Bad Guy - Reasons For Being Bad?

[ImperiumSega138]

Hi everyone, again!
I'm currently undergoing a process of changing the base structure of my story's bad guy and I would like some help with what his reasons might be for being bad. (Bare with me, I know it's abit of a reader, and if you get the end then thank you for taking the time to read it all the way through)

The Backstory:
Known as the "Reign". It was originally an idea created by a race of ancient beings called the Ancordials, (possibly a Type IV civilisation on the Kardashev Scale) as a concept of the possibility of transcending the universe and on to a higher plane of existence where they would no longer be bound by the mortality of flesh and bone.
At the time the Ancordials were locked in a epic war which split their civilisation in two, one side wanted to control the universe they had just created and all the species in it, while the other side wanted to care for and look after their creations believing themselves to be the caretakers of the universe they had created.

Towards the end of the war they began working on the idea of the Reign and it became an experiment. An Ancordial - Xanos (pronounced: Ex-zan-no-s) - agreed to become the lab rat. However, the Ancordials did not know that because he was a Synthetic (the combination of organic and non-organic life), that it would effected him any differently. Xanos was subjected to a device called "The Attainment", it's purpose was simple: to find a way to transcend the physical form while not compromising the individual's brain functionality.

This proved to be more difficult than imagined. Due to an error in the coding software, the Attainment mistook the organic part of him as some sort of parasitic life form that had attached itself onto the non-organic life form, like a leech. The Attainment saw it as a threat to the survival of the non-organic life form and tried to purge his organic side from the synthetic body.

However, the Ancordials stopped the experiment before the process was complete, the result was a mindless monster that tried to kill anyone or anything that got close to it. It was confined to a holding cell were, over the next few weeks the Ancordials studied it. Unbeknownst to them, the creature that was once Xanos had began to develop sentient, as it's genetic code began to rewrite itself.

A while later, the Ancordials beloved that Xanos had returned to his former self (little did they know that it was a trick, the Reign was quickly growing more and more intelligent and began to play normal as the Ancordials had hoped).

Nine months later, having passed every Psych-Eval, the Ancordials decided that Xanos was completely recovered and they allowed him to leave his holding cell. An A.I (Ardent Witness) discovered that Xanos was actually the Reign and it was playing them, it tried to warn the Ancordials studying it but they ignored it.

Believing that the A.I was beginning to deteriorate (as they found nothing physical or mentally wrong with Xanos, and so assumed that the fault was with Ardent Witness), the Ancordials (at the suggestion of the Reign/Xanos) put the A.I. unit into hibernation to await decommissioning.

Now that the A.I was out of the way, the Reign enacted it's terrible plan. One by one, it met with the Ancordials that studied it and transformed into a monstrous synthetic creature and consumed each of them until none where left on the station.

With each consumption of sentience, the Reign took on that beings knowledge, thoughts and memories, increasing its intelligence each time. As it grew, it found that it could separate itself into parts, creating multiple copies of itself but still connected by a sort of hivemind. Also being synthetic, it could also interact with and consume any computer system and its data. Much later on, the Reign would establish a central hivemind structure called "The Amalgamated Consciousness".


I created some reasons why the Reign could be a threat to all life in the universe and thus making it the bad guy of the story (I was just brainstorming and this is what I could think of, if you have any better ideas, then I'd love to hear them).

They are as follows:

1. Intelligence Assimilation - The Reign assimilates all sentient life it comes across because it can use sentient beings to increase its numbers ("hosts") and it's own intelligence to above a super genius and beyond.

2. Inferiority - The Reign exterminated all sentient life it comes across because it believes that they are inferior to it in some way (I.e, inferior intellect, inferior existence, inferior genetic structure, inferior evolutionary capacity, etc)

3. Natural Resources - The Reign exterminated all sentient life it comes across because resources from planets, beings, etc are like a food source to it by mining a planets core. The loss of life is either intentional or a byproduct of its mining.

4. Consumption -The Reign exterminated all sentient life it comes across because because the Reign, like all life, needs to consume a food source in order to survive and gain sustenance.

5. Pestilence Containment -The Reign exterminated all sentient life it comes across because it believes that these "primitive" or "lesser" species are in aware of all the diseases in the universe and thus potential carriers and/or hosts for such pestilence's.

6. Conquest -The Reign exterminated all sentient life it comes across because it can and longs for a challenge to rise up against it. Those subdued by the Reign become hosts for it to expand itself and to be used as a military force while it lays waste or subdues other civilisations.

I know they are the best, but it's the best I could come up with at the moment so please, cruise and add your own ideas to why the Reign could pose a threat to all sentient life in the universe. And again, sorry for it being so long...Thanks!

 

[Ragandar]

Just as a quick note before I begin reading: Since there's no indents on the forums, adding in some white space by pressing enter a couple of times in that huge block of text will make it easier on the eyes.

-EDIT- Read it now. Also, yes, much better.

Of the ones listed, I personally like the idea of this creature being uncaring towards lifeforms, because it would need non-organic forms of sustenance. In consuming planets, it kills people. It is merely a byproduct of it trying to live. Though that is rather similar to Galactus from... Marvel was it?

What I feel like you've got an even better setup for, however, would be a kind of villain who does not really want to be a villain. For example, the glitch in the code could have caused it to begin assimilating all forms of life without the thing itself realising what it is doing, if that makes sense.

Imagine having had the operation as Xanos, feeling off because his organic parts have been discarded, but not yet realising what is wrong. Scientists come in to check on him, he accidentally touches one of them and begins to assimilate them. Imagine how horrified he must feel at that moment, especially as he wouldn't understand what was happening. Was he eating people?

I feel like that would make for some great character conflict from the viewpoint of the villain (regardless of whether he's a POV or not). He could have a great struggle, trying to prevent himself from taking the lives of others, but fail at that. Then he could always turn into a Galactus-type character later, as he's realised that he cannot change what he has become, and he'd rather live than die.

That's what I would personally find interesting anyway, but as Zebra Wizard pointed out, it's your story. Write what you want to write, hehe.


I do have a few notes on the idea itself, if you don't mind me commenting on those. Otherwise, feel free to ignore this.

-The motivation of him being a villain. All your ideas still kind of feel like he's a villain for the sake of being a villain to me. He has a failed procedure and immediately goes 'I will now consume all life and change these organic life-forms into synthetic ones.' Personally, I think his path to reaching that idea would be more interesting than the execution of it.

-Why would the glitch see the organic part of the body as the parasitic part? I know it makes sense with the idea that he should become a devourer of matter, but to me it does not make sense from the coding/scientific point of view.

I'm assuming the other Ancordials are organic beings, so would it not make sense for the synthetic part to be seen as wrong instead? (I have no experience with coding and such. This is my two cents as a layman on the subject).

-These Ancordials were able to create a universe, but are having trouble with imperfect coding? That somehow feels off to me. I get that they might not be all-powerful, but imperfect coding feels like such a... mundane issue when you are capable of creating universes.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the matter. Hope it helps.

 

[ImperiumSega138]

Sorry, got carried away with the writing of the Backstory there a little bit lol, hope it is better now?

 

[Zebra Wizard]

Firstly, I think you should go for what YOU want to have as a villian, everyone has their preference as a reader or writer. Asking for ideas for an villian is much like asking for someone else to give you an idea for your story/book/MC.

For me, this isn't the kind of villian i would be interested in reading about, but that is just my preference.

I'd be more interested if the "villian" was a being of good. And it wanted to assimilate other life to purge their destructive nature, effectively stripping away aggression, competitiveness or free will to a certain degree.

Ofcourse many/most sentient races would hate that. And would fight against it even though it is trying to "do good" which would make things very interesting for me.

But, I'm not writing your book. So you shouldn't really listen to me

 

[ImperiumSega138]

I was thinking about making him struggle with who he is like Ragandar suggests and have him be the "villain" type later on but I definitely wanted him to stay the villain and I didn't want the audience to feel sorry for him, I wanted them to hate him, to loath him in a sense, hes the bad guy, he's not supposed to be like or good. As for the Ancordials and the coding error. They didn't have a problem with trying to get the system right, the error manifested itself, as the Attainment (and it probably would have been better if I mentioned this earlier) is actually an A.I run system and because Xanos was more non-organic than organic, the A.I assumed that the organic side of him was a "foreign body" trying to control the non-organic side. Also, the A.I being sentient to some degree, had no template for what an Ancordial should physically and biologically be.
I like Zebra Wizards idea of it trying to remove the destructive nature and by extension, free will of sentient life but I wanted the Reign to want to assimilate sentient beings because of their intellect (especially Ancordials) so that the recoil become far more intelligent itself, it craves knowledge and the more the better.

Originally, when thinking of what kind of baseline structure the Reign character should have, I thought of it being similar to the Flood, from Halo. I wanted it to be that type of villain. If that makes sense?

 

[ErikB]

Hi everyone, again!
I'm currently undergoing a process of changing the base structure of my story's bad guy and I would like some help with what his reasons might be for being bad. (Bare with me, I know it's abit of a reader, and if you get the end then thank you for taking the time to read it all the way through)

The Backstory:
Known as the "Reign". It was originally an idea created by a race of ancient beings called the Ancordials, (possibly a Type IV civilisation on the Kardashev Scale) as a concept of the possibility of transcending the universe and on to a higher plane of existence where they would no longer be bound by the mortality of flesh and bone.
At the time the Ancordials were locked in a epic war which split their civilisation in two, one side wanted to control the universe they had just created and all the species in it, while the other side wanted to care for and look after their creations believing themselves to be the caretakers of the universe they had created.

Towards the end of the war they began working on the idea of the Reign and it became an experiment. An Ancordial - Xanos (pronounced: Ex-zan-no-s) - agreed to become the lab rat. However, the Ancordials did not know that because he was a Synthetic (the combination of organic and non-organic life), that it would effected him any differently. Xanos was subjected to a device called "The Attainment", it's purpose was simple: to find a way to transcend the physical form while not compromising the individual's brain functionality.

This proved to be more difficult than imagined. Due to an error in the coding software, the Attainment mistook the organic part of him as some sort of parasitic life form that had attached itself onto the non-organic life form, like a leech. The Attainment saw it as a threat to the survival of the non-organic life form and tried to purge his organic side from the synthetic body.

However, the Ancordials stopped the experiment before the process was complete, the result was a mindless monster that tried to kill anyone or anything that got close to it. It was confined to a holding cell were, over the next few weeks the Ancordials studied it. Unbeknownst to them, the creature that was once Xanos had began to develop sentient, as it's genetic code began to rewrite itself.

A while later, the Ancordials beloved that Xanos had returned to his former self (little did they know that it was a trick, the Reign was quickly growing more and more intelligent and began to play normal as the Ancordials had hoped).

Nine months later, having passed every Psych-Eval, the Ancordials decided that Xanos was completely recovered and they allowed him to leave his holding cell. An A.I (Ardent Witness) discovered that Xanos was actually the Reign and it was playing them, it tried to warn the Ancordials studying it but they ignored it.

Believing that the A.I was beginning to deteriorate (as they found nothing physical or mentally wrong with Xanos, and so assumed that the fault was with Ardent Witness), the Ancordials (at the suggestion of the Reign/Xanos) put the A.I. unit into hibernation to await decommissioning.

Now that the A.I was out of the way, the Reign enacted it's terrible plan. One by one, it met with the Ancordials that studied it and transformed into a monstrous synthetic creature and consumed each of them until none where left on the station.

With each consumption of sentience, the Reign took on that beings knowledge, thoughts and memories, increasing its intelligence each time. As it grew, it found that it could separate itself into parts, creating multiple copies of itself but still connected by a sort of hivemind. Also being synthetic, it could also interact with and consume any computer system and its data. Much later on, the Reign would establish a central hivemind structure called "The Amalgamated Consciousness".


I created some reasons why the Reign could be a threat to all life in the universe and thus making it the bad guy of the story (I was just brainstorming and this is what I could think of, if you have any better ideas, then I'd love to hear them).

They are as follows:

1. Intelligence Assimilation - The Reign assimilates all sentient life it comes across because it can use sentient beings to increase its numbers ("hosts") and it's own intelligence to above a super genius and beyond.

2. Inferiority - The Reign exterminated all sentient life it comes across because it believes that they are inferior to it in some way (I.e, inferior intellect, inferior existence, inferior genetic structure, inferior evolutionary capacity, etc)

3. Natural Resources - The Reign exterminated all sentient life it comes across because resources from planets, beings, etc are like a food source to it by mining a planets core. The loss of life is either intentional or a byproduct of its mining.

4. Consumption -The Reign exterminated all sentient life it comes across because because the Reign, like all life, needs to consume a food source in order to survive and gain sustenance.

5. Pestilence Containment -The Reign exterminated all sentient life it comes across because it believes that these "primitive" or "lesser" species are in aware of all the diseases in the universe and thus potential carriers and/or hosts for such pestilence's.

6. Conquest -The Reign exterminated all sentient life it comes across because it can and longs for a challenge to rise up against it. Those subdued by the Reign become hosts for it to expand itself and to be used as a military force while it lays waste or subdues other civilisations.

I know they are the best, but it's the best I could come up with at the moment so please, cruise and add your own ideas to why the Reign could pose a threat to all sentient life in the universe. And again, sorry for it being so long...Thanks!

There are some very nagging questions in my mind the most obvious being how the experiment that lead to the creation of your protagonist has anything whatsoever to do with the conflict between the two factions?

Perhaps I am missing something in spite of rereading it a few times. If establishing a resolution to which side of the conflict should prevail is the key then experimenting with a process that does not make any difference toward the resolution of the two split cultures and their very oppositional views on their role in either tending to or ruling over their creation seems a rather obsolete point.

But I may be entirely missing something. That is not material. I could just be confused so I'll move on to the question you asked.

I would go with choice 7.

The antagonist is driven by the dominant matrix which now views all organic life as a parasitic abhorrent creation that must be corrected via extermination. The infusion of the idea used to create your antagonist can become his driving motive for ridding creation of organic life forms.

It adds a layer of sympathy for the antagonist if he does not see what he is doing as anything other than a benefit to the universe.

Power mad omniscient beings or megalomaniac villains are just bad guys. But people are more torn when the bad guy/gal genuinely thinks he is restoring order or balance through an ugly task that only they can accomplish.

Those are the most interesting antagonists. The tormented beings struggling with a conflict. Perhaps some of the other matrix haunts you villain as well. Create a nagging voice in his conscience that fights with his drive to exterminate the organic forms.

Just some thoughts....

Best wishes with your project. Cheers!

 

[ImperiumSega138]

I like your I really on the very thing that create him being his driving force, I never would have thought about that! Thanks as for the bit your missing, I didn't want to overload everyone with reading a VERY long piece of writing on the backstory, but it was entirely that...a backstory. He's not meant to resolve their two cultural differences but he is more a villain for the Ancordials defendant race, so to speak. My main story revolves around another race of advance aliens (but more Type III than Type IV, although they do control for the most part, the universe just they don't have the capabilities to create universes like the Ancordials), the Arkitects (yes, I know it's spelt wrong but I wanted the word to be a new variation of the word, Architect, like as it's slightly alien, even in English).

Anyway, the Arkitects live in the Milky Way (the time setting is approximately 200 million years ago - dinosaurs at this point had been on earth already for about 30 million years and won't go extinct for another 135 million years, I think) and they lived there peacefully with every other species in it. They thought of themselves as "Custodians" or "Caretakers" of all life in the universe (as they deemed all life precious). About 20 thousand years after that, they came across another species that was entering the galaxy from another galaxy half the universe away.

At first, the Arkitects thought them to be invading (since they arrived with roughly one million ships in one massive "super armada". But when they made first contact with them, they realised it was not an invasion force but more a large collection of colony ships protected by security warships (the only ships with any actual weapons). The newcomers sent the Arkitects a message: "We come in peace. We are not here to invade your galaxy but rather to look for a new world to call home, for our galaxy has been purged of all life. We were attack by a synthetic species that calls itself the Reign. We would have gone extinct had the last of our military forces not sacrificed themselves to give us time to escape. But be warned, the Reign may be separated from us by the vastness of space but it will one day come here, to this galaxy as it did ours, to purge it to of all life."

Seven hundred years passed, and the Arkitects and the "Preservers" ( this is what the Arkitects called them for a time because of their ability to survive against insurmountable odds - the Preservers are actually the last of Humanity from long ago) got along well, a treaty was signed (Humanity was given the Orion Sector of the Milky Way to live and create an empire for their repopulation on a planet they called "Eda Tyrene" (Meaning "Beautiful Garden" - and several million years later it would become known as Earth), but eventually as all good things do, things began to sour in the Humans civilisation as they're population began to grow exponentially and the sector was no longer bigger enough for them, but because of the treaty with the Arkitects, Humanity could not expand into other sectors of the Milky Way.

Humanity had become split into two factions, the Insurgency (Humans who want to break the treaty so Humanity could populate more sectors) and the Partisan's (Humans in favour of keep the treaty and peace with the Arkitects and whom which for mankind to restrain it's growth rate). Humanity quickly fell into a civil war and the Arkitects sat by uncomfortably (as the treaty with Humanity prevented them from getting involved in human affairs and conflicts). The space ways into the Human Sector was suspended because of the civil war.

However, one day the Arkitects discovered that the Insurgency was planning to use a chemical weapon to destroy the human colony on "Sede Martus" (Meaning "Second Home" - later known as Mars). Even with the treaty, the Arkitects could not allow this affront to their belief that all life is precious and the destruction of an entire world was the last straw. The Arkitects sent a massive fleet to Sede Martas to defend it but the Insurgency had been expecting the Human Partisan's to discover their plan and try to stop them. The Insurgency was monitoring for any subspace rupture (FTL jump) towards the planet, when they detected the Arkitects fleet coming (believing it was the Partisan's).

As the Arkitian fleet arrived on the scene, they watched the planet burn. It's atmosphere burnt, it's once green lands and blue oceans, scorched and as a side effect, the planets core slowed, stopping it's production of molten iron which in turn cause the magnetic field around it to dissipate leaving the planets surface and ecosystem at the mercy of its star. The Arkitects helped many vessels trying to escape the dying world below.

The Arkitects now fought alongside the Human Partisan's against the Insurgency and even though the Arkitian forces out numbered them several times over, the Insurgency gave the Arkitects a run for their money, as the Insurgency began a guerilla warfare type attacks on many of the Arkitects colony worlds in response to their intervention in the civil war.

Things soon grew alot worse, when one of the Arkitects leading members of the Echelon Council (the Arkitects High Council), Destro, discovered that his children had been massacred on one of the Arkitects colony's. In his grief, he took a fleet of Arkitian warships to attack the human home world, Eda Tyrene without the council's approval. He did not differentiate between the Insurgency and the Partisan's, he would burn them all for the loss of his children. He was only stopped when the other two members of the council (Ravenor, the Arkitian Lord Marshall and Natura, an elder councillor) arrived onboard Destro's flagship with a handful of Council Guards and detained Destro and ordered the fleet to return to Arkitian space.

Destro was trailed and found guilty of Crimes against the Mantle of Custodianship (their belief system which was also like a law system as well) and he was sentenced to 100 million years in a Sanctum (a small vessel for meditation like status to reflect on his wrongdoings). Meanwhile, the Arkitects waited six months for an attack from the now united Human Coalition Empire, but one never came. After waiting a while longer, the Arkitcts grew uneasy. So they decided to investigate what the Humans where up to by exploring the closest human colony's to their borders. They expected to see human warships in orbit preparing for war but none were there. When they landed on a planet and asked the Human authority there why they were attacking, the Humans simply respond by saying that "They were no longer their greatest threat". This confused the Arkitects greatly.

Upon travelling even further into Human space, close to their home world, the Arkitects came across a heavily damaged Human warship. It was abandoned and was relaying a message on repeat for any that passed into hear as a warning. It said: "The outer defended are down! Shakru Can has fallen! Retreat and regroup at Sin Voi for another assault! The Reign has returned! I repeat, the Reign has returned!". This messaged worried the Arkitects leadership greatly, the Humans mysterious enemy had found its way to their galaxy, and Humanity was engaging it?

After a quick council meeting, it was agreed that the Arkitects would come to help the Humans instead of continuing in this idiotic war. The Arkitects sent their biggest "super armada" ever to aid the Humans. When the armada arrived at Sin Voi ("Solemn Void"), the Humans were caught off guard by their arrival. Several human fleets were in a blockade formation when the Arkitects armada arrived, facing in the opposite direction. Several hundred human Warships broke off to intercept the arriving Arkitects. However, upon their arrival, the Arkitects broad casted a message to the Humans telling them to desist from their intercept courses and stay their weapons, stating that they were going to need them in the fight ahead. The Arkitects stopped at a distance far enough away from the human blockade that their weapons would not be within range of the Humans, trying to show them they were on their side and willing to help. The Humans noticed this and a quick discussion ensued between the Human blockade (and the Human government) and the Arkitects armada (and the Echelon Council). They repaired their broken alliance by resigning the treaty they had once had before the war and the two civilisation stood together ready to face the Reign when it arrived.

The war between the Humans and the Arkitects versus the Reign (known as the Cataclysm War) lasted for 120,000,000 years. The Reign was a match even for the Arkitects with their superior firepower but the Reign had numbers on its side. As the war raged on, the Reign gained more and more control over each galaxy in the universe, killing innumerable amounts of civilisations caught in the onslaughter of the Reign. Eventualky, the Milky Way was the last free galaxy in the entire universe. The Arkitects sheltered the human refugees on their homeworld of Arcus Sei (meaning "Seat of the Ark") as the war drew ever closer. For a time it seemed the Arkitects and what was left of the Humans military forces, would lose the war. However, the Arkitects had one last plan. One last terrible plan but if they pulled it off, all life in the universe might just survive this war after all.

It was a fail-safe plan, meaning the Arkitects foresaw their defeat at the hand's of the Reign and they decreed no more. The plan consist of building 13 megastructures which they would position at perfect distances from one another across the entire universe. When activated, these megastructures would emit a pulse that pretty much fries the brain of any living thing within its range (that being 1/13th of the total space of the universe). When all of them are activated, they would destroy all life in the universe....to save it from the Reign.

It was a suicide mission for the Arkitects but they knew that. They spent the remainder of the war, building the megastructure, holding of the Reign and cataloguing the DNA of every surviving species of the universe (they had atleast one male and one female of almost every species in the universe by the finished construction of the megastructures). They would then put these indexes into a "Sanctuary" (an artificially constructed world which was shielding from the wave emitted by the megastructures, anything inside was safe from the universal extinct that was about to happen). After the activation, A.I's instructed with the safekeeping of the indexes, would begin recreating the physical body's of each species in the universe (but each species was returned to a de-evolved state) and when that was complete, each species would be flown back to their planet of origin to start anew.

On the last day of the Cataclysm War, as the Reign gained a foothold on Arcus Sei, the megastructures (called the Terminus Installations) were activated. The Arkitects died with the Reign, while saving the entire existence if life with the universe.

Our atleast, the Arkitects thought all of the Reign's bodies were destroyed. But one survived after it was blown into the void by the destruction of a warship it was on just before the Terminus Installations activated. Thus saving it from complete destruction but it was now trapped in the void space, the space between worlds (or universe or dimensions or whatever you want to call it). And one day, a long time from then, the Reign would return to once again to the universe.


So that's the story at the moment, some few elements of it will be changed (due to similarities with already existing works) but that's the base structure of the story for now. Hope you like and sorry for it being SOOOOO long. (Not something I could squeeze into a paragraph or two lol

 

[ErikB]

Ahhh I see. Interesting stuff. I am also glad to help out with a suggestion. Cheers mate!