I'm writing a homebrew campaign based in Greek Mythology. The world is very diverse in race, its about equal parts all races. The villain is committing genocide of all nonhuman races due to a dislike of non humans. The villain is being empowered by Hades but the players don't know this until right before the final battle. I'm wanting to make a villain that the players will love to hate so they will all be required to play nonhuman races. I'm also hoping to have him make multiple appearances before they can actually defeat him. The part I'm needing help on is the backstory of the villain. The backstory needs to motivate him to team up with Hades and genocide the humans. Anyone got ideas?
The villain's motivation could come from a couple of places.
Revenge -- the non-humans somehow wronged (or he thinks they wronged) him and he wants revenge. Non-humans killed his village, his parents, his lover. Now they must pay.
Disgust - Jonathan Haidt in his books about what motivates people to take philosophical positions like "conservative" or "liberal" talks at length about the role that "disgust" plays in motivation. People are often wildly violent to things that disgust them. Apparently Hitler, in old tapes taken of dinner conversations when he would hold forth about his feelings on this and that, frequently exhibited disgust toward the peoples he was butchering. So maybe this is a human who finds all dwarves, elves, etc. disgusting for some reason.
Greed - The non-humans of the world have access to riches and villain boy wants them. Dwarven gold, gnomish gems, dragon-born silver, halfling tobacco, elvish magic-items, Aarakocra down, etc, etc.
Power - Only humans worship Hades. All the other gods are worshipped by non-humans. Hades wants to take over the cosmos, but the gods are empowered by their worshippers. So Hades instructs villain boy to kill off all the worshippers of the other gods (i.e., the non-humans), thus depowering them and enabling him to rule the world. In this formulation, Hades is the real villain.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I’m thinking something along the lines of family killed and he becomes an orphan made fun of by the other kids for being too plain and bland. That will give him a deep rooted disgust and revenge together kinda. I’m almost thinking that instead of non humans attacking make them the ones who were defending his family and failed. This allows him to believe humans are a superior race to the humans since they failed.
All these suggestions are amazing but may I suggest changing the god that is helping the villain from Hades to another Greek god, Hades in the mythology was one of the kindest of Greek the gods he's just the ruler of the dead not a demonic king, may I suggest Ares, Phobos(God of Fear), Deimos(God of Dread), Eris(Goddess of Discord try this if you want a puppet master).
Keep in mind that the villain would consider himself (or herself) the true hero of the story. A villain who simply engages in genocide for no particular reason will seem arbitrary and two-dimensional. Spend some time inside the villain's head. WHY are you doing what you're doing? Were you wronged in the past, and seeking revenge? Do you consider your targets to be the true threat, and you just can't understand why others can't see it too? What threat do they represent? What is their alleged crime that you are punishing them for? A good villain has reasons. A good villain is one that can almost - almost - convince you of the logic of their actions... until you remember the methods and the effects.
Our own world history is rife with examples of villains who have done horrible things, including genocide. Heck, it's still happening right now in several places around the world. Explore those cases and find parallels.
The reality is that most genocide can be adequately explained by either "they have stuff we want" or "They make convenient scapegoats"; for an epic villain I recommend the latter, because the former tends to lose interest once their stuff has been acquired, but you can keep irrationally blaming others indefinitely. For an actual motivation, go for 'wants power, blames nonhumans for the fact he was previously unable to get it'.
You could go with a villain who made a deal and regrets it. He may have asked for power and got it but now has to kill the other races to fill his end of the deal. You could have him work against his goals and confuse the players. Maybe he spares the players after defeat them in the hope that they defeat him at a later date.
I'm writing a homebrew campaign based in Greek Mythology. The world is very diverse in race, its about equal parts all races. The villain is committing genocide of all nonhuman races due to a dislike of non humans. The villain is being empowered by Hades but the players don't know this until right before the final battle. I'm wanting to make a villain that the players will love to hate so they will all be required to play nonhuman races. I'm also hoping to have him make multiple appearances before they can actually defeat him. The part I'm needing help on is the backstory of the villain. The backstory needs to motivate him to team up with Hades and genocide the humans. Anyone got ideas?
The villain's motivation could come from a couple of places.
Revenge -- the non-humans somehow wronged (or he thinks they wronged) him and he wants revenge. Non-humans killed his village, his parents, his lover. Now they must pay.
Disgust - Jonathan Haidt in his books about what motivates people to take philosophical positions like "conservative" or "liberal" talks at length about the role that "disgust" plays in motivation. People are often wildly violent to things that disgust them. Apparently Hitler, in old tapes taken of dinner conversations when he would hold forth about his feelings on this and that, frequently exhibited disgust toward the peoples he was butchering. So maybe this is a human who finds all dwarves, elves, etc. disgusting for some reason.
Greed - The non-humans of the world have access to riches and villain boy wants them. Dwarven gold, gnomish gems, dragon-born silver, halfling tobacco, elvish magic-items, Aarakocra down, etc, etc.
Power - Only humans worship Hades. All the other gods are worshipped by non-humans. Hades wants to take over the cosmos, but the gods are empowered by their worshippers. So Hades instructs villain boy to kill off all the worshippers of the other gods (i.e., the non-humans), thus depowering them and enabling him to rule the world. In this formulation, Hades is the real villain.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Those are some really great ideas, thank you so much!
IMO, Revenge is a great motivation.
It often drives people to do stupid and even unreasonable things, all the while thinking they are meting out "justice."
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I’m thinking something along the lines of family killed and he becomes an orphan made fun of by the other kids for being too plain and bland. That will give him a deep rooted disgust and revenge together kinda. I’m almost thinking that instead of non humans attacking make them the ones who were defending his family and failed. This allows him to believe humans are a superior race to the humans since they failed.
All these suggestions are amazing but may I suggest changing the god that is helping the villain from Hades to another Greek god, Hades in the mythology was one of the kindest of Greek the gods he's just the ruler of the dead not a demonic king, may I suggest Ares, Phobos(God of Fear), Deimos(God of Dread), Eris(Goddess of Discord try this if you want a puppet master).
The premise sounds amazing good luck.
Keep in mind that the villain would consider himself (or herself) the true hero of the story. A villain who simply engages in genocide for no particular reason will seem arbitrary and two-dimensional. Spend some time inside the villain's head. WHY are you doing what you're doing? Were you wronged in the past, and seeking revenge? Do you consider your targets to be the true threat, and you just can't understand why others can't see it too? What threat do they represent? What is their alleged crime that you are punishing them for? A good villain has reasons. A good villain is one that can almost - almost - convince you of the logic of their actions... until you remember the methods and the effects.
Our own world history is rife with examples of villains who have done horrible things, including genocide. Heck, it's still happening right now in several places around the world. Explore those cases and find parallels.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
I would like to play a campaign like that.
Maybe one or more characters of the campaign have lost their family to the big bad guy's army? Characters are motivated by revenge.
Hades is jealous because Zeus favors his son, the villain (a satyr) over Hades' son (a human).
The reality is that most genocide can be adequately explained by either "they have stuff we want" or "They make convenient scapegoats"; for an epic villain I recommend the latter, because the former tends to lose interest once their stuff has been acquired, but you can keep irrationally blaming others indefinitely. For an actual motivation, go for 'wants power, blames nonhumans for the fact he was previously unable to get it'.
You could go with a villain who made a deal and regrets it. He may have asked for power and got it but now has to kill the other races to fill his end of the deal. You could have him work against his goals and confuse the players. Maybe he spares the players after defeat them in the hope that they defeat him at a later date.
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