Ivid the Undying!
I voted for Vecna, but I was very torn with Strahd (who I only know threw reputation....but damn...what a reputation) and Iuz. Also Lord Robilar is one heck of a villain for certain campaigns. He's the perfect rival adventurer (a plot thread in my current GH campaign).
Anyway, I also wanted to put the Overkings of the Naelax family of the Great Kingdom of Aerdi up for mention, specifically one Ivid V, the Undying.
Here's an excellent piece of writing I found on Canonfire. Its Ivid trying to explain Ivid. I have not obtained permission from the author.....but CruelSummerLord has written many other great gems like this on that site. (
http://www.canonfire.com/html/index.php)
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Command Performance: The Thousand Tales of Ivid V
By: CruelSummerLord
Used with Permission. Do not repost without obtaining prior permission from the author.
"I write this to any and all whom it may concern. For too long I (or we, if you will) have been viewed as simply mad, fiend-ridden, incompetent, or a typical wicked tyrant. It is, perhaps, fitting that I receive the punishment I have been fated from birth to acquire, but before I accept my fate I wish to tell my own story, to reveal, in my own pen and my own words, the truth of Ivid Naelax V."
"In the previous century, my forefather Ivid I, had been the herzog of North Province, a land long held by House Naelax. But vengeance and a lust for power have long been prevalent in our family, and Ivid desired to repay House Rax for humiliating his house after the Battle of Shamblefield. There is no need to recount the bloody treason and maneuvers that led Ivid I to become the Overking, save for describing one incident, one that would end in tragedy for millions of innocents."
"My great-great-grandfather had made a pact with devils, literally. In return for the power and glory of the Malachite Throne, he pledged not only his own soul, but the souls of all the sons he would have who would succeed him upon the Malachite Throne. The pact was made and sealed, and Ivid the Herzog became Ivid the Overking. Ivid grew into a vile and wicked tyrant; the devils made their way into his already twisted brain, and he soon passed into insanity, losing none of his vile cunning in the process."
"When he had a son, the child's fate was sealed; born into a pact the child had never wanted to join, he would be born to incredible power and glory. The son would live like a demigod, holding the power of life and death over millions in his grasp, being able to have his every whim granted... and then, upon his deathbed, he would have it all taken away. He would pass into hell for his judgement, and be punished accordingly. A child, born supposedly innocent, chained to a throne he cannot escape upon attaining manhood, and haunted by the fact that in his old age he would lose it all, and suffer damnation for it. All of this because of a pact he could not escape; his destiny was decided for him before he was born."
"That thought alone would be enough to drive any man insane. But that is not all. The devils pass into your mind, fracturing your personality and warping your soul. Paranoia, sadism, mania... all these things become your lot in life. Some might say, with justification, that those of House Naelax possess these traits without any sort of insanity or possession by fiends. But these inherited traits are magnified by our conditions, and our problems manifest themselves in insanity."
"I know full well that I have suffered from this. I could work in my study, never sleeping for days at a time, before emerging to viciously kill or maim people, even my own kin, to relieve my tension or boredom. My nights brought me little sleep, but many nightmares and delusions. My many personalities could argue with each other in different voices, as if a dozen different people spoke through me, and perhaps they did. I could order men to invade foreign countries, to burn the houses of peasants, and fall on their own swords. Why did I do that? Because I had the power, and I was willing to use it."
"At times, I felt as if I was going to escape the fate that had befallen the four previous Ivids. I would restore the glory of the Great Kingdom of Aerdy, an empire to last eternal. At other times, I felt consumed with a frenzy of hatred for my enemies, especially the Golden League, and grew determined to destroy them in a mighty war as was done at the Battle of a Fortnight's Length so long ago. I might felt as if my power was slipping away, and wanted to use it before it was gone forever. I also secretly feared what was coming, and desired to go down in a blaze of glory, taking as many people as I could with me. Another personality, the small, sad part of me that was not wholly given over to evil, and kept my humanity, wondered at the futility of it all, to be born into this agreement, unable to escape it, and what it will mean for you."
"I had always loved the theater ever since I was a child, and would stand alone in my throne room, the voices of my different personalities speaking through me in different voices, reciting poem and soliloquoy that showed so many different personalities... or were they all aspects of the same twisted, wretched thing I had become? I could not know for sure-whatever personality I had, whether it be one or many, I hid them behind theatrical masks. Despite my madness, I could be cunning, glib and eloquent. My skills at diplomacy led me to accomplish the impossible; to unite the entire force of the Great Kingdom into an assault, one final assault, upon Nyrond and the Iron League. That small part of me not given over to evil, saddened at my lost life, knew that this would be my last campaign."
"I led brlliantly, and our forces would have crushed every one of our foes. But I neglected the fact that my armies, and indeed my kingdom, had crumbled benath me. Power-struggles, intrigues, long-standing feuds, anger and resentment at my policies and my actions, all exploded in a frenzy that destroyed my own war effort and caused my army and then my kingdom to fall apart beneath me. The same emotions I had felt so long whirled through my head, and my sanity returned for this one moment, to write this small account of my tale, who I am, and how I came to be."
"This, then, is my command performance. Judge my actions how you will, consider both my sins and the reasons I may have had behind them. As I write this, I am a man at the end of the world. Rebels are storming my palace; the voices scream in my head; my servants are all in revolt. I know that ten thousand tales will be spun from the conflict now known as the Greyhawk Wars. Each of those tales will be told ten thousand times over, and all of them will condemn me as a villain. Indeed I am evil, I know that, it is the finale I cannot escape. I await the time when I shall meet Dread Hextor; and so, to whomever reads this, I offer it to you. Make of it what you will."
