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I have a world of magic set in our present world where good and bad magic creatures (witches, sorcerers, demons, vampires..) live hidden among us.

My main characters are few good witches who are tricked by a demon to make a pact to serve him, and he granted them powers. Unfortunately for him he cut corners and didn't corrupt them before, so they will continue to work only for the good causes (helping people, saving innocents lives, killing evil creatures ..) and are only obliged to obey when his orders help the good.

Is there any way he could make use of them under described circumstances?

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    $\begingroup$ Fear not, absolute power corrupts absolutely. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Nov 25, 2016 at 12:50
  • $\begingroup$ Hello, and welcome to WB SE. The question you've asked is out of scope here. I'm glad you received an answer, and I hope you found it useful, but in the future you should take more care how you frame your question. When you ask us how a magical contract between some witches and a demon is supposed to work ... well .. there's no set way, is there? It's all down to what you want to have happen. There's no objective way to answer that question, or pick "the best" answer. As such, it's out of scope on WB SE. $\endgroup$
    – AndreiROM
    Nov 25, 2016 at 17:15
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    $\begingroup$ @AndreiROM Pretty much every question here is like that. He's looking for a mechanism to allow a thing to happen. $\endgroup$
    – Tony Ennis
    Nov 25, 2016 at 17:34
  • $\begingroup$ @TonyEnnis - I strongly disagree. I don't know how long you've been on Worldbuilding, but this is not the case. Our community has struggle with answering questions outside of our scope because we sometimes get excited about a "fun to answer" post, however that doesn't change the fact that this question is headed for the "On Hold" pile. $\endgroup$
    – AndreiROM
    Nov 25, 2016 at 17:40
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    $\begingroup$ Search for Madoka Magika. It's more "magical girl" than "witches", but works!. $\endgroup$
    – Mermaker
    Nov 25, 2016 at 18:14

4 Answers 4

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A lot of things.

  • The demon has rivals within the demonic realm. Defeating those rivals serves both the good side and this demon's plans.
  • There are a lot of innocent kids that could turn evil. Some are most likely than others. If there is an increase number of innocent kids that are very likely to turn evil that are saved, the odds would be better for evil (isn't statistics fun).
  • Incite the witches to "do the right thing" in special cases where the right thing is not the popular one. Goodness will be seen as painful to the general population.
  • The same thing can be done to mingle with neutral creatures. If any time a neutral creature does something bad witches come and lecture them, they will eventually want to team up to demons (decolonization-style).
  • "Go do those good things but disguised as evil creatures" will create more confusion. Evil wins when we confuse it with good.
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    $\begingroup$ Tricking them into destroying his enemies, nice I love that. $\endgroup$
    – Druid
    Nov 25, 2016 at 13:58
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    $\begingroup$ The "evil kids" plan is my personal favorite, because it could take years for the witches to understand how they've been tricked. $\endgroup$
    – PatJ
    Nov 25, 2016 at 14:20
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    $\begingroup$ Brilliant thinking with No 3, general public prefers comforting lies rather then harsh truth goo.gl/V3Eac2. No 4 is also very good though it depends how diplomatic are the witches. $\endgroup$
    – slobodan.blazeski
    Nov 25, 2016 at 20:31
  • $\begingroup$ @slobodan.blazeski love the pic. $\endgroup$
    – PatJ
    Nov 25, 2016 at 21:12
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Which witch

Witches are probably just as likely as other humans to have a range of political and ethical opinions. There are people who genuinely think they are doing a good deed by persecuting and killing people working at abortion clinics, people working at refuges for abused women, people of other skin colours, people of other nationalities, people of non-vanilla-heterosexual sexuality, etc.. In some places you will even find one or more of these as the majority opinion. Therefore there are probably witches with those ranges of opinions too.

All the demon needs to do is decide who to give his orders to. It's quite possible that one of the witches will think it's a good thing and go for it, even if the majority may not.

Switch witch

Give half the instructions to one witch, and half the instructions to another witch. Each set of instructions should look reasonable on their own, but together they produce a disastrous result. Combine across multiple witches for maximum obfuscation.

Stitch witch

Lie to the witch about what's good or not. (And indeed about whether the demon itself is good or not.) A bit of brainwashing could sway their opinion.

Snitch witch

Tell the witch about something true which is detrimental to them or people they care about, as a reason to do something which isn't quite good but will have adverse affects for the person/people they now have a reason to dislike.

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  • $\begingroup$ sigh. People looking to build socialism/communism killed high tens of millions this past century, but your idea of an impactful example of "people who do evil thinking they are good" are those (likely numbering a couple of hundred total, with a complete list of victims numbering 11 since 1990 and less that 20 attempted ones more) targeting abortion clinics? $\endgroup$
    – user4239
    Nov 25, 2016 at 16:33
  • $\begingroup$ @user4239 Sigh all you want. I was listing examples of minority opinions in Western countries today which are not matters of government policy. If we extended this to government policy in Western countries, I could mention deaths caused by deposing governments, propping up oppressive dictatorships, or failing to intervene in genocide. Or the US policy of mass euthanasia of the poor through lack of basic healthcare. But getting back to the question, that's not something an individual witch would control. $\endgroup$
    – Graham
    Nov 25, 2016 at 17:21
  • $\begingroup$ do try to do research before making sweeping judgements, eh? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid . If anyone is not prevented from accessing health care in USA, it is the poor (you get far worse off if you aren't poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, but that's getting way offttopic). $\endgroup$
    – user4239
    Nov 25, 2016 at 17:25
  • $\begingroup$ @user4239 Do try to do your own research, OK? Quote: According to the CMS website, "Medicaid does not provide medical assistance for all poor persons. Even under the broadest provisions of the Federal statute (except for emergency services for certain persons), the Medicaid program does not provide health care services, even for very poor persons, unless they are in one of the designated eligibility groups." And more chillingly: The major concern is that this rule will create a disincentive for low-income people to seek healthcare. You're entitled to your own opinion, of course. $\endgroup$
    – Graham
    Nov 25, 2016 at 17:59
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History is full of people who we're trying to do good but ended up doing bad. Demons are typically master manipulators, So eventually I believe could trick them into doing bad things all the while believing that they're doing this for the greater good.

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  • $\begingroup$ "bad things for greater good" - for example the nuclear bombs dropped by the US on Japan. $\endgroup$
    – AndreiROM
    Nov 25, 2016 at 17:17
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If he is a planner he could make them do something that seemed good not but the fallout would cause massive problems later.

Maybe defeat some evil monster that then causes a backlash and unites "evil Kind" against good.

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