Jean

Jean is not happy with the current hyper-accelerated rate of technological advance, but he is not fool enough to insist on old methods when it is clear that he can release new inventions to his servitors without upsetting the balance.
== The Heavenly Signal ==
Smartphones have drastically changed the way that Jean and his servitors interact. With one device, a celestial can have a computer, a telephone, a video recorder, and a messaging service all in one. 
== Choir Attunements ==
=== Seraph ===
Jean’s seraphim may encode their attunement-based video on a smartphone and send it via a heavenly network to anyone else with wireless video. The costs are otherwise the same.
=== Cherub ===
The Guardians of Lightning are no longer limited to phone calls; they can send texts or instant messages on whatever services that will first reach the subject of their attunement.
=== Ofan ===
In addition to their original abilities, Jean’s Wheels are now cleared to interface with GPS devices. By touching the device and spending 1 Essence, it will gain the benefits of the ofan’s insight for one trip. The destination must be determined before the Essence is spent.
=== Eloah ===
These angels have now been given clearance to materialize smartphones. In addition to the normal abilities of their attunement, they may also send and receive calls and texts, take pictures and videos, and play music from their devices.
=== Grigori ===
With their understanding of humanity, Jean's Watchers had an intuitive grasp of anything crafted by the hand of man. They could tell at a glance what any man-made object's intended purpose was. With a successful Perception roll, they could also tell if a demon had had a hand in an object's design or construction. (Obviously, if they looked at an object and had no idea what it was for, they knew it had to have been created by a celestial . . . )
The grigori of Jean & Janus oppose Meserach (industry vs indolence)
=== Ohr ===
Jean’s ohrot have the same attunement as his ofanim but do not require a conductor.
=== Aeon ===
Jean's Architects are masters at power systems and can use their resonance on the existing wiring of a building (learning how stable and strong it is and how to improve it) or on a wiring schematic meant to either be added to a building or as part of an overall blueprint.
=== Chezeq ===
Chezeqim of Lightning can add Ethereal Forces to their Precision at each locus within themselves, when "haunting" a place.
=== Calab (restricted) ===
Electricity courses through this demon. Add together all three dice when determining how many hits their resonance does. Since this is angelic power, the demon will also take CD hits of damage.
Note: When a calab of Lightning finishes their redemption they automatically lose this attunement and gain Ofan of Lightning.
== Servitor Attunements ==
=== Angelsound ===
Anyone with this attunement may install and operate the Angelsound app on their smartphone. While "listening" to a Song, the user may pull out their smartphone and spend 1 point of Essence to learn the name of the Song, its duration, and the name of the performer if known to Heaven. Results will be returned in a number of rounds equal to 7 minus the angel's Ethereal Forces.
A phone with this app installed is considered heavenly technology. This means that Jean will only give this attunement to individuals he trusts to keep track of it.
== Tethers ==
* The Temporal Displacement Device
* Xerox PARC, in Silicon Valley
== Servitors ==
=== Undistincted ===
==== 9 Forces ====
* Lichtenberg, calab
=== Saints ===
* Robert Anson Heinlein
== Family Resemblance ==
Every lightning strike produces a little burst of X-rays. Sometimes, this makes Jean wonder what an X-ray of Lilith's head would reveal. Or, for preference, her cleaned and dried skull on an examination table, of course . . .
Jean does not concern himself much with Lilith directly. Clearly, he must spend the plurality of his moral energy in countering Vapula, and most of the rest in equipping the Host, guiding human technological progress, and so on. But he spares some time to think about Lilith. "Lightning" is not a perfect translation of his Word, you see; it's more like "forces of nature" ~ force contrasted with matter, including electromagnetic force but not limited to it. And his Word centers on (or he makes it center on) the role of those forces in shaping the raw chaos of mass/energy. It's all about control, you see. And that's what Lilith flouts.
But about her skull:
Modern humans were not very numerous or widespread back in the days of the Eden Experiment. It didn't take long after Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden for every human on the planet to carry some of their genes. (In fact, it took a remarkably short time, which Jean takes to indicate meddling by someone . . . or Someone.) And ever since then, all human faces have borne more or less resemblance to those two faces ~ faces handcrafted by God. It's nothing big, nothing mortal paleontologists could notice at their level of expertise. But Jean can see it; besides, he can just remember what pre-Adamite faces looked like; he doesn't have to reconstruct them. Not to mention Adam's face, and Eve's.
So every one of us has some resemblance to Father Adam or Mother Eve haunting our faces. But not Auntie Lilith. If you ever saw her face to face ~ and in her proper body not in a vessel ~ you could see it. Well, you could see it if you were Jean, or Jordi, or one of the other few and ancient celestials who take an interest in the fine points of anatomy. Otherwise, you'd just see that Lilith's face is exotically beautiful, which is just what you'd expect.
But her face, too, was handcrafted by God. And it's unique. She has no children of her body, only the "daughters" she sings up out of the Forces she cadges. She hates childbirth; she punishes it.
But, for some time now, there have been other ways Lilith's genes could enter the world. Surrogate motherhood. Human cloning. And more tricks on the horizon. (No, Jean won't tell you what those might be.) What would such a child be? It wouldn't be a Grigori-child or a nephil, because Lilith is human. A unique human, uniquely made by God, uniquely Worded by Lucifer. The child would be unprecedented. Or children. And it (or they) would certainly be part of an Infernal PlotTM.
Jean does not know of any likely plot. But he realizes the possibility. It doesn't occupy a lot of his time, but he does not forget about it either.
People stare at lightning in fear, or awe, or surprise, or delight.
Sometimes, the lightning is looking back. Studying their faces.
== Field Trip ==
Jean had been lecturing on quantum field theory for eight days, seven hours, and forty minutes. The lecture was scheduled to end in twenty more minutes, but it seemed that he was concluding early. "Any further questions?" he asked, as he always did at the end.
An eloah ~ his plant, his shill ~ raised its hand on cue. "Yes, Emetiah?"
"I have a question about how this subject relates to metaphysics, specifically the Theory of Forces. A typical human, for example, includes only one or two Corporeal Forces in its makeup, but has on the order of ten to the twenty-fifth physical particles. It would seem there is only about ten to the minus twenty-fifth Force per particle, but Forces are unitary ~ there is no such thing as half a Force; Force-fragments are only cohesive Essence bundles. How, then, do Corporeal Forces relate to physical quanta?"
The seraph coiled next to Emetiah looked at its fellow angel curiously. Emetiah spoke the truth, of course ~ it did "have a question" ~ but the seraph appeared to have resonated that this was not exactly Emetiah's own question; the eloah had never considered the matter before this lecture. No matter.
"I am glad you asked that," Jean replied. "The answer is best given with a field trip. Come with me."
And they were all elsewhere.
The angels and saints of the class tumbled through a pale greenness, without gravity. Some of the saints yelled in alarm. Various cherubim lunged after them. Here and there, students collided with struts in the meshwork that filled the place. Soon, all were clinging to these, or hovering between them, looking around.
As far as they could see, space was filled with a lattice of glassy, chartreuse bars, joining glassy globes of the same color. The lattice varied in pattern from place to place and tingled to the touch.
Jean stood at ease on one of the bars, in his native eloahic form, but flickering with brilliant whiteness. "This," he told the class, "is an aspect or component of the corporeal plane, one of the sub-corporeal planes. It is also the electron field. How do individual electrons relate to the electron field? Anybody?"
A mercurian cleared her throat and raised a wing. Jean nodded. "Every electron is a quantum of the electron field. Electrons are how the electron field manifests. Every electron is the same because it is a manifestation of the same field."
"Correct." And because he could feel her question, he waited a little.
She asked, "Is that like the way archangels can manifest in several places, but be the same archangel? Are archangelic avatars the quanta, or analogous to the quanta, of the archangel's Word?"
"The phenomena are not identical, but there are significant similarities. See me later, if you wish." He addressed the class as a whole: "These nodes, joined by the spars, are Corporeal Forces, structured to form the electron field. Jointly, they are the cause of every electron appearing in the corporeal, but there is no one-to-one match between electrons and the Forces here, any more than there is between pixels on a screen and the network of generators that light them."
There were elsewhere again, a similar zero-g lattice, but pinkish this time. "This is the positron field, the electron field with the opposite terrene sign."
They were in a white lattice. "This is the photon field." A bluish lattice. "One of the quark fields." Back in the pale green lattice. "But the electron lattice is my personal favorite, for reasons you can guess." He permitted himself a slight smile.
"The Corporeal Forces included in a human or celestial soul are not, themselves, the body of that soul. Rather, they are the interface between the body and the rest of the soul."
A malak, one of his own creation, raised a wing. "Yes, Baruch?"
"Can the demon princes reach these sub-corporeal planes?"
"No. See me after class for more detail."
And they were all back in the classroom. It was the end of the eighth hour, right on schedule. The class filtered out, except for Baruch, who came up to the lectern and waited patiently. When the room was empty, Jean said, "Come with me."
And they were elsewhere. It was not so otherworldly as the sub-corporeal planes, but it was definitely not earthly. Baruch flew between towering clouds in vast cumulus perspectives. Lightning flickered over and in and between them. A bolt struck near Baruch and stayed. There, in the bolt, dancing on it in swift and solemn ballet, was Jean, his form still flickering white, his eyes blue-white fires.
"Where are we, sir?" Baruch asked.
"My private quarters. To answer you more fully, the demon princes cannot reach the sub-corporeal planes yet." The lasting bolt bucked and jigged and sweated ozone. Jean's footing on it kept perfect pace. "They did not even suspect their existence until a few decades ago, when quantum field theory began to circulate on Earth. Vapula theorized the existence of the sub-corporeal planes and now regards his theory as certain. Unsound inference but, as it happens, correct."
"If Hell had access to the sub-corporeal–"
"–it would be a major blow," Jean confirmed. The bolt vanished, and Jean with it. Then it was back, and the archangel danced by Baruch's other wing. "Hell would mine the sub-planes for Forces and attack the corporeal through them. At a minimum, every living thing on Earth would be in peril as their internal physics and chemistry deranged. The very rocks would sicken. Retaliation would be so urgent that a premature Armageddon could result."
Baruch flew silently for a few seconds. Then, "What can I do to help?" he asked.
"I have organized a team of angels and saints, the ma'adim. They work in great secrecy to track and thwart any infernal work undermining the natural order. If you choose, you may join it. If you decide not to, I will remove the memory of this conversation from your Ethereal Forces and think no less of you."
So sudden. Baruch was a malak of Lightning and used to "sudden," but still–
"You need time to think it over," Jean acknowledged. "Take all you need." And he was gone.
Baruch flew on, considering.
Category:Archangels
Category:Elohim
Category:Lightning (Word)
Category:Wordbound