Alright, I’m making a NPC for a house-rules alternative to DnD. Now, I have this badass knight character who is real experienced, former military figure, was a tactical genius who destroyed baddies all over the world as a Captain of the Guard. (Don’t worry about stats, I got all that covered). Now I need an excuse for him to literally sell his soul to the devil and become a Most Wanted enemy of the state (and evil). Any creative ideas for motivation?
I can’t say whether these are creative or original, but. . .
[ul][li]Possession.[/li][li]Love. We all do crazy things for it.[/li][li]Maybe he saw some hypocrisy on the “good” side. If he was utterly devoted, that could make him doubt.[/li][li]Maybe he fell on hard times, and evil paid better.[/li]Blackmail. Maybe someone had some leverage on him, and he just got in too deep.[/ul]
Maybe the pact with the Devil was the way he got the skills in the first place, and the truth eventually came out.
“Your Majesty, Sir Wonderful is no true knight! He hath signed a deal with the Devil himself for the skills that gave him victory in battle!”
Betrayal by someone he was loyal to breaking his ideals.
Following someone he’s loyal to into Hell itself.
He was tricked - thought the devil was the good guy and the good guys evil.
He didn’t - someone simply tricked the heroes into thinking he did.
Build on this–he still sees himself as a hero for making this ultimate sacrifice. He foresaw (perhaps with demonic persuasion) that the Forces of Good were going to lose some pivotal battle; he saw the tremendous suffering that would result. The demons allowed him to sacrifice himself in exchange for aid that swung the battle the other way.
Maybe he was a total badass before the soul-selling, but he felt he needed more. Without the edge he got from The Devil, he’d have lost, and lost everything that ever mattered to him. So he sold out, took the deal, and won.
Well, won the battle. Turns out he lost everything anyway, since that’s the way the Devil works.
You could play him as either unrepentant and wallowing in his new evilness, or as tormented by his nature. Either way, he doesn’t see himself as Evil, but he definitely is - he’s compromised his principles to get something he wouldn’t otherwise have had.
Maybe he looted a cursed and/or intelligent sword, with or without a bonus revenge angle…
Personally I kind of like the Warhammer 40K (Abnett school of writing) way where evil doesn’t necessarily just jump up and offer you a contract, but it’s a sometimes slow progression of ‘lines that you shouldn’t have crossed’ until you’re no longer who you thought you were, and you don’t even realize it until it’s too late.
Maybe your knight had a battle that had to be won, and let a town full of people be overrun first because it would have been tactically too taxing to defend. And then perhaps he had one of his subordinates hanged for cowardice on the field of battle, because victory for the cause of good is the greatest goal an army can strive for, and anybody who gets in the way of that is a traitor. And perhaps then he led a company of heroes to cleanse a den of some evil-god’s followers, but spared the high priest because the priest offered him sorcerous knowledge and power is the quickest route to victory, and think of all the innocent people who could be saved with such power. And then over time that priest’s advice swayed him and…
I find damnation by inches much more interesting than a sea change over coffee one rainy morning.
A bit on the cliché side, but will to power. Not power in and of itself as that only comes later and your NPC sounds like he started out as a “good guy”, but the will for more power to kick more baddy ass. You try one dirty trick, one little bargain, that slope’s awful slippery…
ETA : damn, should have read** Finn**'s answer first. He’s right though, people generally set out to do the right thing, we just get… sidetracked. Damnation by inches is how it happens most of the time indeed - the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, or so they say.
Ah, General Wonderful. You were once the hero of Fantasvaynia. You almost singlehandedly won the war against Overthereistan, saving your nation from invasion and enslavement. And you did it by holding true to the oldest of Fantavaynian virtues: courage, honor, loyalty, justice, and sacrifice. Under your leadership, the armies of Fantasvaynia rallied, and drove the invaders from their lands. The future of Fantasvaynia was secured!
Or so you thought. In the decades since then, a moral rot has grown in the heart of peaceful Fantasvaynia. The new generation consists of idlers and poets. The “king” trades openly with hated Overthereistan, and the young people take to aping their foreign ways. Why, it’s almost as if Fantasvaynia had lost the war! It was clear to anyone with eyes that what was necessary was a… firm hand, to guide Fantasvaynia into the light. And if the king would not provide that hand, then it would fall to someone else to do it.
The failure of the coup was unfortunate. By Grace, you and the core of your revolution escaped. Now wanted as traitors, you took to the hills, hoping to foment an uprising among the common folk. But the progress was slow going, and supplies were desperately needed to keep the flame of revolution lit. Surely, a little banditry in such a situation is justified? After all, the merchants are supporting the corrupt, ineffectual monarch in the capital, so really, stealing from them is a good deed, right? Anyway, it’s not like you were going to kill them. Except that one time, when that fool of an assisstant, Major Underling, let slip location of your base camp. The order to execute them was hard, especially when it came to the children, but what choice did you have? It’s all the king’s fault, anyway - if he’d known how to run a nation, you would never have needed to intervene. And then that terrible winter, coldest in living memory. Things were especially hard, then, and caravans few and far between. You need some place to shelter, some place to resupply, and wait out the snows until you could campaign again. And there was that village, the one that had refused to aid the revolution. Well, if they’re not an ally, that must make them an enemy, right? You sacked his share of Overthereistan villages during the war - if these people want to be like Overthereistan so badly, we might as well treat them like Overthereistanians! And we all know what the only good Overthereistanian is, right? There wasn’t much left of that village by the time you left in the Spring, was there? That was a bloody affair, and you swore that the king who had driven you to it would one day pay dearly.
Well, things have certainly gone downhill from there. So many more merchant caravans that knew too much for their own good. So many towns that needed to be punished for their disloyalty. But a great leader knows the virtue of sacrifice. And you have sacrificed so much, so you must therefore be a truly great leader. But it’s still not enough. The king’s forces harry you from all sides. Your men are battered, starving, demoralized. You’ve nowhere left to run, and with your death, the last light of true Fantasvaynia will be extinguished. Unless you find someone who can help. Unless you can find… an ally. And that’s why I’ve come to you today, General Wonderful. I can give you all the help you need to restore your nation to glory.
All you need to do is sign right here.
Agree with the above: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I like the idea that he’s unrepentant, but wallowing not in his evilness but in his heroism. Think: “The truth? You can’t HANDLE the truth!” He’ll not only not apologize for his soul-sacrifice, he’ll drip contempt on anyone who questions him, making it clear that their opinion is less than worthless because they have no appreciation for the eggs you need to break to make an omelette.
Miller’s story is of course fantastic :).
Maybe he did to spare someone else losing their soul/life,
A young prince who made a mistake playing with forces he could not controle , out of loyalty to his charge the captain promised to serve the devil with all his being if he would leave the young heir alone.
He fumbled on his Save-vs-Possession roll, now crank out the dungeon map so we can play, I want to genocide some goblins.