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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6129477" data-attributes="member: 58197">I like this. Some elaboration on this theme:Demons and devils are purposeful evil, each one bent on achieving an end: Destruction or control. 'Loths are purposeless evil. They may concoct elaborate schemes, all bent on spreading despair, but their schemes do not tie in to some grand design, and to mortal eyes the end often seems unworthy of the means.With a 'loth, everything is personal. An ultraloth might spin a web of intrigue across half the world in order to darken the soul of a single child. Not an important child, not a future emperor or archmage; only a child who was happy and innocent, whose soul was exceptionally bright and who would have brightened the lives of those around her. The challenge of untangling a 'loth plot is that PCs are accustomed to plots along the lines of:1. Do a bunch of evil stuff, causing misery and suffering.2. ???3. Profit!...where the task is to figure out what step 2 is, and how to prevent it from leading to 3. But in a 'loth plot, there is no &quot;profit.&quot; Step 1 is the objective, and when it's complete, the 'loth will simply start over somewhere else. PCs won't ever be able to figure out the 'loth's goal until they learn to think as the 'loth does... and the worst part is, that may itself be the goal: Take heroic player characters and teach them to think like the most malevolent of fiends. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />While demons and devils fight over what picture to paint, 'loths just keep mixing in more black.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 6129477, member: 58197"] I like this. Some elaboration on this theme: Demons and devils are purposeful evil, each one bent on achieving an end: Destruction or control. 'Loths are purposeless evil. They may concoct elaborate schemes, all bent on spreading despair, but their schemes do not tie in to some grand design, and to mortal eyes the end often seems unworthy of the means. With a 'loth, everything is personal. An ultraloth might spin a web of intrigue across half the world in order to darken the soul of a single child. Not an [I]important[/I] child, not a future emperor or archmage; only a child who was happy and innocent, whose soul was exceptionally bright and who would have brightened the lives of those around her. The challenge of untangling a 'loth plot is that PCs are accustomed to plots along the lines of: 1. Do a bunch of evil stuff, causing misery and suffering. 2. ??? 3. Profit! ...where the task is to figure out what step 2 is, and how to prevent it from leading to 3. But in a 'loth plot, there is no "profit." Step 1 [I]is[/I] the objective, and when it's complete, the 'loth will simply start over somewhere else. PCs won't ever be able to figure out the 'loth's goal until they learn to think as the 'loth does... and the worst part is, that may itself be the goal: Take heroic player characters and teach them to think like the most malevolent of fiends. ;) While demons and devils fight over what picture to paint, 'loths just keep mixing in more black. [/QUOTE]

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