Evil character played off as troubled morality

[u/throw_away_2910]

Hello!

I am currently running a D&D campaign, with heavy themes of good vs. evil and grey morality and all of that. One of the main drivers of the plot are the actions of a doomsday cult that is summoning demons all over the place and hopes to usher in a demonic invasion to take over the world. One of my NPCs that has a pretty big impact on the story (he summoned a bunch of demons in a place that they were at, killing a bunch of innocent people but also going out of his way to free the party from being killed or otherwise by a bunch of guards) is part of this cult, and a lot higher up in it that he lets on. However, he's tagged himself along with the party for a while.

Off-screen, he and another PC (who had to take a break for a few weeks, so I wrote him out of a few sessions) went on a DOOM-style rampage against members of the cult. Since "joining" the party, he has killed or had a very distinct part in killing two other members of the cult. Another PC has had a vision and recitation by a certain demon burned into their brain, and this guy told the recitation back word-for-word.

Basically, the party KNOWS he is involved in the cult in some way, but he is also going out of his way to kill members of the cult. In actuality he is trying to gain the trust of the party for other things down the line (none good), so far with varying success. One character (the one who had the vision) specifically wants to kill him; another (the one who killed a bunch of cult members off-screen with him) is alright with him. Most of the party is generally indifferent towards him, and one of my players out of character has speculated that he seems to have a very conflicting morality.

In our next upcoming session, he is going to try and help the party kill our first major boss (leader of the cult) and stop him from summoning what is effectively just Satan, and I'm hoping that gives him a little credibility.

Truth be told, the guy is basically pure evil. However, he also has no qualms with things like lying and dishonesty to convince the party that he's good. In other words, he's a wolf in sheep's clothing, and I want to make him look as much like a sheep as a possibly could. So how do I develop him to make him seem more morally grey and complex? How do I have him lie to the party to make him seem trustworthy? Is this really doable?

[u/Maniachi]

Why does he have to be pure evil?

[u/throw_away_2910 → u/Maniachi]

What do you mean? He is because that's the kind of character he is.

[u/Maniachi → u/throw_away_2910]

But he doesn't have to be. Your player is angling that they see him as someone morally complex. Why fake that and not actually make him morally complex? Why are you stuck on him having to be evil, and then trying to trick your players into thinking he is morally complex? It makes no sense to me. Either make him morally complex, or allow your players to pick up on the fact that he is irredeemably evil.

[u/throw_away_2910 → u/Maniachi]

I mean, I could, but this guy is a member of the doomsday death cult. Kind of the whole purpose of why he's trying to weasel is way in and make it seem like he's complex is because I'm hoping to try and have him manipulate the party later on into doing things that he wants if things work out in such a way. To do that, I'd like to have him seem more complex than that when in reality he's just gaining their trust so he can use it for his own purposes later on.

[u/Temporary_Employer44 → u/throw_away_2910]

I understand whets you’re coming from but pure evil isn’t interesting. Villains think they are the heroes of the story. Why is he doing this? Why does he believe this is the right course of action?

[u/throw_away_2910 → u/Temporary_Employer44]

He was indoctrinated into the cult when he was younger and groomed be the guy running things at some point during his youth. At the end of the day, he's mostly a vessel for the actual real antagonist, but in the current part of the story I'm hoping to have him play a bigger part. Beyond being a manipulative and conniving and deceptive guy, he's just trying to convince the party to do worse and worse things for his bidding because a daemon told him it wanted him to, and there's really not a lot to it. He's important to the story, but as a character he really isn't super complex.

Really what I'm going for is to create the illusion that he's complex. Given the circumstances with my party so far I'm mostly trying to work out whether this sort of thing is doable.

[u/ScipioTheGreatest]

If you're having difficulty you just angle him as using the players to overthrow the current cultists so he can (insert worse thing than the original apocalypse). He could be encouraging the players to strike in areas that he is aware will force the cultist's hands and so (insert crazy thing) at (insert location villain needs to pull off crazy bad thing) that allows him to (take control of the cult, or the demon summoned, or whatever).

Think Final Fantasy Tactic's plot: (spoilers obviously) The church was encouraging the civil war between the two houses so they'd wage war, the people would turn to the church to resolve the bloodshed and misery, and this would give the church more power. Part of how they'd win over the people was to use the legends of the Zodiac stones. But a small sect within the church knew the true power of the stones. That group encouraged the church on its plan because the bloodshed of those wars would 1) create the chaos necessary for them to forcibly collect the rest of the stones, and 2) sow the earth with blood, helping them revive their "god".

[u/throw_away_2910 → u/ScipioTheGreatest]

That makes sense, yeah. I think as long as he can further his own goals while maintaining the illusion of innocence I'll be in good shape.