How would you create a villain based on picture?

Upstanding soldier turned leader turned dictator, now proclaims himself God-Emperor and rules with an iron fist. Started out doing some serious good for the kingdom, but has since turned it into a police state, for fear of the kingdom losing the good he worked so hard to bring it. All the while never realizing that his actions are making it shittier and shittier--the very thing he was trying to avoid.

He has hubris and ego to no end, but rightfully so in many ways: he's extremely skilled with the blade, intelligent, and ambitious. One consequence of this is that he regularly challenges criminals and those who defy him to single combat to the death, and always wins.

Army leader of a great nation leading a rebellion because:
>He's a spy from Badlandia
>The King lives in riches while the people rot
>A cursed relic compels him to murder more and more
>His religion has be publicly denounced
>He's doing what is right; unlike the PCs
>The army budget is being cut due to adventurers taking their jobs
>He's been trying to start a war between two nations
>He just doesn't like the players
>He's a doppelganger who wants to rule
>Illusions of Grandeur
>He believes only the strongest must rule
>He cheated fate, who is now implicating him as the worst person ever
>He will not share his forging secrets
>All his gold is blood gold from a war that spanned the world
>A deal with the Devil: For unrivaled combat prowess, he must deliver 100 souls destined to go to heaven to instead be tortured for eternity
>He's Lawful Stupid

Choose

Give them a name and an agenda

>lawful evil doesn't mean lawful ugly

Josiah, Peasant-Warlord or the East — born poor and with a hellishly low glass ceiling over his head, Josiah began the Empty Hands Rebellion when taxatiom grew too great for the peasantry in the Eastern colonies. In spite of a background in mostly farming and a short stint as front-line fodder in the War of Blunders, Josiah proved himself as a charismatic leader and a vicious warrior. As the rebellion was granted more and more concessions from the upper classes, Josiah continued to prod and manipulate his underlings into fighting for more, failing to catch sight of his selfish motives.

In terms of personality, I like to imagine a fast-talking Atlas from BioShock, sounding kind and simple, but the dude's really a scummy fish huckster.

Looks like a holy warrior that went too far
>someone who has seen the treachery and unspeakable horrors of both monster and man
>takes up oath to never allow it again
>goes overboard. Thinks free will is a mistake. As an agent of God is determined to smite anyone who gets in his way
> deep down inside he’s still that scared little by who saw everything taken from him.

*boy

Fucking mobile

Wealth paladin. Power of money.

>rich enough to afford that
He's already evil without my help.

Everyone else already got the good answers, but to try something different from theirs, he's good at heart but his loyalty is absolute and his master have him cruel orders he'll fulfill even if his master dies

Once hailed as the world's greatest champion, a godsend warrior of truth, justice and divinity. Now has began to undo his legend by destroying everything and everyone that he once stood for.

At the end, "He" was just a suit of armor that was powered by the collective thoughts of the world. First, the world's desire for a hero was strong but after they obtained peace, everyone wanted back that familiarity of chaos.

After pilfering your epic gear during a bath in a nearby ravine, an unwitting thief gets mistaken by an envoy from a nearby kingdom as you, the legendary warrior after trying on your gear.

As you have rarely removed your helmet, no one can ascertain your identity as the legendary hero in this new land. Concerned that the halfwit thief might accidentally invoke one of the many world ending invocations built into your legendary gear, or even worse, botch intra-Kingdom relationships with his bumbling, you must set upon a journey to prove yourself as the hero the Kingdom needs. Hopefully your pretender doesn’t screw up too much of your hard earned reputation!

This guy.

Exploiting the man's vice with a curse: the once paragon Fighter now constantly hungers for gold. With every piece he swallows he becomes more a construct of the material, and less humane.

Over the last three years he went from neurotic and odd to a cold sociopath. He's released all his servants from service, and thanks to your most recent adventure: has a map to a dragon's horde.

>corrupted by dark forces
>not being corrupted by the overwhelming guilt of killing countless people in the name of "good" only to discover later that alignments are shit

What began as a war of defence eventually became a war of revenge, and then, a never ending war of conquest.

Men who began with fear and courage in the defence of their homeland are now sweeping across the continent, so changed by war that they don’t even see it in themselves.
The kingdom just needs better defences, it needs exclusion zones, it needs natural barriers so it will never be threatened again.

His god told him to take out the trash.

Look at his legs and posture. It's a robot.

Aside from the obvious "Hero gone too far", I'd make it a doppleganger that replaced the great hero of legend and has taken its memories. Its using them to cash in a bunch of favours and rewards the actual hero was too noble to take and is building a powerbase from them.

He (or more accurately, it) is actually an advanced humanoid automaton from 3000 years in the future. The intentions of the original builders are unknown, but given the fact that its overarching goal seems to be usurping and becoming the new god of law (as evidenced by it's rigid standards for conduct as well as its habit to demand worship from every person it saves), it's unlikely their desires are being met.

A tyrannic king who is attempting to keep up the false image of a "hero of the people" by strutting around in gold armor. Of course the gold was mined by slaves and shaped by captured elven artificers. Not to mention that in reality the king is a limp wristed lay about who relies on his army to do his bidding, only ever taking to the field when the enemy is already in a rout and surrounded by a loyal, and far more competent, team of thirteen body guards.

Warforged blackguard with a tsochar sorcerer inside him, putting buff spells on his "suit" .

I have a BBEG like this in my current campaign. He is basically the champion of humanity, having reached almost demigod levels of power and lead the armies of the main kingdom to route all threats to humanity and even defeat dragons and arch demons.

He is a member of a group of legendary adventurers that dissapeared very suddenly after one of them found a relic that basically made him sorcerer jesus, and the reason is that he has gone paranoid and half insane about "protecting humanity" and what was once a celestial voice has become a demonic influence that slowly but surely twisting him to use his rank and authority to start a massive war.

he is gay and forces everyone to wear dumb pauldrons

all the party members are "market" which means their souls are somehow linked to are dark god,
the main church of the setting is hunting down all market people purify their souls, sadly this ritual involves the market people getting burned alive. Pics related is the head paladin in charge of hunting down especially dangers market ones.

Being "Lawful Good" and enforcing the will of Heaven can be tyrannical in itself. You force people to do what is best for their soul and leads them to a good and righteous path, but this is oppression in itself for those who do not wish for such a life (not just evil, but also neutral and chaotic alignments). Being neutral/chaotic good that opposes and fight lawful good can lead to interesting conflicts where none of the parties hate the other or want to see it burn, but are convinced that their morals and ideals are what true good looks like.

Such a noble, paladin-esque figure as a villain? Fatal purity could be a good theme for his character. He started out as a promising, young paladin seeking to truthfully bring justice and order to the land. He grew disillusioned when he learned that his order was being led with people who were less concerned with justice and more concerned with staying on the good side of the king, growing wealthy, collecting privileges and securing titles for themselves and their closest friends and relatives. The entire organization basically existed as a means to swap favors among the upper classes and those who wished to join them. This made the order ineffective, and meant its leadership often turned a blind eye to the cause of the common people.

The paladin decided to take affairs into his own hands. At first it started with disobeying orders. Then he started to independently seek out and slaughter bandit hideouts. Then he began to slaughter every murderer he met without trial. Then he moved on to muggers. Then to petty thieves. Then to tax dodgers. Then to merchants who scammed their customers. Then to starving orphans stealing a loaf of bread for survival. When the order figured out what he was doing, he was expelled and declared an outlaw. He disappeared from the capital the next day, but not after the order's Grand Master was found dead in his office.

He now roams the land, killing all who do not live up to his extreme standards of virtue with extreme prejudice. While some whisper his name with hope when another bandit hideout is burned to the ground or another corrupt nobleman is found disemboweled, others whisper it in fear as hundreds are slaughtered for the slightest offense. Worst of all, he thinks he's the hero.