A blog acquaintance named Eliza announced an activity she’d be doing an activity called Villain Month and I thought, what the hey, maybe I’ll join in. Along with drawing and animating over the summer, I’ve been wanting to work on my writing as well. This is a little different from my usual posts – there won’t be as much art for one thing – so if you’ve got the attention span to read my crazed ideas I’d appreciate any crits, questions, and suggestions you can throw my way!
I’m awful at developing villains. I think it’s because I’m so focused on making convincing heroes that I don’t give the villains the time of day. So this is a perfect opportunity to take a villain or two or three and really explore the men/women behind the beasts.
So I had no clue where to start on my journey of villainy, so I figured beginning with the Seven Deadly Sins was about as good as anything. After a complex and sophisticated process of elimination I settled on (dun dun dunnnnnn)….
Wikipedia tells me that Dante describes it as: “love of one’s own good perverted to a desire to deprive other men of theirs.”
Another great definition by Aristotle: “The pain caused by the good fortune of others.”
As an artist, what topic could be better?! 
And that’s exactly why I like it; I know envy. Hell, I bet we all know envy. You don’t have to be evil to succumb to it. It’s a very human condition that can make you do evil things. And the villains I love most are the ones with whom you can step back and think, “Yeah, I can see how he got to be that way.”
My villain’s going to take away everything the hero loves, because he wants it even more (and he does want it more, or else he wouldn’t be nearly so evil).
So, a little about the story.
I’ve been researching some various mythologies and pantheons lately and consequently created a society of immortals who call themselves Silents. The social hierarchy is as follows….
- Primals – the oldest and most powerful of the Silents
- Thains – lords of Houses (family units) and members of the Council
- the rest, servants of the Houses to which they belong
Our villain, Redtooth, is a Thain. He created the Council. He is intelligent, creative, and a hard worker. He’d do anything for the Council. He is a good guy… or so he thinks.
Redtooth once loved and admired Lord Crow. Lord Crow is intelligent, controlled and orderly, loved by his House and the Council; a perfect role model for Redtooth who was none of these things, but he was content enough to have the Crow’s respect and trust. It was Lord Crow who brought his usefulness to the attention of the Primals. But an intense love, over centuries, turned into envy. Lord Crow didn’t even know how powerful he was. He didn’t know how much his House loved him; he hardly noticed them. Redtooth could do so much better in Lord Crow’s position. So of course he had to show Lord Crow the error of his ways. Redtooth could so easily take it all away from him… make it his own. It would serve the greedy Lord of Crows right.
Hmm. I think what’s missing from the little blurb is some sort of an ‘event’. You’re talking about centuries of time. Surely something must have happened…? Even if it’s a hundred little things that gradually weighed on him, I have a hard time believing that someone turned from one opinion to another without a slight of some kind, even an unintentional one.
Good point! You’re definitely right – come to think, I also need to come up with the specifics of his early life and why he would be inclined to envy (at least a dangerous sort) in the first place. I’ll be sure to address these in my next post.
I think you’ve got a really promising start so far with Redtooth.
Perhaps you could work in some personality flaws that link back to envy; maybe a tendency for always wanting what he can’t have, or needing to have the biggest/best thing (the “he who dies with the most toys wins” mentality), etc.
Anyway, I look forward to reading more.