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Old 09-02-2022, 01:57 AM   #3
ehrbar
 
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Default Re: Khalomael, Habbalite "Archangel" of Fantasy (Alt-SSO)

Khalomael's History
Once upon a time, there was an Elohite of Fear. It became an Elohite of Dreams after the Fall, and in long and efficient service rose to Vassal of Dreams, then Friend of Sleepers, and then Master of the Realms of Night.

In the fullness of time, this Master of the Realms of Night became convinced that Heaven had managed to walk itself into the very sin of Lucifer. Lucifer had rebelled over the God-decreed end to celestial meddling with the corporeal realm; angelic involvement is only now permitted as a practical measure to fight demonic influence. Yes, many actions that are not simply fighting demons themselves can be justified as measures to counter their influence, but the Host had moved past even those justifications to simply imposing what they thought was right.

As its first example, this Elohite pointed to the Purity Crusade, where an Archangel engaged in massive genocide of beings unlinked to Hell, imposing his personal vision on the corporeal plane. And even more importantly, the Seraphim Council was divided and debated how to judge the behavior of Uriel, rather than swiftly and unanimously condemning the Luciferian proposition that angels are entitled to impose their will on the corporeal by slaughter of the innocent.

As its second example, this Elohite pointed to the Monotheism Project. Oh, sure, there was a partial justification in destroying Demon Prince cults interspersed among the religions. But the major motives were jealousy, Heaven wanting the Essence and power that was accumulating to the dreams of humanity, and fear, fear the dreams would become as powerful as celestials. Never mind that dreaming and worshiping their own dreams were perfectly natural human activities, and that if God didn't want ethereals to be able to become powerful, God could have limited their potential Himself.

As its third example, this Elohite of Dreams pointed to one of its own Archangel's Rites. It is a natural, God-granted ability of ethereals to create vessels for themselves so that they can visit Earth, and God never banned ethereals from doing so. And yet, Blandine actually gives Essence to Servitors for destroying the vessels of the creatures of dream, even though those Servitors are only allowed by God to be on Earth to fight Hell.

The first example given by her Servitor, Blandine sympathized with, if finding the expression too harsh. The second she found disturbing, in part because of what it implies about Yves, the original proponent of the Monotheism Project. The third, of course, sparked her anger. She summoned the Elohite, and had a long discussion with it. Neither party has spoken of what happened in that private conversation, but soon thereafter the Elohite was found walking the Earth an Outcast.

The Elohite, certain it had objectively determined the path necessary to correct Heaven and bring it back to righteousness, was not in the least apologetic, and did not seek forgiveness. Nor did it quite ever violate its Choir dissonance conditions. However, objective needs for resources to serve God led it to occasionally do "contract work" for various Superiors, when contracts could be found that did not contradict the goal of reducing celestial meddling on Earth. One of these, for Freedom, resulted in a "bonus payment" of Lilith's basic Rites.

Spending an hour encouraging an angel to question Heaven's policies, accepting a badly-needed measure of Essence, and an Infernal Intervention on the corresponding note of Dissonance for using a diabolical Rite resulted in a change of its Choir to Habbalite.

The new Habbalite took the name Khalomael for "Dream of God", and if her viewpoint and behavior was changed by her Fall, she still stuck to her principles. Lucifer was wrong, as were all the rest of the demons, and any angels who went beyond the mandate to counter diabolical influence. The God-proclaimed ideal state is all celestials off Earth, with the humans and ethereals on it free to do whatever they want. An Elohite's calm determination to further God's Will transformed into a Habbalite's fanatic determination to enforce it, punishing violators.

This, of course, completely precluded actually signing up with any Demon Prince, since all of them were openly opposed to God's command that celestials cease interfering on the Earth. Habbalah in general might be able to self-delude themselves into thinking serving Demon Princes can further God's Will, but Khalomael could only even consider serving one Superior on the side of Hell, the only one God did not ban from the Earth. And Lilith doesn't take Servitors.

But Lilith does hire contractors, and Khalomael became a perpetual one, regularly renewing for a modicum of protection and access to resources. She'd also take "side gigs" as allowed by her contracts with Freedom. War particularly found uses for a powerful Habbalite who was eager to free humans from Diabolical influences. Isis and Athena also found Khalomael an occasionally-useful hire. Khalomael didn't have a secure position wandering the Marches and the Earth, but was able to get enough favors and play off foes against each other well enough to survive.

Then, in the Superior Soap Opera, came the founding of Shangri-La. Khalomael was still on Earth, unaware of what was going down when Beleth attacked Shangri-La's Tether to the Marches, but was pulled in by Lilith shortly thereafter. While powerful and quite experienced in Marches combat, Khalomael knew nothing of organized warfare, and initially wound up on General Garg's staff as a Marches advisor and trainer, with the rank of major but no direct subordinates.

Eventually, in the Superior Soap Opera, Lilith began creating her own Superiors. One to watch the Ethereal Plane and match against Beleth and Blandine was an obvious slot to be filled. Khalomael was already powerful, of long experience in the Marches, and had a long record of reliable contract work under Lilith. A long discussion between the two resulted in Khalomael being bound to the Word of Fantasy, and being raised to Superior status.
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Steven E. Ehrbar

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