Inspire: The Guardians of Light (Thoughts) - The Motivations of Sparta. [Possible Trigger Warning: Mentions of emotional abuse and suicide.]
So I am close to completing Mark’s first chapter in Inspire: The Guardians of Light. All that’s left is left is a few more maps involving either secret areas or Fort Timore, where Mark will get in contact with a group of the original people from the first game. I also know that the end of Mark’s and Jack’s first chapters will have them make first contact with Sparta himself. But this got me thinking: what exactly motivates Sparta to be the villain of this story? Better yet, what is his character like?
This got me thinking about things like his origin, which will be heavily touched upon during the sub-chapters where you play as Sparta himself.

Without giving too much away, I’ve decided that Sparta is meant to be different from other demons. What makes him different? Well, I’m thinking that demons are meant to be manifestations of negative thoughts and emotions. For example, Passus is a demon of suffering (Michael Shuman even told me Passus is the word suffering in Latin, which is a good way to explain the motivations of his character in Inspire: GOL). This means that Passus’s goal is to make Mark suffer by targeting those Mark is close to in the game. All of the other main antagonists (Dolorem, Inlectus, and Cruciatus) also share this distinction. Their names mean Sorrow, Temptation, and Torment, and they plan on inflicting these things upon Jack, Bob, and Wade. But Sparta (and by extension another demon named Vespa) are different from the others because they were once human, and were either corrupted into demons either in life or in death. This is why their names don’t translate into the negative aspects they are meant to represent.

So what is Sparta’s negative aspect? Well after some thought and deliberation, I came to the conclusion that Sparta’s negative aspect meant to shed light on his character is in fact obsession. The things he’s obsessed with the most is the Dark Lady (the original fan game’s antagonist), power, and ultimately the manipulation and suffering of others. He is obsessed with the Dark Lady because she is responsible for turning him into the demon he’s become, and he therefore serves her alongside Vespa, who came into the equation later on in their story. He’s obsessed with power because as he continued his conquest of Inspire through the multiverse his power grows (enough to have multiple copies of himself help him spread his corruption throughout the game faster.) And he’s obsessed with manipulation because he likes to emotionally abuse anyone he meets. In my character’s campaign he puts up multiple signs around wherever I end up, saying horrible things like I deserve to be in Hell or that I should kill myself because I’m useless. But when he says these things, it’s as if there is a hint of jealousy behind those words. Perhaps Sparta is meant to be jealous of the life I have because his life was cut short due to his obsessions. Regardless, he will go out of his way to harm those he hates, either physically or emotionally.

If you guys have any more questions about his character feel free to leave them in the comments. I’ll be sure to answer if I can.