Chan Wen

[Moe Lane]

Chan Wen
Damned Soul

Corporeal Forces: 3 Strength: 5 Agility: 7
Ethereal Forces: 3 Intelligence: 8 Precision: 4
Celestial Forces: 5 Will: 10 Perception: 10

Skills: Alchemy/6, Area Knowledge/6 (Hell) (mastery), Artistry/6 (Forged Documents) (mastery), Computer Programming/3, Dodge/6, Climbing/6, Driving/6, Electronics/3, Emote/6 (mastery), Enchantment/3, Engineering/6, Fighting/6, Knowledge (Every Princely organization/6, Infernal History/6, Infernal Legends/6, Infernal Mythology/6, Insurgency Tactics/6, Lilith/6, Strategy/6), Languages (English/3, Game-Code/3, Helltongue/3, Hebrew/3, Greek/3, Latin/3, Spanish/3), Move Silently/6 (mastery), Savoir-Faire/6 (Mastery), Small Weapon/6 (knife), Survival/6 (Hell) (mastery)

Songs: Battle (Corporeal/1, Celestial/3), Calling (Celestial/4), Charm (Celestial/6), Concealment (Celestial/6), Deception (Ethereal/4), Empathy (All/1), Entropy (Ethereal/3), Essence (Celestial/1), Harmony (Ethereal/3), Healing (Celestial/3), Light (Celestial/6), Might (Celestial/4), Projection (Celestial/1), Revulsion (Celestial/6), Shadows (Celestial/2), Shattering (Celestial/3), Shields (Ethereal/3, Celestial/4)

Perhaps his name is not Chan Wen. Perhaps it is Jose Garcia. Or Ivan Kutnetzov. Or Ali bin Abdul bin Ibrahim. Or, yes indeed, John Smith. From the Symphony's apparent point of view, the man's name and appearance are meaningless trivia from his mortal life. In fact, just about everything about Chan Wen's (for he must be called something consistently) mortal life turned out to be meaningless trivia. Well, not everything. There was one important activity: he stole a loaf of bread.

This was apparently enough to earn him eternal damnation.

Chan Wen does not even remember the incident in question. Indeed, it is entirely possible that the demon who gave Wen the details of his Fate was lying for any number of reasons, or none. Then again, if it wasn't stealing a loaf of bread it was still some mortal act - and there are no mortal acts that deserve eternal damnation. Punishment? Of course. Long, drawn-out punishment? Indeed, there are. Veritable eons of punishment? A few heinous acts, not many, but a few. Perpetual punishment? No. Nothing merits an eternity of pain - particularly in such a ludicrous afterlife as this one.

It should be noted that several centuries (at least) in said afterlife have left their mark, and in the ways that one might expect. It is fair to say that Wen is a thoroughly unpleasant man who would be more than happy to do evil things in order to further his aims. While he undeniably possesses impressive reserves of intelligence and determination - plus an education no less impressive for being largely self-taught - the damned soul lacks any real empathy, and only avoids actual sociopathy because he has a goal to which he adheres rigidly. It is unclear in which Principality Wen found himself after his death, although it was probably one where damned souls are not constantly supervised. Whichever one it was, Wen's experiences there apparently sharpened the man's anger and resentment to razor-sharp points - and this was a special resentment, one that encompassed the Symphony itself. In fact, the only thing more hubristic than the resentment is the goal that the damned soul wishes it to fuel. Not to put too fine a point on it, Chan Wen wishes to: first, become a god; second, vanquish Lucifer and take his throne; third, conquer Heaven; and fourth, find and defeat the Creator Him-, Her-, or Itself.

While he has had it brought to his attention that even the first task is beyond his powers, the damned soul takes the position that none of this is actually impossible. A human being has become a goddess - that she refers to herself as a "Princess" is immaterial - and Wen will worry about the rest once he has reached the other side of apotheosis. In the meantime, he recruits among the teeming masses of the damned for revolutionaries that will help him seize the power that he needs, in exchange for the raw power that they see and crave every day of their afterlives. It is not a nice group; it is, in fact, quite vile in its aims and cruel in its methods. But it is also one of the few mortal groups that has ever been a problem for Hell and still survived.

The paranoid - who are actually quite rare in Hell, for reasons which should be obvious after only a little thought - have concluded thusly that Chan Wen and his group are in fact some sort of tool of the Horde, whether knowingly or unknowingly. It would certainly explain why they have been able to exist for so long... although it must be also noted that a significant portion of Hell's control over its damned souls is untested. There are a lot more mortals than there are demons, and the latter do not organize well. A sufficiently determined and disciplined set of damned souls could hide for quite some time, and even gather strength - particularly since the Horde might be more worried about the group getting publicity than it would be about the group existing.