help with 13 icons of evil

[POPE]

Hello,
I am trying to come up with 13 beings that personify aspects of great evil. I could use some help.

In the campaign I am working on there are three over gods one of which is truly and greatly evil and by a concerted of all the gods has been bound and banished to another plane. His power is such that he has taken control of that plane and have created spawns- fiendish creatures dedicated only to him, his army. The thirteen are the most powerful of his creations they were to be the generals of his army. They with the help of his avatar on the prime plane have been able to pierce the veil between planes. With this there is hope of his return, so, guided by the avatar these beings are bringing destruction and the news of the coming of the dark one to the world. Then they learn of the group who will attempt to stop the coming of the dark one. They are fiendish, but different from demons and devils. Thier essence comes from the banished god.

Would it be best to have them all the same thing, like a single fiendish type? Or as I think 13 individual icons?

What do you think would be the thirteen most evil concepts and what races, classes (core and prestige) or templates would best represent them. Any comments or ideas will be welcome.
Thanks.

 

[silvertable81]

Thirteen different things.
Maybe one was humanoid, but sold it's soul. Maybe a construct made from vile material. Maybe a spirit which goes around inhabiting lovers and making them kill their mates.

Classes should include an ex-Paladin1/Blackguard10/Assassin9

Races add the Fiendish and the Anarchic templates to one creature.
Tarrasque.

Try for a theme, find thirteen things commonly considered to be a set.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Well, in the upcoming Shadow Branch campaign setting from MonkeyGod Enterprises, the god Wolahn has under him 13 demon princes, each of which represents one of the various monster types. (That is, one for dragons, one for elementals, etc.) You might consider something like that for your campaign.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

What you're talking about sounds to me like a question of concept rather than stats. The first thing to do would be to decide which thirteen aspects of this evil you want to embody in the generals.

You could go for symbolism--either physical or moral

The 13 calamities: Famine, War, Pestilence, Death, Earthquakes, Volcanos, Tsunamis, Fires (think forestfire or a burning city), Tyranny, Just four more to go.

The Seven deadly sins[plus six randomly selected and sometimes related vices]: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, Sloth, Cowardice, Tyranny, Foolishness (the general representing this would have to incite foolishness in others or he wouldn't last very long), License, Intemperance, Vainglory, Recklessness.

or for some kind of representation--the most corrupt form of every type of creature (or at least of a representative sample):

Dragon, Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome, Orc, Fey, Giant, and the elementals--the princes of air, earth, fire, and water.

Obviously, you could vary this list depending upon your world's cosmology--perhaps elves are inherently good and dwarves were created after the initial corruption of the races and thus the list omits them in favor of Centaurs and Gnolls. Or perhaps, fey stand apart from the moral struggle in your world--in that case, you could make Moander, progenitor of abberations and oozes the thirteenth general. Or you could even use it to emphasize aspects of your world's cosmology. Perhaps an elf was once a leader but was redeemed (or killed by the forces of good) and was replaced by an orc leaving orcs with two of the thirteen slots (which gives mythological manifestation to their inherent evil in your world).

 

[wighair]

The Seven deadly sins[plus six randomly selected and sometimes related vices]: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, Sloth, Cowardice, Tyranny, Foolishness (the general representing this would have to incite foolishness in others or he wouldn't last very long), License, Intemperance, Vainglory, Recklessness.

Or you could go for Greed Seven times! He is , er, Greedy after all ;-)

 

[Katerek]

Make them thirteen individuals.

Steer away from themes, I think you will find yourself trying to bind yourself to soem predescribed notion, and in turn miss out on something really cool.

If I were to do it, it might go something like this:

The Tempted: Basically this is the guy who sold out to evil but used to be good. A very Luciferian concept here.

The Whore: The twisted female who tempts all men who are just and holy.

The Prince: Basically the male version of the whore, but devilishly good looking.

The Beast: A hecatonchieres unstoppable pure force of destruction.

The Diseased: Almost all races revere disease as an evil force. This would be a plague bearer. Maybe it manifests as a simple rat though.

The Child: Symbolizing lost innocence. Corrupt children are always spooky.

The Insane: This could be a crazy guy or full on Cthulu.

The Inquistor: Think Uber zealous torture freak here.

The Priest: This guy would be what it would be like if evil religions had the charismatic televangelists.

The Toxic: Something like a sentient oil-spill.

The Conqueror: Sun-Tzu meets Heroin with no morality. His one addiction is war.

The Cannibal: mmmmm tasty treats. This always creeps folks out, and there is usually no argument of whether or not they are bad guys.

The Thief: Not a peddler of goods necessarily, but would also serve as spy and assassin.

Take each of these as a "template" then try to trick them out to make them original as possible. Maybe your Dark One snagged these guys from the ranks of mortals, but perhaps they are not all from the same world, the same time, or the same species.

Good Luck

 

[Arken]

I agree with Katerac, whilst themes are nice they can lead you away from really nice ideas sometimes. The list seems like just the right collection of archetypes too. Some others to consider perhaps...

On the idea of the whore and the prince, it might be an idea to push them together into one entity, can choose to male or female etc. Since they are in reality the same archetype, I'd make these beings transcend gender.

The Void: A being that is hollow spiritually and wants to destroy reality. Comes freee with black pupils and a mouth that seems filled with blackness etc. (could be an aspect with the beast though a ghost or a golem is a nice one for this which might seperate it from the beast)

The Crone: An opposite to the whore, a force of infertility, weakness and age, perhaps withers living things a la defilers? (might be an aspect of the toxic or the diseased)

The Puppetmaster: Rather well known concept of a controlling figure, often enchanting or with a false appearance. (might be an aspect of the priest)

The Liar: Deceit and chaos, perhaps illusion too (could be an aspect of the thief)

The Proud: Embodiment of both Greed and Pride, an aristocrat that wants power, status, wealth and is totally aloof/uncaring etc.(could be an aspect of the whore or the prince)

The Scholar: A truly intelligent, enlightened being that has found ultimate truth in evil/darkness. Or alternatively the idea of the academic that has abandoned morality for knowledge. Could be a super powerful mage or an evil scientist.(maybe replacing the space left by putting the whore and the prince together)

The Elemental: A being of all the wildest, darkest, evil parts of nature. This is the embodiment of what all those evil druids worship. (I'd join this with the beast perhaps in an animal form)

By building multiple layers on the concepts you might end up with really rich characters I think.

 

[francisca]

mmmmm....13 cards in each suit....maybe something there.

The 13 aspects of evil sounds good to me, you've already been given many good examples.

 

[POPE]

How about this as a potential line up:
1 death= a fighter/barbarian/sorceror combo
2 shadow/darkness= a shadowdemon mage
3 war pitfiend= warrior
4 plague elder= air elemental druid/blighter
5 pride= blackguard
6 hatred= powerful wizard
7 fire/destruction= elder fire elemental
8 slavery a warrior= type
9 fear/despair= evil bard spreading despair and fear
10 power= red dragon wizard
11 pestilence/disease druid blighter
12 violation/canniblism= barbarian/rogue, leader of the bllo horde
13 lust= sucubus, enchantress

How does that look so far? Does anyone have diferent ideas, especially as far as classes and races are concerned?