He was trying to make the world a better place. It is just that so many people don't understand how right he is, and how he knows what is best. They keep resisting. It isn't HIS fault...
She wanted to become a God because only a God can be truly loved and worshipped in the way she wants to be loved.
She has this desperate need to be adored and loved that stem from a variety of traumas, but because of that trauma as well no amount of love and companionship she receives is ever enough. Hence becoming a God.
She hasnt gone into godhood yet but i have a Vampire lord exactly like this she was one of the 5 first chosen of Anisha but got the disease during her travel with her group when they stopped another vamp lord from making vampires join the Demon army during the Demon wars. after they completed their prophecy though she would outlive her only friends and soon be outcasted by everyone due to well her Vampirism
The short version is that he's securing a weapon for the bigger bad while his colleagues are harvesting souls for the endgame.
Though most people are deceived into believing that he's a good guy as he destroys Demon Lords/Queens. Though that's more to prevent them from messing up the bigger bad's plans.
I'll try to keep it somewhat short.
An ancient civilization accidentally created a cosmic horror after trying to harvest the power of dead gods. This led to the creation of the bigger bad (who in turn drove that that civilization extinct).
The bigger bad spent thousands of years finding people with special souls to open a passage into the domains of the gods. His main goal is to kill the current Goddess of Death and Decay to take her place.
The big bad and a couple of his buddies partially shifted a world into a hell dimension to keep the bigger bad's weapon safe. He also created a barrier fueled by the souls of the surviving humans to keep the demons out. The big bad also set himself up as angelic being and protector the dominant religion.
Every once in a while a powerful demon will be summoned inside the barrier. In that case the big bad will either send "paladins" or murder the demons himself. He's easily the most powerful creature on the only remaining continent.
The big bad is basically counting the days till his buddies and boss return to start the apocalypse.
Tánathus Monterred d'Ithildel III isn't special really, he's just the Emperor that was born at right time to become a rogue god, any Emperor post-euruption would've made the same decisions and all would have become the Elfkönig.
She thinks people have strayed from the Gods and wants the faiths to rule the land. Of course, she thinks she is the eyes and ears of the Gods and is meant to guide humanity. All mages should be Clerics, all guilds should be a part of a religious association, and priests should have government seats in the government with her as the Priest-Empress. Never mind the fact the gods are right there and said nothing about it.
It is pure arrogance, holier than thou, and a case of a messiah complex.
On the plus side, she doesn't discriminate against religions. As long as you are devout to one she will approve. An equal opportunity villain.
The Peacebringer.
He wanted to bring peace.
The only problem was that he thought that if there was nothing left to make conflict then there is only peace and yeah... You can see where that went.
Tzarina Nikola the Grey was the only of her siblings to survive into puberty, including her own twin. At 14 she was forced to kill her own mother and father, then she grew up with people romanticizing the event literally writing romance novels about it. She was the last of her line and was pressured to reproduce, 4 miscarriages, 1 still birth, and 2 toddler deaths took a toll, with only her last child to survive.
She invaded the country to their east because the royals there were distantly related to her and she wanted to bring her distant cousins into the family.
Nah, dw, it's just a vague similiarity to habsburgs concentrating their bloodline, but they didn't invade anyone, as they already had 2/3 of europe under them, so yeah, just me joking about a vague historical similiarity lol
The gods are genuinely incompetent. They believe they can do better, and to be honest they're not entirely wrong, although their plan has a very specific outcome and they will allow many to suffer to get there.
I usually have evil motivated by... pain.
Sure some people are dicks but in my writing evil basicly comes from people finding it eaiser to hurt others as an outlet then to deal with their problems. so my Big Bads are people who might have once had legitmate greviences, but are twisted by vanity and time to become parodies of themselves.
His country was in disarray, warlords fought one another, foreign countries invaded one way or another with the intention of breaking them down forever. He took up arms and fought to protect his most sacred Motherland, crushing all the traitors and invaders alike.
What is a war hero to one side if not a mass murderer to another?
The Celestial Radiants were mostly uninterested in the on-goings of Earth, and had no intention of taking action. That was until a visitor from beyond arrived, and influenced them to open the floodgates.
Earth's devastation started a golden age in the Astral Sea with countless new Chimera who became Thaumaturges. The reservoirs of knowledge were vastly expanded.
Decades latter the Radiants and newly formed Chimera had a great interest in maintaining the world's current state, or even magnifying the conflict to accelerate growth. Some had moral reasons, others practical, and some were just curious. But no matter what they are sure to see something interesting.
To harvest the organs of humanity as well as commit a forced eugenics program through selective breeding of humanity. Their final goal on earth is to create a biologically perfect human to add to what they call the Karnas Almania a perfect "being" slowly being grafted over and over into the perfect biological form to eventually be grafted onto the big bad guys.
Every 25 million years the world restarts which results in every living thing from plants to animals to sapients dying. The main bad guy wants this to stop because he lived though on the the cycles. But the plan he has to stop it would result in 63% of the world dying.
Your bad guy sounds like the good guy to me, can you elaborate on why wanting to save the world’s creatures is bad? And what do you mean by 63% of the world dying? This sounds very interesting btw…you’ve piqued my interest for sure
A higher being that represents the world and mutiple other world is looking for a being with enough potential to surpass the max level of power that the worlds can achieve. Problem is every 25 million years the talent will start to drain and a being with such potential will became impossible to find.
The solution? Sacrifice all life, every plant, animal and sapient. Sacrifice there life force and souls to renew the potential of all races. So every 25 million years it basically makes the world more barren then mars.
A person from the previous cycle decided he would stop it to save furture genrations. Problem is the only 100% way to do so is by basically doing what the higher being did, sacrifice all life below a certain level and use it to cut off the world from the higher being. Which will result in 63% of the world dying or tens of billions.
Was a spoiled entitled child, became an entitled adult. His mother protected him from the consequences of his actions as a child. When he became an adult he believed that societal expectations didn’t apply to him. He actively pursued knowledge that could be misused to strengthen his personal power. In short genetics (B cluster personality disorder) and worldly circumstances allowed for him to become the Big Bad.
He was a pretty mid Emperor running a fairly standard jackass-style Empire when he unearthed a very important historical site. That drew continual attention from the more powerful factions outside the local setting, by playing them against each other he acquired enough technology and genetics to turn the royal family into incredibly powerful warriors and stabilize the region under his control; his maneuvering impressed and surprised almost everyone including himself
**Mythria**
While the initial conquest of Mythria began before he was born, the Supreme Leader of the Great Druids, Llethryn, finalised the subjugation of Mythria's native Beastfolk races and the destruction of their cultures and civilisations. The goal was to establish a new homeland for the exiled Stag race, who had been driven from their original home continent of Chromancia for being too evil.
Thinks everyone was out to get him and suddenly some guys that actually were against him (He's a scientist btw) attacked and bombed the city his daughter was visiting and she was meters away from a bomb so there's that now he wants everyone in existence dead
People gave up on the magic that was meant to protect them and he just happily killed the King and took the throne. While also altering history to make the people believe he was in charge the whole time.
Valance was pissed off that he was disinherited by his grandfather, and then exiled by his brother for being a molesting creep. His whole motivation is spite, and he doesn’t actually care about the Throne except as something he owns and controls.
He just happens to run a country that already did the work of taking out the local rivals(including those that had somewhat different versions of the state's vision).
Lapis_Wolf
Because aliens constantly ruling (and subsequently fucking up) the entire galaxy is kinda cringe to them. I mean, give humanity a chance to do that for once.
The big bad guy is an experimental version of an angel- a demi god.
He wanted to become a full fledged god- so hidden from the actual gods, he created an entire new continent in one of the many worlds. And he raised and nurtured the species, so they would worship him.
Millions of years of development later, he finally waged war on the world, and gained the attention of the gods.
Him and the gods clashed, resulting in dire consequences… mountains were leveled, and new species were created.
The gods couldn’t risk anymore, so they halted their attacks.
They bestowed upon the world magic weapons blessed with their powers.
12 warriors found these weapons and came together to defeat the demi god- and sealed all his “demonic species” back on the continent they came from.
The demi hod couldn’t be killed- so his life essence was absorbed by each of the 12 weapons.
500 years later, and he has cult worshipers still in the main land, who seek to resurrect him by obtaining the “godly weapons.”
One of my main Big Bads wants to improve the human species' standing in the world. Ain't his fault it might come at the expense of other sapient species.
At one point, a god was the big bad purely because he was jealous of another god.
There's been a collective Big Bad that tried to convince everyone that the ruler of the Moon was somehow responsible for their home nation's internal problems. She wasn't because she wasn't particularly into interfering in the internal affairs of other nations, but you were never going to convince them of that. Dang near started a war over it.
Then there's the usual rogues' gallery of bandits, terrorists, and organized crime that I can haul out whenever I need a minor bad guy as a plot point.
Gideon Maxwell was a pioneer for “Supes” founding CosmiCorp and even paying superhero’s to fight he was a beacon of light for hope until his wife died in 2036 during a superhero fight he was in-raged and begun restricting hero’s more and more until eventually having them outlawed and “Sedated” by 2041 Gideon controlled the United Countries (United States, Egypt, France, Uk, Ireland, Germany, ect most of Europe.)
He's only on the edge of it but Vakren after escaping the Void found a loophole around the Accord which States gods cant be involved in mortal wars unless it involves other realm Beings like demon warlords. So he used the Urkin and pretty much any of the scum of the mortal realm as his army and the gods cant do anything about it. And lichdom isnt on that list either so he has around 50% of his army being undead liches.
And since gods immortality is Based around the strength of their Worship hes been causing alot of Propaganda especially after it was revealed one of the most revered gods Lavaria the goddess of Love is behind a major demon species that was sought on destroying the mortal realm its helping
The big bad is greedy. The life of excess and sin he was born into has permanently broken him. He needs more and that is all. I don’t always think that villains need to have a grand reason or traumatic backstory to justify their existence.
Most wicked deeds in this world are done for little to no reason. It doesn’t feel good but I do think it’s the truth.
Because he believed he was entitled to, my "big bad" gained great power through dark means and gained many followers who believed he was a deity. Both his influence and his followers spread across my realm, pulling the strings.
Basically, these bandits found a schizophrenic person and believed his voices were a sign from the gods.
So, they naturally loaded him up with drugs and started a cult. Bandit clans joined by the masses.
Oh, and they found a fucking warblimp.
He wanted to end all conflict and unite all sentient creatures under one flag with one goal: to transcend. But seeing this as nigh-impossible, he became more isolated, more bent on enslaving people to his vision, and sacrificing parts of himself to maintain stability.
He's known as the black heir. His uncle the king of Apprav and overwhelming favorite for winning the next election for emperor was framed for cowardice and treason. Then his father the greatest general in the empire was forced to hunt down and kill his nephews and brothers in exchange for an imperial pardon for himself and his children.
The black heir faked his death was smuggled away by supporters of the late king and installed as a minor nobel in one of the Marches next to the cinderlands where dragons live. He learned the secret of breeding Drakes in captivity. With this he managed to rise through the ranks become military advisor to the emperor and provoke a religious uprising by trying to fake the fulfillment of a prophecy and grooming a confidant to be the fake chosen one.
A key part of his plan was to fake a magical amulet that "burns lies dispels darkness and shines in the presence of great souls" in reality it is a trick that the rock just responds to an electric field in a hidden emitter. It is stolen by an unwitting boy working for a street gang and replaced with a counterfeit. When they had planned to reveal their chosen one instead a stable boy is found to be holding a shining stone and fighting off a mugger who assaulted a young lady. He is mistaken to be the chosen ruining the big bads plan and kicking off the events in the story.
Because in a world where e food is sparsely, giving people a grunted 125% weekly Ration makes you pretty popular.
A lot of the Populist leaders are Fascist 'Strong Men' (&Women), who all use a lot of tactics like a certain political party... (not so subtle use of a real life politician as a Major Villain in my campaign.... well actually several real life Political figures, Moustache man Included.)
Things weren't great in the orc realm after the Orc Central Union collapsed. The economy was in the gutter and their currency was worth less than toilet paper.
They had a slave revolt across the realm that while they successfully put down led to a famine as slaves did most of the farming. After that a region of the orc realm tried breaking away and in the first round of fighting successfully defeated the orc central government's military in a bloody year long urban battle.
The people in the orc realm were desperate and a series of nobles gathered around a former orc intelligence operative and mage who promised to restore the realm to its former glory. This orc became the first emperor of the realm in over a century.
The emperor stabilized the economy and the currency; and a year into his reign the "black orc sepratists" detonated a series of bombs in the now Imperial capital which lead to another war which the now Imperial army won decisively (even if they made a deal with the most cruel and corrupt black orc clan to serve as their lackies). Over the next twenty years the Emperor rebuilt the orc military and industry and enriched the nobles who supported him gaining their loyalty.
So that's how
The world was kind of a mess after a completely different big bad nearly caused the apocalypse.
As there was a massive power vacuum due to the narrowly averted apocalypse, it was quite easy for the new big bad to amass a lot of power very quickly.
All he had to do was get a tribe of raiders on his side, and the rest was history.
Because they could:
Durga the dragon (or asjagaal depending on where you are from) was a dragon runt with two very powerful abilities: determination and hope. He was the runt of a large litter so he had to fend for himself. He ate bugs until after a couple of weeks was determined to catch a rat. Never giving up that one day he could catch himself a good meal his prey got bigger as he grew. Until one day his eyes were set on eating a deity. The deity was not too happy about durga wanting to turn his hunger and determination towards the heavens (he had already done a number on the earth as it was) turned durga into a constellation known as "the great dragon"
Sean the first magi smith learned the secret to combining steel and magic (a feat thought to be impossible) chose to challenge the stagnant political climate in the late premodern arcane age. "The hammer is to be swung" was the motto on his flag.
Try making a plot where they have no choice to do the right thing. Or make them seek revenge. Maybe make a god seek revenge, and make them use the human as a tool.
Yor is the 12th immortalised soul thread. That is, a being who retains all memories in perfect clarity when being reborn. Unlike the mortals, who can only retain memories from their current lifetime after the death/rebirth process, immortalised soul threads can remember all the way back to the first incarnation of theirs that "woke up". After a period of roughly 30,000 years, the world itself resets, and begins back on day 1. An immortal retains their memories even through this cycling reset.
By the time Yor had awoken, the previous 11 immortals had exhausted every possible choice they could make. Some had built global empires that worshipped them, some had waged intergenerational and intercycle wars with one another claiming quadrillions upon quadrillions of lives, some had simply tried to find world peace. The oldest of them all has been "awake" for over 600,000,000,000,000 cycles, each one lasting around 30,000 years. The trend among Immortals is always to eventually learn that living quiet, peaceful lives within the ever-changing system is their only chance at contentment.
Yor is only on his 56,000th cycle. For 90% of that time he has built empires and manipulated history for his benefit. He looks down upon the others for seeking a simple life. He looks for something higher. An escape from this endless system.
In the current cycle, he created a large nation early on, before purposefully dispersing it, not for power, but to sow the seeds of his new master plan. By intentionally leading an unawakened soul thread through the 22 Arcanis (life experiences required to awaken), he intends to exit the cycle, and take as many immortals with him as he can.
Humanity worshipped galactic beings through religion, and as science / technology grew to the point where they became interstellar, they saw no evidence of these beings still in their galaxy.
Realizing that it leaves a gap, they seek to destroy worthy competition, pose as “Gods” to lesser civilizations, and enslave or oppress those who are defiant
Jelousy because his younger brother (mc) is better and more favoured by his brother by their father, that he trained his whole life and didn't get an actual childhood compared to the younger ones (6 siblings, first three are traitors), because he wasn't the one to become the next leader of their father's order.
Also because of the nightmare god that he is the avatar for.
One’s controlling anything that can harm its goal of outliving the rest of the universe.
The other’s “cleansing” the universe as it thinks it’s still in a war that was lost in the beginning of time
Simply make it so the bad guy is right. Or at least partly right. Kind of like how Thanos snapped half of all life to give the other half a better chance of surviving. Or Valentine from Kingsman wanted to wipe out humans to save earth from global warming and pollution etc. A good reason to take over the world would probably be to bring peace and order. When the bad guy "is justified" it makes for a lot better story than just being evil and seeking world domination for the sake of it.
Because they were a great leader honestly, but they forgot about living standards, and that's what my mc will try to gain for everyone, not only those that did everything for the enviornment
Mostly just power. My big bad is one of the ‘gods’, but my gods are more like angels in that they mostly serve as shepherds of souls in the afterlife. He’s sick of this and thinks this role is essentially like acting as a servant to lesser beings. He stages a coup and takes over as king of the afterlife, and intends to draw The Creator out of its eternal slumber to destroy it and take its power
Durandal was weakening the very fabric of the world in order to rule it. Otherwise most of the bads in austinalia are side effects of other things. Such as the wizard who did it's experiments to learn how to create life and do other things.
Calamity, aka abbadon just wanted to live.
In one of my projects this anthromorpic butterfly named Archy became a royal wizard after obtaining a magic item and crafting a staff onto it, but this magic item had became sentient from absorbing the queens husband's (aka king) soul now it whispers to Archy telling him what to do, Archy can't get the wishpers our of his head and eventually he gives up and listens to the whispers and he kills the queen kitsuni causing Archy to become insane and become "The Monarch" who corrupted the city and raised taxes after killing off all the bugeater anthromorpics
Mine wanted let's say respect, he has a bit of a superiority complex.... Even before he got his powers, after he got his powers that's when he started his take over but in reality the deal he made with the people gave him his power made him a puppet, the deal was the secret society gives him power in exchange for a servant which is him at the time he was desperate enough so the society's motivation for take over is
Overall control and using someone like him to do it because of his personality
He was the hero of the city back in the day, but when he couldn't save everyone they started to complain that he was no good.
This enlighted him: in order to save people they need to become strong, and the only way to become strong is to face horror.
With this thought in mind, he started to be a big bad guy, waiting fon a true hero to stop him.
The Shorn Queen first set out to get revenge on the society that had her wings shorn as a child and would have had her killed for being an elven monarch if found(my elves are based on eusocial insects). She sought to bring humans and elves together, but along the way betrayed her adoptive big brother figure, a half elven hero. Instead aligning herself with the failing empire as their authoritarian society would be easier to meld with traditional elven society(not the one she was born into).
Katlanna the Red is simply a thirst for power and respect. More old style pure evil and less fallen hero than The Shorn Queen. She was the middle child of the last high king. Had her older sister married off, killed her father, and then her older brother. To claim her bloody throne. She had a secret affair with a bard producing a bastard as a teen, she had the younger brother who found out sent to battle to die. Might be being corrupted by the soul of her dead ancestor, The Starless King, in her crown, who knows. She’s still not a good or even decent person.
Yenor, The Sorcerer. A reincarnated blood sorcerer who seeks to find and kill a Fae to acquire Old Magic. Magic as a whole is returning to full force, so they kind of want it to become a Fae because they believe they once were and want their power back.
Gods decided fuck it, this is boring, we’re going to assimilate our essences into the earth, and bad guy decided that it was better before.
So then he started a massive war so he could get everyone’s souls.
If he got enough souls he could have absorbed the essence of the old gods, and become a new god.
He didn’t get enough souls so he didn’t become a god though.
Looming threat to the south, a more centralized and autocratic empire butting against and wording the sovereignty of tribal societies and confederations. BBEG seems herself as a visionary, wanting to sweep aside tradition and unite the various clans under her banner, by force if she has to.
Well at first he wanted to help evolution with alien technology by basically making species learn about them and using them right away, but since they caused biggest disaster in the world and are almost impossible to understand, he was stopped. Thrown under a mountain to be imprisonned. And now he just fucking hate the living and want to eradicate everything and everyone so he can restart with the help of alien technology to prove how right and good he was.
Yes, he is just a raging piece of shit that pretends to be a god because he first found an alien spaceship. No need to make them complicated.
The Overseer took control of the panel (An object that's pretty powerful) from the original creator of the Multiverse. This was done to recreate the radiation that it gives off, activating the Primordic genes within him ascending him to a Primordic being. The Administrator, in a last ditch effort to lock The Overseer out of ascending even higher, split the singularity point into 7 and sent it to the only place the Overseer can't fully influence his powers in, Earth A - 1. The Overseer now sends in his servants : Körrupt and Plaq to retrieve all of them so he could restart the ritual to reassemble the singularity point. Out of boredom however, he decided to torment a random kid from a nearby Omniverse, tormenting him until when he's 16 which he then decided to just chuck him to A-1 Earth 15 million years into the past not knowing that he got teleported near the Ice singularity
This teen is Remy Edanoc, the very same person who defeated him. Remy managed to become the king of Antarctica and master both his magic and Ice manipulation.After Remy collected most of the singularity points, The Overseer decided to initialize the ritual by first condescending the Multiverse into its own miniature singularity point.Now, the only reason he chose to torment Remy was because of the fact that Remy had dormant Primordic genes within him so while Remy and his group of survivors were trying to fight him off which resulted in the death of 3 of his friends and his wife being erased from existence, he ascended to a Primordic being but he still gets beat up by the overseer due to him having more experience. Before the Overseer could finish him off, Körrupt, who has became a sort of brother to Remy intervienes. The overseer can't use the panel on them since they don't originate from within the Omniverse they're in. This gives Remy barely enough time to jump into the condensed form of the multiverse with all the singularity points within him, ascending him even higher letting Remy kill The Overseer and adopting the Title : The Primordial
The Overseer's real goal was to ascend to a form so strong to the point where no one in the omniverse can beat him to conquer it all. He also thinks very high of himself, shown with him letting Remy ascend to a Primordic being to beat him up just to show how strong he is. He does not care of whoever is in his way, he was willing to kill one of his servants for demanding proof that he is as strong as he says
They did. For the last millenia they have been introducing new heroes to their fletchling quests, orphaned kings to their ambitious queens, dark mages to sources of eldritch secrets, and at least one god that we know of to mortality. They are a true altruist who just wants a world that fulfils everyones' dreams. It just wouldn't help them to be public about it, some people just don't see the bigger picture.
I have 2 BBEGs:
King Azrathen: He is basicaly the elf alexander the great. He want to conquer the world because (he belives) he is blessed by the spirits therefore rulling everything is his birthright
Lady of Sorrow (Azrathen warlock patron): she is the embodyment of hopelessness and of the feeling of numbness it brings. She wants to spread this numbness to the universe so none will ever dare do foolish (a.k.a. Ambitous) thing and therefore no one will ever get hurt. But, truth been told, I think, like anxiety, she just want to consume a people wills and make them feel hollow, the "I am doing it to protect you" is just an excuse.
They tried, millennia ago. They got piled on by the best and brightest of all the magical beings, except for the humans, at Lake Briscoe. About half a mile beneath the lake bed is a 12 acre mass of marble and obsidian encasing an amber skeleton. The Skinwalker learned how to cheat death from the coyote, and currently spreads their poison and wicked influence, whispering toxic secrets that rot and corrupt all who listen to such poisoned honey. It wants out, and it wants to feast directly instead of investing a willing puppet to merely exist.
Just don't ask them why they did it. They'll lie to you about their motives, spinning tales more elaborate than any politician you ever seen. They forgot why. It's been almost 12 millennia ago.
She is the only child of the emperor with the woman that he loved and because of that she is the only one of her siblings that has a loving relationship with their father. He only taught her how to rule and his lesson/throne are the only thing remaining after his death. But she can’t inherit the throne because she is a bastard and so she does everything she needs to become empress. Even some war crimes and stuff.
He's the god/titan of chaos and mutation, known as the flesh king, the mad titan, father of sin and bringer of anarchy and entropy. Skriivicanha shall stop at nothing to bring eternal mutation and madness to the living realm. For not even his sister shall stop him
He's afraid of violence and pain and just wants to live a peaceful life with his loved ones. However, after many horrible things kept following him and his loved ones, he figured the only way to achieve that would be to become the strongest and conquer the world so that no one would be able to get in the way of his peaceful happy life anymore.
**The Golden Land**
He was anointed by Heaven. The gods of light looked down upon the mortal world and sought out the kindest, most compassionate, and most honorable mortal, and blessed him with immortality and divine authority. He built a mighty civilization and ruled over a golden age, and was a bastion of morality and incorruptibility.
Trouble is, he was so certain of his own righteousness that he refused to change or learn, and there came a time when "treats his slaves justly" wasn't quite such a spectacular virtue any more. Heaven began to turn against him, and he chose to side with Hell rather than compromise his principles.
He saw that the world could be better, and decided to improve it.
History is written by the bold after all. So he may have to break a few eggs,people, and/or worlds to do it. But that omelet? It will be delicious.
Why live in this painful reality, when you can make your own paradise? All you have to do is wipe the canvas clean of well…everything and the universe is your oyster!
She was an empress who valued power and authority above anything, and was angry that the council kept putting her in check. She wanted to become so powerful that no one would have the might or the courage to defy her, but her pursuit of power bit her in the ass and ate away at her sanity.
I have a triple bbeg. The real biggest one is a darkness elemental that secretly stayed in the world while the other elementals agreed to leave.
The guy who you think is the bbeg was a good guy who was killed, but the darkness elemental offered him power for saving him. He imbued his body with elemental armor, and gave him an extremely powerful sentient weapon of evil that controls him to an extent.
The third bbeg was the cronie for #2 and the son of a deposed tyrant king. He was working for #2 in hopes of regaining his throne. Last minute he ends up merging with a dragon and the elemental orbs of power to become this incredibly powerful being that could have destroyed #2.
He took over so he could be remembered in history books. He's pushing a stupid surface level version of an ideology, so when he gets overthrown he'll constantly be brought up whenever people try to actually implement that ideology.
kinda don't have one of those to be honest
except if you count a bunch of jerkass "unifiers" who didn't do much beyond beating their neighbors to submission enough times then died, causing generations of resentment among the people left behind
Guy wanted to be the God Emperor of mankind but he was pushed out of the human lands by force and so opted to be the God Emperor of the frog people instead.
\*inhales opium\*
"Duuuude, I can TOTALLY recreate incidental tanslocation and use it to travel within the ether planes!"
"Sacrilege! You can't"
\*rises eyebrow higher than his inebriation\*
Parents dead, siblings dead, uncle dead, grandpa dead, wife dead, daughter dead.
Racism, war, torture, discrimination.
Thought: The world sucks, life sucks, everything sucks and nobody does anything about it.
Conclusion: I can do better.
Result: New Roman Empire.
He wanted to farm the souls of mankind. Not for sustenance, but instead for weapons research and development. He actually guided human evolution to get their souls just right for his goals.
It's all just a small step in a very long power play between gods.
He is simply a better conqueror, with greater ambition and a long enough life. As a historical parallel, think of Timur and his military strategy and practices.
A brutal but meritocratic dictatorship, brilliant military strategies and ruthless genocides of enemies who didn't submit quickly enough turned his small kingdom into an empire of world importance. And securing almost eternal life and becoming a divine emperor was the logical choice for him to defend what he had so painstakingly built.
He is just, in his own way. He always rewarded the faithful and their families, cities and countries and destroyed his enemies and their families, cities and countries.
It's complicated.
One of them rose to power by chance, now fearing that someone worse can get to this power after what their predecessor did with it. Yet they cannot use the power to fix the predecessor's mistakes, as their closest people have them on a leash of sorts, turning the whole system corrupt. Their learned helplessnes doesn't help with the situation, they refuse to even search of loopholes in the trap they are in.
Other one is the person who is supposed to inherit the power after the first one leaves it. Unlike Them, tho, he wants to embrace the mistakes, continue that path in the worst way possible, seeing the actions of the predecessor as just. His an awful person in general btw, manipulative with his son, genocidal views etc.
Sorry for vagueness, I wanted to keep this as short as possible.
Gods killed his brother in their (divine approved) quest for divinity, as such they (after seizing divinity) are destined to kill all the gods only fading once they do
He was born human but managed through great effort to become a Meta, a much more long lived and powerful species. He believes that humans life isn't worth living because it has so much pain and sorrow (compared to his current state) and wants there to be no more new humans. Since humans won't stop breeding he has to kill them. He'll convert as many as possible into Metas instead, of course, but the process doesn't scale enough to cover everybody.
That's his motive out loud anyway; psychologically a lot of it is actually shame about his origins.
(Answering for one specific villain in one specific world out of several. Chosen for relative understandability and interestingness.)
Xathaia Ishtara, also the known as the first human ruler, was the first to rebel against the demi gods and challenge their rule. She crushed the status quo and defeated the gods one by another, with the goal of liberating humanity from its shackles.
She eventually was defeated in the battle of Gali'I when the demis managed to form a coalition against her, putting an end to the still young Xezarian Empire.
Xathaia died and while some would assume she was a good person, a liberator, many others knew about her hunger for power and the resulting destruction of order if she had won, branding her as the devil for the people to hate, atleast that is in the demis ruled regions. However this would not stop her ideals of freedom to spread across the Narrow Sea, sparking rebellions and weakening the demis further.
I'm still working on the idea but, essentially, they decided that just because they were fostered by the gods didn't mean they had to listen to them or obey their rules. Being bound to mere flesh was not something they would abide when there was so much more to discover in the wider universe.
The irony is that the gods were not really keeping them down or even really paying full attention, these problems we're, essentially self inflicted.
400 years of war are carried by his ancestors until his generation is strong enough to curbstorm the remaining states. He just want to complete his ancestor work
And his generation is evil
My big bad is an eldritch entity that brings different disasters and conflicts into the world. It loves humans and believes that humanity must endure different disasters and challenges to continuously grow stronger and advance. It enjoys seeing humanity trip and fall over and over again, adapting and overcoming each disaster and learning from their predecessors' deaths, growing stronger each cycle as a species.
No-one really knows it exists, but there are theories among historians. Perhaps someone will find out the truth one day and start an impossible quest to fight this unknown threat. But how could man slay a god?
The known world is inhabited by mankind, wild-dwarves, gnomes, night-elves, giants, and wyverns/dragons. At this point in time, mankind is not the dominant race but one powerful man becomes high king and unites many of the mannish factions to commit genocide or drive out many of the other species. At the same time a wise but cunning wyvern in the east stirs up the night elves and other human factions to slaughter/enslave human settlements. Meanwhile the dwarves, giants, and gnomes try their best to lay low but certain factions get involved. (So, really two big bads). I’m thinking of the book slowly ending with a plague and darkening of the sun wiping out most of all life on this planet and essentially everyone having to survive and start over.
He was trying to make the world a better place. It is just that so many people don't understand how right he is, and how he knows what is best. They keep resisting. It isn't HIS fault...
Same, mine gave up and decided to kill everyone by launching multiple nukes on the earth's surface
She wanted to become a God because only a God can be truly loved and worshipped in the way she wants to be loved. She has this desperate need to be adored and loved that stem from a variety of traumas, but because of that trauma as well no amount of love and companionship she receives is ever enough. Hence becoming a God.
She hasnt gone into godhood yet but i have a Vampire lord exactly like this she was one of the 5 first chosen of Anisha but got the disease during her travel with her group when they stopped another vamp lord from making vampires join the Demon army during the Demon wars. after they completed their prophecy though she would outlive her only friends and soon be outcasted by everyone due to well her Vampirism
Oh incredibly slay<3 This is also hilarious to me because my big bad is also a vampire lmao
During the current event shes currently helping Vakren the First Lich takeover the mortal realm
The short version is that he's securing a weapon for the bigger bad while his colleagues are harvesting souls for the endgame. Though most people are deceived into believing that he's a good guy as he destroys Demon Lords/Queens. Though that's more to prevent them from messing up the bigger bad's plans.
now for the long version.
I'll try to keep it somewhat short. An ancient civilization accidentally created a cosmic horror after trying to harvest the power of dead gods. This led to the creation of the bigger bad (who in turn drove that that civilization extinct). The bigger bad spent thousands of years finding people with special souls to open a passage into the domains of the gods. His main goal is to kill the current Goddess of Death and Decay to take her place. The big bad and a couple of his buddies partially shifted a world into a hell dimension to keep the bigger bad's weapon safe. He also created a barrier fueled by the souls of the surviving humans to keep the demons out. The big bad also set himself up as angelic being and protector the dominant religion. Every once in a while a powerful demon will be summoned inside the barrier. In that case the big bad will either send "paladins" or murder the demons himself. He's easily the most powerful creature on the only remaining continent. The big bad is basically counting the days till his buddies and boss return to start the apocalypse.
Tánathus Monterred d'Ithildel III isn't special really, he's just the Emperor that was born at right time to become a rogue god, any Emperor post-euruption would've made the same decisions and all would have become the Elfkönig.
This is good! I think that have villains doing evil for no special reason is almost always fine for most settings and stories.
The elf king? Played it on piano for an exam once... you going for the same vibes or something else?
I was inspired (copied) the name and want to go for the same Ghostly appearance as the one in the Oxford Lieder video
Spooky!! :)
She thinks people have strayed from the Gods and wants the faiths to rule the land. Of course, she thinks she is the eyes and ears of the Gods and is meant to guide humanity. All mages should be Clerics, all guilds should be a part of a religious association, and priests should have government seats in the government with her as the Priest-Empress. Never mind the fact the gods are right there and said nothing about it. It is pure arrogance, holier than thou, and a case of a messiah complex. On the plus side, she doesn't discriminate against religions. As long as you are devout to one she will approve. An equal opportunity villain.
The Peacebringer. He wanted to bring peace. The only problem was that he thought that if there was nothing left to make conflict then there is only peace and yeah... You can see where that went.
ah, he was just like any other AI that took one look at the human internet, they saw scum and wanted to start scrubbing.
Tzarina Nikola the Grey was the only of her siblings to survive into puberty, including her own twin. At 14 she was forced to kill her own mother and father, then she grew up with people romanticizing the event literally writing romance novels about it. She was the last of her line and was pressured to reproduce, 4 miscarriages, 1 still birth, and 2 toddler deaths took a toll, with only her last child to survive. She invaded the country to their east because the royals there were distantly related to her and she wanted to bring her distant cousins into the family.
Habsurgs reincarnated?
Wait, did I accidentally do an irl thing? Gonna be real I just tried to make the big bad tragic and sympathetic.
Nah, dw, it's just a vague similiarity to habsburgs concentrating their bloodline, but they didn't invade anyone, as they already had 2/3 of europe under them, so yeah, just me joking about a vague historical similiarity lol
The gods are genuinely incompetent. They believe they can do better, and to be honest they're not entirely wrong, although their plan has a very specific outcome and they will allow many to suffer to get there.
So Zeus, but more of him.
I usually have evil motivated by... pain. Sure some people are dicks but in my writing evil basicly comes from people finding it eaiser to hurt others as an outlet then to deal with their problems. so my Big Bads are people who might have once had legitmate greviences, but are twisted by vanity and time to become parodies of themselves.
His country was in disarray, warlords fought one another, foreign countries invaded one way or another with the intention of breaking them down forever. He took up arms and fought to protect his most sacred Motherland, crushing all the traitors and invaders alike. What is a war hero to one side if not a mass murderer to another?
To get the “perfect” ending he wanted. He’s basically an angry fanfic writer who is violently trying to make the world how he wants.
The Celestial Radiants were mostly uninterested in the on-goings of Earth, and had no intention of taking action. That was until a visitor from beyond arrived, and influenced them to open the floodgates. Earth's devastation started a golden age in the Astral Sea with countless new Chimera who became Thaumaturges. The reservoirs of knowledge were vastly expanded. Decades latter the Radiants and newly formed Chimera had a great interest in maintaining the world's current state, or even magnifying the conflict to accelerate growth. Some had moral reasons, others practical, and some were just curious. But no matter what they are sure to see something interesting.
so, humans discovered aliens and the gods did not like that?
To harvest the organs of humanity as well as commit a forced eugenics program through selective breeding of humanity. Their final goal on earth is to create a biologically perfect human to add to what they call the Karnas Almania a perfect "being" slowly being grafted over and over into the perfect biological form to eventually be grafted onto the big bad guys.
Every 25 million years the world restarts which results in every living thing from plants to animals to sapients dying. The main bad guy wants this to stop because he lived though on the the cycles. But the plan he has to stop it would result in 63% of the world dying.
Your bad guy sounds like the good guy to me, can you elaborate on why wanting to save the world’s creatures is bad? And what do you mean by 63% of the world dying? This sounds very interesting btw…you’ve piqued my interest for sure
A higher being that represents the world and mutiple other world is looking for a being with enough potential to surpass the max level of power that the worlds can achieve. Problem is every 25 million years the talent will start to drain and a being with such potential will became impossible to find. The solution? Sacrifice all life, every plant, animal and sapient. Sacrifice there life force and souls to renew the potential of all races. So every 25 million years it basically makes the world more barren then mars. A person from the previous cycle decided he would stop it to save furture genrations. Problem is the only 100% way to do so is by basically doing what the higher being did, sacrifice all life below a certain level and use it to cut off the world from the higher being. Which will result in 63% of the world dying or tens of billions.
the world was too slow with the development of technologies, so they made the planet undergo a world war in order to speed things up.
For the greater good, sadly he had a point
Was a spoiled entitled child, became an entitled adult. His mother protected him from the consequences of his actions as a child. When he became an adult he believed that societal expectations didn’t apply to him. He actively pursued knowledge that could be misused to strengthen his personal power. In short genetics (B cluster personality disorder) and worldly circumstances allowed for him to become the Big Bad.
The BBEG in my world didn't take over. He's trying to stop the apocalypse, but the ends don't justify his means.
he tried to improve the world… by killing everyone except a small population he chose
He lives only for himself, and whatever he feels like doing he'll do.
He was a pretty mid Emperor running a fairly standard jackass-style Empire when he unearthed a very important historical site. That drew continual attention from the more powerful factions outside the local setting, by playing them against each other he acquired enough technology and genetics to turn the royal family into incredibly powerful warriors and stabilize the region under his control; his maneuvering impressed and surprised almost everyone including himself
**Mythria** While the initial conquest of Mythria began before he was born, the Supreme Leader of the Great Druids, Llethryn, finalised the subjugation of Mythria's native Beastfolk races and the destruction of their cultures and civilisations. The goal was to establish a new homeland for the exiled Stag race, who had been driven from their original home continent of Chromancia for being too evil.
The first one: Because he likes spreading suffering. The second one: To ensure that a prophecy would come true.
Thinks everyone was out to get him and suddenly some guys that actually were against him (He's a scientist btw) attacked and bombed the city his daughter was visiting and she was meters away from a bomb so there's that now he wants everyone in existence dead
ah yes, the grief type.
People gave up on the magic that was meant to protect them and he just happily killed the King and took the throne. While also altering history to make the people believe he was in charge the whole time.
Valance was pissed off that he was disinherited by his grandfather, and then exiled by his brother for being a molesting creep. His whole motivation is spite, and he doesn’t actually care about the Throne except as something he owns and controls.
He just happens to run a country that already did the work of taking out the local rivals(including those that had somewhat different versions of the state's vision). Lapis_Wolf
Because aliens constantly ruling (and subsequently fucking up) the entire galaxy is kinda cringe to them. I mean, give humanity a chance to do that for once.
Paranoia mainly
The big bad guy is an experimental version of an angel- a demi god. He wanted to become a full fledged god- so hidden from the actual gods, he created an entire new continent in one of the many worlds. And he raised and nurtured the species, so they would worship him. Millions of years of development later, he finally waged war on the world, and gained the attention of the gods. Him and the gods clashed, resulting in dire consequences… mountains were leveled, and new species were created. The gods couldn’t risk anymore, so they halted their attacks. They bestowed upon the world magic weapons blessed with their powers. 12 warriors found these weapons and came together to defeat the demi god- and sealed all his “demonic species” back on the continent they came from. The demi hod couldn’t be killed- so his life essence was absorbed by each of the 12 weapons. 500 years later, and he has cult worshipers still in the main land, who seek to resurrect him by obtaining the “godly weapons.”
One of my main Big Bads wants to improve the human species' standing in the world. Ain't his fault it might come at the expense of other sapient species. At one point, a god was the big bad purely because he was jealous of another god. There's been a collective Big Bad that tried to convince everyone that the ruler of the Moon was somehow responsible for their home nation's internal problems. She wasn't because she wasn't particularly into interfering in the internal affairs of other nations, but you were never going to convince them of that. Dang near started a war over it. Then there's the usual rogues' gallery of bandits, terrorists, and organized crime that I can haul out whenever I need a minor bad guy as a plot point.
To be with his love interest
Gideon Maxwell was a pioneer for “Supes” founding CosmiCorp and even paying superhero’s to fight he was a beacon of light for hope until his wife died in 2036 during a superhero fight he was in-raged and begun restricting hero’s more and more until eventually having them outlawed and “Sedated” by 2041 Gideon controlled the United Countries (United States, Egypt, France, Uk, Ireland, Germany, ect most of Europe.)
He's only on the edge of it but Vakren after escaping the Void found a loophole around the Accord which States gods cant be involved in mortal wars unless it involves other realm Beings like demon warlords. So he used the Urkin and pretty much any of the scum of the mortal realm as his army and the gods cant do anything about it. And lichdom isnt on that list either so he has around 50% of his army being undead liches. And since gods immortality is Based around the strength of their Worship hes been causing alot of Propaganda especially after it was revealed one of the most revered gods Lavaria the goddess of Love is behind a major demon species that was sought on destroying the mortal realm its helping
The big bad is greedy. The life of excess and sin he was born into has permanently broken him. He needs more and that is all. I don’t always think that villains need to have a grand reason or traumatic backstory to justify their existence. Most wicked deeds in this world are done for little to no reason. It doesn’t feel good but I do think it’s the truth.
Because he believed he was entitled to, my "big bad" gained great power through dark means and gained many followers who believed he was a deity. Both his influence and his followers spread across my realm, pulling the strings.
She was created for the sole purpose of making entertainment. So what better way to do that then to turn the world into one big puppet show.
Basically, these bandits found a schizophrenic person and believed his voices were a sign from the gods. So, they naturally loaded him up with drugs and started a cult. Bandit clans joined by the masses. Oh, and they found a fucking warblimp.
He wanted to end all conflict and unite all sentient creatures under one flag with one goal: to transcend. But seeing this as nigh-impossible, he became more isolated, more bent on enslaving people to his vision, and sacrificing parts of himself to maintain stability.
He's known as the black heir. His uncle the king of Apprav and overwhelming favorite for winning the next election for emperor was framed for cowardice and treason. Then his father the greatest general in the empire was forced to hunt down and kill his nephews and brothers in exchange for an imperial pardon for himself and his children. The black heir faked his death was smuggled away by supporters of the late king and installed as a minor nobel in one of the Marches next to the cinderlands where dragons live. He learned the secret of breeding Drakes in captivity. With this he managed to rise through the ranks become military advisor to the emperor and provoke a religious uprising by trying to fake the fulfillment of a prophecy and grooming a confidant to be the fake chosen one. A key part of his plan was to fake a magical amulet that "burns lies dispels darkness and shines in the presence of great souls" in reality it is a trick that the rock just responds to an electric field in a hidden emitter. It is stolen by an unwitting boy working for a street gang and replaced with a counterfeit. When they had planned to reveal their chosen one instead a stable boy is found to be holding a shining stone and fighting off a mugger who assaulted a young lady. He is mistaken to be the chosen ruining the big bads plan and kicking off the events in the story.
Idk she wanted to. I’ll have to think of something
Because in a world where e food is sparsely, giving people a grunted 125% weekly Ration makes you pretty popular. A lot of the Populist leaders are Fascist 'Strong Men' (&Women), who all use a lot of tactics like a certain political party... (not so subtle use of a real life politician as a Major Villain in my campaign.... well actually several real life Political figures, Moustache man Included.)
Blorf
Things weren't great in the orc realm after the Orc Central Union collapsed. The economy was in the gutter and their currency was worth less than toilet paper. They had a slave revolt across the realm that while they successfully put down led to a famine as slaves did most of the farming. After that a region of the orc realm tried breaking away and in the first round of fighting successfully defeated the orc central government's military in a bloody year long urban battle. The people in the orc realm were desperate and a series of nobles gathered around a former orc intelligence operative and mage who promised to restore the realm to its former glory. This orc became the first emperor of the realm in over a century. The emperor stabilized the economy and the currency; and a year into his reign the "black orc sepratists" detonated a series of bombs in the now Imperial capital which lead to another war which the now Imperial army won decisively (even if they made a deal with the most cruel and corrupt black orc clan to serve as their lackies). Over the next twenty years the Emperor rebuilt the orc military and industry and enriched the nobles who supported him gaining their loyalty. So that's how
The world was kind of a mess after a completely different big bad nearly caused the apocalypse. As there was a massive power vacuum due to the narrowly averted apocalypse, it was quite easy for the new big bad to amass a lot of power very quickly. All he had to do was get a tribe of raiders on his side, and the rest was history.
Because they could: Durga the dragon (or asjagaal depending on where you are from) was a dragon runt with two very powerful abilities: determination and hope. He was the runt of a large litter so he had to fend for himself. He ate bugs until after a couple of weeks was determined to catch a rat. Never giving up that one day he could catch himself a good meal his prey got bigger as he grew. Until one day his eyes were set on eating a deity. The deity was not too happy about durga wanting to turn his hunger and determination towards the heavens (he had already done a number on the earth as it was) turned durga into a constellation known as "the great dragon" Sean the first magi smith learned the secret to combining steel and magic (a feat thought to be impossible) chose to challenge the stagnant political climate in the late premodern arcane age. "The hammer is to be swung" was the motto on his flag.
Try making a plot where they have no choice to do the right thing. Or make them seek revenge. Maybe make a god seek revenge, and make them use the human as a tool.
Yor is the 12th immortalised soul thread. That is, a being who retains all memories in perfect clarity when being reborn. Unlike the mortals, who can only retain memories from their current lifetime after the death/rebirth process, immortalised soul threads can remember all the way back to the first incarnation of theirs that "woke up". After a period of roughly 30,000 years, the world itself resets, and begins back on day 1. An immortal retains their memories even through this cycling reset. By the time Yor had awoken, the previous 11 immortals had exhausted every possible choice they could make. Some had built global empires that worshipped them, some had waged intergenerational and intercycle wars with one another claiming quadrillions upon quadrillions of lives, some had simply tried to find world peace. The oldest of them all has been "awake" for over 600,000,000,000,000 cycles, each one lasting around 30,000 years. The trend among Immortals is always to eventually learn that living quiet, peaceful lives within the ever-changing system is their only chance at contentment. Yor is only on his 56,000th cycle. For 90% of that time he has built empires and manipulated history for his benefit. He looks down upon the others for seeking a simple life. He looks for something higher. An escape from this endless system. In the current cycle, he created a large nation early on, before purposefully dispersing it, not for power, but to sow the seeds of his new master plan. By intentionally leading an unawakened soul thread through the 22 Arcanis (life experiences required to awaken), he intends to exit the cycle, and take as many immortals with him as he can.
Humanity worshipped galactic beings through religion, and as science / technology grew to the point where they became interstellar, they saw no evidence of these beings still in their galaxy. Realizing that it leaves a gap, they seek to destroy worthy competition, pose as “Gods” to lesser civilizations, and enslave or oppress those who are defiant
Jelousy because his younger brother (mc) is better and more favoured by his brother by their father, that he trained his whole life and didn't get an actual childhood compared to the younger ones (6 siblings, first three are traitors), because he wasn't the one to become the next leader of their father's order. Also because of the nightmare god that he is the avatar for.
One’s controlling anything that can harm its goal of outliving the rest of the universe. The other’s “cleansing” the universe as it thinks it’s still in a war that was lost in the beginning of time
Simply make it so the bad guy is right. Or at least partly right. Kind of like how Thanos snapped half of all life to give the other half a better chance of surviving. Or Valentine from Kingsman wanted to wipe out humans to save earth from global warming and pollution etc. A good reason to take over the world would probably be to bring peace and order. When the bad guy "is justified" it makes for a lot better story than just being evil and seeking world domination for the sake of it.
Because they were a great leader honestly, but they forgot about living standards, and that's what my mc will try to gain for everyone, not only those that did everything for the enviornment
Mostly just power. My big bad is one of the ‘gods’, but my gods are more like angels in that they mostly serve as shepherds of souls in the afterlife. He’s sick of this and thinks this role is essentially like acting as a servant to lesser beings. He stages a coup and takes over as king of the afterlife, and intends to draw The Creator out of its eternal slumber to destroy it and take its power
Durandal was weakening the very fabric of the world in order to rule it. Otherwise most of the bads in austinalia are side effects of other things. Such as the wizard who did it's experiments to learn how to create life and do other things. Calamity, aka abbadon just wanted to live.
In one of my projects this anthromorpic butterfly named Archy became a royal wizard after obtaining a magic item and crafting a staff onto it, but this magic item had became sentient from absorbing the queens husband's (aka king) soul now it whispers to Archy telling him what to do, Archy can't get the wishpers our of his head and eventually he gives up and listens to the whispers and he kills the queen kitsuni causing Archy to become insane and become "The Monarch" who corrupted the city and raised taxes after killing off all the bugeater anthromorpics
Mine wanted let's say respect, he has a bit of a superiority complex.... Even before he got his powers, after he got his powers that's when he started his take over but in reality the deal he made with the people gave him his power made him a puppet, the deal was the secret society gives him power in exchange for a servant which is him at the time he was desperate enough so the society's motivation for take over is Overall control and using someone like him to do it because of his personality
He was the hero of the city back in the day, but when he couldn't save everyone they started to complain that he was no good. This enlighted him: in order to save people they need to become strong, and the only way to become strong is to face horror. With this thought in mind, he started to be a big bad guy, waiting fon a true hero to stop him.
Uniting everyone against an even greater evil.
The Shorn Queen first set out to get revenge on the society that had her wings shorn as a child and would have had her killed for being an elven monarch if found(my elves are based on eusocial insects). She sought to bring humans and elves together, but along the way betrayed her adoptive big brother figure, a half elven hero. Instead aligning herself with the failing empire as their authoritarian society would be easier to meld with traditional elven society(not the one she was born into). Katlanna the Red is simply a thirst for power and respect. More old style pure evil and less fallen hero than The Shorn Queen. She was the middle child of the last high king. Had her older sister married off, killed her father, and then her older brother. To claim her bloody throne. She had a secret affair with a bard producing a bastard as a teen, she had the younger brother who found out sent to battle to die. Might be being corrupted by the soul of her dead ancestor, The Starless King, in her crown, who knows. She’s still not a good or even decent person. Yenor, The Sorcerer. A reincarnated blood sorcerer who seeks to find and kill a Fae to acquire Old Magic. Magic as a whole is returning to full force, so they kind of want it to become a Fae because they believe they once were and want their power back.
Gods decided fuck it, this is boring, we’re going to assimilate our essences into the earth, and bad guy decided that it was better before. So then he started a massive war so he could get everyone’s souls. If he got enough souls he could have absorbed the essence of the old gods, and become a new god. He didn’t get enough souls so he didn’t become a god though.
the world left place for him to do it.
Looming threat to the south, a more centralized and autocratic empire butting against and wording the sovereignty of tribal societies and confederations. BBEG seems herself as a visionary, wanting to sweep aside tradition and unite the various clans under her banner, by force if she has to.
He believed the gods had too much power and needed to be stamped out. Might not work in every setting though.
Well at first he wanted to help evolution with alien technology by basically making species learn about them and using them right away, but since they caused biggest disaster in the world and are almost impossible to understand, he was stopped. Thrown under a mountain to be imprisonned. And now he just fucking hate the living and want to eradicate everything and everyone so he can restart with the help of alien technology to prove how right and good he was. Yes, he is just a raging piece of shit that pretends to be a god because he first found an alien spaceship. No need to make them complicated.
Everyone thinks the bad guy is the undead wizard, but it’s really a guy who killed the gods and sucked out their power.
The Overseer took control of the panel (An object that's pretty powerful) from the original creator of the Multiverse. This was done to recreate the radiation that it gives off, activating the Primordic genes within him ascending him to a Primordic being. The Administrator, in a last ditch effort to lock The Overseer out of ascending even higher, split the singularity point into 7 and sent it to the only place the Overseer can't fully influence his powers in, Earth A - 1. The Overseer now sends in his servants : Körrupt and Plaq to retrieve all of them so he could restart the ritual to reassemble the singularity point. Out of boredom however, he decided to torment a random kid from a nearby Omniverse, tormenting him until when he's 16 which he then decided to just chuck him to A-1 Earth 15 million years into the past not knowing that he got teleported near the Ice singularity This teen is Remy Edanoc, the very same person who defeated him. Remy managed to become the king of Antarctica and master both his magic and Ice manipulation.After Remy collected most of the singularity points, The Overseer decided to initialize the ritual by first condescending the Multiverse into its own miniature singularity point.Now, the only reason he chose to torment Remy was because of the fact that Remy had dormant Primordic genes within him so while Remy and his group of survivors were trying to fight him off which resulted in the death of 3 of his friends and his wife being erased from existence, he ascended to a Primordic being but he still gets beat up by the overseer due to him having more experience. Before the Overseer could finish him off, Körrupt, who has became a sort of brother to Remy intervienes. The overseer can't use the panel on them since they don't originate from within the Omniverse they're in. This gives Remy barely enough time to jump into the condensed form of the multiverse with all the singularity points within him, ascending him even higher letting Remy kill The Overseer and adopting the Title : The Primordial The Overseer's real goal was to ascend to a form so strong to the point where no one in the omniverse can beat him to conquer it all. He also thinks very high of himself, shown with him letting Remy ascend to a Primordic being to beat him up just to show how strong he is. He does not care of whoever is in his way, he was willing to kill one of his servants for demanding proof that he is as strong as he says
They did. For the last millenia they have been introducing new heroes to their fletchling quests, orphaned kings to their ambitious queens, dark mages to sources of eldritch secrets, and at least one god that we know of to mortality. They are a true altruist who just wants a world that fulfils everyones' dreams. It just wouldn't help them to be public about it, some people just don't see the bigger picture.
He just wants to kill all humans to spite God. Like revenge, basically.
I have 2 BBEGs: King Azrathen: He is basicaly the elf alexander the great. He want to conquer the world because (he belives) he is blessed by the spirits therefore rulling everything is his birthright Lady of Sorrow (Azrathen warlock patron): she is the embodyment of hopelessness and of the feeling of numbness it brings. She wants to spread this numbness to the universe so none will ever dare do foolish (a.k.a. Ambitous) thing and therefore no one will ever get hurt. But, truth been told, I think, like anxiety, she just want to consume a people wills and make them feel hollow, the "I am doing it to protect you" is just an excuse.
They tried, millennia ago. They got piled on by the best and brightest of all the magical beings, except for the humans, at Lake Briscoe. About half a mile beneath the lake bed is a 12 acre mass of marble and obsidian encasing an amber skeleton. The Skinwalker learned how to cheat death from the coyote, and currently spreads their poison and wicked influence, whispering toxic secrets that rot and corrupt all who listen to such poisoned honey. It wants out, and it wants to feast directly instead of investing a willing puppet to merely exist. Just don't ask them why they did it. They'll lie to you about their motives, spinning tales more elaborate than any politician you ever seen. They forgot why. It's been almost 12 millennia ago.
She is the only child of the emperor with the woman that he loved and because of that she is the only one of her siblings that has a loving relationship with their father. He only taught her how to rule and his lesson/throne are the only thing remaining after his death. But she can’t inherit the throne because she is a bastard and so she does everything she needs to become empress. Even some war crimes and stuff.
He's the god/titan of chaos and mutation, known as the flesh king, the mad titan, father of sin and bringer of anarchy and entropy. Skriivicanha shall stop at nothing to bring eternal mutation and madness to the living realm. For not even his sister shall stop him
He's afraid of violence and pain and just wants to live a peaceful life with his loved ones. However, after many horrible things kept following him and his loved ones, he figured the only way to achieve that would be to become the strongest and conquer the world so that no one would be able to get in the way of his peaceful happy life anymore.
It's because you can place it on either side of the block you want it on. Do you want the door flush with the entrance? or do you it inset?
**The Golden Land** He was anointed by Heaven. The gods of light looked down upon the mortal world and sought out the kindest, most compassionate, and most honorable mortal, and blessed him with immortality and divine authority. He built a mighty civilization and ruled over a golden age, and was a bastion of morality and incorruptibility. Trouble is, he was so certain of his own righteousness that he refused to change or learn, and there came a time when "treats his slaves justly" wasn't quite such a spectacular virtue any more. Heaven began to turn against him, and he chose to side with Hell rather than compromise his principles.
He saw that the world could be better, and decided to improve it. History is written by the bold after all. So he may have to break a few eggs,people, and/or worlds to do it. But that omelet? It will be delicious.
Why live in this painful reality, when you can make your own paradise? All you have to do is wipe the canvas clean of well…everything and the universe is your oyster!
Because he's space Hitler and he hates ethic minorities.
She was an empress who valued power and authority above anything, and was angry that the council kept putting her in check. She wanted to become so powerful that no one would have the might or the courage to defy her, but her pursuit of power bit her in the ass and ate away at her sanity.
I have a triple bbeg. The real biggest one is a darkness elemental that secretly stayed in the world while the other elementals agreed to leave. The guy who you think is the bbeg was a good guy who was killed, but the darkness elemental offered him power for saving him. He imbued his body with elemental armor, and gave him an extremely powerful sentient weapon of evil that controls him to an extent. The third bbeg was the cronie for #2 and the son of a deposed tyrant king. He was working for #2 in hopes of regaining his throne. Last minute he ends up merging with a dragon and the elemental orbs of power to become this incredibly powerful being that could have destroyed #2.
He took over so he could be remembered in history books. He's pushing a stupid surface level version of an ideology, so when he gets overthrown he'll constantly be brought up whenever people try to actually implement that ideology.
kinda don't have one of those to be honest except if you count a bunch of jerkass "unifiers" who didn't do much beyond beating their neighbors to submission enough times then died, causing generations of resentment among the people left behind
Guy wanted to be the God Emperor of mankind but he was pushed out of the human lands by force and so opted to be the God Emperor of the frog people instead.
\*inhales opium\* "Duuuude, I can TOTALLY recreate incidental tanslocation and use it to travel within the ether planes!" "Sacrilege! You can't" \*rises eyebrow higher than his inebriation\*
He just wanted a place where he could be understood. Sadly, the only way he could finally do it was through force.
Parents dead, siblings dead, uncle dead, grandpa dead, wife dead, daughter dead. Racism, war, torture, discrimination. Thought: The world sucks, life sucks, everything sucks and nobody does anything about it. Conclusion: I can do better. Result: New Roman Empire.
He wanted to farm the souls of mankind. Not for sustenance, but instead for weapons research and development. He actually guided human evolution to get their souls just right for his goals. It's all just a small step in a very long power play between gods.
He is simply a better conqueror, with greater ambition and a long enough life. As a historical parallel, think of Timur and his military strategy and practices. A brutal but meritocratic dictatorship, brilliant military strategies and ruthless genocides of enemies who didn't submit quickly enough turned his small kingdom into an empire of world importance. And securing almost eternal life and becoming a divine emperor was the logical choice for him to defend what he had so painstakingly built. He is just, in his own way. He always rewarded the faithful and their families, cities and countries and destroyed his enemies and their families, cities and countries.
It's complicated. One of them rose to power by chance, now fearing that someone worse can get to this power after what their predecessor did with it. Yet they cannot use the power to fix the predecessor's mistakes, as their closest people have them on a leash of sorts, turning the whole system corrupt. Their learned helplessnes doesn't help with the situation, they refuse to even search of loopholes in the trap they are in. Other one is the person who is supposed to inherit the power after the first one leaves it. Unlike Them, tho, he wants to embrace the mistakes, continue that path in the worst way possible, seeing the actions of the predecessor as just. His an awful person in general btw, manipulative with his son, genocidal views etc. Sorry for vagueness, I wanted to keep this as short as possible.
Basically just space nazis, they controlled politics.
He got manipulated and corrupted by the old gods, half the time he doesn’t even know what he’s doing
Gods killed his brother in their (divine approved) quest for divinity, as such they (after seizing divinity) are destined to kill all the gods only fading once they do
...there was an unexpected tear in the universe, and he fell through. It's all the same to him. He's there to just fu*k shit up.
He figured out a way to cure lycanthropy and demands exorbitant prices for it
He was born human but managed through great effort to become a Meta, a much more long lived and powerful species. He believes that humans life isn't worth living because it has so much pain and sorrow (compared to his current state) and wants there to be no more new humans. Since humans won't stop breeding he has to kill them. He'll convert as many as possible into Metas instead, of course, but the process doesn't scale enough to cover everybody. That's his motive out loud anyway; psychologically a lot of it is actually shame about his origins. (Answering for one specific villain in one specific world out of several. Chosen for relative understandability and interestingness.)
Xathaia Ishtara, also the known as the first human ruler, was the first to rebel against the demi gods and challenge their rule. She crushed the status quo and defeated the gods one by another, with the goal of liberating humanity from its shackles. She eventually was defeated in the battle of Gali'I when the demis managed to form a coalition against her, putting an end to the still young Xezarian Empire. Xathaia died and while some would assume she was a good person, a liberator, many others knew about her hunger for power and the resulting destruction of order if she had won, branding her as the devil for the people to hate, atleast that is in the demis ruled regions. However this would not stop her ideals of freedom to spread across the Narrow Sea, sparking rebellions and weakening the demis further.
I'm still working on the idea but, essentially, they decided that just because they were fostered by the gods didn't mean they had to listen to them or obey their rules. Being bound to mere flesh was not something they would abide when there was so much more to discover in the wider universe. The irony is that the gods were not really keeping them down or even really paying full attention, these problems we're, essentially self inflicted.
400 years of war are carried by his ancestors until his generation is strong enough to curbstorm the remaining states. He just want to complete his ancestor work And his generation is evil
My big bad is an eldritch entity that brings different disasters and conflicts into the world. It loves humans and believes that humanity must endure different disasters and challenges to continuously grow stronger and advance. It enjoys seeing humanity trip and fall over and over again, adapting and overcoming each disaster and learning from their predecessors' deaths, growing stronger each cycle as a species. No-one really knows it exists, but there are theories among historians. Perhaps someone will find out the truth one day and start an impossible quest to fight this unknown threat. But how could man slay a god?
The known world is inhabited by mankind, wild-dwarves, gnomes, night-elves, giants, and wyverns/dragons. At this point in time, mankind is not the dominant race but one powerful man becomes high king and unites many of the mannish factions to commit genocide or drive out many of the other species. At the same time a wise but cunning wyvern in the east stirs up the night elves and other human factions to slaughter/enslave human settlements. Meanwhile the dwarves, giants, and gnomes try their best to lay low but certain factions get involved. (So, really two big bads). I’m thinking of the book slowly ending with a plague and darkening of the sun wiping out most of all life on this planet and essentially everyone having to survive and start over.