Clayman

Clayman (クレイマン), known as Marionette Master (人形備偏師), was a Demon Lord, in the era of the Ten Great Demon Lords. Being a Demon Lord Seed, he lacked some power in comparison to older generations of Demon Lords. He was considered a ghastly man, infamous for his acts of manipulating his subordinates and others like dolls.

Appearance
Clayman had the appearance of a wealthy noble. He had a slim, oblong head topped with pale lavender hair; a face with a sharp chin and defined jawlines, and a pair of pointed ears on either side and thin eyebrows. He sported a slender figure, and his eyes with red irises exuded intelligence even as they suggested he was rather high-strung.

Clayman wore expensive and elegant clothes sharing an overall white motif – a long white tailcoat, grey vest, white shirt, slim white trousers and white shoes, alongside black bow-tie. In his inner pocket of his tailcoat, he kept a gold-plated pocket watch with an engraving on its lid, the chain of which could be seen.

In his combat form, his skin was darker, his entire figure changed - four more prosthetic arms and a tail emerged. In place of his elegant tuxedo was a wrought-iron breastplate, codpiece, and spiked pauldrons and armor for his legs. When he donned his mask and acted as the "Crazed Clown," he seemed more like a mad beast instead.

After his Pseudo-Awakening following him being severely wounded by Shion, his appearance drastically changes. In this form, his dismembered arms are replaced by arms made of energy in purple color, with the upper additional pair of arms being large and long while the lower pair of arms being longer in length. His eyes also glow with a flaming aura.

Personality
Clayman was a cunning and manipulative Demon Lord, who preferred to operate from the shadows rather than engage in direct conflict himself. His expertise lay in intelligence gathering, utilizing his abilities to perfect his schemes and gain more power.

In his interactions with subordinates and those he considered beneath him, Clayman displayed a disdainful and abusive attitude. He discarded individuals who were no longer useful to him and coerced others into submission using his Unique Skill. His force of will was so strong that he could make almost anyone follow his orders.

Furthermore, Clayman was known for his stubbornness and pride. He refused to acknowledge his mistakes, even when confronted with evidence of his involvement in various plots. Most Demon Lords were already aware of his conspiracy to become a True Demon Lord, yet he remained tight-lipped about his opinions of his fellow Demon Lords. This cowardly side of Clayman was evident when he believed he had full control over Milim, and only then did he start insulting her and expressing his personal disdain, showing his cowardice.

When things appeared to go according to his plan, Clayman's arrogance and overconfidence became evident. He made tactical errors in his attempts to manipulate Rimuru and Tempest, such as assuming he had successfully mind-controlled Milim, despite her reputation for being uncontrollable. He also believed that Frey was solely loyal to him and underestimated Rimuru and Shion, thinking he could overpower them due to his supposed control over Milim. This arrogance was a prevailing trait noted by both Kagali and Laplace, despite their warnings for him to adjust it.

However, it's worth considering that Clayman's brainwashing by Tatsuya Kondou may have contributed to his overconfidence and poor decision-making. This behavior was unlike his cautious and cunning nature.

Despite his manipulative and power-hungry tendencies, Clayman, like his creator, displayed gentleness and consideration towards those he considered his friends and comrades, such as the Moderate Harlequin Alliance. He also demonstrated absolute loyalty to his superiors and followed their orders. This loyalty was evident in his final moments, where he refused to reveal any information about his superiors or comrades during his confrontation with Rimuru, even when faced with the threat of complete eradication of his soul. Raphael calculated that it would be extremely challenging to make Clayman talk.

Clayman was known to be a highly cautious Demon Lord, always having backup plans for various situations and reinforcing those plans with additional backups. This preparedness was apparent on multiple occasions, particularly during Walpurgis, where he initially fought Shion using a sword and swiftly transitioned to using Marionette Dance when the sword was destroyed. He resorted to his trump card, the Demon Marionette curse, only after his initial tactics failed and ultimately transformed into the Crazy Pierrot form to take matters into his own hands.

However, upon transforming into Crazy Pierrot, Clayman's calm demeanor was reversed, seemingly becoming more aggressive. It's important to note that this transformation allowed him to restrain his enemies, granting him the freedom to attack and neutralize them more effectively.

Clayman took great pride in his position as one of the Ten Great Demon Lords and cherished his title. This pride was evident when he transformed into his Crazy Pierrot form in response to Shion calling him an unworthy Demon Lord. He believed that, as a Demon Lord, he should dispose of his enemies with elegance and style.

In Clayman Revenge, after experiencing a second time loop, his personality changed. He became more cautious and alert, treating his underlings better, such as returning Mjurran's heart. He also dedicated himself to training and becoming stronger in order to avoid his demise at the hands of Rimuru Tempest in the future and prevent the events leading to Rimuru becoming a Demon Lord or, at the very least, avoid making Rimuru his enemy. This implies that he fears Rimuru after having been defeated by him twice before.

Background
Clayman was created by Kazalim as a Deathman many years ago to be part of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance, known as The Crazy Pierrot. Kazalim himself personally designed Clayman to be a tactical commander and a schemer, similar to himself and created him for the expressed purpose of turning him into a Demon Lord.

300 years ago, he became one of the Ten Great Demon Lords with Kazalim's help, in order to increase his own influence in the Demon Lord Council. The moment he became a Demon Lord, he began hunting down Majin and monsters to steal their hearts (literally). Making them swear loyalty to him, he inscribed a curse onto their hearts, making them his eternal servants. That's how Five Fingers was born, containing cursed pet Ninehead, Immortal King Adalman, top lieutenant Yamza, witch Mjurran, spy and intelligence collector harpy Pirone.

Eventually his master was killed and replaced by Leon Cromwell on the Demon Lord Council. With Kazalim gone, Clayman had to take over his domain, the Puppet Nation Jistav and all of his remaining forces. Clayman hadn't received any words from him for a long time, but still considered himself to be the subordinate of Kazalim. He still continued working on his goals, while still waiting for his master's return.

Clayman wished to get rid of Leon in retaliation for Kazalim's demise. In order to achieve this, he hired many mercenaries, however, they all failed to carry out the task, instead getting slain by Leon's entourage each time.

Clayman, alongside Carrion and Frey, were considered the new generation of Demon Lords, so they would work together in order to expand and increase their influence and power base. Their goal was to bring the gap of power between them and the older generation Demon Lords. Being one of the active Demon Lords, his name was greatly known among humanity and other nations, though much more infamously due to his manipulative tendencies. Clayman was close enough to taking over the entire world, and it was all through his trading relationships, which, generally most Demon Lords won't do. He was the wealthiest among all the Demon Lords, and his wealth did not only come from trading but from the artifacts that were buried beneath the ruins of Amrita which ultimately made him a powerful foe politically and economically. Damrada states that Demon Lord Clayman was a valuable trading asset for the Eastern Empire.

At some point, he met a mysterious patron who offered Kazalim's resurrection in exchange of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance's help in taking over the world. Clayman agreed to this request.

Trivia

 * The "Clay" from Clayman comes from the word Klei, which means string or wire. Thus his name can be inferred to mean Stringman.
 * To keep his mind sharp on a daily basis, he regularly played chess.
 * During the era of the Ten Great Demon Lords, Clayman was effectively the wealthiest Demon Lord among his peers, with a large amount of wealth earned from trading with the Eastern Empire and several other influential nations and parties, while the rest came from selling several artifacts that once belonged to Kagali's old city of Amrita.
 * Kagali states that she had to sacrifice much of his raw power during his creation in exchange for more intellectual ability and intelligence, thus explaining why he is weaker than his peers in the Moderate Harlequin Alliance.
 * It was also mentioned by Kagali that Clayman has the best control of emotions and temper amongst the Moderate Harlequin Alliance. Unlike others, he could easily contain and control himself, hiding his true feelings and thoughts. This also greatly backfired on him, as after the disappearance of his mentor, Clayman began to feel more insecure about his strength, feel inferior, annoyed by the fact that he is not at the same level of power as his close friends, and even more annoyed thinking that he has not yet met his mentor's expectations.
 * Clayman's graceful speech on Walpurgis was not just a mask that he would put on in front of others, but rather his true personality trait. The Japanese language has two first-person pronouns - "ore" and "watashi". "Ore" is meant for use by males, at times it also implies the arrogance and haughty attitude of the speaker. Whereas "watashi", just like the female first-person pronoun it symbolizes, represents grace, manner, and respect in the speaker's tone. Clayman never once used any other first-person pronoun aside from "watashi", neither when he was narrating his version of Carrion's "betrayal", nor when he was on the verge of death, proving Clayman's graceful speech manners were authentic, not some facade.
 * Clayman was the only one among his fellow Jesters who couldn't meet his master Demon Lord Kazalim personally after he assumed the form of Kagali, Yuuki's secretary.
 * There were obvious hints that Clayman was being brainwashed. The first hint was that he was exposing himself as the mastermind behind Eurazania's invasion as well as unknowingly revealing his scheme to become a True Demon Lord. The second hint was that he refused to wait as ordered by his master Kazalim, which was something he generally wouldn't do as he'd always follow his orders to the letter.
 * Even if Clayman did survive his battle against Rimuru by fleeing the Walpurgis through the use of his Giant Magic Missile or fake his death and flee the Banquet by his Astral Body, he would most likely lose his title as a Demon Lord either way.
 * Much like his creator Kazalim, Clayman lost his Demon Lord Council's seat and his life due to a newcomer Demon Lord.
 * Clayman's initial appearance greatly varies in the anime and the manga.
 * It is highly implied that the only reason Clayman held his Demon Lord's seat and caught up to the other Demon Lords despite being the weakest was due to his scheming capabilities.
 * Excluding his fellow peers (till his scheme was revealed), Clayman was disliked by majority of the Demon Lords, for either being a newcomer and a schemer who aimed too high for his abilities, or for his treatment of his subordinates, or the fact that he is very weak or a combination of all the above here.
 * Clayman achieved a certain proficiency over pastries, especially in the production of confectionery products such as scones, biscuits, cakes and pies. His homemade products were scrumptious, even more so when paired with aromatics teas grown and harvested on Jistav's local fields.
 * In order to utilize and perfect his pastry skills, Clayman regularly announced and invoked tea parties with fellow Demon Lords, not forgetting to elicit new facts and information from the guests.
 * Clayman was one of the few Demon Lords that was liked and recognized by Guy Crimson's maid - Rain. She appreciated his coordination skills and respected his courage to call himself a Demon Lord, even when he was weaker then herself. Rain liked the convenience he offered her, as after prodding him a little, he would handle the tasks which she found troublesome. He was an overall useful person to her. Rain greatly regrets his loss, reasoning that he chose the wrong person to oppose.
 * Considering Guy Crimson being the mediator of the world, it is highly possible that he would oppose Clayman's plans to conquer the world, which was already in place thanks to his trading relationships.
 * Despite being killed during the events of The Octagram Soars Brightly, his name was still often brought up in later volumes as a benchmark to describe the strength/energy amount of new characters. The author jokingly mentioned that Clayman effectively became a "combat strength measurement unit."
 * Ever since Clayman became a Demon Lord, he did not use his Crazy Pierrot form for many years. The only time he was seen using it was during the Walpurgis Banquet to confront Shion.
 * His Japanese VA in anime,, is well known for playing twisted and manipulative evil masterminds, such as Dio Brando in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Sugou Nobuyuki in Sword Art Online. Needless to say, this is very fitting for Clayman's character.
 * Clayman shares a decent amount of similarities with Roswaal L Mathers from the Re:Zero series. While they both are voiced by the same voice actor - Takehito Koyasu, they also have related goals and statuses in their storylines. Clayman and Roswaal L Mathers are in possession of important and heavily influential political positions in their respective worlds. The first one being a member of a powerful cast of individuals - Ten Great Demon Lords and the ruler of Puppet Nation Jistav; and the second being the Court Mage of the Kingdom of Lugnica. It is implied that they both have untold riches under their control. Both of them greatly respect and honor their mentors valuing them as parental figures in their existence. Both of them have the same goal in mind - to resurrect their mentors (Echidna for Roswaal and Kazzalim for Clayman), but unfortunately, after successful resurrections, they were unable to reunite and meet with them. Clayman and Roswaal L Mathers share the same clown or jester-like motif. Roswaal wears a jester's makeup and similar clothing, while Clayman wears a mask and is known by the title of Crazy Pierrot. Though while Roswaal is still alive in his series while Clayman is dead (Though survived for the being in Clayman Revenge).