Ambrosia Software Web Board: Death King - Ambrosia Software Web Board

As many members that are still around know, I created a character called the Death King to be a constant villain for Cythera (some used to say that Cythera needed one). (At the bottom is his character info.)
I have began to feel that many aspects about him seem unoriginal and he doesn't seem to have a lot of character. He seems somewhat dull and needs a better background story.
I have decided to post a topic to find ways to make him seem more original and more interesting.

What changes do you think I need to make to him?

What changes does his background story or character require?

What would make him a more interesting villain?

In what ways can I improve him?

Does Cythera need a constant villain?


Character info:
The Death King
Race: Unknown
Age: Unknown
Height: About 9 feet
Magic: ???
Hit points: ???
Body: ???
Reflex: ???
Mind: ???

Description:
The Death King is thin and looks like a human. But his face is pale and his eyes are red. He wears a crown, black obsidan armor, a cape, and he carries a large ruby red sword. He has almost limitless power.

When the elementals first awakened in Cythera, they were immediately aware of each other and a great evil. They knew then that they would be involved in a great war with it; however, they found that the evil (called the Death King) could raise gigantic armies of undead from the ground and control them all with little effort. The war lasted a hundred thousand years. The elementals discovered, that even with all of their powers combined, the Death King was stronger than them. Eventually, they tricked him, destroyed his body, and sealed his spirit in a mountation prison. However, the elementals weakened each other in their wars and awakened the Death King. Human miners found his prison and he took possession of one of them and then altered the miner's form to be that of his old one. The Death King is the ultimate master of undead and believed by elementals to be the greatest evil that has ever existed. He is believed to be invincible because he destroyed the known weapon that was capable of destroying him.

What the elementals didn't and still don't know is that the Death King is not native to Cythera. His history is more fully explained here. During his trek through the void, he and his forces were responsible for the deaths of countless realities and trillions of individuals. Many realities refer to this dark being in legends, myths, or even in old sayings. It is not known why none of his chief servants or bodyguards appeared in the first war. It is possible (and many experts believe this) that he didn't believe that they were necessary or that they were tied up fighting something else; however, some experts say that there is another possible reason. The incredibly alarming idea that these few propose is that the Death King wished to lose his first war with the elementals for some unknown reason. If this is true, it could have alarming consequences. Either way, this being may be the powerful and dangerous threat that Cythera has ever faced.

A. He's too powerful. As seen in Echoes, it doesn't seem like anything the group can do can even touch him and isn't supposed to = no fun.

B. He's just pure evil, that's no fun. There's no inner dynamic. You posted a background story a while ago on #cythera which would actually give another side to him, something that makes him seem more real. (ie, give him a reason for doing what he does) I think that avenue would be worth pursuing, so he's not evil because the world needs an evil character, he's evil because of what happened in his past.

C. While a constant villain might seem like a good idea, constantly fighting a constant villain is boring. Coming and going from time to time to stir up trouble is far more preferable than story after story against the same guy. In my opinion anyway, variety is good.

To reply to B,C. You could incorperate both of them into one type of thing. Selax wants a pure evil person and Avatara wants a reason for the evilness. In C Avatara suggested to have a whole lot of baddies insted of just one ultimate one but what if it was all organised by one ultimate baddy, someone who is in power over Death King or something like that, something thats pulling all the strings but it never seen until the very end or something like that.

Actually, I was hoping for a change in pace once in a while. Not all adventures have to be good vs evil, there could be something completely random thrown in.

Quote

I had planned for him to be something like Sauron from LotR. He himself is extremely powerful, but he usually uses his servants to do his work.

Quote

I know. I was hoping that I could get more ideas for his background and make him seem more unique and original.

Quote

I had hoped for something like that.

Quote

I don't know. I think that the chain of command has to stop some place.

Quote

I have come up with a couple of random ideas. I could post them on the Cythera Web Board topic, if you are interested.

Selax, on Sep 13 2005, 06:40 PM, said:

But that's like those old Scooby Doo villains, they could've gotten away with it if they simply just fought the group from the beginning.

I mean, the Death King has to realize at some point he could just fist-fight the group to death and then nobody would be able to stop him. If he's an all-powerful being, how can he be so stupid and foil his own plans by setting them up for failure?

One way to validate something like that would be to have another being just as powerful of not more so. You say that Death King is pure evil, why not had a good equivelent that just hasn't stepped in and knows will if teh Death King just goes and confronts them. I am just throwing ideas around here.

Then you're getting someone more powerful than the Death King is already, which makes it even more ridiculous.

But its a good person...being...entity...energy ballish thing.

But its a good person...being...entity...energy ballish thing.

And? That makes the group's intervention even more useless.

Why not have a physically weak necromancer type who must use his terrible powers over the dead to do his evil deeds. You could have hime travel the land, visiting ancient battlegrounds and graveyards, disguised as an old and feeble man. "Death King" is prehaps a little over the top as a name though.

Or, to plunder the Abhorsen trilogy (and, thinking about it, Harry Potter), you could have an ancient evil, bound centuries before but seeking a new way into life- via necromancers, dark cults and/or ritual sacrifices of noble bloodlines.

Alternatively, build on the Lovecraftian themes already present in the game itself- Elder Gods, tenticle faced monstosities with difficult to pronounce names, more sinister cults etc.

You could start an adventure with the appearence of a sinister cult throughout the land and the disappearence of townsfolk and the like.

Or a mysterious plague.
Or, 50' attack chickens.
Or Biker Mice form Mars.
Or the return of the Amazing SLAMMO™!
Or something.

Az

Quote

An idea something like this might work—the thing is that modified version of the idea comes mainly from Warcraft 3 (which is okay with me but again might seem unoriginal).

A summary of the idea:
The Death King (or another name if people think that I need to rename him) can usually enter any world with ease, but Cythera (being a focal point in the void) has extremely strong barriers that he can't penetrate from the outside, thus someone (or something) already must open a way for him to enter. He was easily able to enter the reality at first because none were awake there, and his agents could more easily open an entrance for him. This would also give him another reason to desire the crolna as it would enable to enter Cythera at will.

There is however one problem with this—he is already in Cythera.

I could do some rewriting to make him have been banished from Cythera at the end of Echoes from the Past, while he was still weakened from his imprisonment and everything united against him.

I could also try to rewrite his appearances in Echoes and change his story so that the elementals managed to banish him instead of imprisoning him, but I personally don't think this is feasible because of the alterations that it would require to Echoes.

We could do another TS in which he was almost banished from Cythera in Echoes and is still weakened and trying to strengthen his grip upon the world, but the group will use the zetacomb, surprise, and other elements to banish him from Cythera.

In all three of these, Ur-Sylph would again be imprisoned by the elementals but with a promise to let him out after x number of eternities (so it won't influence any other TSs) or if the Death King returns again. The elementals would return to being enemies. The timing of this would depend on which option is chosen.
The focus would then be on his agents (people could make up their own if they wished) trying to let him back into Cythera, cause chaos and war in Cythera, kill characters, etc. They could also appear in the backgrounds of other TSs and move in and out of them. The group would of course try to stop them from succeeding and more so because they would know that this time the Death King would return furious and would use all of his power against them.
In some future TS (maybe set after Once Again?), the agents could succeed, and he would return. Then, we could do some sort of apocalyptic TS in which the Death King is finally destroyed by some means.
In this manner, he is an everpresent force and is always hovering in the background.

So, any opinions or suggestions on which to do or how to make this work more easily?

(I could also try to curb his power if that is what people want, but I personally like the above idea.)

Once Again is not a valid story in the existing timeline. It was an early experiment and stands as proof that all-powerful characters make for bad stories.

Some of the ideas (like another world/plane of existance invading) may be used in another form in a future story, but the events as they occur in Once Again do not happen.

Oh, thanks for that info. I was not aware of that.

Does anyone have any opinion on the proposed ideas? Or any new ideas?

This post has been edited by Selax: 02 October 2005 - 06:38 PM

So, no one has any other ideas or opinions?

It appears not.

I'll vote for curbing his power.

Ditch his "power" altogether. I like a villian with evil plots, schemes, plans and machinations. And a really good evil laugh. So many dark lords just forget to put the time into a really evil laugh, and frankly it loses them both the respect of their minions and heros.

Az

As I said previously, I personally favor option three, but I am willing to bow the majority's opinion.
It occurs to me that I should have added a fourth option: Compromise on suggested ideas to solve the problen.

More opinions and suggestions, please.

It seems that one of the main things that needs to be done is making Death King a little weaker, it has been brought up a few times that he is just too strong. At the moment it doesn't look like he can be killed and even if he could they characters couldn't do it on their own.

Quote

That could be used by the group though (at least maybe). If no one expects them to do it, it might make it easier (or at least more surprising) when they do a play major role in defeating him.
I already have a general plan as to how to deal with him.

Quote

Another reason that I prefer option three—each person could then create an agent to be more like their ideal villain (of course they could do this anyways), perhaps serving as an agent of the DK (if they wanted it that way). Actually, I had the DK use plots, plans, and machinations to win his long war against the Chimaera, so he might qualify for that. People could also PM me suggestions for evil plans, so that he'd be better able to fill this role.

I am open to curbing his power if no other solution can be worked out and everyone agrees that it is necessary.

Reminds me of Inu Yasha, an endless battle against the same old thing.

Ah yes, the cartoon - anime that you never watched.