Interpreting the Real World for IN

[Phoenix42]

This is bound to make some enemies... still, I'll give it a try anyway; after what I felt was an amiable exchange in the forum regarding politics atm, I thought what we did could be maybe implemented on a larger, and maybe more general, basis. I originally wanted to stick this in "Game Ideas from the News", but since it may lead in rather a different direction, I made a new thread - if the mods disagree, feel free to paste it back in said thread.

Since most IN games are set in the immediate present, one question that all gms have to deal with at some ponit is the players asking the game question I would like to circumscribe with this quote from Supernatural:

[on human vices]
Casey (demon): "Dick Cheney."
Dean (human): "He's one of yours?"
Casey: "Not yet. Let's just say he's got a parking spot reserved for him downstairs."

The question being, who in the real world is working for whom? Is George W. Bush headed for hell? Do angels talk directly to Pope Ratzinger? Was there a celestial involvement in the wars following 9/11, or even the thing itself? Which shows does Nybbas like, and which one does he wish he could kill? Is your favourite news anchor a demon? Did an angel kill Kennedy? You know what I'm going for - pop culture, and reality, as defined through the lens of In Nomine.

A few things I should say first: This isn't intended to turn into a slanging match. Obviously, if one person says "program x is the most blatant instantiation of the Media, the host is clearly a Habbalah" and another guy says "hey, that's my favourite show", yeah, there's trouble brewing. What I'm hoping for is that everyone stays level-minded enough to just discuss it in a way that can detach itself from reality a bit - that is what rpg, and In Nomine, are about, right? :)
The perfect solution to the above discussion would therefore be that B admits that maybe their liking the show is because the Media made it so watchable... and A admits that just because something is made by Nybbas, doesn't mean it's unwatchable, or even bad (most likely, it isn't...).

Two other things I find handy to keep in mind:
1: Heaven does not equal good, Hell does not equal evil - at least not per se. Good and Bad are questions of taste, words are more stable and can be discussed without dissing someone's party, religion etc.
2. Remember the third party: IN rightly points out that humans invented the holocaust. It can be fun to go through historic events and reserve the most crass instantiations of goodness, evil and outright weirdness for human activity that saw angels and demons standing on the sidelines going "WTF?"

All that being said, I am optimistic that the regulars here are suave enough to not need any of the above lecture (for which I apologize - but I thought it better to say it). Also, it probably is most useful, linguistically, to use the expression and language of conspiracy theory. IN is, in essence, a cosmic conspiracy, and being clear-cut about the ideas also helps create proper theories. Saying outright that "Kennedy was shot by an outcast Kyriotate of Gabriel whose host was killed in the bay of pigs" is likely more useful than formulating it as a less provocative hypothesis, because it tends to provoke (thoughts, hopefully) :).

Why do the whole thing? Well, I think it's a gas, and I think there are loads of questions people who play IN keep asking themselves. For instance, I always wonder whether a demon had a hand in writing AC/DC's "highway to hell".
Also, the In Nomine books can't go into such detail in their publishings for reasons of space and liability - write that Dick Cheney's going to hell, and you may get sued. Writing it in a forum is another matter, of course (apart from the permanent wiretap on your house, of course...^^). Also, it might even be educational - looking at current events through another perspective (like that of a celestial, or someone trying to find one) is always useful, who knows? And also, if one could actually manage to create something akin to an In Nomine timeline for the last 50-60 years or so, I think it would always be a neat reference for when players ask Yves what happened to Elvis... (not that he'd tell them, but it's always good to have a back-up plan, just in case they start searching...).

[Phoenix42]

Anyway, without further ado, my first entry:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central Cable Channel, USA)

Jon Stewart, unknown to most, including himself, is an angel. Also, but most people get that - he is a bit crazy, and sometimes rather sad. In the mid-1980s, a Mercurian of Creation (name sadly lost) was infiltrating a Virginia university in the hopes of kicking up a bit of a creative stir, when he realised that something was amiss. His role, that of a middle-class Jewish kid on a grant, was enough to get him in, and his Mercurian talking skills sufficed to do the rest when it came to wheedling his way into the "right" circles to find out what was going on - he realised that servitors of Factions were working hard on turning everyone against each other on campus. Fraternities were getting more and more aggressive toward each other, the gap between the richer and poorer students was being exacerbated, and most importantly, University politics was rife with factions and backstabbing. Even worse, many graduates were leaving university with deeply harboured resentments of some kind, which would follow them their entire lives, tainting their views of Creation and the World. Utterly disgusted, and out on his ear as far as his superior was concerned, the mercurian investigated on his own, and came to the very bottom of the story... but never got around to telling anyone, since a Calabite of Factions caught up with him and after a lengthy exchange in some backrooms and college back yards, the Mercurian ended up as a Remnant.

Soon after this, "Jon Stewart" dropped his Jewish surname, Leibowitz - several reasons for this have been proposed, but celestials in the know (of which there are but few) may attribute this to a greater sense of loss, an unwitting symbolic gesture. Apart from this, he also retained a Mercurian's tongue and Eli's wit, along with an unexplainable hatred of anything divisive and destructive. After a career in New York that included many odd-jobs that Eli may have been proud of, he went into the media business, becoming a showmaster. He uses his platform to attack what he perceives as elements of the media (notably Fox News) that are dividing the US against itself, but retains a strong element of irony in doing so; dismantling both the media and political establishment, he has made a name for himself without buying too much into what he calls "partisan hackery". Being a Mercurian, he has a very good understanding of human networks, but not always a perfect grasp of how humans work (which is sometimes visible in his interviews, but only occasionally - he is a Mercurian after all). What many find frustrating is the residual "Eli" element which refuses to build upon that which it creates, hoping it will blossom on its own. Whereas many left-leaning people have looked to the Daily Show as a source of true news, "Stewart" mostly refuses to act as a news-bringer, (for some reason he associates that with the name Gabriel, and sometimes with the name Dominic, which he finds confusing), acting merely as a news-critic. His "rally to restore sanity" was generally judged to be of ambiguous use, but then that always depended on what people's expectations had been - something in which he and his former superior may see eye to eye. Meanwhile, a few angels in Manhatten have realised what is going on, and have agreed to form a shift-based task force to keep an eye on him, just in case the demons return. What they don't know is that demons from Bill O'Reilly's team have been watching "Stewart" for even longer...

Note - no, entries don't have to be that long. I have just been watching the Daily Show for way too long, and felt it had to be some use. Background on the Mercurian in question is from wikipedia, mea culpa :)
Feel free to give counter-proposals... Naturally I don't have an American's perspective on The Daily Show

[Rocket Man]

Ringo Starr. Easy-going. Fun-loving. Underrated.

Seraph of Creation.

The angel known as Richard Starkey had been one of the few "direct reports" Eli had left when the Walkabout began. Like his brethren, he had only instructions to "Do what thou wilt -- just be cool"; unlike many, he had a plan to follow those instructions in a way sure to get the Boss's attention.

He would make a band.

No, he would make THE band. The band that would show the rest of the world how to do it. The band that would create its own music, make its own noise, show the world what love and creativity could do.

He'd spotted a likely target in Hamburg ... a young group with a pair of sharp songwriters and an even younger guitarist who was scary-good. But the bass player had just walked out to resume an art career and the drummer seemed to be gone as often as he was present; the odds that this would be one more flash-and-gone seemed high.

So Starkey, now going by the stage name of Ringo Starr, worked his way in. And before long, the Beatles were the hottest act going -- even if most fans tended to look past the long-nosed drummer who "was just in the right place at the right time."

But Eli didn't come.

About halfway through the gig, Starkey got discouraged and left the group. Being a Creationer, though, the separation only inspired a new song -- and being who he was, it also inspired the others to successfully plead for his return.

By the time the band broke up (to this day, he wonders if Yoko Ono was a Soldier of Factions, a Soldier of Flowers or just a bizarre mundane), he'd learned a little. He still hadn't attracted Eli, but he'd helped make some wonderful additions to God's Creation and had some fun doing it. And maybe that's what the Boss wanted.

His biggest concern now is the other survivor, Paul. The last of the three he watched in Hamburg seems to be a little too closely tied to The Media these days for Ringo's comfort (especially after John and George had done such good work for Flowers and Creation themselves). So Starkey periodically catches up with his old bandmate, just to keep an eye on him.

Sooner or later, he'll see the Truth. Maybe he'll even know what to do about it.

And maybe, someday, the Boss will come.

[Azel]

Y'know, this is such fun for me personally. But just like you I do worry about stepping on people's toes and things getting too heated. I will admit it is something that I entertain myself with other friends who are familiar with the IN universe.

My current musing is on the Arab Spring as it's called in our American media. I love the idea of it being Khalid making a grand re-entrance to the angelic fold AND showing the power of having a little faith in humanity. Something about it, especially the surprising amount of non-violence involved (in comparison to a rather bloody colonial/post-colonial history) is very evocative to me. I'll admit, I've been a little watery at the eyes thinking of Khalid taking a page of Novalis and Zadkiel and making a grand gesture of him turning a new leaf.

The other big one is the resolving war of Marc versus Mammon and Marc wanting to finish Mammon off. So the trouble within the Euro, and the rising Asian powers makes for some interesting local settings. What strikes me even more entertaining is the current Israeli protests about economic disparity and tying it into David showing some frustration with Marc's lassitude to his great battle affecting this corner of the world. Can accord be reached? Is David seeking a new uniting factor in a tired, besieged nation? Real rich stuff to tap there, too.

The real challenge is to remember Superiors are not THE movers and shakers of the world -- humans play an immense part of the story. That's where I have to go back to the GMG to figure how much power I relegate to humanity controlling it's own destiny/fate. But how could I not be tempted to use current modern events for inspiration? The immediate field is so rich to tap!

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Azel

The other big one is the resolving war of Marc versus Mammon and Marc wanting to finish Mammon off. So the trouble within the Euro, and the rising Asian powers makes for some interesting local settings. What strikes me even more entertaining is the current Israeli protests about economic disparity and tying it into David showing some frustration with Marc's lassitude to his great battle affecting this corner of the world. Can accord be reached? Is David seeking a new uniting factor in a tired, besieged nation? Real rich stuff to tap there, too.

The real challenge is to remember Superiors are not THE movers and shakers of the world -- humans play an immense part of the story. That's where I have to go back to the GMG to figure how much power I relegate to humanity controlling it's own destiny/fate. But how could I not be tempted to use current modern events for inspiration? The immediate field is so rich to tap!

I similarly slip little tidbits like this into my game as side notes, with the implication that the Superiors are affected by human-driven world events as humans are driven by the Superiors' plots. In NYC, for instance, my game has a Greed Tether in the NY Stock Exchange, and had a Trade Tether in the World Trade Center. After 9/11, Trade lost its major Tether in an event that neither side of the War predicted. The housing crisis and zaniness on Wall Street was largely thanks to Mammon trying to use the opportunity to make a comeback, while Marc scrambles to build a new foothold in NYC through his small Tether in the Federal Reserve's bullion vault in Manhattan.

[ISNorden]

You knew I had to "stat up" a favorite celebrity sooner or later...and this one works even in a standard campaign (with no changed/added Superiors). :-)

Jim Henson himself was an ordinary mortal with Charisma and a few exceptional skills, whose commercial work didn't turn him into a sellout or a cynic. (The scenes in The Muppet Movie, with Doc Hopper demanding that Kermit star in advertisements for frog-leg restaurants, show Henson's attitude towards Nybbas' and Mammon's involvement with TV pretty clearly.) What few mortals realize, though, is that the master puppeteer was himself a "puppet" for a Kyriotate of Creation who transferred to Children as soon as Christopher ascended.

Eli and Christopher must've picked the perfect guardian angel to give JIm's career a hand: how else do you explain the ability to create hundreds of memorable, lovable characters that were innovative in their time? (Of course, the Marches got a boost from those same characters getting millions of fans worldwide--something that both sides of the War use to their advantage.)

[ISNorden]

At the other end of the pop-culture spectrum: Kobal is the driving force behind Trey and Matt Parker's fictional worlds (Team America, South Park, The Book of Mormon). No one is above criticism, and nothing is truly sacred; even God and Lucifer become laughably incompetent in the Parker multiverse.

[Omegonthesane]

This quiz is suspiciously similar to the official transfer form that Servitors of the Game are required to fill out if they wish to transfer their services to Kobal. The Prince of Dark Humor has not commented on the matter, because he'd either have to admit there was a leak or admit that he stole the idea.

[tHEhERETIC]

Denis Leary, Grigori of Stone

It took a real pair of stones for a Grigori to approach a Malakite archangel but he knew he had something. Denis grew up in a family that knew they were special but didn't dwell on it, kept their celestial silence. If Denis knows any Songs he hasn't let on.

What he has done is channel a lifelong hatred for Malphas into a viable career. Ranting at the politically correct, calling out the absurd, being harsh with the weak and loving in a tough sort of way. He planned to marry and have kids, but first he had to get this 'angel' thing out of the way.

"This is my plan," he said, when he'd finally gotten David's attention. "I'll talk hard. I'll lay it on the table and get everybody else to lay it on the table, and we'll have a laugh and a smoke and a drink and everybody in America will get all the ugly things out of their heads and onto the table where we'll all make fun of it. And I'll never let on that I'm an angel--I just wanted you to know that I'm doing this for strength and for brotherhood and you might as well know where the Essence is coming from."

David responded, quietly, funneling support through Denis' friends and family members. David beamed when he started the Firefighters' Foundation and the TV series. Look, it seemed to say, they're just like us. PTSD like the rest of New York. Heroes and schmucks and hard drinkers like the rest of us.

Like most Grigori he loves life, wife, family, drinking, smoking...life in general. One day he'll fade out of the limelight, slip into another role, and start over.

[Phoenix42]

Great stuff guys! I really enjoyed reading it! Please keep it up, I still hope we might fill out the 20th century with celestial trivia :)
I note that we're missing demons at the moment... anyone up for the challenge? In the meantime:

A Secret Unknown To Most
The assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II was in fact perpetrated by a human. John Paul II was one of the few popes who actually did commune with angels (of Laurence and Dominic, naturally), though the Mercurian on duty tended to appear as the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel in order not to overburden the Pope with too much knowledge about heavenly affairs, and in order to fit his spiritual background (previous popes, faced with manifesting angels, had sometimes assumed they were being deceived by the Devil, something which annoyed Laurence and Dominic's Vatican Liaison Task Force to no end).

The assassination did not come surprisingly, since both Superiors had Cherubs posted who knew days in advance what was going to happen. However, the Cherubs were ordered to stand down (which they only did reluctantly), and the angels used the attack as leverage - rather than prevent the attack, they swooped in to heal the Pope's wounds, which was combined with a flashy celestial song of dreams, thus providing him with a (very) tangible proof of their assistance, as well as a veiled threat to accept their policy package - which is why the 1990s saw many redresses of former papal grievances, something that John Paul had been reluctant to do until then. Dominic, especially, had been arguing for this redress of past Catholic injustices for years. Trying to repeal the staunch Polish Pope's position on homosexuality was deemed too much of a risk, though, and scrapped, along with a progressive young angel's HIV addendum:


Voices heard in a Vatican hallway, May 1981

"But my Lords, millions may die because of this before they make their peace with heaven, and thousands more may turn away from the Church!"

"You may be right, Friend of Judgement, but if we push him too hard, his Holiness will start quoting the Old Testament at us, and we'll have the Pius fiasco all over again! Even the Sword must know when to choose its battles. Your heart is right in wishing for this, but this is not the time."

"Quite... we have righted the wrongs that were in question, if we tighten our control further we risk losing it entirely, and our Judgement is that this is too great a risk at this time."

"Also, if men stand by their convictions, we should not fault them for it as long as these beliefs do not contravene heavenly law"

"That is Truth, we are in agreement"

"But my Lords, we must face ..."

"Do you wish to lecture me on Truth, Servitor? Or on Justice? Or my Brother on Honour? If so, proceed..."

"No my Lord Archangel... forgive me."

"Very Well... then go and inform the Cherubs that they are to resume their duties - you are relieved..."