What kind of evil scares -you- the most?

[Wings of Peace]

I was talking with some people I used to game with (largely in a DM capacity) and the topic of the various villains I had sent against them came up. What surprised me was that as we all talked the villain they all recalled being the most afraid of was a Factotum with a 'victory at any cost' mentality, fetish for sadism, and a slant towards mundane tactics as his defining charactaristics (think a cross between MacGyver, The Joker (Dark Knight version), and Dr. Who's The Master).

I was caught off guard by their answer because I've sent these players up against a lot of different enemies, many of whom were quit a bit stronger than the Factotum. Of course I asked the players why he had intimidated them the most and the general consensus was something along the lines of "because he seemed like he could actually happen".

Their reply got me thinking about the villains from anime, comics, video games, etc. that intimidate me the most and what kinds of fictional evil leave the greatest impressions on me. With those thoughts in my head I've decided to ask the playground: What kinds of evil scare -you-? It need not even be a particular character or type of character. If there a particular methodology you find scarier than another when employed by the villain or a set motivations that make your hairs stand up more than others feel free to share it.

[hymer]

I'd say the most scary is the legitimate authority that doesn't feel bound by ethics. The reason being, partly, that such a person is probably the most likely to do me harm IRL. It's also frightening, since how do you fight back against a police force or hospital personnel out to ruin your life?

[Yora]

The best villains are those who should be able to know better, but simply are okay with doing evil things. Creatures made to kill and destroy are not really evil, since they don't make the descision. But those who do evil things just because it's more convenient than doing something more acceptable, those are really evil.

[Grinner]

The honest ones. Kind of like what Yora said. They don't care about decorum or other people, just themselves. They can't reasoned with, though you might be able to buy them off temporarily.

They're snakes, and they're diabolical.

[Shadowleaf]

This is actually an extremely good question. There are two that stands out:

Fallen Paladins/Angels. Not necessarily the class or race, but rather the archtype of a fallen defender of good. It might have something to do with a "Those do the greatest good are also capable of the greatest evil" kind of deal.

Alien mentality. Think World of Darkness Tzimisce, Warhammer 40k Eldar, and Elves in some Fantasy settings. Being willing to sacrifice other races for the greater of their own good, not following human morals and/or being impossible to reason with makes for one dangerous and terrifying opponent.

[limejuicepowder]

I think liars are the most scary opponents. The kind of unethical dog that "plays the PR game;" their tactics include pretending to be the victim and smear campaigns, among other things. Without physically lifting a finger, they orchestrate the total destruction of someone else's life, just to accomplish their own selfish goals (or even on a whim!).

I find this to be the most scary opponent for they can't be fought against in the traditional sense - that would just strengthen their case. Often times, nothing really can be done at all.

[FearlessGnome]

Fallen Paladins/Angels. Not necessarily the class or race, but rather the archtype of a fallen defender of good. It might have something to do with a "Those do the greatest good are also capable of the greatest evil" kind of deal.This one. I like history a lot, and I have yet to come across a single fictional villain who can compare to Alcibiades of ancient Athens. Not because he betrayed his country and gave vital strategic information to Sparta. Not because he then seduced and impregnated the wife of the Spartan king. Not because he then fled to Persia, and from there orchestrated his return to Athens, where he was hailed as one of the best generals they had had in all the decades of fighting, only to be exiled again for his political schemes.

Not for any of those reasons, but because he did all this while maintaining a mask of Patriotism and Loyalty and Greatness and Good. Plato makes it quite clear in his works that the only favorite pupil Socrates ever had in all his years of teaching was Alcibiades, a man who, if he chose to be good, could be one of the greatest men of his age. But even with a teacher as great as Socrates, Alcibiades chose to try to make himself a Tyrant, whatever the cost might be. He failed, but in his attempt he pretty much destroyed everybody's favorite ancient city state with his lies and his schemes.

The greatest villains are those who could have been exceptionally good, but ended up exceptionally bad. Another example would be Milton's Lucifer, in Paradise Lost.

I'm also partial to "Damage control"/"Greater Good" type villains, who are as selfless as they are ruthless. The ones who believe that what they want to achieve is greater then both themselves and every obstacle in their way. To really qualify for this category, though, they pretty much have to be willing to die to achieve their endgame.

[warriorkalia]

I like the idea of broken heroes turning evil. Lord knows I've driven characters to that point before, seeing as I'm generally the storyteller and therefore the villains as well.

I'm not really sure what kind of evil scares me. I know that certain types of quiet insanity makes me shiver if delivered right.

Easily the most frustrating type of villain is one that refuses to believe you are the same as them, and therefore worthy of respect. If they have some kind of species-ist, racist, or bigoted thinking, and they completely disregard a you as 'less than human' so to speak, they become impossible to reason with, and the frightening thing about it is that they don't even consider their actions crimes.

The most amusing type of villain is obviously the bombastic type, at least to watch. To play, however, I've found my Demon Lord Fayn to be exceptionally fun. If not for the fact that he basically crippled an entire team while simultaneously having them feast on the flesh of dead humans. then because he's so suave and enjoyable to act out.

I'm not sure what really scares me, though. Maybe the closest thing is not even evil. It merely is like the Tarrasque- it does its job, and destroys without mercy, and indeed is not even capable of feeling or much thought. There is no reason. There is no escape. There is nothing to do but let it finish, or face destruction oneself.

[Acanous]

The Puppetmaster.
You never know who the puppetmaster is. It isn't the king, he just signs the bills his nobles put forth. It isn't the Vizier, he's ignored more often than not, and just stays on to make Know: Arcana checks and counter magical badness targetting the king.
It might be the King's favorite consort, but she's probably just another puppet whispering things in his ear because the puppetmaster has her brother.

No, the puppetmaster is usually the head servant, the royal treasurer, or the wealthy merchant that loans the king money in times of need. He is simultaniously below suspicion and above the law. Inconspicuous and insideous, the puppetmaster bides his time and accrues his power, playing nice the whole time while he manipulates you into fratricide.

His reasons are sensical, his methods rational, and his attitude friendly, even while he condemns entire cities to death.

That's the kind of evil that scares me.

[Anxe]

I concur with the Fallen category. My favorite villains are Darth Vader and Saint Dane. Both were capable of so much good, but they turned to evil and darkness covered the entire multiverse. Honestly, I like it when villains have already "won" and its the players job to "win the second match."

[navar100]

Betrayal

When it happens at the most opportune time, it is devastating.

[gkathellar]

Changing the rules.

By which I mean changing the internal consistency and logic of the universe in a way that hurts people. It doesn't matter how many people your villain kills, how many nations he enslaves, how many souls he tortures ... nothing is as evil as, for example, speeding up entropy, or altering the way covalent bonds work so as to make carbon incapable of creating the molecules necessary for life to exist.

As long as the rules are in place, good as well as evil can come out of them. But change the rules indelicately, and you get nothing.

[Lord_Gareth]

It's not necessarily 'evil', but my favorite kind of villain suffers from hidden, pervasive insanity. Maybe they've got an alternate personality (a horrifically brutal 'protector' that murders anyone that makes the 'innocent' personality so much as feel bad'). Maybe abuse and fanaticism has shaped their paradigm into something incompatible with the rest of the world. Maybe they've seen something so horrific that the only sane response is to try and destroy it, and they unintentionally catch the innocent up in their crusade to excise this thing from their mind.

No matter how you spin it, madness works for me because it's alien while, at the same time, being understandable. It could happen to you, or me, or anyone else, and that strikes a chord with me when it comes to characterization.

[Angry Bob]

Not exactly the question you've asked, but the villain(character in general, actually) most disturbing to me on a personal level is one that can't keep from indulging their appetites, metaphorically or literally, even if(especially if) it destroys them.

[INoKnowNames]

I'm going to play the Hitler Card.

Any villain with the Charisma and following to genuinly almost take over the world, inline with several types already mentioned (evil authority, the smart ones that still choose to do evil, and such), is probably a bigger threat than any nut job that's super strong or has a boatload of spells. Probably why I feel Tarquin is a bigger threat than even Xykon right now (although Xykon will probably remind me why he's been the big bad, even if just through Redcloak).

Also, I wouldn't be here if people like Hitler won, so that's a bit of personal bias.

[FearlessGnome]

Hitler, while he had a terrible effect on the real world, doesn't rank very high on the hypothetical scale for me. Yes, he had the charisma. But mainly what he had was the opportunity (Everybody and their grandmother being absolute *******s to Germany after WW1, making it kind of the obvious choice for the German people to turn to a strong leader. If the nazis hadn't abolished elections, quite likely someone else would have).

Stalin strikes me as a much more menacing villain. While Hitler became the front figure for the National Socialists early on, Stalin worked, licked and stabbed his way to the top, remained in power beyond WW2, and caused the death of way more people than Hitler did. Hitler may have approved the death camps, but Stalin engineered an artificial famine in the Ukraine. Which is worse? Death camps make for nasty images, but Stalin has the kill count.

Mao killed more than both of them, but hey, at least China isn't totalitarian any more, right? It's not like they censor the Internet, use economic strategies that make hedge funds seem practically harmless and have 'Rehabilitation camps' where they send political enemies to be executed and their organs harvested to be sold, right?

[Gnome Alone]

I'm going to play the Hitler Card..
Aw, where you get a Hitler Card? Been looking for one of those forever. I'll trade you my The End Justifies The Means.

The thing that scares me about the charismatic Hitler villain kind of situation is not so much the dictator but the herd mentality that is such a fertile ground for tyranny in the first place. It's easy to rally people against Xykon; he's just a murder machine. But how do you against, yeah, sick little bastards like Tarquin when they've convinced everyone all their atrocities are for their own good?

You know that thing that happened in (I think) like the '50s when a crowd of people watched some guy beat a woman to death and no one stopped him, because they lacked the initiative to break out of the herd mentality and go, "Hey, someone's gotta stop this... I'll do it" ..? That's the kind of evil that scares me.

[Morbis Meh]

The kind of evil that hides the remote and steals your left shoe... it is downright diabolical and terrifying!

[Hiro]

I think direct mind-control is the scariest evil Particularly when it's powerful and malicious; makes you absolutely terrified to fail a will save against this guy/girl. Throw a permanency spell on it (or the epic spell: Enslave) and you've just lost your cchar you worked so hard on for good. Now you know why the DM said for you to min max them as much as you wanted... knowing you min'ed will saves to max more physicl saves if you're like 80% of the playing world (martial bent...haha)

Worst of all I think is if they make your char totally AWARE of what they're doing, just powerless to stop it. They have to watch a s ap risoner in their own mind as their body murders childrenwhile making their mothers watch as you use their tiny skulls as mugs... while you force the mom to do debacherous things for your amusement.. kilsl their livestock etc and so on. It'd literally drive you insane.

[kardar233]

I've played most kinds of evil, encountered more and am some. I haven't found one that really scares me.

In fact, the only evil that scares me isn't evil at all. It's the Blue And Orange morality of Azathoth and the Outer Gods, whose intellects are so vast and unknowable that they don't even realize what damage occurs.

That's why the Elder Evils book never really got to me. With the exception of the Leviathan, all of them are actively malicious, and I can't be scared of something actively malicious, because I can understand them.

[Coidzor]

All consuming, all corrupting mindrapey evil. Evil that doesn't kill the body, but twists it and the soul without the individual having to actually be seduced by it or choose it at all.

[Talya]

Oh, man. There are so many. "Reality Television." FOX network. Justin Bieber. American Idol.

Oh wait, that's anger, not fear.

Batcrap insane types who cannot be predicted have to be high on the list.

[Telonius]

The scariest bad guys, at least to me, are the ones that are helping you.

You go up to Baron von Puppykicker's gate, ready to tear it down and bring him to justice ... and he invites you in for tea and lets you know about another "greater" threat that's endangering you both. He wants to work with you to extinguish the threat. He uses your own honor against you; you know for certain that he's going to play you false sooner or later, but you can't prove it. He might be helping the good guys because it's in his interests to do so, but to all appearances he's serving the greater good. He gives you good advice, helps you with your research. Even makes himself useful to the Church of the Holy Do-Gooders. This goes on until he has everybody wrapped around his little finger. He's replacing the king's advisors with his own, about ready to marry the princess, and making some minor reforms to the law to maybe allow mercenaries instead of the regular guards. By that point, you either have a full-blown coup on your hands, or a Numenor scenario.

[Kaeso]

The most scary kind of evil? For me, it's not the "ends justify the means" evil that a lot of people seem to be afraid of. Sure, it's scary, but IMHO not as scary as the sadistic kind of evil, the kind of person that merely inflicts pain for the pleasure of seeing his enemies suffer, the kind of person that doesn't grant his victims the privillege of a quick and painful death, the kind that has no rhyme or reason behind his misdeeds. I wouldn't be able to think of a historical example of this kind of evil, but I think Genghis Khan would come pretty close.

[Civil War Man]

The popular ones. You'll be able to get plenty of allies to fight the needlessly cruel or destroy the world kind of villains. But you won't find many allies to fight the ones that are loved by their subjects and henchmen.

[Silus]

I'd have to say my favorite kind of villain (not the on that scares me the most) is the one that has the "whatever it takes" mentality, but coupled with the need/drive to do right and a dash of "tragic villain".

A BBEG that I created did just that. He was throwing the planar balance out of whack (Opening gates all over to all sorts of places. Massive jailbreak on Carceri, dumping most of the Plane of Water on the Plane of Fire, ect.) so he could break into the deity-guarded Plane of Elemental Time (Or the Temporal Energy Plane, whichever), get to the center and control time itself.

All so he could turn back the clock and see his family one more time.

[Othesemo]

I think the worst kind of villain is the one who believes that he/she is doing good- short of killing them, they aren't going to stop going about doing what they think is 'good' (more often than not involving the massacre of innocents).

[Telonius]

The most scary kind of evil? For me, it's not the "ends justify the means" evil that a lot of people seem to be afraid of. Sure, it's scary, but IMHO not as scary as the sadistic kind of evil, the kind of person that merely inflicts pain for the pleasure of seeing his enemies suffer, the kind of person that doesn't grant his victims the privillege of a quick and painful death, the kind that has no rhyme or reason behind his misdeeds. I wouldn't be able to think of a historical example of this kind of evil, but I think Genghis Khan would come pretty close.

Genghis? LN. From most of what I've read about him, the worst horror stories about the Mongols (at least under Genghis) were propaganda devised to scare his opponents into surrendering without a fight. (Death counts for battles that exceeded the actual population of the places in question, and archaeological evidence - rather than the notoriously variable census counts and estimates - showing not much more than a brief decline in population; that sort of thing). Being sacked by the Mongols wasn't exactly pleasant, but not much worse than any other conquerors of the time. For anyone who did surrender, they were treated well as long as they stayed loyal.

Now Tamerlane, on the other hand; there was a real piece of work. He actually took the skull-mountain stories seriously and tried to kill more than Genghis supposedly did...

[Frozen_Feet]

Personal, face-to-face evil that can't be reasoned with and will go out its way to make you miserable. A real-world example would be drug-addled criminals. This kind of evil is scary, because it requires an immediate response from me and there's little room for error.

[FMArthur]

I always get scared most by enemies that understand what they are doing, are horrified by their actions and show it, and by some means are utterly helpless to stop themselves. It hits all of my buttons somehow.

A normal enemy like that disturbs me greatly, but the one time I was playing against a recurring villain like that was just plain horrifying. He was the lord of the land returned from the Far Realm after being lost there for three years. He would attend to his people, strike down injustice, and sack a peasant village and flay the skin from its inhabitants all in a day's work. Anyone who weeps and screams in terror while they rip their foes to pieces in battle is someone I don't want to meet.

[Drelua]

The methodical kind. The kind that won't get mad, won't cackle in sadistic joy, but the kind of psychopath that just doesn't seem to care. He won't enjoy torturing you, he just won't mind. He'll do whatever has to be done to fulfill his unknowable purpose, and he won't let emotions get in the way. He's incapable of guilt, fear, sadness, rage, basically anything that would make him human. He may not do the most damage to the world, but he'll calmly do exactly what he needs to to get the job done. You don't know what he wants, but you know that he'll do anything to get it, without a second's hesitation. Hitler doesn't really scare me because I know exactly what he wanted to do and how he would do it. Maybe he would have scared me if I was around at the time, but there's no mystery about him anymore.

There's also people like Kony who can do terrible things, killing thousands, and no one even knows about it. He had been killing, forming an army of children in Uganda for close to 25 years before anyone in the developed world really payed any attention to him. If someone tried that in North America, they wouldn't get anywhere, but somehow no one stands in his way where he is. And he isn't even doing it for any reason, just to maintain his army and keep killing. He has no illusions that he's making the world a better place, that the ends justify the means, because the means are the ends, or at least, that's my understanding of him.

So whether they just don't care and they'll do any horrible thing in some mad, calculated scheme, or they do horrible things for their own sake, for me it's the people that just don't have any sense of morality, any scruples. It's either the cold, dispassionate killers or the ones that slip under the radar, doing evil for it's own sake, unimpeded. The ones that you can't reason with because they don't want anything but to keep doing what they're doing. That's what really scares me.

[ShriekingDrake]

Meenlocks are an unparalleled kind of creepy.

[Jzadek]

There's also people like Kony who can do terrible things, killing thousands, and no one even knows about it. He had been killing, forming an army of children in Uganda for close to 25 years before anyone in the developed world really payed any attention to him. If someone tried that in North America, they wouldn't get anywhere, but somehow no one stands in his way where he is. And he isn't even doing it for any reason, just to maintain his army and keep killing. He has no illusions that he's making the world a better place, that the ends justify the means, because the means are the ends, or at least, that's my understanding of him.

That's actually wrong - Joseph Kony believes himself to be a prophet, and believes firmly he's doing the right thing, trying to establish a Christian theocracy. For me, that makes him even more scary - it's an almost alien mindset, doing such horrible things because he believes so completely that they're what his god wants. What's more, taking him out is so impossible - he's a guerilla, and knows his business. But yeah, the LRA really do terrify me, and have done for five years, though that's more because their abuses are so entirely horrendous, I'm not even going to mention them on a forum like this.

[Drelua]

That's actually wrong - Joseph Kony believes himself to be a prophet, and believes firmly he's doing the right thing, trying to establish a Christian theocracy. For me, that makes him even more scary - it's an almost alien mindset, doing such horrible things because he believes so completely that they're what his god wants. What's more, taking him out is so impossible - he's a guerilla, and knows his business. But yeah, the LRA really do terrify me, and have done for five years, though that's more because their abuses are so entirely horrendous, I'm not even going to mention them on a forum like this.

Damn, that is creepy. Like I said, the scary part is that I didn't know about him. I hadn't heard of him until a couple days ago, so I don't know very much about him. That's a completely different kind of scary from the one I was talking about in a lot of ways, and I'm not sure what's worse. I guess that's a fanatical lawful evil, as opposed to the chaotic evil I had mistaken him for. :smallredface: The video about him I just watched said something about his only goal being to maintain the LRA, I guess I misinterpreted that.

[Ardantis]

I find most frightening those enemies who seek to convert you. Similar to mind control, but not exactly, because mind control can be broken but once you're a vampire, you're a vampire. This category also includes zombies, the Borg, and cults.

This is a big part of Lovecraftian horror, where the hero is corrupted and becomes evil, like the hero becoming a fish-man in Shadows of Innsmouth or the lord becoming a cannibal like in The Rats in the Walls.

Gives me chills. Also the reason why I am engaged in a one-man war against the Masons.

[Grinner]

Also the reason why I am engaged in a one-man war against the Masons.

The Masons have taken note of your dissidence.





:smalltongue:

[FearlessGnome]

I find most frightening those enemies who seek to convert you. Similar to mind control, but not exactly, because mind control can be broken but once you're a vampire, you're a vampire. This category also includes zombies, the Borg, and cults.

No, no, you can leave. As soon as you drink your Kool-aid.

But yes. On a macro level, in Real Life, I think Scientology & Pals are probably the scariest thing there is. All the fervor of sincere religion combined with leaders who have consciously designed rules and rituals to bind members closer and force submission.

[gkathellar]

Also the reason why I am engaged in a one-man war against the Masons.

I know some Masons, actually. Nice folks, if a little over-traditional. They're basically an organization devoted to giving its members a hand and helping them make their way in the world. They come across as a lot more sinister than they really are, and have no tremendous interest in converting you.

[Gnome Alone]

I know some Masons, actually. Nice folks, if a little over-traditional. They're basically an organization devoted to giving its members a hand and helping them make their way in the world. They come across as a lot more sinister than they really are, and have no tremendous interest in converting you.

I too know a nice guy in the Masons, and I says to him once, I says, "Dude, I really don't know anything about the Masons, except that they're supposed to secretly control the world or something?" and he says, "Yeah, I think they do, but I'm on like the bottom level, they don't tell me anything."

[Golden Ladybug]

To me, nothing tops The Corruption.

Something so rotten, so horrible and so vile... and you're going to become that. You won't have a choice, eventually, because the more you fight, the more chance that you won't be able to resist any more. Being a Hero is just exposing you more to the threat of becoming this horrible thing. Zombies, Vampires, Cybermen, Borg, Hypnotists, Otherworldly Horrors, Gods and Demons...

Not only is the Abyss staring into you, but its reaching out and catching hold of you and pulling you towards it.

[Acanous]

To me, nothing tops The Corruption.

Something so rotten, so horrible and so vile... and you're going to become that. You won't have a choice, eventually, because the more you fight, the more chance that you won't be able to resist any more. Being a Hero is just exposing you more to the threat of becoming this horrible thing. Zombies, Vampires, Cybermen, Borg, Hypnotists, Otherworldly Horrors, Gods and Demons...

Not only is the Abyss staring into you, but its reaching out and catching hold of you and pulling you towards it.

This can be fought, but you're going to become something worse if you want to win.
At the very least, you're going to lose what makes you human. But to protect everyone else? It might have been worth it. I can't tell anymore, but the person I used to be believed it.
...Even if all I can see in people now is a paniced struggle to control others...

[Xaktsaroth]

I actually created one villian that scares the crap out me. He's my main BBEG, and I have a really hard time not making him the BBEG of any campaign I run because he really seems to effect players.

The reason he's so unsettling? Have you ever had a bunch of gaming friends around and have the "What if you had superpowers/DnD was real?" conversation?

Well, we all have fun answers to that question, of course, but asking myself the question seriously led to some unpleasent truths. If I really had the power to change the word, how would I use it?

His name is Necrosis, and he's basically what I would be in the DnD world, after my good intentions fell away. I know I would start trying to be the goodest good I could be, but I also know that I would fall the hardest when I did.

He scares the crap out of me, because I RP him as the evil inside of me; He is quite literally the dark reflection of myself.

One party actually managed to confront him directly though, in his throne room no less, after cutting their way through his castle. I'm going to try to paraphase it a bit here:

One note: Necrosis' whole goal is deicide.



*Throne room door is kicked open*

Inside the unusually circular throne room is a single throne, atop a short staircase, both seemingly carved out of the same piece of dull grey stone. The throne completely lacks any decoration. There is a narrow pathway to the throne, made of the same grey stone as the rest of the room. The pathway appears to be the only floor space in the entire room, the rest of the "floor" appears to be a pit filled about 5 feet shy from the top of random bones. Sitting on the throne is a hooded apparition that seems strangely solid, despite the wispiness of his outline.

Fighter: "MONSTER! YOU KILLED MY BROTHER IN TERMIL VILLAGE, AND I'VE COME FOR YOUR HEAD SO HE CAN FINALLY REST IN PEACE!" - Yes, the player actually yelled it.

Necrosis: "Monster? Me? I'm the monster?"

Necrosis shifts in his throne.

Cleric: "By the Light of Pelor, I will not give him a chance to beguile us!" *turns undead* - Fails. Necrosis really doesn't seem to react.

Necrosis slowly stands.

Wizard readies a spell - Note: Player specilized in Disintegration spell.

Bard: "Is this truly the one who killed my husband?"

Necrosis starts to desend staircase.

Wizard panics, fires off Disintegration.

Necrosis casually backhands the ray away. - +1 spellguard gauntlets, FOR THE WIN. :D

Necrosis: "Spare me your remedial incantations, mage."

Necrosis is literally face to face with the Fighter at this point. Fighter holding on a readied action.

Necrosis: "I am the monster? You cut your way through my castle, murdering my guards to confront me, and I am the monster? The two guards you murdered by the throne door were Tatal and Emern, brothers who joined my cause when the church of Pelor abandoned them to defend their farm from a necromancer who lost control of his creations. The guards before them were......" - I literally went about 10 guards back, listing off who they were and why they joined. The look on the players face was hilarious.

Necrosis begins to sound fairly irrate at this point.

Necrosis: "Did any of you, in your cabrera of murderers cloaked in light-bound righteousness see the sickness that plagues your mindset?"

Necrosis: "The gods must die if this broken world is to survive, your presense here only solidifies that point."

All 4 of them are a bit stunned at this point.

Necrosis turns from the fighter, and walks toward the cleric.

His voice sounds quite dangerous at this point.

Necrosis: "And your kind sickens me most of all. Enslaved to your god because you lack the spine to question them. Does your armour protect you from the screams of the people being raped and murdered in the alleys behind your temple, or does the sound of coins clicking in your coffers render them silent? Do the cries of hunger from your parishioners starving in the street lull you to sleep at night, belly full with game from half a world away? At least the gods of darkness have the decency to not hide their replusive nature from this world."

Cleric: "How dare you! Pelor would never...."

Necrosis: "Pelor would never lift his self-righteous finger to help someone he didn't think he could convert or exploit. Period."

Necrosis: "You, Fighter, I destroyed Termil village. I don't deny this, but have you ever asked why?"

Fighter: "I..., no.....It's because you're evil! The people wouldn't bend to your will, so you slaughtered them!"

Necrosis: "Good and evil are perspectives I no longer concern myself with."



I could go on for 4 or 5 more pages, but he seriously freaks me out a bit. 0_o.

[Lonely Tylenol]

There's an metaphor that describes perfectly the type of evil that scares me the most:

"If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will of course frantically try to clamber out. But if you place it gently in a pot of tepid water and turn the heat on low, it will float there quite placidly. As the water gradually heats up, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death."

-Daniel Quinn, The Story of B

[Doorhandle]

I think liars are the most scary opponents. The kind of unethical dog that "plays the PR game;" their tactics include pretending to be the victim and smear campaigns, among other things. Without physically lifting a finger, they orchestrate the total destruction of someone else's life, just to accomplish their own selfish goals (or even on a whim!).

I find this to be the most scary opponent for they can't be fought against in the traditional sense - that would just strengthen their case. Often times, nothing really can be done at all.

Those kinds of guys just make my skin crawl with hate.

[Jeff the Green]

I'm going to have to go with the prosaic evil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banality_of_evil). The Eichmanns, the directors who went along with McCarthy to blacklist suspected communists, the otherwise normal Iranian judges who sentence a woman to be stoned because she was raped.

They don't think they're evil (they often don't think about right and wrong at all), and individually they don't do a lot of damage, but because they're so numerous they're an enormous threat and they're almost impossible to get rid of. You can't justify killing them (at least not all of them), but you also can't let them go about their business.

[Das Platyvark]

In media, the ones that always terrify me the most are those that are unstoppable, cannot be reasoned with in any capacity, and are completely dedicated to their cause. The first to come to mind are the Reavers from Firefly, and the Cylons from BSG.
Second, and not necessarily in media, one of the things I'm most frightened of is disease. It doesn't really make any kind of villain, but it can inspire terror like nothing else.

[jackattack]

Evil as ideology, ingrained and pervasive.

Evil that thinks it is good, that thinks everything different is evil and thus a valid target to be "punished" or "cleansed" or "defended against".

Evil that wants to convert or assimilate.

[TheDarkSaint]

I fear evil that I helped create. I had a wonderful DM once who kept very careful notes of what we did. We were in college and playing recklessly, pizza and beers D&D. Whack the monster first, ask questions later.

Till we killed something that we shouldn't have. And then burned down a forest that we shouldn't have.

We had an BBEG we created that we didn't know about that sold his soul to demons for vengeance against us. He was careful, exacting and merciless. He went after families, henchman, support systems, spell books, whittling us down one by one till the whole party was gone.

By the end of the campaign, we were all stoked to make new characters to go hunt him down and every one of us terrified of him as he had managed to isolate each one of us, used our weaknesses against us and made us pay.

Best time I've ever had and scared the crap out of me.