Belos

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 pursuit of his brother, Caleb, who was spirited away to the realm by the witch Evelyn. Keeping a written record of his experiences on the Boiling Isles, Philip endeavored to find a way to return to the Human Realm with Caleb, but he would eventually murder his own brother for falling in love with the witch. Due to the harrowing events emboldening his inherent intense hatred of witches and magic, Philip would then conspire to eliminate the Isles and its inhabitants as a whole in an attempt to save humanity from their supposed wickedness.

In order to carry through with this plot, Philip would take on a new identity as 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 punishment. 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, Belos, he is an elderly man with a pale complexion, light-blue eyes, wrinkled lips, and long, rugged, 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, which was once the wound caused by Lilith, running across his face and down his neck, as a result of his prolonged consumption of palismen. The irises of Belos' eyes occasionally glow bright blue, which can remain visible through the shadowed eyeholes of his mask. 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.

As Emperor Belos, he was described as an "omnipotent and megalomaniacal", strict and commanding figure. His authority was shown to be a powerful one that garnered both fear and respect, and was often impatient and intolerant of failure from his subordinates. Despite this, however, Belos could be quite lenient towards servants that he valued highly enough, another trait of Belos was his charisma and cunning, as he managed to easily trick witches into believing they were misusing their magic and believing his propaganda that he could speak to the Titan that forms the Boiling Isles, gaining their trust and allowing him to become their emperor. To maintain this facade, Belos took great care to protect his image of strength and power to discourage others from questioning his authority or rebelling against his laws.

Belos created Hunter to be the latest Grimwalker, a magically engineered clone of his own brother, Caleb Wittebane, to serve him indefinitely. Hunter was intended as a disposable tool for Belos's goals, a loyal subordinate with implanted memories of being his nephew, designed to carry out his plans and, eventually, be sacrificed. The previous Golden Guard grimwalkers were killed by Emperor Belos, likely because they either rebelled against him, discovered his true, genocidal plans, or were deemed "defective". Hunter, the current Golden Guard, is the latest in this long line of grimwalkers, created as a younger version of his brother, Caleb.

Each Golden Guard served as Belos' right hand since his early days, all donning a golden mask and an ivory-colored hooded cloak with the Golden Guard sigil on the back of it. This sigil, resembling a bird, is identical to Gravesfield's state emblem, likely due to Belos' origin in the city. The Golden Guards helped Belos win over the denizens of the Boiling Isles into the present. Around sixteen years before the present day, Belos had completed his latest grimwalker, Hunter. Belos told Hunter that he was a nephew to Belos, and that "The Titan had big plans for him". In order to keep the truth from Hunter, Belos claimed that the previous Golden Guards were a part of their family, and their death was brought to by wild magic.