How "Evil" is Your Villain?

My biggest villain, Chicago Lightning, is a shape-shifting alien who dropped onto Sicily around the 1860's when the Mafia was just beginning, saw great potential in the idea and permanently took on human form to egg it along. Now that the Mafia in CoX has devolved into the useless, bickering Marcones and Mooks, he's set out to carve his own criminal empire in the Rogue Isles. So no, he's not out to destroy the world or commit mass-murder, because that would put a serious crimp in his profits - he's merely a ruthless man who only looks out for himself and his own interests.

Gothia Wraithwood was a hero who killed one too many criminals in her day and got sent to hell. After a few dozen years of torture, she made a deal with a demon to get back onto Earth and harvest the souls of others in exchange for her continued freedom. She doesn't take any particular pleasure in it, but the hell that is Hell has broken her spirit and will to do good.

Red Spy is a puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in riddles, lovingly sprinkled with intrigue, express mailed to Mystery, Alaska, and LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU! but it is too late. You're dead. For he is the Spy - globetrotting rogue, lady killer (metaphorically) and mankiller (for real). Who knows why the hell he's doing anything?

My (currently) lowbie Stalker, Overthrow, is a wild punk whose only goal is to create anarchy in the Rogue Isles. He's set on destabilising Arachnos and any subsequent governments in any way he can, just because he loves to watch chaos in action. He's evil in the same way that Freakshow are evil.

I play my main villain as evil as I have to be to get my badges @_@

The character's backstory paints her as the jealous vengeance type.

Personally, I'm not a very evil person. My characters generally reflect this, in that they have reasons good enough to convince themselves that they aren't evil.

Sunsoldier is a fan of the whole Arachnos organization (it's so cool how they made such a great country out of Etoile!) and is happy to do superheroic work for them. It remains to be seen whether I'll side-switch her or not. Could go either way!

Teslanomaly is... I suppose you could consider her pretty damn evil. She's an enabler. Her job is to hunt down targets, shock them into submission, then overload and bork the medical grid to get them sent straight to her employer. She's who you call when revenge is really PERSONAL. She herself will not willingly kill someone, but does that actually matter in this case? Dunno.

Psycho Fangirl is pretty likely to cross just about any moral line. I'm sure she has a strict moral code, but it is completely ignored during anything fanaticism-based.

My villain is basically a mercenary plain and simple. I think Jayne's quote in Firefly sums his general attitude up very well:

My villains tend to vary on the scale, but most of them are the "seven deadly sins" type of evil, indulging their base urges without regard for who has to suffer for it. To take the current incarnation of my Five Bad Band;

Orochi Dragon (Big Bad. Ninjas/Poison Mastermind); The leader of the Yamata Clan (featured in The Serpent's Revenge), a hedonist lured into the clan by their promise of absolute freedom to indulge in all manner of vices, who took their teachings to heart to the point where he was eventually chosen as their leader, and uses his power to amass wealth, whether through outright robbery, or through mercenary work or organized crime such as drug-dealing and running various dens of iniquity.

Armorbound (The Dragon. Energy Melee/Energy Aura Stalker); A medieval sorcerer who dispatched a romatic rival knight by binding his soul to his own armor, motionless for all eternity. When the his allies came to avenge him, the sorceror used the same spell on himself to transfer his own soul into a suit of armor, this one designed to be able to move under its own power. Despite this, he was defeated and locked away by the knight's brother, wearing the armor containing his soul. Now, in modern-day Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, the armor containing the knight's soul is the source of my main hero Spectreblade's abilities, and Armorbound, having escaped his imprisonment, seeks to complete his vengeance by destroying both the armor and its wearer. Since his return, Armorbound has found the dark art of soul transfering to be quite profitable, and regularly kidnaps victims and creates artifacts and weapons powered by their souls to sell to magically-inclined villain groups like the Hellions, while selling the de-souled bodies to Dr. Vahzilok for his experiments.

Accretion Black (Evil Genius. Gravity Control/Fiery Assault Dominator); An alien scout who came to Earth looking for another planet for his race to conquer. This one isn't quite as fleshed-out as my two main villains above, but he's about as evil as one would expect from an alien conqueror.

Mighty Cronus (The Brute. Super Strength/Shield Defense Brute); A massive mutant with an even more massive entitlement complex. A steadfast believer in the philosophy of "Might Makes Right", he feels that his strength puts him above such things as law and morals, and will take every opportunity to throw his weight around and selfishly lord his strength over all he surveys.

Curse of Anubis (The Dark Chick. Dark Blast/Dark Miasma Corruptor); An ancient Egyptian Pharaoh whose tomb was looted by robbers, destroying his mummified body in the process. With the body destroyed, his soul was doomed to an eternity of decay. Until one day, the tomb was re-discovered by a modern archaeologist. Seizing the opportunity for a second chance, he possessed the archaeologist's body and escaped from his tomb. Unfortunately, by this point his soul had deteriorated to the point where he had become completely insane. With no hope of redemption left, he gave in to his corruption, and now exists only to wreak mindless havoc upon the world of the living.

I also have my main heroes in a Five Man Band ensemble, but that's a post for another thread.

Hmm, I have a bunch of villains, but only one deserves in-depth mention. Others are pretty bad, some just crazy, some merely troubled, but only one gets my 'complete monster' award.

His name is Archmage Reilus:
A descendant of a proud lineage of peacekeeping mages tasked with taking care of the beings known as 'Aspects'. These aspects are essentially advanced golems built for use as guards of towns, though sometimes also used in battle. Reilus is very aware of his powers and has, for many years, deviated from his ancestors and used them to purely selfish and evil ends. His first was taking his Aspect, one of the few remaining to this day, and remodeling it into an engine of pure death and destruction with an unquenchable thirst for souls that serves him with complete loyalty. Second is his daughter, who is really nothing like Reilus. She's very cheery, optimistic, and empathic to others. He really really hates that, as she isn't, according to his thinking, 'realizing her potential for greatness'. The mother is deceased, Reilus used her in the life-force transfusion necessary for rebuilding the Aspect only a year after giving birth to their daughter. Of course no-one but him has any idea about that one, he's a very good lair.

Aside from abusing and neglecting his daughter for not being like him gender and personality wise, and sacrificing his wife and the mother of his child in a ritual to create an unstoppable killing machine, he's really just a **** to the core. There's no ulterior motive here for his actions, nothing like 'I do it for the greater good' or 'I have a troubled past' or 'I got to support my family somehow'. He feels for no one else but himself, and if he seems nice, he probably wants to use you to his own ends. Reilus just loves feeling better than everyone else, and only finds satisfaction in his life by proving his superiority through his vile acts. He just loves to watch people suffer and beg at his feet before he steps on them. There's no better feeling in the world to this villain.

Hellhound Harry is Kick a kitty, Stab a puppy, Wipe your Bum with a rabbit evil.

Where as most of my Villains lean towards Machiavellianism.

I love threads like these. Well, let's take a look at my individual villains:

General Phi: Evil robot. Seriously. As in, "hey, guys! I just kicked a puppy! 'Cause I'm EVIL!" kind of evil. He's got an automated factory cranking out his robotic drones, and he's processing plans for world domination. His hobby is giving people a hard time, especially heroes and the occasional civilian. However, General Phi has one rule: Whether they're the finest in artificially-sentient war machines or meatbags who've somehow managed to transcend their squishy worthlessness, never, ever betray a friend.

Mecha Maven: Not evil, but entirely amoral. She'll do just as she likes, and what she likes is destruction and mayhem. She might've been a hero, if only she hadn't decided that General Phi was a good mentor. Her tenchomancy lets her summon her own personal Quirky Miniboss Squad at will, and she's the Dragon to Phi's Big Bad.

Rehnac Naturai: She's so horrible her home planet's government built a space ship especially designed to make a one-way trip, stuffed her in it, and shot it in the general direction of what might possibly have been a livable planet. Which turned out to be Earth. Sucks to be us. The way she sees it, she's just better than you, and that means she can kill you and take your stuff if you have anything she wants. In theory, she's Phi's Brute, but in practice, she's a loose cannon who tries to compensate for her lack of morals or standards with her massive ego.

Rosa Kreuz: Despite having a name that's just a bit surreal if you know German, Rosa's the single most horrible character I have. She once placed an ancient and powerful curse on a man so that as long as his lineage continued, he and his decendants would be forever plagued by his most hated enemy. Rosa did this knowing that she herself was that man's most hated enemy, and that, so long as his family line continued, this curse would make her immortal. She just hates that guy so much. Rosa's a big Nietzsche fan, as well. She figures that she's the Übermensch, or one of them, and that she therefore has the right, or even the duty, to replace humanity's current system of moral values with one of her own design. In practice, she rather likes Lord Recluse's system, and gleefully enforces it when not trying to murder the poor sucker she cursed in order to make herself immortal. After all, he's got kids now, she doesn't need him any more.

Gamble Spider: Perhaps the least trusted Arachnos Soldier ever. They don't know what she's up to, but they do know not to give her access to any sensitive information, especially after the time she "forgot" to disable WSPDR's backup generators before they broadcast the truth about the Power Transfer System all over the Isles. Whether she's a plant, in idiot, or a jerk isn't clear, nor is the exact reason why she isn't dead yet. Evil? Maybe not. She always works alone, and almost never seems to pick up any missions that involve fighting Longbow or heroes.

Nightingale Parfait: Lover of Obfuscating Stupidity, which is why she uses such a silly name. Parfait comes from Praetoria, where she is known as Emperor Cole's most irritating and persistantly-incompetent minion. Something like Invader Zim with black magic and mini-skirts. Cole's more competent followers worked up a mission important-sounding enough to obscure its impossibility, then sent her to Primal Earth to accomplish it. Parfait, free of the constraints of Praetorian life, has been happily doing whatever the heck she pleases ever since. She's another who's pretty much amoral. She knows she shouldn't rob that bank, but she wants the money.

Dammerungklinge: He barely knows any German, but tries to use it to sound more hard core. His goal is to kill off a certain hero who beat him in a fight once, and to do that, he's set himself the goal of becoming the ultimate swordsman, by any means necessary. He's got a magic robe, a magic sword, a dream in his head, and a sparkle in his eye. Dammerungklinge is often tricked by people who offer him greater power in exchange for his work, which is primarily assassination. He'll kill anyone -or die trying- if the price is right. All because he wants revenge on some guy. So yeah, he's right up there on the evil scale.

Mina Falsetto: Some jerk decided to sell her own soul to Satan in exchange for power over demons and hellfire. Pretty standard contract, except that said jerk tried signing it with the made-up name "Mina Falsetto" instead of her own name. Satan, naturally, didn't like the idea of that, and so, just to prove you shouldn't try to pull stunts like that on the Father of Lies, found himself a woman who actually was named Mina Falsetto, gave her power over demons and hellfire, but still took the soul of the person who made the deal with him. Mina's not at all evil, but she's a victim of the belief that certain things make someone inherently bad. She has demons who follow her around and do as she says, so she must be a horrible person, right? The more her hellspawned minions encourage her to to whatever she pleases, the more obligated she feels to be bad, no matter how little she wants to. Mina's probably going to be the first, if not the only, villain I bring hero-side when Going Rogue comes out.

Alecto Serene: Some villains do what they do to get paid. Most such mercenary criminals take their payments in cash, but Alecto Serene prefers to be paid in information. She'll loot and murder any time and any where if the person asking her to can tell her something she wants to know. That said, she has a distinct tendency to pay evil unto evil, and in fact appears to be a hero of the extremist variety. She'll also be spending some time in Paragon come Going Rogue.

Hmmm...only have a few I actually play, but let's take a look.

The Masque of Red Death (Robots/Poison MM) - A sentient poison/electronics combo. As the only member of his race, his only goal is to create more like himself, but makes do with technological substitutes for now. Considers the "meat things" as fodder to be used and manipulated, or destroyed. Despises the "meat things" emotions, but is completely oblivious that he has the same ones. I'd give him about a 7. He'll do ruthless things, but his main goal is survival and procreation.

Discourtesy (EM/Inv Brute) - A magical construct, the opposite of my main Decorum. Started out as a somewhat brainless Bizzaro type but eventually evolved into a Lex Luthor-type business tycoon (intended from the beginning). He'll be switching sides to Hero to get a good reputation, but it's all a trick and will eventually return to the redside. I'll give him a 6. He's more self-centered and power hungry than "cackling evil".

Lola de Ville (EM/Dark Stalker) - Sold her soul to become the Devil's Secretary (oops, sorry..."Personal Assistant"). Murders and destroys mostly out of boredom and fun. She ain't at all nice. She's a 10, definitely.

Hermione Brinkman (Robots/Traps MM) - Jack "Decorum" Brinkman's long lost little sister from another dimension. She came to our dimension seeking vengeance on Decorum's father for seemingly abandoning her mother. She'll be switching sides once she learns that what she "knows" is a bit in error. Probably a 2.

LEGION OF VALOR - Be a part of the Legend!

Evil is a non excist....

When I created Elizabeth it was in search of the most Evil woman I could think of... And indeed she is one of 'The most Evil Women in history'. According to the Discovery tv series... I just went and make her a bit worse then even reality/history says.

Elizabeth Bathory was in life a vain ego-centric and sadistic woman who enjoyed inflicting pain on all who she deemed below her. Even though she loved her kids. They where never above her in selfpreservation. If you are not useful to make her stronger or to get her to gain one of her goals... you are merely an annoyance.

Making her a vampire with powers gained from Dark Entities who would willingly and with pleasure destry all humankind shows how she would make deals to become stronger. Even if that would coat a few hundred lives of 'peasants or other useless beings'.

She can never be trusted as all her descisions are made in selfpreservation. if she is nice to you that means you are usefull to her. But she would sacrifice you in a heart beat if it would suit her better. The Court of the Blood Countess she surround herself with is just that. Beings to make sure she stays in power, rescources or even just people around to worship her and therefore fuelling her vanity.

Does she call herself Evil?! She is aristocratic and sees herself above the concept of good and evil. Therefore she never thought about the word.

What line will she not cross..? That is easy... she is cruel and sadistic... she is vain and egocentric... but she is NOT stupid. Annihilating the human race would set her without fresh blood she needs to survive and without people to form the parties she so much like to visit. This is also her reason to hate Rikti... as a world with only Rikti on is a problem if you cannot survive on Rikti blood.

"My Villain is very evil, after slapping about Creys and fellow Arachnos Workers in Grandville, i merrily skip along to Mercy Island, on my [Private] Arachnos Flier- in Cap Au Diable, to simply "laugh out loud" at new recruits with Kalinda. I happily prance around with my scroll down worthy badge collection and flutter about the newbies to stealing kill and to also flash them with my perfectly sculpted body.
Charming i know...scone?"

Evil enough?!

Of all my villains only two of them have a reason for doinging anything.

The first is a twisted scientist who basically operates under the same principle as the DE. Her moto is "if it doesn't photosynthisize it dies!" She wont fight DE and unfortunately can never do the respec trial.

The second isn't evil at all he is just 100% devoted to the two (spoiled sociopathic extreamly wealthy) kids he's been charged to look after (twin MMs played by two of my friends). There is no line he would not cross for them.

Sure today is the first day of the rest of your life. But so was yesterday. And look how that turned out.

I only have two villains that I play regularly. One of them is infected with an alien parasite that's controlling their mind but I haven't thought of a back story for the other one. So I guess it depends if you consider my villain the parasite who's making orders or the host who's carrying them out.

Depends on the character. I have a wide variety of characters that are in the Isles for various reasons and a few more that will be heading there come GR.

Shadowninja is a thief that has been possessed by the soul of an Archvillain from ancient times. He seeks to regain his former power, build up and army and create an empire that covers the Earth. I'd say he's evil.

Da Krusha is a human that was experimented on against his will. His ordeal wiped his memory, and he was mistaken for a villain and arrested upon breaking out of the science lab. Arachnos broke him out and told him that they'll help him get his memory and former life back if he helps them. Having no other options, he goes for it. He's not evil at all, just being used. He'll realize that come GR and jump ship.

Break Stuff is an Arachnos Soldier who just loves hurting people. He's the kind of guy who'll shoot you, bash your face in, then shoot you some more just for the fun of it. And he'd willingly fight for the side of good if there was a decent fight somewhere in the future. If he was around, he would've broken into a the Omega Team breifing and demand to be taken along just he wouldn't miss the brawl.

Kaos Blak is an assassin that tried to take over his fromer organization but failed. He's now a assassin-for-hire in the Isles. He'll take out anyone or anything as long as the pay is good.

Yellow Chaos is a Hero that will be heading to the Isles. He originally came to Paragon to search for his brother (Kaos Blak) after receiving a tip that he was working as a villain in Paragon City. He will receive another tip informing him that his bro is in the Isles and will become a villain to find his brother and kill him if neccessary.

My favorite villain, Quark Zombie, is like Galactus with the breaks removed or like Cthulhu--a god (Or god-like alien with hyperadvanced technology.) completely unconcerned with the well being of humanity. She'd (He? It?) would parking lot bomb the planet if the higher albedo suited her purposes. It's not a personal maliciousness or even anything humanly understandable, she just thinks we're bacteria that are in the way. One of the central themes in Lovecraft's stories is that evil is a parochial concept that has nothing to do with the universe at large. I wanted to build a villain that would play on those ideas.

I don't have any villians which are of the "fried baby sandwich" eating variety. Instead I mostly have the comic book meglomaniacs convinced that they have the correct path for humanity to follow. They wouldn't view themselves as evil.

My only active villain isn't evil. He simply wants to rule the world, and has decided that supervillainy is the easiest (if not the most successful) way to do so.

On the other hand, I've got a hero who most people would consider "evil" (D&D alignment: chaotic neutral). She's one of the race commonly known as the "Fair Folk", and is only in Paragon because she felt that wrecking havoc among the malcontents would be a good way to pass a century or two -- and besides, some of those Warriors make nicely decorative servants in her palace.

Of my eighty-eight (approximate value) Villains on the Pinnacle server (of which I attempt to play at least semi-regularly), their "evil" varies quite a lot.
At worst, I have a character or two that wants to destroy/consume the entire universe. At "worst"/"best" (depending on your point of view), I have characters that have been coersed or otherwise forced in to 'villainy' . . .

The vast majority of my villain characters, though, would probably average out on the "rogue" end, at least from their own point of view. Some people, with narrower senses of morality may see that average as being further along the 'dark side' than reasonably understandable.



I usually see these kinds of thread as exercises in futility. A better question would be: "Can you define 'evil'?"

I don't _get_ the singular nature of the original post's questions, either. Are there really that many players who only have a single character?

If this was a D&D type game, my villian would be NE/CE with her outlook. She kinda have the outlook that bandit had that Alfred was talking to Bruce about in the Dark Knight.

You know, I gave it some thought, and really . . . what is evil?

"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"
"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."

THAT.


The belief that one _knows_, and is therefore beyond reproach. And really, that's probably the line that I can't cross. Ergo, at this point in time, I can't think of any of my characters which cross that line either.
Even my main villainess, who is much like "Liz Bathory" (without the arcane angle) . . . even she is prepared to admit to being wrong. She doesn't like it, and it wounds her pride, and when her pride is wounded . . . people die; gruesomely, painfully, and offensively . . .
But she isn't so evil as to think herself beyond reproach.

Ok, *rubs hands together* lets see now:


"The Rascal King" (Ma/Nin Stalker) AKA "Vinnie" - He is an internaternal Jewel Thief. He's not particularly 'Evil', infact if "Lovable Rogue" were an archatype thats what he'd be.

"Kate Kelly" (Th/Tr Mastermind) - is probably evil in a sence, she hates Cops, and by extention Heros, with an unreasobnableness that probably pushes her over the line. It's a very 'human' sort of evil though, if you know what I mean.

"Operative Siege" (Crabspider) - is pretty Evil; he's an absolute believer in 'Might Makes Right', and 'Only the Strong' philosphies, and is not shy in their application. But he doesnt revel in suffering or anything like that. He's not a Monster after all.

"Steel Oni" (WM/Sh Brute) - is equal first in the Evil Stakes for my characters. He is a Demon who feeds on the suffering and negative emotions of mortals. The only limit to his depravity, is his own dignity and pride; there are some tasks so mential he would not stoop to them (which isn't really a moral limitation )

"White Harlequine" (NB/DA Stalker) - Is the other contender for most evil. An indolent Venetian aristocrat who turned to murder for amusment, she sold her soul to a Baron of Hell, and to this day acts as his eyes, ears and blade in the mortal world.

"Mad Doll" (DB/St Corruptor) - is a strange kind of evil. An animate vodoo doll, she has the mentality of a small child, dosent really understand living things, likes to play, and gets really upset if her toys get broken.

Of course there is a really interesting disscussion behind this about what contistutes 'Being Evil' and difference between that and 'commiting Evil acts'. But prehapes another time

Hmmmm.

When it comes to my villains, we have a full range of alignments and concepts. Everything from what amounts to a more unscrupulous Batman-type all the way to an ancient malevolent entity trapped in the body of an unfortunate scientist (the scientist is desperately struggling to maintain his sanity and evict the "tennant"... with little success). I also have a character who is basically a scorned Cobra Commander.

Most of my villains fall into a somewhat middle-ground. They do what they do, and that's that. Revenge, wealth, power or just hedonism motivate them. None of them are really out to destroy the world... though the one demon may be, it is hard to say because he doesn't speak English and has done little but slay those who happen to be in his way... it's just that no one knows really where he is going.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agonus Burning-Star has a psychotically insane person as a part of her MPD.

A quick FYI on psychological terminology. MPD (or multiple personality disorder) was not all that long ago renamed to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Same disorder, same incredibly rare rate of diagnosis, different name. It fits it better, in my opinion, and also helps people remember what classification of mental disorder it is: a dissociative disorder.

Also, by "psychotically insane," I am going to assume that you mean the character has Antisocial Personality Disorder (aka a sociopath/psychopath... both terms are somewhat obsolete, BTW.

You may now continue with the thread, already in progress.

I hate the DSM. Sometimes I think they change the names of things to justify putting out another revised edition.

LEGION OF VALOR - Be a part of the Legend!