The Dark Court

The Prince sneered at the back of the throne room. The sycophants and greedy court leeches pleaded their cases to the Dark Queen. Every day, every year, every millennia was exactly the same. Hearing their complaints of needing more power, or their false pride in capturing a few more souls, the Prince tried to summon anger, disdain, or hatred. All he felt though, was boredom.

In any other reality, these would be gods, demon lords, or spirit kings. In this exiled pocket of space and time, however, they were pathetic! The members of the Dark Court fought each other for the meager scraps of power the Queen doled out, like cubs at her teat! Though he also lived at her mercy, the Prince would not do so for much longer. Today, he began the plan. Today, he brought the first Earthling to The Land. Today, he was one step closer to escaping this eternal prison! The Universe had long ago exiled all the members of the Dark and Light Court to this small shard of reality. To ensure that none ever escaped, the Universe had a magical lock that would never rust and could not be picked. An entire world had been formed using small or large amounts of every magic in creation, a world simply called “The Land.” Since this world’s creation and despite having vast powers, not one member of either Court had been able to escape the pocket dimension.

Coming back from his musings, the Prince nodded to the Grand Vizier, who slowly nodded back. The Vizier appeared to have a hunched stature, but his true form was unknowable. He had never been seen out of his dark robes, and the garment completely covered his body. The Vizier was his closest ally, and one of the few Exiles that was older than the Prince. He was not a friend, however. There were no friends in the Dark Court.

Nonetheless, the Vizier had convinced the Prince that the reason all previous attempts to escape had failed was that they had been too small in scope. Why try to escape the perfect prison? Instead, if they could destroy the lock, the pocket dimension that held them prisoner would open, and they would all be free. Most importantly, the Prince would be free. The conclusion was simple, The Land had to be destroyed. The question however, was how to do it? That was when the Vizier had told him about Earth.

The Earth was a world almost completely devoid of magic. They had no gods to tell them what they should and should not do. It had created a population who committed atrocities that were on par with the most heinous of the Dark Court’s residents. What truly made Earth unique however, was that every human was born with a small seed of Chaos in their souls.

For millennia, the Prince had watched the savages of Earth. He saw their civilizations rise and fall. If there was one constant that held true, it was that when enough of the Earth humans were in one place, destruction inevitably followed. The Chaos inside of them made such a conclusion inevitable. The Earthlings had already come close to destroying their own planet several times! If enough humans could be brought to The Land, all of those seeds of Chaos just might destroy it! He would be free!

That just left the problem of how to get enough of them there to accomplish his plan. Though the Prince was powerful, he could not just force them to go. Unfortunately, each and every being in the Universe had free will. The Earthlings had to choose to go to the Land. It was true that the Prince had collected a few souls here and there. There were always mortals foolish enough to trade their immortal spark for material wealth or power. It was not enough though! He needed millions of Chaos Seeds in the Land, causing havoc and destruction. How could he convince so many? No answer presented itself. So he watched and waited.

Ultimately, the people of Earth found a magic of their own, called science. Their faith in science replaced older faiths which had warned of beings like the Prince. Their belief in science had even caused them to lose faith in the existence of the soul! He could not help but chuckle as paradoxically the amount of souls he captured from that world increased. Who wouldn’t accept wealth and power in exchange for something they didn’t even think existed?

As more and more of the humans predictably sought to escape their mundane and banal existence, they found that release in many ways. Substances to cloud their minds, war, suicide, and other amusements. The Prince came to enjoy watching the atrocities of the small blue planet. It took only a few centuries after their discovery of electrical power for them to develop games to distract from their pointless lives. Soon after, came the creation of virtual realities. These digital worlds gave millions of humans the escape they craved with their whole hearts, and unknowingly, with their whole souls.

That was the key, the Vizier explained to him one day. Why try and convince these humans to trade their souls, when they were already begging for a new life? Why not give them what they were already asking for? It didn’t take much work for the Prince to have one of his agents create a virtual world modeled after The Land. With his guidance, it quickly became the most popular and pervasive game on Earth. Millions played every day! They became the orc shaman that was powerful in a way that the tax accountant playing him in “real life” never was, or the sexy elf maiden who finally found that attention she craved, but no longer received as an aging housewife.

And as for the pesky matter of free will, each and EVERY player agreed to come to the Land willingly. They signed their digital names to the contract when they started playing the game. After all, the Prince thought with a small smile, who had time to read all that fine print?