Lord Vanglor

[tk1912]

Okay, here's an idea for a Fantasy world bad guy.

Lord Vanglor, human male, age 45. Picture a balding bear and you've got Vanglor: broad-chested, hairy, and quick to roar when provoked. Vanglor would love nothing more than to conquer the world.

The problem is, he can't due to funds.

Lord Vanglor is the last son of a dying house that's hit extremely hard times. He's nearly bankrupt and basically the laughingstock of the nobility, especially after a humiliating defeat at the hands of a big good-guy about five years ago.

Vanglor tries to scrape by with what little he has, but his neighbors keep encroaching on his lands, he's having trouble paying his goon squad, and it looks like Vanglor's about to be forced into the dregs of society as a pauper.

What he wants more than anything else in the world is power, enough power to set himself back on course to conquering the world.

And if said power were offered to him by a mysterious group of travelers from a "far away place," travelers who are looking for allies, he'd be very quick to jump at it.

[lexkx]

I like everything about it except the human part. Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to be flexible on that...

The thing is, if he's going to be ursine (and I really hope that's a word) anyway, why not create a race of large, fleshy beings 'whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders'?

I'm not saying we have to invent all new creatures for everyone in the story, but for goodness' sake why not?

In Him,
Lex

[tk1912]

Oh, I wouldn't have a problem with Vanglor being non-human. When I said "picture a balding bear," I was using a bit of metaphor to describe how he'd look (and act). Basically really hairy and something of a grouch.

[dulci]

I'm wondering if Vanglor could be a little more complex in his villainy--as in, WHY does he want to conquer the world? Is it a religious mandate for him? Is it the bane of a dead father? Is it a spell cast on him to make him conquer? Is he doing it for love or love lost?

Sorry, I just tend to dislike cookie-cutter villains--this guy could be crazy, I love the thing that he's broke! But round villains tend to have either solid or fluctuating reasons WHY they want to conquer the world.

Hey, maybe he could be called the "Black Bear" or some other moniker as such.

[tk1912]

Okay. If I may do some slight modifications to the character...

Lord Vanglor initially doesn't want to conquer the world. He does, however, want to recapture his familial estate.

He idolizes the memory of his dead father, a ruthless warlord who conquered a fair amount of territory in his day. Vanglor's father willed the estate to him, much to the annoyance of Vanglor's younger brother.

As Vanglor lost the family fortune and the majority of the familial lands, he was tortured by the memories of his father and tormented by his younger brother. His brother calls him a failure; Vanglor fears that his father would have too.

He initially agrees to help those strangers from a "far off land" because they offer him the means to reconquer his familial lands in exchange for his help in whatever the travelers wind up doing. But once Vanglor sees the alien technology, he realizes that he has the means to surpass his father's conquests and finally silence his brother.

Better?

[Hisart]

If I may do some more modifications to the lead Bad Guy character...

Lord Vanglor initially does want to conquer the world but to recapture his Father's Empire. He idolizes the memory of his dead father, a ruthless warlord who conquered Half of the planet in his day. Vanglor's father left the Throne to him, much to the annoyance of Vanglor's younger brother who knows that it was Vanglor's incompetence that lost the empire and cost their father his life.

Vanglor had lost the family fortune, the majority of the familial lands and is tortured by the memories of his father and tormented by his younger brother. I see the younger brother being a cruel twisted teenager that hates his elder brother and calls him a failure. Vanglor fears that his father would have too. The queen is still alive but was crippled in the same assault that killed her husband. She is basically powerless in the patriarchal society and she too harasses Vanglor.

He initially agrees to help those strangers from a far off land because in exchange for his help in whatever they're doing they offer him the means to reconquer his father's empire. Once Vanglor sees the alien technology, he realizes that he now has the means to surpass his father's conquests and finally silence his brother and mother.

[tk1912]

That's what I was hoping to get across. Thanks!

[Hisart]

I just tweeked him a tad bit!

Your's was the major input!