Ethereal Heresy

chris the cynic · 07-23-2011, 01:43 PM

It's been so long since I've had contact with the official rules (or indeed anything In Nomine outside of my head) that this might not make any sense. On the other hand, it's a heresy, so perhaps that is to be expected. Also, given the heat wave, my brain might literally be fried.

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In the beginning there was the corporeal. I know that that isn't what you've been told, but it is the truth. If any divine being was involved in it's creation, it wasn't any of the ones you know of, and no fingerprints were left.

For billions of years the universe formed devoid of thought. Stars were born and died, then new stars were born. On a small planet orbiting one such star life emerged. Eons passed until finally, when a certain neurological complexity had been reached, the first thought was born and with it the first ethereal force sprang into being. Evolution spread thinking, and with it ethereal forces, throughout the planet and soon there was an ethereal plane teeming with life. For eons more things remained largely the same, until the invention of language allowed belief to transfer from creature to creature.

Now more powerful, more complex, more long lived ethereals came into being. They were able to contemplate their own mortality, and strive for immortality.

It was at this time that the four greatest scientists the universe has ever known joined forces. Lucifer the illuminator, Yves who looked forward, Mariel who looked back, and their leader Yahweh who heard the music of the spheres.

Like so many ethereals before and since, they sought a way to have an everlasting stable existence. Unlike all the others, they succeeded.

They quickly identified corporeal beings as the problem. Corporeals were ephemeral, fickle, and subject to poaching. A better source of belief would be beings that were lasting, slow to change, and outside of the reach of other ethereals. So they began to work.

The solution seemed simple enough. They would create a new kind of being, and with it a new plane the other ethereals knew nothing about. All it would take was a new kind of force. It was decided that this new force would be designed to interact with Yahweh's symphony the same way ethereal forces interacted with thought.

Others might have thought it impossible. Others might have given up. They succeeded. Once they created the new force they spread it. As more and more corporeal beings developed the new force a new plane began to emerge. They guided it's development and began shaping the beings who would inhabit it.

The twin serpents Lucifer and Yahweh created a race in their image which they called Seraphim. Mariel created a race in her image which she called Cherubim. Other races were more whimsical, like a race of fiery wheels and a race of disembodied parts.

The creatures they created did not yet have the spark of life, but through Mariel's skills, they began to give them memories. To two of them they gave the memory of discovering the ethereal plane, and discovering it empty, so that they would not believe that they had been created by ethereals. To another they gave the memory of discovering humanity, and being unimpressed. To others they gave memories of shaping the earth. To all they gave memories of long lives, memories that would prevent them from believing anything other than the four's own version of history.

When, at long last, they had finished crafting their new plane, which they called Heaven, the four realized they had been too ambitious. They didn't have the power to breathe life into all that they had created. Lifeless celestial bodies in a beautiful plane devoid of life would be useless to them. Others might have cut back, but they forged forward.

They warped and twisted reality, contorting it to creating a space that would amplify willpower, a space where it was possible to become one with Yahweh's Symphony and bend it to one's bidding. A place that is now known as the Higher Heavens. When Yahweh ascended to that place he would have the power to jump start the population of their new plane. But the four weren't sure if he could come back. So he created the Metatron to be his voice, and he created Michael in his own likeness. When all was prepared the four ethereals began dismantling their earthly organizations so that there would be no evidence that they had once been mere etherals.

They left only enough to sustain them until the new power source came online. Then Yahweh, along with a core of their most loyal followers intended to assist him and amplify his will, ascended into the Higher Heavens.

For a long moment nothing happened, and then in an instant all of Heaven came to life. Celestials picked up conversations mid sentence, never realizing that they'd never actually begun. Heaven bustled with activity, no one in it realizing that moments before only three of its inhabitants had been alive. Everyone knew Lucifer as the Archangel of Light and Yves as the Archangel of Destiny. They knew Yahweh as God. Mariel, who still needed to tie up loose ends so that the deceit would never be discovered, was remembered as the mere Angel of Memory. All were sustained by belief as they had never been before.

The plan had worked, they were no longer mere ethereals doomed to an existence dictated by the whims of mortals.

When the angels ventured out into the Marches the ethereals tried to tell them that they had never been there before, but the angels had been given memories of the ethereals saying that many times before. The angels remembered a time before ethereals, a time before corporeal life. They thought it absurd to consider the possibility that they had only just been created.

Besides, the symphony -Yahweh's symphony- told them that what they believed was True.

Then history happened. Eden. The Fall. The War.

chris the cynic · 07-23-2011, 01:46 PM

Ok, so what's this whole Fall thingy all about?

Well there are obviously a lot of possibilities ranging from it being exactly what it looked like (Yahweh said to stop going to earth, Lucifer didn't like that very much) to being necessary (without a dichotomy the system breaks down) to the possibly that they had nothing better to do (the four of them are in a room, Mariel says that she's finished erasing all evidence, one of them asks, “Now what?”)

Here's a somewhat different possibility:

Things seemed to be going well in Heaven. There were some problems. Maybe they shouldn't have made Jordi disdain humans quite so much. Maybe they shouldn't have made Blandine and Beleth quite so enamored with the Marches since it would be better if angels didn't investigate ethereals too closely. There were many maybes.

But overall things seemed to be fine. No one suspected that the new realm was new (ethereals' arguments to the contrary fell on deaf ears) and Lucifer, Mariel and Yves were sustained as never before. Their powers grew and celestial belief gave them power without influencing them. They were free to be themselves, however they saw fit, without worrying about fading out. It was everything they had ever wanted, but something bothered Lucifer.

He was unable to shake the feeling that something wasn't right. He tried to investigate, but it was difficult when he was surrounded by beings to whom he could not tell the truth. His conversations with Yahweh, via the Metatron, initially allayed his fears, but as time went on they actually heightened his sense of unease.

Then the Metatron, without so much as calling the other three founders to council for consultation, announced that God had decided the corporeal realm was to be declared off limits. This bothered Lucifer more than anything before. Acting unilaterally wasn't like Yahweh. He was convinced that something had to be wrong.

He talked to the Metatron more often and at greater length in hopes of discovering what was really going on in the higher Heavens. To explain why he was having private discussions with the Metatron so often Lucifer claimed that it was about the order to leave the corporeal behind, and about the nature of humanity.

The Eden Experiment was little more than a distraction, meant to keep prying resonances away from his talks with the Metatron. After it failed the talks continued and finally -finally- Lucifer was able to piece together what had really happened.

He wasn't talking to Yahweh, at least not for the most part. Every so often a piece of Yahweh might break through, but for the most part Yahweh was suppressed. Unable to speak or act. Kept in bondage. He was being used as little more than a power source. Instead the human followers they sent with Yahweh had taken over. They had coalesced into some kind of hive mind, and decided that they would rule the universe themselves. They would rule it for humanity, angels and ethereals would only be allowed to act in ways that serviced that.

The betrayal was almost too much to bear. Those humans had been their most loyal worshipers. Lucifer, Mariel, Yves and Yahweh had loved them. They had been like family. And after getting a taste of absolute power they'd turned Yahweh into their slave. Back stabbing didn't begin to cover it.

A horrified Lucifer told Yves what had happened. Yves already knew. He said that it was destiny. He said that there was no point fighting it. He said that it was good.

A disgusted Lucifer told Mariel what had happened. They began to form a plan. They began to recruit. They couldn't tell the angels why they were doing what they were doing, so they instead told them whatever the angels needed to hear.

Finally Lucifer went to the Metatron again. Told it that he knew the truth, and tried to negotiate with the human hive mind. He said that humans could have the corporeal, he didn't care, just let Yahweh go. The hive mind was unmoved. He said that he'd give up Heaven. He and Mariel would take Yahweh and leave, they'd find their own place. The hive mind said that Lucifer was in no position to negotiate. It would do with Heaven and Earth as it pleased anyway. If Lucifer didn't like how it operated then Lucifer would be destroyed.

The conversation was the longest they'd ever had, but the central points didn't change. The hive mind was keeping Yahweh to be used as it's tool, and nothing Lucifer could say or offer could change that. As far as the hive mind was concerned Lucifer had nothing to offer. It was in control of the Symphony, for most purposes it was the Symphony, and from its perspective that meant that it was already in possession of everything. Lucifer couldn't offer it anything it did not already possess.

So Lucifer killed the Metatron and made revolution.

It did not go as well as Lucifer had hoped it would.

The group that arrived in Hell wasn't quite as any history claims. For example, the idea that no Malakite found itself on the loosing side of the rebellion is a result of both Mariel's editing and the hive mind's propaganda.

After the Fall Lucifer and Mariel privately interviewed every angel or demon locked in Hell. Any who were deemed worthy of salvage were erased from memory and quitely taken to the Lower Hells where they could be safe from prying eyes. These became the foundation of Lucifer and Mariel's secret organizations, and the first celestials other than the Metatron to learn the truth of their origins.

Mariel and Lucifer had been instrumental in the creation of angels, and used that knowledge to preform the first redemptions.

At first they saw Demons as a sick joke. Falling hadn't been in the design specifications and seemed to be something the hive mind had done out of spite. In time they realized that there was a lot of raw potential in the new designs.

A balseraph's ability to persuade was ingenious, the problem was it's capacity for self deception. By keeping the first and removing the second, it was possible to create a truly formidable being indeed.

Letting a possessing celestial cohabitate with the mind of its host was a wonderful idea, once one removed the need and desire to corrupt said host.

In other cases the necessary tweaks were smaller. Often times all that needed to adjusted were hang ups in the default personality. Habbalah make wonderful therapists, for example, as soon as you've disabused them of that punishment nonsense.

Most of what Mariel and Lucifer did for the first few thousand years after being sent to Hell involved making better angels and demons and doing a lot of hard research into the exact nature of the workings of the celestial plane. Their previous research had been rushed, the felt the press of mortality, they could feel their power waning as their work took up time that should have been spent maintaining their earthly worship. They'd taken shortcuts and settled for broad shallow understanding rather than looking at things in depth.

The Higher Heavens themselves had been their greatest shortcut, and based on how that worked out their greatest mistake.

This time they had no such pressure. The populations of Heaven and Hell sustained them, and with no worries about losing belief they could afford to take their time.

Lucifer would occasionally put in an appearance to let Hell know that he was still there, and still in charge. Giving out words and elevating demons to Princedom seemed to get the job done.

Mariel put on a show of being active in Hell more often, even maintaining an organization in the highest Hell. There were still inconsistencies to be erased and clues to be covered over if the truth was to remain hidden for eternity. As Demon Princess of Oblivion she didn't even need to hide the gaps such erasures might leave behind. Everyone assumed she was just servicing her word.

For almost six thousand years that was their routine. Then Lilith came knocking.

chris the cynic · 07-23-2011, 01:47 PM

Lucifer remembered her from Eden. The fact that she walked out was the only part of the distraction that had brought a smile to his face. He couldn't really explain it, but something about her getting up and leaving had just felt right. Now she seemed like an ideal ally. She had been unwilling to act out the role given to her by the hive mind, and was completely unmoved by Yves' claims of what destiny wanted from her.

He was happy to give her the word of Freedom, and happier to finally be able to get out of Hell.

As demons burst onto the earth a second, smaller wave of celestials also made their way out of Hell. Lucifer and Mariel had spent thousands of years adjusting their designs and looking into new ones and were confident that their servitors, which they considered as far beyond ordinary angels as angels were beyond humans, would be more than a match for whatever Yves and the hive mind sent to combat them.

While Heaven and Hell came into conflict Mariel and Lucifer believed that it was only a matter of time before the real war began. They continued their research, formed plans, and braced themselves for the inevitable counterattack. It never came.

In the millennia since the liberation of Hell, Lucifer and Mariel have never seen any indication of the other side. There have been times when something happened that they thought might be the work of the other side, but not once have they encountered any verifiable evidence that the other side is even there.

They are able to disguise their operatives as ordinary humans, angels and demons so well that even Archangels cannot tell, could it be that the hive mind can disguise it's agents so well Lucifer and Mariel cannot detect them? Or is it that the hive mind doesn't see the need for operatives like that. Does it believe that it's ability to set angels and the Symphony itself against them is opposition enough?

In the absence of direct opposition Mariel and Lucifer set their agents to do still more research, now on earth and in the Marches, and employed them, to the best of their ability, in disrupting the essence flow to the Higher Heavens.

They also gathered intelligence on Heaven.

The first and most disturbing thing that they learned was that a steady stream of humans were now making their way into the Higher Heavens, where they would merge with the human hive mind increasing its power. That meant that any shadow of a hope that Yahweh might free himself was gone. There had never been much hope in the beginning, given that it had been thousands of years and he had yet to do it, but now more than ever it was clear that Mariel and Lucifer were Yahweh's only hope.

That Michael had been given the Word “War”, struck Lucifer as a way to remove him from play. Michael had been created to be as much like Yahweh as a celestial could be. Michael had been designed to think like him and act like him, and been granted the status of Archangel without a Word as a way to allow him to continue to be free to so. Narrowing his horizons to War, and so setting him in opposition to those who wished to free Yahweh, looked to Lucifer like a way to make sure the Archangel most likely to want to free Yahweh would never be on the right path to do it.

Little else that had happened in Heaven interested them.

At this point human souls started arriving at Hell, and it became clear Hell was the hive mind's dumping grounds for everything it considered undesirable. Lucifer and Mariel treated the humans the same way they treated the First Fallen. They checked to see if any could be salvaged. Any that could be were sent to the lower hells. The rest were considered to have brought their fate on themselves and ignored until a later date.

Perhaps some day, after Yahweh had been rescued and the hive mind had been defeated, they would try to redeem the despicable souls in Hell. But for the moment, Lucifer and Mariel had more pressing concerns.

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Side Note: Second Fate

It soon became clear to them that there were two kinds of souls being sent to Hell. The first were those blackened by their fate, the second (much smaller) group seemed to have done everything necessary to earn entrance into Heaven. Yet they were sent to Hell. Mariel and Lucifer concluded that they were being quarantined. They may have achieved their bright fate, but in one sense they were not selfless. They had a very strong sense of self, to the point that far from being willing to give that up for the greater good, they believed that anything that destroyed individuality wasn't good.

Welcoming such souls into the hive mind might weaken cohesion, and apparently the hive mind could not accept that. So it sent them to Hell. (It is worth noting that the Angels of Final Judgment have a blind spot about the size and shape of these souls. The Symphony doesn't want them noticed.) They made up less than ten percent of the souls entering Hell, and Lucifer made sure that they were always sorted into his ten percent.

chris the cynic · 07-23-2011, 01:49 PM

For thousands more years nothing happened that really interested Mariel and Lucifer. They made progress, ever so slowly, on building power to rival that of the hive mind without taking the same shortcuts. They learned more about the way the corporeal, ethereal and celestial interacted than anyone else, save perhaps the hive mind. But little of interest occurred.

The Grigori being cast out was mildly interesting. Michael being acquitted might be seen as Yahweh clawing his way back to the surface for a moment in order to save his own. Heaven's dabbling in monotheism raised the question of why the hive mind would bother if it was already in control of everything.

The persecution of Gabriel stung Lucifer. He and Yves had created her together; divine fire was the intersection of light and destiny. He preferred to have her farther from the hive mind's Heaven, but the idea that his child was now exiled bothered him. Even on the other side of a war, he wanted his children to be happy.

When Uriel was yoinked into the higher Heavens Lucifer sat up and took notice. They yoinking was sudden and unexpected. As near as Lucifer could tell Uriel had found something, or rather a hint of something, and before he could investigate, or tell anyone else to investigate, the hive mind ordered him into the Higher Heavens.

It must have been something important because keeping Uriel and Yahweh under control would be a much greater strain than just controlling Yahweh. The hive mind wouldn't take on that burden without a good reason, but what?

The Hive mind never had any fondness for ethereals. It's treatment of Yahweh was all the proof Lucifer needed of that. So what did it want to stop Uriel from doing or seeing?

The only thing Lucifer could think of would evidence of the truth, but they'd erased all that from the Marches. (It was the corporeal and celestial realms where evidence insisted on lingering.) The original lab was gone. Everything was gone. And it hadn't been in that part of the Marches anyway.

What the Hell had Uriel stumbled on? Lucifer and Mariel never found out.

Maybe it was somehow related to the added strain of keeping Uriel in check, or maybe their various efforts had been starting to have an effect, but over the next few centuries it became clear that something was happening in the hive mind.

It seemed to be allowing more bits of Yahweh to filter through, though not in a good way.

The first indication was Gabriel. Her sanity began to slip. Lucifer tried to help, but Gabriel would have nothing to do with him. His current theory is that Yahweh is screaming, “Help Me!” while the hive mind screams, “There's nothing going on up here!” and though the messages cancel out the volume does not. The cacophony is slowly searing her mind.

While Gabriel's sanity slowly eroded, a much larger sign of change sauntered onto the scene. Lucifer isn't sure whether Kronos is a part of Yves that splintered off, or an emulsion from the Symphony with no prior life, but he is convinced of two things. The first is that Kronos is connected to Yahweh (and possibly Uriel) the same way Yves is now connected to the hive mind. The second is that his old friend will need some serious psychological help once he is rescued.

Some very serious help.

After less than a century of have Kronos in his midst Lucifer decided to try for a shortcut. While he has since blamed Legion on Saminga, he never forgot that it was his mistake. He swore to himself and to Mariel that he would never take a shortcut again.

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Side Note: Raphael

One of the theories on why the human hive mind turned on Yahweh is that when faced with the Truth of the Symphony it realized it had been lied to and lost all respect for Yahweh, Lucifer, Mariel and Yves. To prevent this from happening again Lucifer and Mariel have a simple policy. Anyone working in the lower Hells may ask them any question. If an answer is given that answer will be true.

Not every question gets an answer. One question that goes conspicuously unanswered is exactly what happened to Raphael.

It is known that Raphael was their child. Knowledge was the intersection of Light and Memory. Given the affection that Lucifer shows for Gabriel when he isn't pretending to be the Balseraph lord if Hell who hates all angels; given the fact that Cherubs were formed in the image of Mariel, it seems inconceivable that they would have allowed Raphael to be destroyed.

Whether their silence is the silence of grieving parents, or they don't say Raphael is dead because they did somehow save her, is the subject of -quiet, somber- debate among their followers.

chris the cynic · 07-23-2011, 01:51 PM

This is probably another worthwhile place to fork. Exactly what happened between Mariel and Haagenti is going to have a significant effect on where the universe goes. If a wounded mourning Mariel is devoured that means that Lucifer is on his own for the first time since he started. It is also the first time one of the original four would have died. Yahweh may not be in play, but he's still alive.

Here's where I go from there:

With Heaven and Hell's focus firmly on Legion Mariel had been able to move freely through both. That was how she finally, after more than 20 thousand years, was able to erase every single vestige of the truth.

Now that her long mission was over she no longer needed the cover of being Princess of Oblivion. So she retired. When Haagenti ate Sloth that gave her the idea. It was simple enough to give out the appropriate memories for her own exit.

Her secret organization still gives her belief, and the memory of Mariel is so ingrained in Heaven and Hell that, even though they believe she is gone, they still send sustaining belief her way. (The fact that many think she still exists, and is the reason Haagenti is able to eat the way he does, probably helps.)

Now able to devote herself to the cause full time she took over Lucifer's external organizations leaving him to focus exclusively on research and construction. Now Lucifer is in charge of what happens within the lower Hells while Mariel is in charge of operations everywhere else.

Over the next few centuries Mariel worked to drive the humans of the world towards individuality while Lucifer worked to make the Lower Hells rival the Higher Heavens in power. Lucifer was still forced to occasionally make an appearance as the lord of Hell, Wording demons and creating demon princes here and there. Mariel carried out her work in total secrecy, with no one in Heaven or Hell suspecting that she hasn't been devoured.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan.

Then Eli went missing.

Strictly speaking, Eli going missing wasn't a major concern. None of Lucifer and Mariel's plans involved Eli. Eli wasn't one of their creations. (He was made by Yahweh.)

Even so, Lucifer recognized that he fact that he went missing could be important. Lucifer doesn't know what Eli is up to, Mariel doesn't either. It could simply be a vacation.

But Lucifer was detecting some general weirdness in the Symphony leading up to Eli's disappearance. It wasn't Lucifer's doing, it wasn't Mariel's doing, and Lucifer is pretty sure it wasn't Eli's either. Lucifer thinks that it was the work of the hive mind, and he thinks that Eli noticed it.

He thinks that Eli might have started to investigate it, and he hopes that Eli has figured something out.

Lucifer is not sure whether he thinks that Eli left to hide from the hive mind or to investigate it, but what he does think is that after 18 thousand years of trying to get any clue of what the other side is up to, Eli might hold that clue. Lucifer wants to find Eli and find him now.

Lucifer is also looking through his old records, examining various bits of correspondence, and trying to figure out exactly how to recruit him. He failed once before, but this time he's willing to go to much greater lengths, he's even willing to tell Eli the truth.

He needs to know what the other side is doing. He Needs to.

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Side Note: Mariel's Heretical Archives

There is a door in Yves' Library that never opens. What it looks like changes, as does where it's located. It's always unremarkable. Sometimes it's obscured behind the shelves, sometimes it's out in the open. It's always stuck. It is locked, but even if it weren't it would be impossible to open. Sometimes it looks like it's rusted shut, other times it is a wood door that has warped swollen so it can no longer escape its doorway.

Yves is the only being in Heaven powerful enough to open the door, and he never would.

You see the Library contains every book ever written, and Mariel, not being an angel, could never fall. She never stopped being Memory. She was associated with Memory before Words existed. Oblivion was just a cover. She never destroyed anything.

Everything that had to be removed from Heaven, Hell, Earth, or the Marches was lovingly preserved. Every page that was erased was copied in the Heretical archive. Everything that Oblivion destroyed elsewhere can be found in the archives. Every true thing ever written that the Symphony claims is false can be found behind the unopened door.

Everything that Yves' would never allow in his library. Their original research notes. The redacted chapters of Lucifer's autobiography, the true history of the Ethereal Plane. Their original blueprints for the Holy City of Heaven. The minutes of their meetings where they decided which word to give to which angel.

A list of their original worshipers.

Everything. The entire real history of the universe as we know it. It's all in Mariel's Heretical Archive, accessible only from the Lower Hells (unless someone opens the door that is always closed.)

chris the cynic · 07-23-2011, 02:04 PM

That's been jumping up and down in my head for ages now begging to be shared. I hope someone finds it in some way interesting or useful.

The too long, didn't read version is this:

Lucifer, Mariel, Yves, and Yahweh are all Ethereals who created Celestials to be more stable sources of belief than Corporeal beings. They took some shortcuts that worked out rather badly for Yahweh, who is currently being more or less controlled by a hive mind of humans that treat him about the same way a Shedite superior treats its hosts. The Human Hive Mind is what Angels and Demons refer to as God.

Yves is fine with this state of affairs, he sees it as a step on the way to the universe's destiny. (He has the same connection to the divine he has in canon, it's just that now the divine == the human hive mind.)

Lucifer and Mariel have made it their life's work to set Yahweh free. To this end they've done research for thousands of years on how to attain the same amount of power without shortcuts, and built up forces as far in advance of angels and demons as angels and demons are in advance of humans.

For all their efforts the have absolutely no idea what Yves and the hive mind are up to.

Gabriel's insanity and Kronos' existence are both the results of Yahweh and the hive mind struggling for control. A struggle Yahweh is losing badly. There has been a severe negative impact on Yahweh's mental health.

I forgot to mention this above, but Lucifer has a legion (as in ten cohorts with associated support personnel) of therapists so that he will be ready to deal with Yahweh's mental health when Yahweh is set free.

Jason · 07-23-2011, 05:47 PM

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Originally Posted by chris the cynic

Lucifer, Mariel, Yves, and Yahweh are all Ethereals who created Celestials to be more stable sources of belief than Corporeal beings. They took some shortcuts that worked out rather badly for Yahweh, who is currently being more or less controlled by a hive mind of humans that treat him about the same way a Shedite superior treats its hosts. The Human Hive Mind is what Angels and Demons refer to as God.

Yves is fine with this state of affairs, he sees it as a step on the way to the universe's destiny. (He has the same connection to the divine he has in canon, it's just that now the divine == the human hive mind.)

Lucifer and Mariel have made it their life's work to set Yahweh free. ...

This is some zany/interesting stuff. I will have to bookmark this to read in greater detail later; may end up referring back to it in one of my games, which has a heretical cosmology I haven't entirely decided upon yet...

chris the cynic · 07-24-2011, 05:27 PM

Jason, I'm glad you're interested because it would be a real shame to inflict these posts on everyone if no one got anything out of them.

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Frightening as the prospect might be, I actually have more where that *gestures to the wall of text* came from. I first mentioned this idea in January of 2008 at which point I think it was well on its way to being formed. It's had all the time since then to grow.

So, here is some more stuff, which will hopefully clarify some of the above.

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The first thing to remember is that for almost everyone everything is the same as in canon because as far as they know canon is true. The only exceptions are the original four, the hive mind, and those few to whom they have told the truth.

Lucifer

Lucifer is the illuminator. He brings light. It is his nature. He sees Yahweh as someone trapped in oppressive darkness who needs to be set free. Also, Yahweh is his friend and Lucifer does not turn his back on his friends.

He's capable of focusing on the long game and doing slow tedious work (he's been working on the same project, almost exclusively, for more than 20 thousand years) but he also has a tendency to rush forward without thinking when new information comes to light. Perhaps if he'd stopped to think things over in the beginning he could have found a better strategy for dealing with the situation than the Rebellion. If he hadn't rushed into action upon Kronos' arrival the Legion incident might never have happened.

He also tends to have blind spots when it comes to things that can improve situations without solving them. A perfect example is his position towards Gabriel's madness. He believes that the solution is to resolve the situation in the Higher Heavens. It would never occur to him to think of what other things might be done in the meantime, which means it would never occur to him that ending the Word-Friction with Belial might be something he could do that, while it wouldn't solve Gabriel's problems, might make things somewhat easier on her.

His morality tends towards myopic.

If he were to be walking down a street and see a child about to be run over by a car he would save the child without thought or hesitation. He wouldn't consider how it factored into the larger conflict with the hive mind or what might happen if a Demon Prince were to see him acting selflessly. He would save the child because it is the right thing to do and that's all there is to it.

On the other hand, if the situation were more distant, if instead of seeing it with his own eyes he learned that the demons of Hardcore were planning on running over children for fun and essence, the wrongness of the situation wouldn't resonate with him and he would feel no need to stop it. Instead he would think of it in terms of how much of Heaven's resources would be tied up opposing that instead of him. He would also think of the possible negative repercussions if Hell began to think he was squeamish about harming humans.

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Mariel

Mariel is the individual that Cherubim were modeled after. To say that she cares would be an understatement. She loves. She loves Yahweh, she loves Lucifer, she loves her servitors. She would tear the universe apart to save those she loves.

Mariel is a brilliant scientist in her own right, but leaves the experimentation to Lucifer. (In truth she always preferred the kind of research done in a library to that done in a lab anyway.) While he works in the Lower Hells she directs operations everywhere else, occasionally stopping to look over Lucifer's notes or look through their records for any useful information that might have been overlooked before.

She has a fierce loyalty to everyone and everything that works for her, and they return that loyalty.

Unlike Lucifer she doesn't see the depravity of Hell in the abstract. In the course of her work she had to wallow in it for thousands of years. She hates the highest Hell and is happy to no longer need to associate with it. The only reason she doesn't directly oppose that Hell is that she believes that the only way to do so would be an all out war which would weaken both sides to the point that Heaven would be able to destroy them all. At that point the human hive mind, the entity that originally created both Hell and demons, would have won.

Mariel has her own blind spots. The most notable being that from the moment the celestial plane was jumpstarted to the time Legion died, which took tens of thousands of years, she worked to make sure no one ever learned the true origin of celestials without ever asking if it was necessary.

Those to whom she has told the truth believe in her at least as strongly as anyone who believed the lie ever did. One might think that that would cause her to question the long held belief that the truth would threaten the flow of belief on which the four depend. It hasn't. Neither she nor Lucifer have ever considered telling the truth to those outside of their covert organizations.

-

Yahweh

Imagine that you could see and hear everything but communicate with nothing. Imagine spending tens of thousands of years unable to speak, or act, or move. Imagine spending that time trying to scream, but unable to make a sound anyone could hear.

Imagine having your will constantly forcibly suppressed for more than 25 thousand years.

Imagine having your very essence used as a power source. Imagine having someone else inside your mind overpowering your every impulse.

Perhaps then you can understand why Yahweh isn't quite as sane as he once was. Perhaps then you can understand how his anguish resulted in the creation of a being like Kronos.

To understand what he was like before one need only look at his creations. He collaborated with the others of course, but he was also the only one to make archangels single handedly. He created Michael when he realized that he might not be able to return from the Higher Heavens. He wanted someone like him to be in the lower Heaven and created Michael to be that person. Eli he created earlier, when he had no restrictions and no concerns other than the art of creation itself.

If you ask Lucifer he will say that Yahweh acted like Michael before he was given the word War but dreamed like Eli.

-

Yves

Yves is tuned into both the Symphony and the hive mind and though them he can see the universe's bright future more clearly than he ever could before. There will come a time when every need is met and every tear is dried. When Fate and evil are swept from the cosmos and Hell is nothing but a distant memory.

There will come a time when the world is the best of all possible worlds and Heaven is the best of all possible Heavens.

Yahweh's situation is unfortunate, but Yves sees it as necessary for the greater good. He believes that any effort to save Yahweh could only push the universe toward it's Fate. Lucifer would argue that that belief is a result of manipulation on the part of the hive mind. Yves disagrees, obviously, disagrees.

The hive mind is what will lead the universe to its destiny, and so Yves will only support it.

-

The Human Hive Mind
(Called such on the off chance that there might be some other kind of hive mind.)

It is an amalgamation of every human to ever ascend to the Higher Heavens. It is directly interfaced with the Symphony. It is convinced that it knows what's best for humanity. It doesn't much care about anything else.

It views ethereals a parasites, with a special exception made for Yves. It was willing to make similar exceptions for Lucifer and Mariel, but that offer closed long ago.

Every time a new human arrives in the Higher Heavens its individuality is lost and it is assimilated into the hive mind.

Any more detail than that I'm probably going to stick within a rigidly defined area of doubt and uncertainty.

chris the cynic · 07-24-2011, 05:54 PM

The Population of the Lower Hells

The Lower Hells are inhabited by the most diverse population in all of creation. Mariel and Lucifer have investigated and duplicated every band or choir they have ever come across to see if they might prove useful or interesting. (Wailers were found to be utterly useless, for whatever it's worth.) In addition to making any modifications deemed necessary to a given choir or band they also looked into it's fallen or redeemed counterpart as well as other possible variations.

The results of all that experimentation share the Lower Hells with more standard angels and demons as well as a variety of human souls.

Almost the entire population of the Lower Hells work for Mariel or Lucifer, the exception being a handful of individuals with no desire to work and nowhere else to go. (Mostly human souls who have earned their reward, but are not welcome in Heaven and do not deserve to be sent to the highest Hell.)

Lucifer's organization stays within the Lower Hells where it focuses on research and construction. It is largely concerned with experiments to better understand the exact nature of the Symphony and the creation of artifacts. Many, many artifacts.

Mariel's organization does everything else. Everything else includes:

Promoting individuality on the corporeal plane. This has the dual effects of reducing the stream of recruits flowing to the hive mind and increasing the stream of recruits flowing towards the Lower Hells. It is also believed, though not confirmed, that promoting individuality in the Symphony might directly weaken the hive mind.
Investigating Symphonic weirdness of any kind. Anything strange happening in the Symphony could potentially lead to a discovery that would help in the fight against the hive mind. It could also potentially be the work of the other side.
Figuring out what the Hell the other side is doing.
Locating individuals who might be recruited to the cause and recruiting those individuals if it is deemed wise.
Making sure that none of the above reveals their existence to anyone outside of the organization.
Doing whatever else might be deemed necessary.

It is generally believed that if they lose the nonhumans in the Lower Hells will be exterminated and the humans will be either exterminated or brainwashed to prepare them to be absorbed into the hive mind. As such those in the Lower Hells tend to be quite motivated.

That said, not everyone chooses to say for eternity. It is simple to leave the Lower Hells, one need only ask. What is not permitted to is to leave with memories intact. Their memories of what they did while in the Lower Hells will be removed in their entirety. (And then the memories will be placed into storage where they can be retrieved should ever the need arise.)

In general, an angel or demon leaving the organization will believe that they were in limbo or, more rarely, trauma* for the entire time they had been employed. Any memories of them that were suppressed when they joined will be allowed to resurface, generally provoking a reaction of, "I haven't thought of that name in ages," rather than suspicion.

When the angel or demon is one that Lucifer or Mariel created things are slightly more complicated. First, many of them are not part of a known choir or band. That in itself would raise suspicions. The fact that, as far as the wider world was concerned, they were never created in the first place definitely would. Dominc and Asmodeus would both immediately investigate if it appeared that an unknown party was creating celestials.

It tends to require a great deal of creativity, and both Mariel and Lucifer are grateful that it is an exceedingly rare occurrence.

* This is more rare because it requires Lucifer or Mariel to sneak both the angel and its heart into an Archangel or a Demon Prince's sanctuary. It's not that they can't do it, it's just that faking a stay in limbo is much easier.

-

Stuff That Might Happen

There are a variety of things that could happen which would alter the course of events in the universe. Here are a few:

Some other ethereals could repeat the four's original experiments. In theory that has been made impossible, but in theory there wouldn't be a hive mind.

It was possible to create a third type of force, perhaps it is possible to create a fourth. What that force might do, or what beings might be created when a fourth plane formed would be beyond they ability of anyone currently around to predict. This is especially true if the fourth type of force emerged naturally and thus no one was directing the creation of the fourth plane.

Celestials didn't create life on earth, life on earth created ethereals and thus (indirectly) celestials. Life somewhere else might have created its own ethereals or celestials. At any time such beings, or the corporeal life from elsewhere, could show up. Unlike in canon, no one in a position to know ever implied human life was uniquely special in this setting.

Since the yoinking of Uriel the hive mind has had the strain of controlling not one but two separate extremely powerful entities. Throughout this time Lucifer and Mariel have been working to break up the cohesion of the hive mind by promoting individuality in the Symphony (with increasingly successful results these last few hundred years.) If it were to slip up even for a moment it is possible that either Uriel or Yahweh (or both) could get an ungarbled message through to Gabriel.

Mariel and Lucifer have done an impeccable job of keeping their work a secret through the millennia but they have to screw up at some point. Once angels or demons realize that there's a third celestial faction out there, and a powerful one at that, everything will have to change.

Eli is Eli.

The Higher Heavens were a rush job that required twisting reality itself into incomprehensible knots. They could begin to come unraveled.

Uriel was almost certainly on the verge of discovering something in the Marches. Maybe someone else will find it.

Stuff.

07-23-2011, 01:43 PM	#1
chris the cynic Join Date: May 2005	Ethereal Heresy It's been so long since I've had contact with the official rules (or indeed anything In Nomine outside of my head) that this might not make any sense. On the other hand, it's a heresy, so perhaps that is to be expected. Also, given the heat wave, my brain might literally be fried. - In the beginning there was the corporeal. I know that that isn't what you've been told, but it is the truth. If any divine being was involved in it's creation, it wasn't any of the ones you know of, and no fingerprints were left. For billions of years the universe formed devoid of thought. Stars were born and died, then new stars were born. On a small planet orbiting one such star life emerged. Eons passed until finally, when a certain neurological complexity had been reached, the first thought was born and with it the first ethereal force sprang into being. Evolution spread thinking, and with it ethereal forces, throughout the planet and soon there was an ethereal plane teeming with life. For eons more things remained largely the same, until the invention of language allowed belief to transfer from creature to creature. Now more powerful, more complex, more long lived ethereals came into being. They were able to contemplate their own mortality, and strive for immortality. It was at this time that the four greatest scientists the universe has ever known joined forces. Lucifer the illuminator, Yves who looked forward, Mariel who looked back, and their leader Yahweh who heard the music of the spheres. Like so many ethereals before and since, they sought a way to have an everlasting stable existence. Unlike all the others, they succeeded. They quickly identified corporeal beings as the problem. Corporeals were ephemeral, fickle, and subject to poaching. A better source of belief would be beings that were lasting, slow to change, and outside of the reach of other ethereals. So they began to work. The solution seemed simple enough. They would create a new kind of being, and with it a new plane the other ethereals knew nothing about. All it would take was a new kind of force. It was decided that this new force would be designed to interact with Yahweh's symphony the same way ethereal forces interacted with thought. Others might have thought it impossible. Others might have given up. They succeeded. Once they created the new force they spread it. As more and more corporeal beings developed the new force a new plane began to emerge. They guided it's development and began shaping the beings who would inhabit it. The twin serpents Lucifer and Yahweh created a race in their image which they called Seraphim. Mariel created a race in her image which she called Cherubim. Other races were more whimsical, like a race of fiery wheels and a race of disembodied parts. The creatures they created did not yet have the spark of life, but through Mariel's skills, they began to give them memories. To two of them they gave the memory of discovering the ethereal plane, and discovering it empty, so that they would not believe that they had been created by ethereals. To another they gave the memory of discovering humanity, and being unimpressed. To others they gave memories of shaping the earth. To all they gave memories of long lives, memories that would prevent them from believing anything other than the four's own version of history. When, at long last, they had finished crafting their new plane, which they called Heaven, the four realized they had been too ambitious. They didn't have the power to breathe life into all that they had created. Lifeless celestial bodies in a beautiful plane devoid of life would be useless to them. Others might have cut back, but they forged forward. They warped and twisted reality, contorting it to creating a space that would amplify willpower, a space where it was possible to become one with Yahweh's Symphony and bend it to one's bidding. A place that is now known as the Higher Heavens. When Yahweh ascended to that place he would have the power to jump start the population of their new plane. But the four weren't sure if he could come back. So he created the Metatron to be his voice, and he created Michael in his own likeness. When all was prepared the four ethereals began dismantling their earthly organizations so that there would be no evidence that they had once been mere etherals. They left only enough to sustain them until the new power source came online. Then Yahweh, along with a core of their most loyal followers intended to assist him and amplify his will, ascended into the Higher Heavens. For a long moment nothing happened, and then in an instant all of Heaven came to life. Celestials picked up conversations mid sentence, never realizing that they'd never actually begun. Heaven bustled with activity, no one in it realizing that moments before only three of its inhabitants had been alive. Everyone knew Lucifer as the Archangel of Light and Yves as the Archangel of Destiny. They knew Yahweh as God. Mariel, who still needed to tie up loose ends so that the deceit would never be discovered, was remembered as the mere Angel of Memory. All were sustained by belief as they had never been before. The plan had worked, they were no longer mere ethereals doomed to an existence dictated by the whims of mortals. When the angels ventured out into the Marches the ethereals tried to tell them that they had never been there before, but the angels had been given memories of the ethereals saying that many times before. The angels remembered a time before ethereals, a time before corporeal life. They thought it absurd to consider the possibility that they had only just been created. Besides, the symphony -Yahweh's symphony- told them that what they believed was True. Then history happened. Eden. The Fall. The War.

07-23-2011, 01:46 PM	#2
chris the cynic Join Date: May 2005	Re: Ethereal Heresy Ok, so what's this whole Fall thingy all about? Well there are obviously a lot of possibilities ranging from it being exactly what it looked like (Yahweh said to stop going to earth, Lucifer didn't like that very much) to being necessary (without a dichotomy the system breaks down) to the possibly that they had nothing better to do (the four of them are in a room, Mariel says that she's finished erasing all evidence, one of them asks, “Now what?”) Here's a somewhat different possibility: Things seemed to be going well in Heaven. There were some problems. Maybe they shouldn't have made Jordi disdain humans quite so much. Maybe they shouldn't have made Blandine and Beleth quite so enamored with the Marches since it would be better if angels didn't investigate ethereals too closely. There were many maybes. But overall things seemed to be fine. No one suspected that the new realm was new (ethereals' arguments to the contrary fell on deaf ears) and Lucifer, Mariel and Yves were sustained as never before. Their powers grew and celestial belief gave them power without influencing them. They were free to be themselves, however they saw fit, without worrying about fading out. It was everything they had ever wanted, but something bothered Lucifer. He was unable to shake the feeling that something wasn't right. He tried to investigate, but it was difficult when he was surrounded by beings to whom he could not tell the truth. His conversations with Yahweh, via the Metatron, initially allayed his fears, but as time went on they actually heightened his sense of unease. Then the Metatron, without so much as calling the other three founders to council for consultation, announced that God had decided the corporeal realm was to be declared off limits. This bothered Lucifer more than anything before. Acting unilaterally wasn't like Yahweh. He was convinced that something had to be wrong. He talked to the Metatron more often and at greater length in hopes of discovering what was really going on in the higher Heavens. To explain why he was having private discussions with the Metatron so often Lucifer claimed that it was about the order to leave the corporeal behind, and about the nature of humanity. The Eden Experiment was little more than a distraction, meant to keep prying resonances away from his talks with the Metatron. After it failed the talks continued and finally -finally- Lucifer was able to piece together what had really happened. He wasn't talking to Yahweh, at least not for the most part. Every so often a piece of Yahweh might break through, but for the most part Yahweh was suppressed. Unable to speak or act. Kept in bondage. He was being used as little more than a power source. Instead the human followers they sent with Yahweh had taken over. They had coalesced into some kind of hive mind, and decided that they would rule the universe themselves. They would rule it for humanity, angels and ethereals would only be allowed to act in ways that serviced that. The betrayal was almost too much to bear. Those humans had been their most loyal worshipers. Lucifer, Mariel, Yves and Yahweh had loved them. They had been like family. And after getting a taste of absolute power they'd turned Yahweh into their slave. Back stabbing didn't begin to cover it. A horrified Lucifer told Yves what had happened. Yves already knew. He said that it was destiny. He said that there was no point fighting it. He said that it was good. A disgusted Lucifer told Mariel what had happened. They began to form a plan. They began to recruit. They couldn't tell the angels why they were doing what they were doing, so they instead told them whatever the angels needed to hear. Finally Lucifer went to the Metatron again. Told it that he knew the truth, and tried to negotiate with the human hive mind. He said that humans could have the corporeal, he didn't care, just let Yahweh go. The hive mind was unmoved. He said that he'd give up Heaven. He and Mariel would take Yahweh and leave, they'd find their own place. The hive mind said that Lucifer was in no position to negotiate. It would do with Heaven and Earth as it pleased anyway. If Lucifer didn't like how it operated then Lucifer would be destroyed. The conversation was the longest they'd ever had, but the central points didn't change. The hive mind was keeping Yahweh to be used as it's tool, and nothing Lucifer could say or offer could change that. As far as the hive mind was concerned Lucifer had nothing to offer. It was in control of the Symphony, for most purposes it was the Symphony, and from its perspective that meant that it was already in possession of everything. Lucifer couldn't offer it anything it did not already possess. So Lucifer killed the Metatron and made revolution. It did not go as well as Lucifer had hoped it would. The group that arrived in Hell wasn't quite as any history claims. For example, the idea that no Malakite found itself on the loosing side of the rebellion is a result of both Mariel's editing and the hive mind's propaganda. After the Fall Lucifer and Mariel privately interviewed every angel or demon locked in Hell. Any who were deemed worthy of salvage were erased from memory and quitely taken to the Lower Hells where they could be safe from prying eyes. These became the foundation of Lucifer and Mariel's secret organizations, and the first celestials other than the Metatron to learn the truth of their origins. Mariel and Lucifer had been instrumental in the creation of angels, and used that knowledge to preform the first redemptions. At first they saw Demons as a sick joke. Falling hadn't been in the design specifications and seemed to be something the hive mind had done out of spite. In time they realized that there was a lot of raw potential in the new designs. A balseraph's ability to persuade was ingenious, the problem was it's capacity for self deception. By keeping the first and removing the second, it was possible to create a truly formidable being indeed. Letting a possessing celestial cohabitate with the mind of its host was a wonderful idea, once one removed the need and desire to corrupt said host. In other cases the necessary tweaks were smaller. Often times all that needed to adjusted were hang ups in the default personality. Habbalah make wonderful therapists, for example, as soon as you've disabused them of that punishment nonsense. Most of what Mariel and Lucifer did for the first few thousand years after being sent to Hell involved making better angels and demons and doing a lot of hard research into the exact nature of the workings of the celestial plane. Their previous research had been rushed, the felt the press of mortality, they could feel their power waning as their work took up time that should have been spent maintaining their earthly worship. They'd taken shortcuts and settled for broad shallow understanding rather than looking at things in depth. The Higher Heavens themselves had been their greatest shortcut, and based on how that worked out their greatest mistake. This time they had no such pressure. The populations of Heaven and Hell sustained them, and with no worries about losing belief they could afford to take their time. Lucifer would occasionally put in an appearance to let Hell know that he was still there, and still in charge. Giving out words and elevating demons to Princedom seemed to get the job done. Mariel put on a show of being active in Hell more often, even maintaining an organization in the highest Hell. There were still inconsistencies to be erased and clues to be covered over if the truth was to remain hidden for eternity. As Demon Princess of Oblivion she didn't even need to hide the gaps such erasures might leave behind. Everyone assumed she was just servicing her word. For almost six thousand years that was their routine. Then Lilith came knocking.

07-23-2011, 02:04 PM	#6
chris the cynic Join Date: May 2005	Re: Ethereal Heresy That's been jumping up and down in my head for ages now begging to be shared. I hope someone finds it in some way interesting or useful. The too long, didn't read version is this: Lucifer, Mariel, Yves, and Yahweh are all Ethereals who created Celestials to be more stable sources of belief than Corporeal beings. They took some shortcuts that worked out rather badly for Yahweh, who is currently being more or less controlled by a hive mind of humans that treat him about the same way a Shedite superior treats its hosts. The Human Hive Mind is what Angels and Demons refer to as God. Yves is fine with this state of affairs, he sees it as a step on the way to the universe's destiny. (He has the same connection to the divine he has in canon, it's just that now the divine == the human hive mind.) Lucifer and Mariel have made it their life's work to set Yahweh free. To this end they've done research for thousands of years on how to attain the same amount of power without shortcuts, and built up forces as far in advance of angels and demons as angels and demons are in advance of humans. For all their efforts the have absolutely no idea what Yves and the hive mind are up to. Gabriel's insanity and Kronos' existence are both the results of Yahweh and the hive mind struggling for control. A struggle Yahweh is losing badly. There has been a severe negative impact on Yahweh's mental health. I forgot to mention this above, but Lucifer has a legion (as in ten cohorts with associated support personnel) of therapists so that he will be ready to deal with Yahweh's mental health when Yahweh is set free.

07-24-2011, 05:27 PM	#8
chris the cynic Join Date: May 2005	Re: Ethereal Heresy Jason, I'm glad you're interested because it would be a real shame to inflict these posts on everyone if no one got anything out of them. - Frightening as the prospect might be, I actually have more where that gestures to the wall of text came from. I first mentioned this idea in January of 2008 at which point I think it was well on its way to being formed. It's had all the time since then to grow. So, here is some more stuff, which will hopefully clarify some of the above. - The first thing to remember is that for almost everyone everything is the same as in canon because as far as they know canon is true. The only exceptions are the original four, the hive mind, and those few to whom they have told the truth. Lucifer Lucifer is the illuminator. He brings light. It is his nature. He sees Yahweh as someone trapped in oppressive darkness who needs to be set free. Also, Yahweh is his friend and Lucifer does not turn his back on his friends. He's capable of focusing on the long game and doing slow tedious work (he's been working on the same project, almost exclusively, for more than 20 thousand years) but he also has a tendency to rush forward without thinking when new information comes to light. Perhaps if he'd stopped to think things over in the beginning he could have found a better strategy for dealing with the situation than the Rebellion. If he hadn't rushed into action upon Kronos' arrival the Legion incident might never have happened. He also tends to have blind spots when it comes to things that can improve situations without solving them. A perfect example is his position towards Gabriel's madness. He believes that the solution is to resolve the situation in the Higher Heavens. It would never occur to him to think of what other things might be done in the meantime, which means it would never occur to him that ending the Word-Friction with Belial might be something he could do that, while it wouldn't solve Gabriel's problems, might make things somewhat easier on her. His morality tends towards myopic. If he were to be walking down a street and see a child about to be run over by a car he would save the child without thought or hesitation. He wouldn't consider how it factored into the larger conflict with the hive mind or what might happen if a Demon Prince were to see him acting selflessly. He would save the child because it is the right thing to do and that's all there is to it. On the other hand, if the situation were more distant, if instead of seeing it with his own eyes he learned that the demons of Hardcore were planning on running over children for fun and essence, the wrongness of the situation wouldn't resonate with him and he would feel no need to stop it. Instead he would think of it in terms of how much of Heaven's resources would be tied up opposing that instead of him. He would also think of the possible negative repercussions if Hell began to think he was squeamish about harming humans. - Mariel Mariel is the individual that Cherubim were modeled after. To say that she cares would be an understatement. She loves. She loves Yahweh, she loves Lucifer, she loves her servitors. She would tear the universe apart to save those she loves. Mariel is a brilliant scientist in her own right, but leaves the experimentation to Lucifer. (In truth she always preferred the kind of research done in a library to that done in a lab anyway.) While he works in the Lower Hells she directs operations everywhere else, occasionally stopping to look over Lucifer's notes or look through their records for any useful information that might have been overlooked before. She has a fierce loyalty to everyone and everything that works for her, and they return that loyalty. Unlike Lucifer she doesn't see the depravity of Hell in the abstract. In the course of her work she had to wallow in it for thousands of years. She hates the highest Hell and is happy to no longer need to associate with it. The only reason she doesn't directly oppose that Hell is that she believes that the only way to do so would be an all out war which would weaken both sides to the point that Heaven would be able to destroy them all. At that point the human hive mind, the entity that originally created both Hell and demons, would have won. Mariel has her own blind spots. The most notable being that from the moment the celestial plane was jumpstarted to the time Legion died, which took tens of thousands of years, she worked to make sure no one ever learned the true origin of celestials without ever asking if it was necessary. Those to whom she has told the truth believe in her at least as strongly as anyone who believed the lie ever did. One might think that that would cause her to question the long held belief that the truth would threaten the flow of belief on which the four depend. It hasn't. Neither she nor Lucifer have ever considered telling the truth to those outside of their covert organizations. - Yahweh Imagine that you could see and hear everything but communicate with nothing. Imagine spending tens of thousands of years unable to speak, or act, or move. Imagine spending that time trying to scream, but unable to make a sound anyone could hear. Imagine having your will constantly forcibly suppressed for more than 25 thousand years. Imagine having your very essence used as a power source. Imagine having someone else inside your mind overpowering your every impulse. Perhaps then you can understand why Yahweh isn't quite as sane as he once was. Perhaps then you can understand how his anguish resulted in the creation of a being like Kronos. To understand what he was like before one need only look at his creations. He collaborated with the others of course, but he was also the only one to make archangels single handedly. He created Michael when he realized that he might not be able to return from the Higher Heavens. He wanted someone like him to be in the lower Heaven and created Michael to be that person. Eli he created earlier, when he had no restrictions and no concerns other than the art of creation itself. If you ask Lucifer he will say that Yahweh acted like Michael before he was given the word War but dreamed like Eli. - Yves Yves is tuned into both the Symphony and the hive mind and though them he can see the universe's bright future more clearly than he ever could before. There will come a time when every need is met and every tear is dried. When Fate and evil are swept from the cosmos and Hell is nothing but a distant memory. There will come a time when the world is the best of all possible worlds and Heaven is the best of all possible Heavens. Yahweh's situation is unfortunate, but Yves sees it as necessary for the greater good. He believes that any effort to save Yahweh could only push the universe toward it's Fate. Lucifer would argue that that belief is a result of manipulation on the part of the hive mind. Yves disagrees, obviously, disagrees. The hive mind is what will lead the universe to its destiny, and so Yves will only support it. - The Human Hive Mind (Called such on the off chance that there might be some other kind of hive mind.) It is an amalgamation of every human to ever ascend to the Higher Heavens. It is directly interfaced with the Symphony. It is convinced that it knows what's best for humanity. It doesn't much care about anything else. It views ethereals a parasites, with a special exception made for Yves. It was willing to make similar exceptions for Lucifer and Mariel, but that offer closed long ago. Every time a new human arrives in the Higher Heavens its individuality is lost and it is assimilated into the hive mind. Any more detail than that I'm probably going to stick within a rigidly defined area of doubt and uncertainty.

07-24-2011, 05:54 PM	#9
chris the cynic Join Date: May 2005	Re: Ethereal Heresy The Population of the Lower Hells The Lower Hells are inhabited by the most diverse population in all of creation. Mariel and Lucifer have investigated and duplicated every band or choir they have ever come across to see if they might prove useful or interesting. (Wailers were found to be utterly useless, for whatever it's worth.) In addition to making any modifications deemed necessary to a given choir or band they also looked into it's fallen or redeemed counterpart as well as other possible variations. The results of all that experimentation share the Lower Hells with more standard angels and demons as well as a variety of human souls. Almost the entire population of the Lower Hells work for Mariel or Lucifer, the exception being a handful of individuals with no desire to work and nowhere else to go. (Mostly human souls who have earned their reward, but are not welcome in Heaven and do not deserve to be sent to the highest Hell.) Lucifer's organization stays within the Lower Hells where it focuses on research and construction. It is largely concerned with experiments to better understand the exact nature of the Symphony and the creation of artifacts. Many, many artifacts. Mariel's organization does everything else. Everything else includes: Promoting individuality on the corporeal plane. This has the dual effects of reducing the stream of recruits flowing to the hive mind and increasing the stream of recruits flowing towards the Lower Hells. It is also believed, though not confirmed, that promoting individuality in the Symphony might directly weaken the hive mind. Investigating Symphonic weirdness of any kind. Anything strange happening in the Symphony could potentially lead to a discovery that would help in the fight against the hive mind. It could also potentially be the work of the other side. Figuring out what the Hell the other side is doing. Locating individuals who might be recruited to the cause and recruiting those individuals if it is deemed wise. Making sure that none of the above reveals their existence to anyone outside of the organization. Doing whatever else might be deemed necessary. It is generally believed that if they lose the nonhumans in the Lower Hells will be exterminated and the humans will be either exterminated or brainwashed to prepare them to be absorbed into the hive mind. As such those in the Lower Hells tend to be quite motivated. That said, not everyone chooses to say for eternity. It is simple to leave the Lower Hells, one need only ask. What is not permitted to is to leave with memories intact. Their memories of what they did while in the Lower Hells will be removed in their entirety. (And then the memories will be placed into storage where they can be retrieved should ever the need arise.) In general, an angel or demon leaving the organization will believe that they were in limbo or, more rarely, trauma* for the entire time they had been employed. Any memories of them that were suppressed when they joined will be allowed to resurface, generally provoking a reaction of, "I haven't thought of that name in ages," rather than suspicion. When the angel or demon is one that Lucifer or Mariel created things are slightly more complicated. First, many of them are not part of a known choir or band. That in itself would raise suspicions. The fact that, as far as the wider world was concerned, they were never created in the first place definitely would. Dominc and Asmodeus would both immediately investigate if it appeared that an unknown party was creating celestials. It tends to require a great deal of creativity, and both Mariel and Lucifer are grateful that it is an exceedingly rare occurrence. * This is more rare because it requires Lucifer or Mariel to sneak both the angel and its heart into an Archangel or a Demon Prince's sanctuary. It's not that they can't do it, it's just that faking a stay in limbo is much easier. - Stuff That Might Happen There are a variety of things that could happen which would alter the course of events in the universe. Here are a few: Some other ethereals could repeat the four's original experiments. In theory that has been made impossible, but in theory there wouldn't be a hive mind. It was possible to create a third type of force, perhaps it is possible to create a fourth. What that force might do, or what beings might be created when a fourth plane formed would be beyond they ability of anyone currently around to predict. This is especially true if the fourth type of force emerged naturally and thus no one was directing the creation of the fourth plane. Celestials didn't create life on earth, life on earth created ethereals and thus (indirectly) celestials. Life somewhere else might have created its own ethereals or celestials. At any time such beings, or the corporeal life from elsewhere, could show up. Unlike in canon, no one in a position to know ever implied human life was uniquely special in this setting. Since the yoinking of Uriel the hive mind has had the strain of controlling not one but two separate extremely powerful entities. Throughout this time Lucifer and Mariel have been working to break up the cohesion of the hive mind by promoting individuality in the Symphony (with increasingly successful results these last few hundred years.) If it were to slip up even for a moment it is possible that either Uriel or Yahweh (or both) could get an ungarbled message through to Gabriel. Mariel and Lucifer have done an impeccable job of keeping their work a secret through the millennia but they have to screw up at some point. Once angels or demons realize that there's a third celestial faction out there, and a powerful one at that, everything will have to change. Eli is Eli. The Higher Heavens were a rush job that required twisting reality itself into incomprehensible knots. They could begin to come unraveled. Uriel was almost certainly on the verge of discovering something in the Marches. Maybe someone else will find it. Stuff.