1) World domination

The Villain has a lust for power and control, and will continue to wreak havoc until he/she controls everything.

2) Neglect

The Villain was one of the abused/downtrodden masses and has been provoked to the point of striking back, through violent and dishonorable means. They desire the world to fit into their opinion of what a "perfect world" should be, and have no room for those who disagree with that picture.

3) Sadism

The Villain gets a near-narcotic high from causing those around him/her to feel pain. World domination, if also desired, is only a means to be able to cause suffering on a larger scale.

4) Accidental

The Villain unintentionally fell into the wrong side of justice. Every criminal action they make is either an attempt to cover themselves for past crimes or get rid of their guilt.

I hope that helps. There are probably more of them out there, if anyone else wants to add to this list.

-No villains. Opposing sets of protagonists, both believing they are doing the right thing. Number one; and fantasy novel that manages to pull this off instantly earns some of my respect. Very, very few authors; George R.R. Martin, Terry Pratchett, and the video game Golden Sun come to mind.

-The "Villains" being wronged by the side of "Good" and being painted by the side of "good" in a horribly unfavourable light, so much that everyone thinks of them as evil from "Good"'s perspective. Taken from the "villain's" perspective, what they are doing is just, noble, and right. Only example I can think off the top of my head is the Warcraft Universe's Edward Vancleef and the Defias Brotherhood. Masons spend most of their fortune rebuilding Stormwind. When they want to be paid, nobles and king essentially tell them "sod off." Vancleef and masons are understandably ticked off, and start Defias Brotherhood. Problem is, you play on the side of SW, and thus see them as "evil".

-The villain attempting to do something he or she believes is noble and helpful, be it to a community, to a person, or to a world, this having unintended consequences. Lord Blade in Maggie Furey's "The eye of eternity", probably one of its few redeeming qualities.

It's a bit....odd, yeah, I know. But it came to mind.

And sometimes not. But I love them all anyway! They're so... DEVIOUS, and have a grand taste for the ironic that's absolutely irresistable.

How about a villain that is not necessarily evil but selfish. He allies himself with whatever side he feels gives him the best advantage but whenever he's caught by the other side he somehow manages to oil his way out of trouble. He may even like your hero or have a warped code of morals. (Look at Jarlaxle in R.A. Salvatore's books.)

Girlbrainiac

Lilz

Not saying it's not an evil trait, just that it's not so bad as getting your jollies from torturing people. Being selfish is not enough to push you completely into the realm of evil. It's your other traits that determine whether it's evil or not.

Can't think of any off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are some out there who are serving whatever evil God/ non-existent God... something like that... and genuinely believe they're doing the right thing.

But really, what is wrong with world domination? I wouldn't mind having power over the rest of the world.

Perhaps he had lived among the poor and downtrodden. Once he finally received an opportunity for power he took it. Now he could be on a personal crusade to spread order across the world. To do this, he needs to destroy the current 'corrupt' rulers and bring the world under his heel so he can make it a better place in his mind.

So you start a guy from a low-income background, doesn't have to be squalor he's living in, just enough poverty to make things uncomfortable, make him envious of others who have money. So when he grows up, he wants to get as much money as possible to do whatever he wants. Problem is, he wants to get money with the least amount of work possible, so instead of doing things the legal way, he does it the way he sees as the easiest way.

I've a pirate captain I'm working on as a protagonist... though truly, she's the antagonist of the story. She has a reputation of doing particularly nasty things to her captives. However, every action she's taken serves to increase her fearsome reputation, which makes enemy vessels more likely to surrender when they see her Jolly Roger. She doesn't do more than harry one or two men aboard the captured vessel if they surrender peacefully and hand over their cargo. If they don't surrender, however, she's likely to chop them up, piece by tiny piece and feed them to the sharks, or one of the many other creative ways she's come up with to make someone's death long and torturous... Because of the reputation she's built up, she gets a bigger payoff with less work. Though, of course, she isn't a 'nice' person in the remotest sense of the word.

Girlbrainiac

Money:

The Villian is merely a paw nworking for someone else. Namely the highest bidder.

Or, on the other side of the spectrum, an atheist trying to rid the world of said religions?

I never write evil characters - mainly because I do not believe in one person being 'good' or 'evil' . . . but that's already been said. Most of my 'evil' characters are insane, or greedy, or dead. I'm also now trying not to have villains who work on an unrealistically large scale like 'the world' - how many Napoleons can we have? Now I have more of a 'trying to destroy the other character's world' attitude, though both are valid reasons.

Instead of worrying about something you want to do being 'cliche', work with the cliche. Figure out ways to make it enjoyable despite the cliche.

Not meaning to say that insane people don't do things that just arn't right, it's the fact it's usually a pretty good idea in there line of thinking. Even classic heroes would take similar actions if that's how they saw the world.

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