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Non-male BBEG inspiration? (ttrpg.network)

submitted 1 year ago by Aegeus@ttrpg.network to c/askgamemasters@ttrpg.network

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Hello everyone!

The BBEG of our ongoing campaign is not carved in stone yet, so I'm looking for some inspiration. As far as I've encountered them, the overwhelming majority of evil masterminds in pop culture and fiction are male. I'd like to have anything different than that, but at the moment, I can't think of many examples to draw inspiration from.

I don't have a lot of specifications for what I'm looking for. Apart from not being male, they should just be examples of true spite, not someone who can be bargained with. And they shouldn't be the right hand of another greater villain, but stand on their own feet in terms of scheming and orchestrating bad stuff. (So no Darth Vader, but an Emperor. An Empress, actually, or really anything but a dude.) They can come from any genre, media and setting. Favorable if they can pack a punch or two or more, though not mandatory.

D&D has Tiamat and Lolth, Star Trek TNG has the Borg Queen. But other than that, my mind's completely blank right now. I'd really appreciate any suggestions for more baddies to take a look at, characters that help me to get into other evil mindsets than those I'm most familiar with.

Thank you very much!

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[–] TheGreatDarkness@ttrpg.network 1 points 1 year ago

Some good inspirations:

Master Cyclonis from Storm Hawks is basically what happens when you put personality of generic evil overlord into a body of snarky teeenage goth girl. She has a tendency of putting people off in a "expected someone taller" way.

Arcane actually has a lot of interesting female villains, with Jinx as a villain protagonist on a downward spiral, Sevika as a ruthless, but loyal criminal enforcer and Ambessa Medarda as a cutthroat politician.

Avatar: the Last Airbender, has, of course, Azula, who is damn good complex character.

Lady from the Chronicles of the Black Company is one of best written evil overlords in fantasy genre.