Need evil fairy tales and fables...

We teach kids important life lessons in stories, like Aesop's Fables. But what if you're just plain evil? How do you impart those important evil lessons? I'm thinking it's still kid stories.

So I need help coming up with Evil Fables. Anyone want to chime in? Here's what I have in mind:

The Fable of the Slaver.

There was a crooked man,
he dealt in human flesh.
One day upon the auction block
he bought a pretty girl.
He took her to his home
and he took her to his heart.
To win her love he freed
her and all his slaves.
As slaves are wont to do,
they bit the hand that fed.
They killed the slaver and his pretty girl.

The moral of the tale? Know your place. The slaver forgot he was in charge, and he lost everything.

Any others?

PS

Storminator said:

We teach kids important life lessons in stories, like Aesop's Fables. But what if you're just plain evil? How do you impart those important evil lessons? I'm thinking it's still kid stories.

Click to expand...

why think up new ones? The turtle and the scorpion has pretty antisocial leanings to begin with. A lot of the traditional tales are about gaining advantage, just leave out ones about charity - or skew them to make it clear that charity is being given with a specific goal and reasoning, never 'just because'.

It also depends on the status of the evil. An overlord might tell a tale as you described and back it up with the fact that the slaves, being unsuited to self rule all starved to death eventually as well. A bitter scemer might tell tales about how law stops us from doing what is best and only exists to hold up those in power. Either would include tales where only certainly individuals were truely dealt with as people.

Kahuna burger

You ever watch Samurai Jack?

There was an episode where the evil shapeshifting sorcerer Aku tried to win the hearts and minds of the children with fairy tales about himself, with Jack as the villain. (It got kind of silly, as Aku is a bad storyteller.)

The kids wouldn't buy the attempt to describe Jack as a villain, and Aku got angry. After watching the episode, I had wanted him to say something like this to them:

"Once upon a time there was an all-powerful wizard named Aku, who ruled the people of the little village. But the people of the village feared the wizard, and resented his rule."

"One day a foolish samurai warrior came to the village, and did battle with Aku. His magic sword forced Aku to depart, and the village celebrated the samurai's might."

"But then, the samurai traveled on, as heroes always do. And one day the wizard Aku returned to the village, and great was his anger. And with the hero gone, no one could protect the village from his wroth. And the elders of the village said, 'Lo, we are once again ruled by Aku, but now his taxes are twice as high, his punishments twice as harsh, and his anger governs our lives. Truly would we be better off had we not resisted the all-powerful one."

The moral of the story - freedom is fleeting, and hope can be crushed.

Thought of another one I used for a campaign:

Once upon a time there was a great king. He ruled the lands of Man with wisdom and mercy, inspired the people with his courage and grace, and protected them against their enemies with strength and cunning.

Now, this king had three sons. The eldest, of course, was his heir, but the others had their places in his heart as well. And so it was that, as he lay dying, he called his sons to him that he might bestow upon them the last gifts he had to give. And unto each son, he asked, "What gift may I give you?"

The first son said, "Father, I would have your inspiring presence and zealous heart, that I might lead the people in your example. With it I would bring peace and justice to the lands of Man. Give me your charisma."

And the father said, "So it shall be."

The second son said, "Father, I would have your deep insight and great learning, that I might show the people how to better their lives. With it I would aid my brother in bringing prosperity and good fortune to the lands of Man. Give me your wisdom."

And the father said, "So it shall be."

The third son said, "Father, I would have your strong arm and sorcerous will, that all who oppose me would fall before my might. With it I would wrest the birthrights of my brothers from them, and rule all the lands of Man unopposed. Give me your power."

And the father said, "So it shall be."

And so it was that the lands of Man were ruled by the third brother, for he knew that rulership comes not to the noble or the wise, but to the strong.

Read Fairy Tales by Ramond Feist. It is a quick read and is my favorite book of that ganre. It is about the origin of fairy tales and the struggle between good and evil. I can't recommend it enough.

Here is the cover, you can read the first 20 pages or so at Amazon to see if you like it.

Hey, I went to too much trouble writing that story to let the thread die this soon...

A surprising number of fairy tales by people with evocative names like Grimm have some pretty hairy endings.

Snow White ends with the wicked stepmother being forced into red-hot iron shoes (at the wedding, no less) and dancing until she died. You could blow that all out of proportion just to show that it's alright to horribly torture your enemies.

Another one (I forget how it goes - typical girl-quest to find a certain boy, I think, they all blend together after a while) ends with a really nasty trick. The villainess has the ear of the king, but the heroine manages to reveal her duplicity to the king in secret. The next day, the king asks the villainess what the apt punishment for someone doing (something like kidnapping, enchantment, spoiling someone else's wedding, all kinds of nasty stuff) that he knows she's been doing but she doesn't know he knows. She says, "Hm. I'd put the wretch who did that in a barrel, drive nails into it from the outside, and drag it down to the harbour behind a horse." Needless to say, she's very quickly approaching the waterfront and everyone else lives happily ever after.

Once again, the moral of the story is that vengeance is fine and really nasty tricks are OK so long as they're against your enemies.

I can't think of any 'fictional' fiction off the top of my head, but 'historical' fiction like this should hit the spot.

Peter Pan.

No really, undying dagger weilding mischeif maker with supernatural power (flight), a knack for stealing children out of their bedrooms, AND who happens to be the leader of a cabal of young delinquents and his fae queen?

I was actually thinking of writing up Never-Never-Land as a domain of Ravenloft. It'd all be Tinkerbell's fault, really.

Imagine a world where Captain Hook is the closest thing you have to an ally.