Dark Lord? No thanks, I'm already choking on clichés.

[Ireth]

Personally, I look for villains that are either misdirected or misunderstood. There's very little 'take over the world' motives that can be believable. I prefer the villains I write to be tragic - meaning they're essentially good, but have one major flaw. Whether that flaw be pride or inflexibility is up to me at the time I write them. But this makes the story interesting in my opinion. People in real life are rarely all good or all bad. It's important to me that my writing reflects that element of reality.

I think the villain of Low Road might fall into your interests. Conall is completely insane and seen by the hero as evil, but he sincerely believes he's doing the right thing for his people, providing them with a steady supply of humans to feed from, and even providing for the human captives' needs in a twisted way, by feeding them the flesh of their slain companions. (Waste not, want not!) The Goddess responsible for creating the vampires even tells them that they are to take humans as well as animals for their prey, so Conall is serving Her quite well in doing so. It's not his fault he was made what he is by a Goddess of darkness and death.

 

[Rikilamaro]

Thanks, Ireth. Who is that by?

 

[Ireth]

It's one of my own WIPs. Maybe I should have stated that earlier.

 

[ArielFingolfin]

Shameless plug, Ireth

 

[Ireth]

Heheh. Yeah. ^^;

 

[Kaellpae]

How about the dark lords are already in charge and they weren't seeking to destroy the world, but to rebuild it in a way that they thought would work better? But it required many deaths and were seen as being evil, even if they were doing it for the betterment? of the world.

 

[Rikilamaro]

It's one of my own WIPs. Maybe I should have stated that earlier.

The funny thing I think I knew that from a previous post or twelve you'e made.
It made me laugh at least.

 

[Rikilamaro]

How about the dark lords are already in charge and they weren't seeking to destroy the world, but to rebuild it in a way that they thought would work better? But it required many deaths and were seen as being evil, even if they were doing it for the betterment? of the world.

So you're starting out with the dark lord in charge? Do you think this would be best as a recent change or something that's been the status quo for decades? Just curious.

 

[Kaellpae]

Status quo for a long time. The "Dark Lords" are a group of scientists that have made themselves immortal. So it will take place after everyone had forgotten the old ways.

 

[Rikilamaro]

Status quo for a long time. The "Dark Lords" are a group of scientists that have made themselves immortal. So it will take place after everyone had forgotten the old ways.

Like Eragon?

 

[Kaellpae]

I actually don't know. I've never read Eragon! It's on my list of things to read though!

 

[Devor]

I like the idea of subverting the Dark Lord trope. Maybe there's a medieval Lord, with a stretch of land, who is in fact a freed slave and the protagonist.

 

[gavintonks]

I know get over it already when he has killed everyone no one left to work for his bidding for one, and he always makes some daft mistake in judgement that is so stupid your slug would make a better dark prince

 

[Feo Takahari]

I like the idea of subverting the Dark Lord trope. Maybe there's a medieval Lord, with a stretch of land, who is in fact a freed slave and the protagonist.

My favorite dark lord protagonist is Gauldoth Half-Dead from Heroes of Might and Magic IV. He knows exactly what happens to dark lords who get overambitious, so he just tries to maintain control of his own kingdom and defend it from threats even worse than himself.

 

[Jabrosky]

I don't mind Dark Lords per se, but I prefer mine to have more moderate and realistic goals than taking over or destroying the entire world. For instance, why not a despot who simply wanted to conquer a neighboring country (the protagonist's homeland) to control its resources? History abounds with such warlords.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Kaellpae your idea actually sounds a lot like Brandon Sanderson's first Mistborn novel. What with Lord Emperor being a sliver of infinity and all.

 

[Steerpike]

I actually don't know. I've never read Eragon! It's on my list of things to read though!

Don't do it!

 

[Graylorne]

Well, I got a Dark Goddess who wants to destroy the Universe.

She's got a really good argument: jealousy.

Her other half created it, but not to her liking. So she wants to replace it with her own version. That she has to kill off all of humanity isn't important; to her they're just figments of her imagination.

Spite is an acceptable reason, I'd say?

 

[Christopher Wright]

A Dark Lord that is a Dark Lord because he is a Dark Lord is pretty boring. That said, a Dark Lord can still hold my interest if the reason he becomes a Dark Lord is sufficiently explained and is entertaining, and his aims are slightly more complex than "one Dark Lord to Rule Them All."

For example, if the Dark Lord is a Dark Lord because he's been driven insane, I have a little more to work with. If he's a Dark Lord because he's trying to save all creation and has to play dirty to do it, I have a little more to work with. If he considers all that is pure and good an abomination to the natural order of things, and his "evil" is closer to "religious fervor," that's interesting as well. (It could still be legitimately evil from the narrative perspective, but if he sees it as holiness then his motivations become much clearer.)

What I think is fun is when you go both ways--you set up "absolute" realms of morality but place all the characters in various shades of gray between them, so that both the good and evil characters are flawed in terms of their allegiances. NOte that this is different from the concept that there is no real good or evil--that is also interesting, but it's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a story where the good guys consistently fall short of their ideals because they simply can't meet them and therefore have to figure out how to handle that level of failure while still trying to score points for their side, and the same for the bad guys, but in the other direction. That kind of interplay fascinates me. I don't see it much.

 

[Helleaven]

I do have a dark lord who has an entire history behind him.. Why is he full of hatred?? Why does he aim to kill anyone who oppose him??

That's readers job to find out but they have to wait until the last book of the series for it. Everything MUST have a logical reason!

Nothing is born evil or born good! If something is created to do evil and this is the only thing that thing has ever known, it's just doesn't make sense to me. He's evil because that's what he all knows and that's what he is created for... NOPE! If you are writing a fairy tail and not a fantasy novel, that would work. If you're writing a fantasy novel, you have to give everything a logical and understandable reason.