One of the themes I want to explore is the "burden of leadership", which is a variation on "great power-great responsibility". So I want them to be subject to the demand of statecraft, if not as rulers, then as ambassadors, at least.
It shouldn't just be a burder or a responsibility, it should be fun, and put them in the driver's seat. And making them answer to some other guy and do their bidding is hardly paragon tier stuff. Keep this in mind, and work out ways to encourage them to take charge and serve this own agendas. As noted, this is also a great way to get a lot of content- creating adventures around the PC's aims and goals.
Lady Guay: A powerful, formerly epic-level, succubus stripped of her powers by a dark ritual made to summon fiends in the faustian manner, then steal the power and transfer to to the summoner. Her true identity has been a secret until the conclusion of the heroic tier. She's been focused on finding and eliminating the corruption within the Church out of revenge, as well as a means to regain her power. At best, unaligned with semi-secret evil tendencies
Well, I don't wanna crib too much, but one of the most well-known story hours on this forum centres around not just a succubus, but one that endergoes a series of metaphysical shfits and ends up as something very different. There are also some interesting ideas in the same story hour setting about differing takes on the role of infernal creatures.
It might be interesting, rather than playing a straight 'sneaky kinda evil' angle, to think about how such a creature could play a more interesting role in the theology and philosopy of a church. For instance, imagine if there was a reformation in the church, but rather than rejecting this succubus in their midst, the new theocrats of the church gave her a formal role as a test of temptation and corruption.
After all, if the church was corrupt, then clearly things should be done differently, and maybe testing it's members against such a 'lucifer figure'- and even accepting a degree of fallability from the flock, could serve as a way of preventing more damaging and insidious corruption from taking hold again. Getting into epic tier, this could even be a form of apotheosis, the way she regains her powers- with some interesting strings attached.
Adriel Argentus - loyal paladin of the Silver Flame, duped by Lady Guay in swearing to protect her. As a result, powerful people within the Church accused Adriel of Heresy in order to protect their dark secrets. Adriel and Lady Guay have been fugitives from the beginning of the campaign, collecting evidence and gathering artifacts to save the world. The new High Cardinal of the Church following the exposure and defeat of High Cardinal Krozen as head of sinister and corrupt cabal. May become an NPC due to player RL circumstances
Well, building on the above, and especially if the player has to bow out, it might be interesting if this guy decided to enact a plan like the one described above. Rather than rejecting his asociate, he could see her role as important, and seek to create a new status quo i the church. Obviously the player's views would count for a lot here, but I think there's a lot of potential for a theological shake-up of the church.
Monty - The classic
Big Guy, a half-giant champion gladiator come to Khorvaire in order to win fortune and glory. Hillariously gets tangled up with Lady Guay and Adriel, and manages to suck in a harmless shopkeeper, who turns out to be:
Ok well, a good angle here would be celebrity. These guys have been ding all sorts of crazy
, it's about time they get famous, and this guy is clearly the type of figure that would make a perfect celebrity athlete. Make him into a super gladiator, a common man's hero, the guy in the party that isn't tied up in all that religion stuff too much, and hence makes for a more interesting figure for the bards to spin tales about, the merchants to place bets on, and the average peasant to toast in the tavern.
And of course, all this can happen without him having much of a say in the matter. Imagine him walking into a new town one day and finding collectable figurines of himself on sale in the market. The dragonmarked Houses start competing to sponsor him. People keep wanting him to 'cut ribbons' in various places, which he will probably mis-hear as them wanting him to cut people to ribbons. Screaming fans, obsessive fans, best friends he never knew he had, people who claimed he trained them, people who claimed they trained him, dudes calling him out to duel so they can be the next big thing, and so on and on. He's a big brawny dude that just got his shot at the big time, this stuff writes itself. And of course, there is a price to be paid for such fame. . . .
Erdrick d'Cannith - scion of House cannoth, has completed his agenda, is leaving the party to be replaced by another character, at the player's choice
So the key here is clearly, another agenda. Really brainstorm with this player, ask them what they'd be into, ask them of a big deal kinda thing they'd be interested in working towards.
Jonathan d'Tharashk - a priest of the Silver Flame sent directly by the Flamekeeper to assist Adriel and learn the truth of accusations. Was murdered in mid-heroic and replaced, to set up an awesome classic doppelganger-style betrayal. Was saved Gandalf-style by Eberron itself to become an epic-level power and returned to the party 20 years younger wielding new powers
Again, i have to say with such a strong focus on religious characters, it just seems like a reformation is an ideal plotline for the players, if they're into it. But the key here is to ask them what they think, and really try to get them to talk about what they would be enthusiastic about doing.
