Even with the rise of secularism, one universal faith that has persisted in the form of belief in demi-gods, nature spirits, universal forces, et al., has been the belief in the "Benign Ones" and the "Malignant Ones".
One of the earliest writings on the "Malignant Ones" states:
the Malignant Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died.
In 1926, one cult leader wrote, prior to the onset of the Third Great War:
This world is older than any of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons demons walked the world. They made it their home, their…their suffering. But in time, they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, for, for man. All that remains of the Malignant Ones are vestiges, certain magicks, certain creatures…
The offspring of the "Malignant Ones" were known as the "Benign Ones". According to the texts of the Avestanii and the Zarendites, in the Book of Anak:
Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the Malignant Ones saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Malignant Ones said, "Our Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." The Benign Ones were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the Malignant Ones came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty creatures who were of old, men of renown.
Furthermore it is stated in the Book of Semjaza:
And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.' And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.' And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.' Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred…
According to the Book of Aram, it is stated that the Benign Ones attracted the attention of the Malignant Ones, and soon it was noted:
Certain wise men of old wrote concerning them, and say in their records, that angels came down from heaven, and mingled with the daughters of man, who bare unto them these giants. But these scholars err in what they say. The Malignant Ones forbid such a thing, that Malignant Ones who are spirits, should be found committing sin with human beings. Never, that cannot be. And if such a thing were of the nature of Malignant Ones, they would not leave one woman on earth, undefiled… But many men say, that Malignant Ones came down from the skies, and joined themselves to women, and had children by them… But when they transgressed and mingled with humanity, and begat children, ill-informed men said, that Malignant Ones had come down from the skies, and mingled with the daughters of men, who bare them Benign Ones.
Until 1215 CE, many monarchal leaders claimed direct descent from the Benign Ones, as a claim to legitimacy for their power. Until 1225, the line of the Benign Ones was used as a justification for the caste system. Until 1829, most legal charters with the government would include the lineage with the Benign Ones as a a form of legal recognition.
