History Monster / TableTopGames

* Desus, a canonical NPC from the ''Dreams of the First Age'' supplement for ''{{Exalted}}''. [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Hailed by everyone as Creation's greatest wandering martial arts hero]], as well as perhaps the most loving and devoted husband among the Solar Deliberative. In ''reality'': the event hailed as his greatest victory of legend was actually him sucker-punching an innocent being while negotiating with them under a parley flag; his wife suffered less psychological trauma from being alone in the heart of pure maddening chaos for three thousand years than she did from their marriage; part of his good reputation is his researching a custom magical effect that forces every single person who sees him or hears him talk to rationalize all of his actions as being for the best of intentions, no matter what they actually are; he is stated to be the worst kind of sadistic serial killing rapist, but since his victims for that particular fetish are anonymous mortals they're never missed and he's never suspected; he is one of five members of the Solar Deliberative (the single most corrupt political cabal in the later First Age) with access to a world-spanning weapon of devastation.

*** Necrons are either mindless or insane from their millions of years of entombment, and the C'Tan are beings of pure eldritch nastiness (they originally ate ''stars'' before discovering souls were tastier, and operated on a scale so vast they didn't even realise that ''planets'' existed, let alone the noisy little things living on them) instead of monstrosities, so they hardly qualify.

** In the 3.0 adventure ''The Bastion Of Broken Souls'', we have Ashardalon, an incredibly ancient, powerful and wicked [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience red dragon]]. Already [[AlwaysChaoticEvil a cruel and rapacious creature in his own right]], [[spoiler: after having been mortally injured by a powerful druidess [[TakingYouWithMe who didn't live long enough to celebrate the deed]], he managed to sustain himself by substituting his own failing heart with a denizen of the Abyss - a Balor, no less! Of course, the demon was not enthusiastic about this, and Ashardalon had to search for another way to extend his lifespan... hitting the jackpot when he discovered an EldritchLocation deep inside the Plane of Positive Energy where the souls of every living creature are born and reside before getting a body. There, he settled down with a few of his servants and began devouring pre-incarnated souls [[SoYouWantToLiveForever in order to live forever]]. This act is causing countless being across the universe to be [[TheSoulless born without a soul]], [[FateWorseThanDeath horribly alive and at the same utterly dead...]] but if the PCs call the dragon out on his crimes, his answer is that he doesn't care if he fucks up the multiverse, as long as ''he'' gets to enjoy eternity as the self-styled "ultimate predator".]]

** Are we forgetting the [[GeniusTheTransgression Illuminated]]? Think [[ThoseWackyNazis Dr. Josef Mengele]], [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel but better at his craft]]. The worst part about them is that a full 25% of Geniuses slip into this state, as a result of their abilities distancing them from humanity and eating away at the back of their mind!

** Are we forgetting the [[GeniusTheTransgression Illuminated]]? Think Mengele, [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel but better at his craft]]. The worst part about them is that a full 25% of Genuses slip into this state, as a result of their abilities distancing them from humanity and eatign away at the back of their mind!.

** What's so wrong about looking like the [[UnfortunateImplications caricature of a jew]] and [[CompletelyMissingThePoint pissing around]]? I'd like to remind you that you can just as well play a character that doesn't [[BrainBleach rape little girls to death]]. They're just not fun (unless you think getting raped is fun).

* ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' is a [[strike:grim]] [[CrapsackWorld dark and brutal place to live]]. No side is truly in the right, with most not even remotely in the "good" territory of the WellIntentionedExtremist. As such, there are multitudes of monstrous men and women, but there are enough genuinely heroic people in the setting to not make this game a non-issue in terms of morality. And yet, in a sea of corruption and evil, there are mainly pawns and incompetent pencil pushers. The nadirs of morality stand out, even here.

*** To further prove that Fabilus Bile is an impossibly sick fuck even for Warhammer 40000 standards, The Emperor's Children is technically the legion that he was chief apothecary of, and is probably the legion who would care the least about his sick experiments. [[EvenEvilHasStandards He is considered an outcast by them]]. If that doesn't prove his vileness, I'm not sure anything can.
**** Nope, they didn't outcast him on anything so petty as ''morality'' - Slaanesh cares not for such things. The ''real'' reason he's an outcast is that he refuses to worship Slaanesh as the rest of the Legion does. Make no mistake, the entire Legion is made up of sick fucks just as bad if not ''even worse'' than Bile.
** In that respect, Bile is far from atypical of [[ReligionOfEvil Chaos supporters]], cultists and conquerers who serve [[EldritchAbomination dark gods and daemons]]. Where do we ''start''...
** The [[OurElvesAreBetter Dark Eldar]]. Once the Eldar race became so decadent, cruel and debauched that they ''brought a god of'' ''{{Squick}}'' ''into existence''. Most of the surviving Eldar were ones that [[DefectorFromDecadence saw this coming and wanted no part of it]]. The Dark Eldar are the ones who kept up the blood-orgies, casual torture and slavery, and offer the souls of others to [[GodOfEvil Slaanesh]] instead of their own. There's nothing remotely sympathetic about them.

** Abbadon is rather the VisionaryVillain at its darkest - his MO isn't ForTheEvulz, it's to unite humanity under the dark banner of Chaos. Leave it to the disciples of Khorne to want to kill everything in sight.
** The Necrons too deserve a mention, or rather, the C'tan, the gods they serve. These are creatures who wage war across the universe simply to recieve souls to feed on, and aim to seal off the warp from the material realm, which sounds nice on first glance, but when you consider that it is the very place your emotions are stored, it means that everybody will practically be just as mindless as the necrons themselves, perfect for munching upon. The Nightbringer has been described as ''even more'' sadistic than the Dark Eldar, which says something about their horrible nature. As for their minions, the necrons, they too qualify, if only for their undying loyalty to their gods and deathly cold mannerisms.

* In DungeonsAndDragons, the supplement ''Book of Vile Darkness'', explores and defines the nature of evil in the game quite thoroughly, inevitably going far beyond the MoralEventHorizon, including many grisly options for evil PCs like power derived from cannibalism, sacrifice of sentient beings to evil gods, necrophilia, sadomasochism, and more. Among other things, it introduces [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Dread Emperor]], who lives up to his grandiose name. His armour has [[EatsBabies four children chained to it at all times]], and striking him transfers the damage to the children.

**** Weird thing is he didn't start that way. In a bad bit of writing, he suddenly went from a decent, if somewhat quiet heroic figure (good or neutral), to suddenly being a generic villain out for Godhood. And then later books continued it by making hi Captain Evilpants McCrazy, for some reason. And he is still more effective and less cruel than most other evil gods, as his actions have a habit (which amuses him) of killing off evil people as much as good ones.

*** To explain this: FATAL is infamous for consisting only of [[UnfortunateImplications unfortunate implications]] against women and minorities, shitty gameplay mechanics and lots of rape and squick. It actually has rules for raping people to death as well as a chart to measure your penis length. There's a reason [[OrIsIt nobody plays this game]].

<<|SubjectiveTropes|>>

* Your character in {{FATAL}} if you play it as intended (OrSoIHeard).

*** Cyric is commonly referred to as the mad god, and it shows. Already an inhumanely cruel mercenary as a mortal, when he ascended to godhood, he became truly monstrous. During the Time of Troubles, he slaughtered countless other gods purely ForTheEvulz, the absorption of their portfolios being a secondary goal. ItGotWorse in 4th edition, where he orchestrates the death of Helm, and then ''personally'' brutally murders Mystra, unleashing the devastating Spell Plague, again purely ForTheEvulz. By this point, the other gods had had enough of Cyric's atrocities and sentenced him to a FateWorseThanDeath, which is ''still'' more than he deserves.

* Desus, a canonical NPC from the ''Dreams of the First Age'' supplement for ''{{Exalted}}''. [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Hailed by everyone as Creation's greatest wandering martial arts hero]], as well as perhaps the most loving and devoted husband among the Solar Deliberative. In ''reality'': the event hailed as his greatest victory of legend was actually him sucker-punching an innocent being while negotiating with them under a parley flag; his wife suffered less psychological trauma from being alone in the heart of pure maddening chaos for three thousand years than she did from their marriage; part of his good reputation is his researching a custom magical effect that forces every single person who sees him or hears him talk to rationalize all of his actions as being for the best of intentions, no matter what they actually are; he is stated to be the worst kind of sadistic serial killing rapist, but since his victims for that particular fetish are anonymous mortals they're never missed and he's never suspected; he is one of the five seniormost members of the single most corrupt political cabal in the later First Age.

* The Ebon Dragon, a canonical NPC from ''{{Exalted}}''. The Ebon Dragon is a Primordial, one of the in-game entities that created the game's setting. While other Primordials presumably introduced things like rainbows, hugs and teddy bears into Creation, one of the Ebon Dragon's major contributions was the concept of treachery. Why? Because he's a Dick. Given his cosmic significance, it's quite accurate to say instead that he is THE Dick, who will sell out anybody and everybody at any moment for personal gain (or sheer amusement). Among his lesser nasty accomplishments is the Phylactery Womb, which houses the Exaltation Shards of the Infernal Exalted when they're not inhabiting humans. The Phylactery Womb, by the way, is a young girl who has been repeatedly violated in every possible sense of the word; at this point she's a bloated demonic monstrosity with occasional flashes of lucidity. It's also said that even ''if'' his harebrained scheme to get the Yozis out of Malfeas by making Creation just as bad works, he'll jockey to be the first one out the door ''just'' so he can permanently seal it shut behind him, trapping his fellow twisted Primordials there solely for the lulz. At least Desus has the Great Curse as an excuse; the Ebon Dragon is just thoroughly foul, evil and rotten through and through, almost by definition completely, irredeemably evil.

** And if you thought the Primordials were bad, you should see what happened with the dead ones and their chosen servants. The Neverborn want to enter Oblivion and plan to destroy the world in order to do so; this is very slightly sympathetic if you squint hard enough and have been having a sufficiently bad day. The Deathlords...well...one of them killed 90% of the world's population with the Great Contagion, another one spends his time torturing a few hapless Shards (the things that bond with Exalts to make them Exalts) for deeds they can't remember because they took place centuries ago in a previous life, and a third has the right stats and the right degree of inventive sadism to be Desus himself, back from the dead as a scheming, deceitful tyrant.
*** It's probably worth going into a little more detail on the one who might be Desus, the Bodhisattva Anointed By Dark Water: much like the Lunars, he set up a nation (in the Skullstone Archipelago) that fitted with his goals. Then he predicted his own return and faked his own death, before spending 500 years corrupting the country so he would have something to reform when he returned as the Silver Prince. The problem here? One of the central tenets of his New Order is that everyone is given an accelerated path through reincarnation through their faith, except the few who remain as ghosts because they were still needed. What happens instead? They're dragged off to the fifth island of the archipelago, where they are forged into soulsteel and used to build ships. Even the ''currency'' is based on soulsteel.

*** To explain this: FATAL is infamous for consisting only of [[UnfortunateImplications unfortunate implications]] against women and minorities, shitty gameplay mechanics and lots of rape and squick. It actually has rules for raping people to death as well as a chart to measure your penis length. There's a reason [[OrIsIt nobody plays this game]].

*** Sascha Vykos from VtM probably deserves a special mention here. A centuries old, genderless Tzimisce with a weird kind of god complex, he is described as making all the furniture in his mansion out of LIVING PEOPLE who are being kept alive through the power of Vicissitude, torture-raping people for shits and giggles and throwing them out when they go mad from too many disfigurements and generally being a massive dick (despite not having one). It's telling when most write-ups for his character quite frankly list his demeanor flat out as 'monster'. It's also no surprise that the rest of the Sabbat look to this nutter as a role-model.

** In most of the WoD games: have you hit [[KarmaMeter Insert Appropriate Morality Stat Here]] 0? Then you're a CompleteMonster. Considering that in most cases even reaching the lower levels of aforesaid stat requires you to have engaged in behaviour that would [[MoralEventHorizon appall an]] AnsemRetort [[MoralEventHorizon character]], this should come as no surprise.
** At least in the new WoD the system cripples you horribly for that (generally making the character unplayable if it ever hits 0) for that. In the old WoD, most of the evil factions ignore such pesky problems. Evil vampires, such as Sabbat (vampire supremacists) or Baali (demon worshippers) generally have twisted [[KarmaMeter Karma Meters]] that pretty much reward them for following their personal brand of inhumanity, and the rest of the gamelines just don't have a Morality Stat that punishes evildoers.

*** To explain this: FATAL is infamous for consisting only of [[UnfortunateImplications unfortunate implications]] against women and minorities, shitty gameplay mechanics and lots of rape and squick. It actually has rules for raping people to death as well as a chart to measure your penis length. There's a reason [[OrIsIt nobody play this game]].

* Your character in {{FATAL}} if you play it as intended (OrSoIHeard).

*** Myrkul, the old god of death before Kelemvor. Unlike Kelemvor, who has a firm set of morals and only tolerates the Wall of the Faithless because it's necessary for [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly the continued existence of the other gods]], Myrkul was an utter sadist who took gleeful joy in witnessing the agony and suffering the Wall caused. He is stated to have ruled his faith with an iron fist, purposefully leading his followers through sheer fear of his retribution, and executing anyone who defied him, be they man, woman or child, in sadistically brutal fashions, such as ''burning them alive in a giant furnace''. His greatest atrocity, however, was [[spoiler:what he did to one of his best priests, who had had enough of the injustice of the Wall and attempted to destroy it. Initially, he just left the priest to rot on the Wall, just before the priest fully merged with the Wall and attain some measure of peace, Myrkul decides that he ''hasn't suffered enough'', and transforms the priest into a mindless being of pure, unbridled hunger that feeds on souls, then sets it loose upon the world, knowing full well the chaos it will surely cause.]]

*** Myrkul, the old god of death before Kelemvor. Unlike Kelemvor, who has a firm set of morals and only tolerates the Wall of the Faithless because it's necessary for [[GodNeedsPrayerBadly the continued existence of the other gods]], Myrkul was an utter sadist who took gleeful joy in witnessing the agony and suffering the Wall caused. He is stated to have ruled his faith with an iron fist, purposefully leading his followers through sheer fear of his retribution, and executing anyone who defied him, be they man, woman or child, in sadistically brutal fashions, such as ''burning them alive in a giant furnace''. His greatest atrocity, however, was [[spoiler:what he did to one of his best priests, who had had enough of the injustice of the Wall and attempted to destroy it. Initially, he just left the priest to rot on the Wall, just before the priest fully merged with the Wall and attain some measure of peace, Myrkul decides that he ''hasn't suffered enough'', and transforms the priest into a mindless being of pure, unbridled hunger that feeds on souls, then sets it loose upon the world, knowing full well the chaos it will surely cause.]]

** TheForgottenRealms has several:

** The current page photo depicts The Hunt Club, from ''HunterTheVigil''. They're what happens when a bunch of rich people with a whole lot of connections decide that fox hunting has gotten a little bit stale and [[TheMostDangerousGame they want to try something a little different]]. Their members also have a very good chance of becoming [[SlasherMovies slashers]], which means whatever fleeting morals they might have left get burned at the altar of murder.

** And that's just scratching the surface. With the exception of [[DefectorFromDecadence Candace]] (and possibly [[MagnificentBastard Sun-Tzu]]), you don't become a Liao without being a Complete Monster. Then there was the Kurita commander who demanded the massacre of the Eridani Light Horse's families and non-combatants in retaliation for the ELH not renewing their contract with Kurita- when ELH units came gunning for him in revenge, [[EvenEvilHasStandards the usually ruthless Draconis Combine High Command retired its troops and forbade ANYONE from trying to help him]], [[KarmicDeath with predictable results]]. The MechWarrior Brotherhoods in Davion Territory strayed onto this path also, looting, raping and murdering -- because they were MechWarriors, and therefore automatically better than the people they were victimizing. Hanse Davion too has skirted this line, but [[MagnificentBastard is just so damn awesome]] he's been able to avoid the tag.

** Those who make it on the Camarilla's Red List in ''VampireTheMasquerade'' are the very worst of the worst, monsters even among other monsters (vampires are not exactly paragons of morality and humanity). To become one of the Anathema requires crimes and atrocities of a legendary nature, and since many such vampires have become very powerful through acts of diablerie, the task of hunting down and destroying these monsters is given to the Alastors, the Camarilla's "secret police."

** Then we have the [[WerewolfTheForsaken Bale Hounds]]. They secretly worship the Maeljin, incarnations of the SevenDeadlySins (with deception and violence thrown in for good measure) that have twisted in upon themselves and become utterly warped. Their guiding ethos is to create Wounds that taint the SpiritWorld and humans who pass by them, in what is already a CrapsackWorld where spirits are happily willing to ride humans like ponies for a bit of power.

** Are we forgetting the [[GeniusTheTransgression Illuminated]]? Think Mengele, [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel but better at his craft]]. The worst part about them is that a full 25% of Genuses slip into this state, as a result of their abilities distancing them from humanity and eatign away at the back of their mind!.

** "The Book of Vile Darkness" also gives is the Vashar, a whole ''race'' of complete monsters. The Vashar were the Gods first attempt at creating humans, but [[GoneHorriblyWrong something went wrong]] and the result was a race of horrid, degenerate savages. The gods abandoned their flawed creations in disgust, but various archfiends took the opportunity to "perfect" this new race. The result is a whole race of humans utterly incapable of love, compassion, or faith. Whereas an individual Drow or Orc might see the light and become good, this never happens with the Vashar. The book even mentions that Vashar never take hostages, as they cannot comprehend how anyone could value someone or something more than themselves.
*** Here's what the book actually says: "Vasharans do not understand concepts such as mercy, kindness or love-not even toward each other. These concepts are so alien to them that they rarely think to use the emotions of others as leverage. For example, only a Vasharan with years of experience among other humanoids would kidnap someone; most would not even consider that the victim's friends might actually value her life. Vasharans also show no revulsion for creatures or acts that other humans consider repellent. They have no aversion to gore or filth, they have no taboos against rape and insest, and they have no distaste for creatures such as insects, serpants, and worms. If a Vasharan believes that eating maggots will somehow help her, she won't hesitate to do so." Basically, long story short, the Vashar are a [[UpToEleven full-blown]] combination of [[HumansAreBastards Humans Are Bastards]], [[TheUnfettered The Unfettered]], [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel High Octane Nightmare Fuel]] and [[DudeNotFunny Dude Not Funny]].

* How has the WorldOfDarkness not shown up yet? Take the [[MageTheAscension Nephandi]], for instance - knowingly working to make the world [[ItGotWorse worse]] than it [[CrapsackWorld already is]], with the eventual goal of [[OmnicidalManiac destroying it entirely]].