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MonkeySage
2014-04-14, 05:22 PM
Emperor Adelard is a level 20 Antipaladin in pathfinder(I've waived the alignment restriction so that he's lawful evil).
He was once a paladin, a squire under the tutelage of a knight in service of the previous emperor. He moved up through the ranks and eventually became the knight-general, right hand man to that emperor... At this time, he's still a paladin. One day, he discovers a cult that is trying to summon a long forgotten Qlippoth/Obyrith lord from her prison. He learns that this cult is wide ranging, and tries to warn the emperor of the danger. However, his liege fails to listen to him. At some point, somehow, Adelard jumps off the deep end. He decides that if his liege won't listen, he must take matters into his own hands... he forges an alliance with a goblin priest and the headmaster of an assassination academy for wizards, and has the emperor off'd. He takes the throne as the new emperor, and quickly becomes a ruthless tyrant. His motive is to destroy the cult, preventing it from succeeding.

I wonder at the following:
1. What may have caused him to abandon his paladin ways and become an antipaladin? Why turn evil?
2. What divine power might he serve now that Heironeous (using the 3e pantheon) has disowned him?
3. Would he want to hide his true nature from his subjects?
4. Any other advice for running this character?
5. What sort of people might he put his trust in as allies? One of my friends is interested in playing a bound spellcaster(wizard that hunts demons and slowly becomes part demon) as an ally to the emperor.

Right now, my players only know that a new emperor has taken the throne, and his totalitarian regime has resulted in the execution of several seemingly innocent civilians. My players believe he's supposed to be the villain of this story; I'm gonna do my best to hide information about the cult from them until later.

Red Fel
2014-04-15, 08:39 AM
What follows is pure, personal opinion; you can take any or all of it, and leave the rest. There is no "right" way to play any character, but I happen to think that I'm particularly brilliant when it comes to Evil, and I think I can properly motivate you to agree with me.


I wonder at the following:
1. What may have caused him to abandon his paladin ways and become an antipaladin? Why turn evil?

LE is known as the "tyrant" or "diabolic" alignment. This is an alignment that recognizes strength and order. Basically, this character wouldn't "turn evil;" rather, he would have a renewed perspective.

Consider it like this. There are many ways to play a Paladin. There is the wonderfully excellent way, which is as a generous, compassionate shield of the people; there is also the Lawful Stupid way, which is basically LG bordering on LN, honor-before-reason; there is the holier-than-thou way, which pushes LG to the point of breaking it; and so on. Consider this character as the middle way - he has always been honorable, but what made him Good was not the fact that he was a Good person, but rather that he served a Good person. He did what he could to best serve his ruler.

And then he started to notice that his ruler was ineffectual, weak. He realized that the people needed a strong ruler, one who would put a stop to the menace. They needed someone who could be tough but fair, and their current ruler wasn't enough to protect them. So he resolved to do what needed to be done "for the greater good." (Those are great words for a fallen character.)

That's how he fell. He was always LG-bordering-on-LN. He became more LN, until he committed regicide and took a flying leap into LE territory. It's not that he one day decided to kick puppies; rather, he decided the best way to serve his goals - protecting the people - was to rule them with an iron fist. The moment he put goals before means was the moment he went from G to E.


2. What divine power might he serve now that Heironeous (using the 3e pantheon) has disowned him?

This is a gimme. Hextor. Hextor loves messing with Heironeous, and runs one of the only "legitimate" LE churches.


3. Would he want to hide his true nature from his subjects?

Why? His true nature is protecting them through strength and severe order. Those who cannot comply will be crushed; those who can will thrive. In fact, if you go the Hextor route, you'll find that, canonically, Hextorian cities and states tend to be rather successful, if dreary places to live, because the people are motivated, loyal, and strong. A Hextorian's rule is not entirely unjust; accomplishment and loyalty are rewarded.

Being Lawful Evil doesn't mean you're reviled; in fact, an imperiled people - or a people made to believe they were once imperiled (via smart propaganda) - may appreciate an effective tyrant more than they would appreciate a benevolent but ineffectual leader.


4. Any other advice for running this character?

You don't have to make him puppy-kicking evil. In fact, some compassion is almost necessary. In his mind, he never stopped being a Paladin; he just stopped being recognized as one. He realized that his status as a Paladin was a necessary sacrifice to protect and preserve the kingdom. In his mind, everything he does, no matter how cruel or despotic, is for the greater good, even if it's not Good in the proper sense.


5. What sort of people might he put his trust in as allies? One of my friends is interested in playing a bound spellcaster(wizard that hunts demons and slowly becomes part demon) as an ally to the emperor.

He probably won't trust demons, as a rule. Remember, there is a Blood War; CE and LE aren't on the friendliest of terms. Moreso since it was an Obyrith or Qlippoth that first inspired his descent; he's likely to feel some strong resentment towards their kind.

That said, Lawful types tend to be loyal, and LE is no exception. Most likely, he will at least appreciate their strength, and certainly will remain loyal to those who have aided him in the past - at least inasmuch as he will permit them to leave his domain alive once he ascends the throne, provided that they never return. (I had a plan for something like that with an LE character once. Good times.)

Really, an LE character is just like any character - he can make friends, same as anyone. He can love, and feel remorse, and want to protect those dear to him. The difference is what he values and how he expresses his affection. LE characters will tend to appreciate power, honor, and loyalty. Characters who are consistently weak, betrayers, or those who are unreliable, tend to earn the enmity of an LE character; by contrast, those who have stood by you from the beginning are those an LE character would protect, if for no other reason than that he refuses to owe a debt to them. To quote Inspector Javert (a classic LN-towards-LE): "Damned if I'll live in the debt of a thief,/ damned if I'll yield at the end of a chase." He could be loyal to anybody, even a CG character, provided that they had historically shown loyalty to him.

In all likelihood, he will want to save his former brothers-in-arms. He'll have offered them the chance to join him. Perhaps some, like him, will fall. Those who refuse, he will likely have executed. He is unlikely to randomly decide to kill the people he used to know; he'll only want to execute or punish those who actively oppose him. Remember, he's still the same person he used to be; he's simply free of the moral constraints which limited his actions in pursuit of his goals.

Jay R
2014-04-15, 11:06 AM
1. What may have caused him to abandon his paladin ways and become an antipaladin? Why turn evil?

He convinced himself that he had to sacrifice himself for the greater good, to get the people a worthy ruler, and to defend them against the cult. He probably convinced himslef this was the only way to guarantee that the cult would not take over and make their lord a tyrant.


3. Would he want to hide his true nature from his subjects?

Because they still think he's a paladin.
Because he convinced them that he tried to save the old emperor.
Because high treason is punishable by death.
Because they would revolt against rule by the person who assassinated the old emperor.
Because they are chafing under his unjust rule, putting up with it only because a paladin has told them that it is a necessary sacrifice.


4. Any other advice for running this character?

He is absolutely opposed to tyrants. He is adamantly trying to stop the cult so that they won't put a tyrant on the throne. He will never realize that there is already a tyrant on the throne.


5. What sort of people might he put his trust in as allies? One of my friends is interested in playing a bound spellcaster(wizard that hunts demons and slowly becomes part demon) as an ally to the emperor.

He's just decided that the ends justifies the means, and agreed to work with a goblin priest and the headmaster of an assassination academy for wizards. He cannot let himself see how wrong that was, so he will go ahead and work with anybody, always convincing himself that he has no choice, as his soul gets darker and darker.

Good people will slowly leave, unwilling to do what he asks, more and more evil people will gravitate to the palace, because it's a safer place for them than anywhere else.

He's on the way down. It's a deep, black hole.


Right now, my players only know that a new emperor has taken the throne, and his totalitarian regime has resulted in the execution of several seemingly innocent civilians. My players believe he's supposed to be the villain of this story; I'm gonna do my best to hide information about the cult from them until later.

He is one of the villains of the story, and possibly the main one, in the long term. All tyrants start off convincing themselves that they are doing it for the common good, but the evil actions get easier and easier, the justifications thinner and thinner, as he gets more used to rationalizing away his dishonorable and illegal actions.

MonkeySage
2014-04-15, 05:32 PM
I think I've got a pretty good picture of Adelard forming now, so I think that leaves a few more questions; the goblin priest and the headmaster are both invested in his mission to keep this cult from it's goals, and to eliminate it if possible. Adelard's alliance with them is a well kept secret, though.
The priest is building an army of bugbears, hobgoblins, and goblins... Uniting the tribes, for an as yet unknown purpose(this was originally just motivation for the party, a starting quest that I've made into a serious plot element.) So I'm wondering what he might be doing this for, what his motives are for this. He's doing it as his part of the deal he made with Adelard 3 years before his ascension to the throne. The priest is a 17th level cleric. For the moment, my level 3-4 players are focused on this priest and his forces; they're currently in one of the priest's recruitment camps, a ruined duerger fortress.

I think the headmaster's role may have been more obvious, and in the long term it's very easy to justify working with him. So the question here might instead be what plot hooks and quests could I set up for my players involving the headmaster and his academy? The headmaster is a 19th level wizard(he may have prestiged, but I have not yet written out his character sheet)

The Oni
2014-04-15, 07:24 PM
Definitely getting a Warhammer 40K vibe from this, and not just because he's the Emprah Emperor. Especially with the whole *soul-crushing tyrant-evil is the only defense against soul-obliterating elder-evil* thing. The Imperium might be a good reference for how this guy might operate (and be exalted by his friends/allies/political machine). Presumably with less incompetence and power armor.

Mnemophage
2014-04-15, 11:37 PM
The priest is building an army of bugbears, hobgoblins, and goblins... Uniting the tribes, for an as yet unknown purpose(this was originally just motivation for the party, a starting quest that I've made into a serious plot element.) So I'm wondering what he might be doing this for, what his motives are for this. He's doing it as his part of the deal he made with Adelard 3 years before his ascension to the throne.

This is actually a fairly simple reasoning: the priest desires what all thinking creatures desire, that being status and agency within society. He doesn't have to be cruel for cruelty's sake, but rather as a function of his culture - and as a priest, this goblin is the default spokesman of his peoples' ancestry and customs. While he might not think there's anything inherently wrong with the way goblinoids have been living their lives for thousands of years, a wise priest would be intelligent enough to perceive the way the human (I'm assuming) empire prospers and the comparatively little agency his own people have in the affairs of the world. He wants goblins and their kin to have a recognized homeland, with clear boundaries, and the authority to conduct trade and diplomacy as equals with the rest of the world.

Where the Evilness comes in is that the priest is, by definition, a traditionalist. He follows the Old Cruel Gods of his people, the ones that glorify slaughter, and define possession as the strength to hold what you have. While he recognizes the social inequality of his people, he is unwilling to see what his people would actually have to change to deserve a higher standing in society, and is willing to take it the way the Old Cruel Gods love best - by overwhelming force of numbers. This guy I can easily see being the best kind of Chaotic Evil - absolutely dedicated to a singular ideal and intelligent enough to pull it off using unorthodox, even unthinkable means. Furthermore, this ideal muddies player response - the notions of cultural and individual equality are ultimately just, but at what bloody-handed point are you morally obligated to begin empirically rating the worthiness of said culture?


I think the headmaster's role may have been more obvious, and in the long term it's very easy to justify working with him. So the question here might instead be what plot hooks and quests could I set up for my players involving the headmaster and his academy? The headmaster is a 19th level wizard(he may have prestiged, but I have not yet written out his character sheet)

Nothing is quite so fun as planning the "perfect crime". Wizards, especially at high levels, have the ability to do damn near anything they want - if a wizard wants someone dead, they can easily just teleport into their sanctuary, point at them, and off they go to the hereafter. With divination being what it is, however, HIDING this activity becomes more of a challenge - and thus, much more interesting to think of. Think of this wizard as being someone akin to The Riddler, less interested in the rewards inherent in his criminal activity so much as the notion of the world's foremost powers and finest minds being incapable of unwinding the tangled skein of his actions. His academy might mostly be constructed of people he considers to be little more than unknowing blinds, less adept idiots who he can easily dispose of when someone gets too close - but I can also see him having an inner cadre of intellectuals who he respects, sort of a social circle of criminal masterminds, a society of almost-equals with whom he can brag all the details of his diabolical exploits. He may be aiding the antipaladin not by dint of what can be offered, but rather by what challenge his difficulties present.

Here's a weird hook. You mentioned that this wizard is involved with devils, and might be beginning the transition into devilhood himself. The trope, as this goes, is that of the Faustian bargain - a person makes a deal with an infernal power, and the deal is subtly but irrevocably skewed to benefit the demonic entity at the cost of the human and their soul. Skew that the other way around. This guy is the MASTER of the Faustian bargain, and can spin it in such a way that the demons end up getting screwed by the deal, and it's happening with such consistency and such frequency that, frankly, they need outside help. They CAN'T strike against this guy. Their usual network of evil accomplices are similarly bound by reams of impregnable legalese. This just IS NOT how this is supposed to go, and it's causing all sorts of havoc not only within Hell itself, but within the very natural order of the world. The players don't stumble across a plot - the wizard's infernal accomplices literally beg them for help, because they're the only ones he doesn't have some sort of multi-tiered binding contract on.