How evil is evil?

I've finished world building and started to create characters for my first story and I've come to a halt.

The world I've created is very much based on grey and gray morality. There are clear protagonists but they aren't heroes and the villains have very justifiable motives, in fact they are mainly evil because they are seen from the perspective of their enemies.

One of the 2 main protagonists is a vampire and I'm struggling to show him in a positive/neutral light without watering down the settings vampires or resorting to whole misunderstood cliché which I don't want. It isn't just a case of how he appears to the audience but also other characters (most of which are human), who need to tolerate his behaviour enough to keep him around. Since my vampires don't need to feed often and it is possible for him to feed without killing the question is more about how much predatory and ruthless he can choose to be than be out of necessity.

I've got a thing for antiheroes so I think my judgement might be a bit skewed, so how evil can characters be before they start to cross the line?

Read Worm. In addition to my required shilling of things I really like, it's pretty much all about this, so it could actually help you a lot.

Is a natural predator evil? Draw a distinction between creatures that do repulsive things because it is in their irreversible nature and have no real choice in the matter, and those creatures that do repulsive things to cut corners or just assert themselves as powerful individiuals.

EDIT: Rant omitted. Apologies for the tirade.

edited 16th May '14 6:09:45 AM by Deebro

It isn't so much about whether he is evil from a philosophical perspective but whether his behaviour is enough to put off other characters. Of the two characters he is definitely going to be the amoral one (not that the other is a particularly great person either)but since he has human-ish friends who are aware of what he is, I need to find some middle ground. I certainly don't want him to be a mindless killer, after all humans are predators and outside of our need to eat we can be perfectly normal around other species, even those which we could feasibly eat. On the other hand he is certainly a dangerous person to be involved with and not someone your average human would want to be around.

I definitely don't want to go down the popular route for good vampire which makes him some kind of vegetarian- he will feed on people, on the other hand I feel randomly killing innocent people on a monthly basis is a good way to push away any friends you may have (and the audience).

My feel for the character (and vampirism as a whole) is that rather than making him more sadistic or blood thirsty it just reduces his empathy and limitations so he is more likely to act on the impulses he had as a human.

A building block Via The Other Wiki:

If a child has been "turned" and attacks an adult to feed, it's dangerous, but doesn't have to be evil. Now if said child enjoys attacking people and hiding behind the image of a child, that's evil.

If this child vamp isn't above using her appearance to hide behind, but only "feeds" from animals, and steals to survive, basically bad with the good. That's where you can get some wiggle room.

edited 15th May '14 8:14:21 PM by TairaMai

If he does not generally have to kill to survive, have him simply be pragmatic about feeding. Not impassive or bloodthirsty or ashamed, just practical. He needs to drink blood, he does not have to kill for it, he doesn't want the unwanted attention killing draws and he doesn't relish causing pain. He does what he needs to. Maybe he tries to take some enjoyment in selection and "the hunt," but why not? We all have to cope and we all have to justify ourselves, even if those mechanisms and justifications are weak or skewed.

He is what he is. He doesn't like it but he doesn't get torn up about it. He is, above all, a person.

I'd second this, but with particular emphasis on the no-killing part. If he doesn't have to kill to survive and he does anyway, any attempt at presenting him sympathetically is going to ring very hollow.

I like the pragmatic approach, it fits quite well with my vision of the character. Since I still want to keep the idea that vampires are monsters without making him seems like the special case I'm thinking i'll make it clear that while he only does what he needs to, he is still hurting people in the process- after all while he might not have to kill them, forcefully feeding on someone or mind controlling them is less than heroic. I will probably extended the ruthless pragmatism to other aspects of his life beyond feeding- he might not have the urge to kill but equally he doesn't have any objections to violence if it looks like the best method.