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Incline Korgan Bloodaxe and other good evil companions

Humbaba

Arcane
Joined
Aug 12, 2021
Messages
2,939
Location
SADAT HQ
To be clear, when I speak of evil companions I mean companions in games with an alignment system, where PCs and NPCs are labeled as some variation of good, evil or neutral. What I don't mean is characters in games, where such a system is not in place and where the player himself makes an assessment. So I won't be talking about Marcus and whether or not he's evil because he is pro-Master or whatever.

This is important because alignment systems inherently put certain expectations on a character, which developers are usually aware of. Hence, whenever they are given the task of designing evil characters, they make sure that they read as "evil". When designing antagonists, making them feel evil is quite easy, because inevitably they will be at odds with the PC. When it comes to companions though, developers are faced with another kind of challenge, namely making evil companions worthwhile.

A well designed companion is both a pleasant character to have around personality-wise and useful from a gameplay standpoint. However, if the companion is supposed to be evil, the option of having them "pleasant" in the strictest sense of the word often falls right out the window, because that's not a trait that's usually understood as befitting a villain. Done badly, an evil companion usually ends up an insipid psychopath, who groans at every lost wallet you return to their owner and threatens to ditch you, if you don't step up your genocide game. In short, they end up as caricatures of what we usually perceive to be a bad guy, who are evil for the sake of it.

Enter Korgan Bloodaxe. Korgan is not the most complex character ever written. However, this does not mean that he's not a great and memorable character and a good example of an evil companion done right. Korgan is classified as CE, not necessarily because he is a raving lunatic who only joins up with you merely for the chance at bloodshed. Rather, Korgan is evil because he does evil. He kills for fun and has no qualms about subjecting others to cruelty, either physically or mentally, as shown by his tormenting of Aerie because he sees her as weak. All in all though, he is completely sane. At the same time, he has a jovial bent, often cracking jokes, off-color as they may be, and playfully hurling insults at others. He is not pleasant to have around per-se but he's the kind of rough neck you could have some great banter with. He is a bit unhinged yes, but not anymore unhinged than someone like Minsc, who orders his hamster to chew people's eyes out. Additionally, Korgan is also the best fighter/tank in the game, which makes him worth keeping around for that fact alone.

All of this is in stark contrast to the other two evil companions of BG2 and many other evil companions from other games. Edwin for one is played as a joke, an arrogant, infantile and dweebish saturday morning cartoon villain, who gets subjected to bimbofication for laughs. Because of this he never reads as evil really. Viconia, while being a bad bitch, is a bit of a cop out due to her nature as a romance option, which requires her character to pander to the player in one way or another. Her backstory is meant to make her more sympathetic despite her vicious attitude but the "cunt with a heart of gold" trope is very clicheed and anime af imo. Maybe it was new at the time but these days it's a bit played out. Like Korgan though, they are both the best companions for their respective classes, which is a great tradeoff not many games go for these days.

At any rate, Korgan does not rely on being made into comedic relief, a love interest or any other cop out to essentially make him nominally evil but not really, if you catch my drift. He is weirdly sympathetic despite everything and bends for nothing and no one. Honorable mention goes to Torian-Kel from Arcanum. Much like Korgan, he is evil not necessarily because of his personality or mental state but because he willingly fought for an evil cause. His quest is actually quite a noble one, wanting to free his undead comrades from eternal torment, though considering that his comrades also fought for evil, this quest itself becomes evil in turn. It's like if you wanted to bring your dad back to life but your dad was Stalin. This is in contrast to Viconia's backstory, which remains driven by pretty much unambiguously "good" motivations. However, he, much like anything else in Arcanum, is very much underdeveloped, which is why I don't rate him too highly.

Which evil companions do YOU like, fellow codexians and why?
 

jungl

Augur
Joined
Mar 30, 2016
Messages
1,420
Somehow he was the most tolerable bro companion in the game. Aerie and Anomen are very annoying and the rest are moral faggots you have to be careful of.
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
Lareth the Beautiful, I like his lines, he only wants to betray you and nothing is going to change that. A shame you can't keep him after his first treason only for him to betray you again during Hedrack's battle.

Oolghrist, Troll
Scorp, Hill Giant
How many TB, party-based isometric rpg allow you to recruit Trolls and Hill-Giants? Only one.
For their reach alone, it'd worth getting them to tag along, even if they weren't overpowered.

Maphistor, it's just fun to recruit one of the toughest demon from KotC 1 during the sequel, until he fights and you realize he's just a meatshield and his offensive capabilities are limited.
 

MuckMan

Learned
Joined
Jun 28, 2020
Messages
104
I remember liking Amon Jerro in NWN 2. He was neutral evil iirc and at least tried arguing his points on why he did what he did and he tries to help you at the start of MotB and can actually help you attacking/defending Kelemvors city (I actually do not remember what Amon Jerro does, if you defend Kelemvor etc.). But man it was a long time ago, since I played through the OC.
 

Peachcurl

Cipher
Joined
Jan 3, 2020
Messages
8,794
Location
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Alignment systems are usually crap. (And the absurdness becomes obvious with characters such as Ignus / PST.)
You're really just trying to step around the question of "what is evil", deligating it to an authority rather than thinking for yourself.

Anyways, I liked HK-47 (KOTOR).
 

Erebus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
4,763
I liked Rinara in Mysteries of Westgate. She's a fairly realistic evil character and could be described as a former mafia bruiser. She's quite friendly and easy-going, but it's always very clear that she doesn't mind hurting others as long as it benefits her.

And though Wrath of the Righteous is my DOTY 2021, its evil companions are decent, especially Regill.
 

Alphons

Cipher
Joined
Nov 20, 2019
Messages
2,557
Gabriel from Fallout: Resurrection.

Ex-raider, currently bounty hunter. Easily one of the most disgusting characters in the game (which says something when you have pedophiles, cannibals and people harvesting organs from kids).

He interacts a lot with the world and other NPCs. Beats the shit out of beggars and whores (which can lead to some interesting situations) ans kills/ tortures a few people.
Certain quests completely change when he's travelling with you (certain quest givers already worked with him in the past).
For other quests he'll give you advice how he thinks you'll both end up with the most cash (though sometimes he just likes to murder someone).

He's also a greedy fuck that always asks for a share of quest payments (you can also pay him to for example fight for you in the ring in Corath). Let's just say that his ending slide is fitting.
 

Tyranicon

A Memory of Eternity
Developer
Joined
Oct 7, 2019
Messages
5,861
Evil companions without a good justification for being evil is strange to me (demons burning orphanages are fine, but why is Random McFuckface over there murderhoboing everything?). I like morally ambiguous characters more.
 

Glop_dweller

Prophet
Joined
Sep 29, 2007
Messages
1,164
I would take on Kagain's quest, and then have the party give him a cursed helm of alignment reversal; good for the rest of the game.
 

Gargaune

Magister
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
3,136
This feller right here:

One_of_Many_SS_111811_185940.jpg

One of Many in Mask of the Betrayer is murderous insanity incarnate, acts accordingly, and an absolute delight to have around. Watch him go at it with Kaelyn for bonus points. I love Korgan, but this fucker takes the cake.
 

buffalo bill

Arcane
Joined
Dec 8, 2016
Messages
1,004
I find it sort of weird that Ignus is chaotic neutral and not chaotic evil, given that his MO is burning people alive out of love of fire and destruction. Anyway, I'd identify him as a decent evil character, though I'm not a huge fan of PST gameplay-wise tbh.
 

Dodo1610

Arcane
Joined
May 3, 2018
Messages
2,155
Location
Germany
The only real evil character I have ever used a lot in CRPGs is Jaethal. She works well because she is so comically evil and simply does whatever she wants without caring about the consequences. Besides her cynicism is often funny and relatable for me.

Arx in Elex was also alright mostly because he was so stupid evil that I couldn't help but laugh every time he said something. No idea whether this was their intention or not but he is very funny.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
I find it sort of weird that Ignus is chaotic neutral and not chaotic evil, given that his MO is burning people alive out of love of fire and destruction. Anyway, I'd identify him as a decent evil character, though I'm not a huge fan of PST gameplay-wise tbh.
I'd guess he's neutral because he's insane.
Insanity implies lack of intent, same level as a wild animal which are neutral.
 

Humbaba

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
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Location
SADAT HQ
I find it sort of weird that Ignus is chaotic neutral and not chaotic evil, given that his MO is burning people alive out of love of fire and destruction. Anyway, I'd identify him as a decent evil character, though I'm not a huge fan of PST gameplay-wise tbh.
I'd guess he's neutral because he's insane.
Insanity implies lack of intent, same level as a wild animal which are neutral.

That's what I aways assumed as well, especially since PST leans very heavily into the notion of CN = insane. Ignus is delirious and disassociated from himself and his surroundings, acting on his pyromanic instincts and whatever shreds of his personality are still left. Any judge would rule Ignus as insane and basically unaccountable for his crimes. Disclaimer: I'm not a judge.
 

Yosharian

Arcane
Joined
May 28, 2018
Messages
9,428
Location
Grand Chien
Edwin Odesseiron, master mage and one-time owner of the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity. He's the perfect Lawful Evil conniving bastard.

I also second HK-47, he is brilliant.
 

Lady Error

█▓▒░ ░▒▓█
Patron
Vatnik
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
9,215
Strap Yourselves In
I liked the evil characters in BG2. Was there even one in Pillars 1 and 2?

I guess evil is unbalanced and we can't have that.
 

Lambach

Arcane
Joined
Feb 11, 2016
Messages
12,730
Location
Belgrade, Removekebabland
I liked the evil characters in BG2. Was there even one in Pillars 1 and 2?

Devil of Caroc from The White March comes closest to outright "evil", IIRC. All other companions in both games, as Balance(TM) dictates, are either straight-up good guys or mostly good but with questionable moral stances on certain issues. Although, depending on how you handle her personal quest, Xoti can become quite the murderhobo psycho as well.
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
37,083
Location
Bulgaria
I find it sort of weird that Ignus is chaotic neutral and not chaotic evil, given that his MO is burning people alive out of love of fire and destruction. Anyway, I'd identify him as a decent evil character, though I'm not a huge fan of PST gameplay-wise tbh.
Well you get burned by fire,doesn't make it evil. He is more like a elemental power in me eyes. Tho the original dude was evil for sure.
 

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