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A little background:

So, my world is a large world which has 5 intelligent races which are : elves, orcs, dwarfs, goblins and humans of course.

Humans are, well ... as we know them. They are largely separated between different kingdoms (5 actually), but in the continent where I'm setting the story, there are only 3. Humans main strength are specializing as warriors- they still have a wizards but not many of them. Of course human rulers are kings, dutches, etc.

Elves, are similar to humans but theirs society is much more bigger; I mean, they have fewer kingdoms, cities and provinces but the population in them are much, much higher compared to human kingdoms. Elves also are separated by two large groups, the Highborns and the Second Bloods. Second Bloods also include goblins and a race of dwarfs that are kind of slave (I mean kind of because it's not like they have them tied up doing their chores but their race does serve the Highborns). Second Bloods have one leader per race, making a council. Highborns have a king and a council comprised of important people. Elves main forces are mage warriors. Elves discovered magic and evolve it, but (I will explain this in a little bit) their warriors are not 100% magic focused, they just use some to defend themselves.

Information about other races will be provided if needed.

Also, only a few wizards go back to their kingdoms after being in The college of wizards, and they usually return as a councilor as well as training a few soldiers with a little magic usage so they are not defenseless against a few magic opponents.

**A legendary story of a long time ago **

(Resumed cause this post it's getting to long already)

There is a legend about my world, when the civilizations were young, kingdoms as we know it didn't exist. War was always present especially between races. Humans were barely able to control a bit of magic, during their fights against elves they would capture them and study their magic, trying to learn it.

One day they captured a powerful elf mage, who has studied forbidden magic, and the man refused to teach magic to such an ignorant race so when the humans tortured him he opened a portal to let a horrible creature into this world to get vengeance upon the humans. The creature he summoned was a demon who wanted to invade our world. Incredibly fast, the demons swarmed the world and all life-forms were threaten.

After failing at making the demons fall back, all races united into an enormous army and then angels came down from the sky and gave the non-demon armies holy items to fight against the army of demons.

Eventually they won.

And now

A megalomaniac human mage wants to dominate the world by using the power of blood magic (term used to refer to demon-involved magic), and summoning demons into the world.

Now, a large group of Second Bloods will follow this lunatic wizard, because he deceives them by making them believe that he will free them from the highborns (and yeah, he will help them with that but that's not the long term plan).

But how do I make a large group of humans follow him? Other powerful mages won't follow him, as blood magic is forbidden and is only studied by archmages, only for the pursuit of knowledge, maybe a few magic-users, like healers or few soldiers who are able to use magic.

Mind control is off the table as it doesn't really work on everyone and other mages can see through it.

Edit: our little mage has to work in the shadows because otherwise he would be hunted down. It's a great risk that he cannot afford, if the wizard college figures out what he is doing they will personally intervene.

TL;DR

A megalomaniac wizard wants to dominate the world by the use of magic, related to demons. He wants to summon them into our world. He had already deceived a group of elves by making them believe he will free them from their rulers.

How can I make him convince a group of humans to follow him in his mission of conquesring ... Well, first the kingdom- and then the whole world?

PS: Sorry If bad English! I hope you are able to understand everything, if not I'll edit.

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    $\begingroup$ It's too story based. Besides, humans can be idiots sometimes. It can be surprisingly easy to convince some that the gods are out to get em. $\endgroup$
    – Skye
    Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 13:27
  • $\begingroup$ @Sky first post here. Is it a problem? I just wanted to give a social and political background so it would be easier to understand how people feel about this things. $\endgroup$
    – Yacomini
    Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 13:29
  • $\begingroup$ Motives and politics in stories depend on the setting and the writing style in ways too subtle for question-and-answer form. We can help you design your world, but not tell your story. $\endgroup$
    – John Dallman
    Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 13:32
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    $\begingroup$ @Sky medieval politics doesn't work like nowadays, you may control the people by other media, but it was hard to face a king in open speech, as people usually rely on their kings and high political postures than just a random somebody who just start saying crappy things on the street. Also I forgot to add it, but our little evil wizard is working in the shadows, as if any other mage finds out about this, he would probably be hunted down pretty fast, that's why he needs a group of people to not be defendless until he is in the perfect situation to take over. $\endgroup$
    – Yacomini
    Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 13:48
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    $\begingroup$ You're overthinking the problem. There are always morons available with more greed/pride than sense, “Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.” -Niccolo Machiavelli $\endgroup$
    – nzaman
    Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 13:50

3 Answers 3

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How does ISIS or Scientology get members. You seek out those who feel alienated. You then offer them a sense of belonging to a community. At least until they've been well indoctrinated, you keep them well away from the rest of the world by making them cut ties with family and friends outside. You tell them that all they have learned is lies. In your case it would be telling them that the demons are really the good guys and you keep reinforcing that message whilst preventing any contrary messages getting through.

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  • $\begingroup$ A really interesting answer. I though that this may be accomplish by avoiding the "I also support demons" part, and leaving that until it's too late, but this certainly gives me a different view spot. $\endgroup$
    – Yacomini
    Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 14:28
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    $\begingroup$ Well, I would say don't focus on supporting demons too early on. Try to give an image of love and caring. Perhaps seek out veterans who've been scarred by war only to return to a life of poverty. You can tell them that elves and humans are brothers and sisters who can work together to feed, clothe and give shelter to each other. The real enemies are the rulers and their priests who feed lies to keep people enslaved. $\endgroup$
    – Dave Halsall
    Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 15:06
  • $\begingroup$ And the "church of satan" seems to be able to get followers. $\endgroup$
    – WGroleau
    Commented Sep 8, 2016 at 5:27
  • $\begingroup$ A friend of L. Ron Hubbard (the originator of Scientology) was Aleister Crowley - just look him up nationaltrust.org.uk/features/… $\endgroup$
    – chasly - supports Monica
    Commented Nov 18, 2018 at 16:59
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If he promise substantial gains for your allies after you take control, a lot of human will follow you due to their natural greed.

Next, forbidden things, in this case forbidden magic, is always interesting because of the excitation of transgression and curiosity, so even high rank mage could follow you if you take care of filter the one really interested in dark magic from the one who can betray you when thing will go ugly.

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You can make people follow or believe in things apparently quite easily - just look at the number of religions in the world, and the number of followers that they have. It is axiomatic that virtually all of them are wrong (assuming that they state that they are the one true religion, which most do) as at most one of them is correct, thus the others are wrong.

All your demon-worshipper needs is a good story and the ability to tell it, he can get plenty of followers.

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  • $\begingroup$ "Those aren't demons, they're misunderstood angels of righteous vengeance!" $\endgroup$
    – Russell Fox
    Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 16:27

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