Archetypes for Villains

thewritingrealm:

1. Apollo: The Traitor: A disillusioned or cynical team player who feels he can do the work better than his boss and backstabs him or, in contrast, does evil in the name of his team, for the good of the team. The hero will either be the boss or a co-worker that wasn’t aware of his team’s corruption and the Traitor’s eager role in aiding it.
2. Ares: The Gladiator: A warrior more concerned with battle and war than sportsmanship and protection. He fights for no one but himself and his pleasure in fighting, and will often have a Kick the Dog moment where he picks war over peace with friends and family.
3. Hades: The Warlock: A secluded introverts whose lousy people skills cause him to hurt others. Where the positive side of this archetype would try to learn from his faux pas, the Warlock blames others for not understanding him. Also, a character who resents the people around him because of a social/political difference; in fantasy, the non-human who resents humans.
4. Hermes: The Derelict: A criminal who doesn’t want to work within the parameters of law and decorum. He may think himself better than normal life, may have no problem with getting rich of people’s weaknesses, or be too lazy/dumb to work a 5-to-9, so he steals instead.
5. Dionysus: The Seducer: He does not respect women or want to help them, only use them for sex. He sees every new conquest as a trophy for himself. He doesn’t care about the consequences of his actions and often overindulges in other things.
6. Osiris: The Punisher: A Messiah without patience and compassion is a visionary who quickly realizes most people aren’t as far-sighted as himself. Instead of working to teach other his ways, he pushes people into Sink or Swim Training from Hell at best. At worst, he kills anyone who doesn’t match his ideals. He sees it as weeding out the weak, the job of the grim reaper incarnate.
7. Poseidon: The Abuser: A psychopathic and vengeful man who will not rest until he gets his revenge, no matter who gets hurt in the process. He’s the kind of man who will beat his wife and then give her flowers and apologies and repeat the cycle.
8. Zeus: The Dictator: Primary obsessed with control, The Dictator is prone to making up new rules whenever it suits him, purely to watch people struggle to abide by them and punish people for breaking them. He even takes it a step further, blaming the victim for breaking the rules, and even using their inability to follow said new rules to make more rules. And of course, anyone that dares betray him will suffer the consequences. As will anyone unfortunate enough to be around him when that happens.

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