Yeah, as of now, the biggest problem is that you need a motive for her evil behavior ("lack of empathy for those that she killed", etc.), but once you explain that, she otherwise sounds devious and dangerous. You should be pretty much set.
Oops, I meant only problem, not biggest. Biggest implies that there are other big ones. Another question though, not a problem, but just out of curiosity, how is this cult for her set up? Who's in it and how did they come to willingly sacrifice themselves to this Lich?
She herself was the one to come up with the cult idea, but wouldn't have been able to garner followers without the help of her lieutenants- the mages that originally discovered her. The thing is that they don't really willingly sacrifice themselves, but her power over them is enough that they are forced to and barely know what's going on around them. For the most part, cult members are pretty much just regular people who had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As far as motive... well, she was a sociopath from the beginning rather than having some tragic event that turned her to evilness. She soon realized what an edge her abilities gave her over others, and mostly just decided to exploit them to the point of crossing "the moral event horizon", as TV Tropes says.
I always wonder though... is "I did it for the lulz" valid enough? I'm asking this because I have a character like this and I'm not really sure myself. :/
Have you ever seen the film "Funny Games"? The two boys in that are quite explicitly doing it for the lulz, and it is the most terrifying film I have ever seen. Honestly. I'm surprised I can still fall asleep at night.
But of course it depends on the story and the context.
I don't think "evil for the sake of being evil" is as bad as people make it out to be. I disagree that evil people need a sympathetic motivation for their evil. One direction you can go in with villains is making them complex and sympathetic, in which case they do need a motivation. But I think there's also much to be said for villains who are just frightening and intimidating, in which case a sappy backstory is just going to serve to make them less scary.
agreed. there doesn't need to be a sob-story but there should at least be an attempt at realism. if you're gonna write a psychopath or some other mental illness (that you can blame as the reason for the villain cackling "Hehehe I'm so EVIL!") tons of research is recommended so that you don't look lazy and uncreative.
in my opinion, the best way to write a believable villain is to LOVE YOUR VILLAIN.
create a back story for him/her. write some stories from his/her pov. they don't need to be stories that actually end up in your novel, just stories so that you and your character can bond.
for example, say you're writing about a rapist. you can take the easy way out and be all like 'i'm gonna rape this girl because i'm eevill muahaha!' or you can really go into this guys head, feel his insanity, his loneliness, his desperation, the things he thinks when he's he's stalking the girl, his doubts, his fears, the guilt he feels after he slits her throat, the nightmares he has about the horrible things he did to her, his suicidal angst, his desperate desire to confess to the crime, his terror at spending years in prison, his compulsion, despite all else to do it again.
what a disgusting despicable character and yet much more interesting than the 'eeevil for the sake of being eevil' guy. or am i just a sicko? @_@;;
I don't think you're sicko, but I think there's middle ground. Like, let's take the rapist you provided. He's probably not doing it For the Evulz. But insanity, loneliness, desperation, and nightmares really aren't necessary. It could just as easily be the case that the rapist grew up in a society that tells him that him getting laid is more important than the feelings of any woman that he wants to have sex with and that 'no' can sometimes mean 'yes'. A sense of entitlement can go a long way.
Similarly, greed, ambition, and a desire for power, with the appropriate internal self-justifications and a certain lack of empathy for other people will give you a nicely developed villain.
Getting into a villain's head is good, but it's important to understand why people do the terrible things they do. And it's possible to take sympathy too far in the other direction, at which point the author ends up with a villain they love too much and whose actions they want to excuse and justify -- a villain they don't want to regard as a
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As far as motive... well, she was a sociopath from the beginning rather than having some tragic event that turned her to evilness. She soon realized what an edge her abilities gave her over others, and mostly just decided to exploit them to the point of crossing "the moral event horizon", as TV Tropes says.
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I'm asking this because I have a character like this and I'm not really sure myself. :/
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Have you ever seen the film "Funny Games"? The two boys in that are quite explicitly doing it for the lulz, and it is the most terrifying film I have ever seen. Honestly. I'm surprised I can still fall asleep at night.
But of course it depends on the story and the context.
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They're not sitting there and cackling "Hehehe I'm so EVIL!"
Hm.
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create a back story for him/her. write some stories from his/her pov. they don't need to be stories that actually end up in your novel, just stories so that you and your character can bond.
for example, say you're writing about a rapist. you can take the easy way out and be all like 'i'm gonna rape this girl because i'm eevill muahaha!' or you can really go into this guys head, feel his insanity, his loneliness, his desperation, the things he thinks when he's he's stalking the girl, his doubts, his fears, the guilt he feels after he slits her throat, the nightmares he has about the horrible things he did to her, his suicidal angst, his desperate desire to confess to the crime, his terror at spending years in prison, his compulsion, despite all else to do it again.
what a disgusting despicable character and yet much more interesting than the 'eeevil for the sake of being eevil' guy. or am i just a sicko? @_@;;
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Similarly, greed, ambition, and a desire for power, with the appropriate internal self-justifications and a certain lack of empathy for other people will give you a nicely developed villain.
Getting into a villain's head is good, but it's important to understand why people do the terrible things they do. And it's possible to take sympathy too far in the other direction, at which point the author ends up with a villain they love too much and whose actions they want to excuse and justify -- a villain they don't want to regard as a ( ... )
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