User:The Ephialtist

The Ephialtist is one of a number of Internet pseudonyms of a 26-year-old female [system administrator] living in Cardiff, United Kingdom.

The name The Ephialtist is formed from the word Ephialtes, which refers to both a 5th century BC Athenian democratic reformer, and the Greek word for nightmare. She chose this name primarily because of her enduring interest in villains. In her opinion the greatest villains are those that are quite calm, generally polite, possibly even friendly, yet utterly terrifying. Her favourites, in the order they sprang to mind, include:

• Mr. Teatime (Hogfather)
• Mr. Gone (The Maxx)
• Agent Smith (The Matrix series)
• Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar (Neverwhere)
• Edward (Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series)
• Colqhoun (Ravenous)
• Julian Sark (Alias (TV series))
• Steerpike (Gormenghast (novel))
• Morden (Babylon 5)

Whilst she claims schadenfreude amongst her hobbies, she actually spends much of her spare time playing World of Warcraft or patronising the following websites:

• b3ta
• BBC News Online
• Fark.com
• Wikipedia
• Weebl and Bob
• Salad Fingers
• BOFH
• Snopes.com Urban Legends Reference Pages
• The Straight Dope
• Spamusement

When wrenched away from the Internet she can be found listening to The Tragically Hip, Moxy Früvous, Electric Six and XTC, and amassing mostly unread language tutorial books.

For the last ten years or so she has been working on writing a novel featuring such a villain, one that would have Hannibal Lecter muttering enviously into his Chianti. Due to a short attention span and a conspicuous lack of talent she has not yet completed the first chapter.

Her ambition is to have a wireless cranial Google cyberware implant installed and make her fortune by winning pub quizzes and quiz machines.

She is the last boss of the Internet but can be easily defeated with the information in this article.