how to create your BBEG in your fantasy story

[Remedian]

how to create your BBEG in a fantasy story, assuming you already created a world and have a rough idea of the history of it and its power system. then created the mcs to experience the world and some side characters that has some form of interaction with the mcs. but how would you come up with the BBEG, does he have to be catastrophic level. world ending. demon lord type of villain. i don't know how to put a twist to it. the story itself won't be limited to a local setting. they would have to go all over the world, so it would make sense the villain is a world level threat?. rough idea i have would be the first ever human which created the power system. but i don't know how he would be evil since hes a good guy and is already dead, corrupted? brought back from the dead perhaps, idk. anyway, just wanna know your experience how you create your BBEG

 

[pmmg]

Bbeg?

Probably the villain.

Well, if you have a medieval style world, and communication and travel is difficult, then a world threatening villain would not likely be a mere mortal human, IMO. They just dont have enough lifespan to pull it off. Though Alexander got pretty far.

For that type of threat, I would go with something demonic, or other worldly. Its motivate would have to be something on a Godly level. Opposition to the Creator God, or the Good Gods would seem ideal.

Cosmic Horror is an option, something like Cthulhu would could destroy everything and not even know it mattered.

 

[Karlin]

I had to look.up BBEG . To be honest. I don't play any computer games or RPG ( an acronym that means rocket proplled grenade to me). I miss a fair amount of references on the forum as a result.

 

[Prince of Spires]

It just depends on what story you want to tell. So only you can decide it.

As an example, in Jules Vernes Around the World in Eighty Days, the BBEG is simply a ticking clock. Yes, there are minor villains along the way. But it's really only the ticking clock that pushes the plot forward.

On the other extreme, in the Stormlight Archive, by Brandon Sanderson, the BBEG is a literal worldspanning god who pushes the minor villains around to get what he wants.

And you can have everything in between.

So, figure out what kind of story you want to tell, combine that with your world, and go for it.

 

[xena]

Your BBEG doesn’t need to be world-ending. also you can give them power that challenges the heroes.

 

[SamazonE]

There is Gundam Requim; that poses the Unicorn as the BBEG. It was traditionally the good guy.

rough idea i have would be the first ever human which created the power system. but i don't know how he would be evil since hes a good guy and is already dead, corrupted?

This is a good start.

 

[skip.knox]

how to create your BBEG in a fantasy story, assuming you already created a world and have a rough idea of the history of it and its power system. then created the mcs to experience the world and some side characters that has some form of interaction with the mcs. but how would you come up with the BBEG, does he have to be catastrophic level. world ending. demon lord type of villain. i don't know how to put a twist to it. the story itself won't be limited to a local setting. they would have to go all over the world, so it would make sense the villain is a world level threat?. rough idea i have would be the first ever human which created the power system. but i don't know how he would be evil since hes a good guy and is already dead, corrupted? brought back from the dead perhaps, idk. anyway, just wanna know your experience how you create your BBEG

As long as you are speaking of your story in the future tense, there is no practical way to answer this question. With nothing written, there's nothing to say. All things are possible. Only one works. That one way is revealed only once the story is written.

Have fun!

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I had to look.up BBEG . To be honest. I don't play any computer games or RPG ( an acronym that means rocket proplled grenade to me). I miss a fair amount of references on the forum as a result.

I spent years as a progression end-game raider in World of Warcraft and really did play D&D in the 80's and 90's, and I had to look BBEG up. I just call it the Big Bad. The Boss, complete with a rogue's gallery of sub-bosses and suddenly we all know how I tell stories. lol

 

[pmmg]

When i see terms like BBEG, or tropes, or anything else of this nature my feeling is always the same, you should respect your creations more than to reduce them to something pulled off a menu. Perhaps if we thought of our villains less as BBEG and more as characters with goals, ambitions, wants and faults, we might find things like how to create them just takes care of itself.

No reason to belittle our craft. Plenty of critics can do that for us.

 

[Karlin]

It just depends on what story you want to tell. So only you can decide it.

I alao find this discussion about a particular character, without an idea of the story, rather odd.