Good afternoon, my fellow gamers. Always great to get advice from the minds of such creative people!
Ok, so we're playing in a homebrew world and they have been pounding their way through to 6th level. They've endured to reassemble a statue of a fallen angel. They are currently trying to get the last piece. When reassembled, the true storyline of the campaign will be revealed. The angel is a messenger from the heavens, sent to the world to deliver the message that doom approaches. A great evil is about to wake and bring forth the end of the world.
This doom: an ancient king of legend that discovered fire and stole it from the gods. He stole away the ember of that power and retreated with his armies into undeath to protect it always. I have the baddie built, the armies laid out, even a cult to lead up to it, everything ready to go!
Problem: I don't really know what his motivation should be. He was noble in life, so I figure it should be at least a twisted form of nobility to bring him forth. But damned if I can think of anything.
Suggestions?
He could believe that the Gods were squandering the power, and by protecting it eternally, he keeps something even worse from happening. Depending on how long the campaign goes, or what direction, he could even be right.
Maybe he lost someone he loved beyond life itself. He journeyed to the gods to demand this person's return to life. The gods said "No." Expecting that, he stole fire and waits beyond death with the fire of the gods for his beloved to be returned to him.
(Finding this person's ghost could be a part of defeating the bad guy--confronting him with the fact that his actions in refusing to let the beloved pass on have doomed them to eons of torment, caught between life and death).