On the Origin of Malakim

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by Matthias Wasser

Alternative theory: there were Falls before the Fall, but this was treated as a matter of health, not politics, akin to a more severe form of Trauma. Every so often a Cherub's charges would die, and he would grow sullen, and his fellow angels would need to offer him counsel of good hope until he had the courage to forgive himself and be healed. Who had thought it would be the premonition of something more?

Well, assuming we can believe what is written and what the oldest angels claim in the setting, the Fall caused at least two fundamental changes - one was the appearance of a new choir, the Malakim (with some angels like Uriel transforming into them), and the other is the creation of another choir that had not yet been known to exist before the Fall - the Grigori. The Angelic Player's Guide says God created the Grigori after the Fall to protect and look after humanity. Now, whether God was obviously and explicitly creating them, or whether they just sort of started appearing in the Symphony and the angels said it was God (or whether there were any existing angels that transformed into them) is not entirely clear. On the other hand, if there was direct and unambiguous evidence that God created the Grigori then it becomes at least somewhat less likely that the Seraphim Council would cast out the entire choir - the one choir God would have certainly and explicitly created as a response to the Fall.

So I'm guessing the origins of the Grigori are at least as mysterious as those of the Malakim, and for either the easy answer is to say "God did it" but really the angels don't know.

If angels could fall prior to the Fall, then over the fullness of time each and every choir would have had a few fallen members, and some bands are very different from their angelic counterparts. Dominic was sitting as Angel of Judgement and he didn't judge the occasional falling as a problem? That's not so hot judgement. Uriel was the Archangel of Purity, and we're expected to believe that he thought of falling as a mental / spiritual health problem? That seems... unlikely.

In addition, some of the angels that would have occasionally fallen could have caused either accidental or intentional damage and problems whilst in their spiritual turmoil (much like mentally ill humans can), and yet there is no hint of anything resembling Heaven policing itself (or sending the angelic equivalent of EMTs or guys with straight jackets) after them - otherwise Lucifer may not have come as such a surprise to everyone when he initiated the Fall in the first place.

And if angels could fall before the Fall, however rarely, then in their temporarily diseased state they could have posed a threat to humans. And yet the Grigori (humanity's greatest allies) didn't make the scene until after the Fall. I also feel like maybe some fallen angels might be able to pass in a pre-Fall Heaven as "damaged" versions of their choirs, but I just have a harder time believing that for Shedim and Calabim (the latter actually have a built-in Discord and spew entropy!).

All this makes me believe that the ability for angels to fall arose as a new possibility in the Symphony as a result of the Fall (or, if you like, it was an "unlockable" scenario as in some video games), and that they couldn't do so before. That Lucifer did something novel, and that led to the current ability of angels to Fall, and also to choirs of the Malakim's and Grigori's creation (both strikingly different forms that the new "celestial freedom" took).