My personal judging method became entirely subjective this time. (Was it really not subjective before?) I offer it up for your consideration. Here's what I did.
1. Read all 16 entries without reading anyone's comments.
2. Made a list of entries to revisit (10 out of 16).
3. Read the comments in the various threads.
4. Revisited the entries in depth again without looking at comments.
5. Wrote a one-line description of the ten (see below).
6. Reviewed those descriptions and decided which I saw as most villainous and/or just struck my fancy.
My thoughts on the process and this round:
*The format was too narrow and limited to get a good feel.
*Tying a villain down to a specific area and often made them more of an encounter than an easily ongoing nemesis for the PCs, particularly the higher level they were. (Hetty Miller is an exception. She can grow with the party if she survives.)
*I quickly stopped considering stat blocks for the purposes of the contest, but made a note of many to come back and steal for possible use later.
*There are many, many good if not great ideas out there. I enjoyed reading all the entries.
Who did I vote for? (At least one other person must be curious.) See the bold entries on the list:
Abzirael- The giant half-djinni who roams the world making evil bargains with people.
Arthelia – Insane psion (soulknife) inhabiting the body of a young man who tries to crush heroes and villains alike.
Avinash – The disguised demonic horse creature who leads a brigand group to cause terror and mayhem.
Durgal – The ghoul murderer who sends his followers out to die – and to create more food for him
Elsie – A crazed little old lady who turns people to stone, breaks off their hand, and brings them back to life.
Hetty Miller – A strange, sad woman who steals children to raise as her own.
Kaltia (Haunter of the Hills) – The vampire dwarf druid from an ancient time who haunts the Stained Peaks.
Kotalya – A demonic nymph hiding on the Prime Material Plane who poisons and terrorizes the region with the aid of her renegade druid minions.
Mwana - Lizardfolk druid who is trying to awaken ancient horrors to return the world to a primeval state.
Seskadrin – The four-armed sahuagin trying to reconquer an ancient sahuagin land back from surface dwellers.
It was an interesting choice. :) Quibbles? Rewrites of one-liners? Does anyone want to fill in the other six?