"You can't be serious," said Piper.
"I'm quite serious," said Percy. "Oh, not the entirety of humanity. Some select humans deemed good enough would be spared. The rest would be exterminated. Treated like the vermin many of the Gray Council thought them to be."
"That's crazy," said Prue. "That wouldn't solve anything. Any subsequent generations would have been the same."
"That's what those of the Gray Council opposed to the idea said," said Percy. "Damonculous and his followers countered saying that each succeeding generation would be weeded out. Those deemed good enough would survive and the rest would be terminated. Eventually, they argued, evil would be excised from humanity."
"I can't believe this," said Leo. "Weren't they supposed to be helping mankind? How could any of them even consider such a course of action?"
"It is believed," said Percy, "that many of the Gray Council had become corrupted by their near absolute control over humanity. Playing God, so to speak. And as you are acutely aware, corruption can soon turn to evil. We believe that over time many of the Gray Council became evil without realizing it."
"Can someone be evil without knowing it?" Phoebe asked.
"Sure," said Cole. "They think they're doing the right thing even when everyone around them says differently. They delude themselves into thinking they're doing the right thing when all the time their motivated by purely selfish ideas. Eventually it becomes second nature to them and before you know it they're fully evil. I've seen it happen a hundred times."
"I'm sure," said Percy. "And as you can imagine, this caused quite a stir among the Gray Council. They were divided nearly in half. Damonculous and his followers vying to have the bulk of humanity wiped out while the rest argued just as passionately that was not the solution. Eventually, the inevitable happened. One of the Gray Council lost his temper and attacked an opposing member."
"You mean they had a fight?" Cole asked.
"Worse," said Percy. "It nearly immediately escalated into an all out war. The two sides faced off against each other with their considerable power."
"Boy, that must have been quite a fight," said Phoebe. "Imagine all that power being used at the same time."
"You have no idea," said Percy. "Compared to the power of the Gray Council your nuclear weapons are considered less than a match. The expenditure of so much power all at the same time very nearly did what Damonculous and the others wanted. It decimated the human race."
"What finally ended it?" asked Piper.
"Damonculous and his followers were defeated," said Percy. "Most on both sides were killed. But eventually Damonculous and his followers were drained of their power. Those that survived were banished to a realm where magic doesn't exist. Without magic they have no chance of returning to the mortal plane."
"What happened to the victors?" Leo asked.
"They became what we know as the Founders," said Percy. "They spent a very long time trying to decide what they should do. They finally decided that a new order was needed. They selected the very best of the Graylighters that sided with them and formed the first Elder Council. It was felt that since Graylighters were human they would be more sympathetic to the plight of humanity."
"But humans don't become Whitelighters or Elders until after they die," said Leo.
"That's correct," said Percy. "The Founders decreed that as new Elders and Whitelighters were needed, they would be only the very best humanity had to offer. In order to determine the best qualified, they had to die first. So that the totality of their lives could be judged. The Founders also decreed that the neither the Elders nor the Whitelighters could ever again interfere in human history. Mankind was left to whatever the fates decreed. The rule of not interfering with free will was established."
"What about the surviving Graylighters that sided with Damonculous?" Piper asked. "What did they do about them? Were they destroyed?"
"No," said Percy. "Even though they were by now thoroughly evil, the Founders felt it was not totally of their doing. Had they never been granted the powers they had, they might have well remained good. So they were banished to a different realm from the defeated Gray Council members. A harsh, barren dimension of sorts that held no life of its own."
"So they still exist?" questioned Cole.
"After a fashion," said Percy. "Most of the original Graylighters have long since died or been killed. Some few remain but for the most part it is their descendents that now inhabit that realm. For many centuries they regarded Damonculous as a virtual god. Originally they called themselves Damonculites, after him. Over the years the name was gradually shortened and was somewhat perverted. Not by any design. It's just the way things happen some times. They still exist but they are known by a different name now."
"What name?" Cole asked, fearing he all ready knew the answer to that question.
"Demon," said Percy. "The realm where they were banished originally had no name. The new inhabitants began calling it by what they felt was appropriate. They called it the underworld. You're ancestors, Cole, were the descendents of the defeated Graylighters banished to the underworld. They are the very demons the Charmed Ones fight to protect humanity against."