Bedad, Skulker Prince of Privacy

[William]

Bedad is intended to be a Prince like Lilith, representing a Word many people perceive as good but which is deprecated by Heaven, for GMs that want to turn down the contrast. Given his history, he can achieve his Princedom in-game, or have been in existence for some time without having been known to the War at large. Servitors of Privacy, whether full-fledged (likely high in Forces and with the Backup Attunement), temping Lilim, or Renegades, would probably make a fairly good single-player, low-contrast demonic game.

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Bedad, Skulker Prince of Privacy
"The world could do whatever it wanted if it would just leave me the hell alone."

HISTORY

Bedad was Outcast with the rest of his Choir, having engaged both in illicit relations with humans, and in covering up his own and his brethrens' crimes. In his opinion, it was none of Heaven's business what he or his Choirmates did on their own time, and he had no interest in returning after they investigated and punished him for it. Spurning his cracked Heart entirely, he became a Skulker and vanished into the masses of humanity. He survived the purges and spent millenia afterwards moving from town to town, always on the outskirts, taking on the persona of a wanderer whenever the locals had a place in their culture for such a thing. He shielded himself with layers of misdirection and subtlety, passing unnoticed under the eyes of celestial investigators. He never made long-term ties, dallying now and then but always ready to leave at a moment's notice.
He often had to, as the War spread across the Earth and more and more often did he nearly come to the discovery of demons or angels. On rare occasions he had to kill to prevent reports of him from reaching the intelligence apparatus of Heaven or Hell. Finally, he encountered someone he could not silence: Lilith had pieced together his existence and his whereabouts, and she confronted him. Fearful that she would reduce him to atoms figuring out how he worked, he was both pleased and dismayed when she called upon Lucifer to grant the Skulker a Word and Princedom. Privacy is good for Freedom, and she intended to make use of him.
The good news for Bedad is, he is alive; the bad news is, Lilith and Lucifer have been quietly making his existence known to this and that demon, who have been brought before him to receive Attunements and Rites. So far, they have acquiesced to his wish that he be introduced as an anonymous Word-Bound of Freedom, unless he is being required to make Hearts or perform other tasks that a Superior must perform; such demons are ordered to keep silent about Bedad, on pain of death. Knowing demons, this means that it's only a matter of time before Bedad becomes *really* famous, he just knows.

DISSONANCE

It is dissonant for a true Servitor of Privacy to go a full Essence-cycle without being able to spend a continuous undisturbed hour. Physical solitude is best, but being in a roomful of people absorbed in their own business and not talking to each other -- at least, not *him* -- can do in a pinch. Any more than the most casual attention breaks the hour.
In addition to the usual methods for removing Dissonance, a demon of Privacy can remove a note of Word Dissonance, as long as his Celestial Forces in days have not yet elapsed, by going a full Essence-cycle without being observed at all. After this time the Dissonance becomes as permanent as usual.

While it is not Dissonant to reveal Bedad's existence, if it comes to Bedad's attention that a demon is talking about him the demon had better be standing very close to another Superior.

BAND ATTUNEMENTS

Balseraphs (partially restricted): ("Tenser!" said the Tensor...) For any Song these Liars know which can read mental thoughts or information, they can make an instant skill roll, with a penalty of -2 (the performance is sotto voce, and requires no Essence) whenever that Song is used on them; success allows them to "jam" the reading. They must be responding consciously to a targeting, unless they make a Resonance roll. In this case they can actually cause the Song to return false information to the performer, and this "false front" stands for the length of the self-Resonance. Songs affected include Empathy, Ethereal Nemesis, Nightmares, and Tongues, among others of similar intent. Non-Balseraphs can only use the skill version.

Djinn: Any Symphonic tracking method gutters when attempting to track these dour agents of solitude. Cherub attunements, Songs of Affinity, tracking skills, relic compasses and the like all suffer a penalty to their target number equal to twice the Djinn's Celestial Forces, and long-term effects must be rerolled daily. Note that Djinn of Privacy rarely attune to living beings.

Calabim: Any successful melee attack or grapple upon a Calabite with Privacy's Band Attunement can, if the Calabite so chooses, be immediately followed with a repulsion of equal force, as if a being of the attacker's Strength were attempting to disarm the attacker, push him away, etc. The Calabite can add his own attack roll or resonance roll to this effect; success combines the two forces and can toss away a human-sized attacker quite satisfyingly.

Habbalah(restricted): Habbalah of Privacy can inflict an intense sense of self-isolation, including upon themselves, with their Resonance. The check digit acts as a bonus to a Will roll to resist any influence skill attempted upon the subject.

Lilim: A fair number of Free Lilim have received Bedad's Band Attunement, enough that he's pressing Lilith to back off on them for a while, lest the source be noticed and thought something other than an experimental Freedom attunement. A Geas or hook on a Lilim of Privacy cannot be invoked through media unless she consents: the Lilim can sense the "impending doom" of a Geas-activating request, in time to choose not to open the letter, hang up the phone, etc.

Shedim(restricted): Shedim have privacy in their host's heads; they drive out the human mind entirely. They can avoid Dissonance by permanently disrupting their host's relationships further; this requires Intelligence rolls rather than Will rolls, but the mechanics are otherwise the same. The human's network of relationships "resists" with an Intelligence the GM decides is suitable for the strength of the host's social circle, which gradually degrades until the host is a virtual hermit.

Impudites(restricted): Impudites that want privacy are practically a contradiction in terms, and those with Bedad's Band Attunement are literally crazy. They have a second personality in their head, which can be obsequious and flattering, or respectfully mute, as they desire at any time, as if it were permanently charmed. It also comes with its own independent Essence reserve that the Impudite can resonate to steal from, of size equal to the Impudite's own Forces and regenerating 1 mote per sunset. The Impudite is under the delusion that he possesses a unique, minor demonic servant born of his own desires. Who knows, perhaps in some weird way he's even right.

Skulker: Bedad knows of a few of his brothers still alive, and these are among the few demons he willingly interacts with outside of Lilith's influence. Skulkers of Privacy can muffle even their corporeal disturbances, creating with a resonance roll a zone of silence of radius equal to their yards in Celestial Forces from which sounds that emanate have a penalty to perceive them equal to the CD.

SERVITOR ATTUNEMENTS:

Fading into the Crowd: The holder of this Attunement can avoid unwanted Interventions, both Divine and Infernal, by simply not rolling. Any d666 roll based on his worst characteristic (pick, if two are equal) can simply be declared to have been a total of 7, with a check digit of 3, before any modifiers are applied. (In GURPS, the unmodificed dice total is 11.) No risk mechanics can be used; Essence can be spent, talismans used, etc. This Attunement can be obtained multiple times, the second time taking the next worst characteristic, and so on, up to six times. (In GURPS, treat Will and Perception as separate statistics from IQ and its associated Mental skills, DX and associated Physical skills, and HT and ST rolls.)

"You Never Had a Camera Inside my Head": This powerful Attunement shunts angelic resonances off of the holder whenever they would reveal internal information; external information is still available. At most CDs, the result of a Seraphic, Elohite, or Malakite resonance upon the holder is simply a blank, with the exception of the Seraph CD 6 "actual Truth" result, Elohite "external motivations" and "responses to action" results, and Malakite CD 6 "full potential" result. Mercurian resonances also skip the CD 1 and 5 information.

Backup: The user can create a temporary Ally out of his own Forces. For 3 Essence, he produces a copy of his current Vessel possessing all of his statistics and memories. Cheap mundane goods are duplicated, but bonded artifacts and current Essence are split between the two. The copies last for the user's total Forces in minutes. The subject can purchase Backup multiple times, increasing the number of copies that can be made by 1 each time, but can purchase no more than his Celestial Forces minus one in allies. (In GURPS, use levels of Duplication.)

[William]

BASIC RITES

+1 Essence: Spend a day without being observed. Demons with this Rite expecting it to work on a given day can find out unexpectedly if they have been surreptitiously watched.
+X Essence: Destroy all corporeal evidence that could connect you to a Role/X you possessed.

INVOCATION BASE: 0. Bedad doesn't *want* you to bother him. It's 0, not uninvokable: you can try, but he doesn't make it easy.

Modifiers:
-2X: X persons in the room other than yourself.
+1: Blindfolding yourself before calling.
+3: A request Bedad can answer without showing up personally.
+5: A request likely to improve Bedad's chances of being left alone in the future.

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PERSONALITY AND WORD

Bedad wants to be left alone to enjoy fairly simple pleasures of passing lust and minor avarice, and perhaps explore some of the ramifications of Princely power. He hates meddling by angels, and harbors lasting ill will against the investigators and security agents that found out the sins of his Choir and cast them out. He is grumpy at even the most polite of supplicants for disturbing him, and existentially cannot *stand* the notion of an omniscient God constantly watching his every move and thought. The latter motivates him more than he likes to admit, and he is gradually increasing the number of his Servitors, giving them directions to interfere with corporeal developments such as surveillance, RFID, and data mining. He frequently messes with Heavenly plots initiated by Revelations and Judgment, and has not much more fondness for the Game, the Media, or Technology. Servitors of Privacy involve themselves in human politics to advocate for privacy protections that will make it easier for them to do their jobs, and hunt through the Three Realms for lost artifacts of the Words of Oblivion, Memory, Secrets, and Knowledge, as well as lost and secret Songs that conceal or erase information.

In Bedad's perfect world, everyone would be ultimately secure in their own self, never having to interact with anyone else, able to think and act in perfect freedom from the constraints of others' knowledge or desires. God, that prying, judgmental busybody, would be subjected to the same treatment, blinded and bound and put where He could get on with maintaining the Universe, should that function be necessary, without being conscious of anyone's thoughts or actions. You are your own standard of judgment, and you should be inviolate within your own mind.

PRINCIPALITY

While he might theoretically be able to claim one, Bedad is a new and weak Prince and says he has no interest in becoming more active in the affairs of the War. He claims no Principality in Hell. When he absolutely must meet someone on turf he claims himself, he brings supplicants to a Domain in the Marches consisting of a dark series of interconnected caverns, with ungeometric interconnecting paths. Only Bedad fully knows his way to or around the place. If explorers find the place independently, they quickly learn that the Domain is apparently both Hidden and Acidic, as well as Intrusive in both positive and negative senses, forcing upon long-term visitors the Cowardly Discord and offering a Domain Attunement. The latter is a bonus to the Songs of Darkness equal to the user's Forces in the realm of the Song version, and is *not* Infernal, but does require effort by the Domain Master. Bedad has that Ethereal in his pocket, literally, as a living artifact that he has bound and completely subjugated to his will. (It wasn't a very *nice* Ethereal, as the state of the Domain might imply.)

Without a Principality, Bedad claims no Tethers; there is nowhere for the upper locus to be stabilized. Many potential Privacy Tethers are also suitable for Freedom; Bedad brings these to Lilith's attention and donates a share of the Forces for stabilizing them in Shal-Mari under her aegis, garnering a share of the Essence without anyone else, even the Seneschal, knowing the Tether is anything more than a Freedom Tether with a privacy-oriented trigger event. Likewise, he can claim no souls; he does, however, have dreamscapes wander through his Domain on occasion, and a few dreamshades he has permitted to anchor there, tasked with infiltrating them with various Songs in hopes of draining them of Essence. He also has a number of creaky homes in odd corners of the world far distant from civilizations, dating back to even before he was a Prince; there, a surprising number of ghosts have been allowed to anchor in return for being left alone to pursue whatever weird existence they desire, only occasionally being subjected to demands to pay up on any Essence they might have. The ghosts on the corporeal plane are tasked with keeping unwanted living interlopers away from his houses, and mortals find them unwelcoming places indeed. If they stay too long, they learn that Bedad is willing to make use of zombies (they keep shut up) and a few of those ghosts are necromancers avoiding Hell. He is also fond of traps, and is looking in to robot guards.

Bedad rarely creates Hearts or takes in full-fledged Servitors, usually granting his Band Attunements to demons of the same Band. More often, to keep celestials out of Limbo he provides Body Bags and spare Vessels. A very few full Servitors of Privacy exist, most made only recently on fast trips to secluded parts of the Guildhall of Free Lilim. Their Hearts are sealed in individual chambers carved out of Hell's bedrock, visitable only through ascension or difficult Songs, just the way these Servitors like it.

SERVITORS

Full Servitors of Privacy tend to work best alone, and are often higher in Forces than a normal starting demon, and equipped with the Backup Attunement. These are often Skulkers surviving from the original Second Fall -- no one knows if Bedad can make new Skulkers, not even Lilith, as far as she is telling -- or freshly bound Lilim. When working with other demons, they often lie about their origins and trust to their Attunements to shield them from investigations. Several have even found themselves working on this or that corporeal issue with angels of the Wind, the only angelic Word that Bedad thinks has any real appreciation of the virtue of privacy.

[robkelk]

Very interesting... There's only one bit of usual information that's missing, but it's pretty easy to extrapolate - I think:

Relationship with other Superiors

Bedad just wants to be left alone.

Allied (by necessity, not by choice): Lilith (and Lilith is Allied with Bedad)
Neutral: everyone else

[ISNorden]

Originally Posted by robkelk

Very interesting... There's only one bit of usual information that's missing, but it's pretty easy to extrapolate - I think:

Relationship with other Superiors

Bedad just wants to be left alone.

Allied (by necessity, not by choice): Lilith (and Lilith is Allied with Bedad)
Neutral: everyone else

Well-thought out, just like the description in general. I suppose that an angel of Privacy, if one exists, is probably a Cherub under Zadkiel: there are times when even the allies of God legitimately need to be left alone.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by robkelk

Very interesting... There's only one bit of usual information that's missing, but it's pretty easy to extrapolate - I think:

Relationship with other Superiors

Bedad just wants to be left alone.

Allied (by necessity, not by choice): Lilith (and Lilith is Allied with Bedad)
Neutral: everyone else

And rumors will fly that Bedad and Alaemon are Associated with each other, although Alaemon is far too paranoid and Bedad far too closed-off for any cooperation to ever take place.

[gjc8]

Originally Posted by robkelk

Relationship with other Superiors

Bedad just wants to be left alone.

Allied (by necessity, not by choice): Lilith (and Lilith is Allied with Bedad)
Neutral: everyone else

Except that The Game is unlikely to leave him alone. It seems as though he would be Hostile with Asmodeus, and vice versa, or even enemies.

[Notdan]

There's a lot of really good stuff here, and I'm very happy to see new things being done with the Grigori and Skulkers (if I didn't know how grim the In Nomine situation was at e23, I'd say "surely they deserve their own PDF supplement?") but there's part of me that just can't see "privacy" being a superior-level word, especially when there's already a Prince of Secrets whose manifesto covers a lot of Bedad's sphere of influence.

[William]

One may certainly feel free to make Privacy a Word-Bound under Secrets or Freedom, possibly as a "secret Word-Bound" Skulker Alaemon or Lilith found. You still get the plot ability to hand out his Rites and Servitor Attunements, as well as the propaganda value Hell derives from championing privacy as a desirable consequence of selfishness.

[Notdan]

That's a hugely sensible idea :) I'd probably put him under Alaemon - partly because I think they have greater word synergy, partly because Lilith dislikes having permanent servitors - but I can see him getting very pally with Lilith.

[robkelk]

Sorry to bother you, sir... <g>

I noticed another missing item in the writeup: Bedad's Distinctions. He doesn't appear to have any. But it's pretty easy to figure out this section, too:

"Bedad has not created any Distinctions. Distincted Servitors don't leave their Superior alone. Besides, Bedad has few enough Servitors as it is; none of them need a Distinction."