The War in Heaven: An Angel in the War of Wrath

[ganonso]

Dissection

Service to God requires sacrifice.

In this peculiar moment, the sacrifice is to endure the miserable stench of this room while your comrades do their grisly work.

The sterile room is matted with iridescent blood. Corpses and agonizing creatures of the Elder Gods are strewn to the walls and the granite table in various states of examination. Some are completely opened up and you can see their strange organs palpitating under the stress. The mind of others reveal itself on the walls in coloured images and errie sounds. Others still have been subjected to various substances in an attempt to destroy them. You recognize some you've charred yourself to a crisp.

At the center stands Curunir. He's a tall giant made of the seven holy metals. If he was immoblie you could take him for a mettalic humanoid statue except the humans have not six arms ending in arrays of tools neither their faces are carved like the passage of erosion on a rock. You don't look your leader in the eyes. There's always clockworks turning behind Curunir's gaze these days and you understand him. The mandate imposed on you by Michael is worrying, near impossible and terrifying in its implication.

In front of him, restrained on the altar-like dissection table, the great Asura is opened in at least three dimensions. You can see the strange pathways of its organs and even you must concede it was constructed well. Radagast, Alatar and Pallando are in the room, with no more substance than a cloud of colored smoke observing and commenting on the many ways this physiology works without making sense. Its mind is also laid bare under the knives and claw of your brothers letting you see the alien laws and concept of its home. Strange it seems these beasts have achieved some form of civilization during their exile.

However the strangest part is nailed in the coils of his proto-soul. A shard of nauseating power was apparently inserted into this creature provoking a whole range of mutations and abilities. You are not sure what it is but it opens a whole can of unpleaseant implications. The process is crude but shows remarkable insight in the mechanics of creation.

You sigh. Your task is to create a way to help the Choir of Daath in their war against the Elders and you don't know where to begin. What will you do?

[] Examine the beast' body to create poisons and weapons adapted to its physiology

[] Probe the creature's mind in search of taboos and compulsions you could use on them

[] Carefully extract and analyse the shard of power.

 

[ganonso]

LORE OF DEATH : THREAD Resurrection


Slowly and carefully, you alter your own hands in tools not dissimilar to Curunir's and signal your comrades you wish to examine the shard of power. You plunge your fingers in the Asura's proto-soul and retrieve the pulsating mass before raising it to show it to your colleagues.


The effects on the creature don't wait a second. As soon as you've ripped the shard from his essence, you sense it unravel under your eyes. Radagast try in vain to breathe life in the Asura's flesh but to no avail. It seems that the shard was animating it, or perhaps forced its alien biology to function. Without it, reality retake its rights and the alien flesh crumbles to dust while his mind fly. Pallando fails to catch what passes for its soul but you don't begrudge him, while the Wild One has worked with the Seventh House, he's not an Angel of Death.


The Shard is all that remains on the altar, burning like a green bonfire. Strangely you sense a kinship with it. Its metaphysical pattern looks like a sun, and you suspect it was made to project its rays through its host, fully empowering it. You peer into the depths and with a sigh you try the basic evocation of the Lore of the Celestials on it.


Visions assail you of a great and terrible city beyond all knowledge. Endless walls and parapets of burning brass cowering beneath an emerald sun. This city is alive with a terrible life you couldn't hope to comprehend while the walls and the towers and the sun howl with a terrible sentience. They hate you, they hate you as they hate all that is outside their dominion.


This shard is a ray of the green sun, a drop of the ocean of unreason that wait beyond the universe you crafted. Not only it empowers the Asuras that host it, giving them a reflection of the might of their master, but it's also an host if the current one is killed, giving the Titans an easily replenishable source of captains and commanders.


To your horror you realize you have no idea how to destroy this. Seal it? Yes you could devise a stasis chamber for such thing and the Choir of Daath must be notified to prepare containment units. But to destroy it? To your perceptions it is as indestructible than the Titan that crafted it from its essence. As for using it. Curunir is the first to emit the idea.


"This is useless to our purposes. That thing should not be able to work without deeply weakening the Elder One that created it. We can't destroy it, and we certainly can't reproduce it. Even a Seraph would diminish by giving so much of its potential to an underling."

"It is not what surprise me the most" says Alatar thoughtful "If we have perceived is true, the creature should have been mightier by far. Even at a first glance I can see plans for an exosqueleton in the shard. It seems the goal of all this is to transform the host in a copy of the Titan"


"Which would be useless for them and you know it" you say "Even if an Asura could harness the full potential of the shard and that's not even sure, the Titans would gain nothing but rivals if that was the case"


Curunir make a sign with his multiple arms: "We will notify the Choir of Daath of this development and keep studying the shard. When Olorin Returns, tell him to run a full pattern analysis on it. We must understand what powers it gives to our enemies."


And so it was done…


You have gained five dots to share between Power, Finesse and Resistance. Vote for the amount you want to enhance the characteristic like this


2 Power

2 Finesse

1 resistance

 

[ganonso]

The First Murder

Time passes and the Silent War continues unabated, displays of skills and compassion briefly interrupted by hunts for the Primordial's spawn that manage to sneak from their prisons. Time passes and you and your kin labor in your tower unseen by mortal eyes. To be fair, your progress is painfully slow. Designing containment units for the Choir of Daath was relatively easy but your studies of the shards that now fill your shelves have stopped due to the lack of results. You begin to understand the processes that drove them, and you could even work your own but two problems remain unsolved and possibly unsolvable: You cannot fathom how to fill the shards of power with energy without destroying or weakening the source and you know not where you could attach them. Neither beasts or spirits can endure the burning power and the idea of exalting mankind doesn't even enter your mind at the moment.

You see your colleagues and rivals meet more success in their prospective projects. A group of potentates of the Sixth House have uplifted animal spirits and empowered them with careful applications of Lore. You saw this « Father Wolf » and the pack of his children prowl and stalk the creations of the Old Ones and you can only assent to their terrible might. Emboldened by their success, the research group is currently creating similar spirits from a basis of spiders, snakes, sharks, birds and saurians. Another group has decided to use fire to fight fire and empowers animals, changing their forms to better use them in the coming war. They have created great dragons to rule the sky, griffins as regal as lion and eagles and serpents that kill with but one sight. None of these creatures is sentient yet but you would not be surprised some uplifted specimens have already been born.

One day comes with a surprising order from the Fourth House. It is not addressed to your group but to you personally. You are to join your siblings of the other Houses, the loyalists that crafted the sun and from that vantage point seek for Adam and Eve, exiled from the garden of their birth. The seers of the Fourth have sensed a turning point in the loom of possible futures and fear you will be needed.

You obey without questions and join the choir of the sun, casting your eyes across Creation. What instinct pushes you when you find the hovel where the first man and woman live to descend from your perch and observe them more closely, you cannot say. All you know is that you are not responsible for what happened next.

From human choice came all that followed.

In front of the house, beside an altar hastily erected, stands Caine first-born of Adam. He's tall and dark with the heavy build of one who passed his life bent to the earth. Caine who struggled as was decreed to raise black wheat from the dusty ground. Scars crisscross his flesh, wounds of happenstance, of elements, of regrets. So sad it seems before the altar, eyes filled with tears, lips stained with blood.

In his hands he wields a hoe, the same he uses to dig earth for his crops.

You are not alone here. At two worlds of distance you can feel two members of the Seventh House, a loyalist and a rebel eyes locked in silent debate. Something will die. You know that, you hear the music of creation playing, preparing itself for a terrible climax.

Abel comes forth. So weak seems he with delicate look and blond locks. Beautiful and fragile like a pale morning still struggling from night's bitter cold. You do not hear what he says to his brother and what was Caine's answer. But what you see freezes your heart.

Caine takes the hoe to his brother's skulls and breaks it upon the altar. Blood falls on the rocks and the earth that drink it eagerly. Abel falls on the ground and the world screams with an intensity you never imagined was possible.

A new sound is born in the Music; a new concept is born. You sense its sick and sweet embrace around your heart. At two worlds of distance, the Reaper and the Slayer fall on one another, clawing and biting and struggling and breaking.

Murder is born. Lies are born. Evil is born and the ripples of their birth-screams twist the universe around.

Wrath fills you, rage and dark delight. You do not hear the voice of the Lord in your heart. You taste intoxicating freedom and know you can surrender to the new sweet music. Wrath and fear for you see Caine's soul, the piece of God you inserted in him blossom like a dark flower. His eyes are open now to the decaying world and power surrounds him like a crown of thunders.

What do you do?

[] Nothing, it is not of your concern.

[] Burn Caine to a crisp

[] Forsake Caine, you can try the Great Work on Abel's corpse

[] Bind Caine in chains of fire and bring him to Michael's

[]Write-him

 

[ganonso]

Consequences of the First Murder

While the sweet sickening sound still echo in the world, you act. Chains of living fire coil themselves around the first murderer making him yelp. Without care for him or for the angels currently flaying themselves in the next world, you drag him in the air, sprout two wings of white fire and fly for the bright city of Machonon where Michael rules the Choir of Chokmah. Your captive struggles a good part of the way, out of sheer instinct you suppose. The brightness of his soul increases with each step as his will seeks to alter the world to force you to release him.

Perhaps in a few decades, it would have been enough to startle you but for now the advantage is still yours. You traverse to the western edge of the world, passing both mountains and ocean to Machonon the undying island.

The night is soon broken by the brightness of the city. As it befits the above of the Prince of Angels, the whole fortress emanates its own light. The towers are manned by potentates of the First House, the angels of flame and light that are your kin. Here the sickening music is still for the moment but you know that Caine's sin will dim even this bright haven.

You don't know why but the angels at the gates look at you with wariness and surprise. Something seems to have happened that was unforeseen. Still, they urge you to Michael post at the top of the highest tower. You put your burden on the ground of the archangel's throne room and wait for your commander to address you.

Soon the tower is set ablaze with the greatest of all angel's presence. Great wings of white star-matter unfurl. Eyes of burning intent open on all limbs of a mighty body. Even you, kin to this lord, stagger and kneel before this terrible visage. You perceive only eyes, wings, claws and a burning sword being torn from its sheath. A gaze to Caine's tells you that the murderer's face is reduced to a bleeding stuff but unlike you his eyes are fixed on Michael's wrathful form.

"SON OF ADAM, LOOK UPON WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

The world is broken while you see by the eyes of the archangel and weep. You see Sagun, one of the cities of your brethren being besieged. The Shedim attackers have surrendered to murder's sweet song and have changed. Former Guardians stalk the skies urging the wind to become pregnant with disease and plague. Former Fundamentals covered in oil and sulfur cast the walls down, shaking the earth and breaking atom I in their frenzy. Former Fates utter great curses on human and angels alike, deriving unearthly glee in letting their victims own actions drive them to destruction. Formers Muses strike like the raging ocean, luring defenders to their waiting claws, breaking human's heart and poisoning every spring in sight. Formers Wilders and Reapers swoop like monstrous birds, catching prey and tearing it apart with ravenous hunger. But the worst sight for you to see are your old brothers. Former Heralds are raging infernos and choking ash now, things of dreadful majesty and unrelenting hatred. The evocations you use to strengthen your brothers? They inverted them making the defenders rites misfire in a rain of unexpected effects.

From human choice came all of this.

Angels die. Angels die! You hear the whispers of True Names brought by the wind. You see the dead and uncorruptible flesh. They fall never to rise again. Unlike humans, you have no hope waiting for you in the afterlife, so each loss, friend or foe tears you apart. You see that Sagun is lost and that Gabriel its commander is forced to withdraw.

Caine's is suddenly dragged up from the ground and held aloft by Michael's will while he pronounces judgement."

"SON OF ADAM, FOR YOU SINS YOUR ARE DAMNED. FOREVER YOU WILL WALK THE EARTH, DENIED THE REST THAT WAITS ALL YOUR KIND. OFTEN YOU SHALL WISH FOR DEATH AND EVER IT SHALL ELUDE YOU. FARMER YOU ARE CONDEMNED TO WANDER WITHOUT CEASE, MURDERER YOU ARE CONDEMNED TO WATCH AND NEVER ACT. TRUTHFULLY, THE WORLD WILL CHANGE, LANDS WILL SINK BENEATH THE WAVES AND THE OCEAN WILL UNCOVER NEW LANDSCAPES AND ETERNAL YOU WILL ENDURE.

THUS SPEAKS THE LORD!"

You hear the murderer's bleating cries while his essence is enhanced beyond all human limits. Regeneration, agelessness, incapacity to again do violence even in self-defense. Some of these could have been blessings in another context but now. Actually what will Caine eat anyway, even harvesting most plants count as violence. You are not surprised to hear him meekly protest: "Wherefore shall I go? Whoever finds me will kill me"

"THIS THE LORD DECREES, YOUR PUNISHMENT IS TO WATCH THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACT SO WHOEVER SHALL HARM YOU BY DESIGN SHALL SUFFER SEVENFOLD VENGEANCE!" As soon as the mark of infamy appears on Caine's head, Michael seizes him and cast him from the tower, you hear the splash he makes as he falls into the ocean. You prepare yourself to return to your abode but Michael stops you with a gesture.

"CAINE'S SIN IS NOT THE ONLY ACTION WHOSE CONSEQUENCES WILL BE FELT FOR THE REST OF THIS WORLD LIFESPAN. I APPLAUD YOUR DILLIGENCE BUT EVIL WAS STILL BORN FROM YOUR RASHNESS. ABEL'S NAME IS NO MORE, HIS SHADE ESCAPED THE WARRING ANGELS YOU LEFT AT HIS SIDE AND THE SPIRIT BORN FROM HIS BROTHER'S SIN DEVOURED IT. NOW A NEW THING IS BORN IN THE SECOND WORLD. A NEW KING RULES SUNLESS RIVERS AND STILL FORESTS. THE WAR THAT COMES WILL FILL THIS KINGDOM TO THE BRIM.

OF THAT YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE BUT HEAR FROM MY MOUTH THE LORD'S NEW DECREE FOR YOU AND ALL ANGELS: THE SHEDIM CAST FROM MY LOVE HAVE PASSED BEYOND REDEMPTION AND MARRED WHAT I HAD DECLARED BEYOND MARRING. THUS THE ANGELS LOYAL TO MY NAME WILL HUNT THEM WITHOUT MERCY. THEY FORMS WILL BE BROKEN, THEIR CREATIONS SMASHED, THEIR SERVANTS PUT TO THE TORCH AND THEIR LANDS SALTED. THEIR ESSENCE SHALL BE DIVIDED AND PUT TO MORE WORTHWILE USES.

THUS THE LORD COMMANDS!"

You return to your tower, the head buzzing with half-formed ideas. Things are changed now. No old rules apply now.

Now the Time of Atrocities have begun.

 

[ganonso]

So we entered the Time of Atrocities and come the time of a new vote.

The world has changed, you know that even in your fastness of Orthanc. However your project leaves you few time to collect information. Choose one in each category to receive a status update for this new age.

The War
[] The Host
[] The Fallen
[] The Old Ones

The Choirs
[] Chesed
[] Binah
[] Daath
[] Geburah

Hod Projects
[] Primarch Project
[] Shifter Project

Prodigals
[] Mages
[] Faes
[] Geists