Dark lords in your game worlds

[bat]

This is a just for fun, curiosity thread about your homebrew gameworlds out there....

Do you run a standard overshadowing 'dark lord' in the background as an eventual force to be faced (a la Sauron, Voldemort, etc) or do you have many big bad guys out there?

Myself, I have a variety of flawed gods, demon/devil lords, strange elder deities, etc that make the world a bit sinister and dangerous. Sometimes you never know which is which and who is more evil.

[Mr. Darke]

I have a mix of 'dark lords' but to date I haven't had to use them except in passing or in history. You see a lot of their handiwork but they have remained in the background. The ones I have used in the past are basically composites and archetypes of enemies in fantasy literature, legend and fairy tales.

My list so far is:

Balor: Creator of the Goblin Races, Orcs, Ogres and Trolls.

Azarik: based on Nyarlathotep

The Queen: A composite of Maleficent, Revella (Snow White and the Huntsman), Jadis (the White Witch), and The Snow Queen.

Dalamar: Lovecraftian sorcerer, Dungeon Builder, kind of an evil and debased Zagyg/Halaster Blackcloak

Set: Evil 'god' behind many cults

I have others that have been inspired by pictures and stories and I make note of ideas if I think something would work. Others I have named but have not developed very far are: The Dark Man, Hell's Caretaker/Groundskeeper, The Hag Empress and The King of Perdition.

I have one other that I use sometimes for comic relief or if I need something really twisted. His name is Bippy the Jester of Hell. He was a major demon or devil lord until he delved into a Lovecraftian realm. Twisted by this he turned his holdings into twisted amusement parks, Circuses and a 'Family Buffet'.

Encounters with Bippy have ranged from comedic slapstick to early Peter Jackson gorefests. Sadly, Bippy is the most feared of my big enemies.

[Deleted]

IMC I have a two-tiered system of deities. The "recognized" deities are, more or less, lawful in nature. They rose to power, however, by usurping the authority of their parents, the elder gods.

The elder deities are far more elemental and a mix of LNC. They retain some of their power and long to regain what they lost from their upstart children but all save one mostly stay out of the affairs of the PMP.

That one is a deity dedicated to chaos and destruction. Her open worship is basically a death sentence in any Lawful area. She has no grand schemes beyond spreading Chaos.

[planetalgol]

Not really, there's powerful evil jerks but they're usually just looking out for themselves and the chaos gods are too chaotic to present any sort of competent evil threat, just constant entropy and decay.

The practical villains are stuff like cruel rapacious brigand chieftans and petty jerk sorcerers.

[waysoftheearth]

[Off topic but...]

bat, I think your avatar might be upside down ;D

[zeraser]

In a campaign we recently finished, there were a couple of major villains (most notably a long-dead folk hero resurrected by his cult), but none of them gave monologues, swirled cloaks, etc. In fact, they usually had minimal face-time with the party - a decision on my part that mostly grew out of a fear that they'd become dramatically valuable to me or the party.

[geoffrey]

Aug 8, 2012 19:16:06 GMT -6 Mr. Darke said:

I have one other that I use sometimes for comic relief or if I need something really twisted. His name is Bippy the Jester of Hell. He was a major demon or devil lord until he delved into a Lovecraftian realm. Twisted by this he turned his holdings into twisted amusement parks, Circuses and a 'Family Buffet'.

[makofan]

I had one in a campaign I ran back in high school, but now I am just basic swords & sorcery

[jcstephens]

One of the themes of my campaign is that mortal men have a greater capacity for both good and evil than any supernatural being. The poster child for the Dark Side is Prince Ivan II of Ruritania. Basically Doctor Doom without the bombast, his reputation is such that the last time the Mongols came through they divided their horde and passed north and south rather than set foot on his territory.

[kenmeister]

I tend to have several, who have occasional alliances and clashes behind the scenes.

[bat]

Aug 8, 2012 20:23:17 GMT -6 waysoftheearth said:

[Off topic but...]

bat, I think your avatar might be upside down ;D

I have used this avatar since I got my first scanner in 1995 and you are the first person to mention it! Exalt! Plus the blood rushes to my head upside down.

[machfront]

Funny. I don't think I've ever done the fantasy staple of having a 'dark lord'. Hm. That's okay, because as odd as it may seem sometimes I wish to return to the basic, cliche stuffs, so I may in the future.

My go-to and longest-running campaign world was just dark all over the place all the time. It was a rather lazy and unoriginal grimdark WFRP Old World type thing.
The entire cosmos is sick and that makes everything nasty and natural things horrid and so on. It's only getting worse and there's no way to stop it. A world slowly dying in a sad and terrifying way. Blah, blah, blah.
I guess having a dark lord in such a world would be sorta redundant.

Well...there's also an entity called the Angel of Silence that's shown up once or twice (inspired by the worst nightmare I ever had). Blacker than the void and within her is everything that's ever been killed.

[ritt]

The Lich-Lords of Zarkuth, seven ancient wizards who tortured the secrets of magic out of elves in forgotten days (they were the first human magic-users) and turned Zarkuth from a backwards rural laughingstock into the dark empire that it is today. Served by vampire knights on black unicorns, inbred clans of backwoods werewolf trackers, and ARMY OF DARKNESS-style comic-relief talking skeletons (Who can get drunk on formaldhyde and high from smoking corpse-dust). Lots of propaganda about how "We have defeated even death itself!" and holding out undeath as a reward for loyal servants. Have a vaugely Communist ideology centering around using magic as a tool to improve the world for humanity. Hate all gods/religion because they strive to eventually become gods themselves and don't like competition.

I tried to set them as big, bad, evil villains, but ever since the earliest days of my campaign (circa 1989) my various players have taken a liking to them and most PCs have been just as likely to work for them as against them.

[planetalgol]

Aug 9, 2012 15:22:50 GMT -6 ritt said:

and ARMY OF DARKNESS-style comic-relief talking skeletons

That's become how I pretty much always run skeletons nowadays.

[Chainsaw]

Aug 8, 2012 20:04:26 GMT -6 planetalgol said:

Not really, there's powerful evil jerks but they're usually just looking out for themselves and the chaos gods are too chaotic to present any sort of competent evil threat, just constant entropy and decay.

The practical villains are stuff like cruel rapacious brigand chieftans and petty jerk sorcerers.

This is pretty much where my game falls. I should probably spend a evening coming up with some Big Picture people and forces, even if just as window dressing and not so much as relevant participants.

I'm very much a make-it-up-on-the-spot-as-you-need-it kind of DM.

[monk]

Aug 9, 2012 15:22:50 GMT -6 ritt said:

The Lich-Lords of Zarkuth...Served by vampire knights on black unicorns, inbred clans of backwoods werewolf trackers, and ARMY OF DARKNESS-style comic-relief talking skeletons (Who can get drunk on formaldhyde and high from smoking corpse-dust). Lots of propaganda about how "We have defeated even death itself!" and holding out undeath as a reward for loyal servants. Have a vaugely Communist ideology ...

This kicks a lot of butt, in my opinion.

[ritt]

This kicks a lot of butt, in my opinion.

Thank you very much!

[warrioroffrobozz]

My campaign, Loom, features about four "Big Bads" but the Myrmidon isn't really a bad guy, he's just antagonistic to the players.

The Myrmidon: Leader of the Inquisition, which seeks to limit the use of magic by the public, he is never seen outside the Cold Spire which is a giant tower floating in a sea of fog. Rumoured to have had a hand in creating the Wall of Mists. He is close to 700 years old.

Miasmo: God of pestilence and disease, his mortal avatar is a man covered in grotesque boils. He often curses those he dislikes with horrific diseases but should they overcome the diseases he may be impressed and reward them. Rumoured to be at odds with the Myrmidon.

The Collective: A race of machines left behind by an ancient race. They are currently underground and regularly kidnap surface dwellers to try and breed the "perfect race".

The Tattered King: Very little is known about this figure, except that those adept in the use of magic are known to catch glimpses of him. He can see everything, and knows everything. He is waiting for the day the Wall of Mists falters and he can truly enter Loom.

[planetalgol]

Aug 9, 2012 18:24:49 GMT -6 Chainsaw said:

Aug 8, 2012 20:04:26 GMT -6 planetalgol said:

Not really, there's powerful evil jerks but they're usually just looking out for themselves and the chaos gods are too chaotic to present any sort of competent evil threat, just constant entropy and decay.

The practical villains are stuff like cruel rapacious brigand chieftans and petty jerk sorcerers.

This is pretty much where my game falls. I should probably spend a evening coming up with some Big Picture people and forces, even if just as window dressing and not so much as relevant participants.

I'm very much a make-it-up-on-the-spot-as-you-need-it kind of DM.

Mind you, it's pretty common for a lot of my petty villains to have delusions of grandeur and talk and act like they're Sauron or Ming the Merciless even if they're just some local jerkwad.