An incorruptible person is corrupted

In my fourth book. A new person is given the reigns of leadership to an order after the Last Grand Master dies in the Third book. I want to show that even if he was incorruptible even great men can fall. How would I do that. My idea was to have him do mission that the Grand Master take care in relevance to diplomacy. In several Missions he sees the nature of human to wage war and kill people for no reason. It was the noble goal that causes the fall. I wanted to show his descend into madness and darkness while trying to clean up the earth and in reality become a tyrant. Sort of like the Injustice comic. Any idead or something different let me know.

Humanity in the Third book nearly survived being wiped out by an villain and fourth book takes place a few month later. Thanks

 

The one thing you have to take into account is this: What is his goal and why is he after that goal? What makes it such an incorruptible goal?

Once you've answered that question, you usually have your answer as to how to corrupt him away from it.

For example, if my goal is to get a pizza from Pizza Hut, and I believe that only Pizza Hut pizza will do that night, those are my motivations. However, if I talk to my friends and family and they tell me that the Pizza Hut near us is terrible, as well as if I read reviews saying there are hamsters in the pizza there, my goal will eventually be corrupted into something completely different and I may get a different pizza. This is a silly scenario, yes, but it's the general idea.

 

You could have them continue to see themselves as completely pure and uncorruptible, but by being exposed to people they view as corrupted or lesser they begin to see other people in general as having less and less value or humanity, eventually getting to the point where they see all humanity as unrighteous scum to be cleansed from the earth by any means necessary.

Or they have a very specific idea of what a Utopian society would be like and they will go to any lengths to force that way of life onto everyone else. That way the character never sees themselves as anything less than good and righteous all while committing massive human rights violations.

 

So, Moose.... Where is that money YOU took for MY Project XYZ? I haven't seen any of it yet!

And why YOU had to be middle man? Why lobbyist couldn't give money straight to ME?

I'm smelling a moose here!

I really do believe that your reasons are noble (moose paradise to Finland) but money was for MY project which is even more noble!

 

This is very good advice. Remember, even dictators like Hitler and Stalin did not see themselves as evil inhuman monsters, and neither did their faithful followers. They saw themselves as saviors and visionaries, paying a terrible price for what they considered to be the greater good of their people.

 

Perhaps the trick is to keep it simple.

Like Floran said, exposure can corrupt. Since your character has good intentions, it may be an idea to feed in distrust. Have others betray them or use them. Maybe take their leadership for granted or take them for a fool. The character could see people do terrible things and lose faith in those people. Bonus points if they can't share this information with anyone else - the secret would eat away at them and evoke frustration in the readers on the character's behalf. After a while, the character may begin to think that if they want a job done correctly, they need to do it themselves.

Over-involvement can be a precursor to some form of tyranny and this would force them to potentially overstep boundaries. We know that the best villains are heroes in their own mind. They might believe that they are saving people from themselves.

This sets up the snowball effect and before you know it, they're controlling everything. A kind of 'They don't know what is right and wrong I must direct them' idea, which keeps them committed and facilitates that descent into madness you're looking for. If they assume everyone is out to get them, the logical thing to do would be to keep control of everything. Put up walls, keep secrets etc.

If the character thinks they are suffering for the greater good, it would be hard to shake them from that idea. Moreover, they might be blind to the suffering that they are causing.
You could evoke sympathy in the readers as well even if the actions are unforgivable.

Perhaps being given the reins of leadership turns their eagerness to please and do well into fear of failure? If they are too scared to fail, they might put in safety nets for if something does go wrong, and that could be perceived badly. Clashes in perception or misperception could be a good route as well. Something your character feels or knows is a good thing may be perceived as entirely the opposite by the people and then there is this 'them and us' ideology taking hold. United we stand, divided we fall and all.

 

Look into the Trolley Problem in ethics. Simple version is:

This gets elaborated on to no end, with the laborer being replaced by a murderer, or the five people being replaced by unborn fetuses, but the point is that your ruler could be put into a position where there are no purely "good" choices and either be haunted by the ones that he made, or find out that the "bad" choice actually made things easier for his overall goal, and continue down the slippery slope.

Quick research shows that this has been debunked, but I grew up learning of a supposedly real-life example of the trolley problem when the British cracked the Nazi codes in WWII. Churchill had advance notice of a bombing raid on the city of Coventry. If he acted on it and sent additional fighters, he'd be able to save many British lives, but that would let the Germans know that their codes had been broken and foreit the advantage it gave the Allies. He allowed the city to be bombed for the greater good of the war effort.

 

I think @big soft moose has the right idea. This incorruptible person of yours starts to do questionable things for 'good' motives.

A person doesn't always start going bad because they are selfish or cruel. Sometimes they just don't see the total picture, or feel they are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and have no choice.

The best example of this is the youngest son, Michael Corleone, in The Godfather series. He starts out being the one member of his mafia family who wants no part of the business they are in. He ends up heading the family and being more ruthless than any of the others had ever been. That series is a stunning study of how trying to do good by doing bad can turn a good person into a very dangerous and scary one.

 

Or, for a more current version, Walter White from Breaking Bad. All he wanted was money for his medical bills....

 

I'm not familiar with that one, but yeah. That kind of thing. Or even something less selfish? Medical bills for somebody else? Can't fault that for a motive.

 

Poor Moose!

You spend all that money to essentials and didn't even score?

 

For gospel and canon on the fall of the incorruptible, I refer you to the American masterwork, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg.

A truly chilling tale of greed by a master storyteller.