Literary Heroes Part 3: Villains
I’ll admit, I’ve always preferred villains to heroes. Maybe that’s because I also prefer tragedies to other types of story. There’s something enthralling about dark turns of events, after all. But really, I think I like villains because of the psychology. It’s easy to give a reason a hero becomes a hero: they feel a sense of duty, they have a vendetta against a crime syndicate, etc. But villains, villains take more work. It’s harder to break the law than it is to follow it, and even harder to do so without being caught and/or with impunity. Villain motivations, then, need to be stronger. And more realistic too. The whole “take over the world” scheme is fairly classic, but it lacks realism. So, with luck, my supervillains will be a bit more grounded. Kinda. In a sense. Okay, for one of them, not at all. But he’s supposed to be the unhinged one, so hush.
The King of Knaves
Real Name: Claudius Hamlet
Villain Costume: violet silk button-up long-sleeved shirt, black pants, black waistcoat, silver cravat, black calf-length tailcoat with silver embroidery, black domino mask with amethyst trim and raven feather decoration, whit cloth gloves, black bowler hat with a king of spades playing card stuck in the violet band
Weapon of Choice: An unnamed swordstick. The cane itself is made of lacquered ebony, its base capped with silver. The orb at the top, and thus the pommel, is also silver, detailed to resemble the face of the moon. At the press of one of the pommel’s “craters,” the release will flip, and the swordstick’s blade can be slid out of the cane. Said blade is shining silver and hollow ground, letting it deal painful — if ineffective — cuts while remaining thrust-oriented.
Backstory: Claudius, since his youth, was afflicted with the fatal flaw of ambition. Younger brother to the late King Johann Hamlet and uncle to Ex-Prince Raynard Hamlet, Claudius obtained a political science degree as a course of habit, while his brother had received a degree in law. Claudius, as a matter of fact, was salutatorian of his class, an honour which was marred by the man’s desire to have been valedictorian — the same honour Johann had received. His eyes were always watching the monarchs and governors, trying to predict their motives and, subsequently, their decisions on heavy issues. He developed a knack for it, a knack which his older brother took note of. The older Hamlet would often ask his brother for advice when making decisions in court, as he did not wish to offend any rulers. The two together made for many a just ruling, though Claudius often felt a twinge of annoyance that his brother received all the approvals from the higher ups while he merely acted as a district manager.
But eventually, Claudius set his sights on the throne of Provania. He began laying out the groundwork for it in secret, hoping to surprise his friends and family upon revealing his intention. The planned date was a dinner party he and his brother were hosting. But when they were making final preparations for said party, Johann approached Claudius with a favor to ask: would Claudius please support his bid for the monarchy. The request caught Claudius unawares at first, then turned to a pit of anger within his stomach. The ambition which fueled the younger Hamlet couldn’t bear being second best compared to his brother again. Second in birth, second ranked in school, and now beaten to the race for elections. However, though ambitious, Claudius saw that he’d get nowhere opposing his brother overtly. So instead, Claudius agreed to support him, and even transferred the preparations he’d made into Johann’s name. The Hamlet brothers would work together to get Johann elected. And they succeeded, both through Johann’s reputation as a just and fair man, and Claudius’s knack for manipulating politics.
But all the way, Claudius had plans of his own cooking. He contacted an underground ring of criminals the week after his brother was elected. Dressing in disguise, and calling himself the King of Knaves, Claudius presented them with a deal: he’d fund their endeavors and ensure they were never hassled by the government if they would obey any orders he sent them. The then leader was the only voice of disagreement, wanting to retain power. Claudius left the meeting, and returned in three days to find that the deputy had killed the leader, and was more open to the suggestion. Thus, Claudius rebranded the criminal ring as the Rochevan Knaves, and gave the deputy an assigment: the deputy was to ensure that King Johann Hamlet’s rule went awry through whatever means necessary. Unfortunately for Claudius, his instructions were misinterpreted. The deputy of the Knaves assumed that Claudius wanted the king dead, and so poisoned Johann while the king was taking an afternoon nap. Horrified at the botching of his request, Claudius told the deputy to flee the nation lest he be caught. The man did so, though not before extracting a bribe for his silence. Claudius then assigned a new deputy to the Knaves before letting his ambition consume him.
Though he hadn’t meant to kill his brother, Claudius knew that the lack of a king would create a power vacuum. Which would mean that he’d have an excellent chance of running for the monarchy himself. But before that happened, Claudius wanted control of the criminal underworld to ensure that he’d always at least have some semblance of power over the capitol city. Within a year after his brother’s death, Claudius had formed two additional criminal organizations. While his Rochevan Knaves handled more brazen, blatant crimes, the other two sects were more specialized. The second ring, dubbed the Goldmakers, was focused on money laundering, extortion, and blackmail. The third ring was hidden within the management of the rather imperialistic company Provanian Imports, which had holdings in the jungles to the south and held titles for several exploration gigs. The criminal ring itself, which came to be called the Concerns, used the company as a front to smuggle illegal goods, to stack the stock market, and other such economic crimes. Any other criminal groups that sprung up were either then assimilated into the crime ring that fit them best, or were subjugated by the Knaves until they were nothing more than a street gang. The underworld in his grasp, Claudius took once again to preparations to run for the monarchy.
This time, the younger Hamlet decided to make allies in high places. Using his crime rings, Claudius quickly found two ideal running mates: Archdeacon Claude Frollo, and Jeremiah Raoul Kurtz. The first was selected after a Goldmaker reported that the Archdeacon had paid to have a homeless man’s corpse discreetly taken to the catacombs under the Rochevan cathedral rather than to the morgue. Kurtz, on the other hand, was selected because his work in Provanian Imports as an explorer and attainer of commodities was stellar, and the man had a reputation for being both more ambitious and more intelligent than his station demanded. Claudius thus went to the both of them with offers of allegiance. He acquired them both, to his amusement, and so had the backing of both the economy and the Church. Eventually, when the collusion of the three was tight-knit enough, Claudius showed them his criminal network. He then encouraged them to take code names and costumes for themselves, and promptly offered them control of the ring of their choice. Kurtz leapt at the chance to have power over his fellow employees of Provanian Imports, and so took control of the Concerns. Frollo, with a little persuasion, took charge of the Goldmakers, allowing them access to tithe boxes in churches nationwide.
By the time all this was complete, Claudius began to run for monarchy. His first weeks were easy: his moderate policies won him supporters from all sides, his connections to church and business made him seem well-liked, and his relation to the late king even earned him a trace of pity from the voters. But soon, Claudius once again felt the heat of competition on his neck: Ex-Prince Hamlet entered the running. His pity case was stronger, his idealism for a better future answered the growing public fear of crime, and the young ex-prince was a far more invested speaker than his uncle. To make matters worse, reports began coming in from Claudius’s criminal network that costumed vigilantes had begun taking on crime where they could find it; a movement which, incidentally, Ex-Prince Hamlet supported. Claudius’s ambitions could not be stymied a second time, and so he began plotting his nephew’s downfall. However, when his initial goal of scaring the ex-prince out of running via thugs was defeated by the Solar Knight, Claudius once again realized he’d need to use his wits to win, not the mere muscles of his Knaves. So Claudius issued a challenge to the Solar Knight, daring the hero to take down the three criminal rings of Rochevan. His reasoning was that the vigilantes would be no match for his carefully structured and trained henchmen. Moreover, by defeating the heroes and wiping out vigilante justice, he would be able to condemn Ex-Prince Hamlet’s idealism for a good future without sounding callous. His pieces set, and his identity as the King of Knaves hidden, Claudius began to sit back and enjoy his game of chess.
The Daemon
Real Name: Claude Frollo
Villain Costume: white button-up long-sleeved shirt, black pants, black leather belt, black leather riding boots, emerald green calf-length robes with black trim, copper cuirass with a lamed abdomen, copper bracers, black full-length cloak, copper noh mask shaped to resemble a horned demon in pain
Weapon of Choice: “Hellfire,” a customized staff made for Frollo by a mechanist. The haft is a well insulated copper pipe that tapers into a sharp point to act as a ferrule at the base. The head of the staff is a copper orb plated with brass bas-reliefs of sinners burning, and is topped by a brass cross. The staff contains a piston at the base, and can be filled with liquid by unscrewing the spherical head of the staff. Frollo specifically fills the staff with a solution of cupric sulfate in methanol. At the press of a small button in the haft of the staff, Frollo can activate the piston, compressing the flammable solution within the staff until it sprays as an aerosol from the top of the cross. A second button will then cause a spark to flare from each arm of the cross, lighting the aerosol aflame. Due to the cupric sulfate, these flames will be a demonic green colour.
Backstory: Frollo was what many would refer to as a child prodigy. He learned new subjects incredibly quickly, and could focus on them with single-minded intensity. He graduated from university fluent in three languages, as well as a master of theology, law, medical science, literature, astronomy, and chemistry. It seemed that the man had no goal other than to learn and continue learning. A true Renaissance Man, through and through. Yet, for some unknown reason, he chose to join the Church. Perhaps it was for the same reason he took such care of his little brother when the two were orphaned: Frollo had a greatly compassionate streak, and felt responsibility towards the less-fortunate. Not only would he use his salary from the Church to help support his little brother’s studies and pastimes, but he even took in a crippled foundling, letting the young boy live with him in the Rochevan Cathedral as the cathedral’s belltower. Frollo even devised a specialized sign language for the deaf bellringer so that the two could communicate privately. Yet, for all his compassion and intellect, Frollo had two faults that soon came to light: lust and a lust for knowledge.
The latter one is easier to explain. Frollo, after having learned all he could about the accepted sciences, delved into the ones considered false. That is to say, Frollo began studying alchemy. He found it quite easy, at first, being so closely linked to chemistry. But soon, the eldritch became apparent in the art, and Frollo’s religious teachings and scientific background prevented him from progressing further.
The usual form of lust, however, was nearly his undoing. For a long time, Frollo was irrationally adverse to women. He would avoid eye contact with them, and when forced to speak with them as equals, his voice would be laden with bitterness and scorn. But then he saw a gypsy girl perform, and his hatred was turned on its head into an almost obsessive desire. Of course, his faith made him feel as though he were a horrid sinner, yet this being the first time he ever felt desire, he was unable to resist it. After discovering that a young police officer had seduced this gypsy, Frollo paid him off so that he might watch the officer and gypsy. All that earned him, however, was a fit of jealousy upon seeing the young man disrobe the gypsy. In almost madness, Frollo stabbed the man and fled the scene. He later attended the trial where the gypsy was sentenced to death, consumed with the conflicting desire to have her for his own or to let the sin he felt die with her. As it turned out, he was able to watch her execution from the roof of his cathedral, allowing his fury, passion, and madness evaporate in the wind. The thing he hadn’t expected, however, was that his foundling bellringer had also developed feelings for the gypsy. Recognizing the madness in Frollo’s eyes, and determining that the archdeacon had wrought her doom, the bellringer pushed Frollo off the roof, hoping the fall would kill him. Said bellringer then vanished, not to be heard from again.
Unfortunately for the bellringer, Frollo didn’t die. The roof he landed on after being pushed from the cathedral gave way under him, landing him in an attic. Though many of his bones were broken, and his right leg permanently crippled from the fall, Frollo survived. His spirit was also fairly broken by the fall. He lost the fire to learn, to study, and his usually morose demeanor turned into downright depression. For a good while, the only time the crippled archdeacon would be seen was when he gave sermons to his cathedral’s congregation. At the very least, his compassion never faltered, and was even increased from Frollo’s guilt over the gypsy’s death.
His reverie ended, however, when a young woman by the name of Margaret Saville came to ask advice of him. She brought letters with her, written by her brother, that contained a story the man had been told by a man who seemed almost mad. Knowing that Frollo was a well-learned man, Mrs. Saville asked his opinion on the matters contained within the unbelievable story. And Frollo was thunderstruck. The story not only told him of another man who entered into alchemical study, but a man who had succeeded where the ancients failed. The man he read about, Victor Frankenstein, had indeed created life. All of Frollo’s desire for learning and progress returned in a flash. Though he assured Mrs. Saville that there couldn’t possibly be any way alchemy worked, or would produce life, he began throwing himself back into the study. With proof that the eldritch side of alchemy could work, Frollo found that his work turned more into how to make an alchemical experiment work, rather than deciding whether it would. Over the course of many months, he found himself accomplishing many feats which he’d previously thought impossible. Though he didn’t seek the end goal of creating life, Frollo did keep his eyes set on creating the Philosopher’s Stone. It seemed to him that creating life was harder than extending it indefinitely. Besides, he hoped that creating it would heal his leg, and perhaps could be used by him to cause miracles in the name of the Church.
His goal was accelerated when he met Mattie Ross. Hearing the story of how she lost her arm, and the fact that he admired her internal fire, Frollo allowed the girl to write pieces for his cathedral’s pamphlet. His goal of the Stone turned into not only a way to heal his leg, but a way to give Mattie back what she’d lost. However, Frollo found himself reaching the end of his abilities. Though his laboratory in the cathedral’s tower was extensive and well stocked, there were numerous illicit ingredients that Frollo required to accomplish his goal. Though such illicit goods went against Frollo’s instinctive moral code — one he was obsessed with adhering to after the catastrophe with the gypsy — he knew that the good he could do with the Stone far outweighed the price of attaining it. Around this time was when Claudius Hamlet approached the archdeacon. The would-be dictator revealed that he had knowledge of Frollo’s affair with the gypsy, as well as being aware that the clergyman was experimenting in a science forbidden by the very Church he preached for. Luckily for Frollo, Claudius wasn’t aware that alchemy would genuinely work, and so the monarchic candidate simply referred to the science as a crackpot pastime. The deal Claudius struck with him was simple: the would-be dictator would allow Frollo to gather the resources he needed to continue his work, and would keep Frollo’s dirty secrets from the public eye. In exchange, Frollo would be required to give the Church’s backing to Claudius’s campaign. The archdeacon paled at the idea, then accepted by rationalizing the good he’d be able to do with the Philosopher’s Stone in hand.
Once entering into alliance with Claudius, Frollo found that his Goldmaker criminal ring was exactly what he needed. Teaching them how to write in alchemical runes so as to avoid notice, and taking the identity of “the Daemon” to hide his true name, Frollo sent the Goldmakers on a quest to procure the illegal ingredients for his complex experiments. He hoped that this would accelerate his progress. And though it did, he ran into another moral snag: Mattie Ross came to him during confession, and admitted to having the desire to take on a vigilante identity to fight crime. This chilled Frollo’s blood at first, but he decided that having her take out criminals would help balance out the crimes Claudius and the candidate’s crime rings would create. So the archdeacon helped finance her new identity, all the while hoping her binary morals would bend enough to forgive him the crimes he was allowing in order to reach the Stone.
The Grand Huntsman
Real Name: Jeremiah Raoul Kurtz
Villain Costume: black button-up long-sleeved shirt, misty grey pants, white leather miltary-style jacket, white leather belt, white leather riding boots with brass greave plates, brass spaulders, brass bracers, black leather bauta mask with golden trim and detailing
Weapon of Choice: An unnamed officer’s cutlass, made for a right-handed man. The blade is shining silver with a deep fuller along its thick back edge. The guard is thickened brass in a vaguely heart-shape with the two rounded lobes framing the base of the blade’s back edge. Between the two lobes extends up a thick quillon to catch enemy blades. The point of the heart extends downwards into a knuckle bow, with two additional flowing bars of brass covering the knuckles. The pommel is a reverse-scent stopper of brass. The grip of the cutlass is carved from ivory harvested by Kurtz himself.
Other Weaponry: A seven-chamber revolver with a hawthorne grip and brass mechanisms.
Backstory: Kurtz was on the fast-track for success since birth. Born to two half-foreign dignitaries that had taken up residence in Provania, the young man received some of the best education available to people of his social class. His parents made sure to groom him well, educating him in everything from diplomacy and politics to artistry and business. And though he initially had no direct goal, Kurtz held two things to be self-evident truths throughout his youth. The first was that he was destined for greatness and success, a sentiment constantly hammered into him by both his parents and the educators who witnessed his meteoric rise through their curriculums. The second was that the advanced culture of Provania and its immediate neighbors was the pinnacle of human advancement, and thus superior to the tribal nonsense he read about in his studies. And though he did not initially have any direct place to take his entitled mindset, Kurtz made many a splash in Provania as a young man, producing art and political commentaries worthy of masters in the fields.
Eventually, Kutz’s ambition emboldened him to choosing a path in life. Joining the Provanian Imports company, Kurtz initially wanted an outlet for his restlessness. He wanted to go somewhere where his mind and mettle would be tested for their worth. So he took a ship down to the tropical jungles, the weight of his reputation and family name hanging over the other sailors. And in the jungle, surrounded by dangerous natives and more dangerous environs, Kurtz felt the fire of passion overtake him. It was where he belonged, a place where he knew what path to take. And so, in order to ensure he could maintain power in that sultry jungle, Kurtz began focusing on promotions. And they came swiftly. The man was a natural at collecting ivory, and was just as good at handling relation with the “black savages,” as he would refer to the natives. Though he initially couldn’t stay in the south for long, every visit Kurtz made down south grew longer and longer.
As he rose in rank, so too did Kurtz rise in reputation and ambition. He even began taking certain people in as confidants, almost lieutenants to his cause of success and supremacy over the jungle colony. One such mind he tried to convert was that of Robert Walton. And he very nearly succeeded. Walton accompanied Kurtz once into the south as part of his six-year training stint, and it was on that trip that Kurtz impressed upon Walton the power of ambition. It was shortly after that Walton took command of his ship to the arctic, a plan Kurtz wholeheartedly supported. It wasn’t just that he felt kinship to Walton’s ambition, however. One less ambitious man heading south meant that Kurtz could monopolize his power down there. His lust for that power, his drive for success, drove him to spend more and more time in the jungles. Eventually, Kurtz began to refuse to return to Provania. The company never complained, as it just meant more ivory would come flowing in. Besides, Kurtz was well aware that any number of people in his homeland were focused on his well-being, and so would ensure his every whim was satisfied.
But being in the heat and savagery changed Kurtz. His ambition and lust for power turned savage themselves. He stopped thinking of the natives as “savages.” Instead, he thought of them as complete inferiors, dumb brutes to be crushed under his heel. Kurtz began thinking himself a demigod, perhaps even a full god, among the black masses. And such absolute power — the power of gunpowder and Provanian technology — corrupted him absolutely. That said, Kurtz never lost his mind’s keen edge. Maddened with power and ambition and greed he may have been, but he was no fool. He knew he couldn’t stay forever. However much he might have wanted to, he had a fiancee back home, and Provanian Imports itself would eventually send someone to recover him. This Kurtz knew, and so he set a plan in motion.
He contacted a female witch doctor of one of the tribes he’d subjugated; a woman he’d also used to satisfy his more “earthly” desires. He convinced her that he would need to depart the mortal world for a time, and to do so, would require her to poison his body slowly. She obliged, producing a toxic powder that Kurtz began adding to his food in increasing amounts. The poison laid waste to his proud frame, making him emaciated. And though he hadn’t known it would, the powder also began making mush of his mind. Kurtz soon forgot why he’d asked for the power, but ate it from habit. Eventually, he found himself bedridden, but still capable of giving orders to his indoctrinated flunkies. At this time, the native tribe began preparing for the great man’s death. Though the witch doctor planned it as a celebration of the passing of a deity, she herself was shrewd enough to know it meant that she’d return to power over her own tribe. But her plans, and Kurtz’s, were interrupted by the arrival of one Marlow. He came in on his steamship, took Kurtz, and headed back along the river towards the jungle’s coast.
Kurtz, initially, resisted this estrangement. But having been deprived of the powder when he was taken aboard the steamer, his faculties began returning. He remembered his initial purpose of asking the poison: to fake his death in order to “resurrect,” an act truly befitting a god-like man. And so, he began playacting a tragic death for himself. He even faked existential horror in order to terrify Marlow to the core. And in his emaciated state, Kurtz had no trouble acting dead long enough to be buried in a shallow, muddy hole while the steamer moved onwards. Now free from both his savage followers and his white countrymen, Kurtz spent a year in the bush gathering his strength again, as well as collecting even more spoils of the colony. After the year was up, he revealed himself to a Provanian Imports base along the river. They, of course, were skeptical that it was truly him. But it didn’t take long for Kurtz’s commanding presence to bend them to his will. It also helped that the man in charge had known him before, and had used Kurtz’s death for his own ambitions. Kurtz returning from death, from the heart of darkness, shattered the man’s plans. Turned into yet another flabbergasted follower of the mighty Kurtz, the official arranged Kurtz’s passage back home like a hero of war.
And what an arrival it was. Kurtz was greeted by all the brass, except one; King Hamlet had died during Kurtz’s year of false death. It was no matter to Kurtz. His return, and the lack of a non-imperialist monarch, solidified his position with his company. Though many still hated him for the ease of his triumphs and his easy mastery of people, Kurtz found it easy to rise to the executive board of Provanian Imports. He took great care to only go to parts of the jungle he hadn’t been to before, just in case the witch doctor would find him and wish she’d truly killed him. But his financial success, hero status, and general weight of character kept Kurtz comfortable. But that wasn’t to say he was happy. Kurtz never quite lost his more violent tendencies from his stint as a demigod. He would rage at his subordinates, even going so far as to physically strike his secretary — a woman he then bribed to keep silent about it.
After a while, his violent skills came in handy once again. Leaving the office for his newly-bought manor, Kurtz found himself under attack by a member of the Concerns. The man had brought a long dagger and a revolver, but hadn’t reckoned on Kurtz’s almost bestial savagery. The would-be assassin found himself disarmed after a series of brutal punches, and ended up with his own knife stuck through his eye socket. The media, of course, went to town. Imperialist-leaning columnists said it was a liberal plot to unseat a shining star of the industry. The more blunt columnist Mattie Ross, however, stated that it was a shame that such an immoral man hadn’t gone to meet his maker. But a week after the assassination attempt, Claudius Hamlet approached Kurtz with an apology. The would-be king had sanctioned the attempted assassination, but assured Kurtz that he’d suspected failure as a result. In both an apology for the act, and as a political move, Claudius offered Kurtz command of the Concerns in return for supporting the monarchic candidate’s campaign.
It only took the one meeting for Kurtz to accept. He admired Claudius’s backbone, and found it sickeningly funny that he would now have double the power over his subordinates in the company. He was, however, reluctant to take on a masked identity, though Claudius assured him it was safer that way. And so it was. Kurtz found that most of the Concerns had it out for him. Taking inspiration from his escape from the jungle, Kurtz began manipulating the criminals so that their attempted “attacks” on his official persona only truly benefited him. It wasn’t long before Kurtz’s mindest once again returned to that of a demigod. His costume, mask, and identity as the Grand Huntsman became more “him” than being Jeremiah Kurtz. As he fondly put it during his one and only conversation with Archdeacon Frollo: “I stared into the horrors of darkness, and I embraced them as my own. I have become that which is feared by all men, and so hold utter power over all men until such time as mortals learn to conquer nightmares.”
