Perhaps (in order to take the action route) the BBEG has merely rounded up the leaders of Good and plans to use them as a sacrifice to a fiendish patron in order to secure greater arcane power, such that (to continue the Sidious) he no longer has to spider it out in the background.

Gives a success reward of sorting out the politics, and a decent action confrontation with a ticked-off wizard and a nasty outsider.