That...is one hell of a villain name, I gotta say.
"We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist."
State of Mind
If he wasn't royalty then his name would just be Carlyle L. Johnson. Not quite as intimidating anymore, is it? 
Swordofknowledge
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
@ Parable: It's been a while since I last did this, but let's see if I've still got what it takes, eh?
If you recall back in the day, I mentioned once that the thing I liked about all your characters was that they were so...human in their actions, motivations and simply the aspects of their daily lives. There were no truly evil villains or dashing heroes, although a few come close to the latter (looking at you Undying Queen Anani).
So with that being said, I realize just how much I failed to predict who and what Carlyle was. If you remember even further back in the day, I compared him to the deranged prime minister from Akame ga Kill—-and that truly is what I expected to see. In the time I awaited the infamous "evil uncle" to make his appearance, my mind cast him as a sinister Littlefinger-esque manipulator, who pulled the strings of a weak-willed ruler for his own personal power, while indulging in a sadistic flair for the brutal and dramatic. In other words, I imagined a monster.
But of course had I truly been paying attention to the trend of this story, I would have known how silly that was. Rather than create a arch-villainous Evil Chancellor, you've created a complex and actually rather sympathetic old man who I can actually see myself nodding in agreement with some of his stances...and stranger still, empathize even with the attitudes that repulse me.
One of the oddest things about Carlyle is his stance and dislike/distrust of commoners. We are often shown the resentment and other negative emotions that commoners hold toward the nobility, whether that be because of grotesque abuses of power, feelings of being trapped at the bottom end of an immovable hierarchy, or just plain jealousy. But I really can't remember the last time I saw not only a nobleman's negative for commoners expanded beyond "filthy peasants moving beyond their station". But here you again make it clear that while a good deal of Carlyle's feelings for non-nobles is typical Aristocrats Are Evil arrogance...the other part of it is a very real and understandable reaction to seeing the a mass of ignorant, volatile and easily inflamed people wreak damage on what he holds dear. That bit about the suicide/murder...ugh. To be honest, in any other situation, his classism is almost like...racism.
All that is to say that you have surprised me by creating an extremely understandable villain. You can see his rather well-intentioned beginnings and the slow twisting and corrupting of someone who genuinely believed that the nobility was there to guide and lead the people, protecting them from themselves. I mentioned in Saya's profile that I appreciate a person who actually seemed to abide by the ancient rule of Noblesse Oblige and ironically Carlyle could be her Evil Twin where that is concerned. Both abide by it, but the old chancellor embodies its darker nature, that he who protects you rules you, and you had better remember that or suffer mightily for your mistake.
Anyway, I hope this review isn't all over the place; the content of this profile surprised me and I'm just trying to get the words out . Once again a great character and addition to the story's lore.
State of Mind
Thanks for the thorough review! I admit it was weird trying to describe his character, as he's one of two characters who love history that I think I put the most of myself into but, ya know, as a bad guy. I'm glad I got him across as more than a mustache twirling bad guy even if he probably the closest to a stereotypical bad guy in his part of the story. Ironic, considering the actions of past bad guys are what scare him into acting the way he does.
Being scared is probably the core of who he is, come to think of it. If this was Inside Out then his dominant emotion would be Fear. Afraid of the lower class, afraid for his dynasty, afraid of chaos. Afraid if you let up for a second and give people an inch, then they'll turn around and take a mile at your expense. That last part reminds me very much of how white supremacists view civil rights, so that's probably where the borderline racism comes in. His hero worship of past leaders is rooted in his awe at how they faced things that terrify him.
"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim
A profile for one of the supervillains I'm working on...
Name: Ronnie Slater
Codename: Bullyboy
Age: 17
Personality: Self-destructive, impulsive, violent
Backstory: One of many unhappy wards of the state, Ronnie Slater found out that their best friend Kelly Houlihan had an actual demon for a dad, and goaded her into summoning the demon to make a deal for superpowers. Together, Ronnie and Kelly broke out of their abusive group home and tried to become supervillains, only to discover that a pair of teenagers don't make a very good supervillain team. While Kelly had the foresight to plead out and got a light sentence followed by in-patient counseling for her issues, Ronnie tried to fight their charges in court and got sent to juvie.
Two years later, Ronnie, having joined a super-powered gang and adopted the codename "Bullyboy", became part of a breakout and attempted to track down Kelly, who'd since begun trying to reform herself as part of the Motivated Young Teen Heroes Organized in Solidarity (or MYTHOS). Tired of being treated as the Token Evil Teammate, Kelly, who now called herself "Hotline", ran away with Ronnie and tried to resume her former criminal career. Unfortunately, Ronnie's fellow escapees tracked them and Kelly down and demanded payment for helping them escape jail. Pissed off at the prospect of being tied down to another group of people rather than being a free agent, Hotline reluctantly called up her teammates Runt and Stray, who helped her defeat Bullyboy and their compatriots and then dragged Bullyboy off to MYTHOS' detention center, from which they eventually escaped. And thus began Bullyboy's repeated attempts to defeat Runt and Stray (and later teammate Viewpoint) in the mistaken belief that doing so will allow them to win back Kelly.
Powers and Weaknesses: Bullyboy has demonically-powered variable strength and endurance; generally, they are just slightly stronger and tougher than whoever they're fighting. They also exude an "intimidation aura". The downside is that the power only boosts their strength and endurance, so they can still be outmaneuvered or outsmarted. There's also the problem that when facing multiple opponents simultaneously, the power only adjusts to the weakest opponent.
Goal: Bullyboy seeks to crush former partner Hotline's new friends and convince her to go back to being a supervillain. Sometimes, they have sought to integrate themselves into Hotline's new life by trying to go straight, but their habit of betraying their would-be teammates whenever an opportunity presents itself has made this increasingly difficult.
Motivation: At heart, Bullyboy is nostalgic for a time that barely existed - the brief period between when they and Hotline broke out of the group home and when they got arrested for the first time. They think that if they could just get Hotline to rejoin them, they could go back to that life, and either don't or refuse to understand that they can't go back to that, and that it's largely their own actions that make that impossible.
Role in Story: Bullyboy serves as a foil to Hotline and her friends Runt, Stray and Viewpoint. As a villain, they'll never be strong enough to be a world-ending threat or even a major threat, but the team's specific weaknesses (Hotline can't put her feelings aside, Runt is too quick to judgment, Stray is too forgiving, and Viewpoint is too passive) means that every time Bullyboy returns, it throws off the usually-tight team dynamics. For MYTHOS as a whole, Bullyboy also serves as a test of its principles, as MYTHOS tries to reform superpowered teenage delinquents and keep them out of the prison system, given how hard it is to get out of the system once you're in, but Bullyboy shows very little enthusiasm for reforming.
Edited by StrixObscuro on Feb 9th 2021 at 1:16:23 PM
By now, it should be clear to all except the most dense of us that sheep are secretly conspiring to kill us all and steal our pants.
StrixObscuro: This sounds intriguing. I like the idea of a supervillain who's essentially just (in your words) a superpowered teenage delinquent, and the implication that the same applies to a lot of your universe's supervillains. I also like how petty Bullyboy's ambitions are, which also ties in to their relative youth and immaturity. Finally, non-binary villains (at least, I'm assuming that Bullyboy is non-binary) are pretty rare in fiction, and I commend you for including one in your work.
Trimming the hedges, one trope at a time.With that said, here's another villain I thought up:
Name: Mortimer Miller/Master Plan
Age: 24
Personality: An immature and smugly arrogant nerd of the Sheldon Cooper variety who just happens to have very good technology and an obsession with proving his mental superiority to the rest of mankind. And violently psychopathic tendencies, of course.
Abilities: Mortimer is as intelligent as he is evil, capable of building highly advanced robots and complex death traps quite effectively.
Weaknesses: Mortimer is certainly incredibly smart, but not nearly as much as he thinks he is. At the end of the day, his boastfulness, arrogance, and pride ensure that he remains little more than a bumbling loser with delusions of grandeur.
Goals: To prove his superior intellect to his arch-nemesis David Dare, and to become the world's premier supervillain.
Motivations: To force others to give him the love and respect he believes he is owed.
Backstory: Mortimer grew up neglected by his parents, bullied at his school, and feeling like a nobody. Becoming bitter at the world around him, Mortimer began to idolize supervillains, and decided to become one himself, the diabolical Master Plan. Using his considerable talents to indulge his own selfish desires, Mortimer first met David Dare at a bank that Mortimer was trying to rob, and that David was currently serving as a sponsor for. Easily beaten by David, Mortimer vowed revenge on the hero, and attempted to murder David while the latter was attending a superhero convention (and by doing so violating the self-imposed rules of the supervillain community, which forbid villains to attack heroes at such events). While Mortimer succeeded in seriously wounding David, he also accidentally killed David's father, who was accompanying David at the time. In mourning, David swore that no one else would die because of him, and from then on David and Mortimer became sworn enemies.
Relevant tropes:
- 0% Approval Rating: Mortimer is such an emotionally stunted, patronizing narcissist that everyone either outright hates his guts or ignores him completely. And he's fine with that.
- Always Second Best: To David Dare. His attempts to prove himself the intellectual superior through his crimes and deathtraps only serve to disprove this notion when David constantly defeats him.
- Arch-Enemy: To David Dare, the most frequent cause of his defeats and thus the principal target of his hate. However, while David certainly has reason to hate Mortimer, he still thinks of Mortimer as little more than an annoyance, as opposed to the really threatening villains he also has to deal with.
- Attention Whore: Motivated solely by a compulsive need for attention, and seriously miffed that David is more respected than him.
- Ax-Crazy: Mortimer held it together pretty well initially, but as he gains more confidence and descends deeper into evil, he starts to relish violence and death.
- Basement-Dweller: Being a stereotypical nerd gone horribly wrong, Mortimer often dwells in his basement while formulating evil plans.
- Berserk Button:
- He does not appreciate David being called a hero, or anyone besting him intellectually. (Particularly David himself.) Batman's repeated victories causes the latter to be permanently locked in place.
- Also doesn't like to be called insane, as it implies he has a mental illness or deficiency.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Mortimer may be silly, obnoxious and quite childish, but he's also a remorseless, murderous psychopath with sinister plans, genuinely dangerous machines, and no empathy to care who ends up hurt in the crossfire of either.
- Big Bad Wannabe: He keeps boasting to everyone how he's David's intellectual superior, and the biggest threat the superhero has ever faced. In actuality, he's an annoyance whose various evil plans all fall flat on their own face, and even after he proves himself to be genuinely villainous by killing somebody, he still can't manage to become an actual threat.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He chose to become a supervillain because he found the lifestyle appealing.
- Complexity Addiction: The chief reason why he's not such an effective supervillain. Mortimer is incredibly smart, but his narcissism causes him to focus more on showmanship than strategy, thus his plans tend to be overly grandiose and theatrical. This provides many different ways for things to go wrong as a result, which David takes advantage of.
- Control Freak: Why he prefers machines to other humans: they can only do exactly what he wants them to do, and do so without hesitation or doubt.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the classic supervillain, and the type of person who would want to be one. Most comic-book supervillains are already grandiose and egotistical, embittered against the world that rejected them. Mortimer Miller is the logical extreme of that personality type, as it would be in reality — a pathetic, self-obsessed, self-deluding, and unbearably pompous man-child with a ridiculous speech pattern who is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is, who treats the lives of the everyone around him like disposable objects in a petty game fueled with a burning passion worthy of a toddler's temper tantrum.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: According to Mortimer, power and benevolence can't go hand in hand — thus, he's firmly convinced that David Dare's altruism is a cover for his evil nature, and that he steals from the crooks he captures to fund his gadget arsenal and bribes the police to look the other way because, as he puts it, "no one's that selfless."
- Evil Counterpart: To David Dare, who is also the setting's local Spider-Man Send-Up. Both were bullied nerds who decided to use their genius for their own gain — however, while Dan is a good person at heart and decided to turn his life around as a true hero, Mortimer is a vile sociopath incapable of admitting he can do anything wrong.
- Evil Genius: Being just a human, Mortimer has no powers whatsoever and relies on his intellect to achieve his goals.
- Evil Is Hammy: As befits a self-styled "supervillain". Mortimer will take every chance he gets to Milk the Giant Cow, shout at the top of his lungs, and refer to himself in the third person. Also a deconstructed example of this trope, as these mannerisms are seen as grating and obnoxiously childish by pretty much everyone else.
- Evil Is Petty: Practically his central characteristic. He wants to become a supervillain because he's bitter about how he's "suffered" at the hands of society, and thinks that he doesn't have a girlfriend because women don't appreciate his genius. He is so galled by the fact that there is someone smarter than him that he endangers innocents just to prove he's smarter than David. He's wasted most of his life trying to avenge this insult upon his pride.
- Evil Nerd: Is basically a stereotypical nerd with all of the negative traits turned Up To Eleven, with everything that entails.
- Expy: Basically the demented love-child of Warren Mears and the Arkhamverse version of the Riddler.
- Fatal Flaw: Pride. Mortimer is certainly incredibly smart, but he's so boastful, arrogant, and prideful that he provides numerous ways that he can be beaten.
- His Complexity Addiction stems from his pride. Mortimer doesn't just want to win, he wants to win in the most grandiose, overly-complicated manner possible. As such, his schemes tend to be increasingly elaborate, which provides more ways for something to go wrong.
- Ironically, the so-called "Master Plan" can't even conceive of himself losing. So when he inevitably does, Mortimer doesn't have much in the way of a backup plan or an escape route, letting him get taken out by David pretty easily.
- Faux Affably Evil: He'll put up a calm and civil demeanor when he wants to, but even then, his poorly concealed resentment and belief that he's better than others shines through to the point that it's hard to miss it.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Mortimer started as an irritating but intelligent young man who was basically just bitter... then he decides to become a supervillain. His crimes gradually progress in terms of severity, ultimately culminating in murder, after which he stops becoming a joke. However, even after becoming a nightmare, he's still a relative nobody in the grand scheme of the supervillain hierarchy.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Mortimer is severely jealous of the adulation heaped on what he considers a thoroughly mediocre mind like David Dare's, while he's repeatedly beaten and locked away whenever he tries to "prove" his own genius.
- Hate Sink: Mortimer Miller is not a respectable figure in any way. In fact, he's a sarcastic, narcissistic, misogynistic, psychopathic creep who behaves like a petty, annoying child around people.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Although not a "He-Man" by any means, Mortimer's anger over his inability to get a date, and subsequent poor luck when he does, leads to him descending into this. He's basically a super-villainous incel.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: His most driving motive in his rivalry with David Dare, particularly as he feels the compulsive need to prove himself superior to everybody else. Virtually every time he talks to David or his henchmen, he often likes to take a moment to remind them that he is, in fact, intellectually superior.
- Insufferable Genius: With the emphasis on "insufferable." His constant insults, Smug Snake tendencies, and inability to comprehend his own flaws are intentionally grating.
- Jerkass: He's a smug, condescending, patronizing and thoroughly unpleasant asshole who can hardly finish a sentence without boasting about his intelligence non-stop or insulting others for being "stupid".
- Love Is a Weakness: Mortimer vocally makes a point of having no friends, as he narcissistically regards it as a good thing and a badge of honor that he hasn't found anyone to consider an equal. Also, while he's certainly not asexual, he nonetheless finds human relationships and romantic attachments to be "disgusting".
- Mad Scientist: He tends to act quite kooky and hammy, and he's a great scientist able to create very advanced robots and death traps by himself in his basement. There's no denying how smart he is, though, even if he is crazy to boot.
- Misanthrope Supreme: He's a human who hates humanity. Mortimer finds humans to be a letdown, thinks everyone is stupid but him, and makes a point of having no friends. The reason Mortimer loves machines is because of their greater efficiency and how they can only do as they're told.
- Narcissist: He fits this trope like a glove. He's convinced of his genius, he's incredibly self-absorbed, seeing no issue with making the world pay for his bad treatment (real or imagined), loves praise and being the center of attention and has absolutely no empathy.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: To a degree. Mortimer was a pathetic nerd with a mean streak, but nothing more. Then he gets away with murder, and everything evil and savage in him gets kicked into overdrive. The resulting confidence turns him into a vicious murderer with a hatred for women. Of course, while he's undoubtedly dangerous, Mortimer's still far too prideful and insufferable to be a true threat.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Being a Smug Snake who thinks he's smarter than everyone else, he doesn't miss a beat to insult others on their intellect. He's also seriously misogynistic, showing very little regard for women and deciding that the reason he can't get a date is because they're all too stupid to appreciate his genius.
- Pride: His Fatal Flaw. Mortimer fails in the end because he can't shut off his "I'm your intellectual superior" routine for even a minute, which sees him alone and without any manpower or alliances with other villains, and leads to him continuing to throw himself at David even when it costs him everything.
- Psychopathic Manchild: At the end of the day, Mortimer is this. For all his supposed intelligence, he's nothing but a petty, egotistic brat with a massive superiority complex who just cannot stand the idea of anyone besting him intellectually. The only reason he decided to become a supervillain in the first place was out of boredom and to get respect.
- Robot Master: His major schtick is the construction of robots and drones, claiming them to be superior to human goons.
- Smug Snake: He's very arrogant, but he's not quite as clever as he thinks and is quick to anger whenever David starts winning.
- The Sociopath: Despite his incompetence, Mortimer is a ruthless narcissist who sees people only as tools to benefit him, has no problem killing anyone who gets in the way of his plans, and doesn't care about any collateral damage.
- Tom the Dark Lord: A supervillain named... Mortimer.
Edited by ClancyGardener on Feb 13th 2021 at 1:12:03 AM
Trimming the hedges, one trope at a time.
Clancy Gardner: In response to your question, yes, Bullyboy is nonbinary.
As to your villain, I will say that the profile is solid and informative, and fairly descriptive. I already have a picture in my head of what he might look like and sound like. But... he needs some sort of hook. His backstory, abilities, and motivations all seem kinda bog standard. What would make him stand out if he were in a room with a whole bunch of other evil super-geniuses?
Edited by StrixObscuro on Feb 15th 2021 at 2:32:01 PM
By now, it should be clear to all except the most dense of us that sheep are secretly conspiring to kill us all and steal our pants.
Since nobody has posted in almost a month, I'd like to make another submission.
Name: Mercy Winnick
Codename: Three-Legged Rabbit
Age: 21
Personality: Cold, calculating, cruel
Backstory: When she was a teenager, Mercy Winnick lost one of her legs when she was hit by a drunk driver. As luck would have it, the driver happened to be rich, so her parents sued and got a huge settlement. Unluckily for Mercy, her parents were selfish assholes who squandered the money on their own desires. She managed to acquire just enough of the money to take out a considerable life-insurance policy on them. Shortly after the policy went into effect, they just happened to die of accidental overdoses, and she collected enough cash to play the stock market and win enough money to do whatever she wanted.
And it turned out that what she wanted to do was become a supervillain. Watching the way stocks rose and fell and the underlying patterns that drove it, Mercy became obsessed with the idea that there is no way for anyone to profit without someone else losing, and, calling herself the Three-Legged Rabbit, now seeks to spread misery around by manipulating the markets so that as many people lose as possible. Being an asshole, she also occasionally indulges in hacking to fuck with people's money directly, usually in ways designed to stir up strife (for instance, stealing life savings from poor rural white families and funneling it into inner-city black families.)
Eventually, she came to the attention of the Motivated Young Teen Heroes Organized in Solidarity (or MYTHOS), who intervened to stop one of her plans. While they were successful in stopping that particular con, it drew Mercy's attention to their leader, the enigmatic Mythologist, who supposedly used to be an obscure heroine named Knightbird who retired after taking a bullet to the leg. Analyzing the supposed footage of Knightbird's former exploits, Mercy noticed that she walked with a limp even when she was still supposedly Knightbird, which has led her to correctly deduce that Mythologist has been lying about her past. She has filed that away for future use.
Powers and Weaknesses: Three-Legged Rabbit has no actual superpowers, but is a skilled hacker and an expert on calculating probability. If forced into a combat situation, she has trained to defend herself in her wheelchair, but generally prefers to use either bodyguards or guns. She has claimed to also have a "Lucky Rabbit's Foot" - a hidden gun in her prosthetic leg - but she doesn't actually have that; she never managed to make a working prototype.
Goal: While she claims that her goal is to become rich and powerful, in reality, Three-Legged Rabbit just wants to screw people over and make them miserable. Now that she's attracted the attention of MYTHOS, she also seeks to figure out the Mythologist's true identity and expose her.
Motivation: Three-Legged Rabbit is mostly driven by spite and bitterness.
Role in Story: Three-Legged Rabbit is a mid-level antagonist for MYTHOS in general, and a dark counterpart for Mythologist, who has a similar backstory (life-altering injury, asshole parents, lots of money), but who is trying to help people rather than destroy them.
By now, it should be clear to all except the most dense of us that sheep are secretly conspiring to kill us all and steal our pants.StrixObscuro: Another interesting character. While her backstory is quite tragic — and it seems clear that both the accident that cost her a leg and her neglectful parents have warped her worldview considerably — her spiteful motivations and actions keep her from being truly sympathetic (much like Bullyboy). I also think the idea of a supervillain who commits financial crimes is very interesting — it reminds me of Dr. Mabuse's stock market manipulations. And like Dr. Mabuse, Three-Legged Rabbit rationalizes her crimes with a twisted ideology — while Mabuse is obsessed with the "will to power" and toying with "human lives and human destiny" for his own gratification, Three-Legged Rabbit uses the philosophy of the "zero-sum game" to justify her causing as much misery as possible. Overall, Three-Legged Rabbit looks like a solid character.
On a side note, I also like the names you give to your super-characters.
Trimming the hedges, one trope at a time.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Here's another one of the enforcers from my story; this time, a female villain.
- Name: Camilla Mars, though most people just refer to her as "Mars"
- Age: Mid Thirties
- Personality: Aggressive, blunt, arrogant and bad-tempered, Mars isn't the sort of character others usually like to be around. She's rude and commanding even to her boyfriend/friend-with-benefits (I'm not sure what they are, and I'm not sure if they know either, tbh).
- Abilities: She's considered one of the most dangerous enforcers for a damn good reason: She's fast, ruthless, and utterly fearless. She'll keep fighting until she or her enemy are dead. She's also a pragmatic fighter- take out her main weapon and she'll just find something else to beat you with.
- Weaknesses: Arrogance. Her main enemy in the rebellion is only alive because she decided to let him suffer and bleed out instead of killing him when she had the chance, allowing him to survive and come back. She's too sadistic for her own good, and she also has the tendency to live in her own ego, dismissing others and often refusing to take missions if she doesn't find them important enough.
- Goals: She, like the other enforcers, is seeking the destruction of the rebellion and the upholding of the government.
- Motivation: Sadism and power. Once she got a taste of the extreme authority she gets from being an enforcer, she just craves it more and more. Meanwhile, she thinks beating up the rebels is fun.
- Role in the story: She's the enforcer Emory fears the most, being the one who almost murdered him in an alleyway. She shows up occasionally to act as a threat and to have epic battles, which usually end with her losing, but not easily. She's also one of the main enforcers, so a lot of her scenes and actions take place within the enforcement's HQ, filling the "Blood Knight" niche of the Ace Enforcement. Eventually, she's sent out to try and kill Emory, and he manages to take her out.
- Backstory: Mars grew up in a poor part of Baltimore, where she eventually became the leader of an all-girls street gang. One day, she was caught by the Baltimore enforcement, who noticed her strength and offered her a choice: Prison or Enforcement Training. She took the training and realized how much more power she had being an enforcer rather than a gangster, graduated, and then went home to slaughter the members of her old gang. Eventually, her actions got her promoted to be an Ace Enforcer, one of the nine most powerful members of the enforcement.
- Relevant Tropes:
- Gangbangers: At least formerly, and she is black.
- Killer Cop
- Elite Agents Above the Law
- Blood Knight
- Verbal Tic: As a true Baltimore gal, she peppers "hun" into her words religiously.
- Powerful People Are Subs: In her relationship with fellow enforcer and Torture Technician Christian King, she's definitely the sub, or at least in the bedroom she is; otherwise she's definitely the one who wears the pants in the relationship.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As cruel as she is, she does have something resembling affection for King.
- Combat Pragmatist
- Determinator
- Pride
- The Dreaded: A lot of characters are terrified of her, and for good reason.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Has the tendency to inflict these: One notable one is when she killed a rebel by getting them sucked up into a jet's engine.
- Reformed Criminal: Played with. The enforcement certainly sees her as this, but to everyone else she's not "reformed" at all, just fighting for a bigger and stronger version of her old gang.
Edited by WarJay77 on Apr 11th 2021 at 12:31:53 PM
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Swordofknowledge
First of all I very much like Three Legged Rabbit's name. It is a very abstract yet straightforward name that reminds me of something out of Tokyo Ghoul or even Deadman Wonderland. She's interesting in the fact that it she has all the trappings of a sympathetic character (a tragic backstory, the understandable helplessness of a girl with her whole life ahead of her who is tragically stripped of her mobility). In fact she reminds me of a character in a very old book I read many, many years ago , a teenage girl who was suddenly crippled and forced to adapt overnight. That said, she only has the trappings of sympathy and nothing more. It is very clear as you said, she is motivated by "spite and bitterness" and it shows. I never thought that a supervillain and economic tampering could be related, but you've done a very good job of illustrating how vicious and outright dangerous someone who attacks people on a monetary level can be. In a way, it almost seems as if she is inflicting the same shock, sudden helplessness and pain she was forced to go through on countless others over and over again. A very good character I'd say!
@ Warjay 77. I'm going to assume that Camilla is from the storyline of yours in which a religious cult took over the United States and turned it into hell (pun intended)? If so one of the things I'd wonder is...what is her religious affiliation? Does she have any of their belief system? I know she's a Boxed Crook who entered into their enforcer program to avoid prison, but groups build around the core of a strong ideology, especially one of faith do have a way of influencing those in them, even if they joined for reasons of their own.
...of course, this is only if she's from that same story. If not I apologize for wasting your time
Anyway, apart from those questions, Camilla seems to be the perfect "step up" villain for a hero to deal with. More dangerous than a basic enemy with command over a significant force of her own, but not at the "core" of the enemy camp. Someone the hero will need to be careful dealing with and who forces them to understand just how dangerous the situation is. She definitely lives into the negative aspects of the Blood Knight trope, and I can only imagine the horrors awaiting those who fall into her grasp and don't just plain die, considering she has a Torture Technician for a boyfriend.
"Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake." —Edgar Wallace
Swordofknowledge
So, this is a fairly different sort of villain from my usual guests, since this charming public servant has no battle-worthy powers or abilities. Nonetheless he is just as steeped in the evil of Kishlaith's underground elements as the others I’ve posted here.
- Name: Senator/ “Game Warden” Willo Lamerli
- 'Age: 186. He was born in 1831, and he was assassinated in 2017.
- Appearance: Like most elves, Willo is a tall man, standing 6'5 in height with a thin and delicate physique which has been rendered frail by the passage of time. He has a dark brownish green complexion, large almond-shaped eyes of pure black, and slender pointed ears that are adorned with expensive earrings formed of wood and precious stones. Willo’s hair was once bright sunflower blond but has slowly taken on the silvery-white of dandelion seed with age, and he wears it to shoulder length, often pulling it into a ponytail with a heavy wooden ring. His facial features are thin and sharp and the years have carved them with deep lines. He wears the traditional Ilesti elven noble garb of a long high-collared silk robe that reaches his knees, loose flowing pants, leather sandals, and a sash around his waist. The robe and pants are varying shades of green, while the sash is bright crimson and decorated with the elaborate metal crest that marks him as head of the Lamerli family. He carries a long stylishly carved wooden cane to aid in walking, though this has recently become less necessity and more fashion choice. When overseeing various aspects of his “research”, he dons an opaque white mask to hide his face, a heavy liquid-resistant plastic poncho and thick protective gloves and boots.
- Personality:
- On a surface level, Willo’s behavior admirably befits a man of his social class and lineage. He treats others with courtesy and keeps well-informed of politics and many other subjects of interest to the upper echelon of society within his homeland. However, he also demonstrates a genuine interest in topics and hobbies more common to the lower classes of elves and humans alike. Combined with his friendly demeanor this allows him to make easy conversation across social and species lines throughout the Western Isles. As one of the senators representing the elven citizens of the nation, he works tirelessly to strike a balance between safeguarding the interests of his people while maintaining the peace between the humans and elves in the Isles.
- He is immensely proud of his status as the current head of the Lamerli family and of the family’s history as the former governors of the Western Isles during the days of the Ilesti Empire, and he translates this pride into a sense of duty and obligation improve the lives of the citizenry. To that end, he is a keen philanthropist and patron of up-and-coming professionals who stand to make the Western Isles a better place. The nurturing and funding of those he feels will bring prosperity and safety to his nation is a practice he has adopted since he became the family head, well before his ascension to the Senate. Though his wife is dead and he lacks children of his own, Willo is a devoted family man. Despite the strained relationship with his elder brother Sarlen, Willo still honors him, and makes sure to demonstrate appropriate and respectful mourning on the anniversary of his death. He is very involved in the lives of his younger sister Mereia and her husband and their two sons. He dotes on his nephews even into their adulthood and regularly counsels the oldest on the responsibilities that will fall on his shoulders when he himself becomes head of the family and inherits its legacy.
- Although Willo’s benevolent actions and demeanor are genuine, a savage desperation has devoured his mind and morals like a cancer. He lives in terror of the mysterious outbreak of infertility that is steadily overtaking Kishlaith’s elves, and due to being affected by it himself, he feels rage and loathing towards the ailment like a tangible enemy. He is tortured by visions of a future in which elves, the race that shaped Kishlaith and once reigned unchallenged over the world, are reduced to a mere memory. He is more than willing to commit sinister atrocities to even temporarily dispel the specter of elven extinction, which leads him to fixate on the temporary physical perfection brought about by early-stage white porzite infection.
- Rather than see it as a weapon or a drug, Willo views white porzite as the salvation of his people, if he can use its ability-enhancing properties to maintain and even restore reproductive capacity within elves—while delaying or completely eliminating its harmful side-effects. His dedication to this goal is strong enough that he allied himself with Elizabeth Mourner and her criminal syndicate to gain access to the amounts of white porzite necessary for his endeavors. Willo feigns respect and even admiration for Elizabeth and certain members of her group, but he feels nothing but contempt for the vampire and her followers. This is due to their unlawful and destructive actions around the world and Elizabeth's undead nature, which he sees as a sinful and cowardly abomination against the cycle of life and death. Worst of all, he knows that his victory over his debased older brother and his attainment of a seat within the Senate were only achieved through her behind-the-scenes maneuvering on his behalf. This disgusts him, since he feels that her interventions have tarnished his personal honor fouled the glory of the positions themselves. He openly looks down on most of her subordinates, including the people she gives him as part of his role in her white porzite dealing operation, and rejects any attempts at friendliness or inclusion in matters unrelated to their duties. Any true respect he has for his partnership with Elizabeth is for his job as her “Game Warden” since the position greatly contributes to his plans.
- Upon being granted knowledge of the Becker family’s existence and their “role” as the source of all white porzite on Kishlaith, Willo’s ambitions tremendously expanded. In many ways his viewpoint mirrors Elizabeth’s—just as the vampiric crime boss dehumanizes the family as her profitable inheritance from her lost mentor Rudolph Valtir, Willo views them as a living resource he can utilize for the elven race’s benefit. He is amazed at their ancient symbiotic bond with the white porzite and the titanic strength and regenerative powers it has granted them, without even a hint of physical or mental degradation. But what truly excites him is their relative resistance to genetic defects and infertility despite their centuries of isolation-induced inbreeding. He is determined to unlock the mystery of their superhuman physiology so he can replicate this state within elves. Because of this, members of the family that Willo manages to have stolen from the holding cells of Elizabeth’s Gardens suffer greatly under his orders. They are subjected to painful and exhaustive medical and magical experimentation to evaluate the extent of their abilities, along with relentless questioning about the family’s history and their traditional lore regarding their “gift". He always winds up petrifying these captives under a variety of unique conditions in hopes that the white porzite harvested from the resulting trees will be free of negative effects.
- These experiments are not limited to samples of Elizabeth’s “livestock”. Willo will not hesitate to have strains of white porzite he has made from his stolen Becker family members forcibly administered to kidnapped elves to see if his methods have succeeded. With nothing but a pile of failed attempts to remove the corruption, and the Becker family’s traditional tales of their origins amounting to little more than jumbled superstition, Willo grows more frustrated. This feeling is worsened by knowledge that his natural death is approaching, and he has almost no one he trusts enough to name as a successor to his research and efforts. He entertains increasingly concrete plans to seize control of the Becker homestead and the Beckers themselves from Elizabeth’s cold hands so that he can have unrestricted access to the family and the ability to raid their squalid property in hopes of finding answers at long last. Furthermore, he has turned towards “expanding” the pool of his test subjects by pushing for legalization of white porzite use in the elven population of the Western Isles as long as it is government-distributed—making sure that his “altered” strains are the ones being given to the populace, of course. He is all too aware of the toll this will take on the elves of the nation but he sees their fate as a worthy sacrifice for the sake of reversing the looming extinction of their race around the world.
- His existential dread of a world without elves may have driven him to unforgivable extremes, but Willo remains a vigilant man, verging on paranoia. He has devised a complicated series of safeguards and countermeasures keep his public face and responsibilities, his partnership with Elizabeth, and his private investigations into white porzite's benefits, all separate from one another. He can become panic-stricken whenever these three aspects of his life meet in even the slightest ways. In fact, he has resorted to taking small doses of liquid white porzite to ease the mental and physical strain his dangerous lifestyle places upon him, and to bolster his increasingly poor health. He rationalizes that the amount that he drinks are insignificant enough that the benefits outweigh the risks—and that he will have found a way to make white porzite corruption a thing of the past long before he himself begins showing even the smallest signs...
- Abilities: Willo has a number of duties and powers conferred by his position as one of three senators who represent elven people of the Western Isles. He is given constant reports on the concerns, and societal health of the Isles’ elves by the House of Advocates, the branch of the government that acts as an intermediary between the populace and the senators. He has the authority to translate the concerns of elves into laws and policies and debate them with his fellow members of the Senate. Upon coming to an agreement, has the right to present these potential laws to the Pathfinders, the twin heads of the Isles’ government. He has access to a number of classified documents and information pertaining to the workings of the Western Isles’ government that are forbidden to civilians. Willo has a naturally charismatic demeanor that has been sharpened to perfection by a childhood filled with extensive tutoring in political strategy, interpersonal communication and social dynamics. This allows him to easily engage most people in conversation and many times charm them into agreeing with his opinions and ideas. Even when he cannot sway them to his favor, those who speak to him tend to at least take his points into consideration. His job as Elizabeth’s Game Warden gives him control over a skilled and seasoned team of former intelligence operatives from various nations, who now serve the Mourner cartel. Despite his disgust for them as people, he is able to expertly use their talents to mold them into a top-tier surveillance unit dedicated to unseen observation of the Becker homestead, and occasional intervention to keep the family alive. Willo has access to a virtually inexhaustible fortune accumulated during the time the Lamerli line reigned over the Western Isles during the age of the Ilesti Empire—and his position as family head means he has ultimate deciding power as to what this vast store of wealth is spent on. He owns a number of properties around the Western Isles, some passed down through the generations and others acquired for his private purposes. More than money, his membership to an ancient noble elven bloodline affords him a large number of privileges and respect within his homeland and other elven communities in wider Kishlaith. His partnership with Elizabeth has exposed him to Kishlaith’s criminal underworld and given him substantial knowledge of its workings. This knowledge combined with his wealth allows him to purchase services from mercenaries, rogue mages, disgraced doctors, and other fallen professionals who are willing to aid in his research on the Becker family and white porzite without question, apart from when their next paycheck will arrive. Willo is always armed, though not heavily; he carries a .22 pistol in a hip-holster at all times, hidden beneath the sash around his waist. As an elf, his body has the photosynthetic ability to draw in life-sustaining energy from the sun in place of food when necessary. Due to his consumption of white porzite, Willo has managed to stop and even reverse some of his age-related ailments, adding a spring to his step and reducing his cane to a decorative piece. Unlike many of Elizabeth’s high-ranking allies in the criminal underworld and high society, Willo was able to shrewdly avoid being hypnotically implanted with her Vow of Self-Destruction—a subconscious command to commit suicide if he is ever confronted about his association with her nefarious enterprises.
- Weaknesses: Willo’s role as the Game Warden of Elizabeth’s cartel has negative effects on his political career. Because he is required to use his Senate seat to maintain the deadlock that prevents Sulvey province from being developed or even explored, he is the target of much resentment from his peers in the Senate, and the elven and human civilians of the Isles. This hinders progress on his legitimate suggestions and proposals. His unauthorized experimentation and research on the Becker family and his kidnapping of elven citizens places him and his loved ones under constant threat. If his “misuse” of the Beckers and plans to usurp the cartel’s ownership of the bloodline come to light, Elizabeth and her fledgling Falco Alborne will ensure he and his whole family die horribly. If the law-enforcement authorities of the Western Isles come across his activities he will face humiliating imprisonment and eventual execution, events that would indelibly stain the Lamerli name. Due to his advanced age, he suffers from a number of physical ailments that are only worsened by the stress he places himself under. Consuming small doses of white porzite has eased several of these health issues, but it comes at a cost—the cursed mineral has taken root within his body and is slowly multiplying and spreading throughout his system, beginning the downward spiral of eventual insanity and physical mutation. Even though he evaded Elizabeth’s Vow of Self-Destruction, his elderly condition means that she will kill and replace him the second she feels his health prevents him from fulfilling his purpose in her operations to her satisfaction, something Willo is all too aware of.
- Goals: Willo has made a genuine public commitment to using his political office to help maintain the relative peace between elves and humans the Western Isles has enjoyed for over 709 years. However, his deeper objectives are as complex and numerous as they are sinister. He wants to be an absolutely perfect Game Warden as a show of false loyalty to the Mourner cartel, so he can lower the organization’s guard, allowing him to occasionally have Becker family captives stolen from Elizabeth’s Garden facilities. He seeks to uncover the link between white porzite and the powers and genetic resilience of the Beckers, and remove the corrupting “curse” of white porzite so that he can use the crystal to induce a Becker-like state within elves. As the story progresses, Willo begins to make steps towards legalizing white porzite use within the elven populace of the Western Isles to expand his store of “test subjects” and increase his chances of successfully removing the corruption. His final goal is to persuade the GOT’s Dr. Hathon Yelaros to become his successor, if he should die before the project is completed, for the sake of their people.
- Motivation: Willo was indoctrinated into a sense of duty and obligation to the people of the Western Isles, particularly its elves, from an early age. He was fed a myriad of tales about his bloodline’s achievements and heroic feats during the age of the Ilesti Empire and beyond its collapse, and it was expected that he would continue this tradition however he could. His political aspirations, charity and his overall generous deeds all stem from this instruction to be the hero the Western Isles needs. It also comes from a burning desire to be superior to his elder brother Sarlen, who disgraced the Lamerli legacy with his degenerate behavior and bitter disregard for the wellbeing anyone within the family apart from himself. His partnership with Elizabeth and his depraved experimentations on elves and Becker family members alike are born of desperation to halt the infertility that is overtaking the elves, heralding the doom of his race. There is a personal element to his desire to “defeat” the infertility as well, since he believes it was the inability to have children that drove his wife to commit suicide.
- Role in the Story:
- Senator Willo Lamerli makes many appearances prior to the formation of the GOT itself, let alone their fights against Elizabeth’s cartel. He is presented as a patrician yet kindly old man who holds a seat of great power and respect within the Western Isles. Willo is in many ways responsible for the successful marriage between the Nurenese vampire hunting knight and GOT founder Sir Simon Travers and his late elven first wife, due to blessing their marriage in her father’s stead, a right granted to him since he is the lord her family serves. After the GOT becomes aware of Elizabeth and begins to struggle against her cartel, the senator’s disturbing Hidden Depths are slowly revealed. Willo has been Elizabeth’s current Game Warden for over 78 years, doing all he can to observe and shield the Becker homestead and its inhabitants to preserve the cartel’s endless supply of white porzite. However, it soon becomes clear that he is far more than just one more of the vampire’s greed-driven puppets, and has troubling ambitions of his own.
- His actions have had profound effects on two characters within the story—to the North Ilestian Dr. Hathon Yelaros, Senator Lamerli is a Broken Pedestal, since he acted as a patron and even a source of emotional support for the younger man when he was first establishing a medical career and adjusting to life outside the reclusive elven kingdom. Yelaros’ revulsion and perverse sense of honor at being named the successor to Willo’s research is a subplot of its own. To Laurence Becker Sr, the current Grandfather of the Becker family and father of siblings Laurence Jr and Mary-Jo, Willo is the leader of a particularly nasty group of “devils of the World Beyond the Woods” who performed horrible tortures upon him, but carelessly allowed him to escape. This bestowed fame that helped Laurence Sr eventually earn the position of the family’s traditional patriarchal leader.
- Finally, Willo and his entire family are the first among Isaac Marsden’s bloody spree of victims when the Beckers’ ancient guardian finally decides to leave Sulvey and aggressively hunt down the family's oppressors in wider Kishlaith, regardless of their place in society. The graphic assassination of the senator on television and subsequent reveal of Type 3 vampires to the world sends chaos rippling across the Western Isles and all of Kishlaith, and forever destroys the fragile trust Simon and the GOT had started to put in Isaac. Willo’s sister Mereia and her husband, Willo’s nephews, and one nephew’s wife and newborn son, along with scores of their personal bodyguards are massacred by Isaac as the monstrous Type 3 vampire ends the entire Lamerli bloodline in a vicious act of spite and retribution upon this particular enemy of the Beckers.
- Backstory:
- Willo Lamerli was born in the year 1831 in the Western Isles’ city of Fora, the nation’s elven capital and age-old seat of power for the Lamerli family since their days of rulership over the Isles under the Ilesti Empire. His father Cyrel Lamerli was the current head of the ancient noble bloodline. His mother, Nelle was Cyrel's wife, a distinguished and respectable woman chosen carefully from one of the many wealthy elven families that attended the Lamerli bloodline. The arrival of another heir to the Lamerli line was a celebrated event, since it cemented the hope of the family’s magnificent legacy being carried to yet another generation. Willo’s naming ceremony was made into a lavish private ball, where the Lamerli line’s vassals presented their own newborn girls to be chosen as the future wife of the newest heir. By this process of selection, an infant elven maiden named Orananya was chosen to be his eventual mate.
- Willo was given his own staff from the moment he drew his first breath. Nurses attended his every need, and as he grew older, tutors and instructors joined these caring servants. Political science, high-society etiquette, the history of the Western Isles and the Ilesti Empire as a whole—each of these teachers provided education on a topic that was integral to his future within the family. Willo was expected to absorb these lessons without fail, and anything less than absolute perfection was met with disappointment and stern lectures about his place in the world and society by both Cyrel and Nelle.
- His lordly parents personally oversaw his development, although in a distant and infrequent way, and rarely at the same time, due to each of them having their own obligations and passions. As head of the Lamerli family, Cyrel acted as an unofficial advisor to the Pathfinders, a position presented to each of the Lamerli family heads since the rise of the first Pathfinders Lanc and Brenafia. Nelle for her part managed the Lamerli family’s social obligations and connections. She ensured the vassal families paid their tributes, ensured the right functions were attended and kept her eyes keen to the sparks of true unrest among seething masses of elves and humanity. In many ways she acted as an unofficial counterpart to the elven branch of the House of Advocates, guaranteeing that the agendas and concerns of the Isles elven elite were ferried swiftly and directly to the Senate. Willo’s outings with his mother and father were vastly different. Whether in blinding sunlight or pouring rain, Cyrel would take Willo on long horseback rides through Fora’s streets with a train of the Lamerli family’s personal guard all clad in their dress uniforms, in full view of the city’s citizens. These displays served as a reminder of the glory of ancient Ilesti that still lived and breathed within the Western Isles and looked over the nation’s elves. Occasionally these tours would extend beyond the boundaries of Fora, and as father and son would sit across from one another within the confines of a first-class train coach, Cyrel would regale his son with the heroic deeds performed on behalf of the Isles by the former heads of the family and stressed that the continuation of that legacy was the sole purpose of his life.
- When he was under the care of his mother, Willo would accompany Nelle to many social engagements, although they were always ones she considered of lesser importance. He would sit at his mother’s side in the parlors and sunrooms of the family’s vassals or acquaintances and listen closely to the adults as they discussed politics, business or simply world affairs. Nelle would question him on the details of these meetings, and Willo was to answer them correctly, showing he had observed the conversations around him. At other times, Willo would interact and play with the children of these families, although even these were lessons of their own. He was to always hold himself to a standard of dignity and propriety and assert his societal rank if ever his playmates forgot it. And of course, there were his supervised playdates with Orananya.
- Willo’s young future wife often visited the Lamerli’s main estate in the company of her own family’s servants. Orananya was a solemn child and spoke very little, but she was well-read and had a passion for gardening and agriculture. When she did talk, she would speak animatedly about her plans to one day create vast gardens across the length and breadth of the Lamerli estate, and Willo could not help but smile at her enthusiasm. He formed a friendship with her, renewed with each meeting and carried on in the letters they sent back and forth to one another. This routine made up the first twelve years of Willo’s life as he obediently followed the path to being the family head. He believed unquestioningly that this would come to pass one day, and did his very best to please his parents and fulfill the obligations to them and his ancestors.
- Months after his twelfth birthday everything changed in a single night. Willo was woken from a sound sleep by servants and led downstairs into the manor’s main hall to find his parents grimly triumphant in the flickering candlelight while a male elf knelt before them, bound and struggling in heavy chains secured by the Lamerli personal guard. When the stranger met his gaze, his anger turned to disdain as he scornfully greeted the boy as “his replacement”. Willo’s confusion was answered only moments later when his father gravely introduced the bound man as Willo’s older brother, Sarlen Lamerli. The revelation only worsened his confusion as he took in the stranger’s worn leather armor, matted hair and rough-edged appearance. He had never once heard of this “elder brother”; no one had spoken of him or even hinted that such a person existed. From the day he was born, ‘’he’’ had been praised as the one who would guide the Lamerli bloodline into the future, not this stranger.
- His father explained that Sarlen had fled the Western Isles fourteen years ago, in a shameful attempt to shed his responsibilities and obligations to the Lamerli bloodline. But after years of searching, he had been found and that his return was a cause for celebration. Sarlen then addressed Willo’s— their—parents, cursing them for a life destroyed, for friends murdered in front of his eyes. In anger Willo demanded the stranger to watch his tone when speaking to the leaders of the Lamerli bloodline, but Sarlen merely shook his head and proclaimed that Willo would soon understand the truth about their parents, and declared that he pitied his younger brother, as he was dragged to deeper reaches of the manor house.
- Immediately things changed within the family. Willo attended his lessons with his tutors, but the presence of his older brother rattled him and he was often distracted. However, the reprimands for failure were not as sharp as before and were fewer than they should have been for his mistakes. Cyrel and Nelle still took him on their trips, but these became few and far between as they became preoccupied with his brother who remained locked away in a far wing of the manor. All manner of strangers came to the Lamerli estate under the cover of night and screams and curses were heard echoing through the halls while the boy clenched his teeth and cowered beneath his blankets. This wore on Willo’s nerves until the boy could barely stand it. One day while riding with his mother on his way to a meeting, he broke and demanded to know if Sarlen was replacing him as the heir. His worst suspicions were confirmed when Nelle finally answered after a few moments of hideous awkward silence. His brother was not replacing him; Sarlen’s destiny was to take the place of heir from the very start. Willo had been groomed as an heir, but only until his wayward brother could be found and pushed into the role he had been born to fulfill. Both had their place in the world, Sarlen as the heir and Willo as the failsafe to prevent his brother’s rebellious nature from dooming the family line.
- The news crushed Willo and he fell to the floor of the carriage sobbing in anguish at his “lost” place. Nelle first regarded him with disapproval before scooping him into her arms and whispering apologies. His mother canceled her engagement and took him on a tour of Fora’s Garden Quarter while she reminded him that there was still a great deal he could do for the Isles with the Lamerli name, and that his brother would need all the support he could get when his time came to take the seat of family head. Eventually Cyrel summoned his son and revealed the same harsh truth. Sitting across from his father at his desk within the family head’s sunlit study, Willo was assured that he still had an important part to play in the workings of the Lamerli house—supporting his brother and upholding the family name within the Isles.
- Willo’s teenage years were spent processing the news and seeing Sarlen clad in the regalia of the heir while wearing a blank and unhappy expression sickened him. He obtained permission to move away from the main estate as soon as he could and made his new home on another of the family’s lavish properties in the city of Yalis, a mixed human and elf community. He slowly adapted to his new reality and accepted that he would never be the lord and public face of the Lamerli house. Willo began to make friends, first among the upper classes of Yalis, and then more slowly among the working-class men and women he came across during his long explorations of the city’s streets, and these friends began to include humans. Apart from the few who attended his mother’s gatherings or spoke with his father about various business affairs, Willo had met none during his days in Fora. He was intrigued by them, though often irritated and taken aback by the impatient and brash urgency that seemed to be part of their nature.
- Orananya continued to visit him, now unsupervised by their family’s retainers, and slowly their relationship grew towards the romantic, as she comforted him through the worst of his bitterness and grief. He kept in contact with his parents via letters, but he slowly distanced himself from the family. The loss of his place as heir was a raw wound that seemed like it would never close, and the announcement of Sarlen’s return to grace in the newspapers only worsened things. Yet he found solace in both his elven and human friends and a growing amount of charitable work he funded and participated in throughout Yalis and the surrounding towns. When Willo reached the age of 35, a letter reached him informing him that Nelle was pregnant and Cyrel was giving a great deal of control over the family’s affairs to Sarlen so that he could support his wife during her delicate and risky state. Shocked by the news he would have a new sibling and worried for his mother’s health, Willo sent letters wishing his parents well.
- For the next few years, Willo watched Sarlen take the helm of the family. He perfectly attended to their vassals, kept informed of the government’s activities and made formal appearances, all while Cyrel tended to Nelle along with a small contingent of nurses and midwives. Willo’s own reputation grew, and he was soon quite well known as a philanthropic and handsome bachelor, although he continually stressed that he was promised to someone and had been since childhood. Though he was sorrowful, Willo took some solace that the family legacy was safe within the hands of his brother.
- Nelle eventually gave birth, however her advanced age created complications as the baby was born after only four years, missing the whole last year of proper development. Furthermore, the delivery was difficult and left the Lamerli matriarch greatly weakened. Willo rushed back to the main estate in Fora where he discovered his worst fears were true. His mother was gravely ill, though she expressed joy at seeing him once again. Cyrel refused to leave his wife’s sickbed, barely eating, drinking or taking in sunlight. He had barely bothered to look at his third child, a feeble and withered baby girl. Nelle died within weeks of Willo’s return to the main estate and the young man deeply mourned the loss of his mother. Cyrel was shattered beyond belief; the Lamerli patriarch refused to receive guests, answer letters of condolences from the Pathfinders and other dignitaries or even leave his room. He would barely speak to the servants or his own sons and could not tolerate looking at his newborn daughter. Sarlen for his part was strangely quiet and thoughtful as the brothers undertook the task of arranging their mother’s funeral and the naming ceremony of their new sister. It was strange working with his mysterious elder brother, but the two soon worked out a functional if uneasy rhythm.
- However, late one night as they discussed details of choosing their new sister’s name and how she would be raised, Sarlen burst into laughter. Willo demanded to know the source of his amusement. With a wolfish grin that glinted in the flickering candlelight, Sarlen revealed that after being brought back to the Isles, he had been tortured night and day by “specialists” their parents had called in. Former interrogators, mercenaries and rogue mages alike had all taken turns beating him into submission until he had agreed to take the mantle of heir just to make the torment stop. Now with their mother dead and their father a wreck of his former self, he would finally be free, once he had paid this last respect to Nelle. Willo angrily commanded him to never speak badly about their parents again, but Sarlen cut his brother off and grimly declared that he would keep his promise to be the family head…but he would do it according to his own whims, to make up for the freedom that had been stolen from him. As an afterthought he declared that the baby girl’s name would be Mereia before he dismissed his brother from the family head’s study. What followed was worse than anything Willo could have imagined. Sarlen was as bad as his word, and though Nelle’s funeral was conducted with solemn perfection, Mereia’s naming ceremony was a disaster. Sarlen was clearly drunk as he hosted the affair, wrongly listing the names of the vassal families who would offer their newborn boys to be Mereia’s future husband, and Willo was forced to step in to save the occasion. His pleas for Cyrel to intervene fell on deaf ears as his father continued to wallow in grief.
- The unforgivably mediocre and messy naming ceremony turned out to be a mortifying harbinger of things to come. Not only did Sarlen willfully ignore his duties as family head, but he also leapt head-first into insane displays of vice and debauchery within the Lamerli estate. He violated the rules of Fora and angered the citizens by inviting masses of human partiers into the city. Worse than that, many elves and humans of immoral character—rogue adventurers, prostitutes, and outright criminals—could be seen enjoying themselves all around the manor grounds and within its halls at all hours, partaking of the family’s luxuries. Willo found himself pulled between his property in Yalis and the main Lamerli estate as Sarlen presided over one disaster after another. He lost count of the times he was forced to oust Sarlen’s groupies from their drink-and-drug fueled gatherings and restore the manor to order, all while trying to do his brother’s job as family head. Cyrel continued to ignore Willo’s requests to reign in his elder son despite the increasingly despicable circumstances. The Lamerli patriarch mostly kept to his room or mindlessly roamed the halls like a wraith, and infant Mereia was left with no one to raise her but a skeleton crew of servants dedicated to her care.
- Things grew intolerable as Sarlen’s scandals piled up and subsumed every aspect of Willo’s life. His social engagements dwindled, and his friendships fell by the wayside as he dedicated himself to holding the family name above water. Even his wedding to Orananya was a casualty of this downward spiral. The elaborate days-long ceremony he had dreamt of his whole life was reduced to a simple hour-long exchange of vows before a cleric of the Bright King, all so Willo could keep himself ready to attend to Sarlen’s chaos at a moment’s notice. Although Orananya demonstrated her usual solemn understanding and patience, Willo felt that he had already failed his wife in a fundamental way and their marriage had only just started. One terrible night Willo was called to the main Lamerli estate to stop yet one more of Sarlen’s out of control parties. He had just ridden onto the grounds when an awful sight met his eyes. A group of half-naked and aggressively drunk elves and humans were pursuing a young male human across the grounds, brandishing weapons. As Willo watched in horror, one of them swung a sabre at their “prey’s” wrist, cutting off his left hand. The man fell to the ground, shrieking and writhing in agony.
- Even in his horror and disgust Willo thought of the Lamerli name and what would happen if a murder occurred on the property. That gave him the courage to act, and he rode at full speed towards the attackers. The degenerates tried to flee but Sarlen himself quickly arrived on the scene. For once the elder Lamerli appeared perfectly sober and utterly terrified as he ordered the violent drunkards to take their still screaming victim into the manor and lock him up. Before Willo could do anything, the soberest among them agreed and ordered the others to carry off the wounded man into the Lamerli manor where they disappeared. As usual Sarlen would not listen to any of Willo’s demands for answers, but this time it seemed motivated by terror rather than defiant arrogance. He ordered Willo not to speak of what he had seen, not even to the servants. Sarlen swore on the names of every Lamerli ancestor that he would take care of things personally. Willo passed an uneasy night in his old room, but his brother kept his promise; all signs of the incident were gone in the morning, even the blood that had stained the grass…except for one glaring reminder. The severed left hand of the young human man from last night had fallen beneath a statue and lay forgotten.
- Willo was determined to make this final piece of evidence disappear…and as he picked it up, he was stunned to find the hand was still warm to the touch. Worse, the fingers twitched occasionally, and blood continued to drip from the wrist as if pumped by a phantom heart. Completely sickened but captivated, Willo stashed the hand in a large glass box and hid it. Sarlen’s wild parties ceased for some time after this but slowly began to start up again. Willo was not having it this time, and he moved back into the main manor house, regretfully leaving Orananya in Yalis. His return brought a semblance of order back to the manor; Willo hounded his brother day and night until Sarlen bitterly attended to his duties and assumed the proper demeanor of the Lamerli family head. Willo also began to look after Mereia himself, attempting to raise her since Sarlen and their now-bedridden father refused to.
- The wild and highly inappropriate parties truly did become a thing of the past. Yet the stain of those degenerate years remained in the whispers and side-glances of the people, and speculations in the newspapers as to whether Sarlen’s “wild streak” had been tamed. And of course, the mysterious severed hand still bled and twitched in its box, a far more gruesome reminder of the bad times. To ensure any rumors were dashed, Willo began to host proper, dignified social affairs at the manor. He invited elves and even some humans of suitable character and pedigree. He even managed to once again befriend those within the Isle’s high society and improve the reputation of the Lamerlis once again on this foundation alone. After some time Willo noticed a recurring guest at his social events and was horrified. At first, he took her for a wealthy human girl barely out of her teens, with a stylish fashion sense and an ever-changing hairstyle. Yet closer inspection revealed this creature to be a nightmarish walking corpse, a vampire. Even at the worst of Sarlen’s get-togethers, nothing this foul had ever crossed their threshold before.
- It took him some time watching the vampire attend his parties to work up the courage, but one night he confronted it. Up close, the pallid and lifeless flesh powdered with makeup, slightly clouded dark brown eyes and lack of breathing all confirmed his suspicions. However, the vampire showed no sign distress upon being found out. Instead, it smiled and spoke with a heavy Aradel accent, admitting that it had been waiting for him to approach. Willo harshly rebuffed this friendliness and told the corpse that if it was one of Sarlen’s associates, then it was no longer welcome within the Lamerli halls. Furthermore, if it wanted to enjoy the Western Isles, it needed to find a home in one of the internment zones reserved for vampires. The vampire tolerated his diatribe with its gentle smile still in place before explaining that it had come to these gatherings in hopes of meeting ‘’him’’ not his brother. It congratulated Willo on keeping the Lamerli honor preserved despite Sarlen’s chaos and told him that he truly was the family head in function if not in name. Flattered against his will but still disgusted and irate, Willo demanded to know the vampire’s name and reason for seeking audience with him and not Sarlen.
- The creature introduced itself as Elizabeth Mourner, claiming that it had been a frequent visitor to the Western Isles for many years before he was even born, and was well-known to his family. Further adding to Willo’s uneasiness, it expressed condolences about Nelle’s death and more compliments on how efficiently he had taken up raising his sister. Elizabeth lowered its smooth voice to an intimate whisper and explained to him that Sarlen had irredeemably crossed it, a mistake that would soon cost him his life. Elizabeth continued that it had pondered killing him or baby Mereia to send Sarlen a message for stealing and tampering with its property, but its heart was touched by Willo’s earnest devotion to his family. Thus, only Sarlen would pay the price for his transgression, which would allow Willo to seize his deserved place as family head.
- Willo was caught between shock and outrage that this thing would dare threaten a member of the Lamerli family. He raised his voice to summon their personal guard, but Elizabeth’s cold and dry hands seized his face in an iron grip and forced him to look down into eyes that now blazed red. The red haze in those eyes slithered into his brain and left him helpless to do anything but listen. The vampire informed him that he had no choice in this matter—his brother would die. But he should be grateful, because if Sarlen lived, Willo’s whole life would be spent cleaning up after his elder brother’s messes while his own interests withered under the burden. And then just like that, Elizabeth was gone, leaving his head spinning with confusion over what had just happened. He could barely remember why he had even come to that corner of the room; it had been something about an ill-behaved guest…
- Several nights later Willo was pulled from his bed by the shocked commotion of the manor servants. In a strange echo of the night he had met his brother so many years ago, Willo was quietly ushered to the staircase that led down into the main hall to find Sarlen sprawled at the bottom, his head violently twisted to the side with the force of his impact and splashes of his blood glinting against the marble floor. There was no doubt as to the cause of his death; a violent fall down the staircase had taken the Lamerli head’s life, and from the stench that hung in the air, it seemed alcohol was the culprit. Willo arranged Sarlen’s funeral in a daze as he tried to come to grips with how he felt. Though he felt sorrow and shock at the sudden demise of his brother, he also couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of relief like a chain had been unwound from around his soul, and an even faint sense of hope for the future…and overlying it all was a gnawing sense of guilt as if Sarlen’s death was something he could have prevented. In time Willo moved past these feelings and solemnly took on the role of family head, and as he was granted the traditional garb and crest of the Lamerli lord, he felt something like hope for the first time in years.
- The years that followed were truly an improvement. Now that he had full control over the family, Willo was relentless in undoing Sarlen’s damages and contributing to the Isles and his personal life. He had the entire main estate renovated and equipped with the ever-advancing technology of the world before he personally carried Orananya over the threshold to make her the lady of the manor at last. He made sure to keep abreast of current events across the Isles and when he was made aware of someone, working-class or wealthy who moved forward to make the nation a better place for its citizens, Willo ensured they received monetary and social support from the Lamerli family. Eventually Willo had to inter his father in the family tomb as well, though he could feel little except relief. Cyrel had not been himself for over twenty years at this point, his broken heart having bled away all traces of the man he once was. Mereia was growing into a vibrant young woman in her own right, and he had managed to secure a future husband for her.
- The only things missing were heirs of his own. It was a small blemish on his otherwise perfected life but it soon grew into desperation as all his and Orananya’s efforts proved useless. Humiliating though it was, they turned to the finest doctors and healing mages money could buy but no physical cause behind their infertility could be discovered. For the first time in years, Willo was gripped with fear for the future of the Lamerli family once again, tinged with helpless shame at his part in it. But seeing the pain on Orananya’s face, and her quiet and increasingly sorrowful apologies to him for failure was the worst of all. When Mereia married her husband in a lavish ceremony only befitting of a Lamerli, the speculations in the newspapers as to when a new heir would be born just crammed salt into the wounds. Although Willo prayed dearly that Mereia would be the one to save their bloodline though her children, he couldn’t help but feel emptiness at the thought of never having children of his own, though he hid it well. In time even Orananya stopped mentioning it, though it hung over their heads like a cloud. Still Willo kept himself open to almost all options and hopes at conceiving a child. But rather than meet with hope, he was met with a new trepidation—he and Orananya were not alone.
- Infertility abounded within the Western Isles elven community, and credible rumors stated that it was spreading like rot throughout North and South Ilesti, eating into the bloom of the new generation. He kept his ear to the ground in this area and was horrified as the years passed to find that it was still an escalating problem, masked behind embarrassment and desire for privacy. The elven race was suffering from something that threatened its survival.
- Ten years after Mereia’s marriage to her own husband, Willo was called into a meeting with several human and elven community leaders, one of whom was the secretary of a senator. They discussed the outbreak of white porzite that had spread throughout the Western Isles in recent years. Willo was vaguely familiar with the physical powers and mental wellbeing caused by the drug, as well as its catastrophic mutations and side effects. However, he was quite disturbed to find how deeply it had proliferated throughout the nation’s underbelly, victimizing elven-kind and humanity alike. He was asked to speak to the Pathfinders personally about it, using his Lamerli privilege to evade Senate hearings that could take months.
- Upon the return home, he was greeted with utter tragedy. Orananya had died while he was away, and the reports by the doctors who examined her proclaimed it was a suicide by self-poisoning. A long note had been written and left for him in his study. In her elegant script Orananya apologized for the hole she would leave in his life and for her failure to provide him and the family with children. She wrote of a deep melancholy that had always been a part of her, as unshakable as her own shadow and again apologized for allowing it to overcome her. Each written apology was like a knife stabbing his heart and Willo curled into a ball on the marble floor of the study, where he stayed for weeks. In this time period, he understood the pain that had robbed his father of all his dignity and lordly grace. He alternated between periods of wild sobbing sadness and blank numbness. During this latter state he mindlessly read the notes on white porzite and its effects on its victims over and over again in a daze, just for something to take his mind away from Orananya’s death. He ignored his servants, calls from the telephone on the desk and only picked at the meals offered to him.
- And then one night Elizabeth returned. The vampire entered his study brazenly, throwing open the heavy wooden doors and striding right up to him, its boot heels clacking loudly and skirts swishing with authority. It was far better at pretending to be alive now, and had better access to the latest makeup and powders, but there was no mistaking it. The sight of the creature in its fashionable attire sent him back to that long-ago night when he had faced down the unthinkable visitor. The memories of the threat towards Sarlen all boiled to the surface and he screamed at it to leave immediately. Elizabeth remained unbothered and explained the purpose of the visit. It had heard about his loss through the whispers of high society and wanted to pay condolences…and offer him a job. Too exhausted to be offended at the idea of a job offer, let alone from a vampire, Willo asked why. Elizabeth elaborated upon its place as the originator of all white porzite within the Isles and wider Kishlaith. It spoke of many things, including a criminal empire so far-reaching and insidious that Willo could barely believe it. Elizabeth offered him an important role in that organization because, once again, it admired his devotion and competence. Those were traits it needed gravely within its organization.
- Elizabeth also admitted that it understood Willo’s tremendous grief and explained that if he was left to his own devices, he would crumble and join his wife before his time. Willo intended to retort but the words died in his throat as he processed the truth of the monster’s words. Even so, the idea of accepting work like a commoner, let alone work as a criminal and subordinate to an abomination was offensively absurd. It occurred to him that Elizabeth might kill him if he refused her offer, but he found that he did not care at this point. Orananya was gone, he was entering middle age with no children of his own, and Mereia was successfully married and expecting a child of her own. He had done his job and perhaps it was time for him to rest on his laurels for all eternity. But even as he opened his mouth to give a scathing refusal, a strange thought came to him. The words he had read over and over about white porzite and its physical enhancement properties now glared bright within his brain.
- White porzite’s body-enhancement was temporary and only the prelude to horrific distortion of the flesh and mind…but perhaps it didn’t have to be. If he could find a way to dispel the curse that clung to the crystal, perhaps he could enhance every aspect of the elves, and bolster their failing fertility. He could not bring Orananya back, nor could he reclaim his chance to have his own heirs, but he could use it to light the increasingly dark path that lay ahead for his race. It was an insane idea but he found himself nodding and reaching out to shake Elizabeth’s cold hand, his fingers brushing against the white porzite claw-rings that adorned the corpse's fingers.
- In the years that followed, Willo was swept into a dark world he couldn’t have even imagined. Elizabeth’s demands of him were outrageous; it needed him to run for a seat within the Senate to be a truly effective member of its cartel. When he protested that taking real political office was not the Lamerli way, the vampire assured him that it would take care of everything and clear a path for him to obtain the office of senator. It humorously noted that his family name should win him victory even without its intervention. Trying to explain the duties, obligations and vows the Lamerli line had made long ago only produced a condescending smile on the vampire’s face, letting Willo know there was no reasoning with Elizabeth in this regard. And so with his profane yet hopeful dream clutched tightly in his mind, Willo ran for Senate…and won.
- After his victory, the nature of what Elizabeth's plans for him became clear…and so did the true source of white porzite. The vampire's claim to be the wellspring of the drug was merely a playful metaphor. Willo was speechless as he poured over grainy colorless photographs of a village-sized human family living a squalid existence in Sulvey’s swampy wastelands, a fact that went against what little he knew of the place. But their actions in the photos was far more shocking than their mere presence. Massive objects were passed along to each other as if they weighed nothing. Wounds suffered while doing chores or in fights rapidly vanished without leaving so much as a scar. Limbs that were amputated in accidents or even cut off as brutal punishment were able to be reattached in minutes and fully functional in days. That last sight triggered memories of the severed hand at Sarlen’s party so long ago…and gave him an understanding of why Elizabeth had seen fit to kill him. The massive white porzite trees that could be fabricated from the family’s bodies took him aback with the agony it caused them and the speed of the transformation, but even that contained its own eerie beauty and allure.
- But the fact that so many of the strange folk who lived on this homestead were coherent, robust and healthy after centuries of inbreeding was what confirmed Willo’s hopes that he was on the right track. And now that he knew this, he began to plan. The fertility crisis was growing by inches, inexorably phasing out the next generation. If there was to be any hope for the future, Willo would have to forge ahead on his own. He would have to be ruthless in using this new and valuable information to save the elven people, any sense of compassion, mercy and tenderness cast aside by pure necessity. This white porzite family, these "Beckers" were fascinating on their own, but more than that, they held the key to saving Kishlaith’s most important race. No matter what he had to do to unlock their secrets, he would do it without hesitation. He had no choice but to do it. He was a Lamerli after all.
Relevant Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Lord Cyrel and Lady Nelle Lamerli were a complicated example when it comes to how they parented Sarlen and Willo respectively. They made it clear to Sarlen that he was to take up Cyrel's duties as head of the family, but they allowed the first decade of his life to be relatively free of the constant preparation and training that came with being groomed for the position. However, once he had reached the age of 10, they immersed him in lessons on the ways of high society, the family history and legacy and told him that his only reason for being born was to continue this rich history. When Sarlen chafed under this burden and lack of freedom and fled the Isles, they sent an endless parade of mercenaries and bounty-hunters after him. These people hunted him relentlessly and were ordered to kill anyone he befriended along his journey. When he was finally brought back to the Isles, they had him tortured until he was willing to do anything to stop the pain. Their treatment of Willo seems better on the surface, but they forced him into the shoes of potential heir from birth to avoid him developing a sense of self-identity contrary to the family's interests like Sarlen did. Furthermore, while they did love him, Willo was just a placeholder to ensure that even if Sarlen was forever lost, the family would still have someone to lead it into the next generation. However, implying that Cyrel and Nelle were anything less than the personification of parental care and propriety risks mortally offending Willo who would defend their honor to the death.
- Adoption Is Not an Option: Despite their increasingly desperate struggle to conceive a child, neither Willo or Orananya ever considered the possibility of adoption, despite there being more than a fair number of elven orphan children in the Isles, some of them even housed in orphanages funded by the Lamerli fortune. There are two reasons behind their rejection of this option—-the Lamerli family is one of the last noble bloodlines of the old Ilesti Empire and has remained unbroken in its tradition of producing its own heirs for over two thousand years. Taking in an already conceived child from another family, especially a commoner, would metaphorically break that chain. The other more personal reason the two of them eschewed adoption was that it would have been a symbol of defeat. An admittance that their bodies were defective and unable to produce an heir on their own.
- Adult Fear: Several of them rear their ugly heads within his backstory and his daily life. At the tender age of twelve Willo was forced to confront the fact that his life until that point had been led under false pretenses, and that his parents had conceived him as a means to an end. He spent a great deal of his adult life desperately trying to clean up, hide, or mitigate the wild excesses of his rogue brother and lived in desperate terror of his family losing its honor and falling into disgrace on his watch. When finally able to be rid of his brother's antics, he found that he was unable to bear children with his wife, and was forced to wrestle with his own grief at the situation while watching her fall deeper and deeper into despair, until she ended her own life while he was away from the house on a routine meeting. Finally, Willo must contend with the existential horror of watching his people slowly die out as more and more are unable to bear children. His entire race will eventually vanish and its proud achievements, rich history and imprints upon the world will become nothing more than faint footprints in Kishlaith's story. This last one, piled atop the stress and grief of Orananya's suicide was crushing. If one was a charitable sort, one could argue he went insane from perceiving his race's doom.
- Affably Evil: Willo is a down-to-earth and friendly family man who absolutely dotes upon his nephews like a grandfather more than an uncle. Well into their adulthood he ensures that he is almost always on hand to offer them the lessons and advice he would have given his own children. He raised his sister himself and has a cordial relationship with her husband. While he does have a deep pride in his impressive pedigree, he channels it into a Noblesse Oblige dedication to enriching the lives of the Western Isles' citizens, which is why he has created large charitable endeavors to fund the efforts of people who are trying to improve conditions within the country. He also has no problems sitting down and conversing with the working-class elves and humans of the Isles in an effort to know how the people “on the ground” are doing. Contrasted with these good qualities, Willo plays a vital role in the Mourner cartel's centuries-long oppression of the Becker family, and the proliferation of white porzite across the Sister Continents of Kishlaith, making him party to all the suffering and death it causes. He feels pity but no remorse at subjecting already terrified and confused Becker family members to brutal interrogations, vivisection and ultimately petrification in order to discover how their bodies and powers work, and how it relates to the nature of white porzite. He feels guilty about abducting and forcibly using white porzite to infect and corrupt homeless or otherwise down-on-their-luck elves, but that hasn't ever stopped him from moving forward in his admittedly desperate plans to save his race.
- The Aggressive Drug Dealer: After Dr. Yelaros forces Willo to confront the harsh reality that he has nothing to show for his years of clandestine research and pitiless methods of experimentation, and with the knowledge that his death is approaching, the Lamerli head becomes increasingly desperate to wring some measure of success from his efforts. He begins to order members of the elven branch of the House of Advocates to reach out to individuals with an ideology of legalizing white porzite use so he may hear their concerns privately and draft a potential law leading to its legalization…as long as it is provided and taxed by the Western Isles government. His underlying plan is to give the “special” strains he has created from Becker family members he has experimented upon, to the Isles government, where they will be given to elves across the country interested in the now legal drug. That will allow him to have a much greater chance of seeing positive results in a widespread pool of elven “test subjects”. The plan is not only morally reprehensible, it is completely reckless since it draws huge media attention to him, turns many of his political supporters away in disgust, and makes many people in all walks of life on the Isles question what is going on in his mind. Considering that this “plan” was conceived in the midst of a pretty severe Villainous Breakdown, it is understandable that it might not be the most stable or even sane idea.
- Ambiguous Situation: Willo fixates on a single aspect of Orananya’s suicide note, her apology that she could not bear children with him. He feels deeply that their infertility drove her depression and pushed her onto the path of taking her own life. However, this is very much Willo’s interpretation of things. The note is very clear that Orananya suffered depression for much of her life and the infertility was simply one of many things she apologized for, her larger regret being that she would leave him alone in grief. It could even be that her apology regarding their lack of children was simply because she knew he would have no one left, and no special significance was attached to it, with him merely projecting his feelings onto a single sentence.
- An Arm and a Leg: His main focus is on the Becker family’s reproductive resilience in the face of centuries of forced inbreeding, but his secondary interest is in their collective Healing Factor. One of the experiments he has performed on members of the family is to have their limbs chopped off and tests done to see under what circumstances they can be reattached—anything from cauterizing the stumps to keeping the limbs separate for weeks to months at a time. And that’s limbs alone; he has had a number of other awful injuries inflicted on them to see what they can heal from and how quickly. The purpose behind these tortures is to gauge the extent of their regenerative capacity so that when he does succeed in giving this power to elves, he can compare their newfound rapid healing to that of a Becker. His fascination with their regenerative abilities stems from long before he even knew the family existed; the twitching and still-warm hand within the box he kept from Sarlen’s last real disaster was a source of morbid curiosity to him.
- And Show It to You: Isaac kills him using this method in the middle of a Senate debate to legalize white porzite use in the elven population of the Isles. He rushes up to Willo in a blur and thrusts his hand through the senator’s chest, tearing out the organ…which he then displays before the gathered senators, House of Advocates personnel, community leaders, Landed Gentry representatives and journalists present on the Senate floor. The Becker Family’s Watchdog then uses Willo heart—and his corpse—as a grotesque prop in the most hideous and graphic anti-drug PSA Kishlaith has ever seen.
- Apocalyptic Gag Order: He participated in one ten years before his death, during a crisis when the entire nation of the Western Isles was threatened by a terrorist organization that had unearthed an ancient Ilestian superweapon. It was capable of wiping out all life from a landmass within seconds and they were using it to threaten the nation into obeying their demands to the letter. Willo was one of a very few select people allowed to know this and he agreed wholeheartedly with the rest of the Senate and Pathfinders that this information must not be allowed to leak out into the public for fear of the chaos that would follow. His solution to the problem on the other hand was highly out of lockstep with his fellow elven senators.
- Arch-Enemy: Like every Game Warden before him, Willo is forced to contend with countless appeals and outright demands that the Western Isles government open access to the province of Sulvey in the distant Radiant Union so that the Isles can develop it or use it for farmland. The biggest petitioner is an alliance of wealthy human and elven land-developers and agriculturalists known as the “Landed Gentry”. These people endlessly appeal the Senate about Sulvey and are relentless about it. Willo knows they are technically right and he is the wrong one, but he is obliged to sustain the ancient deadlock as Game Warden and has come to despise them and their aides. It is of little comfort to him, but only five minutes after his death, the assembled representatives of the Landed Gentry are slaughtered by Isaac as a precaution to prevent them from reaching Sulvey and becoming a new source of strife for the Beckers.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Dr. Yelaros asks Willo one during the old man’s final stages of bringing him into the fold as his potential successor. The question is simply "What you have learned?” when it comes to white porzite improving the reproductive capabilities of elves. In that moment Willo has an intense flashback of the hundreds upon hundreds of failures, of the elves he has turned into raving mindless monsters, and the Beckers he has mutilated and experimented upon and petrified. He begins assuring Dr. Yelaros that the answers are out there, which is why he needs someone as learned and versed in medicine and the arcane as him to take the reins. He speaks so quickly that his words run together and he is visibly shaking as he tries to regain composure.
- Army of Thieves and Whores: Not an army, but as Willo began to cautiously act upon his ambitions to study the Beckers and use white porzite to induce physical perfection within elves, he was quite aware of how difficult it would be to persuade anyone of upright moral character to aid him. So, he used his association with the Mourner cartel to reach out into the criminal underworld and used the Lamerli family's fortune to secure the aid he needed. Disgraced doctors, rogue mages, former soldiers and interrogators, and expert thieves and slavers all act as "investigative staff" within the facilities he has created to study white porzite and the Beckers. Willo maintains control of these people entirely through the huge sums of money he pays them since they don't care about the morality of their actions as long as their next paycheck is around the bend. They are dependent enough on his money that they will never voluntarily betray him to Elizabeth or any member of her cartel for fear of losing their cash-cow.
- Anti-Villain: Willo aims to save the elven race from being wiped out by a mysterious outbreak of infertility that is advancing steadily but so imperceptibly that few really know it exists, not even those affected by it. He is well aware that the things he has done for the sake of this goal are absolutely unforgivable and feels deep guilt for much of what he has done. While he was already a philanthropist and regular donator to charities, he increased his efforts to make his nation a better place after he joined Elizabeth and then began his own private "research", as if these intensified good deeds would make up for his many sins. Subjecting his own people to the horrors of white porzite infection against their will claws at his soul, and the stress of keeping the spheres of his life separate from one another has visibly negative effects on him. See Evil Makes You Ugly.
- Apologetic Attacker: An indirect and highly eerie example. Elves who have been taken off the street and thrown into the cells of Willo’s underground research sites are treated to an audio message the Lamerli head has recorded. It apologizes for the pain and suffering they are about to endure and explains cryptically that they are sacrificing their lives for the sake of their entire race, all across the world. It thanks them for their “service” and wishes them well, and prays the Bright King welcomes them into his paradise for the immense price they have paid for such a noble cause.
- Awful Truth: Several of them really. Willo believes that he can cure the elven race’s advancing infertility using white porzite if he can just remove “curse” of mental degradation and physical mutation from it, while leaving its beneficial physical effects—and that the Beckers are the key to doing this, due to their association with white porzite and their superhuman physiology. What he does not understand is that his entire plan has been doomed and futile from the start.
- There is no “curse” on white porzite to be removed. The bodily mutation and destruction of the victim’s mind is just part of how the crystal interfaces with its host as it refashions the body into a living weapon to fight against the dark forces of the Father of the Void. The physical perfection it brings in the early stages is just a side effect of being steadily altered into a murderous drone.
- The powers of the Beckers come from the white porzite’s “core” being sealed into their bloodline by Alan Becker centuries ago in a desperate attempt to stop its inexorable spread through dwarven Orvudin and potentially all of Kishlaith. Not only is the ritual used to do this completely unknown to any living mage since Alan made it up on the spot, it is something that can only be done once. Even if replicated it will still only affect the members of a single lineage. Worse, the Beckers are not even close to perfect, quite the opposite in fact. Their regenerative abilities and strength seem like blessings, but are a glaring sign that the central intelligence of the white porzite has contaminated their bodies in a different and more sinister way than normal white porzite victims. His descendants are fused with this cancerous force of light on a fundamental level and are undergoing a slow metamorphosis into something powerful and utterly beyond humanity. Each generation of Beckers is born a step closer to this unknown perfectly fused state.
- The most crushing truth is that there is no plague of infertility afflicting the elves, but something far worse. It is a well-known fact that the elven race are human and Fae hybrids, something that many take pride in. What is not known is that such crossbreeds go against the very laws of reality in Kishlaith itself. The elves were able to thrive and breed only by the grace of the Fae’s Reality Warper abilities, and with them being absent from Kishlaith since time immemorial, the world’s order is starting to “heal”. This is slowly phasing out irregularities like the elves. Even if Willo was somehow able to alter the basic nature of white porzite, this would do nothing for his people. Only divine intervention on their behalf by the Bright King, the architect of Kishlaith can save them from their slow extinction and that is a highly unlikely scenario.
- On a different note, the existence of Willo’s Game Warden job is one for the Beckers and Isaac himself. The family believes that after their ancestor Alan Becker and his kin were blessed with superhuman healing and strength by the Bright King as a reward for an unknown holy deed, Kishlaith’s wicked inhabitants desired the gift for themselves and thus hunted the Revered Ancestor’s family into hiding. The Beckers believe their swamp is a safe haven, although regularly infiltrated by the “devils” from wider Kishlaith who are still following their greedy drive to steal Alan’s Gift. Isaac has a far more truthful understanding of what is really going on, but even he believes that the Sulvey swamps are a refuge he created to protect his best friend’s descendants from the world, and it is mere luck that lets Elizabeth’s hunters occasionally chance upon the location. Neither the family or Isaac understand the Beckers have simply been kept as virtual livestock by the criminal organization for centuries. Finding this out is the straw that breaks the camel’s back for Isaac and drives him to go on a violent and public killing spree of criminals and socialites alike who are allied with Elizabeth, along with scores of their loved ones, bodyguards and even bystanders.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Willo’s feelings towards his elder brother are complicated—on one hand he hates Sarlen and has never forgiven him for his actions. On some level he feels that Sarlen stole his rightful spot as heir, and even occasionally blames him for “wasting” the years he could have had a child with Orananya. On the other hand, he sensed even in his worst moments that Sarlen carried a great deal of pain that he tried to ease through endless partying and drinking. For all the social ills and headaches Sarlen caused Willo, he was never cruel or hateful towards his younger brother, even during their endless arguments over his issues. Willo still honors Sarlen’s memory on the anniversary of his murder and avoids prying into whatever Becker-related activity that Sarlen was doing that got him killed by the Mourner cartel. He knows the levels of depravity the group is capable of, and he wishes to keep the memory of Sarlen as a disgraceful rogue but ultimately morally upright person intact.
- Bad Boss: Played with. Willo is a fairly reasonable person to work for when it comes to his monitoring staff who survey and keep watch around the Becker homestead and the swamps of Sulvey. He does not berate or insult them, keeping his criticisms cold and precise about their faults. He trusts their expertise as former intelligence operatives and acknowledges that they have more experience in this area, though he makes it clear that his orders are dominant. On the other hand, he is completely averse to any sort of friendliness outside of the strict mission and coldly shrugs off any attempts at being cordial. He looks down on them since he views them—rightly—as criminal filth. Oddly this is averted with the people he hires to staff his research sites, though pragmatism may be at work there. He depends on them far more than he does his Game Warden team and needs them to be on good terms with him, even if he is paying them.
- Beneath Notice: Willo so deeply looks down on vampires that he barely acknowledges those who work for Elizabeth when he encounters them, except for mildly respectful nods or small talk if he absolutely must. That is why he didn’t even realize that a dwarven vampire he saw accompanying GOT members around the Isles was Ulfrik Stendar, a former Gardener who had once seen Senator Lamerli when he accompanied Elizabeth to the facility he was working/imprisoned in. Pointing this out led to the GOT investigating and Dr. Yelaros’ confession, which then led to the Guild’s hunt to obtain solid information and proof.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Willo’s eyes are almond shaped and pure black with not a single trace of white visible. His moral alignment aside, they aren’t evil, just a racial trait of being an elf.
- Black Sheep: Willo’s older brother Sarlen fled the Isles rather than take on his rightful place as family head, forcing Cyrel and Nelle to conceive and train Willo to be a potential replacement in case he truly lost himself among the multitudes of the world. Even after being brought back by force, he refused to submit and when he was finally forced into his duty, he brought shame and scandal to the family name. Willo struggled with containing Sarlen’s chaos for years, growing more and more weary and downtrodden. Elizabeth killing him ended that chapter of Willo’s life and set him on the path to where he is now.
- Blue Blood: During the days of the ancient Ilesti Empire, the Lamerli family ruled over the Western Isles as province governors. They were charged with controlling and protecting the elven populace, and management of the legions of subservient humans who attended to the province's lower affairs or did the menial work that kept the Isles going. After the fall and splitting of Ilesti, the Lamerli line held the Western Isles for centuries, though these were centuries of near-constant war as the humans erupted in violent uprisings against their weakened elven masters, and then each other while the elves tried to keep and enforce their hold on the land. Eventually things settled down when Lanc and Brenafia, a human warrior and elven bodyguard-turned-noble, convinced the Lamerlis to step aside and allow a human and elven democratic government to hold sway over the Isles. The Lamerlis swore a vow of non-intervention and retreated to a mostly ceremonial role as a reminder of old Ilesti’s glory. That said, they are still very influential due to being one of the few ancient noble families that can directly trace an unbroken line directly to the old empire. Not only that, their legacy of heroism and generosity on behalf of the Western Isles’ people have won them respect from humans and elves alike on the Isles and abroad. Unfortunately, this legacy comes to an abrupt and bloody end as all members of the family are killed by Isaac Marsden in a single day, successfully burying the bloodline and its rich heritage.
- Body Horror:
- Outwardly Willo is completely unaffected by his regular consumption of small doses of liquid white porzite to replenish the strength and mental wellbeing that is continually sapped by the stress of maintaining his triple life. Inwardly is a whole other story. His heart is disturbingly enlarged and covered with knotted white crystalline growths and the blood vessels that feed into his system from his heart have been mostly replaced with rubbery semi-solid tendrils of white porzite that ensure more of it can access his body via his bloodstream. White glowing crystal deposits twinkle within his muscle fibers and even his bones are studded with tiny luminous shards. After Isaac rips out Willo’s heart, he shows it to the world’s cameras and then proceeds to slowly and carefully take the elf’s corpse apart with his bare hands. He does this while he gives a contemptuous speech denouncing the white porzite addiction rampant in Kishlaith’s people and outlining the gruesome effects it has upon a mortal body…and making quite clear the personal penalty he will now exact upon those who use it or serve the Mourner cartel.
- Several of the “special” white porzite trees Willo has produced within his own facilities qualify due to their horrible appearance from the circumstances under which they are made. The abject worst example is when he had a Becker family member beheaded and his still-twitching body injected with liquid white porzite just seconds after the blow. This was to test a hypothesis that if a Becker “host” was struck a fatal blow just before being petrified, the resulting tree would produce crystals free of the mutagenic curse. The white porzite tendrils that always release from an injected Becker’s body moments before the full tree transformation automatically reached out to “reconnect” the head to the man’s decapitated body. The mess then solidified into a horrific structure in the shape of a massively enlarged spine as the trunk with gnarled and twisted “ribs” that curved downward into the ground as the roots—all of this made of white porzite. The severed head remained in human form but affixed to the very top of the “spine” with his eyes still darting back and forth like a person in the grip of a night terror. It is suggested humorously that this display would make even Elizabeth recoil in horror despite her usual fondness at surveying the variations among the structures.
- Broken Pedestal: The reveal of his association with Elizabeth and his research into white porzite is a shattering blow for a number of characters who looked up to him or saw him as a force of good in the world, though two distinct examples stand out.
- When the GOT's Dr. Hathon Yelaros had just fled North Ilesti and settled in the Playis slums at the far east end of the Isles, his habit of treating the supernatural and physical ailments of the destitute for free attracted the Lamerli head's attention. Upon traveling to Playis to meet the younger man, Willo ensured that Dr. Yelaros was not only given supplies, funding, and a proper building to house his clinic, but the two often spoke and he provided at least a small emotional anchor to a younger elf who had never been outside the boundaries of his isolated homeland.
- GOT leader and founding member Simon Travers admired Willo as an example of the Noblesse Oblige that he feels an aristocrat should demonstrate at all times, due to his actions on behalf of the people of the Isles. On a more personal note, he appreciated that the Lamerli family head treated him with genuine respect during his stay in the Western Isles, which was a far cry from the snobbish and aloof attitudes shown toward him by many elves within the Western Isle's upper class. When Willo used his authority to compel Karel's father to allow Simon to marry her, it took him by abject surprise, and he has always been grateful for the unprecedented favor. Long after Karel's death, Simon continued to view Willo as a good man and example for nobles of any nationality and race to follow. When the GOT's investigations uncover all of Willo’s clandestine activities, Simon resolves to personally kill him in a way that will serve the GOT's goal of punishing evildoers while keeping the Lamerli family’s honor intact—-hence his absolute rage when Isaac violently ruins this plan and murders the entire bloodline out of pure spite. It is made even worse because the Type 3 was only to target them using information he manipulated Simon into giving him.
- Category Traitor: Some of the more conservative elven citizens of the Western Isles were appalled that Willo approved of the marriage between Karel Taedor an elven maiden of an ancient and prestigious vassal family and Simon Travers who was both human and not even a citizen of the Isles. Worse, he used his right as the family's liege-lord to force the Taedors to allow the matrimony. They would never say this to his face but it shook their faith in the Lamerli family's place as an undying reminder of the glory of old Ilesti and elven hegemony. Willo himself admits that this action goes against the official position of his family on such matters and his personal beliefs, but he viewed Simon as a man of upstanding moral character and dedication to justice, and he admits was feeling particularly sentimental at the sight of the two Star-Crossed Lovers and the suffering they were undergoing at the time. On a lesser note, when a terrorist organization known as The Thousand used the Thirteenth Talon to threaten the entire nation into obeying their demands, Willo was the only elven senator who voted to use government funds to hire adventurers to take on the enemies, rather than simply acquiesce to their orders. This angered his fellow elven senators who desired an assured preservation of the Isles and its citizens rather than risking it all on a trio of mercenaries. It was at one point suggested that his pursuit of a confrontational solution to the problem was outright un-elven in nature, though none of them actually said this to his face, in respect for the Lamerli family name.
- The Corrupter: Not intentionally, but Willo plays this in relation to Dr. Yelaros. When the now successful GOT medical officer finds that the kindly noble who once helped him get his footing outside North Ilesti is reaching out to him he gladly agrees to meet once again after all these years. He is rapidly horrified when Willo swings their conversation from casual banter about the future of the elven people and their fertility to The Reveal of the sinister experimentations he has eked out from his partnership with the vampiric crime boss the GOT is engaged in battle with to save the world. While Dr. Yelaros is disgusted, he is also torn between reporting Willo to the GOT and actually accepting the offer to succeed the old man and helm the investigations into the white porzite’s usefulness in saving the elves from extinction. He makes all kinds of excuses to himself, from doing this for the greater good of their people, to arguing that he will be more humane than Willo was due to his medical knowledge and ethics…but in the end he cannot bring himself to do it. He expresses that he is not the man Willo is looking for and rejects the offer, though he does not report what he learns to the GOT, leaving them to find it out from another source.
- Corrupt Politician: Willo uses his seat within the Senate to do as much good as he can for the elves and humans of the Western Isles, and he pays deep attention to the elven branch of the House of Advocates so he can shape their conveyed concerns into laws and policies that will make life easier. But his real reason for being there is to maintain the old stalemate that prevents the development of Sulvey and resulting discovery of the Beckers and their homestead. There are those who are deeply suspicious of his presence in the Senate, since the Lamerlis took a vow of non-interference when they set aside their place as absolute rulers to make room for Lanc and Brenafia and their fledgling democracy. Those who see his presence as a sign of ill-intent are convinced Willo is trying to restore his family to real power and are quite wary. They are correct that he has ulterior motives, but entirely mistaken as to their direction. For what it is worth, Willo feels his presence in the Senate makes a mockery of the office because he is only using the position to service Elizabeth's goals. However, he bites down this burning shame and reminds himself that like every other foul thing he has done, it is for the sake of saving the elves.
- Death by Irony: Simon planned one of these for Willo. He intended to personally break into the Lamerli main manor at night, knowing the elderly elf would be alone. He would confront Willo and then use the powers granted to him as the Father of the Void’s “placeholder” champion to transport the two of them to the middle of the Becker homestead. Simon would explain to the family who Willo was and his transgressions against them. Then he would return to GOT headquarters, leaving the old man there to face the family’s grueling judgement. To the Isles and indeed anyone else apart from those in on the plan, the senator would have simply disappeared from his office without a trace one night, never to be seen again. It would accomplish punishing a despicable evildoer while keeping the Lamerli name above disgrace. Unfortunately for Simon and the GOT as a whole, Isaac cared nothing for these subtleties and proceeded to take care of things on his own.
- Easily Forgiven: Upon meeting Elizabeth for the second time, Willo immediately recovered from his Laser-Guided Amnesia when it came to her forewarning that she intended to have Sarlen murdered. Despite his initial outburst of anger at this revelation, Willo quickly calmed down about it and never mentions it again during their entire partnership. The reasons for this are many—he needs to stay in Elizabeth’s good graces, for the sake of his plans regarding her white porzite and Becker family ownership. Plus giving her reason to think that he is likely to avenge his brother is not healthy, since he is well aware of how easily she will end his life and replace him if she feels the need to. The other reason, though he will never admit it to himself, is that Elizabeth’s words at the party on that far away night were true. By ending Sarlen, she set him free to live his life and take the position he had been groomed to fill for most of his childhood.
- Elaborate Underground Base: The Lamerli family owns many properties around the Western Isles, some of them elegant and venerable mansions that act as alternate homes for the members of the family and others are larger storage houses, old sanitariums, and arenas. Willo has secretly ordered vast networks of underground tunnels and chambers constructed beneath properties that are mostly overlooked by the public eye. These subterranean areas serve as makeshift laboratories, holding cells, testing grounds, and lodgings for his “investigative teams”.
- Evil All Along: Simon first met Willo in 2005 while just a teenage knight for the Order of St. Byzas, investigating a spree of violent and bloody Type 2 vampire killings that had the entire nation in the grip of nocturnal terror. The senator soon distinguished himself as down-to-earth, pragmatic and deeply invested in the wellbeing of the Isle’s people, elven and human alike. He offered his full support and backing to the Order’s endeavor of tracking down the monsters responsible for the brutal murders. In 2007 he further established that he was a Reasonable Authority Figure and pragmatist by championing the idea of hiring the now independent Simon, Mia and Edvard to take down The Thousand threatening the land. And of course, he was instrumental in allowing Karel and Simon to marry. Despite all this, he was still very much Elizabeth’s Game Warden and had been pursuing personal his white porzite research for over twenty years at this point. Having known him for twelve years by the time he finds this out, it takes Simon some time to come to terms with this fact.
- Evil Counterpart: Well, worse counterpart. Willo’s clandestine research facilities are an even darker version of Elizabeth’s Gardens. Despite the variation and differences in their appearances, the Mourner cartel’s Garden facilities are uniformly elegant and beautiful estates which provide an array of comforts and entertainment and blood-slaves for the vampires who staff the places as “Gardeners”. Beckers captured in the Sulvey swamps by Elizabeth’s Procurers are confined in clean and tidy, if spartan, holding cells before they are taken to a processing area to be petrified according to each facility leader’s personal taste or higher orders. Willo’s facilities are cramped underground warrens of steel-reinforced concrete tunnels. The places reek of blood, antiseptic and other foul odors. Captives are thrown into cells clearly inhabited recently by those in the last stages of white porzite infection and screams and pleas for mercy and aid from the Bright King or more rarely Godfather Isaac or Revered Ancestor Alan can be heard faintly as his experiments continue relentlessly.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: A downplayed example but still there. Willo was, up until he joined Elizabeth, a dapper and handsome elder, still in possession of much of his vigor. Even his shattering grief at Orananya's death didn't entirely change this state of affairs. Upon being immersed in the underworld he was subjected to constant stress—managing his Senate position, the disgust and loathing for the criminals he is surrounded by, along with the complex emotions resulting from his research and the worry that it will be discovered by the cartel or Isles government. All this has deeply affected him and intensified the natural aging process, making him visibly frail and withered.
- Evil Old Folks: Willo Lamerli has committed many sins to advance the cause of saving the elves, and of course he assists the Mourner cartel as per his job as Game Warden. That said, he isn’t malevolent so much as he is a sad old man who knows he does not have long to left to live, and is filled with the hope that his legacy will be that of a hero who saved the elves, even if only a few people know.
- Evilutionary Biologist: An odd example since Willo has no background in science, medicine, or even the arcane forces of the world, beyond the usual layman’s education on the subjects. Despite this he wishes to use the power of white porzite to imbue elves with the superhuman reproductive and genetic resilience that he sees in the Becker family, in hopes that it will reverse the mass sterility afflicting his race. Some of the doctors and mages Willo has hired to assist in this project play the trope even straighter since they are motived by a rare opportunity to study and examine the human-but-not-human Beckers and see if humanity can benefit from the “scraps” of Willo’s research on how to transfer their gift to elves.
- Fantastic Racism: Willo swings between two extremes where this is concerned.
- He is a proponent of coexistence between the humans and elves of the Isles and has many human friends who he treats with genuine respect and dignity. He even facilitated the marriage between the heir to an old elven family and a human due to his understanding that the human was of noble and deserving character. This is consistent with being taught from an early age that human and elven coexistence was essential to the survival of the Isles as a nation. That said, he was also imparted with the ideology that elves exist on a slightly higher level than the other races, since they are the architects and crafters of the very concept of civilization upon Kishlaith, and he has taken this to heart. None of the cutthroats Willo has hired are elves; he rationalizes that it would be impossible to get elves to abduct and condemn their own people to a torturous death as test subjects, but he knows this isn’t true. It’s simply that he doesn’t like to see elves participate in such horrendous activities and so avoids dealing with elven criminals to keep the mental image that his people are above such sordid affairs.
- Like most elves Willo sees vampires as vile abominations—walking talking acts of defiance against the cycle of life and death imposed by the gods and a symbol of human cowardice. He doesn’t even refer to them by their pronouns but uses “it” when speaking about them. Elizabeth and vampires working for her are the only ones he treats with a modicum of respect, and it takes all of his etiquette training in dealing with distasteful people to accomplish this. His attitudes towards the Becker family may seem more positive on the surface since he views them as the potential “saviors” of the elves, but Willo treats them as resources and nothing else. He pities them for the pain and suffering they undergo at his hands or at Elizabeth’s, but it’s similar to the way someone views lab rats or livestock that must be experimented on to advance a cause or butchered to provide food. Their powers and strange nature put them outside the realm of humanity where he is concerned and it only makes his job easier.
- Fatal Flaw: His paranoid dedication to keeping the compartments of his life separate from one another is a literal example, combined with Poor Communication Kills. Willo might have lived a little longer had he actually answered his cell phone on the afternoon he was set to pitch his idea of white porzite legalization to the rest of the Senate. However, he saw that the calls were from several groups of his “researchers”. Willo ignored this odd barrage of phone calls and resolved to harshly chastise them for daring to call his personal number rather than one of his burner phones. What he didn’t understand is that his underground facilities were in chaos as the terrified personnel “fought” an unstoppable, endlessly regenerating killing machine of a monster that had launched a series of sudden and violent attacks on the sites. Had he known this, Willo might at least have had some warning Isaac was coming for him and his family.
- Genre Savvy: Willo is well aware that there is no retiring from the Game Warden position. Like many of Elizabeth’s well-connected allies in society, once she has used the individual for her purposes and can no longer gain anything from them, she eliminates the risk of a purposeful or accidental future betrayal by killing them or using her Hypnotic Eyes to drive them incurably insane. He also knows that Elizabeth implants a hypnotic command to commit suicide if cornered and forced into revealing her secrets, even going so far as to create her own title for it, the “Vow of Self Destruction”. Willo scoffs at this pretentious name, and has taken precautions to avoid ever falling under her control like he did at the party in his youth. He takes regular garlic supplements and always adds a little to his food. This armors his mind against vampiric hypnosis, though he has learned to pretend to be under her sway on the very rare times over the years when she has attempted to bewitch him with her eyes. He feels it would be satisfying to assert that he is not actually under her control in those moments, but he wisely keeps up the pretense as it keeps her guard down. Even with these precautions, he knows that he is still running out of time, since she will still murder him once he cannot perform his duties, and that time is fast approaching. See Living on Borrowed Time.
- Godzilla Threshold: Two examples on Willo’s part as he slowly spirals down into darkness.
- The stress caused by years of maintaining a triple life between his place as Lamerli family head and senator’s duties, his constant monitoring of the Beckers, and his fruitless explorations on the nature and harnessing of white porzite began to worsen Willo’s overall health. In addition to making him feel physically awful and garnering the worry of those close to him, he also began to fear for his life and future. Elizabeth would eliminate him without hesitation if she thought his health was slowing him down and making him a less-than-perfect asset to her operations. Thus, he began to drink only the tiniest amounts of liquid white porzite made from crystals produced from his personal Becker trees. This improved his health and even reversed some of the infirmities of age. However, Willo knows that this is simply first-stage white porzite infection. He is still confident that he will find a way to purify the crystal before he begins to show the negative mental and physical side effects of the corruption.
- After Dr. Yelaros’ question makes him realize how little he has accomplished and how close he is to the end of his life, Willo turns to a bleak yet obvious solution—altering the laws to let any elf who wishes to partake in white porzite to do so under the auspices of the government. This will give him the ability to openly observe the effects of his white porzite made from Beckers in altered circumstances and see if there are some positive reactions, which he can then build upon. It is a last ditch and desperate act, devoid of any morality or even sense. Even Willo is aware of this but at this point he is frantic to see that all his horrors have wrought some positive change even if he doesn’t live to see a bright future for the elves of Kishlaith.
- Gorn: Isaac invokes the trope when he uses Willo’s body to illustrate the catastrophic effects the crystal has upon the insides of a mortal’s body before slowly manifesting on the outside. In the middle of the Senate floor with all eyes and cameras fixated on him in helpless horror, the Type 3 vampire slowly takes apart the senator’s corpse with horrifying ease and patience. He comments on the grotesque alterations in the elf’s anatomy throughout his bloody task, making sure that the assembled people can get a clear glimpse of what he’s talking about. He finally throws the tattered remains of the corpse aside like trash as he concludes his speech, hammering home the cost of using white porzite and the brutal vengeance he will bring down on anyone who does so in the future, even before the effects claim their lives and minds.
- Great Escape: A dark subversion. Among Willo’s most important “staff” are professional traffickers and slavers who specialize in transporting kidnapped people across the borders of nations, or more rarely, criminals who excelled at breaking out of jails time and time again. These men and women are tasked with entering Elizabeth’s Garden facilities and breaking out Becker family members who are awaiting petrification. A common ploy Willo’s minions use is tricking the Becker prisoners into being compliant, by telling them that they are an ally who only wants to help them escape the strange and terrifying prison and get them back to their swampy home. It instills a sense of hope and ensures they cooperate with their own “transfer” from Elizabeth’s custody to Willo’s.
- Hypocrite: Willo considers Elizabeth and her minions to be irredeemable criminals who make Kishlaith an overall worse place through their malevolent, hedonistic and illegal activities. He isn’t wrong about that in the least, but he does not ever once consider himself a criminal despite holding a high-ranking position in the most profitable branch of the Mourner cartel’s empire, it’s white porzite trade. He does acknowledge that he has done and aided in horrible things, but he will never even consider the idea that a Lamerli could become a lawbreaker.
- I Am a Monster: Willo regularly contemplates the atrocities he has ordered and overseen for the sake of saving the elven people. While he cannot think of himself as a criminal even in these moments, he agonizes over the fact that he has aided and abetted criminal elements and contributed to much death and suffering, while inflicting more than his fair share.
- Irony: During his days of struggling to mitigate the constant flow of scandals stemming from Sarlen's abuse of the Lamerli name, Willo lived in fear that his brother would disgrace the family name and ruin the legacy of heroism and nobility that stretched back thousands of years. In the end Sarlen died and is remembered as a roguish but ultimately mediocre footnote in the family's vast history. Instead Willo's actions are the catalyst of the family's downfall. Isaac destroys the Lamerli bloodline and the horrific underground torture chambers where kidnapped elves were forcibly injected with white porzite to study their reactions, are traced directly back to Willo. The last Lamerli head goes down in history as a monster who hid a hideous and sadistic nature behind a kind and honorable façade. This isn't true, but there was no convincing the public once the pictures of those underground research sites began to surface in the newspapers, with the more graphic of them being sold to darker-natured internet sites.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Willo’s lifetime of speaking and engaging with people from all walks of life came to the forefront in his early days of investigating the Becker family. The first time he stole a Becker from the Mourner cartel and had the young man in front of him, Willo personally bombarded him with questions about the family’s origins, their powers, and their belief system and culture within their small swampy world. He asked about every aspect of their lives and eagerly awaited profound answers that would help him contextualize and work towards understanding the mystery of what they were. What he got instead was garbled superstition about blessings from the Bright King bestowed upon an ancestor for good deeds even their legends didn’t elaborate on. And that was when he was fortunate; what was more common was verbal abuse and cursing. He was accused of being a “devil” from some bizarre “World Beyond the Woods”, among other choice words and the novelty and awe of actually speaking to one of these strange creatures eventually wore thin. He still holds out hope that interviews with Becker family members will reveal a hidden truth that his more hands-on experiments have missed, but he has long ago dispensed with civil methods of conversation. He demands answers and has them beaten and subjected to other unpleasantries if they refuse to answer outright or if he is unsure whether they are being truthful or not.
- Living on Borrowed Time: Willo is all too aware that the story of his life is drawing to a disappointing close. He is an old man and his stressful high-stakes double-life as a politician and manager in a criminal organization as well his blood-soaked quest to save the elves has drained him of any youthful vigor and energy that might have lingered in his mind and body. He has artificially replaced his mental and physical energy with the power of white porzite, but despite his assurances to himself, he knows that the corruption will eventually consume him just as it has devoured every elven test subject and every white porzite addict of any race across the face of Kishlaith. Finally, Elizabeth knows that his health is flagging, even if he doesn’t show it, and she can smell the white porzite in his blood, which indicates to her that he is at risk of becoming an unstable liability. The knowledge that he is dying saddens Willo and he admits he is distraught at leaving the world behind, and afraid of where the Corpse Hound will convey his soul. But most of all he fears dying without having accomplished anything in his goal of saving the elves. Not only would it mean his people are still doomed, but it means that all his hard work, effort and horrors were in vain.
- Malevolent Masked Man: Willo’s “attire” when he is visiting any of his research sites is a long waterproof cloak or poncho and heavy boots and gloves to avoid being splashed or stained with fluids of any kind while overseeing a procedure. The outfit includes a heavy opaque white mask he wears over his entire face. It completely conceals his visage and is enchanted to distort his voice. This is out of paranoia that one of the elves imprisoned there will recognize him and escape to spread the news. If Willo truly searched inward he would realize that this is a slim possibility. In reality he simply doesn’t want to see the horror and betrayal on their faces after the instant of recognition.
- Meaningful Name: His name, Willo is a variation on "Willow" as in the tree. Willow trees are relentless in their search for life-giving water, to the point that their roots break apart concrete and infiltrate pipes, causing much destruction and irritation. Willo mirrors this in the suffering he has caused others in the course of his quest for a life-giving substance that will prolong the elven race's collective existence. Plus, it goes along with his Plant Person nature as an elf.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The "goodness" of the deed is debatable, but one reason Elizabeth recruited Willo was to spare him from the possibility of his own suicide after his beloved wife killed herself. Willo repays this “kindness” by becoming a parasite that subtly steals Becker family members—the source of Elizabeth’s profitable and beloved white porzite trees—for his own purposes. While he feigns respect and even slight amiability towards her, he looks at the vampire as a disgusting and loathsome creature to the point he internally refers to her as an ‘’it’’ rather than her proper pronouns.
- Pet the Dog:
- A Nurenese knight from the Order of St. Byzas sneaking around with the youngest daughter of the elven Taedor family was such a scandalous rumor that even Willo had his interest peaked. He followed the story of the two lovestruck teens and he had no problem foreseeing the dark future they would face ahead if something was not done. Upon meeting Simon and seeing the genuine decency of the young hero and the happiness Karel felt with him, Willo stepped in to head off the potentially deadly reprisal the Taedor family would attempt against the young man. Furthermore, he blessed the union which compelled Karel’s family to let the two of them marry. It earned him Simon and Karel’s unending gratitude, something Simon kept long after the tragic end of their marriage.
- Willo benefits from this trope, both times due to Elizabeth Mourner. Long ago Elizabeth identified the Lamerli family as a possible obstacle to her objectives when she first began to draft a plan to ensure the Western Isles never interfered with the Becker homestead. She kept a watchful eye upon them for over a century and she was kept well-informed of their affairs. Through this covert monitoring, she began to sympathize with Willo’s trials and tribulations as he desperately waged a losing battle to keep the family name intact against Sarlen’s constant scenes and scandals. Killing Sarlen was something she would have done regardless, but Elizabeth genuinely wished to set the young man free to take full command of his family name and further cement its glory within the Isles. She later offered Willo the recently vacated seat of Game Warden since his family connections, charismatic and friendly persona, and leadership skills all made him a perfect candidate for the job. But the other reason she chose him was to infuse purpose into a life that had been shattered by loss. She knew all too well that Willo would drown in his despair without an anchor to hold him upright. Elizabeth’s investment in the elderly elf’s life is a mysterious thing; it could be that seeing the man’s relentless drive to bring honor to his ancestors and family line reaches out to whatever remains of a young girl who foolishly chased a dream of receiving indirect praise from her noble illegitimate family, enough that she followed her desire into the hellish Nuren vs Solinri war.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Willo’s marriage to Orananya was arranged when Willo was a newborn and Orananya was only a few months older. This was done in a large private ceremony attended only by the Lamerli family’s vassals where his parents announced his name. Willo and Orananya were slowly introduced to one another as children, sparingly to avoid them developing a brother and sister relationship, but enough to ensure they knew each other and developed a fondness. They were encouraged to write letters to nurture that fondness and eventually they were allowed to meet and date without chaperones. Willo grew to truly love his wife and the feeling was mutual. Orananya’s death left a deep wound in his soul, and Willo admits that part of his desire to “defeat” the Sterility Plague is vengeance, since he feels that it took her life.
- Plant Person: Elves have a brownish-green complexion similar to that of plants, and their hair colors come in strange vibrant shades and have the quality of thistledown. Most plantlike of all, they can draw energy from the sun to sustain their bodies to the point that they can survive for months without food as long as they have access to water and sunlight. This is due to their Fae nature, the pure Fae being immense sapient trees with near-godlike control over magic which allowed them to mold and shape reality nearly at will.
- Pragmatic Villainy: It comes with the Game Warden’s job description. Not only is the holder of the position commanded to keep forces from the Western Isles away from Sulvey, they are also instructed to closely monitor the Becker homestead and keep informed of the family’s state of being. This includes if they are doing poorly from circumstances unrelated to the Mourner cartel’s depredations upon their small community. Willo is responsible for ending the disease epidemic that sickened much of the homestead in 1994 the year Mary-Jo Becker was born. He rapidly realized that the outbreak, combined with the unusually harsh winter and resulting lack of food, had a chance of killing a great deal of them. This would affect the planned out hunting in the spring, which would cut into the cartel’s profits. He ordered his monitoring team to infuse the homestead’s drinking water with a large amount of antibiotics, which greatly helped cure the sick. Other times have seen him (and previous Game Wardens) bolster the animal population of the Sulvey swamps to aid the Beckers in hunting so they do not starve or otherwise planting “care packages” carefully disguised as random loot left by travelers for them to pick up and use for food and resources.
- Promotion to Parent: Mereia’s birth cost their mother Nelle her life, something Cyrel could not handle. It is unknown as to whether he blamed his youngest child for the death of his wife or he simply was too lost amidst his despair to act as a lordly father to her in the same way he did to Sarlen and Willo. Either way, Cyrel checked out of raising her in the same way he neglected everything else from his duties as family head to his personal hygiene and self-care. Apart from seeing that she was given a name and had a husband secured for her future, Sarlen had no interest in raising his young sister and so left her to be looked after by a small crew of servants while he spent his time partying, drinking and whoring in lavish style. Like much else, it fell to Willo to see that she was given a semblance of parental affection. At first, he did so out of a feeling of honor and obligation but he grew to love his younger sister. She spent much time with him and Orananya, especially after Sarlen’s death when the two moved into the main Lamerli manor. Willo oversaw her first steps, ensured her education on being a Lamerli and her place in society, and eventually walked her down the sunlit path to her husband at her wedding in place of their father. He views her children, his nephews, much like grandchildren and he has always had time to give Mereia advice much like how he does to her kids. In the end, one mercy Willo is granted is that he dies without knowing Isaac slaughtered Mereia, her husband, both his nephews and one nephew’s wife and newborn child only hours before heading to the Senate to kill the Lamerli head.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Senator Lamerli is not even close to a major character yet he has had a profound impact upon several characters and even the world itself. He is the reason that Simon Travers and Karel Taedor were able to be married in the first place, which led both of them down a completely different path than they would have taken had they remained separate, even if it did lead to Karel’s death. By having Laurence Becker Sr captured, he provided the circumstances in which Laurence could fight off his captors and escape back to the homestead. This created a Folk Hero of sorts with the Beckers, who was able to ascend to the rank of Grandfather. It is likely Laurence would never have become Grandfather without this fame. Finally, Willo’s death at Isaac’s hands and what Isaac does afterwards violently informs all of Kishlaith that Type 3 vampires are real rather than fairytales left over from the unenlightened times. This last revelation utterly shocks all four of the Sister Continents and sends panic rippling everywhere.
- Symbolism: When Willo accepted Elizabeth’s offer to join her cartel as its newest Game Warden, he shook her hand to cement their deal. The hand he shook was her right, which is adorned with full-finger rings tipped with “claws” carved from sharpened white porzite. Combined with the fact that Willo had just conceived a plan to use the cursed mineral to “save” the elves, his clasping of the hand bearing those rings shows that this was the moment the white porzite corrupted him, even if it was only in metaphor at the time.
- The Spymaster: The job of Game Warden makes him one by default. Apart from keeping the Western Isles’ expansion away from the Becker family, he is ordered to covertly monitor their homestead and territory and report to the cartel about various aspects of their lives, so decisions can be made on how to move forward. This information includes their physical health, the level of peace or unrest within the homestead, the number of births and deaths…and of course, the beginnings of the 13-year periods when their nightmarish guardian is absent from the property. To accomplish this monitoring, Willo has been given control over an elite team of former intelligence operatives from various nations. He utilizes their skill to perfection and has been able to perform his duty as Game Warden without a serious issue. Even more impressive, he has kept his secret siphoning of Beckers from Garden facilities and experimentations on elves with white porzite a secret from these calculating former spies despite working closely with them.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Willo is in the middle of the Senate floor attempting to push a potential law that will legalize white porzite use in the elven population of the Isles. The only warning before Isaac blurs into his personal space and rips out his heart, is the faint sound of an offended onlooker who was rudely pushed aside by a teenage human boy in an impeccable if old fashioned suit…
- Unwitting Pawn: Like Rudolph and Elizabeth Willo is just one more puppet of the Greater-Scope Villain that is the white porzite central intelligence, the singular consciousness that once directed every aspect of white porzite, from the crystals growing across the land, to the unfortunate victims infected and twisted by its influence. Like Elizabeth, he doesn’t even know it exists, yet he serves its interests via introducing its “body” into countless hosts. Worse, the petrification of Becker family members slowly releases more and more fragments of its mind, allowing it to steadily regain complete control over the white porzite spread across Kishlaith…
- Worf Had the Flu: Willo benefits from this trope far more than he will ever know. Her physical strength, speed and other vampiric gifts aside, Elizabeth Mourner is truly feared for her strategic mind, ruthless cunning and ability to read people and manipulate them into following her carefully laid plans often without even knowing they are aiding her wider goals. There is no way that Willo could ever have gotten away with the consistent siphoning of Becker family members from her Gardens for years without her catching on and punishing him—and his family—for daring to steal from her. However by the time Willo had laid out his own plans, created his facilities, and hired the people he needed, and then finally gathered the courage to start "poaching", things had changed. Having created a criminal empire over the hundreds of years since Rudolph Valtir's death and clawed her way to an apex place in Kishlaith's underworld, she had fixed her attention upon engineering a world war that would bring ruin to the Solinri Empire and its people to finally avenge her mentor. While still very much in command of her cartel, she had "loosened" the reins just a bit to accommodate the incredibly complex task of manipulating nations, powerful political figures and militaries behind the scenes to bring about this war. This ensured that Willo could perform his parasitic endeavors without her being truly aware of it.
Edited by Swordofknowledge on Apr 26th 2021 at 9:58:01 AM
"Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake." —Edgar Wallace
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Yes, Mars is from that same story. She sort of pays enough lip-service to the cult to stay in their good graces, but I'm not sure if she's actually very religious herself. Not every enforcer is a full on "cultist" necessarily. The people who really run the cult are the richest members of the population. The enforcement is buddy-buddy with them because one of the Ace Enforcers is also an extremely rich business mogul whose empire runs businesses that pretty much only benefit the cult and the enforcers (and we'll get to her another day). So not every member of the enforcement needs to be a member of the cult, but the enforcement obviously has some stakes in preserving the cult's power and laws, and a few of their higher-ups are a lot more religious or influential than others.
It's a bit of a mixed bag, in other words. Being a cultist isn't a requirement for being an enforcer, and many of the lower-ranking enforcers are just trying to get food on the table, but the enforcement does enforce the laws that keep the cult in power and they're rewarded for doing so.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Swordofknowledge
@ War Jay 77: Ah I understand, that definitely makes a lot of sense. If you don't mind me asking (I can understand wanting to be selective in what information you share about your work) what exactly are this cult's beliefs? I've been seeing them as a sort of hybrid of "radicalized dystopian Christianity" like in The Handmaid's Tale and the cult of personality perpetuated by the usual generic evil dictators in story.
It's interesting that the super-rich are also the main drivers of the cult too, since one would think that the trappings of devout religion are not always combatable with the extravagant lifestyles enjoyed by people rolling in billions.
Anyway thanks for clarification on that front. Something I thought of after my initial review about Camilla is that her surname is pretty meaningful, and I'm not sure if you did it on purpose or not but well done. If it wasn't on purpose, let me explain: Mars being the ancient god of war and her being a Blood Knight extraordinaire always seeking out new conflict and fresh battles goes pretty well.
"Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake." —Edgar Wallace
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Honestly, the surname just sounded really cool and I gave it to her mostly for the Awesome Mc Cool Name factor. The fact that it also happens to be a Meaningful Name was a bonus. ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
The cult's beliefs are a bit complicated, but to give a "laconic version": They're a hyper-capitalist group whose god, Abarus, is also a deity of wealth and power, who grants them their wealth and status for following his laws, meaning that anyone who's poor is suffering because they're not doing things correctly. Of course the nature of the laws only keeps people from achieving that same status as them, but that's not their problem. Now, not every "cultist" is actually rich, and not every wealthy character is a cultist, but they do overlap and the most powerful members of the society at least pretend to worship Abarus in order to fit in.
In any case, my story's a bit of an, er... extremely complicated mess, but that's the basic gist of it.
I'll see about critiquing your villain after work tonight, if someone doesn't beat me to it first.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Swordofknowledge
@ War Jay 77:
Well I can't argue with you there; her name is pretty cool and that meaningful name seems like a downplayed Genius Bonus for those paying attention.
About the cult and its beliefs...I have to admit that I was not expecting that answer in any way shape or form. Is Abarus an actual deity? Either way, the structure and content of their belief system seems like a chimera of Randian Objectivism combined with the most compassionless, by-your-bootstraps conservative ideology but elevated into a form of religion that cements this way of thinking as a natural law of the universe. It's one of those things that seems silly and kind of campy on the surface, but the more you read into it the most horrifying it becomes. Good job!
Well thank you, I'd definitely appreciate it. I kind of made a book about him so I apologize in advance and won't blame you if you give up
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
~Swordofknowledge: I'm back and ready to critique Willo~ Now admittedly, I did have to skim some parts, but from what I read...he seems like a really complex and well-crafted character. So well done on that front! Seriously, I'm astonished by how many details you were able to provide. That's always a good sign.
As for the character themselves, I'm liking him. One thing I really like is the stressed-out paranoiac aspect of him, contrasting his charisma and nobility. You never really get to see a lot of villains dipping into the role of being the anxious or paranoid ones, so it's cool to see a villainous character have that sort of depth to them while still being a character you can take seriously...and it sounds like I can take Willo seriously. He might not be the most depraved monster there is, but his complexity and tragic life make him an interesting character, while his horrific experiments and secrets make him threatening enough as a villain to balance it out.
All in all, I think you have a pretty good character here. It's nice to see a villain who's not just a one-dimensional monster, nor an overly-sympathetic Tragic Villain. And seriously, the amount of details here is pretty damn cool. I don't even think I could write that much about my own protagonists!
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
This is a villain from my unnamed work here
, which features Time Travel to 2002, but is set in a Like Reality, Unless Noted universe.
Name: Maddalena "Maddie" Di Stefano
Age: 34 (in December 2002)
Personality: Maddalena is a fairly friendly woman who is 5"6 and looks almost like Joanna Kulig
◊, Polish actress, but with tan skin, jet black hair with streaks of red in it.
She has pale tan skin, and is of Italian, Polish and Nigerian origin, mixed-race.
She wears a gray or black sleeveless dress, sometimes with a gray or black jacket, and knee-high boots.
Maddie is a woman who knows what she wants and likes, and is not afraid to say no.
She's got no qualms about telling people what's wrong with something, but equally well will praise someone if needs be, and she won't sugarcoat there being a problem; she tells it like it is.
She has a work ethic of sorts, not quite lazy, but not quite a workaholic.
Maddie gets into conflict with the protagonists after accidentally being tripped up, although it's a Redemption Arc of sorts.
Abilities: Maddie is great at setting up meetings and finding them from her contacts, a great chef with Italian, Polish and Nigerian food. She is also quite quick and athletic and can run fast, athletics being a hobby of hers from a teenager. Maddie also knows how to get a deal done, and won't hesitate to use her contacts. Maddie is also very analytical and will try examining things from all angles.
Weaknesses: Maddie won't let things go, prefers closure to leaving something unresolved; she gets angry easily if there's no food or drink (she needs to constantly eat); will get angry if etiquette isn't followed properly. Is very touchy about her race as a Berserk Button.
Goals: Make enough money to live and improve her life.
Role in the story: She's an antagonist my four characters have to face, and becomes one due to Allison ("Allie") accidentally knocking her over during a popular festival in 2002 that the protagonists couldn't go to as they were too young. In general, not a Big Bad-type villain, but no Filler Villain. She isn't the Big Bad, just a temporary antagonist who undergoes a Heel–Face Turn, not that she was really evil anyway.
Backstory: Maddie was born to an Italian-Canadian dad, John and a Nigerian-Polish-Canadian mom, Angela who was herself mixed-race. Maddie was bullied in school for being of mixed-race, having a posh accent and not being part of the in-crowd; Maddie was a case of Be Yourself. Aged 19-23 she worked in jobs she hated purely as Money, Dear Boy. She went into business aged 23 as a consultant for hire, freelancing herself out and stumbling along the way, but gradually got the hang of it.
Tropes applying to Maddie:
- A Lesson Learned Too Well: Takes lessons to heart, but doesn't quite know when not to apply them.
- Adaptational Intelligence: She was already quite smart originally, but is now well-educated and socially skilled.
- Alternate History: The car she owns, a Volkswagen Transporter T4 2.5 TDI hightop campervan, did not exist in OTL (our timeline), at least in this form.
- Ambiguous Disorder: Appears to have signs of Asperger's Syndrome, but not confirmed outright In-Universe.
- Ambiguously Human: Well, she is human, since the setting is Like Reality, Unless Noted, but one person in the story questions how she has the stamina to do long runs for recreation and if she really is human or something else.
- Angst? What Angst?: Was bullied in school, but treats it as life experience for her.
- Armored Closet Gay: She is technically bisexual, but doesn't want to admit it, well, it is December 2002. Maddie is attracted to feminine women but can't admit it publically, fearing it's damaging to her career.
- Bare Your Midriff: She has another outfit she's often seen wearing, a black Nike crop top-style sports bra and jeans. Sometimes also seen running in a blue ASICS crop top and running briefs.
- Big Eater: She can eat quite a lot, but her enjoyment of athletics also helps her lose the weight.
- Berserk Button: Doesn't like being called "black". Anything about her race is off-limits to talk about to her, unless you know her very well. Hates being seen as a tomboy or ladette.
- Brutal Honesty: Downplayed; she doesn't do it to be cruel and often the truth isn't that harsh.
- Comic-Book Time: She doesn't age at all during the story, but perhaps justified due to the short timespan it covers from 2002 to 2003.
- Cool Car: She owns a 1986 Volkswagen Jetta GT sedan she imported from England. She also owns a 2002 Dodge Stratus R/T sedan imported from Mexico and her 1998 Volkswagen Transporter T4 2.5 TDI Hightop conversion.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Her attitudes in December 2002 would fit in better with 2021, and she would be considered eccentric back then.
- George Jetson Job Security: In general, she has a good list of clients, but one client continuously keeps hiring her and terminating the contract and re-hiring her; but her being a freelancer with her own business means the trope isn't played straight.
- Girly Girl: She can't get on with women who are tomboyish that well, prefers to talk girly stuff with women.
- Grumpy Bear: Due to her school bullying over her race when she was younger.
- Harem Seeker: She had / has considered having two girlfriends, even in 2002 but only with the informed consent and knowledge (which would be radical for 2002 anyway).
- Harmless Villain: Not really that villainous to begin with, to be fair, just does some slightly questionable things.
- Heel–Face Turn: Not that Maddie was ever really evil to begin with, just misguided, the protagonists manage to get her out of going towards doing really illegal deals.
- Hidden Depths: She's an omniglot who knows a lot about fashion and cars, and also ghostwrote a Canadian used car review website.
- Iconic Outfit: The outfit detailed in her profile, the bra/crop top and jeans and her running outfit.
- Identical Granddaughter: Maddie's daughter, also called Maddie is a friend of the protagonists in the future.
- Identical Stranger: To Sabrina, who appears later on, becomes something of a Chekhov's Gun.
- Jerkass: Downplayed. She's usually nice to others.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Tells Allie she shouldn't be carrying so many boxes of food that obscure her view which caused her to fall.
- Lesbian Jock: At least if you consider her interest in doing long runs/athletics/marathons as evidence of this.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Well, lipstick bisexual anyway, but her sexuality is mainly if attracted to women, they have to be feminine.
- Loophole Abuse: She found a way to import her 1998 Volkswagen Transporter T4 2.5 TDI campervan to Canada simply by pointing out how substantially similar it was to a Canadian-spec model despite it never having a Canadian equivalent (at least for the Transporter T4 high-roof model, Transporter T4 Hightop) and explaining that the vehicle and the engine was substantially similar to that of an Audi vehicle sold in Canada, so it qualified; there actually was nothing in the rules other than the vehicle had to be 15 years or older or substantially similar. Yes, it was 4 years old, and wouldn't have been legal in Canada until 2013, but she managed to get away with it anyway. She even went as far as proving it to the authorities online!
- Medium Awareness / Noticing the Fourth Wall: When she mentioned to a friend about God's plans for her.
- A Mother To Her Employees: Treats her employees very well, cares for them.
- Not So Different: Similar to Ava, insofaras her attraction to feminine women.
- Oral Fixation: Needs to eat (often potato chips, toffees or fudge) or drink a bottle of water constantly.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Never really that evil to begin with, just depending on who she works for puts her into being a villain this way.
- Rainbow Lens: Her Ambiguous Disorder (which according to Word of God is Asperger's Syndrome) used as a metaphor for LGBT/queer issues.
- Straight Gay: Not that her sexuality is obvious.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: In general, mostly on the sugar side, but icy in very formal situations and prone to speaking in a formal, frozen style.
- The Ingenue: Well, in terms of looks anyway; female counterpart to The Twink, however, Maddie is not young and naive.
- The Lad-ette: Hates being seen as one, a berserk button for her.
- Villain Episode: Three different viewpoint chapters focus on her, reducing the main characters to cameo-only roles.
Edited by Merseyuser1 on Apr 25th 2021 at 4:13:21 PM
Hey, a thread where I can post my work in progress to more people!
@Mersey User 1 I can see how she's set up for a Heel–Face Turn in the future, with enough virtuous qualities, but from what's written here I kind of fail to see how she's bad to make her compelling. I understand that she may be a filler villain, but that doesn't mean she can't be villainous. With no context on the inciting incident, I can't exactly see why she might oppose our time travellers aside from some petty grudge from a concert nor what she might do in response.
Alright, time I shared my own villain. This one is from my most recent NaNoWriMo project: a YA werewolf novel with a fair bit more environmental politics than romance. Or as I like to call it, Trans Lesbian Grunge Rock Werewolf.
Name: Alliston Small
Age: Early 30s, still has rugged good looks befitting a cowboy
Personality: A highly-motivated, competent professional with the necessary cowboy charm concealing a far more violent and controlling personality. He does not like people getting in his way or countering his plans. His plan is the only plan. He still remains rational and proportionate, but add weapons into the mix and he is one who would rather live than take the risk of being caught by surprise.
Abilities: As a federal agent specializing in predator control, he possesses the requisite skills in woodcraft, tracking, trapping, and marksmanship. He's cool under pressure and knows how to leverage a bit of rugged charm into investigative work and press conferences.
Weaknesses: He can get tunnel-visioned and not consider other options, especially once others start interfering in his activities. His first course of action is often his only one, and adapting to new circumstances is difficult.
Goals: Destruction of the wolf pack in the woods near Aberdeen before activists and judges can issue an injunction stopping him, getting rid of a particularly pesky activist.
Motivation: He is ultimately a man driven by the thrill of the hunt, predators especially for their danger and intelligence. He has found a career path that allows him to act more or less freely while still providing a public good, His worldview regarding environmental management focuses on making the land suitable for human economic activities and believes that human civilization and large predators cannot coexist safely, even if the locals think they know better.
Role in the story: After reports of a gray wolf in far western Washington were confirmed, the federal government took over management as ascribed by the Endangered Species Act. Small was assigned as the agent implementing the plan and had broad powers to do so and immediately used them when the number of spotted wolves climbed from one to two to eight. Given the proximity of the dubbed Artemis pack to the town of Aberdeen, he immediately put together plans for a cull. However, he wasn't the only person that followed the wolves from eastern WA. A travelling magician and activist named Kurt Garza arrived and began organizing local teens to oppose the cull, speaking to the public during the public comment period and getting in touch with lawyers to issue an injunction. Knowing that legal action will delay the hunt and put more people at risk, he needs to work fast to solve both the wolves and that van-living hippy.
Backstory: Not really one that stands out. Raised on a ranch in Idaho, taught a passion for hunting and an understanding that environmental management should prioritize human interest. Joined the US Fish and Wildlife Service as a predator control agent and was assigned to wolf management in eastern Washington. He liked working with range riders, modern cowboys and cowgirls protecting the herds on the front lines. One in particular was Tara Connelly, who had her own way of keeping wolves away that included getting extremely close to them. He eventually caught her rustling a cattle to feed the wolves. One thing lead to another and Tara was shot to death. Small dumped her body near an illicit weed farm and her death was never traced back to him. Taking a human life sickened him, but the act was fast and he could almost swear it felt like putting down a predator.
Relevant Tropes:
- The Ace: A highly competent wildlife management specialist many agents in Julia's office look up to, a definite man's man and a cowboy. Things sour as his more controlling and unilateral nature comes out.
- Badass Normal: He's out of his depth as the wolves he's hunting turn out to be far more intelligent and dangerous than the usual, but he has the skills and connections to do some serious damage and fight toe-to-toe with werewolves.
- Cool Shades: Wears a pair of Oakley's.
- Cowboy Cop: A literal example. He plays by his own rules and really doesn't like it when bureaucracy and eco-warriors get in his way.
- Creepy Souvenir: Through curiosity or guilt, he held on to Tara Connelly's elk-handle knife. He presents it as a peace offering but when Garza sees it, he flies into a rage as it all but confirms he murdered Garza's wife.
- Expy: Of Jeremy Renner's character in Wind River.
- Good Guns, Bad Guns: Wields a nickel-plated semi-auto pistol, revolver, and in the climax a gray-finished MCX. By comparison, the WDFW are armed with Glocks, pump shotguns and MP5s.
- Great White Hunter: A villainous example. He doesn't have anything to prove but takes pride in his work. He just has an itch to scratch and found a socially acceptable way to express it.
- The Gunslinger: He's got the cowboy aspect down pat. Near the climax, Julia's state officers and Small's posse get into a Mexican Standoff and the two leaders' argument escalate to hands going to their holsters. Small is the quicker draw and Julia's loyalists back down from a full Blast Out.
- Jurisdiction Friction: In eastern WA, wolf management falls under Washington state's Department of Fish and Wildife and he was subordinate to them. He felt unnecessarily restricted and always arrived after the wolves have done their damage. When he's assigned to western WA, where he supervises the state officers in the Grays Harbor District, he indulges in the power he has to act unilaterally, much to the consternation of the local officers and Julia Gasparutto in particular.
- My Way or the Highway: His leadership style. Go along with his plan or you can stay at your desk.
- Nice Hat: Wears a cowboy hat, even with NVGs.
- No Kill like Overkill: His plan for culling the wolves involves a team of a dozen agents and contract hunters equipped with silenced assault rifles and night vision goggles. These are mostly normal wolves, mind you.
Julia Gasparutto: Y'all look like you're hunting bin Laden.
- Pet the Dog: Gets a few moments like where he's willing to listen to teenagers voicing their concerns and genuinely enjoys Jackie's musical endeavors at the Battle of the Bands.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He frustratedly refers to Garza as a "homeless beaner" among other slurs for Hispanics. When visiting Julia's house, he looks at younger photos of her children and asks about her son. Her son (and the protagonist), Jackie is now a daughter and within earshot. When corrected by Julia, he uses Jackie's preferred pronouns in a rather patronizing tone.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: Not necessarily killing people, but he theorizes that Jackie turned out the way she is because her parents didn't expose her to more traditionally masculine activities like hunting, never mind that she was and still is an avid competition archer and plays conventionally male Grunge.
- Silver Bullet: Not literally, but describes .300 Blackout in such terms. If it can stop hogs, it can stop a wolf.
- U.S. Marshal: He's the land management equivalent to Julia's sheriff.
Edited by Morgisboard on May 3rd 2021 at 4:27:45 AM
State of Mind
Working on a backlog. Will start with Willo and get to Maddalena soon!
Booo! No wonder he's a villain.
"Some of you may die! But that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make!"
You had mentioned something earlier about being prepared for this guy but, I'll be honest, I was still expecting some slime ball of a politician. I wasn't expecting a serial killer. Actually, I think the majority of people who played a prominent role in this bio are mass murderers. Brrr...
To start with: Willo's parents. It's interesting just how callous they are versus their public face. Just how many murders did they order while holding grand banquets? How many beatings did they inflict the same day they were cutting the ribbon at the opening of an orphanage? Often you see these old money types in media scorning violence as low brow and being out of depth with the street level brutality of their poor slum neighbors, but the Lamerlis wouldn't be out of place in certain countries around the world with less than stellar human rights records where the elites can get away with so much. There's this dichotomy in their open actions for the public and their attitudes. It's like they do things for the good of the people without caring much for any of them, so who cares if some of their son's friends get their heads bashed in?
Speaking of that son, Willo's brother post-torture reminds me of that quote about the Roman Emperor Caligula. That there was "no better slave, and no worse master." He clearly played a part to survive then dropped the mask and went full hedonist the moment he held the power. If there was anything he learned under his parents' thumbs it was how to hid his true self and those with the power can do whatever they want. They didn't care about him as a person, so why should he care about their legacy? So much self-destruction in this family over an obsession with blood tradition. I'd pity Sarlen more if there wasn't the implication he put himself in league with Elizabeth Mourner at some point. It's rather depressing that nearly every grown member of this family ends up a criminal for unrelated reasons. There's certainly a case for Nature in the Nature vs Nurture debate right there.
On to Willo himself. As I mentioned above, my immediate reaction was that he is a serial killer. Yeah, sure, he's an upstanding member of society outside of his torture fun houses, but so was Pogo the Clown and we all know what he was doing when no one was looking. There's something to said about people who use the rational of "The End Justifies the Means" and "I Did What Ihad To Do" going from taking unpleasant but needed steps for the greater good to just making excuses to indulge in atrocities (and speaking of indulging in atrocities, I see you Isaac) . He can talk about how he's doing this all to save the elves, but somehow I doubt the families of the elves he kidnapped and murdered are going to be grateful. I have to wonder if at some point he realized he wasn't going to achieve any results and just kept carrying on with his murderous experiments because giving up would mean he killed those people for nothing and he couldn't rationalize that away. In a way, he reminds me of the main antagonist of CS Lewis' Space Trilogy with his plan to conquer Mars and wipe out the native inhabitants so that humanity could still survive after the Earth became too overpopulated. He uses flashy words and soaring rhetoric to make his case that this is the right thing to do, but when the story's main character tries to translate this from English he can't convey the weasel wording vocabulary into the Martian language and it ends up sounding just as barbarous as any conquest and genocide should naturally sound.
Now that I think about it, I wonder if the lack of empathy his parents displayed toward people they had killed was imprinted on Willo. While they don't seem to have went out of their way to teach him about the unsavory aspects of their treatment of his brother, they did drill into him the importance of the family legacy and it's not like he didn't pick up on what was happening eventually. Actions probably spoke louder than words in this case and they taught him through those actions that nothing was off the table when it came to continuing the family line. I feel like that's the real tipping point here. His wife's suicide and the realization that the elves aren't reproducing are just icing on the cake. They might have steered his crimes in a way, but the rot stretches so much farther back.
Which isn't to say a bad upbringing is solely responsible for the villain he became. Heck, his brother had it worse and he just ended up a drunken slob forgotten to time. I would rather be a little nobody then an evil somebody, but Willo chose the bed he lied on.
His relationships with Elizabeth and Yelaros are an interesting contrast; a tool to one, and a teacher to the other. I made an observation a while back that these long-lived, one-man army type entities were probably having a negative effect on the growth and transformation of Kishlaith's society. Elizabeth's casual murder of a member of the social elite and her uninhibited discussion with Willo about killing him and the rest of his family at a party really reinforces my belief in that. To say nothing of her getting him to become a senator in her pocket carring out her will on a world stage. That he very much understands this speaks to some level of self-awareness and I wonder if any of those anti-Liz techniques were taught to Yelaros. If not, then that's just one more shame in that his dark secrets kept him from being the real teacher Yerlaros needed him to be.
After a while I feel there's no point in rating who is a worse bad guy, so I'm not going to compare Willo and Elizabeth. But I do feel a certain level of scumminess coming from the senator that I didn't from Liz. In fact, I can think of only one other character from this setting I've felt something similar towards, and I'm trying to figure out what it is they have in common. I'd have thought that his goal of trying to save the elves from extinction would garner more sympathy from me, but instead it just left me recoiling. At least Liz is open about being a horrible person.
And what's most funny about all this is that my strong dislike of him as a person makes me like him as a character. He's absolutely convinced he's right and at the same time knowing society will judge him harshly for what he's done makes him a stressed out piece of work looking over his shoulder for both the law and his true master. He's a perfect representation of what happens when you try to have your cake and eat it too, trying to straddle the respectable world, the vast secret conspiracy underneath it that, and his own frantic fanaticism beneath that. He's the kind of person you'd see on a true crime show with the FBI doing a profile on him and I'm a sucker for those, so good job!
"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim@Morgisboard Small seems like an intriguing villain. I've not seen many cowboy antagonists done in a New Old West setting (which your novel seems to be), so right away he's pretty original, to me at least. He's ruthless, bigoted and intolerant of disagreement, but nonetheless capable of occasional kindness and has (theoretically) reasonable motivations, which is a good combination. My only complaint is that while his profile hooked me instantly, the "relevant tropes" section is a little undeveloped, and should be expanded. Otherwise, I like the submission and the character.
Trimming the hedges, one trope at a time.Name: Lucien Bale
Age: 66
Personality: Bale is outwardly urbane, civil and soft-spoken, an excellent conversationalist and a charming host. However, his cultured exterior belies his true nature; under the mask, Bale is a ruthless, power-hungry nihilist who uses his genius to become the most dangerous crime lord of his time. Cruel, cunning and charismatic, Bale is a true monster in human form.
Abilities: Bale's greatest assets are his great intellect and his almost supernatural persuasive abilities, which together allow him to manipulate people and events to his satisfaction. Bale is a master at breaking people, tearing down their preconceived worldviews and indoctrinating them with his own warped ideology. As a result, Bale has built an entire cult around himself out of people he has corrupted, which carries out his bidding not only through outright criminal and terrorist activities but also through more subtle political machinations.
Weaknesses: Relying as he does on his mental abilities, Bale is not a formidable combatant, nor is he particularly physically capable due to his age. In addition, despite his intelligence Bale's twisted philosophical views and sadism can impair his judgement, causing him to misjudge the behavior of others or act in unwise ways.
Goals: Bale wishes to use his organization to tear down the foundations of society, ushering in a new age of chaos where crime reigns supreme.
Motivation: A nihilist of the most malevolent sort, Bale believes that mankind's divine spark, what separates us from lower forms of life, is our capacity for evil. Thus, Bale touts the virtue of cruelty, selfishness and vice, and disparages modern civilization for moderating humanity's worst impulses instead of cultivating them; in response, he has turned to crime, which he views as the truest expression of human nature. (While he acknowledges mankind's capacity for good as well, Bale considers it less significant.)
Backstory: Bale grew up in a rich and privileged family, and apparently had a fairly uneventful childhood. While some have theorized that his malevolence may be due to childhood abuse or hereditary sociopathy, Bale denies these speculations, and describes his parents as quite loving, thank you very much. However, even as a child Bale showed signs of sociopathic behavior, although they became less apparent as he matured — nonetheless, Bane got high marks in school and graduated to a prestigious college, and has succeeded at hiding his inner depravity for the most part. In adulthood he became a noted psychology professor who moved in high circles, accumulating connections and influence that he later used to found his criminal organization.
Relevant tropes:
- Apocalypse Cult: The leader of one disguised as a criminal organization. Bale's crime empire is founded for the purpose of fostering crime around the world until civilization collapses, reducing the world to chaos and the survivors to violent anarchists.
- Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Bale self-identifies as an Illegalist, a type of French anarchism where crime is considered the only true expression of anarchy — or vice versa, as Bale considers it.
- Card-Carrying Villain: According to him, humanity's "divine spark" is their moral agency, their capacity for kindness or for cruelty; of these two, Bale believes that the cruel will always triumph because they have no moral restraints to hold them back from their goals. Thus, Bale has made it his prerogative to be the most evil bastard he can be, and views anyone with standards as weak.
- The Corrupter: Bale is a skilled manipulator, able to prey on people's emotional vulnerabilities in order to drive them to evil and madness. His burning ambition is to prove to people in general that they'd be just as cruel and twisted as he is under the right circumstances.
- Dark Messiah: At the center of his organization Bale sets up a cult made up of his like-minded followers, who adhere to his philosophy of criminality.
- Diabolical Mastermind: Bale is a cold, calculating schemer with a deep understanding of human psychology and the criminal underworld. He plans to first control all organized crime in the United States, and then expand his power even further.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Bale is defined by his sheer selfishness and cruelty. As a result, selflessness and kindness are something he is fundamentally incapable of understanding, as he only sees how others can serve him, not for their value as people.
- Expy: Of Doctor Mabuse.
- Faux Affably Evil: He maintains a polite, genteel demeanor, but said demeanor is only a mask made to manipulate others or simply to amuse himself.
- Hope Crusher: Being a skilled psychologist, Bale is not only quite capable of this but quite enjoys it as well. When he wishes to convert an enemy to his cause, he proceeds to utterly crush them psychologically, forcing them to abandon and betray everything and everyone they ever stood for or loved and to accept that there's nothing worthy in their life, except for him and his philosophy.
- Lack of Empathy: Whatever praise or concern he shows for others is only a false front, because ultimately, Bale sees his followers as a means to an end and is utterly devoid of compassion. Death and suffering are nothing but necessities to him.
- Mad Artist: Considering criminal acts such as murder to be artistic/creative acts, Bale encourages his followers to carry out their crimes with as much dramatic flair as possible and find artistic satisfaction in them. He considers his own crimes to be akin to a dissertation by way of performance art, planned out to spread his own way of thinking.
- Psycho Psychologist: He is a legitimate psychologist, and a damn skilled one too. It's just that he's more interested in using those skills to drive people insane or brainwash them to his cause.
- Religion of Evil: Bale considers cruelty and malevolence to be humanity's "divine spark", and worships criminality as the truest expression of human nature. The cult he heads follows his teachings, essentially being a Religion of Evil crossed with a criminal syndicate. (He would, however, like to note that he is not a Satanist.)
- Sadist: Bale specializes in tormenting and psychologically breaking others to catch them off guard and cause them suffering just for the hell of it. He considers this to be a deeply personal and even magical experience; when he tortures someone in this way, he alternates between a glazed, lustful anticipation and cold, sneering contempt.
- Satanic Archetype: A destructive and inhuman being living among humanity, Bale is exceptionally good at bringing out the worst in people, often tempting them with whatever they desire the most in exchange for serving him.
- The Social Darwinist: Holds steadfastly to this philosophy. He believes that the world is only meant for the cruelest and most heinous, and that there's no room for the weak and compassionate.
- The Sociopath: Bale is talkative, convincing, a great conversationalist and even funny, so he's fully capable of earning the trust of others with his wit and cunning; he's a pathological liar who routinely deceives, lies, swindles and manipulates to advance his plans, or even to play with the minds of his victims; he shows zero remorse or guilt for his actions, doesn't keep his promises, is willing to betray anyone, and generally has no rules. Furthermore, his only objective in life is to hurt and ruin everything and everyone, and he rationalizes his crimes under a cynical, nihilistic and self-centered viewpoint. His ultimate goal is to create a world entirely of sociopaths, where any attachment between individuals will be eliminated and everyone indulges their darkest impulses.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: He maintains a flat, gentle tone at all times.
- Straw Nihilist: He not only believes all humans to be evil deep inside, but also that this evil is humanity's divine spark and something to be celebrated. Thus Bale tries to bring out humanity's "true nature" by tearing down society and making chaos the law of the land. Downplayed insofar as he does believe in a higher purpose; unfortunately, what Bale believes in is evil.
- Terrorists Without a Cause: His organization commits criminal and terrorist acts simply for the purpose of spreading chaos and destruction, and celebrating criminality. Essentially For the Evulz is Bale's political cause, as he thinks everyone should act the same as he does.
- To Create a Playground for Evil: Bale wants simply to plunge the world into absolute chaos, reducing it to a lawless and nihilistic "Empire of Crime" where barbarity is the norm and any display of morality is snuffed out.
- Übermensch: Dismissing society's morals as artificial constraints on human nature, Bale preaches to his followers that crime is a deeply personal experience that transforms those who commit it.
- The Unfettered: He doesn’t abide by any rules of society or any moral principle, merely seeing them as an interesting hurdle to ignore and something to actively subvert for no deeper reason then that he sees crime as a virtuous act.
- Virtue Is Weakness: Firmly believes that empathy and kindness are impotent in comparison to true evil, and views it as a weakness to be exploited in others.
- Wicked Cultured: Bale is a highly charismatic orator and a skilled psychologist, and has a particular fondness for Gothic and Romantic literature like that of Edgar Allan Poe.
Edited by ClancyGardener on May 12th 2021 at 6:49:45 AM
Trimming the hedges, one trope at a time.
MrsDoubtfire1200: I'm having trouble believing nobody would be interested in his rays considering you mentioned death rays and shrink rays among them. I can think of a lot of people who would love those and willing to pay a lot to get them. Also, you mention powers, but I don't think you listed them. Is his power building rays? Is it being really smart? His parents kicked him out for being smart?
He seems like he could be a funny character. More like Team Rocket than Lex Luthor. Really wants to be respected but is just too ineffectual to take seriously. I like how he has a brother who is better at being a villain that him. You could get a lot of mileage out of that along with his hammy tendencies. I can just imagine how he has the hero in his grasps, about to win total victory, only to start monologuing about how his parents loved his brother more and getting too distracted by his own pity party that he doesn't notice the hero escape.
Relevant Tropes:
Edited by Parable on Jul 22nd 2023 at 10:01:54 AM
"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim