If such threats were likely or possible, perhaps we would see something concrete occur. Perhaps all diabolists, myself included, would be scoured from the earth. I would not expect this to end the problem. Some knowledge can’t be destroyed absolutely, and I suspect many Wrong things collect tomes and texts to disseminate among the public, in case of such an event. I know some lesser beings have asked for copies of my writing, and diabolic organizations will collect or order research.
Instead, it is a long series of Wrongs that are too easy to ignore. The world and everything in it erode.
We have established a problem of binaries. On the one hand, we have the diabolists who contribute to the greater Wrong and the diabolists who don’t. On the other hand, we have the restrictions of society, accommodating and not.
Draw out a grid, and three of the four possible answers are disastrous. Either society and diabolist are both working against our mutual goals, which they are, and we speed towards an ugly end, the diabolist alone works towards Wrong while society attempts to accommodate, or society forces the diabolist’s hand while the diabolist attempts to conform and serve the greater good.
The sole remaining option, harmony and the best chances at righting that which is Wrong, is a difficult one to accomplish, for reasons already stated.
The question remains: how do we achieve something that requires this kind of concordance, this kind of cooperation?
I would say the ‘how’ is simple, if unpleasant. Sacrifice. In particular, forms of sacrifice that don’t require the cooperation of all parties.
One option is that we could turn on our own. Oh, I’m sure that statement got attention. A few of our kind are so vile that they sour our ability to deal with the world at large. Is it possible that we could form a call to arms? To set diabolist against diabolist, five moderates against one of the worst of us? If they band together, then destroy them as a group.
Conflict breeds desperation, and desperation in diabolists breeds Wrongs, but we are well versed in the tools our kind employ. A demon properly warded off will return to its master, and many conventional protections will cease to have effect.
Knowledge will exist, it must exist, but a group of moderates can store and treasure knowledge. If we were to reach this point, we could set rules that discourage passing that knowledge on. All of the knowledge in the world, stored away, an enclave who might work to find the knowledge that industrious imps and devils might distribute in hopes of maximizing chaos.
It isn’t nearly so simple, of course. Our world is a close-knit one, not always in healthy ways. We depend on one another for advice and research, for the right summonings and enough favors are owed that the wrong death at the wrong time could doom several attached individuals.
Achieving cooperation in this would be difficult.
The other option would be to sour this relationship. Very few non-diabolists know enough about our work to properly safeguard themselves, their property and their loved ones.
I wonder what might happen if one were to sell the templars, witch hunters, and various Lords of major cities the necessary tools for protection against demons and other Wrong things? Not the darkest knowledge, but the ways to turn an attacking demon aside, if one knows their general type.
What would they be buying? Their own security.
Suspicion would be rife, chaos endemic.
Yes, Wrongs would be committed, but I can’t help but wonder if it is possible to create a rift deep enough to separate diabolists for centuries to come.
The problems here are that, again, desperation breeds Wrongs.
In writing these words, I doom myself, because others will act to keep any of this from coming to pass. But I hope I have illustrated the severity of the subject and shaken those dabbling diabolists.
I intend to posit another answer.
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Chapter Six: A Last Chapter
Sacrifices must be made, the metaphorical lamb must be bled.
I’ve suggested murdering our own. Cain’s crime. I’ve suggested betrayal. Judas’.
I would offer a third suggestion. It’s relatively easy to accomplish, and many non-diabolist practitioners would likely be willing to help bring it to pass. Of the two major issues that plague diabolists, one is handled. It also falls in step with my earlier suggestions, that it pave an easier road for the diabolist to follow, one where the diabolist is driven to cooperate.
I believe in this enough to sacrifice myself.
Enslavement.
Let’s talk history.
We don’t know where the oldest demons came from. Some suggest they are an antithesis to those same forces that created the world, and they are laying the groundwork for the world’s demise, while the creator forces are still at the far-flung edges of reality, expanding our universe.
Others say they are all devils, at their root. Collections of malign power that take root in people, swelling and transferring from host to host, until they have sufficiently defined themselves.
We don’t know. Some argue we can’t know.
What we do know is that they can be bound. They harbor fears of a sort.
At some point in history, all the forces of the world gathered, recognizing that there could only be chaos if they continued fighting amongst themselves. Gods, incarnations, and other powers realized that with the power they could each bring to bear, certain actions couldn’t be permitted. Trust was impossible to maintain.
Laws were set in place. Those same laws are the ones that a practitioner agrees to abide by, in order to broker access to what lies beyond the curtain.
My suggestion is simple: We amend the laws.
We make adhering to greater goods the easier path to take. Power would not be obtainable through the old awakening ritual, and the new ritual would limit and control diabolists.
To be a diabolist, one would need to shackle themselves.
If calling diabolists narcissists at heart didn’t damn me, suggesting infighting or betrayal should see that one diabolist wants to murder me.
Writing this is another thing altogether. I described two kinds of practicing diabolist, those who self-aggrandize, and the desperate. You could divide these further into minor practitioners, moderates, and the extremes.
Each would find the idea of enslavement repugnant. I expect many are already plotting the worst possible fates for me.
I have changed details about myself, changed major personal details, taking extreme steps to protect myself in these regards while avoiding falsehood and forswearing myself. I’ve masked my location with the practice. I know how little all of this will ultimately help. I’m not young, and I’ve spent much of my life around diabolists, studying them.
I know what I’m in for.
But I’ve lived some time, now, and I believe in what I’m doing.
This lamb goes as willingly to slaughter as one can go, knowing what awaits.
My book will go largely unread, I think, but I have to believe I do Good, in writing it.
Even if this were widely read, I do not think change would happen in one year. Or twenty. This is but a seed, something to be brought up and forgotten until it becomes a subconscious thought. Many who read it, many who I have arranged to get the book, are immortal.
But the fear and anger many experience will be real, in the end.
Words and knowledge are power.
I give my life in hopes that this seed of an idea finds fertile ground.
I hope my few friends will support me in this.
Should that not be possible, then I hope they forgive me this indulgence. I’ve had so few.
God help me.