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View Full Version : Elfish Villains for an Urban Campaign



Weirdlet
2012-05-27, 02:48 AM
Hey all. I'm in brainstorming mode for an urban campaign that's half Gangs of New York and half Dragon Age II's Kirkwall, and one of the decisions I made was to try and have at least one villain for each major racial group or faction in the city. The problem being, there are few readymade elf villains that I've seen, and I'm finding inspiration thin on the ground. Can the Playgrounders help me?

Some background- in the setting, elves are descended from political exiles from Underhill, cast out to live mortal lives on the surface. They survive by playing on the human fascination with them, making a living as entertainers, and their neighborhood in the city is part and parcel of the theater district. Elf or half-elf ideas are both appreciated.

Kol Korran
2012-05-27, 01:39 PM
I'm not sure what your game system is, but how about this general idea: (haven;t got the entire details, but a basic concept)

"Masks"
this elf (male or female? i'd make her female) is a master entertainer, a great actor of many parts. she is known for her ability to really fill a roll. however, she uses that ability to disguise herself, and make herself appear as others, at many places, speaking for people things that weren't intended, making deals that weren't to be done, playing people all over the place. yes, even the PCs, acting at times as their patron, as an ally, as someone who moves them along, and if they get too close- as an enemy, perhaps sending other unwitting tools after them...

high social skills are a must, but perhaps some disguising/ identity hiding items, or magical powers. if you're using the D&D system i suggest a beguiler, rogue or bard.

possible added complication: as the party start to suspect, they may try and catch the Mask, but later learn the actress gave a performence in some other place in town, while they were chasing her? how could she be in both places? when confronted she shows no magical power or ability or the like, but they also have no proof. the answer to this riddle is simple, and has been used many times, but still fools people. if you've seen the movie Prestige (which could prove a bit of an education for the role) you know what it is:

twins... or even triplets? they may each have different powers, confusing the party, and at the end, if the party don't suspect- they may face more than one enemy- or chase the wrong one while the other completes their plan.

hope this helps!

Rorrik
2012-05-27, 01:47 PM
In those conditions I could see an elf who is fed up with his race's relegation to entertainment and engages in what amounts to acts of terror to choke the entertainment business, resulting in more hardship for elves in general, but "furthering" his cause.

For a more grandiose villain, perhaps an elf who believes he has found some ritual to restore his people to what they once were but that requires heinous acts to carry out, easily a deception by on of the evil gods. He could be either a cleric or a wizard.

My favorite elf villain I wrote was a high priest of a presiding god until things went sour due to his involvement in an unpopular elven political party. He managed to escape association with that party, but lost the favor of his god and turned to another god, the god of scorpions, and was transformed by him, promised protection and immortality, and continued to lead his fallen people as a Loremaster, hiding his true allegiance. Though that doesn't seem applicable to your situation, your elven villain could be heavily involved with the political scene.

Driderman
2012-05-27, 04:19 PM
Radical Elven Extremists:
Disdaining humans for their greedy and wasteful natures, a subculture of disgruntled elves has sprung up.
These elves despise human society and all its trappings, considering old elven culture pure and superior.
By day they roam the streets in numbers in the elven quarter, terrorising humans and recruiting disgruntled young elves and half-elves that want to be more than courtesans or bards to their ranks with fiery rhetoric of the glory of the old elvish empire, by night they sit around in taverns and secret safehouses planning their glorious overthrowing of the humans and the establishment of a new elven nation.

Larkas
2012-05-27, 09:54 PM
You could have an elf that isn't evil per se, but who has a quite different, more fey-like, moral compass (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMorality). Of course it could be malicious, but it doesn't understand, or particularly care, about what happens to those it messes with. It could be an Unseelie Star Elf Sorcerer that is living in the city just because s/he fancies it at the moment. Attracting like-minded individuals (or just plainly brainwashing them), the character has gained some political influence in the city, but doesn't particularly care about it, and use that power more to cause mayhem (either deadly or otherwise) than to actually rule anything. It could even be a particularly lusty character that sees the city as a place to find suitable (or usable) mates to sate its desires.


In those conditions I could see an elf who is fed up with his race's relegation to entertainment and engages in what amounts to acts of terror to choke the entertainment business, resulting in more hardship for elves in general, but "furthering" his cause.

For a more grandiose villain, perhaps an elf who believes he has found some ritual to restore his people to what they once were but that requires heinous acts to carry out, easily a deception by on of the evil gods. He could be either a cleric or a wizard.

My favorite elf villain I wrote was a high priest of a presiding god until things went sour due to his involvement in an unpopular elven political party. He managed to escape association with that party, but lost the favor of his god and turned to another god, the god of scorpions, and was transformed by him, promised protection and immortality, and continued to lead his fallen people as a Loremaster, hiding his true allegiance. Though that doesn't seem applicable to your situation, your elven villain could be heavily involved with the political scene.

This somewhat reminds me of Glythanna, the High Elf Drider (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fc/20060515a). And that's a good thing!

GenericGuy
2012-05-27, 10:57 PM
I have a “small time” elf villain in a major city, who ran a criminal gang. I tried to make him unique as the ugliest elf in history, both physically and in behavior. He is missing one ear and one nostril, as both were chewed off by one of his “babies” (he keeps a pit of rats, which he feeds with those who displease him), bone thin, missing several teeth, chalk white skin from living in the sewers, and bugged eyed. He has sexual fetish for teenage human girls, mostly because he likes to subvert and ruin the classic fantasy of charming elven knight saving them from a life of mundaneness for them.

Then there’s my experimental elven chaotic good wannabe revolutionary, who was meant to be an attempt at making a chaotic good character antagonistic in the same way some writers or DMs think they are being “edgy” by having a lawful good character as antagonistic. At his best he was every obnoxious hipster stereotype rolled into one, but once his delusions of grandeur are crushed he becomes a one man France’s reign of terror.

Ninjadeadbeard
2012-05-27, 11:03 PM
In a campaign I'm running, the main villain is a Half-Elf named Lepidus. He lives under a strict, but rather fair Empire ruled by a race of humans from the west. Elves have been subjugated, with their homeland becoming a (not entirely unwilling) imperial province. Half-Elves are celebrated by the Empire (serving the same role as Greeks for Romans, one part forerunners, one part brothers, one part teachers) so Lepidus shouldn't have a problem with them.

Trouble is, he hates humans. He especially hates himself for being half-human. He hails from a town in the east where some elves openly pine for a return of the Old Kingdom that fell to the Empire years before. Lepidus was originally a sorcerer (or equivalent) who grew up in an Empire-critical environment, where corrupt human officials could be seen openly flaunting their privilege, and where Lepidus was bullied by the local human patrician children. The last straw came when his childhood sweetheart, a elf-maiden, married one of these human bullies. In a blind fury he killed them both and became an outlaw.

He ultimately joined the Empire's semi-official assassin group (they only knew he was a killer and good with magic) and started leveling in Rogue (or equivalent). He was assigned to a city with a high elf/half-elf population and quietly gathered anti-imperial allies. He's planning on using the local assassins to destabilize the local imperial government (using his own men to create an illusion of traitorous officials). As the various imperial agencies commence slaughtering one another, Lepidus will take command of the chaos and start a rebellion that will engulf the entire world!...

That's what he tells himself. If my players don't see through his facade and fail to stop him, the whole shebang will probably end up like Les Mis but with more innocent bodies. Lepidus is a petty, pathetic, childish deathseeker who deludes himself into thinking he wants anything other than a swift death (too cowardly to do it himself, too proud to go down fighting anything less than the best). He's as much a victim as...well, his victims.



Then there’s my experimental elven chaotic good wannabe revolutionary, who was meant to be an attempt at making a chaotic good character antagonistic in the same way some writers or DMs think they are being “edgy” by having a lawful good character as antagonistic. At his best he was every obnoxious hipster stereotype rolled into one, but once his delusions of grandeur are crushed he becomes a one man France’s reign of terror.

Uh...ninja'd? Or are deluded elves in this month? :smallwink: