I enjoy this question, because I am a firm believer that a hero is only as good as his villain. If your hero is not facing a formidable foe the story can suffer, and the antagonist can simply seem like a mechanism simply to advance the story further. In some ways the villain is, but he should be much more than that. A thoughtful villain (oxymoron?) should be as organic as the protagonist. He should have history, motive, emotion, personality and flaws.
I have several villains in Dragonsong. The first is the human type. Julias Darkmane is a Cleric of the Dragon; a military man who serves his draconic benefactors. He is arrogant, proud, intelligent, but with a sense of honor and ambition. He does not view himself as evil, but see himself as a man whose motives transcend being labeled as good or evil. Morality is a crutch for people who are unwilling to pursue the best that life offers. Julias has a deadened conscience, which makes him alienated from his own people.
Gildaryss is the primary antagonist. She is a Dragon, the schemer of the novel. She is vain, capricious, violent; yet patient, wise (in her own right) and methodical. She invokes fear in all who encounter her, and much of her strength is derived from this intoxicant. She views humanity as so many pawns, fit for use or sacrifice at her pleasure.
Then there are the Dead. Shades are primarily the only type of cursed monsters that you will meet in the first book, but there will be many more as the series goes on. They operate under a different set of principles, and are wholly alienated from the races that they once belonged to. Sometimes motives beyond their control drive them to do what they do; other times their thinking has been seriously warped by the cursed condition they find themselves in. As the body rots when it dies, so too do the Dead the longer they exist; that is, their thoughts and motives drift into planes that consume their existence.
What kind of villains do you enjoy (or like to loathe)? What type of villain drives a fantasy story the best?
The arrogant ones. The truly pure evil ones.Those are the ones I loathe most of all. Then there are those that you almost feel sorry for. The one's that were once good, but horrible circumstances pulled them from the right path and down a dark one... sort of like Darth Vader, or perhaps Golem. The main baddy in my story... I LOATHE lol.
ReplyDeleteMy first three books showcases the arrogant villains; the latter three showcases the fallen ones, who once were good. I'm not sure which I think makes a better villain, so I used both!
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