This furthers the idea that they are on a different level of villainy. A Dreaded Warlord who inspires immense fear (or even admiration) from the Big Bad, with much deeper resources, but neither they or the heroes are yet on each other's radar.Satan often plays this role in works of a Christian bent. Their threat is indirect they work through lesser villains by encouraging them to do evil, and the Big Bad is likely to be the head of their religion.
A demon lord, archdevil, God of Evil, or Eldritch Abomination - perhaps even The Anti-God - with a Religion of Evil and/or Path of Inspiration built around them, if they do not appear directly.If they are released, the Big Bad may learn that Evil Is Not a Toy. A Sealed Evil in a Can that the current Big Bad is obsessed with, which may or may not get released.There are different ways this may manifest, for example: A Greater-Scope Villain is a more threatening force of evil in the setting and overshadows it, but due to various factors, it is disconnected on a personal level from the main plot, which is caused by the Big Bad. Whatever the relationship between the Big Bad and Greater-Scope Villain, the Greater-Scope Villain is always Out of Focus - the threat they pose is general and in the background, while the threat posed by the Big Bad is specific and immediate. A Greater-Scope Villain may be the Big Bad's superior, but just as often they're completely unrelated - indeed, a Greater-Scope Villain may threaten the Big Bad just as much as they threaten the heroes. They are just responsible for anything evil or fueling at least a part of the fictional setting (how much of it depends on the scale of the Greater-Scope Villain's influence) in which the story takes place.
While the Big Bad is directly responsible for the current story - the Big Bad is the villain that the heroes are attempting to defeat - a Greater-Scope Villain isn't a major force in the plot, only a major force in the background. But what about a greater enemy that is indirectly responsible for the plot? That's where this trope comes in.Ī Greater-Scope Villain is a threat/villainous presence that's more dangerous, affects more people, or is more significant than the story's current Big Bad in the setting as a whole, but isn't causing the conflict of the immediate story (and may have little to do with it at all). Nearly every conflict in fiction is caused by the Big Bad, the character directly responsible for the plot and likely sending out various minions and lieutenants to make the hero's life busy.
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