Ethereal Heresy

[chris the cynic]

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:

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. Figuring out what the Hell the other side is doing.
   
4. Locating individuals who might be recruited to the cause and recruiting those individuals if it is deemed wise.
   
5. Making sure that none of the above reveals their existence to anyone outside of the organization.
   
6. 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.

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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.