“A hall-burning,” Rorik said bitterly.
“Hall-burning?”
“It happens at home,” Rorik explained. “You go to an enemy’s hall and burn it to the ground. But there’s one thing about a hall-burning. You have to make sure everyone dies. If there are any survivors then they’ll take revenge,(from) The Last Kingdom Bernard Cornwell
Basic Information
The backstory villain is a character from the protagonist's past who has played a significant part in forming their direction in life - usually the person that killed their family/mentor/home village or committed some other crime that either drives the protagonist to specific revenge or motivates them to prevent such things happening in future.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Subverting this character can be great fun:
- The backstory villain actually is the character's long dead parent/mentor - only works if the killing occurred off camera. (See for example "Darth Vader killed your father").
- The character's parent/mentor was the backstory villain's backstory villain (for legitimate reasons or otherwise - finding that the guy you have dedicated your life to destroying is generally regarded as a hero and the loved one you hope to avenge is better known as a villain can be extremely subverting).
- On a lower tier this is standard blood-feud/vendetta stuff: you kill the man who killed your father and his son comes hunting for you.
- The villain has since become a hero - or at least The Atoner.
- The character needs the villain's assistance against something far worse.
- Also, consider the but for me it was Tuesday phenomenon - where the villain is genuinely surprised by the character's motivation and/or doesn't recall them or the incident they are avenging.
- Or the villain actually didn't do it, but was false flagged or had an out of control subordinate acting outside their orders.
- Likewise subverting this trope is when the revenge quest is set overly wide - for example the stereotypical fRPG character who has sworn genocide against orcs because of an orcish raid on his village when he was a child. Played straight this should actually be a far less wholesome character than it is often portrayed as being.
"My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father! Prepare to die!"
(from) The Princess Bride William Goldman