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@evelyn

So a good number of villains want power, right? Zalal does; he wants power over life and death to see to his every whim. But after thinking over it, he’s pretty much set on personal, physical power; sure, he’s not going to move continents any time soon, but he’s neither will he be in any major danger barring the protagonists, who before the story are completely oblivious to him. Which led to rethinking his motive; if he’s good on physical power, and he wants to take the place of God, then what would he want? And the idea that came about was that he would seek to create/corrupt culture to be one of his liking- and since he’s a human proxy for the devil, a culture of the devil’s own liking where not only do people do evil, but either a) think it right or b) reject morality so it’s a non-issue. See Judges, where we oft read that the Israelites did what was right in their own sight (Judges 21:25). We see fragments of this throughout history; cultures that approve of things such as honor killings/suicide, abortion, slavery, etc. However, these are all still restrained from their fullness by God’s grace; thus, Zalal’s goal would be a world in which everyone gladly rejected good and evil. However, this presents some issues for consideration:

1. What exactly would the global stakes look like? It’s one thing for the stakes to be “If we don’t stop X, then the enemy’s kill sats will become operational” (though I still hope to retain this somehow, or at least a reason for an orbital base). In comparison, the stakes of “If we don’t hurry, then so-and-so will publish an E~V~I~L children’s book” seem a bit, well, anemic.
2. What does Zalal need to do this? Sure, he’d still have some political and physical contacts (such as assassins) in case someone’s causing trouble, but assassins aren’t really the guys you’d use if transforming your culture is what you want.
3. What exactly is Zalal’s operational plan then for his co-conspirators/underlings, and what are their motives? Some of these are a bit more obvious than others; i.e., one guy is the head of a news empire that really just wants to make sure his empire remains in place. Okay, makes sense; but what does he actually do? Is he just a (more) evil Jonah J. Jamison with super powers?