A Brief History of Good & Evil

The Legend of Celeste & Nisha

A long time ago in a certain dimension not too far from our own, there lived a civilization in its early stages of development. As they grew in size, the mortals learned that it was easier to succeed in less than  "moral" ways. So, when the world's first civilizations were forming, so were the world's first criminals.

In a separate dimension, lived two female beings who were extremely special. They held the power of creation in their very hands and were omniscient. Their names were Celeste and Nisha. They lived together in bliss and watched over their new neighbors. One day they became aware of the violence and crime the mortals were causing themselves. Nisha believed in a balance of the mortal world, that for every positive, an equal negative force must exist. She forbid Celeste or even herself from interfering with the lives of the humans. Celeste's heart ached for humanity and knew that there were those struggling while others were thriving off of the blood of the innocent.

In the dead of the night, Celeste abandoned Nisha and fled to the mortal dimension. She then began to protect the innocent and punish the evil. But as time evolved and the mortal population grew, she knew that she alone could not protect every village. Ashamed in her failure, she created a new dimension and fled the mortal world to never return.

She wept for humanity, and through her tears, she created a group of beings with incredibly special gifts, modeled after their image. In return for her wonderful gift of life, the beings entered an agreement with their mistress. They promised to dedicate their extraordinary lives to protect humanity from any evil that exists. 

Nisha was furious, but she knew she couldn't stop her. As time passed she realized that the "powered" as the humans labeled them were far too powerful and overthrew the balance. The powered attacked anything that could be seen as bad, so the humans never had a reason to try to improve their lives and grew lazy. Nisha decided to follow in her counterpart's footsteps and took matters in her own hands. She created similar beings but gave them a different agreement. They had two goals. The first was to cause trouble, but not harm the mortals in order to encourage them to work harder. The second was to work hard to prevent Celeste's children from bringing utopia to the mortals.

It was Celeste's turn to be upset. She saw her perfect utopia ruined by Nisha's creations. As years passed, she noticed that Nisha's beings began to move from the earth to her dimension. She had had enough and built a protective barrier that those only loyal to her cause could enter and Nisha did the same.

A few centuries afterward, it became an issue that some of the next generations of the "powered" were not being as loyal to their founder's promises. Some of the children under Nisha's rule began to protect the mortals instead of attempt to control them. Children of Celestia began to take advantage of and steal from humans. These outrageous acts forced Nisha and Celeste to meet again.

Over time she spent apart from Celeste, Nisha grew colder and more distant trying to maintain her balance, but even she knew that the battles were growing too strong.

"Celeste, we can't allow our spawn to behave in such a matter, this constant changing of sides upsets the very balance I have worked to create! I purpose that if a powered being wants to change who they are, they should be moved to the appropriate dimension."

"Nisha, we can't just send them to the opposite island. What if your horrific beings attempt to deceive you, switch to my side, and stage a rebellion?"

"Celeste, what if we make it impossible for them to deceive? What is the one thing both of our creations value the most? Their powers! If we were able to create, we are surely able to destroy. Such is the balance of the universe." Nisha glared at Celeste, believing they did not have an answer to the issue.

"What if we make them swear to the promise their founders agreed to? A written contract signed with their blood pledging their loyalty and the rules of our people. If they break it, we strip them of their powers and force them to live among the mortals." Celeste met her eyes with a hopeful smile.

"They are only allowed one chance to change sides, so they cannot change the balance. This contract will determine their entire lives." Nisha countered Celeste's smile with a knowing nod.

Years turned into decades, decades into centuries, and centuries into millenniums. As time grew on, the two goddesses were worshipped in their respective dimensions, their immortality allowing them to rule as divine leaders. Each powered child was taught to respect the rules their spirit mothers created. Anyone caught breaking those rules were shunned from their society, and it was even worse if a powered being wanted to leave their birthplace to pursue a different life.  

Villains began to embrace their poor reputation and in fact loved it. Instead of feeling neutral towards humans, they began to despise them and wanted nothing more than to control the worthless beings. Nisha also turned more against humans after she saw how her spirit children were perceived in the eyes of the mortals. She encouraged their goal of ruling over the humans, in order to ensure her balance was being maintained.

Celeste's children grew in fame and respect by humans. As her children worshipped her, the humans began to worship her children. They adapted the title of heroes and heroines. Celeste grew in fear over the goals Nisha and her children held and encouraged the destruction of the villains. Her hopes of reigniting the relationship between Nisha and her quickly faded. The heroes & heroines love the fame and fortune that comes from the humans as much as they love protecting the humans from the villains, and for some, even more.

Celeste and Nisha have only met one more time after creating the contract of heroes and the agreement of villains. It was about an ever-increasing number of humans who wanted to pursue the same causes the powered did. They decided on creating a "contract of support." Humans who can prove their worth to heroes or villains can sign this contract, granting them the ability to live in the dimension of their choosing. If they break this contract, instead of their powers being taken away, their lives are taken from them. This prevents anyone from joining, learning the intricacies of either faction, and then breaking the contract to go tell the other side.

For villains, since they think even loyal humans are in disposable, it is allowed to sign an unlimited number of humans up as henchmen for their schemes. It is actually considered a sign of status to have a large number of henchmen because it is believed that if you have a large following of Henchmen, you are a noteworthy villain.

Heroes believe that the value of human life is immeasurable. Celeste passed a law stating that they are only allowed one human to sign the contract at a time. They have been nicknamed sidekicks. Heroes believe that it is their own fault if they lose their sidekick due to disloyalty, and there is a stigma that if your sidekick isn't faithful to the cause, you aren't either, and can be considered a social outcast for it.

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Author's Note:

Thanks for reading this short little background for the world I created for Scarlett Inferno and the other cast of characters. If you found this story before reading Scarlett Inferno and The Contract of Heroes, check it out on my profile!  Feedback is appreciated, and if you enjoyed it, feel free to vote for it!