>>95904762
This is exactly the sort of advice I'm after, thank you. I was recommended Blood Meridian as well.
The Charisma Villain. Scary, once you think about it.
>>95904774
Yes he does. Desperately.
>>95904998
Like a bizarre fiendish Fisher-King. Good shit.

At this point the way forward I think is to use the campaign to explore all the different ways that creativity, self expression, art, sensation, entertainment, inspiration, etc. can become twisted to evil. So the BBEG is the very bottom of this funnel of heinous shit that's gradually causing more and more damage to society and maybe even reality if left unchecked.
For just one example, an inverse of motivation / encouragement might progress from:
>A lie powerful enough to hurt yourself and change you for the worse
>A lie powerful enough to hurt others and change them for the worse
>A lie powerful enough to hurt society and change it for the worse
>A lie powerful enough to hurt reality itself and change it for the worse