Exploring the Archetype #2: Villains

[Lady B]

Roleplayers often strive to make their roleplays as far from archetypal and stereotypical as possible, some even avoid it like the plague. What people sometimes forget is that it's possible to make a perfectly enjoyable story out of archetypes, and that characters don't always have to have completely unique personalities and backgrounds to make them interesting. After all, there's a reason why archetypes exist in the first place!

The purpose of this exercise is to explore the archetypes of various characters, setting, etc. Using archetypes can make it easier to understand our characters and know how they would act in a given situation, which makes them perfect for beginner roleplayers wanting to practice their writing, and experienced roleplayers can use them to expand on already extensive universes without having to worry too much about them acting up and messing with the plot.

Last time, we did heroes. This time we're going to turn it around, and I want you to write up a character based on the archetype of a villain! Use personality traits, back stories among other things that you typically associate with villains. Depending on our upbringing and our experiences in life, our definition of an archetypal villain may differ greatly! It will be fun to see how different the characters that may come of this actually are in the end.

Bellow follow some points which you can use as a character sheet, or a skeleton from which you can add and remove pieces of information. You can also ignore them completely and just go by your own accord.

• What is the name of your villain?
• How old is your villain?
• What gender, if any, does your villain associate themselves with?
• What type of universe does your villain live in? (Modern day, high fantasy, sci-fi etc.)
• Does your villain have some sort of power or special equipment?
• What does your villain look like?
• Does your villain have any important relationships? Allies who help them on their quest, love interest?
• What is your villain's goal? What motivates them to achieve that goal?
• What kind of hardships may they face on the journey to their goal?
• Is there someone who directly opposes themselves to the villain's goal? (Protagonist. If you wanna check it out, I did the same thing but with heroes before!)

 

[Mizos]

What is the name of your villain:
Rai

How old is your villain:
26

What gender, if any, does your villain associate themselves with:
Male

What type of universe does your villain live in?
Modern Fantasy

Does your villain have some sort of power or special equipment?
His right red eye is able to create memories in reality and manipulate them, but his real power is the manipulation of powers.

What does your villain look like?
Rai stands about 5'7 and has pale skin with a small chin, he's been confused for a women in his younger age and from the back it still tends to happen.
He has medium length dark silver hair that stops at the top of his back and has fringes on the end of it, slightly curved bangs hang in the front that stop at his eyebrows.
He has a slim figure and very little muscle tone in his arms and legs. He's normally dressed in a long white lab-coat which has pockets in the upper left pocket, and two on the side, with a red short sleeved shirt underneath, he also wears black slacks with a belt and black boots with black laces.
He wears a pair of rimless grey glasses and his eyes are heterochromia with the right one being red and the left one yellow.

Does your villain have any important relationships? Allies who help them on their quest, love interest?
He has two what he calls servants named Kailos and Amora he has previous ties with it, he had a love interest but she was killed due to his jealous actions

What is your villain's goal? What motivates them to achieve that goal?
Rai seeks to bring another dimension referred to as the Realm of Memories into the world so he can gain the power to control the very fabric of reality to reign as king of all realms and make his enemy suffer as he has.
His motivation is the pain and sacrifices he's endured coupled with his hatred for Kalan over the years.

What kind of hardships may they face on the journey to their goal?
Kalan is his biggest obstacle, as he wants nothing more than to rekindle their lost relationship which Rai can't fully leave behind and he'll have to face the full responsibility his actions killed the women he loved, not Kalan's.

Is there someone who directly opposes themselves to the villain's goal?
Kalan is his main enemy, the two end up butting heads often and Kalan who views Rai as brother is trying to 'save' him at the same time.