Help on Evil Psycho Chick Background!!! [Archive] - Wizards Community

Help on Evil Psycho Chick Background!!! [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
The Stray
07-17-04, 05:13 AM Hi-o! I'm looking for help developing the background of one of the major villains in my game, since I'm giving one of the players the opportunity to run her for a short time (an Old Switcheroo sort of situation). In order for the player to run this villainess properly, I need to assemble a background that will make sense from the few pieces of info I have on this chick now. So, without further ado, I present Maiali Nightwound.

Here's the information I have on her so far. She's a second-generation half-elf. She's 29 years old, but looks 20 thanks to her elven blood. She's the leader of a cult dedicated to the demonic God of Terror, Madness, and Nightmares. She got jiggy with a howler to seal a demonic pact...and did so while forcing the characters to watch, just because she liked their disgust. She seduced and tortured a high priest of a temple dedicated to the Goddess of Love and Beauty to the point where he willingly let her sacrifice him to the demon god...which was the high point of a ritual designed solely to discredit the high sheriff of the town the characters were staying in at the time by framing him for Necromancy. To prepare this ritual she concoted an elaborate trap to lure in the other clerics of the love goddess so she'd have more sacrifices to power the ritual. She murdered seven people, including the former high sheriff of the town (whom she'd seduced) and horribly mutilated their bodies after death. Her current plan is to infiltrate the party by abducting and replacing the wife of one of the characters, who looks nearly identical to her, just so she can get close to her husband and seduce him, as well, then escape and bear his child.

But what I have of her early life is this: She was born to a loving, caring middle-class family who lived in a wealthy port city. She had an older brother, a twin sister (not the same as the person she's trying to masquerade as), a good mother, and a father who sailed in the Navy. The father was killed by pirates when she was ten, her sister was sort of a tom boy while she wasn't, and her brother was rather protective of his sisters.

So how does a person go from this sort of life to the monster she becomes later? What would turn a sweet, innocent little girl into a misanthropic sociopath who delights in sadistically committing all sorts of vile atrocities for her own sick, perverted pleasure?
mr_elf
07-20-04, 05:22 AM Well, you said she tortured the cleric so much that he willingly let her sacrafice him. Likewise, maybe she encountered some like minded sicko who tortured her or perverted her mind some other way?
Perhaps when she decided to start adventuring early on in her career she met a party of evil-doers with whom she established a kinship or felt she had something in common with, and decided to follow their example?
Maybe the rest of her family was slaughtered or "disposed of" in a likewise filthy manner, permanantly disturbing her, maybe even driving her to minor insanity?

Hope this gives you some ideas!
SoulLord
07-20-04, 01:37 PM For a twist perhaps she is the inocent sweet girl its just that her body has been posessed by a demon.

during one of her walks to the field she could have come across a dead womans body arrows in her back as she stared into the body she looked at a beautfużiful golden neckale that when she touched it she became posessed.

when the pc kill her if they take the necklace whoever takes it could become posessed as well.

SoulLord
The Stray
07-20-04, 04:16 PM Well, since I have had time to brainstorm since I posted this, I came up with some ideas already...Let me post them and see what you guys think.

Little Maiali (not her real name...she took that name AFTER joining the cult) was on a voyage with her father and her sister (since her sister is going to become a major NPC as well), en route to another city as part of a convoy that her father was protecting. The convoy wasn't seriously expecting any trouble, but a new pirate lord had come to power and wanted to prove his might to the world, so his fleet attacks. Little Maiali and her sister watch their father and his crew get butchered in the first attack, and the pirates came for them next. her sister managed to escape, but they got seperated, and Maiali was captured, to be held for ransom.

Now, while she's among the pirates, some of them decide to use her for their pleasure. She's only ten, but it doesn't matter; to them, she's just another hole to fill. Eventually, the Navy catches up to the ship and takes it down. She's rescued, and returned home. But her homecoming isn't a very joyful one. Her mother is bitter that her husband is dead, and unconsciously blames her daughters for taking him away. Maiali's older brother trys to comfort them, but he's not really up to the task. Maiali's sister could have offered suppport, but she's obsessed with getting vengence against the pirate lord, who escaped retaliation and is now a serious threat on the seas. She trains very hard to become proficfient in combat, and Maiali has no person she can really turn to except her brother, but there are some things he just doesn't understand. And the attitude of the neighbors isn't helping any...she's been touched in a foul way and is now considered "tainted," so they won't have anything to do with her anymore. Even the other children she used to play with avoid her, thanks to their parents. So through most of her teen years, she's shunned and avoided...a pariah.

And so it goes until she meets a really handsome nobleman who promises to take her away from all this. She's smitten. She runs off with him, but it turns out he's only using her for her body and cares nothing for her. When the time comes, he abandons her to a bunch of bandits to save his own skin.

The bandits aren't nice to her, but since she's been forced to develop rogue skills to survive, they see her as a potentially useful member of their team, so they take her to their leader. It turns out that these particular bandits are in the employ of a Cult of the god of Terror, Madness, and Nightmares. The High Priest of this cult does, indeed, see potential in her...and he teaches her that strength comes from control - control over peoples' emotions, minds, and lives. She takes to thse teachings very easily.

She goes through the cult's initiation rites to become a full priestess, which includes a painful gauntlet of pyschological and physical terrors...leading up to her confronting her worst nightmare...a fear of not having a place anywhere, of being outcast forever. In order to prove her loyalty to the cult, she's ordered to capture, ritualistically torture, and finally sacrifice her own mother to the Nightmare Prince, or she will find herself shunned forever. Since this cult is the only place where she's ever found acceptance, she performs the task with exceptional brutality. Her mother was begging for death by the end. So with the priase and support of her mentor, she rose through the cult's hierarchy very quickly.

Like all people before her, though, the priest was just using her as a tool to further his own goals and the goals of his god. Maiali discovered that he was planning to have her murder a merchant family then turn her in to the authorities to take the heat off of their cult. She murdered the family alright, but she then turned the priest in for the task - not before setting up a little incriminating evidence, however.

Nobody would ever betray her again. She was the master now, and anyone who thought otherwise would suffer.

And so she took the remnants of the cult and moved to a new base of opperations, a town being besieged by Hobgoblins and ripe for acts of terrorism...a reign of terror that culminated in the ritual described above that the characters were not able to stop in time, though they did do significant damage to her followers. But she and the surviving cultists escaped, Maiali having been granted great powers thanks to the success of the ritual. Now she's followed the PCs home, so to speak, and set up shop in the town most of them consider their home away from home.

But that isn't all. She has grander plans at stake than just causing problems for the PCs. She thinks she knows of a way to ressurect the goddess of desire, Jillian Belsameth, and gain the powers of a god.

Long ago, so the stories say, The Nightmare Prince, God of Terror, Madness, and Nightmares, tricked the Goddess of Love into bed. The Goddess of Secrets and Desire was born of that union. She was the patron of all secret longings, and she was associated with cats and halflings for their curiosity. But Jillian was killed during the Slayer's War, when an avatar of the Death God was possessed by a powerful demonic spirit and went rogue, gaining true divinity and going on a rampage. The Slayer hunted other gods to steal their power, and Jillian was one of his first victims. During her research, Maiali deiscovered an ancient elvish bloodline that supposedly goes all the way to Jillian herself. She's also put together that every third generation, nine children are born who bear an uncanny resemblance to the Queen of Cats, representing the cat's nine lives. This liniage happens to be Maiali's own, and she believes that if she can reunite all nine children and absorb them into one being, the Goddess will be reborn...and she thinks that if they're all absorbed into her, she will be able to keep her personality intact through the transition into godhood. To do this, however, she needs to find all the other children. She knows of two already...her twin sister is one. The other is the wife of one of the characters!

Her plan, then, is to infiltrate the party by capturing and then replacing the girl. With the amount of travelling adventuring parties tend to do, she figures it'll be an easy way to get a lead on a few more of Jillian's Children...but more than that, she's become fixated on the character himself!
mr_elf
07-20-04, 05:33 PM yeh that's a very good story and its believable most of all!
flamefist drunkenmonk
07-20-04, 11:25 PM that looks good to me, morbid, but pretty cool. very well th ought out too :D
The Stray
07-21-04, 02:34 AM Cool! :D Glad you think this skeleton works...now I need some help fleshing it out a little more. Any questions or comments on the backsroty so far? I want to get this as complete as possible.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
The Stray 07-17-04, 05:13 AM	Hi-o! I'm looking for help developing the background of one of the major villains in my game, since I'm giving one of the players the opportunity to run her for a short time (an Old Switcheroo sort of situation). In order for the player to run this villainess properly, I need to assemble a background that will make sense from the few pieces of info I have on this chick now. So, without further ado, I present Maiali Nightwound. Here's the information I have on her so far. She's a second-generation half-elf. She's 29 years old, but looks 20 thanks to her elven blood. She's the leader of a cult dedicated to the demonic God of Terror, Madness, and Nightmares. She got jiggy with a howler to seal a demonic pact...and did so while forcing the characters to watch, just because she liked their disgust. She seduced and tortured a high priest of a temple dedicated to the Goddess of Love and Beauty to the point where he willingly let her sacrifice him to the demon god...which was the high point of a ritual designed solely to discredit the high sheriff of the town the characters were staying in at the time by framing him for Necromancy. To prepare this ritual she concoted an elaborate trap to lure in the other clerics of the love goddess so she'd have more sacrifices to power the ritual. She murdered seven people, including the former high sheriff of the town (whom she'd seduced) and horribly mutilated their bodies after death. Her current plan is to infiltrate the party by abducting and replacing the wife of one of the characters, who looks nearly identical to her, just so she can get close to her husband and seduce him, as well, then escape and bear his child. But what I have of her early life is this: She was born to a loving, caring middle-class family who lived in a wealthy port city. She had an older brother, a twin sister (not the same as the person she's trying to masquerade as), a good mother, and a father who sailed in the Navy. The father was killed by pirates when she was ten, her sister was sort of a tom boy while she wasn't, and her brother was rather protective of his sisters. So how does a person go from this sort of life to the monster she becomes later? What would turn a sweet, innocent little girl into a misanthropic sociopath who delights in sadistically committing all sorts of vile atrocities for her own sick, perverted pleasure?
mr_elf 07-20-04, 05:22 AM	Well, you said she tortured the cleric so much that he willingly let her sacrafice him. Likewise, maybe she encountered some like minded sicko who tortured her or perverted her mind some other way? Perhaps when she decided to start adventuring early on in her career she met a party of evil-doers with whom she established a kinship or felt she had something in common with, and decided to follow their example? Maybe the rest of her family was slaughtered or "disposed of" in a likewise filthy manner, permanantly disturbing her, maybe even driving her to minor insanity? Hope this gives you some ideas!
SoulLord 07-20-04, 01:37 PM	For a twist perhaps she is the inocent sweet girl its just that her body has been posessed by a demon. during one of her walks to the field she could have come across a dead womans body arrows in her back as she stared into the body she looked at a beautfużiful golden neckale that when she touched it she became posessed. when the pc kill her if they take the necklace whoever takes it could become posessed as well. SoulLord
The Stray 07-20-04, 04:16 PM	Well, since I have had time to brainstorm since I posted this, I came up with some ideas already...Let me post them and see what you guys think. Little Maiali (not her real name...she took that name AFTER joining the cult) was on a voyage with her father and her sister (since her sister is going to become a major NPC as well), en route to another city as part of a convoy that her father was protecting. The convoy wasn't seriously expecting any trouble, but a new pirate lord had come to power and wanted to prove his might to the world, so his fleet attacks. Little Maiali and her sister watch their father and his crew get butchered in the first attack, and the pirates came for them next. her sister managed to escape, but they got seperated, and Maiali was captured, to be held for ransom. Now, while she's among the pirates, some of them decide to use her for their pleasure. She's only ten, but it doesn't matter; to them, she's just another hole to fill. Eventually, the Navy catches up to the ship and takes it down. She's rescued, and returned home. But her homecoming isn't a very joyful one. Her mother is bitter that her husband is dead, and unconsciously blames her daughters for taking him away. Maiali's older brother trys to comfort them, but he's not really up to the task. Maiali's sister could have offered suppport, but she's obsessed with getting vengence against the pirate lord, who escaped retaliation and is now a serious threat on the seas. She trains very hard to become proficfient in combat, and Maiali has no person she can really turn to except her brother, but there are some things he just doesn't understand. And the attitude of the neighbors isn't helping any...she's been touched in a foul way and is now considered "tainted," so they won't have anything to do with her anymore. Even the other children she used to play with avoid her, thanks to their parents. So through most of her teen years, she's shunned and avoided...a pariah. And so it goes until she meets a really handsome nobleman who promises to take her away from all this. She's smitten. She runs off with him, but it turns out he's only using her for her body and cares nothing for her. When the time comes, he abandons her to a bunch of bandits to save his own skin. The bandits aren't nice to her, but since she's been forced to develop rogue skills to survive, they see her as a potentially useful member of their team, so they take her to their leader. It turns out that these particular bandits are in the employ of a Cult of the god of Terror, Madness, and Nightmares. The High Priest of this cult does, indeed, see potential in her...and he teaches her that strength comes from control - control over peoples' emotions, minds, and lives. She takes to thse teachings very easily. She goes through the cult's initiation rites to become a full priestess, which includes a painful gauntlet of pyschological and physical terrors...leading up to her confronting her worst nightmare...a fear of not having a place anywhere, of being outcast forever. In order to prove her loyalty to the cult, she's ordered to capture, ritualistically torture, and finally sacrifice her own mother to the Nightmare Prince, or she will find herself shunned forever. Since this cult is the only place where she's ever found acceptance, she performs the task with exceptional brutality. Her mother was begging for death by the end. So with the priase and support of her mentor, she rose through the cult's hierarchy very quickly. Like all people before her, though, the priest was just using her as a tool to further his own goals and the goals of his god. Maiali discovered that he was planning to have her murder a merchant family then turn her in to the authorities to take the heat off of their cult. She murdered the family alright, but she then turned the priest in for the task - not before setting up a little incriminating evidence, however. Nobody would ever betray her again. She was the master now, and anyone who thought otherwise would suffer. And so she took the remnants of the cult and moved to a new base of opperations, a town being besieged by Hobgoblins and ripe for acts of terrorism...a reign of terror that culminated in the ritual described above that the characters were not able to stop in time, though they did do significant damage to her followers. But she and the surviving cultists escaped, Maiali having been granted great powers thanks to the success of the ritual. Now she's followed the PCs home, so to speak, and set up shop in the town most of them consider their home away from home. But that isn't all. She has grander plans at stake than just causing problems for the PCs. She thinks she knows of a way to ressurect the goddess of desire, Jillian Belsameth, and gain the powers of a god. Long ago, so the stories say, The Nightmare Prince, God of Terror, Madness, and Nightmares, tricked the Goddess of Love into bed. The Goddess of Secrets and Desire was born of that union. She was the patron of all secret longings, and she was associated with cats and halflings for their curiosity. But Jillian was killed during the Slayer's War, when an avatar of the Death God was possessed by a powerful demonic spirit and went rogue, gaining true divinity and going on a rampage. The Slayer hunted other gods to steal their power, and Jillian was one of his first victims. During her research, Maiali deiscovered an ancient elvish bloodline that supposedly goes all the way to Jillian herself. She's also put together that every third generation, nine children are born who bear an uncanny resemblance to the Queen of Cats, representing the cat's nine lives. This liniage happens to be Maiali's own, and she believes that if she can reunite all nine children and absorb them into one being, the Goddess will be reborn...and she thinks that if they're all absorbed into her, she will be able to keep her personality intact through the transition into godhood. To do this, however, she needs to find all the other children. She knows of two already...her twin sister is one. The other is the wife of one of the characters! Her plan, then, is to infiltrate the party by capturing and then replacing the girl. With the amount of travelling adventuring parties tend to do, she figures it'll be an easy way to get a lead on a few more of Jillian's Children...but more than that, she's become fixated on the character himself!
mr_elf 07-20-04, 05:33 PM	yeh that's a very good story and its believable most of all!
flamefist drunkenmonk 07-20-04, 11:25 PM	that looks good to me, morbid, but pretty cool. very well th ought out too :D
The Stray 07-21-04, 02:34 AM	Cool! :D Glad you think this skeleton works...now I need some help fleshing it out a little more. Any questions or comments on the backsroty so far? I want to get this as complete as possible.