Andre Linoge

"By large the good is an illusion. Little fables folks tell themselves so they can get through their days without screaming too much."

- Andre Linoge to Mike Anderson

Andre Linoge is the main antagonist of Stephen King's Storm of the Century. He is portrayed by Colm Feore.

He is a 4000 year-old wizard, who carries a cane with a silver wolf's head on top of it with him. Additonally he is the one who terrorizes the people of a small town of Little Tall Island off the coast of Maine during a massive blizzard, which is called the storm of the century.

History
He introduces himself to the people there by killing one of the town residents shortly before a snowstorm. He is arrested because of that and put into a cell by the constable Mike Anderson and his assistant.

Still, in his cell, he kills more people and causes others to commit suicide in Little Tall Island using some sort of magic for that. Additionally he knows some of the townpeople's darkest secrets, which he exposes to the town from time to time. Repeatedly he tells them directly or indirectly to give him what he wants, if they want him to go away. All the security measures to kepp him in his cell turn out to be futile as he chooses, after a while, to leave his cell.

Still, before he goes, he instructs the assistant of Mike Anderson to tell everone again to give him what he wants, if they want him to go away. After that he continues to spread terror outside of it while the snowstorm, considered the greatest of the century, goes on. He even caused nightmares upon others and put children into a form of forced sleeping state. After that he demands a town meeting, where he intends to tell them what he exactly wants.

Once a reunion of the town is organized to find out what he wants, he reveals what he wants. What Linoge desires is an heir, one of the eight children he has enchanted in Little Tall, Maine during these events. He reveals his true form (an impossibly ancient, dying man). He also explains that he is not immortal, nor a god, and needs someone to carry on his "work" once he can no longer do it himself. He states that "in matters such as this" he cannot simply take the child he desires, but he can punish. If the town refuses his request, he threatens to kill the children in their sleep and force them to march into the sea two-by-two, as he claims to have done at Roanoke, Virginia, centuries before. With that, he leaves them with half an hour to make their decision regarding this matter.

The town, fearful of him, gives in to his demand after discussing it. Through a choosing with stones he prepared for that, the child is chosen among the eight children. The child he wanted and which is later chosen from them in the island is Ralph Anderson, the son of constable Mike Anderson. After that he shows his power, takes him and flies away with him amid the helpless pleas of Mike Anderson.

After a while he manages to make Ralph Anderson become like him, which his own father helplessly had to witness in San Francisco nine years later, when they casually meet. After that they both continue their way ignoring Ralph´s father altogether and disappear from his sight.

Trivia

 * Andre Linoge's last name spells "Legion" which some of the townspeople including Mike Anderson believed to be the mythological demon of Biblical tradition.