| Origins:
Angels were created by
God to serve Him. The oldest angels have been
around since the Gloaming (the beginning of history as humans know it).
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| Physiology: |
Angels are purely spiritual beings, possessing no
physical body of their own. Because of that they
can take whatever form they please; most choose a
human-like shape (although some angels have been
mistaken for animal gods or spirits). They are immortal, God is the
only being who can unmake an angel. At
conception, angels are given two things that are
incorporated into their spirit: wings and a halo.
The wings can take on any appearance that the angel
sees fit (including inside their 'body' aka
invisible). The Halo (usually a staff) is
created by God to mirror the angel's function/rank.
It is the only aspect of an angel that the being
itself cannot change. The Halo also serves as
the key to getting back into Heaven, should the angel
go outside.
Because
angels are purely spiritual, they are sexless in the
physical sense. They have a balance of Yin and
Yang (opposites) that fluctuates (including the
male/female aspect).
Angels don't need
to sleep or eat, but must maintain a balance of the four
elements to perform the miracles of their rank.
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| Sociology: |
Angels are created to serve, and it is reflected in
their society. God is the center of all things.
As long as they serve Him fully, never questioning Him
or disobeying a direct order, they are loved and
looked after and infinitely forgiven. Depending
upon the severity of the crime, there are three types
of punishment:
| -Purgatory: |
a sit in the corner and think about what
you've done, then say your sorry type of punishment. |
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-The Fall: |
With the destruction of the Halo, the angel
is kicked out of Heaven. The transition gives
the angel a pseudo-physical body. Entrance back
into Heaven is sometimes granted after a certain
amount of repentance. |
| -Unmaking: |
Reserved for those who go directly
against God and aren't the least bit sorry about it. |
When angels
are created, they are given a Rank and Function.
These determine what kind of miracles (holy abilities) an angel can
perform. There are three major ranks, each with
several sub-ranks that share power equally Each
of the sub-Ranks is watched over by an Archangel
(although the Agape Rank only has one Archangel):
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The Beloved:
(The Highest
Rank)
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| -Seraphim: |
Those created to love God,
the six-winged angels. They council
the Host, making sure all the angels needs
are met. Secretly they also act as
God's 'spies' among the angels, always
looking for the possibility of dissention. |
| -Cherubim: |
Those with the knowledge of
God, His voice. They give out the
missions to the angels best suited for the
task. A select few are relegated to
a life in Purgatory (aka the Dreaming),
where they watch all of Time and report on
it to God. |
| -Thrones: |
Those with the judgment of
God, the divine sword. They are in
control of bringing rogue angels to
justice. They both judge and
punish in God's name. |
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The Benediction:
(The Second
Rank)
|
-Dominions
(Kyriotates): |
They are the teachers.
They instruct angels on how to be, and on
very rare occasions, instruct humans as
well. |
-Virtues
(Malakim): |
They contain the strongest
power and can perform the greatest
miracles of any angel. They are the
force of change, fine-tuning God's
creations and setting them on Earth.
In extreme cases they appear on earth,
'making things happen' |
-Powers
(Elohim): |
Also know as the Luminati.
They are God's army. However, since
angels are incapable of physically harming
another living being, the Luminati are
most effective when they are incarnated as
a human. |
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The Agape:
(The Third
Rank) also known as the Earth
Bound, or less flatteringly as the Tainted.
|
-Principalities
(Mercurians): |
In Heaven they act as a sort
of middle-management or assistant
teacher. On Earth they are the great
advisors of Man. They usually don't stay
on Earth for long periods of time. |
| -Menunim: |
They don't actually spend
much of their time in Heaven. Most
are in Mohenjo-daro (the realm of the
dead), delivering God's visions to people,
or escorting the wayward dead back to
Mohenjo-daro. |
| -Angels: |
When someone prays for guidance,
someone to watch over them, they are the
ones who appear. Since most will
spend a lifetime on Earth, guarding one
person, they learn to multitask, fulfilling
side missions. |
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| Affiliations: |
| Hell: |
Enemies.
Any non-adversarial association with demons
is forbidden. |
| Earth: |
-Animals/
Plants: |
Angels tend to really like the
sentient animals & plants because they are usually
quite polite to angels, especially if the angel speaks
their language. Other than that the two cultures
have no particular alliances. |
|
-Humans: |
The lowest rank of angels were created to
look after humans, however, due to the decline in spirituality
in most religions, people rarely call on them
anymore for protection. And still the angels
remain fiercely protective of their wards. |
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-Witches: |
Angels serve as teachers and advisors to
true witches who look to them for guidance.
However, if a witch looks to a demon for guidance,
they are considered to be in allegiance with Hell and
treated accordingly. If a witch has picked no allegiance,
then it is treated as a 'normal' human. |
|
-Shape shifters: |
Treated no differently from 'normal'
humans. |
| -Vampires: |
Due to the misguided belief (by both angels
and vampires) that vampires are part demon & quite
unnatural (the whole being dead but not quite thing),
angels are perfectly capable of smiting vampires, and
are supposed to. |
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| Extra: |
Since angels have no physical form, they can only descend
to Earth in three ways:
Called by a human: In this case, the angel is given
permission to present its spiritual self to Earth,
either through prayer or magic. The angel in
this form is unable to physically interact with the
material world, but can still perform miracles in it
(at a greatly increased cost). Being called
can last a matter of moments, to the lifetime
of the person who called them, depending on the
reason for the summons. Because of this, angels sent
to earth in this way are sometimes sent on
side-errands.
Incarnation: An angel can be fused with the
soul of a human, thus the angel is born as a
human with a completely physical body.
Once the body dies the human and angelic souls drift
apart and the angel returns to Heaven.
Although this is the most complete way to enter the
material world, there are some complications with
the merging of the two spirits and the angel cannot
return to Heaven until the human body dies.
This method is reserved for the Luminati, and in
extreme cases, other members of the Benediction.
The Fall: In this case the angel's Halo is broken
and they are kicked out of Heaven. The transition
turns their spirit into a pseudo-physical body: they
acquire internal organs, blood, the need to breathe,
sleep and defecate. However, they remain
sexless, have no bellybutton or nipples. The
only aspect of their soul they still have any
control over is their wings. A Fallen still only craves the elements, but
must consume them in a physical way. Besides
creating waste, this isn't such a problem except in
the realm of fire, where there really is no form of
consuming fire that doesn't hurt a lot. And
even though the lack of elemental balance won't kill
a fallen angel, it does keep them from
performing miracles. Any angel who does manage
to return to Heaven after its fall can never quite
shed its half-material body.
Misconceptions: Lucifer is
NOT Satan. Yes, he was the first angel to fall (he
was the Archangel of the Angels), and he works as a
high ranking agent of the Devil on Earth, but he is
not the ruler of Hell. That is the job of
Satan, also referred to as The Judge and Lindross.
Names of the angel sub-ranks pulled from the game
In Nomine and various other online sources about the
angelic ranks.
The list of angels mentioned in the comic or
short stories is here.
And that's the basics of Angels.
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