help create character

[zzz31]

Need help creating a villain character for my story. Its hard for me to come up with a shadow character cause I do not know what world drive someone to become a villain. Please help

[MadBlossom Torsorosy]

I can help! What ideas do you already have for the basic story line? Like, what exactly is the villian doing to make the hero/heroine fight against them?

[zzz31]

the basic story is about a priest who goes on a journey to investigate an artifact discovered in a foreign land. The story is about his journey, so I need a villain to oppose him.

[Klieoro]

The Struggle between Good & Evil

That's essentially what I have designed my character around. A corrupted priest who was once pure of heart, possessed by the power of Satan / daemonic forces. As for the villain, I would not do so much a who, but a what. I personally could see the priest doing an exorcism to the artifact. It could be foresight, as in he knew it was possessed or he just wanted to make sure it wasn't. Could possibly sense an ominous aura from the artifact, etc. From which releases a daemonic entity / villain. To which he has to fight; doesn't need to be possessed if you don't wish him to be.


Or you could have a straight up villain:

> Treasure Hunter / Thief - steals artifact
> Anti-Religion Fanatic - follows priest and hunts him down
> Fellow Priest - Sees the value in the artifact and wants to claim the glory for himself
> Fellow Archaeologist - " "
> Corrupted Priest - Hunting down pure priests and trying to corrupt them and/or kill them
> Daemons, Ghosts, Spirits, etc (In ethereal or physical forms) - Attempt to kill / possess priest.

Just my thoughts and opinions,
Klieoro

[zzz31]

thx for the help I think I'm going to go with the anti-religion fanatic but was wondering what would make him an evil character

[Klieoro]

zzz31

thx for the help I think I'm going to go with the anti-religion fanatic but was wondering what would make him an evil character

A lot of things could make him "evil"

- Attempts to lead Priest in different directions than his main course (makes rock slides fall on Priest / block original path, etc)
- Voicing his hatred for the religious / religions / clergy members
- Stalking the Priest, watching his every move and then trying to mess up his future plans (goes with point 1, kinda)
- Attempts to kill Priest
- Attempts to steal artifact from the priest, as it is a highly sought after holy relic
- Hires other bandits to kill / capture the priest

Thoughts & Opinions,
Klieoro

[The Dapper Dragon]

Having a strait up "evil" character is not only difficult, but ill advised. After all, think of it this way, do you wake up in the morning and say "I'm going to do something evil because...I'm bad."? No, give them a motivation that simply opposes the heroes, such as the treasure hunter or the priest. More motivation than..."he's evil."

Remember: "Everyone is the hero of his own story."
Paraphrased from John Barth.

[zzz31]

what might drive a person to become evil that is what I have a hard time figuring out

[Mordkan]

Hm. Let's see how to phrase this.. or set an example. This might not be right in historical view or in everyone's view, but... maybe my thoughts will help a bit.

One of the worst villains in history is probably Hitler. He killed lot of Jews and set out to conquer the world.

In his own view he wasn't evil. He wanted to remake the world in his own image. He wanted to have the 'pure' race who was more beautiful, more intellectual etc as the rulers. He killed those who he saw as corrupted and wrong. Even in gardening you need to prune the tree to get it be beautiful in the end. So he pruned the population to get what he wanted.

There are still those that look at the world in the same way and make him as their idol.

I don't see it as such. To me he was and is a horrible man. To him it wasn't evil what he did. In some way he wasn't evil, but in other way... He was pure evil.

Did this help a bit to see what evil could be?

[zzz31]

thx that helps a lot now i have an idea of an evil character for my story thank you all for helping me