Once upon a time, far, far away, there was a beautiful planet that nurtured all the creatures that lived there. The people on the planet had everything they needed to be happy. Eventually though, some of them decided they needed more and became selfish and greedy.

These greedy ones began to enslave and kill their brothers and sisters. They said this was OK because it was part of God's plan and he approved. They learned better and better ways to kill each other and taught these skills to their children.

Over time the Dark Empire emerged. It grew powerful and greedy and its leaders justified their avarice and vilified their enemies. "We're the good guys," they told their people. "Those we invade and kill are the evil ones."

The storytellers who had talked to the people through the Idea Machine, telling them the truth about their world, were slowly replaced by Puppet People who said what they were told to say. The masses in the Empire were, for the most part, good and kind. Unfortunately their minds were controlled by the evil Idea Machine and many of them believed that God was on their side and everyone else was bad.

The Empire grew and prospered feeding off the rest of the planet; creating wars and poverty wherever it interfered. If the Empire had an interest somewhere, it created a revolution that brought its own government to power.

The Empire's industry and military needed the black Goop, found under the ground in many poor countries. It turned out that one part of the world had huge reserves of Goop, and to ensure the Empire's steady supply the leaders installed royal families and dictators to run those countries.

All went fairly well for many decades. Sure some leaders had to be eliminated because they tried to help their people or learned from the Empire's leaders and became themselves too greedy to trust.

These leaders were toppled by so called 'popular revolutions', or the Empire invaded and replaced them. The Empire's leaders were all rich and powerful, or servants of the rich and powerful, and eventually they placed their favorite villains in power all over the world.

One day, fanatics from some of the Goop countries penetrated the heart of the Empire and blew up some buildings, killing a lot of people. The leaders of the Empire became insane with anger and the Idea Machine started pumping out lies and propaganda.

The Empire's Secret Police screamed loudly that the Fanatics were helped by the government of Talabanstan, a small, very poor country, on the other side of the world. By co-incidence the country was next to another country that had huge reserves of Goop and its government had promised it to the Empire. To protect the Goop the Empire invaded Talabanstan.

Next the Idea Machine started creating stories about Iraqnaphobia, and it's leader Sadham the Butcher of Dagbad. Sadham was once the Empire's favorite lap dog until he became too greedy and bit his masters. He had lots of Goop, and had once angered the Empire by invading a neighboring Goop country.

The leaders of the Empire claimed Sadham had dangerous Weapons of Mass Destruction that he wanted to use. Sadham was once a puppet of the Empire's Secret Police and if he had WMD's they came from them, because as every knew, the Empire had enough weapons to blow up the entire planet and they weren't afraid to use them.

The Idea Machine pumped out stories for months, justifying an attack, before the Empire invaded Iraqnaphobia. The period of major hostilities lasted only a few weeks. The capital city, Dagbad, fell to the invaders and Sadham disappeared into the countryside.

Months went by as resentment against the invaders increase in Iraqnaphobia. Resistance fighters attacked and killed troops from the Empire, whenever they could. The country was in turmoil. Every day brave young men and women from the Empire died and their greedy old leaders grew richer and richer from the sale of Goop and war profiteering.

The Empire offered a huge reward for Sadham's capture. Eventually he was betrayed and found living like an animal in a hole. The Empire picked some local people to prosecute Sadham, to create the illusion that his trial was transparent and fair. At the same time thousands of suspected freedom fighters were being held without charges and tortured by Empire goons.

As the trial date approached the leaders of the Empire decided to turn the government back over to their hand picked flunkies, in a bid to distract attention from the trial. The new government took over the sanitation and postal service. The Empire kept control of the guns and Goop.

At his trial Sadham was defiant. He challenged the court's authority, and declared that he was still President of Iraqnaphobia. The anonymous judge read the charges and witnesses were called.

It was clear from the evidence that Sadham was guilty of murder and corruption. His evil deeds were numberless. His victims cried out from the grave for justice. His lawyers were dismayed.

They sent out subpoenas, calling for witnesses and documents. Over the course of the trial evidence came out that indited the President of the Empire and his evil father in most of Sadham's crimes. They gave him money, weapons and training. They were, it turned out, as guilty as he was.

An independent judge appointed by the United Nations had the Empire's President and all his henchmen arrested and tried. They all received punishment for their crimes. The Idea Machine was smashed and the Empire was dissolved, restoring freedom and justice to all.

The world's bountiful wealth was distributed among all the people of the planet and everyone lived happily ever after, in peace and prosperity-just like they would at the end of any good children's fairy tale.