Help me motivate this villian (longish)

[Tauric]

Background: my homebrew world has no gnomes or dwarfs, but has halflings, humans, orcs, half-orcs and half-elves as PC races (elves are the villians).

All races have homelands except halfings. They are generally mistrusted and often mistreated.

I have a halfling cult leader who is trying to bring a god into the world, and one of the steps is mass sacrifice (suicide) of followers.

The god has promised that upon his arrival in this world, he will give the wandering halflings a new homeland, and set them above the other races.

The halfling leader is devoted to the god because he wants a better life for his people, but also because he was wronged personally by the ‘big-folk’, so he’s got that emotion too.

My question is, what emotions should this villian evoke in the players? I am using Rich Burlew's (http://www.giantitp.com/articles/rTKEivnsYuZrh94H1Sn.html) villian creation method, and got stuck.

I have ideas for all the other steps, but can’t think of this one.


More info: is the god the halfling is raising is really some sort of demon/devil/Really Old One.

The promise to resurrect the believers is hollow, they will really be the things undead army.

The players will find out the true identity of the god, but I don't know if the halfling will know it.

It seems more dramatic if the halfling doesn't, and is truly acting for the betterment of his people, but it would be easier for me if the halfling was a true villain.

If the halfling is sincere, what would the two emotions be? Probably pity, or compassion, would be what the PC would feel, since the halfling would be trying to achieve a semi-noble goal (esp. if there are halflings in the party).

If a true villain, then what should the party feel?

Maybe there will be two halflings, one sincere in belief and the other, well, perhaps they're not really a halfling, but something in disguise, manipulating the halfling.

 

[Brimshack]

I would think a character like this might be more interesting, if his pitch were at least partly compelling to the players. Why not make one of the emotions you wish to elicit admiration. he could even help out in the beginning so as to establish plausible grounds for believing he is sincere and benign. Then as he gains power, the extreme vision becomes more clear. And folks start to get reason to suspect his long term goals. Fear becomes the dominant reaction. Fear and frustration that he is still listened to by others. ...can't they see it.

On whether or not he is sincere, I could se either way. But I would raise one interesting prospect. What if knowing the characters don't believe him (at some point), he were to actually taunt them, but only subtly, and always in ways deniable to the actual followers. think of how Golem gives Sam a look in LOtR (the movie version), just after playing innocent to Frodo. He convinces who he wants to, but smiles back at the one who isn't fooled, just enough to make it that much more frustrating.

Just an idea...

 

[kinem]

Interesting. I'd have said make him sincere, but going further down Gollum's path, he could have a true split personality instead of faking it

 

[Lord Zardoz]

The emotion that drives this halfling villain should be Revenge. Nothing else fits, and a desire for vengeance arising out of a twisted sense of justice is very appropriate. A secondary motivating emotion for this villain would be Hope. Specifically, the hope to create a better place in the world for his people.

Now, what should this villain inspire in your players? There are a few possibilities.

- Betrayal: This villain would be much more effective if your players start out working with him. If they are not yet aware of this villains existence, than the halfling should hire the adventurers to find or obtain some item that he needs to help bring about the manifestation of his god-thing. When the players find out they played a key part in the coming apocalypse, it is a great deal more memorable. For added nastiness, have your players initially oppose some half-orc types who were trying to keep the item from falling into the wrong hands.

- Revulsion / Horror: Make whatever it is that this halfling does to his own followers particularly gruesome. Make the god-thing very reprehensible. That should about do it.

- Fear: This is a hard one to pull off. Grossing out your players is one thing, but creating a sense of danger and urgency is not easy to do at the gaming table. This can be acheived by making sure that the first time it comes down to combat, that the Halfling is more than a match for the players.

- Confusion: This could be easy. JUst have the halfling tell the players that in addition to trying to find a homeland for his people, he is working against some dark / evil god thing that has it in for his kind. This one is hard to do if you want your halfling to be unaware of the true nature of his god thing. But, perhaps the godthing can lie to the halfling.

- Paranoia: If the halfling is able to magically dominate / charm people, you can make the players wonder if people that they need to work with are under the halflings influence.

That about covers it, I think.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Tauric]

Great ideas, people!

How's this:

the halfling believes the god-thing is a truly benevolent being, and the cult does good works for halflings throughout the land. He has no idea that he will be called on to kill his fellow halflings. He receives visions of a halfling utopia that arises due to the arrival of the god-thing, but the details are sketchy as to how.

While, he doesn’t like or trust big-folk, but has no problem hiring them for dangerous tasks, like retrieving the MacGuffin.

Eventually (after delivering the important MacGuffin, of course), somehow, the PCs discover the true nature of the god-thing.

They try to convince the lead of it, but he lashes out, believing their words to be big-folk lies.

He hires assassins (other big-folk) to kill the PCs. If the PCs try to kill him, he surrounds himself with his (innocent) followers (ooh, I hope someone plays a paladin).

The visions the cult leader has been receiving have been eroding his sanity, so when he gets a vision telling him to steal babies, he doesn’t think anything of it. To get back at the PCs, he even attemps to kidnap a relative.

The PCs now have to rescue babies/stop the ritual.

Thanks, everyone, you’ve given me a lot to think on.

T

 

[Priest_Sidran]

Sounds like a mother goose story...somehow


Using a misguided villain, especially one with a napoleon complex is a neat idea, though I would suggest that instead of having him hurt his own people (something I can't seem to bring myself around to seeing, personally) he is being played towards a mass act of homicide against children abducted from the cities of men, and any other race that may have tormented him.

You could have him rationalize this request made by the evil god in sheeps wool, by thinking that its preventing more big folk that are like minded (similar to those who tormented him). More reasonable leap than to go about the act of killing ones own people. Perhaps, to take a page from real life, their is a ethnic group of halflings which are slightly better off, or even way better off than his followers are, he, like some of the major villains of our own world might begin to act in a racist attitude towards these, more benign halflings, and these not his own followers, are the ones scheduled for ritualized sacrifice. Perhaps he has visions of former glories, his people once prominent in the halfling homeland are now seen as the reason for the downfall in the first place, and are thus persecuted by both the big folk (because of their size, and apparent weakness), and by other halfling ethnic groups who see them as the responsible party involved in the loss of a home land. Now this god whispers that he will restore what was once his birthright, and that he must do some things that might seem wrong but in the end are beneficial to his people.

Here is another take, the God might actually be a good deity, think of Abraham and Isaac, some might say that being told to kill ones son was a cruel and evil thing to do, it may be a test, one that this character passes/fails based on the needs of the plot. He might be prepared to sacrafice his own people to better the whole of his race, and that would be sufficient, or he might fail and the god tells him that because you were ready to do this your life and the life or your children are forfit. Or it could be an evil trickster entity posing as a god, just for the kick of causing mischief on such a broad scale. Like Loki and Baldr, loki did not actively participate in the death of Baldr but he made it so that the death was possible, and then when the other gods were going about asking the things of the world if Baldr could be restored he hid himself in another shape, and would not shed a tear for Baldr.

Loki himself makes a good study, for a character such as our villain here. At first loki is tolerated, perhaps even liked by the other gods of Asgard, then slowly his pranks become more sinister until finnally Baldr dies, and the gods cannot tolerate him anymore, chaining him beneath the earth with chains that cannot be broken. In the end loki fights on the side of Fenris the wolf, and Surtur, against those people who once he was friends with and lived beside. Dying (I believe) at the hands of Thor, his sometimes friend sometimes target. Loki t is said has a two sided nature, he is associated with fire, and trickery, Like a flame he is warm, and comforting, but at a seconds notice can harm, and ruin.

PS Out

 

[Sandain]

This could be his motivation for your halfling, and how he explains himself to your PC's. He is not Human, he is not a different race, he is a completely different species! Does a cow care if a sheep dies?

Would a Lion kill 100 humans to free Africa of them? Would a Killer whale kill 100 humans to free the oceans? Would the Lion and Whale even be evil for doing so considering the persecution of thier kind?

To take my example further - think of all the conquered nations in the past, and indigenous people who have risen up and fought for thier freedom. Was Mel Gibson in Braveheart evil? If he could sacrifice 100 englishman to free Scotland and create a free Scotland for his kin - bet your bottom dollar he would have done it.

So, in my view your Halfling does not even have to be evil to contemplate this sacrifice. he could justify it that if it came to a war many thousands would die and suffer.