Can't come up with a decent villain

[kingaling]

So, here's the thing. I'm just starting to get into the crux of my short story, and I'm fairly certain that once it's done I'm going to take my main character and start a novel (maybe even a series).

But what the main character is capable of, leaves me without an idea for a villain.

My character has the ability to control demons (particularly the 72 goetic demons of the lesser keys of solomon). He can do this with no strings attached, no moral ramifications and no temptations or his soul going to hell for doing so. He has been gifted/earned the rings of Solomon, and his seat of power is The Solomon, not just because of his adept power, but his mental prowess in understanding things.

But, he's already dealing with dark entities (I'm not looking to turn this into a heaven versus hell situation, I have a completely different series I have planned for that), so what could make a good villain for someone who already deals with (and bitchslaps) evil creatures everyday? Any thoughts would be great.

[drza]

My first thought is a woman, a temptation.  If your story is building to a series, you could have him face off with a bad girl that he has enough tension with that she could become a recurring gray villain/anti-hero in your main series.  Think Catwoman and Batman.  Your hero sounds too powerful to be troubled by a lesser villain, and it sounds like you plan for your big villains to come in later, but a well-written femme fatale could be introduced and bring up some nice drama in a short setting.

[KevinEvans]

Make his villain himself, or a reflection of himself. Add in the law of unintended results, and a wierd reflection of the motivation.

Regards,
Kevin

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I see three angles I would take, if it were mine.

Firstly, an equal opposite. Someone with 72 angels to counter his 72 demons, or 72 other demons. 

Secondly, he sounds like a pretty understanding/knowledge/structure-based sort of guy, so chaos opposed to his order. 

Thirdly, an Outside Context Problem.  He clearly has a very good handle on a large body of knowledge about how a particular chunk of metaphysics works; what if that's a much smaller part of the rules of the universe as a whole than he thinks ?  What if there's a larger context, in which what he knows is only one small, local, limited set of knowledge (like Newtonian physics in a post-Einstein world) and he's completely unprepared to be blindsided by something that.. is not so much Not Following the Rules, as operating form a different volume of the rulebook that he does not even know exists ?

[svb1972]

Does the Villain have to be,.. Villainous?

What about a Templar like order.

Knights who are adept at slaying Demons.  They view him someone who consorts with demons.

Also, why is this guy so cool?  How come he gets to get Demons to do what ever he wants with no risk to his soul?
Really?  That seems.. too good to be true.  Perhaps it is.

[belial.1980]

My first suggestion would be angels but you already stated you didn't want to turn this into heaven vs hell.

You could go with Benandanti http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benandanti and run with that.

Or perhaps the Wild Hunt could come after him. JB's used this, but it's a pretty wide spread legend that lots of legends and authors have adapted.

Maybe think about guardian spirits from different cultures. Or gods/goddesses. Maybe Marduk (killed Tiamat) or Kali (killed a shedload of demons.)

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Or perhaps the Wild Hunt could come after him. JB's used this, but it's a pretty wide spread legend that lots of legends and authors have adapted.

"All fantasy novels come in three volumes and mention the Wild Hunt." - Michael Moorcock.

[Rachel Taylor]

Angels and demons are both manifestations of the human psyche. Good and evil are constantly up for debate, because they are largely matters of perception. And perception happens in the mind. They are manifestations of life - even death and killing, because for death to happen, for murder to happen, there must first be something alive.

So what is the opposite of both an angel and a demon?

Mindlessness. Insanity. Negation. The gnostic Demiurge. The horror of oblivion, of that which destroys with recreating, the thing that breaks the truth of e=mc2.

[thegreenronin]

If your hero is someone who can manipulate that kind of power someone who comes at him head on could be difficult. A good foil would be some sort of a behind the scenes manipulative villain either with a personal grudge or an aim to get his power.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

My first thought is a woman, a temptation. 

You assume the character is heterosexual why ?

[Nickeris86]

a couple of ideas come to mind when i hear of this since i have looked into the key of Solomon as a plot point for my own story. if his power comes from the key of Solomon, which is a object, then a good recurring villein could be thieves, hired or otherwise, just because you control demons does not mean you can keep an eye on your stuff twenty for seven and there is always those that know more than you do in the are of taking your stuff.

the Templar idea is also founded, since they would view any one that went against their own belief system as being evil and thus needs to be destroyed if you made them big enough zealots.

more powerful demons that he can't control.

something that i like to toy around with as good villeins are creatures that come from outside our reality. what i mean is things like the H.P. Lovecraft type creatures that make demons piss themselves with fear. not because they are evil but simply because they are so beyond the anything in our realities understanding that they don't even view us as more than bugs or toys.

though i have to admit the ability's to control demons with absolutely no worries makes the character over powered in my opinion. i have the same problem with my characters where i end up making them into gods so early on in the book that there is no challenge for them in facing off against a villein because they would always win. you always want to add some kind of limiter on your characters so that they don't just end up bichslapping your villain around all the time.

one way i limit my characters is that they are really powerful in one are, but completely incompetent in another. say you have a character that can cause massive destruction and mayhem with little effort but delicate work is beyond them like Harry, yeah he can blow down an entire wall but he can't pic the lock on the handcuffs.

for your demon summoner you could make it so that while he can summon horrible demons and control them, it takes time to summon them, but that's all he can do is summon and control demons making him vulnerable to attacks directed at his person.

[kingaling]

You assume the character is heterosexual why ?

*snickers* good catch neurovore, cuz my character is actually bisexual.

a couple of ideas come to mind when i hear of this since i have looked into the key of Solomon as a plot point for my own story. if his power comes from the key of Solomon, which is a object, then a good recurring villein could be thieves, hired or otherwise, just because you control demons does not mean you can keep an eye on your stuff twenty for seven and there is always those that know more than you do in the are of taking your stuff.

the Templar idea is also founded, since they would view any one that went against their own belief system as being evil and thus needs to be destroyed if you made them big enough zealots.

more powerful demons that he can't control.

something that i like to toy around with as good villeins are creatures that come from outside our reality. what i mean is things like the H.P. Lovecraft type creatures that make demons piss themselves with fear. not because they are evil but simply because they are so beyond the anything in our realities understanding that they don't even view us as more than bugs or toys.

though i have to admit the ability's to control demons with absolutely no worries makes the character over powered in my opinion. i have the same problem with my characters where i end up making them into gods so early on in the book that there is no challenge for them in facing off against a villein because they would always win. you always want to add some kind of limiter on your characters so that they don't just end up bichslapping your villain around all the time.

one way i limit my characters is that they are really powerful in one are, but completely incompetent in another. say you have a character that can cause massive destruction and mayhem with little effort but delicate work is beyond them like Harry, yeah he can blow down an entire wall but he can't pic the lock on the handcuffs.

for your demon summoner you could make it so that while he can summon horrible demons and control them, it takes time to summon them, but that's all he can do is summon and control demons making him vulnerable to attacks directed at his person.

I know it seems too good to be true, but according to legend King Solomon could control the demons, no strings attached. I'm not making it so he can't be tempted, it's just hard to do as my character is complacent. Which is a major flaw. And this is shown in both his personal life as well as his life as The Solomon that he depends too much on other people/things than himself.

You gave me some good ideas about ineptitude.

[belial.1980]

Maybe the character could lose the ring (s), just like Solomon did at one point. Or, IIRC, one part of the ring is brass and the other is iron in some legends. Maybe the ring is somehow sundered and a bad guy gets one portion while the main character gets the other. Hmmm, might feel a bit like Green Lantern Corps, but having a nemesis with equal/opposite powers can be fun.

Didn't Simon get tricked by Asmodeus? Something similar could happen. Or maybe a bunch of demon hunters get thrown into the mix, or another horde of demons that're even more uncouth than the ones that your character controls.

Then again, never underestimate a person or group of people who are smart, driven, and ruthless. I imagine there would be a lot of people who'd want to take the character's power for themselves. Just food for thought. I like your idea so far. Good luck with whatever direction you take it.

[LizW65]

Keep in mind, the most effective villains are often those who are convinced they are heroes--that is, they do what they do for what they believe to be the best of intentions.  One possibility along those lines would be a devoutly religious person convinced that anyone who trafficks with demons is Evil ^TMand must be destroyed at any cost.

[someguynamedjoe]

Could your villain be one of the demons under your character's control who's not happy about being the bitchboy of some mortal pissant?