Playing Servitors of Animals and Trade

[Mysteris]

Heya!

So I've been leafing through Fall of the Malakim and I got the idea for a sort of angelic "scruff". A Servitor of Animals (or possibly Divine Fire) who cares little for the politics of the demons and their rules. Someone who just goes in and does what he/she perceives as the best course of action, screw the stalemate (i.e. freeing all the animals from a movie set or the zoo).

I've seen some complaints about servitors of Animals being unplayable. What makes them so, in your opinion? Similarly, I've always had a hard time wrapping my mind around just what an angel of Trade is supposed to do in a campaign. Any help would be appreciated.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Mysteris

I've seen some complaints about servitors of Animals being unplayable. What makes them so, in your opinion? Similarly, I've always had a hard time wrapping my mind around just what an angel of Trade is supposed to do in a campaign. Any help would be appreciated.

My old IN campaign had some relevant PCs. But the players had got creative...

The servitor of Animals was a Cherub who'd spent time in deep cover as a special-ops soldier. On the grounds that Jordi really hates the idea of nuclear weapons, and there had to have been a special unit somewhere whose job was dealing with nuclear weapon thefts, and threats to set off home-made ones. She'd retired from that, and ran an animal shelter.

The servitor of Trade was a Seraph. She had a cover as an auditor: using that resonance on company accounts can tell you things. The campaign was set in Cambridge, UK, where there are a lot of startup companies, and keeping an eye on what they are doing is a good idea for Heaven.

[Rocket Man]

My experience is that Trade angels make great facilitators, fixers, "face" men and intelligence agents. They're most useful in a campaign with a lot of roleplaying; gun-bunny themes don't really give them the chance to use their best talents. (Though a Trader with "Head of a Pin" can certainly bankroll the group in emergencies!)

What makes Animals angels difficult -- though not necessarily unplayable -- is threefold:

1) Their dissonance condition. Since they can't be swayed by the concerns of human society, they only follow human rules and expectations when it makes sense to do ... sense as a wild animal would define it. That can make for some awkward situations.

2) Though there are exceptions, most occupy an animal vessel rather than a human one. That makes some of the usual lines of investigation difficult at best. (That said, a Jordite PC in a campaign of mine had a lot of fun getting information from a young bear who had gotten itself trapped in a trash can.)

3) There hasn't been a Jordi expansion yet, or even a Revelations-style extended writeup, so the methods, motives, goals and other details of an Animalist are still fuzzy. (Pardon the term.)

[Acolyte]

I've actually GM'd a game where most of the PCs (3 of 4) served Trade or Animals. I think those words are unattractive to a group that plans on doing a lot of combat (although the Jordite no-disturbance-in-animal-Vessel makes cleaning up a nest of Hellsworn easier for Team Grizzly Bear in many ways than for a group of sword-waving Malakim), and that's responsible for their terrible reputation. But they are quite useful and interesting:

Trade
First off, I like to remember to portray Trade angels as rich. Every celestial whose Role expects it probably has a car, but Trade angels have luxury models with features. Now, this isn't always the case, but with a Mercurian on the top of their organization, Trade angels do tend to notice superficialities other angels might miss ("You're actually wearing a Fauxlex?" "Yeah, the Role demands it." "Oh, well, that's okay, but I'm sorry, man."). Trade angels often own businesses, voting stock in corporations, and sometimes blocks of downtown. Because of this, they can really shine in RP encounters--a Trade angel probably knows the mayor, remembers to bring gifts when meeting potential business associates, and can bring huge economic pressure on a human working with Hell who can't otherwise be easily removed. To quote The Middleman: "He received a very high-paying job offer." "That doesn't seem so bad." "...in Greenland." "Ohhhhhh." Greasing palms is a lot easier if you've got something to grease them with, and a Mercurian of Trade can get entry to places with a kind word and some Benjamins, places a Cherub of War would be unable to enter without alarm-triggering violence.

As for potential plots, there is a LOT of economic woe in the world today, and Trade angels are out in the streets addressing it 24 hours a day. I bet they were behind the "revive downtown" movement of the last two decades, and now that many of those initiatives are flagging, someone needs to keep them going. Remember as well that Marc represents not just impartial commerce but the angelic version of the Word. Other Archangels might see him as Corporeally-focused, caring about profit and nothing else, but he has a very important job beyond merely bankrolling Heaven: shaping the human drive for commerce, thirst for goods and money, into a compassionate force that doesn't tolerate oppression or unfairness. Maybe a Seraph of Trade broke the recent story about Apple's connection to unfair labor practices. Ofanim of Trade probably helped open the trade routes necessary for free trade coffee that shifted profit onto needy, developing world villages. Even in a game mixing war and peace faction angels, a Tradester's diplomatic savvy, connections in the human world, and piles and piles of cash are very useful to his war faction allies.

Animals
These can be hard, mostly because of the scary dissonance condition and the poor attention given in the other published books to Animals NPCs and plots involving them. I love Jordi fiercely and have a great deal of excitement about how much larger a role Animals can play in a typical game of IN.

For the dissonance condition, nothing makes it dissonant for Animals angels to obey laws, only to act unnaturally to obey them. So if he is in the Vessel of a human (ugh, distasteful) and there are no cars in sight, an Animals angel is likely to cross the road in the middle of the block, rather than walking far out of his way to the crosswalk. But if there is a lot of traffic, using the crosswalk isn't dissonant, it's practical (even in a squirrel Vessel, angels aren't required to be suicidally stupid).

Much more importantly, experienced angels of Animals can generally come to the conclusion that many aspects of human behavior that seem unnatural can actually be explained by many survival strategies of pack animals. This isn't an easy realization, and even once they are convinced of it, it probably doesn't sit well with them. Put another way, though, much like Seraphim learning not to tell people how they really look (instead making a True observation like "Oh! Your hair is so...different!"), an angel of Animals can be taught that common courtesy like shaking hands and not brashly stating one's opinion is to humans as the customary butt sniff is for a pack of dogs. Since learning about human behavior will thus be doubly mind-bending for Seraphim of Animals, it's a good thing they mostly spend time in the water, where humans are in short supply. Communication, cooperation, and ritualized behavior are all quite common in the animal world (and often mystifying to an exterior observer), and in that context, many human behaviors become less abhorrent to angels of Animals. Once an angel has experienced a lek, a typical high school lunch period will make a LOT more sense to him.

All of this is not to say that angels of Animals don't still have dissonance problems operating in human-dominated areas. An animal, confronted with a threat, drives it off, kills it, is driven off, or is killed by it. Animals are creatures of instinct and simple solutions, not convoluted planning. You'll have a hard time convincing an angel of Animals not to cut across the grass (unless a sign, like a wild cat's urine, expressly forbids it). That doesn't mean Jordite PCs are disruptive and unruly children (except maybe the Ofanim, haha), only that they will agitate in a group discussion for the most direct solutions.

Although "group discussion" is in itself a problem, and one of the other major issues when incorporating angels of Animals into a party. Unless you have a player willing to caterwaul and mewl at the table, group conversations run the risk of leaving the Jordite out completely, because they tend to be in forms that don't really speak the local cant well. Shifting into a bird or primate Vessel or using a Song (or switching to celestial form) every time the party wants to talk could rapidly deplete a character's Essence. Scratching the ground takes time (and isn't always feasible, for example in the mayor's bedroom when the kidnappers fail to arrive on time). Since angels of Animals excel at scouting, and scouting tends to leave the rest of the party behind, one way this worked well for me was to have the "party discussion" going on amongst the other PCs while the Malakite of Animals was scouting ahead--and it wasn't as if he didn't get any input on the party's plans, because the other PCs already knew what his desired plan would be, namely bull-rushing the opposition and tearing them to bloody shreds, then having the Trade angel interrogate the survivors while the blood-specked wolf growled ominously at them.

One fix to this problem is to note the difference between a "typical" Jordite and one willing and able to "run with a mixed pack". Jordi may be a creature of instinct, but he's not dumb--he's not going to assign an Kyriotate angel who disdains all human speech and sees scarab beetles as the surest sign of God's perfection to work alongside a Mercurian of Trade, his Cherub of the Wind buddy, and the local hetman, a Seraph of the Sword. That's just not going to work. Instead, he'll assign a Kyriotate willing to inhabit humans, willing to use human speech, and experienced in both human and angelic "dominance behaviors" (read: politics). If a PC group petitions for aid getting to and maybe assaulting a demon-controlled oil rig, Jordi's not going to tell them to contact an ancient Seraph who last encountered a human in 1831, when as a blue whale he overturned a whaling ship, and who speaks no human languages. He'll tell them where to find a playful Seraph who prefers dolphin form and swims mostly near recreational beaches, rescuing the occasional kid in the rip tide but mostly serving to remind humans of what they'd lose if they continue to overharvest and overpollute the oceans.

As for plots where Animals figures, there are the obvious ecoterrorism/conservationist plotlines, but those are unlikely to be particularly interesting to other PCs unless demons are directly behind the opposition (which, sadly enough, isn't necessary to explain habitat destruction). Since the books suggest that Jordi was on good terms with many Ethereals pre-Purity Crusade, a more novel plotline might involve the relationship between a Kyriotate of Animals and the local Vodoun cult, or a Cherub of Animals with connections (or even attunements!) to the survivors of Native American Ethereals. Such a plot might well involve angels of Stone as well, and probably shouldn't involve angels of Judgment or The Sword. A Cold War between Servitors of Animals and The Media for control of Animal Planet's programming would make a great tongue-in-cheek campaign. A monster-of-the-week style campaign with a team of Animals, War, and Judgment Servitors that investigate and deal with weird rumors of animals acting oddly could be a lot of fun (farms attacked by Gorgons, Ethereals running wild, demons of Gluttony in animal Vessels running amok, or just occasional rabies outbreaks could all explain the reports that send the team out on errands). A less combat heavy campaign might find Servitors of Flowers, Animals, Trade, and Destiny dispatched to a struggling Rust Belt town with a suicide epidemic, with the goal of turning the town's economic, ecological, and social future around (something the Seneschal of the as-yet unknown Tether to Fate in the town's heart will surely want to stop).

I hope all that helps. Angels of Animals require some work to insert into a campaign (either as PCs or NPCs), but the challenges aren't insurmountable (and aren't, as I see it, any harder than including Servitors of Judgment or Kyriotates/Shedim of any Words).

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

3) There hasn't been a Jordi expansion yet, or even a Revelations-style extended writeup, ...

Not an official one, no, but R. Sean Borgstrom has posted an unofficial one to the web – and she's one of the better writers of official IN books.

[Mysteris]

Thanks for the answers everyone. Now you've got me interested in playing a Trade angel. :) Probably a Bright Lilim but the others do have appeal now that I can see how to make them useful contributors to a group. And also thanks for the link to Ms. Borgstrom's work. In lieu of canon, it works for me.

[Whitelaughter]

All good answers. Additionally:
- people have wildly different ideas of what Jordi is like (partly due to the lack of canon) and when player and GM's ideas collide things can go badly. However, warlike angels and Servitors of Animals can hit it off well (contrary to the relationship in the book) simply by agreeing to kill the local demons: "they're in our territory" is an argument that both groups understand.
A Kyrio of Animals is very effective at taking down Tethers of Gluttony - having a horde of cockroaches swarm out of the kitchen will cripple any eatery.

my expanded write up for Marc, Archangel of Trade (http://www.mithril.com.au/marc.htm) includes a slab on what Traders should do.

[Rocket Man]

Meanwhile, Robbie Matthews' site has some thoughts on expanding Marc, especially in the wake of the fall of the World Trade Center, one of his biggest Tethers: http://www.mithril.com.au/marc.htm