How do you see Drakov

[ewancummins]

My version of Drakov is fairly close to canon.

Drakov had always craved respect. His soldiers feared him. The common people feared him more. The nobles for whom he worked saw him as simply another tool.

He wanted to be a conquering king, not simply to gain wealth or power, but in order to compel respect from his betters. He had to win his kingdom by the sword, not merely because of his humble birth, but because only if he conquered a realm himself would it be truly his. A small, poor, or backward realm would not do. No petty prinicipality for King Vlad the First! No, he must carve a great empire, and then the princes who had mocked him and used him would fall to their knees and do homage. They would pay him tribute, and even send their virgin daughters to his seraglio.


I see Drakov as hardy, cunning, physically brave, and possessed of a certain twisted code of honor. He's also proud, cruel, and violent.

He is revolted by the walking dead. A man ought to stay dead when he's killed, damn it.

IMC, he doesn't despise nobility or titles. Quite to the contrary; he longs for these things, and hates that so many foreigners persist in seeing him as a jumped up sellsword.

His attitude towards religion is gaurdedly neutral. In his homeworld, only a few priests could back up claims of divine power, and most of them were wicked practioners of necromancy.

He does allow the witches of Hala to operate in his realm, as they do not seem to pose a threat to his regime. Sometimes he drafts witches into his army to serve as medics and anti-undead specialists.

[brilliantlight]

I have some issues with Drakov, most revolving around what a truly lackluster villain he is. He is at the core, the Enlightenment's Man as Reasoning Beast, and every dictator since Enlightenment Thought struck. He has no redeeming values-the only thing remotely noble about him is his title, and I think this knowledge is the basis for his hatred of titles and nobility, except I hate to credit him with introspection beyond his abilities.
Honor, for him, is something to hamstring an opponent with, not an innate quality. His courage is more a bully's bluster hoping to forestall a fight rather than any bravery on his part. All seven of the deadly sins find themselves lampooned to caricature in him.
Drakov is the Nazis without the fashion sense, Communism without the production, Idi Amin without the Tom and Jerry collection that at least humanized him.
While most darklords have a set of actions that would find them redemption, in Drakov, there is no hope of redemption, only remorse.

On the contrary I have always given Drakov both a real sense of honor and real bravery. When I use him he is extremely LE with extremes on both the lawfulness and the evil. He is highly organized and expects nothing from his men that he doesn't expect from himself. The entire realm is run like a highly despotic military. Your superiors have absolute power over you and you have absolute power over your inferiors. The vast majority of peasants on the bottom are privates but can make their way up if they show courage, discipline and initiative. If a Sergeant rapes some private's wife or daughter he just has to worry about the private killing him later in revenge but the law will do nothing. If it happens the other way the private will be hanged. Since Drakov is on top he has the absolute right to rape anyone he pleases without going against his code. Taking a chapter out of Greek History if Drakov was fighting Alexander he would have been killed by the Greek Army as he would never flee leaving his troops behind. At worst he fights a fighting retreat.