Another hubpages article from Robert A. Neri Jr. about constructing an effective Dark Lord in tabletop RPGs.
The article examines the ever ubiquitous Dark Lord and how a Game-Master can set them up to be more emotionally impactful to players. It gives pointers on what strategies to use in the meta-game as well as which they use in-game.
The archetypal Dark Lord is a cliché for a reason but Game Masters can improve on them bringing an emotional weight to every battle binding the Players to their foe using certain techniques.