The way I see it

Once upon a time,

in a faraway land amidst the Big Waters, there was a kingdom usually called the Land of Joy. People there lived in harmony and peace thanks to an exceptional repartition of powers. There was no concept of Evil or Good because humans lived in constant contact with magic.

The magic was represented by various Creatures such as witches, satyrs, trolls, naiads,fairies, wizards and other kinds of demons who were at first feared by humans for their extraordinary powers over them. Over time, however, the humans discovered their good sides; the fairies fulfilling wishes, little demons cleaning their places overnight and even witches curing their illnesses. They realized these creatures just needed attention, respect and to be believed in. They decided that they had better live together in peace rather than fight an unequal battle.

Still, the creatures would avoid humans, hiding their powers except in special cases to maintain this respectful aura of mystery around their nature.They would receive praise as well as gifts from humans and would give in return discreet touches of magic to be felt in music, colourful portraits, bewitched paintings or delightful food. In the worst cases, witches would cast a spell or demons would make a bad joke, but this was soon repaired by the fairies so that everyone lived content.

There was, though, in this Land of Joy one creature who was unhappy- the wizard called Deerg.

Deerg's sole dream was to rule the magic forces alone, and not to share them with any other Creature. If only he could gather all the magic power for himself then he would really be feared, not only by humans but also by all the creatures in the land.

Deerg was a powerful wizard and had fought long, especially against witches and satyrs. But there were far too many of these creatures for Deerg to eliminate, and besides, they would always put aside their differences to gather up against him. When he saw a fairy defending a witch (her natural enemy), he got so depressed that he didn't leave his bed for about 70 years.

One day, however, Deerg decided to think for more than five minutes instead of trying to blast any being that would appear before his eyes. He thought for 3 hours, his head was twisted with pain by so much effort but he felt he was close to the solution!

His plan needed time, but what was a hundred years compared to his immortality and the promise of absolute power?

The only way to destroy the Creatures was to destroy their ego. He knew very well how much their powers could decrease if nobody cared about them. And the only way to achieve that was to make humans indifferent to magic.

It took him another two hours to find out how he could rule the sensitivity of humans. In fact, Deerg was stupid and every single effort of his brain was felt as a knife entering his head, but obviously the years of inertia he had spent in his bed without constantly trying to rule over another by magic were bearing their fruits.

He had to put in people's minds something more important than their happy lives, something more obsessive and overwhelming. He found he could easily alter people's way of thinking by simply throwing bits of stupidity at them- greed, selfishness, suspicion and jealousy, for these were part of their nature anyway. This method would, however, be too striking for his plans and could be only be performed effectively on individuals. He needed the effect to be slow and progressive so that it wouldn't be noticed by the creatures until it was far too late for them to react.

His sick mind brought him an answer! These ridiculous humans would get trapped soon and spread the evil themselves, and happily!

Deerg started to work on his plan night and day, slowly but surely, even pretending to have accepted the state of harmony in the land and as the years passed...