Magnificent Bastard/Video Games/Fire Emblem

The magnificent masterminds of the Fire Emblem franchise:

• Fire Emblem has a good many of these:
  • Jedah leads the Duma Faithful with an iron will and unshakeable faith. Allied with the Rigelian Empire, Jedah focuses primarily on Celica and her group, preying on the former's Fatal Flaws so he can take her soul to cure Duma of his madness. Showing naught but full loyalty to Duma, molding himself and everyone loyal to him to Duma's doctrines, Jedah controls the heroes up until the end where the Falchion, the one item that can kill Duma, is released. Despite the atrocities he commits in the name of Duma, Jedah is furious the heroes would rather live in a world with an unsure future as opposed to an era of certainty in Duma's chaotic shadow, proving his devotion genuine.
  • Emperor Rudolf I was among the few to realize the gods Mila and Duma degenerated from madness, meaning he had to ensure the future of Valentia by any means necessary. He leads a grand conquest of the Valentian continent to feed a starving Rigel as well as make himself a target for a group of heroes to defeat so Rigel and Zofia could unite. Despite leading a war of aggression, Rudolf ensures minimum casualties are sustained and a trusted ally, Ezekiel, keeps his more militant commanders in check. By the time his infamy reaches the ears of Alm, his plan has been set in motion. Before his final battle, he orders his men to surrender upon his death to ensure no further casualties. He may have made mistakes, such as enabling Berkut's pride or telling no one but Mycen of his real heritage, but in the end, his gambit worked: his son became the first king of a united Valentia that lived on for millennia.
  • Orphaned at a tender age, Arvis of Velthomer managed to climb his way up the ladder of power and prestige. Once war and corruption threatens to tear Judgral asunder, Arvis aspires to construct a peaceful empire of equality. Although he employs ruthless methods like assassination and deceit, Arvis's dream is pure and admirable. Managing to claim land after land without much trouble through his machinations, Arvis caps off his conquest by slaying his last opposition, who he had outed as a traitor, in Belhalla. Crowned Emperor of Grannvale, Arvis makes the utopia he sacrificed so much for. When the second half of the plot proceeds to tear down his dream, Arvis does his best to subvert the Child Hunts, fight back against Manfroy's manipulations, and ultimately gives Seliph the Tyrfing needed to put an end to the evils plaguing Judgral. This shows that Arvis, while ambitious and unfettered, held enough standards to ensure his own sins were ultimately undone for the sake of a better world.
  • King Zephiel of Bern was once a cheerful, idealistic youth cruelly betrayed by his cruel father King Desmond. Faking his own death, Zephiel killed his father, becoming disillusioned with humanity and helped to unseal the dragon tribe, including the Demon Dragon Idunn, to punish humanity for its sins. Leading Bern in a war of seeming conquest, Zephiel instead intends to unleash Idunn, using the war as a clever front. Even when cornered by the young hero Roy, Zephiel uses himself as bait to keep his plans going, unrepentant to the end.
  • Naesala, that lovable victim of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. He betrays people in ways that for anyone else would be well beyond crossing the Moral Event Horizon...but he is just so masterful that characters (and fans) are willing to look past it. It reaches the point where he gets a Blood Knight telling him It's Personal to leave, by convincing him that there is someone else with a higher right to his head (which, admittedly, is true)...then proceeds to get said someone else not to come after him simply by becoming Sanaki's bodyguard, meaning that if Tibarn (the aforementioned someone else) kills him, he will face the diplomatic wrath of the world's most powerful country. And this move kills two birds with one stone for him by letting him abuse a loophole in his contract with Begnion, thus allowing him to betray Lekain...who has no idea about any of this until Naesala decides to casually inform him, a move that is timed right before Naesala brutally kills him. And all of this is just him in Radiant Dawn. It isn't even touching his manipulations in Path of Radiance: He has his country work for Daein as if they were a common mercenary group, though Naesela is secretly a Double Reverse Quadruple Agent who is merely trying to protect the heron prince and princess, Reyson and Leanne, from being abused by Daein.
  • Sephiran, real name Lehran, was once a great hero who helped to defeat the goddess Yune. Centuries of observing Laguz oppression, culminating in the murder of Sephiran's descendant and the horrific Serenes Forest Massacre forever broke Sephiran's faith in the world, leading to him to attempt to awaken the goddess Ashera to judge it. As a member of the Beginon senate, Sephiran manipulates all the events of Path of Radiance, having tricked Ashnard into starting his war to awaken the goddess and manipulates everyone further in Radiant Dawn, culminating in the awakening of the goddess to deliver the judgement he feels the world deserves.
  • The Black Knight, true identity Zelgius, is a bold commander who leads Daein's armies while manipulating them as well. Having suffered persecution as a Branded, the Black Knight is Sephiran's right hand man ho also guides Ike to become stronger so he may have the match with him he never got to have with Ike's father Greil, the Black Knight's own mentor. After Daein's fall, he manipulates both Beginon's armies and all others to Sephiran's plan, intending on facing Ike in one final duel and even being honored as Ike's final teacher once the battle is done.
  • Walhart The Conqueror was born in the small country of Valm. Through sheer determination, single-minded will, and his own natural power, Walhart cultivated the fealty of people after people under his cause of uniting the world through force. Seen as a god among men because of his charisma, Walhart spent the timeskip gathering his army and resources. He makes his first appearance singlehandedly decimating the northern forces of the alliance against the Valmese Empire before seemingly killing Khan Basilio. When confronted by Chrom and the Shepherds, Walhart shows no desire to listen to lesser men and readily attempts to have them squashed. Yet, in defeat and death, he congratulates Chrom. A man out to conquer the world not out of malice, but to actually unite people in a way no religion ever could, Walhart would have then annihilated the Grimleal, but his short-sighted lack of compassion and companionship proved to be the conqueror's sole weakness.
  • Of course, NOTHING can compare to the Complete Monster Lekain himself, Vice-Minister of Begnion and head of the Begnion Senate. He orders the assasination of Apostle Misaha and blames it on the herons, causing the Serenes Massacre which burned the forest and killed all the herons except for two princes, a princess, and the king, though Rafiel got lost in the desert, and King Lorazieh fell into a coma. Not to mention ignite Lehran's loss of hope in the Created. 25 or so years later, he installs the five-year-old Sanaki as empress so that no one higher up than him would learn of his abuses in laguz slavery, or that he had Sanaki's elder sister, the true apostle, murdered along with Misaha (Though it turns out to be Micaiah in the end). 5 years later, he orders Numida and Jarod, the commanders of the Begnion Occupational Army, to abuse Daein in any way they see fit, similar to what Stalin did to Eastern Europe after World War II. And 3 MORE years later, Lekain imprisons both Sanaki and Sephiran so that he could order the extermination of all laguz on earth in the war with the Laguz Alliance. He also enacts the blood pacts he has over Kilvas (from a century ago, but not made by the current senate or Kilvan royals, but by a couple previous generations) and Daein (due to the workings of the Daein-born senatorial double agent and creator of the Feral Laguz drug, Izuka, creating a pawn out of Pelleas, who was not Ashnard's son, to become king of Daein. The real son was Soren, who didn't even know it himself), so that they would fight alongside the Senate and destroy all "Sub-Humans", with the coup de grace being the murder of Sanaki blamed once again on the herons. Luckily, that was all stopped midway, with Sanaki's escape from Mainal Cathedral. And when Ashera casts her judgement on Tellius, Lekain leads the Disciples of Order to kill all your guys under the delusion that "the false apostle and her minions are the servants of the dark god, and we (the Order) are the will of the holy goddess Ashera herself". And he even leaves Numida to die in the Grann Desert when the Dawn Army made their approach there. And in the end, it turns out he really knows NOTHING of the truth, and that he believes his delusions are actually the truth. All those monstrocities he caused give a VERY good feeling of sinister pleasure when you at last kill him. And to pour salt on the wound, Astrid was arranged to be MARRIED to Lekain! If that doesn't make her a Woobie, nothing does.
  • Sacred Stones has Caellach, a mercenary who becomes one of the six generals of The Empire. His greatest ambition is to become a King, and he's also Affably Evil and That One Boss, since he has an item that negates critical hits.
    • He's also friends with Joshua, from when they were a mercenary pair that worked together.
      • Manfroy? He Used every hero and villain as a pawn in Gen 1, Plus killing every single one of his pawns indirectly. Also he got another Magnifecent Bastard, Alvis to unknowingly marry his sister and brought back a dark god.