! You'll be just as bad, just as conniving, just as evil, and just as unforgivable as those witches! We're human. We're better than this!
”

—Belos' last words to Luz

**Emperor Belos** is the main antagonist of *The Owl House*. Originally a human named **Philip Wittebane**, he arrived in the Boiling Isles from Gravesfield, Connecticut during the Deadwardian Era (the mid-1600s in the Human Realm) in hopes of rescuing his brother, Caleb, who was spirited away to the realm, keeping a written record of his experiences on the Boiling Isles as he endeavored to find a way to return to the Human Realm. Due to his inherent intense hatred of witches and magic, with which he gained additional resentment due to the Isles' prejudice against humans causing him to be harassed and alienated, Phillip would eventually conspire to eliminate the Isles and its inhabitants as a whole in an attempt to save humanity from their supposed wickedness.

In order to achieve his plot, he acquired a new identity, a witch named Belos. He claimed to the witches that he had the ability to speak to the isle, that they were misusing magic by mixing it, and that he was the only one who had the right to do so, convincing them and creating a system of covens to restrict the witches' use of magic and knowledge, and those who resisted were declared "wild witches" who would face great punishments. Sometime later he was named emperor of the islands, gaining the respect and devotion of all, unaware of his deception.

As emperor, he ruled the isles from his castle with the protection of his coven and his creation, the Golden Guard Hunter, where he would prepare for the Day of Unity, an event where he hoped to accomplish all his goals against the witches, while under the ruse it would bring a paradise to everyone on the isles. When a human named Luz Noceda happened upon the isles by fate, Belos sought her to claim the portal that brought her to the realm. Although only succeeding in obtaining the fragments of the portal, Belos started reconstructing it in secret and launched his campaign for the Day of Unity at the same time, ensuring the Demon Realm would perish by the time the portal returns him home. Belos' plot ultimately fails upon the release of the Collector, who destroys Belos' physical form, although Belos' remains make it through the portal in the last minute by latching onto Hunter during the escape.

With his return to the Human Realm leaving him in a weakened state, Belos bided his time before he could return to the Demon Realm and resume his plan to end all life there. His path led him to Hunter once more, whom he briefly possessed, and despite Luz and her friends' attempts to thwart him, Belos managed to travel back to the Demon Realm. However, as his monstrous form continued to fall apart, Belos was forced to possess a new host, Raine Whispers, to survive, allowing him to manipulate the Collector to his favor once more by first swaying him to get the trio into experiencing their worst nightmares and later to play games with them. He uses it as a distraction to get into the heart of the Titan, turning into a giant monster and nearly destroying the Boiling Isles. However, he was thwarted once again by a Titan-powered Luz and her friends. Rendered powerless, he tries to feign redemption to Luz, but the boiling rains cause him to dissolve and melt away as Eda, King, and Raine stomp on his remains, ending his reign of terror in the Boiling Isles for good.

## Appearance

### Body

In his younger human appearance, Philip is a lean, light-skinned man with a pointed nose and long, shoulder-length brown hair, kept in a ponytail, with several strands kept loose atop his scalp. He had a small chin and pale-blue eyes.

During his trip to Eclipse Lake, Philip sports several short bristles on his chin, and over time, his hair grows down to his back. Further into his stay in the Boiling Isles, his appearance becomes scruffier and unkempt, with him growning a beard and mustache.

During the events of "Elsewhere and Elsewhen", Philip's nose is broken by Lilith Clawthorne, causing the nasal bridge to permanently become crooked and swollen. His arms are also shown to be carved with several glyph symbols.

In his later years, as Belos, he is an elderly man with a pale complexion, light-blue eyes, wrinkly lips, and long, rough-looking, ash-blond hair reaching past his shoulders. His ears are now pointed like a witch's ears, as a result of Philip physically cutting them into shape, with a notch on his left ear. Most prominently, he has a large basil-green scar running across his face and down his neck, as a result of his prolonged consumption of palismen. In "Young Blood, Old Souls", Belos' eye are shown to sometimes glow bright-blue.

Whenever the consumed palismen essence begins to act up, Belos' body heavily destabilizes into a brown-and-green sludge-like substance that turns him into a deformed, skeletal creature with disproportionately long limbs that constantly drip sludge, accompanied by various blue eyes covering his body, and two horns that resemble those of his mask. The only human features he retains are his hair and his eyes, which glow bright blue.

Following the events of "King's Tide", after Belos was defeated by The Collector, he is reduced to a small goop-like form and is forced to possess and consume creatures' flesh to stay alive and gain more mass overtime. After returning to the Boiling Isles, Belos stayed in his monster form, albeit highly weakened, as his body gradually melted away. After Raine managed to force Belos out of their body, Belos was left as a torso, with his left humerus exposed, and missing his right forearm, and some of his teeth.

While possessing Hunter, Belos' goo takes over most parts of his body, including both arms, half of his neck, part of his face, and part of his right ear, along with forming a pair of horns similar to his monster form. Hunter's eyes also glow blue like Belos', and his arms are capable of turning into giant claws during combat.

While possessing the "puppeteered" Raine Whispers, Belos' goo covers parts of Raine's cheek left ear, while also inhabiting the hollow wooden insides. Raine's eyes also become blue and glowing, and their hair becomes much messier compared to their previous puppet form.

After Raine breaks out from their puppet form, Belos' goo starts leaking out of Raine's eyes and mouth, while their eyes continue glowing blue.

After possessing the Titan's heart, while his infection takes over the Isles, Belos' goo grows around his castle into a gigantic monstrous form. Its chest is covered in holes, with five of them being glowing blue eyes. It possesses two gigantic arms with clawed hands, and a pair of bat-like wings on its back with holes on them. Its head features a protruding snout with with sharp teeth, four glowing blue eyes, a pair of spiked horns, and long gray hair.

### Clothes

Philip dressed in what appeared to be 17th-century English formal attire, consisting of a waistcoat, thigh-length overcoat, and breeches. The coat was dark blue in color, with an upward-facing collar and golden buttons. The town seal of Gravesfield was embroidered in gold on the left breast of the coat. His waistcoat was light gray, worn over white shirt with long cuffed sleeves. His neck was decorated with a frilled jabot or cravat. On his hands, he wore a pair of beige-colored gloves. His pants were a pair of orange breeches, tightly fastened around his calves. Finally, he wore a pair of white socks, severely covered in sweat stains from his time in the Demon Realm, under a pair of black leather shoes with buckles.

As Belos, he wears a golden mask with two long upward-facing horns. His eyes are hollow through the mask, creating the appearance of having empty eye sockets. He wears a large white and brown cape with gold trim over a baggy gray tunic and black pants tucked into both his golden gloves and brown boots.

## Personality

Before becoming the emperor, Philip was initially shown to be an inquisitive and meek individual with a strong intellectual drive. He had a strong desire to return home, although he was harried by unfamiliar environments, such as the Boiling Isles, and struggled to cope in them. Despite this, he was shown to be a natural explorer, being very observant and resourceful in order to adapt to the Boiling Isles. He also learned glyphs by careful analysis of his surroundings, and the notes he made contributed to his developing plans on a portal back to Earth.

However, his soft-spoken personality belay a darker, ruthless character. In truth, Philip was deceptive and selfish in his desires, to the degree he is willing to manipulate the Boiling Isles' inhabitants and let them die in his service, while justifying this as a necessary sacrifice for his return home. This deceptiveness was particularly apparent when Luz accused him of betraying her and Lilith, while Philip casually stated it was because they were easy to trick. Philip even falsified reports about himself as gentle and caring and being unable to save his companions (which was proven to be dubious after his betraying of Luz and Lilith), suggesting at this time in his life, he was or had come to the point where he instinctively exaggerated or lied about his character. Due to his ambitions, Philip was apathetic to the lives of others but his own, which was most notable when he remarked that his only hope toward Luz and Lilith was that they would last long enough to distract the beast for him.

Philip vehemently opposed witches and magic, attributed to his early exposure to the beliefs and practices of witch-hunting as a child. Thus, he made it his purpose to protect humanity from the dangers of witchcraft in the name of justice. By the time he was an adult, his maladjustment to the Boiling Isles' magical atmosphere and residents only fueled his grudge, and grew to despise them further after having his nose broken by Lilith. After becoming Belos, his hatred of witches and ambition for power grew more. His philosophy that witches were evil would soon evolved from prejudice into wanting genocide against them. Conversely, he developed a self-righteousness, almost savior complex, in which he argued that his actions were righteous and for the protection of humanity, and due to this belief, he was extremely ruthless, and would not hesitate to eliminate anyone who opposed him, no matter how cruel his actions were.

As Emperor Belos, he is described as "omnipotent and megalomaniacal", a strict and commanding figure who is often impatient and intolerant of failure from his subordinates. Despite his intolerance of failure, Belos can be quite lenient towards servants that he values highly enough, such as the case with Lilith and her constant failures to capture her sister, but even that lenience has limits. His authority is shown to be a powerful one that garners fear and respect. If Belos had any weaknesses, it would be his arrogance, poor judgment, and inability to understand loyalty and compassion. He assumed Lilith would continue to serve him after his true plans for her sister, Eda, were revealed, and simply shrugged off her betrayal and intended for her to be petrified along with her sister. Despite this, Belos is not without fear, as shown when he was terrified by the Collector after he was released and tried to make up an excuse for betraying him, only to be destroyed by the Collector.

Another trait of Belos was his charisma and cunning, as he managed to easily cheat witches about their misuse of magic and his ability to talk to the island, gaining their trust so much to make him emperor of the isles. To maintain this facade, Belos took care to protect his image of strength and power to discourage others from questioning his authority or rebelling against his laws, as he was incensed when Luz managed to damage his mask and fool him. He retained his treacherous nature as Philip and is not above lying, having made a promise to Lilith he had no intention of keeping. He also lies to the populace, having engineered propaganda that he can speak to the Titan that forms the Boiling Isles, and later claimed the Titan had told him to spare the Owl Lady's life but would remain in her cursed state as an example to those who question Belos' laws and power, all in order to preserve his seemingly infallible image when the fact otherwise is plain to see.

After becoming Belos, his ambitions and apathy were more prominent, as Belos had no emotional care or attachments to anyone, regarding them as expendable once they no longer served a purpose to him. A minor exception to this was shown with his attachment to his "nephew", Hunter, whom he acted more gentle and calm toward. However, the genuineness of this attachment was primarily a one-sided ruse in order to keep Hunter from rising against him as the previous Golden Guards did. Belos was also shown to be dismissive and physically abusive towards Hunter. This was particularly true whenever Hunter brings up wild magic. He was not above emotionally manipulating Hunter's insecurities to instill faith and loyalty in Hunter, going as far as to foster Hunter's false sense of purpose that painted Hunter as being important in the Titan's plans.

On rare occasions, Belos expressed wistfulness for his home and his old life. He was greatly driven by his wish to return to the Human Realm and protect humanity from the self-perceived horrors he saw in witches. This was shown with his plan to retrieve the portal as a means to return to the life he once had. Belos would allude to his life as Philip, as he describes his past in the Human Realm longingly to Hunter. He was similarly willing to bargain with Luz, and somewhat sympathetic to her situation as a human who was trapped in a strange place like he was, expecting her to understand his wish to go back to the Human Realm.

However, he was so obsessed about his beliefs and desire to have everything to be the way he saw fit, that he came to fear things that were out of his control. This meant Belos was prompted to do what he could to maintain whatever did not fall in line with his desires or challenged his beliefs. As such, he was highly hypocritical, as he viewed humans who did not share his vision as corrupt or irredeemable, making his sympathy quite limited. This applied with Luz when he deemed her crazy and therefore unreasonable, and attempted to kill her without hesitation or remorse as soon as Luz argued against his ambitions of genocide, as well as murdering his own brother when the latter made peace with the witches.

Belos' desire to be humanity's savior blinded him to the possibility that he was in the wrong, using his self-proclaimed justice as a defense for his more atrocious actions. His delusion was so severe that Lilith punching him in the face reinforced his hatred for witches, rather than acknowledging it was his own deception that had enraged her. As a consequence of his delusion, he was shown to be bigoted and hypocritical, claiming that witches were "conniving, evil, and unforgivable", qualities he himself exhibited. He also claimed that he was better than witches solely because he was human, even though his actions to prolong his life reduced him to something that was barely human anymore. When an apparition of Caleb confronted Belos for murdering him, Belos denied responsibility and defended everything he did by saying it was for the greater good, deflecting the blame to Caleb for refusing to let Belos "save his soul" from the Demon Realm. Even the Titan proclaimed Belos had no excuse for his viciousness, citing that his want to protect to humanity didn't come from a genuine place, but from his desire to be the "hero in his own delusion".

To the very end, Belos was manipulative and remorseless, trying to fool Luz into thinking everything he had done had been under the influence of a curse. When Luz wasn't fooled, he spitefully tried to sway her by stating that by allowing him to die would make her as bad as the "witches", again blaming the witches instead of taking responsibility for his own misdeeds, and stating that they (him and Luz) are human and better than them.

## Abilities

### **Unique Abilities**

* **Glyph Magic**: Philip could draw and create glyphs after learning it from his natural surroundings. He has also had these glyphs etched on his right arm. However, this had malignant side effects on his body, resulting in his arm pulsating and swelling whenever the glyphs try to activate, thus intensifying the physical injuries he sustains. With help from the Collector, he mastered control of glyph magic, performing complex spells without the use of a palisman.
	+ **Plant Glyph**: By drawing this glyph, Philip can grow plants.
	+ **Ice Glyph**: By drawing this glyph, Philip can generate ice.
	+ **Fire Glyph**: By drawing this glyph, Philip can conjure fire.
	+ **Light Glyph**: By drawing this glyph, Philip can create small orbs of light.
	+ **Portal creation**: By etching a tetrameric set of glyph combinations on the ground, Philip could conjure a large portal to transport himself and anything standing on it to where he wished.

* **Artificial magic**: After assuming the identity of Belos, he became a practitioner of artificial magic, along with the Golden Guard. Belos does not perform basic spells like the spell circle and achieves magic through an apparatus, such as use of his mechanical staff or other devices. In spite of this, Belos is an adept in the practice, achieving a vast amount of skill, power, and knowledge with artificial magic that he is described as the most skilled and powerful Witch to ever live. Interestingly, this magic seems unaffected by Luz's cape made of Witch's Wool supposedly capable of deflecting all magic, implying artificial magic is a different brand altogether.
	+ **Telekinesis**: He frequently uses telekinesis to move objects and people without touching them, signified by his gloves glowing red.
	+ **Flesh Magic**: Similar to Jean-Luc's ability to polymorph, Belos is able to create and command fleshy tendrils to bend and form claws.
	+ **Teleportation**: He is shown to be capable of disappearing by melting into the floor to avoid attacks.
	+ **Earth Magic**: He is able to raise sharp spikes of rock up from the ground.
		- **Petrification**: He can take this is a step further as he is also able to turn anyone into stone simply by touching them.
	+ **Beast Summoning**: Belos was shown to be able to summon and control a large monster during his fight with Luz.
	+ **Mind magic**: When Lilith presented her sister Eda in her cursed Owl Beast form, Belos hit Eda with some kind of spell from his staff which made Eda regain consciousness (but didn't make her transform back into her regular humanoid form).
	+ **Glamour**: Belos can cosmetically alter his appearance, which he did to hide the scar on his face.
* **Residence omniscience**: Belos is aware of all that happens inside his castle, as he knew Luz, Willow, and Gus were trying to steal the Healing Hat.
* **Telepathy**: Luz, Willow, and Gus heard his reprimanding voice when they were in the castle's artifact display.
* **Sludge form**: Belos' palisman-based condition causes him to transform into sludge or a sludge-like monstrosity. The conditions were shown to affect his health when he first appeared in "Agony of a Witch," as he was hunched over and heavily breathing. He then cut open an offered palisman and poured magic essence from within the palisman onto his mask, which was absorbed through the eye sockets and briefly made his eyes glow green, after which his condition was alleviated, and he started to feel better. More acute effects were witnessed in "Hunting Palismen" with him deforming into a monstrous creature, while palisman essence helped him maintain his regular form.
	+ **Sludge manipulation:** While Belos' ailment twists and impairs his physical structure, his fluid body grants him some degree of control of it, altering and adjust his body to better fit his needs. This includes elongating his distended arms to reach targets, or reform them into weapons like sharp blades and spikes.
		- **Shapeshifting**: Belos demonstrated a limited ability to adjust his appearance so that he looks more human like, or change parts of himself to sludge and back. He even used it to transform into his younger self at one point. However, his forms can very depending on how much of his sludge is available. For instance, when melting away by the effects of his state, he lost more of himself, leaving him unable to maintain his regular form. Also, as implied by the Collector, the more Belos consumes palismen essence, the harder it becomes to return to his human form.
	+ **Possession**: By transferring his sludge-like essence into another living being, Belos can influence them and induce hallucinations that causes his victim to see and hear him as if he is present. If enough time has passed, Belos can gain control of the host, as well as cause Belos' twisted features to appear on them. Belos' essence has used animals as temporary hosts; the various carcasses and bones left in the sludge's wake, as well as the scars that were left on Hunter after Belos possessed him, reveal that the organism is consumed by the essence during the possession. This ability also works with partially organic beings or those who are alive to some extend, being able to possess an incomplete grimwalker (albeit briefly) and Raine Whispers despite the latter being a puppet at the time. He is even able to possess the Titan's heart and began to "cleanse" the Boiling Isles.
	+ **Regeneration**: Belos' viscous body can mend and reform itself from any physical injury he sustains, though he still feels pain from the physical distortions his body undergoes. The full extent of his regeneration is unknown, but after he was violently thrown to a wall by the Collector, a vestige of Belos remained active enough to follow Luz and her friends into the Human Realm. It would go on to possess Hunter and several animals, gaining more energy until Belos regained his physical form once more.
* **Mold Breath**: When in his new gained draconic form, Belos has the newly acquired ability to breath a volatile flame like gas which can infect and spread his mold anything it touches. This allows him to spread himself quickly over the Isles, to help in his aid to terraform it into a lifeless wasteland. It even can also annihilate any living that is bathed in the flames, causing them to be overwhelmed by the sludgy growths, and evaporate into light.

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## Trivia

* When first taking on the role, Matthew Rhys, Belos' voice actor, said that he considered Belos to be misunderstood rather than evil.
	+ It is possible that Belos' full backstory was not yet revealed to Rhys when he first took on the role, therefore it is unknown if he still retains this view as of current.
* His identity as Philip Wittebane was not confirmed until the episode "Hollow Mind". However, before that there were details suggesting that Belos and Philip were the same person, or related:
	+ They had similar accents.
	+ Philip consumes palisman essence in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" in order to alleviate his pain, as does Belos.
	+ Emperor Belos is listed within the credits of "Elsewhere and Elsewhen", despite not appearing anywhere within the episode. However, when Philip uses the magic to summon the Collector, Belos' voice can be heard over Philip's.
	+ They also share likeness in appearance, both having blue eyes and a strikingly similar crooked nose after Lilith had broken Philip's.
	+ One of Philip's unfinished glyph combos summons the hand of a mud-like monster, which is similar in appearance to Belos' flesh magic shown in "Young Blood, Old Souls".
	+ Philip, and by extension Caleb, originally being from Gravesfield was hinted in "Yesterday's Lie", as the statues near Robin's Roast Café strongly resembled the brothers before it was officially confirmed they were indeed the brothers. Jacob Hopkins also explained to Camila that there were two brothers who were lured from Gravesfield by a witch. It's likely these two brothers were the same as Caleb and Philip. Furthermore, Philip had a small drawing inside his diary of him and his brother that bore a likeness to these statues.
* The Emperor's name has occasionally been misspelled as "Bellows" in closed captioning. Terrace confirmed the true spelling of his name on Twitter.
* In the pages of the unauthorized Boiling Isles history book, it provides a passage on Belos: "Before he ascended to the throne, Emperor Belos gained prominence as a crusader for unity during the Savage Ages. He believes that chaos comes from "wild *text obscured*" and seeks to bring peace by controlling such magic in his coven system. He rules by fear and an iron fist, and his past remains largely unknown. Nevertheless, the Savage Ages caused such devastation that many people have proved willing to follow him."
* Luz initially suspects that Philip arrived at the Isles in the 1600s, which is eventually proven to be the case. This time period was known on the Isles as the "Deadwardian Era".
* During the retelling of the Wittebanes' history in "Thanks to Them", Caleb Wittebane is depicted wearing a dark blue overcoat that closely resembles the one worn by Philip in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" and "King's Tide". This suggests that the coat worn by Philip in these episodes may have originally belonged to his older brother.
* Although the Collector confirms he was the one who taught Belos magic, it is not disclosed how. However, the carved glyphs he made on his arm are notably absent on Belos, though similar glyphs did manifest on his other arm when he was petrifying Luz in "King's TIde".
* When asked about Belos's connection to Flapjack, Dana felt that Belos saw Flapjack as the culmination of the corruption in Caleb and led to his "betrayal", as Flapjack was the first introduction to magic to Caleb.
* Belos' monstrous form bares some similarities to the Wendigo, a Mythological creature from Native American folklore, sometimes depicted as a hideous horned creature with human-like characteristics.
* Belos is the fourth and final character in the series to die onscreen, the first three being Adegast, Flapjack, and the Titan.

## References

1. ↑ #BREAKING: @MatthewRhys on #TheOwlHouse guest appearance (August 20, 2020).
2. ↑ Terrace, Dana (July 8. 2020). Oh yeah haha, and just to clear it up. It's spelled "Emperor Belos". Not "bellows". (Tweet). Archived from the original on July 8, 2020.
3. ↑ Cissy Jones (April 28, 2023). The "watching and dreaming" PostHoot with the one and only Dana Terrace! (27:24).