Random Darklord Concepts

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

A fighter in pursuit of martial prowess and to exercise weaknesses (like feelings of guilt or doubt) he removes his heart to become invincible. And proceeds to kill his superiors. He is now cursed to not feel much of anything except physical pain. And he remembers what he was like before

Emotionally or sensorilly?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Concept: a military commander who butchered civilians, betrayed allies, and was all-around trash, with the sole goal of one day becoming king.
He went so far that he attracted the attention of the Dark Powers, became lord of his own domain...

...and he hates it.
His is a large and prosperous land, with no hostile neighbours or big problems. There is no one to fight, and so the man who was once an active warlord is now forced to spend his days doing tedious and complex tasks.

Worse yet, unbeknownst to the dark lord, he exudes an aura of splendid serenity. No matter how much the darklord wishes for violence, his own presence prevents it.

Incredible.

BTW, did you read The Stormlight Archive?
Cause one of the main characters, Dalinar Kholin, is a former warlord who now has to learn stuff like diplomacy and beaurocracy in order to unite the kingdom he and his brother conquered. He's a good guy (Now. He did some messed up things - and by that I mean warcrimes - in his youth, but he's a changed man) and eventually adapts to the new role, but in the meanwhile he's hillarious to watch.
That's what made me fall in love with this dynamic. Mr. 'when do I get to hit stuff' stuck in an office.

I've heard of it, but never read it.

This warlord is an inversion of a minor character from Fritz Leiber's setting of Newhon; Radomix Kistomerces, who is ruler of the great city of Lankhmar for about two books before Death himself deliberately schemes to have him assassinated.
Radomix, unlike his predecessors and successors, is described as a tender-hearted scholar. He only really loves his cats, but bears no one else ill will. He brokers peace between feuding houses, sends grain to starving cities, and promotes the arts and scholarship in an otherwise ridiculously corrupt city.
And wherever he goes, he projects a refreshing aura of benevolent calm, that makes people stop frowning, grinding their teeth and reaching for their swords. Not because he's got supernatural powers, but because he is a good and soothing person, who uses his power to do good.

His death is a very brief passage, with Death having deliberately arranged his death to meet quota and stop all the good and civilizing works Radomix was doing.
I found it to be one of the greatest tragedies of the series.

.....

If you've read Leiber's Swords of Lankhmar, you are probably familiar with Glipkerio, Radomix's cousin and immediate predecessor.
A sadist with an odd flavour of nosophobia: he loathed hair (on his bedmates). Glipkerio had all his slaves shaved 100% bald, and had all the hallmarks of a psychopath from early childhood. He was very fond of torturing his slaves, whenever he had an excuse.

In Swords of Lankhmar, intelligent rats try to take over the city. Initially, Glipkerio thought to destroy them by a spell provided by a grain merchant counsellor of his (actually one of the rats' allies, whose ancestors had been magically interbreeding with them).
As soon as the 'spell' (a fraud) proved unviable, Glipkerio first agreed to sign a 'peace treaty' (full surrender and enslavement in all but name) to save himself, then tried to escape through a diving apparatus.

In the Lankhmar cosmology, planet Nehwon is a bubble rising through the cosmic waters. Glipkerio expected to find another bubble. One 'worthy of him'.
Last he's seen in the book, the apparatus has been compressed into virtually a second skin by water pressure. The finest coffin he might have asked for...

But what if venal, sadistic, cowardly Glipkerio Kistomerces had arrived in a Ravenloft copy of Lankhmar?
He was a sensualist and a sense freak. Now, he is virtually indestructible, but he can not touch, all his senses are dulled, and eating and drinking are a harsh chore. He can move around in his coffin and has vast power to harm and kill, but he can't enjoy any of it. And his domain is acrawl with rats, just like Lankhmar always was.

[edised]

A fighter in pursuit of martial prowess and to exercise weaknesses (like feelings of guilt or doubt) he removes his heart to become invincible. And proceeds to kill his superiors. He is now cursed to not feel much of anything except physical pain. And he remembers what he was like before

Emotionally or sensorilly?

Emotionally, he has a constant empty feeling,(duh, he removed his hear) like he eats his favorite meal and he feels nothing, but remembers the times he loved this.
Alternatively the heart is the regulator of the soul, so he now when he does feel it is overwhelming.

[IanFordam]

Concept: a military commander who butchered civilians, betrayed allies, and was all-around trash, with the sole goal of one day becoming king.
He went so far that he attracted the attention of the Dark Powers, became lord of his own domain...

...and he hates it.
His is a large and prosperous land, with no hostile neighbours or big problems. There is no one to fight, and so the man who was once an active warlord is now forced to spend his days doing tedious and complex tasks.

Worse yet, unbeknownst to the dark lord, he exudes an aura of splendid serenity. No matter how much the darklord wishes for violence, his own presence prevents it.

I have notes for a Mistspace domain centered on a similar darklord, a brutal rebel who finds himself responsible for ruling a peaceful village. Turns out governance is no easier than rebellion. These notes will probably never resolve into anything which sees the light of day, mostly because I still haven't figured out what sort of adventures might be run there. Even so, I wanted to mention this darklord as support for your general concept. I think it's a nifty idea if you can figure out how to give the PCs something to do there!

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Concept: a military commander who butchered civilians, betrayed allies, and was all-around trash, with the sole goal of one day becoming king.
He went so far that he attracted the attention of the Dark Powers, became lord of his own domain...

...and he hates it.
His is a large and prosperous land, with no hostile neighbours or big problems. There is no one to fight, and so the man who was once an active warlord is now forced to spend his days doing tedious and complex tasks.

Worse yet, unbeknownst to the dark lord, he exudes an aura of splendid serenity. No matter how much the darklord wishes for violence, his own presence prevents it.

I have notes for a Mistspace domain centered on a similar darklord, a brutal rebel who finds himself responsible for ruling a peaceful village. Turns out governance is no easier than rebellion. These notes will probably never resolve into anything which sees the light of day, mostly because I still haven't figured out what sort of adventures might be run there. Even so, I wanted to mention this darklord as support for your general concept. I think it's a nifty idea if you can figure out how to give the PCs something to do there!

- "...I fear neither pain nor death."
- "What do you fear, lady?"
- "A cage. To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire." - Just my favourite LOTR character.

I think that to many adventurers, the idea of switching to a peaceful, domestic lifestyle can sound just as terrifying as the next monster, even more. You don't need to be a villain to feel like that.
I mean... If you're out here on the road, away from your family, giving up basic comfort, risking your life and sanity, chasing on purpose the dangers most people would run away screaming from - Something is pushing you outside.
The man who lost his family to vampires might prefer taking one hunt after another to returning home and facing his memories of them. An urchin who grew up on the streets before starting a life of travel might not even remember having a home, let alone know what to do with one. A youth running away from a family railroading them toward forced marriage or a boring office job might automatically associate a 'normal' lifestyle with a golden cage. A corrupted character in the process of redemption - or one made to feel unjustified guilt - might feel like they don't deserve peace.

(It's a fear that we as players relate to too - after all, why do we turn to elaborate play pretend games if not to escape the boredom of an ordinary work or school week?)

If you're putting this domain in the middle of a long campaign traveling across multiple domains, and your players are emotionally involved with their characters, maybe you can lean into that.
What did your PCs leave behind when they embarked on this journey? What does return mean to them? How distanced are they from the concept of a settled life?
Think about this (asking your players is worth a shot), then think how to confront them with these feelings.

You should still give the quests, of course - if there's nothing for the players to engage with, the emotional drama would fall flat.
I think the best approach would be creating cool gameplay around mundane scenarios, so the party can spend a whole session helping the farmer family hosting them to work the fields, churn butter etc before they realise what's going on.

Of course, your players know this is Ravenloft. They know not to trust something that looks too good to be true. They're expecting something to be off.
And your job as a DM in this arc is to not give them this. To not resolve the tension. To leave them to theorize, scare themselves over nothing, fight literal and metaphorical windmills until they realise that there's no monster here, only the most peaceful domain ever and their personal issues.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

On another matter:
I had a dream last night, about a house where ornate glassware bore writings that declared its inhabitants' vices. I think in the dream I was picking up the shards of some of that glass to create something new - though I can't recall what- out of it.
I don't know what darklord could have this as a curse, but the idea seems too interesting to abandon.

[Zugor]

I've been thinking about a moving domain, like the Carnival.

My idea is an evil officer who lead to the death of both civilians and his own men travels in a kind of platoon of the damned. His only goal is find the enemy officer who was brought to the mists with him. Wherever he goes, nature twists and became more vicious. Rivers flood, trees branches curl up and blot out the sun, y'know, the works.

His foe now commands every man who dies under the Darklord's command. Using this source of info, him and his undead soldiers juke and evade the Darklord constantly. Sort of like Apocalypse Now, but I haven't see it, nor have I read Heart of Darkness.

I have a really strong visual of the Darklord hacking and chopping through brush, knee deep in his twisted earth, with his motley crew of press-ganged soldiers.

On the topic of the House of Glass, maybe the Darklord's curse is that no matter how they lie and try to weave deceit, people see through it, but on the inverse, they can also see through deceit?