| Bill Nye 924 |
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Hey guys, so I'm running Kingmaker for my group and we finished the first book a few weeks ago. Since then, rather than do the year of kingdom building all at once, I've thrown in a lot of flavor events month by month so it's not as boring.
One of these events is called the Mithral Mask, a vigilante, recognized by the mask of mithral he wears, that has fled south from Brevoy after years of (according to his wanted poster) murder, intimidation, arson, and high treason. The party found said wanted poster of him early in the campaign.
The Mask has now been sighted in the party's city and has even sat down and had a chat with the king (a paladin, so obviously the interaction could have gone better :P). Long story short, the Mask believes that all people are naturally corrupt, and that those who have a handle on their corruption (not to be confused with good vs evil) have a responsibility to keep those with corruption from being in positions of power, and to lead the people themselves. Because of this philosophy, he very much believes that people ruling themselves (such as judicial systems that use juries) is going to be worse off than one led by those that have control of their "natural" corruption.
During the conversation with the King, the Mask plainly said that he (the Mask) holds no illusions of himself being a good man, but not evil either, and that's something I like about this antagonist. He could be an over the top villain with plans of world domination, but in his mind, he's the good guy, he's doing what he's doing to better society, but the party (the government) doesn't see it that way, essentially seeing him as a terrorist.
Due to his philosophy, during the talk with the King, the Mask also made it clear that they don't have to be enemies, that the Mask simply wants to be sure only those that should be in power are in power, and that as long as the King and his friends are true to their people, they have nothing to fear from him, however, due to his past the King essentially has declared war on him, though the Mask still maintains his philosophy not to kill those who are not corrupt (in his eyes).
In actuality, the Mask's call to action was his wife's death back in Brevoy, being executed for a murder that the Mask is convinced, after some investigation, that she did not commit. Since then he vowed to himself that he wouldn't let such a thing happen to anyone else that he could prevent it happening to (obviously he can't be everywhere in the world at once, but wherever he is). The way I see it, what once was a truly noble purpose has been darkened with the pain of his wife's loss. He looks into thoroughly those he sees as a threat to the people, and as a result often kills those that society sees as innocent, often in brutal ways to make a statement.
A small gang calling themselves "Men of the Mask" have also risen up in the city, but they misinterpret the Mask's philosophy. They see it as much simpler than it actually is, and see it as simply "sticking it to the man". The Mask tried to send them a message that he doesn't agree with their methods by killing one of them that was captured by the government.
One of the many videos I've been watching about designing a villain also mentioned letting the villain win, even a little bit, which as we know is ultimately up to the players, but this also meant I needed to place a concrete, achievable goal in front of him. So, for where he is now, his goals are to get the government to change from using the courts to having one trusted, "honest" friend of the King's to handle all court cases coming through.
In the coming months, there will be a trial that unless the party does something about it, the accused with be wrongly convicted. Like I said, the Mask does his homework, and also believes that anyone choosing whether this man lives or dies should also do their homework. As such, he's not beyond killing an entire jury to make a statement for wrongly convicting someone, as he also sees the jury that sentenced his wife as 'the enemy'. If the party doesn't stop him, people will likely feel nervous about serving on future juries, which helps the Mask's goal of doing away with such a system.
The other goal is to reveal to the King that corruption really is naturally in all people, to show him that even those he trusts might be bad people that are out for themselves over helping the people, and currently there is at least one other important npc on the council that fits such a description. The way I see it, there's no way to keep the Mask from winning in this goal, for even if he dies, he and the King are friends in his social identity. If the Mask should die and his face be revealed, he will have won in shaking the King's world of black and white, good and evil. The small victories, you know?
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The way I see this character is complex. In his eyes, he's the good guy, and the protagonists aren't even the villains to him. I'd say in another story, he could have been the protagonist. And, unbeknownst to the party, this man is someone they know, someone that even sits on their own council, a friend that's sat and drank with them. Due to his call to action, I also see him as a bit of a tragic character, pain and grief driving him to do this as much as any noble intentions.
