Hierarchy of Underlings

The Hierarchy of Underlings, in common Evil Overlord usage, is roughly thus:

Overlord > Aides > Henchmen/persons > Minions > Toadies > Groupies > Contractors/Mercenaries

which are defined as follows:

• Overlord — You (of course.)
  
  
• Aide — Includes Trusted Advisers, Trusted Lieutenants, or any Underling competent to formulate and execute plans which further your goals with little or no supervision. Aides are intelligent, imaginative, and unswervingly loyal so long as they foresee benefit in the long term from their association with you, even if those benefits are not clearly defined, and even in spite of any absence of short-term benefits. Aides are also the most likely to betray you if emotionally or intellectually abused, or if they anticipate greater long-term profit from betrayal than from continued loyalty; as Aides necessarily know all or most of your Master Plan this makes them potentially the most dangerous to your success, and so it is crucial that Aides be treated with respect. Attempts to extort the loyalty of an Aide is inevitably doomed to catastrophic failure. Conversely, Aides' intelligence and focus on their own long-term prosperity means they are virtually immune to bribery or offers of employment from any of your arch-nemeses.
  
  One or more competent Aides are essential to the success of any enterprise of significant scope, and if treated well your Aides can be expected to remain loyal under the most extreme of duress. An Aide may be sacrificed only when there is no other option; in this case it is vital that you inform your Aide honestly of the situation, that you present a clear and positive reward to the Aide's family or ideology, and that you carry through on delivering said reward, as failure to do so will adversely affect your relationship with your other Aides.
  
  
• Henchman — Henchmen are the Sergeants of your Army of Evil, and are responsible for the day-to-day management of your enterprise. A good Henchman is sufficiently intelligent to carry out complex instructions with minimal supervision, often supervising others in the execution of the plan. However, while a good Henchman is capable of adapting in the field to changing circumstances, and even of formulating a contingency plan to avert disastrous failure, he is generally not capable of formulating the plan of operation from the beginning without assistance from you or one of your Aides. (It is, on the other hand, often prudent in formulating your plans to consult the affected Henchmen, as their practical experience may notice obstacles which theoretical planning does not take into account.)
  
  Henchmen lack the long-term perception of Aides, and so are far more vulnerable to bribery or extortion from your enemies; for this reason a Henchman must never be trusted with any plans beyond those required to carry out his assignment. By the same token, a Henchman is also more likely to be receptive to offers of extortion on your part as a means of encouraging loyalty, so long as some system of positive reward is also presented.
  
  Although they are considered high-value assets, Henchmen may be sacrificed when necessary and expedient. For this tactic to succeed, the plan of operation as presented to the target Henchman must read as though the target is expected to survive and return home upon completion of the operation. Under no circumstance allow the target Henchman, or any other Henchman, to suspect that such expenditure was deliberate.
  
  
• Minion — The foot-soldiers of your Legions of Doom, as well as all custodial, maintenance and technical staff; also includes any scientific personnel whose motivation is purely intellectual. With the exception of scientific specialists (see below,) Minions can be counted upon to carry out their daily tasks, but little else.
  
  
  • Common Minions may work alone with minimal supervision for short periods, but groups of Minions or complex or long-running tasks absolutely require close supervision; supervision should be provided by Aides or (preferably) Henchmen, and direct contact between Minions and their Overlord should be minimized as much as possible.
    
    Common Minions are particularly vulnerable to bribery, extortion or trickery by your opponents, and in some cases may not even recognize their own response as the betrayal that it is; for this reason Common Minions must never be entrusted with the details of any plan beyond those required for their individually-assigned tasks, and such details as are required should be delivered by the Minions' supervisors as and when needed, and no earlier. This precaution will also protect your Minions from betraying you under torture.
    
    The loyalty of your Common Minions is almost purely a product of their lack of imagination, supported by your reliable provision of bed, board and basic necessities. Because of this, threats and extortion (although entertaining) are rarely necessary, and indeed may prove detrimental to your Minions' productivity. Common Minions can be considered expendable, and may be sacrificed at need by you, your Aides, or your Henchmen. Common Minions may also be sacrificed for entertainment purposes, but under all circumstances such expenditure must be presented as "Necessary and Unavoidable."
    
    Segregation of your Common Minions into isolated detachments, with minimal direct communication between the members of different detachments, will make Resource Management of your Minions considerably easier. Under this scheme any detachment of Minions which is deemed surplus to requirements may be terminated without notice; if such termination cannot be carried out cleanly an idle detachment may easily be induced to desert through the withholding of wages and necessities.
    
    
  • Specialist Minions are those individuals who are highly skilled in some esoteric field of knowledge, whether scientific, mystical or historical, whose loyalty is not motivated by financial concerns. (Those who are financially motivated should be treated as Contractors, not as Minions — see below.) Your Specialists' motivations may range from coercion or extortion, to a focused desire to validate a particular hypothesis or design, to pure scientific curiosity.
    
    As a Specialist may require more-detailed knowledge of your plans than Common Minions do, it is preferable to have your Specialists work under close confinement in a secure area of your Lair, although such confinement must not be so close as to interfere with the Specialist's work. Specialists in general being highly intelligent, they are capable of working with minimal supervision, and allowing them to do so will often enhance productivity. It is crucial, however, that all supply requisitions be thoroughly audited, that daily progress reports be demanded, and that active management techniques be applied (carefully) if progress is insufficient.
    
    The intellectually-curious Specialist will often prove useful on more than one project, and his loyalty may be maintained by the regular presentation of intellectual challenges, and by the promise of additional desired resources at some (unspecified) future date. Other Specialists, on completing their assignments, should be terminated promptly and removed from the premises as soon as possible. Induced desertion should never be attempted with Specialists, due to their possession of sensitive information; fortunately, their restriction to secure work areas means that termination can usually be carried out without witnesses and their departure from the organization attributed to an "unfortunate accident."
    
    
• Toady — Toadies can be considered a secondary class of volunteer Minion who are at once far less capable, far more loyal and far more expendable than the Common Minion. Toadies constitute an unpaid workforce suitable for the most menial and unpleasant of tasks, but must not under any circumstance be entrusted with more than a vague overview of your plans. Toadies may also be employed as insecure couriers, but generally display hygienic practices which render them undesirable as domestics. Toadies are mindlessly loyal and obedient to the Overlord alone, although they will take direction from an Aide or Henchman if they believe that direction is being relayed directly from the Overlord. Toady management should never be entrusted to persons of Minion rank or below.
  
  Such is the loyalty of the Toady that they may often be induced into voluntary self-sacrifice merely on the belief that they have served "The Cause" or "The Overlord's Will," and the public acknowledgement of such self-sacrifice will only increase the devotion of other Toadies. Because of this peculiar behaviour, Toadies present their own danger and must be thinned regularly.
  
  
• Groupie — Although their function is purely æsthetic, and they cannot be relied upon in any hazardous or stressful situation, Groupies should not be discounted, as they often provide invaluable positive public relations services, as well as positive motivation to the Minions. Be aware that enemy spies often masquerade as Groupies, and so they must never be allowed to come within the outer perimeter of the Lair, and their use for personal entertainment should be actively discouraged.
  
  
• Contractor/Mercenary — Includes any highly-skilled Specialist in any field whose loyalty is motivated entirely by financial gain. Possibly the most complex and poorly-understood class of Underling, the Contractor is at once the least loyal and the most trustworthy and reliable; his motivation, while superficially the simplest by far, is almost unimaginably nuanced. Indeed, the demise of as many Evil Overlords can be directly attributed to their failure to understand the Contractor psyche and the intricacies of the Contractor-Overlord dynamic, as to all other causes combined.
  
  Contractor services run the gamut from theoretical science, systems engineering, architectural and structural engineering and construction to weapons and materiel acquisition, provisioning and logistics, to maintenance, custodial and catering services, to military and security services, to pest control, out-staffing and waste removal. While one may be tempted to delegate these tasks to one's Minions, such a decision will usually require that said Minions undergo lengthy and costly Specialist training which may well prove beyond the abilities of many Minions; thus it is often far more expedient and economical for an Overlord to obtain the services of a Contractor, particularly for those specialties which are not required on an ongoing basis.
  
  The simplicity of the Contractor's profit motive belies the complexity of the behaviour which it engenders, and this leads to interactions which appear utterly incomprehensible to any Overlord who has not previously experienced them (and many who have.) To begin, rather than approaching prospective Contractors individually, you will find it far more efficient to publicly invite prospective Contractors to engage in ritual combat by issuing a Call for Tenders. Such is the amoral purity of the Contractor's motivation that competing Contractors will exhibit such bloodthirsty ruthlessness as even the most Evil of Overlords will find unsettling, only for the victorious Contractor to bring in his vanquished foe as a Subcontractor, showing such trust and respect as even an Overlord's most trusted Aide may dream of.
  
  Contractors, being highly intelligent in their own specialty, are able to work almost entirely without supervision; indeed, more than the barest minimum will often be regarded as interference. Instead, most Contractors will, with the assistance of a particularly ruthless Underling known as the Contract Negotiator, insist that you prepare a detailed document describing precisely what you expect them to accomplish and when, as well as how much and when you are expected to pay the Contractor for each portion of the work completed. Many Overlords are intimidated by their first encounter with a Contract Negotiator (although very few will admit to it); rest assured that the tenacity of the Negotiator is usually indicative of the tenacity and reliability of the Contractor himself. Once this document has been agreed upon, most Contractors will insist upon providing regular progress reports, and may request guidance in the event of unforeseen obstacles, but any unsolicited attempt at supervision, and especially attempts to change the Contractor's task, will result in an unwelcome repeat encounter with a very angry Contract Negotiator. Further, any attempt at active management to remedy insufficient progress will prove spectacularly counterproductive; instead you should expect to negotiate a system of financial bonuses and penalties to be applied to both exceptionally good and exceptionally poor performance.
  
  Although considered the least loyal of Underlings, the Contractor is (like the Aide) virtually immune to bribery or extortion. This is because, despite being motivated purely by profit, the Contractor's loyalty is not for sale; it is instead solely available for rent or lease under the terms agreed upon by the Contract Negotiator, and once secured that loyalty is absolute, within the terms of the Contract, and at the same time absolutely nonexistent outside of those terms. Thus, a Contractor will willingly, even enthusiastically, embrace the most dire and extreme hazards which are listed in the Contract, while adamantly refusing the most trivial of risks which are not. Do not, under any circumstance, attempt to coerce or threaten a Contractor into accepting additional risks. At best, this will result in the immediate desertion of the Contractor; more likely it will also result in a counterattack by the Contractor's Contract Litigator, a truly fearsome Henchman bent on (and usually successful in) exacting additional financial compensation for the Overlord's attempt to violate the terms of the Contract.
  
  Finally, while a Contractor will desert at the slightest suggestion that your loyalty to him has been violated, it is almost unheard-of for a Contractor to betray your trust even under the most acrimonious of partings, even when the Contractor is party to the most intimate, sensitive and potentially damaging details of your Master Plan. This, again, can be attributed directly to the Contractor's profit motivation: the Contractor's continued prosperity depends upon his reputation for trustworthiness and confidentiality, and any breach of confidentiality, even under duress, will compromise that reputation.
  
  For this same reason, it is utterly imperative that you do not, under any circumstance, attempt to unilaterally terminate or liquidate a Contractor. In spite of their apparently bloodthirsty nature when competing for a Contract, Contractors are almost preternaturally social, and any Overlord who gains a reputation for brutality or untrustworthiness will rapidly find his Tender Calls spurned by all but the most unreliable, incompetent or predatory dregs of Contractor society, and will find himself doomed to pay the most extortionate fees for the most shoddy and substandard of work. This, indeed, has been the sole cause of many an Evil Overlord's downfall, when a Doomsday Device, or even an entire Lair, has undergone catastrophic failure at the absolute most inopportune moment. Additionally, any such attempt at violence on the part of the Overlord is likely to be regarded as a breach of trust on the Overlord's part, and will absolve the Contractor of any obligation of confidence under the terms of the Contract, leading to the most intimate details of your Master Plan being disseminated to all of your most despised archrivals.
  
  Conversely, all of the most successful Evil Overlords, without exception, have been those who understand and embrace the intricacies and peculiarities of Contractor Management.

— excerpt from Army of Darkness: A Practical Guide by D. P. von Corax: Leverkusen Institute of Paleocybernetics Press, The Deforested City, 2012