The Final Symphony, Variation in F-Sharp Minor

This is a Bright, High-Contrast setting.
Revelation has many interpretations. One of the most famous is the one that underlies Hal Lindsey's Late, Great Planet Earth and, more recently, the Left Behind novels and movie. This school of interpretation is called "dispensationalism." Dispensational theologians are famous for interesting, sometimes exotic, occasionally nutty, interpretations of the book of Revelation. Almost anything the media circulates in the way of gaudy Christian apocalyptic comes from dispensationalists.
Dispensationalists usually predict that Armageddon will be preceded by a seven-year period called "the Tribulation," divided into two parts of 3.5 years each. In the first part, the Antichrist rises to power. In the second, he rules, then catastrophically falls. 
The general form of this setting is an InNominated description of the Tribulation; roleplaying seeds are included, based on the current events. Some are for demons, some are usable by any celestial, but most are for angels.
== Beginnings of Distress ==
For ages, there were the Big Four. Before the Fall, before the feudalities of Archangels and Princes formed, before Words proliferated, there were still four preeminent angels. If you mentioned "the Four Archangels" in Heaven, no one asked which four ~ you meant Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, and Michael. They were the paragons, and friends, a team of champions. That was long ago.
Michael has weathered the ages best, and even he has suffered demotion and disgrace. Uriel is gone. Raphael is dead. And Gabriel is desperately sick.
Some think her role as prophet, as God's mouthpiece, is part of her madness. Maybe, in a way, but the madness of God is healthier than the sanity of men, or of angels. Gabriel says a lot of strange things, but more than once she has said that it is only God's grace that keeps her going, only knowing that He loves her and she Him, and, amazingly more, that she can serve Him. This keeps her alive in her torment. So far. No, it's not being a prophet that throws a spanner in the spokes of the First Wheel; it's just plain Word-friction with Belial, ages and millennia of it.
Gabriel has gone into convulsions, deep in the fires of the Earth. The whole Pacific Rim has opened up, and tsunamis ripple back and forth, from Hong Kong to San Francisco. Hawaii is gone. The Badlands have erupted in pyroclastic flows, not seen since the dinosaurs. The Mississippi has doubled in width, in a series of earthquakes, and Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans are gone. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge has sprouted volcanos from Iceland to Antarctica, the tsunamis taking out the coastal cities of the Atlantic. Greece is a mass of flame, and Thera has erupted once more.
The dust kicked up has brought dark days and a global winter that began in August. The falling dust poisons the oceans, and the rising ions send auroras dancing from the poles to the equator.
Scientists talk of orogenic episodes and point to the geological records. All that is part of the truth, but the bigger truth is Gabriel.
Gabriel is, first and last, the Herald of Heaven, and even her final agony heralds something momentous.
=== Roleplaying Seed: Holding On ===
The PCs are trying to hold their previous plots together while the world blows apart around them. They may spend a lot of time finding out what's going on. What's causing the planetwide disturbance? Is this the Big One? At what point is your current assignment a lost cause? Angelic PCs will very likely have people to protect; demons may, too, if only because they're not done using them, or are trying to cut losses.
One up-side: The ongoing disturbance storm from Gabriel means lesser celestials can use lots of special effects with much-reduced chance of detection. An opportunity to get in some last licks, or settle old scores, or try that really neat idea that would otherwise be too noisy.
=== Roleplaying Seed: Arks ===
Jordi and Novalis are having fits. This is the worst wave of extinctions since the end of the Mesozoic and looks like shaping up into the worst since the end of the Permian, or the worst ever. They have sent down Noah himself and St. Francis of Assisi, the one crotchety, the other laid-back, both of them maxxed-out Saints, to draft any angels of Animals or Flowers, plus all the help they can get from Lightning, Creation, and Protection.
They're building arks. Not just big boats this time. No, Noah has kept very current. He wants genetic samples. He wants artificial wombs for gestating anything from pygmy marmosets to blue whales. He wants hibernation chambers in secret space stations. He wants an insane number of reliquaries and artifacts. He wants you to help gather specimens and build things.
=== Roleplaying Seed: Dying Senechal ===
You have a friend who is a Senechal. Their Tether has been destroyed. Can you evacuate the dissonance- and discord-ridden wretch to Heaven? In Heaven or on Earth, can you get the attention of their (doubtless frantically busy) Archangel to help them? If they are the Wordbound species of Senechal, they may be dying and not even interested in surviving the experience.
=== Heaven Attacks ===
Soldekai: "Your holinesses, she is dying. She is not losing strength, more's the pity, but she is losing control. Soon, something will tear her apart ~ herself or Belial . . . or us."
Dominic: "If it must be one of those three, let it be us."
Murmurs and gasps echo through the chambers. Novalis is distinctly heard to say, "Bastard." But the elohim present nod sadly, and even Laurence admits, "It would be the most merciful of those three." Yves sits silent, looking blank and bleak, and this is perhaps the most frightening thing. But then Michael raises his voice: "There is another option. Take out Belial."
Dominic: "The balance of the War--"
Michael: "I am the expert on War. And the old balance is doomed anyway. Either Belial or Gabriel must die, soon, tipping the balance. Let it tip our way, then."
Jean: "How?"
Michael: "First, are we going to try?"
A chorus of "Yes!" goes up. Only Dominic, Yves, and Jean hold back.
Laurence: "Dominic, please! It's Gabriel!"
Michael: "It's either Gabriel or Belial."
Dominic: "Yes. Let the balance tip our way."
Jean: "Yes, certainly, if we can succeed without worse loss than failure would bring."
Michael: "Very well then. Litheroy ~ leave now. Heaven needs secrets, too, you know."
The young archangel of Revelation looks affronted, then scans the faces of his seniors and notices that now Yves is smiling. He bows his head, raises his wings, and vanishes back to his Cathedral.
Gabriel appears in the middle of the lava-lake that had been the American Badlands. She, he, it is a woman, a man, a wheel, a bird, a ball of fire. She raves for four days. Jean's angels make sure that satellite images show only a massive gout of fire. There is no other human observation. After the fourth day, Belial takes the bait.
And is promptly ambushed by Michael, Laurence, Janus, Khalid, Jean, and, a nanosecond later, David. Gabriel gets her own licks in. Belial dies in moments.
Soldekai, Novalis, Zadkiel, and Yves are at Gabriel's side before Belial's last spark sputters out. She is healed and sane with almost indecent speed, so she can help with the next move.
Belial was hot, but not bright. Still, he didn't come to take out his old boss and rival alone; he had legions of demons at his back. Therefore, they are all there to see what looks like Gabriel's own death and the deaths of Michael and Laurence. They see all the other archangels appear to retreat with massive injuries. In truth, all the archangels, including Novalis and Yves, take some damage in the battle, but none are slain. And Gabriel is back.
=== Roleplaying Seed: Fire Showdown ===
The PCs are in on the showdown between Gabriel and Belial. (None of these Superiors shows up at the battle alone.) Fire angels can just be there, at Gabriel's side, in the midst of the lava and flames. Angels of War, Sword, Wind, Faith, Stone, or Lightning can be fighting in heat-proof tanks or mecha-suits provided by Jean. Lightning angels can also be off scrambling human probes of the fight. Angels of Flowers, Protection, or Destiny can be running celestial M.A.S.H. units uncomfortably close to the main battle.
== High Heaven ==
The day after her battle, while the Earth still rings with disturbance, Gabriel presents herself before the Seraphim Council. As soon as the Council is called to order, she says, "I come to deliver my final message here. Let us go to Jacob's Ladder."
En masse, the Council teleports to the foot of the ladder. Gabriel announces, "I will no longer prophesy in Heaven, for there shall be no need. Behold!"
All look up the ladder. A figure is descending. Even archangels gasp as they recognize Raphael. A second figure becomes visible above ~ Uriel. And then a third ~ Oannes. And a fourth ~ the Metatron; only the eldest angels recognize it, but the news flies swiftly through the gathered Council. Behind the Metatron, descending like shining snow, comes a great host of saints and angels, those who ascended and those soul-slain.
Time and space are malleable in Heaven, even the Lower Heaven. In linear time, it would take years, decades, for that whole crowd to descend, but it happens while Earth still reels from Gabriel's victory over Belial, and while news spreads through the Lower Heaven and all gather at the foot of Jacob's Ladder. The Celestial City accommodates itself to the vast throng.
In the crowd, many embrace long-parted friends but few speak. Everyone knows, feels, that all questions will be answered soon.
The Metatron spreads its pinions and cries: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord!"Thereafter, the Throne is always visible from Lower Heaven, high in the sky, to the east. Even if you are indoors, you need only close your eyes and turn to the east, and you will see it. You can tell immediately that the bright humanoid form on the emerald throne is just a convenient form for the Light itself, and even that Light is just an appearance of . . . of the ineffable.
The Four Living Things, the Twenty-Four Elders, and the Seven Flames are also visible. (See Revelation 4.) In fact, these are manifestations of the archangels. The Four are Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel. Yves and the Metatron are two of the Seven Flames, part of the sevenfold spirit of God. The Twenty-Four are the other archangels, major and minor. At the moment, though, there are only twenty-one elders.
Away from the vision, the returning archangels quickly take up their old duties in Heaven. (Remember, Superiors can be in many places at once.) The Metatron becomes the chairbeing of the Council, speaking very seldom, but ending all the old disputes that did not end of themselves with the opening of the Upper Heavens.
=== Roleplaying seed: Returnees ===
If the PCs have any friends who were soul-killed (in play or in backstory), they have the chance to meet them again. Will the meeting be heartwarming or awkward or both? (By the way, the Upper Heavens are, as in canon, wonderful but too ineffable to say much about, so returning saints and angels won't have any game-worthy details to relay.)
=== Roleplaying seed: Missing Returnees ===
The PCs have a friend who was soul-killed, and so seek them among the returning spirits, but fail to find them. What happened? Did they go to Hell? Are they still in Trauma in the Upper Heavens, or in Limbo, or where? Are they avoiding their old friends? If so, why?
=== Roleplaying seed: Old Masters ===
All the returning archangels have former servitors, "orphans" who suddenly have their old masters available again. There is a rush of angels back to these masters. If the PCs or their friends are among them, there could be much soul-searching as angels decide whether to go or stay.
Some former orphans may suddenly find that they *are* re-attuned to their old masters' Words, willy-nilly. E.g., suddenly, you're an angel of Water again, not Wind anymore. How do you feel about that? More re-shuffling may ensue.
=== Roleplaying seed: Shifting Words ===
The returning Archangels mean a shifting of Word boundaries. For instance, Destiny, Lightning, and Revelation took up the slack when Raphael, archangel of Knowledge, died. But Raphael is back. PCs may find old attunements and rites no longer work, while even older, half-forgotten ones suddenly work again.
=== Roleplaying seed: The Tsayadim ===
Go into the Marches and tell the Tsayadim that Uriel is back, then stand clear as they beat wings back to Heaven. That could be an adventure in itself. Another adventure ensues when they show up in Heaven. How does Uriel feel about them now? How does everyone else feel? Mass trials before the Metatron, anyone?
== The First Horseman ==
=== Roleplaying seed: Conversion Experiences ===
It rapidly becomes obvious to everyone in Heaven that Christianity is true. But how true? And what kind of Christianity? The returnees from the Upper Heavens include plenty of humans and angels who used to be of other faiths, but none of them have useful information on these questions. What, then, should angels do concerning their human Soldiers and servants? Almost everyone on Earth is having a rough time, right now. Theological debate doesn't attract a lot of interest. But looking for spiritual strength is another matter. Look for it where?Even Lucifer is taken in, at least briefly, by Michael's ruse. He decides the time is right to move one of his pawns forward on the world's chessboard. This is an extraordinary man, a Soldier of Lucifer who started with seven Forces, and to whom Lucifer has added three more for a total of ten: the Soldier, one Cezar Therrian, was given the Forces and resonances of a balseraph, a lilu, and an impudite. All these resonances are very useful in his career as a UN diplomat.
The UN is in ruins. The UN building in New York City is simply gone, along with most of the rest of New York, and a large chunk of its bureaucracy is dead, in various catastrophes around the world. This includes the Secretary General.
Therrian moves from diplomatic background to foreground with supernal speed and becomes the new UN Secretary General, saving the UN from oblivion and re-convening the Security Council in Rome, which is relatively untouched, just beyond the general disaster area that is the eastern Mediterranean. He declares that world-wide disaster relief has to be the UN's sole concern and publicly begs for the help of the member nations. Privately, he pulls in Geasa. He begins laying the foundations for his future empire.
Therrian is, of course, the Antichrist. Lucifer has read Revelation, too, and he knows full well that the Antichrist only comes into play in the End Times. And he wasn't going to start the End Times when it looked like he could lose. But now, with Michael apparently out of the way, it looks like the crucial prophecies cannot be fulfilled for Heaven.
Even so, Lucifer is being cautious. Therrian is under orders to found his empire slowly. It isn't like there's a hurry. Heaven looks like it is in disarray, Michael looks gone, and Therrian has plenty of personal time, already being over 170 years old, thanks to his command of various Songs.Lucifer's caution is wise. That's why it can't be allowed to continue. Gabriel was always the spark of divine inspiration. Of course, divine inspiration is not a good thing for Hell. From her place by the Throne, she fans the flame of Therrian's ambition.
There is an elegant office in the Vatican. Here, the turmoil of the aching world does not show. This office has been put at the disposal of the UN Secretary General, while he reorganizes that world body. He writes on a laptop, placed on a baroque desk two hundred times older than it is. Suddenly, there is another man in the room, in severe formal dress, looking young, fair, and human, though he is none of those things.
Lucifer: "My son, what are you doing? That order you are composing is the founding of a world empire, no matter how you couch it in terms of humble service to suffering humanity."
Therrian (concealing the dread he always feels at these meetings, and the additional shock of realizing ~ again ~ how closely he is watched): "My Father, is this not your plan for us?"
Lucifer: "Yes, but not yet. We must verify the reports from the battlefield."
Therrian: "Have you not personally interrogated Belial's own surviving captains? (All of them spirits more intelligent than their late master.) Father, the world is ripe. With every day we wait, the nations recover another step from Gabriel's death-throes. They become that much harder to subdue."
The debate goes back and forth, but in the end the Tempter is tempted. He decides that, even if all his old foes are not dead, some must be, and the rest must be much weakened. Then best to strike quickly. He agrees to Therrian's plan.
The next morning, Therrian announces the creation of myriads of "recovery zones" in the world's remaining population centers. There, food, shelter, and medical care will be supplied to all who come. And there, UN troops and other armed forces under UN control will maintain order. All in a spirit of humanitarian aid.
At his side, in the background as he makes the announcement, stands a bald, hatchet-faced figure in dark, vaguely clerical garb. It is Kronos, in the Role of Therrian's "spiritual advisor."
=== Roleplaying seed: The Beast at His Best ===
Angelic PCs know who Therrian is, and what he's doing. What do they do about it? Do they tell their human servants and friends? Start organizing resistance? So far, there is no archangelic direction, and so far, Therrian is doing little but good in the world. How do they react to human street-theologians denouncing Therrian as the Antichrist? (This is bound to happen, without any celestial assistance at all. It has happened many times before with far less provocation. They just happen to be right this time.)
Angels who decide to cooperate with the UN recovery effort, for the time being, may be discomfited to find themselves working along side demons. Angels who decide to resist immediately will be looked at askance by perfectly benign humans who wonder what their problem with Therrian is.
=== Roleplaying seed: Flower Arrangements ===
What are angels of Flowers to do, come Armageddon? It becomes more important than ever that they foster peace, so long as it is between those who do not serve Therrian. But, along with the angels of Protection, many of them are put to work healing. Angels of Flowers and Protections are likely to find themselves sent to one of the many disaster areas, in hastily arranged medical Roles, trying to help the hurting while they are still taking cram courses in the Song of Healing and mundane medical skills.
=== Roleplaying seed: Deserting ===
At almost any time during the Tribulation, PCs of either side can be engaged in helping mortals defect from one side to the other. For politicians, diplomats, spies, and soldiers, these will be for-real defections into or out of Therrian's rule. For more ordinary folk, it may be a matter of sneaking into or out of the "recovery zones," acquiring or losing a paper trail. These adventures can, of course, happen with or without celestials or Soldiers involved.
== The Second and Third Horseman ==
Lucifer spends most of his time, now, going to and fro in the Earth, and up and down in it. (Job 1:7) This includes making regular visits to his protege, Therrian, in Rome. He appears in Therrian's office and is immediately met with the Antichrist's beaming smile.
"My Father," said Therrian, "I have just heard from Ba'al. He has discovered who has succeeded Laurence as commander of the Host. A spy of his, working with Beleth's people, got it out of a God-Soldier's dreamscape. He has confirmed it from other sources. Do you know who they are down to now? Janus."
The Devil chuckled.
=== Roleplaying seed: Disinformation ===
In deference to seraphim and angels of Revelation, Janus is now titled "Commander of the Host." It's just that he's not the only Commander, or the highest-ranking. No need to let that slip to the Horde, though. And there is every need to keep Hell ignorant while Heaven continues to build its strength.
PCs can be sent to recall seraphim from Earth, since they are now deemed too great a security risk, if they know anything at all about recent developments in Heaven. Or PCs can be seraphim, anxious to finish up work on Earth before they're recalled.
Perhaps the PCs have a nifty way of keeping seraphim on Earth-duty without endangering the news blackout. Let them try it out, or let them try selling it to their archangel.
PCs may have demonic or Hellsworn contacts that they are trying to redeem. (This has gotten much harder, now that Hell looks like winning.) If they are angels of Flowers (very likely, if they're trying to talk demons into redemption), their archangel probably knows about their contacts. Is Novalis going to pull them out? Or can they bring off the redemption soon, without tipping Heaven's hand?
A rumor leaks out ~ that Gabriel isn't dead, or Uriel's come back, or Michael isn't dead, or even that the Metatron has returned. Pick one. One or more non-celestial servants of Hell have gotten wind of it ~ a Hellsworn, Soldier, Undead, or Ethereal. The PCs can either be the Hell-servants or the angels who are now assuredly hunting them down. (Even if the Hell-servants manage to report to someone, let them not be believed by anyone important, to preserve the plot.)
Many boddhisatvas and Soldiers of God must simply be kept in the dark about the opening of the Upper Heavens. As the world crumbles around them, can they also be kept from despair? Not much combat potential here, but plenty of roleplaying opportunity.Therrian's "recovery effort" gets mixed reviews in the world at large. Most people are too busy surviving to notice or care, but of the rest, a large number resent his flouting of national sovereignties. Some (accurately) accuse him of empire-building. In every nation, there are underground resistance movements forming, and in many nations, there are national armies, or chunks of them, starting to resist the UN troops and the collaborating forces.
In the patterns of resistance, in the strategies used, in the occasional reports of battle-Songs, Ba'al sees Michael's hand. Michael himself may be dead (though Ba'al personally hopes not), but his influence continues, and it is Ba'al's place to fight it. Lucifer and Therrian are more than pleased to accept, and soon Therrian's troops are heavily infiltrated and largely commanded by demons and Soldiers of the War.
=== Roleplaying seed: Rallying Michael's Saints ===
Michael is known to have more saints on Earth than any other archangel. This was why. He sends out the word and starts to rally all the saints of War, to aid resistance to Ba'al and Therrian (covertly, for now). But how does he send out the word? It starts with ofanim of War making the rounds, looking up saints whose locations are known to senechals of War and anyone else who volunteers the information. But it's a long list of saints, a big job, and anyone (any PC) is welcome to help hunt up War saints whose locations are unknown.
On a smaller scale, David, Laurence, and Zadkiel need to rally their saints, too.
Most of Belial's demons soon find new masters. Many go to Ba'al or Saminga. Those few who can monitor the traffic of Fire orphans ~ mostly demons of Asmodeus ~ are surprised at how many Mammon buys up. Consequently, they are among the few not surprised when Mammon makes a lightning strike on Haagenti, wiping out most of Gluttony's higher-level servitors, backing Haagenti into a corner, and forcing on the prince a Geas-contract of servitude, brokered by Lilith. "The Hostile Takeover," as this event is dubbed by the Nybbas News Network, restores Mammon to his place as a major prince.
=== Roleplaying seed: The Hostile Takeover ===
Demonic PCs are swept up in the battles of the Hostile Takeover, in Shal-Mari. They can be Gluttons, Mammonites, Fire demons newly re-tuned to Greed, or Fire demons not yet re-tuned but simply in service to Mammon as "mercenaries." Or they could be any other denizens of Shal-Mari, taking sides or laying low.Raphael, Archangel of Knowledge, guides the streams of information crossing Therrian's desk in Rome. Soon, Therrian sees that he needed an economic miracle. In fact, he needs three. The "recovery zones" are fiendishly expensive to organize. The various battles all over the globe will soon be more expensive. The hidden plans for turning all this into his own empire will be the most expensive of all.
Of course, one could simply go into debt, then default. But that would dislocate the very economies he wants to rule one day. No, he needs to move the debts and shortages around, turning them into new weapons. It will be chancy; he will need the devil's own luck for money. Which means he will need Mammon.
The demon prince is delighted. Fresh from his Hostile Takeover in Shal-Mari, he is temporarily flush with power, but he is secretly worried about the future of his Word in a world where economic systems are being shredded by war and "natural" disaster. This gives him a golden opportunity to protect himself and his Word. He eagerly accepts a Role as Therrian's economic advisor.
And close behind Mammon, though not in any public role, is Valefor, Prince of Theft. Mammon is uneasy, of course, about Valefor; they are natural enemies. But "moving the debts and shortages around" means stealing, when all's said and done.
In a few months, it becomes more and more desirable to live in a "recovery zone," under the protection/domination of Therrian's troops. There, and more and more only there, you can find food and shelter, even luxuries if you know people, do favors, drop bribes, pull strings. Of course, if you can't exploit and weasel successfully, you spend most of your waking hours waiting in queues or working in sweatshops or hard-labor gangs.
=== Roleplaying seed: Angels of Sherwood ===
Against Mammon and Valefor, Heaven plays Marc and Janus. Unlikely allies in normal times, now, in the Tribulation, they team up to run masses of Robin-Hood scenarios, pulling resources back from Therrian, reducing his power to act and to tempt. Angelic PCs can run Robin Hood adventures more concretely, liberating food, medicine, guns, jeeps, from Therrian's troops and recovery zones, delivering them to resistance fighters, or to those who simply don't want to live in places that increasingly resemble Shal-Mari.
Demonic PCs can have similar fun, of course, bribing and coercing industrialists, misdirecting funds (Switzerland suffered very little in the natural catastrophes), and running guns in all sizes and amounts.
== The Fourth Horseman ==
Uriel's critics have often commented on the close relationship between his Word of Purity and that of Death ~ the one so often seems to lead to the other. And so it shall, one last time. The Word of Death is waxing great, thanks to the many disasters of the Tribulation, and Saminga's power-lust grows with it. He does not notice how the incoming Essence, manipulated by Uriel from High Heaven, focuses his mind more and more on one idea ~ that his time has come, that this is his hour of triumph.
The scene is a small, elegant parlor in the depths of the Vatican. Therrian sits at a table, the only human thing in the room. At the table with him are Lucifer, Kronos, Ba'al, and Mammon.
Ba'al: "I need a 30% increase in conscripts. It's as simple as that. We're fighting on fifteen fronts, at the moment, and have eleven recovery zones in need of substantially increased firepower for policing."
Mammon: "And *I* need those people and more, for the labor gangs, or the zones will fall apart in two months ~ no electricity, no water, no staples freight, not to mention no manufacture of anything, including munitions."
Therrian: "Lower the age limit on conscription again."
Ba'al: "It's already as low as it can usefully go. A child has to be strong enough to lift a gun, after all."
Therrian: "Then we shall just have to divide resources proportionally to current needs and hope to acquire more populations soon."
Ba'al: "Which won't be easy with insufficient troops to make the acquisitions."
Mammon: "And insufficient labor to make places to put them."
Ba'al: "Twaddle. Concentration camps are cheap."
Mammon: "That won't do if you want to keep tempting--"
The door flies open and in strides Saminga as a skeleton in evening dress, making him look like a cross between the Grim Reaper and the Phantom of the Opera. Behind him, Therrian can see his personal secretary, slumped inert over his desk.
Saminga: "My Lord, gentlemen, I can offer a solution to the problem I heard you discussing. How would you like several million zombies for your labor pool?"
Mammon: "Sam, you idiot! Get out! We don't need your useless stiffs!"
Ba'al [looks at Lucifer, who is waiting quietly]: "Zombie forces would need close supervision. How would you steer ~ let alone create ~ millions?"
Saminga: "No problem! My Word is flourishing as never before. Even now ~ that is, at your word, Lightbringer, my servitors can raise mass graves and set them to work. And I will give any demon ~ any demon ~ my Zombi attunement to make and master more." [He pulls up a chair and crowds in between Ba'al and Mammon, who are kept from exploding only by Lucifer's continuing gaze fixed on the Death Prince.]
Mammon: "Why this unexpected generosity?"
Saminga: "So my Word may feed upon itself, of course! Ba'al's demons will direct zombie troops to kill still more, who will become more zombies, and so on. Mammon, your demons can use my zombies to run any sort of support services Ba'al may need."
Ba'al: "That will take a great many supervising demons."
Lucifer: "All Hell follows in his path. So now we have all four."
Therrian: "The Horsemen? Is there a problem, Lord Father?"
Mammon: "You aren't saying that Heaven--"
Lucifer: "No, I think not."
Kronos: "Do not concern yourselves. Broken prophecies still leave fragments after them. It is inevitable that death, war, and poverty attend the violent dissolution of a society."
Lucifer: "Continue, Saminga. How many demons? How many zombies? How fast?"
=== Roleplaying seed: Zombie Zapping ===
Saminga's minions, now working with those of several other princes, set up zombie factories in isolated territories controlled by Therrian. Shipments of corpses go in, squads of zombies stagger out, led by demon controllers. (In some cases, trainloads of living victims go in, but the output is the same.) Any PCs serving Heaven can be usefully employed making strikes against the zombie factories, especially if allied humans have been targeted as raw material.
Of course, Hell tries to keep the zombie workers segregated from the mundane population, but strange rumors inevitably begin to circulate ~ rumors of walking dead, but also of androids and robots, of brainwashed enemy POWs, of clone-slaves, etc. PCs may hear of the zombie factories through the grapevine first, rather than through official channels.
== The 144,000 ==
For months now, everyone in Heaven has been accustomed to seeing twenty-one of the twenty-four Elders arrayed around the Throne of God. Indeed, the Elders were paid little attention, since the Occupant of that throne always drew in one's spiritual vision. But suddenly there were twenty-three Elders there, and people did notice. In minutes, every archangel had manifested in the chambers of the Seraphim Council, and angels of Revelation began teleporting in with TV cameras and notepads.
In the center of the chamber stood two archangels: Song and Death.
Death turned to Uriel. "You have called. I have come." Uriel nodded.
Song turned to Dominic. "Our sentence is done." And Dominic nodded. Song raised its hands, summoning, and new figures began to appear in the Council Chamber ~ beautiful giants, male and female, with golden auras ~ the grigori, returning. "These are my closest servants," Song said. "But many remain on Earth. And in Limbo. And here on the celestial plane, in the gulf between Heaven and Hell. And on the ethereal plane. Many I can reach, but all must be gathered in."
Dominic nodded. "Their sentence, too, is done." Laurence added, "And Heaven needs all its angels, now."
"Tell me, Song," said Yves, in the tone of one giving a cue, "how did you spend your time on Earth?"
Song smiled. "I am Song. I composed. I bring many new Songs to Heaven." It gestured and, with a rustle, a thick stack of scores appeared before each archangel, and before many senior angels, including Israfel, Angel of Music.
"And I am a Watcher," Song continued. "I watched. In large part, we all watched. Many of the new Songs I bring you were written to assist us in our spying. Thanks to them, many of us retreated to Limbo and yet could watch and report from there. Over the ages, we sent our findings to you, as well as we could. Here, now, is my final report." And Song gestured to Laurence; a thick folder appeared before his place. The grigori archangel gestured more widely, and similar folders appeared before every other archangel.
"I bring you the grigori, I bring you new Songs, I bring you intelligence for the War," Song said. "And I bring you a new Word. We Watchers have spied and explored everywhere, in our exile. And we have hidden everywhere. Including all the waste places of reality ~ Limbo, the Outermost Marches, the astral gulf between Heaven and Hell, even the Lower Hells. I led my choir in that exploring, that hiding, that we might not fail in our duty, and that we might survive. And for that effort, I was given a second Word ~ the Word of waste places and outer darkness. I am also archangel of the Abyss."
Song, who is also Abyss, bowed low before the Metatron, offering its strange Word to Heaven. "Welcome back," the Metatron said.
"And just in time," said a new voice. All turned to it. "Eli!" cried Novalis. Throughout the Council Chamber, many angels and saints closed their eyes and turned to the East, to see the Throne, where now all twenty-four Elders stood in attendance. A buzz of wondering filled the room. Many looked to Dominic.
The Archangel of Judgement closed his hanging jaw with a snap, then reared up. "Eli," he said, his voice clear and calm, "why did you leave Heaven and your duties?"
Eli smiled. "I was on a secret mission from God!" He grinned at the Metatron, who smiled back and nodded. "Good enough?" he asked Dominic.
Dominic settled back onto his seat in silver coils. "Quite good enough. Thank you."
"What was this mission?" Yves asked, again giving a cue.
"Vessel 2.0," Eli announced. "It's immortal. Stress it to the point of death, and it instantly goes into potentiality. The owner automatically ascends, free of Trauma and ready to return, just like a malak with spare vessels. But, ah, I've only got up to the beta-test version; I can only attach one to a child of the Grigori. That's why I'm so glad to see Song back."
"And how many of these new vessels are you prepared to make?" Yves prompts again.
"With all archangels helping," Eli answered, "I estimate about . . . 144,000." He grinned.
Laughter rippled through the Council chambers. But then Dominic rose again. "Heaven has an ancient contract to fulfill. Long ago, Abraham was promised that, in his children, all nations would be blessed. The details of that covenant are forgotten on Earth, but not here. Accordingly, I Judge that these new vessels should go to 144,000 children of the house of Israel who also bear grigori blood."
=== Roleplaying seed: The Muster of the Grigori ===
The grigor archangel of Song is able to contact the bulk of the grigori, and in fact many ascend to Heaven within hours of their archangel's return. But quite a few remain hidden. They need to be called back. Song can give some clues, but leg work and detective work is needed. PCs can provide it.
The grigori have found many obscure places to hide, so the hunt can take the PCs to almost any corner of the In Nomine setting, outside Hell ~ the more remote, the better. Resident aliens in pagan pantheons, nomads in the gap between Heaven and Hell, hermits in Limbo, and members of the plankton floating for centuries through the seas in very tiny vessels, are just some of the possibilities, along with the usual hideaways in the human population.
Once the grigori are back in Heaven, where do they go? Some may want to go back to their old Words and find they are still not welcome. Some may have signed on with Song during their long exile and find Song doesn't want to let them go. Or perhaps Abyss doesn't want to let them go (same Archangel, different Word). The PCs can get involved in this if some of them are very old and have grigori friends ~ or foes ~ who have shown up again. Or if they make a new friend among the Grigori. Or if they find that a "human" or "ethereal" ally of theirs has been a masquerading grigori all this time.
=== Roleplaying seed: Eli's Return ===
With Eli's return, there will be another round of personnel reshuffling, like those that accompanied the returns of Raphael, Uriel, and Oannes. Eli's exoneration can have a roleplaying effect on old grudges between Creationers and their detractors.
=== Roleplaying seed: The Muster of the Children ===
Some of the 144,000 are already in Heaven, but some are on Earth. Or at least candidates are on Earth. It may be one's Destiny to be one of the 144,000, but not everyone achieves their Destiny. Yves can give information on where to find these candidates, but it will be up to various PCs to do the recruiting. Since many of the candidates did not even know they had Jewish blood, much less angelic blood, they are in for a shock. And they very likely have unfinished business. And they may not want to be recruited. Remember, they almost instinctively avoid celestials.
And what if Heaven overshoots? What if they make up the 144,000 and have Jewish children of the grigori left over? Once these people are finally recruited, they are likely to want to play some role in the War as they now know it. Come up with something.
Then there are all the gentile children. The faint suspicion that the children of the grigorid may be Heaven's ace in the hole has expanded into a roaring rumor among the Host. Many folk won't settle for the idea that the rumor has been "fulfilled" by recruiting the children for the 144,000; they will be seeking out children on Earth and in Heaven, to recruit for their own schemes. Some grigori (not all) will be willing to help locate and convince their descendants.
=== Roleplaying seed: Death Angels ===
Now that the archangel of Death has (re)appeared in Heaven, its servitors come out of whatever cosmic woodwork they have been hiding in. It turns out that only a few Death angels have operated out in the open, and those few have been deliberately kept in the dark about their archangel and fellow servitors.
Heaven has a whole new sub-culture of angels to assimilate ~ angels who know much more about the rest of Heaven than Heaven knows about them, but who are still quite foreign. You can roleplay meetings with Death angels in Heaven ~ personal encounters, or guest lecturers coming to gives get-acquainted talks to other Words, or official envoys of the Death archangel working their way through diplomatic formalities. The tone of these encounters depends on how you paint the Heavenly Word of Death ~ otherworldly, icy and dark, violent, or sentimental.
It may also be that some old acquaintance ~ a supposed angel of Destiny or Fire or War ~ turns out to have been an undercover Death Angel. That might take getting used to.
The angels of Death are very powerful, numerous, and busy. Among their other duties, they saw that Hell only got souls that were truly damnable; they were the next-to-last filter before the angels of Final Judgement at Hellgate. They were the reason ghosts are so rare. Death and Destiny worked together, secretly, to regulate reincarnation, and Death angels escorted reincarnating souls to their new bodies.
And every Death angel regards every undead as a personal insult. They will be more than happy to help in raids on Saminga's zombie factories; in fact, they will have a tendency to lead them.
== The Locusts ==
Lacking any canonical name for it, I recommend the grigori archangel of Song be called "Semyaza," after the leader of the grigori in the Book of Enoch. As archangel of the Abyss, its name is either Abaddon or Apollyon, according to Revelation 9:11. I recommend "Apollyon" to avoid confusion with Abaddon as Saminga's domain in Hell. Thus, this archangel would be referred to as Semyaza, Semyaza Apolyyon, or Apollyon, depending on the Word to be emphasized.)
It stands on the topmost parapet of a tower. It looks like a young woman in an elaborately embroidered grey gown, it but is no such thing. Blandine raises her head, appearing to listen for a moment, then says, "Come."
A figure appears next to her. It looks like a young man made of liquid gold, seven feet tall, but it is no such thing. He is robed in black. Under one arm, he holds a circular harp, resembling a dreamcatcher. "Welcome, Semyaza, Song," says the Archangel of Dream. She surveys the churning sunset/sunrise/rainbow clouds of the Vale, not looking at him, though the shape of his instrument is not lost on her. "What brings you here?"
"My lady, I come with a request. A large one."
"Name it."
"I am also Archangel of the Abyss, and now is the time when I must open that Abyss. But the manner of that opening is mine to determine. I have an idea, but I need your leave to put it into action." He gestures at the open air before them and a locust appears ~ horse-sized, human-faced, scorpion-tailed. "I would send my angels, in this form, into the dreams of Therrian's servants. There, they would rob them of rest and afflict them with terror, pain, the memories of recent sins, and, it may be, guilt."
"So that they cry for death and do not find it?" Blandine asks. "I am not in the business of fomenting nightmares, Apollyon."
"I know. But I am."
"What of she whose Word is Nightmare?"
Apollyon smiles. "Believe me, I do not stand in her tower, asking permission."
Blandine shakes her head. "I mean, she will retaliate. You are escalating the War, and in my realm."
"Indeed. I mean to. Call on Zadkiel for help, then, to defend your dreamers. And Michael, Laurence, Gabriel, Janus. I think they will be more than willing."
"And Beleth will call on Ba'al, Vapula, Valefor, and so on. More escalation."
Apollyon nods. "Indeed. If we could, we would draw every demon out of Hell and into the Marches. Not that we expect Lucifer to leave his house so emptied. But as much as we can."
"A feint? Is this some plan you have hatched with Michael?"
"I am even now discussing it with him. But may we have your permission?"
Blandine stands on her tower. But she also sits in the Seraphim Council. There, she looks over at Apollyon, who is quietly listening to Marc addressing the Council on logistical matters. Michael does the same . . . here, but doubtless sits talking with Apollyon in the Groves.
Blandine also stands before the Throne, robed in white, crowned with gold ~ robed in love, crowned with glory. She gazes into the Light from the Throne. It gives no message, but it clears her thinking. It is too late to protect the old. Let the new come. Therein lies hope.
"Go ahead. But a favor in return, Semyaza. I would hear you sing."
=== Apollyon enacts the plan ===
It is over three years since Belial died and the Upper Heavens opened. The saints, grigori, and children of the grigori have all been rallied. The 144,000 are nearly completed.
On Earth, the Four Horsemen rampage. Therrian's imperial UN reaches out from Rome, controlling all the major cities and Therrian reigns, in splendor and adulation hyped by an ecstatically busy Nybbas. Ba'al's forces seek to gain territory for Therrian ~ the smaller cities, towns, farmlands; Michael's forces resist. Mammon and Valefor loot the world for Therrian; Marc and Janus resist. Saminga sends zombie troops and zombie labor everywhere; it's getting hard to keep them secret; Death angels lead attacks on them more and more openly.
Then the dreams start. Singly and in swarms, locusts appear over and over in the dreams of Therrian's human servants. They bring horribly vivid sensations of pain, and memories of the dreamer's latest sins. They leave exhaustion always, psychosomatic illness often.
Locusts sometimes haunt the dreams of Therrian's foes, too, but there they generally attack figures that threaten the dreamer, driving them away. Heroic monsters.
And what explanation can Therrian give for this plague of dreams, without bringing in the supernatural and revealing the War? It's depressingly easy: giant locusts have appeared all over the world, the way UFOs used to do, only far more frequently. Most often, they are seen at a distance, and always fleetingly. Sometimes, they appear next to a particularly noxious person ~ a noxious person left writhing in pain and incapacitated for weeks afterward.
Therrian blames the resistance forces, without specifics. Multiple rumors claim the resistance (or Therrian's own labs) have brewed up monstrous robot vehicles, or transgenic horrors, or mind-addling technologies. But plenty of people have read Revelation, and more accurate rumors circulate, too.
The locusts appear on Earth because Apollyon has been handing them out as bizarre vessels. The archangel of the Abyss has given one to every Grigori in existence, and to all its servitors of other choirs, and to any other angel or saint that asks for one. So far, these heavenly monsters have seldom appeared on Earth ~ not NEVER, but SELDOM. Mostly, they appear in dreams.
=== Roleplaying seed: Dream Wars ===
No matter what Word they serve, PCs may now be invited to go fight in the Marches.
They may be attacking or defending individual dreamscapes. Heavenly PCs should use the locust form as their default self-image.
They may be playing hide-and-seek ethereal combat with small enemy groups in random surreal landscapes of the Marches, especially if they have been sent ahead as scouts. Such things can be spiced up with appropriate artifacts and encounters with local ethereals.
They may be swept up in mass combat in the Marches. Besides the obvious scenes of mass melee, there is the challenge of escaping the battle, if and when retreat is sounded, and everyone in the party is down to their last few mind hits, and you have one or two points of Essence, at most, among the lot of you.
The pagan pantheons and other ethereal communities are bound to get involved, whether they want to or not. PCs can be sent as diplomats, asking for allies or negotiating passage through to other realms. Of course, some ethereal realms are solidly aligned with Beleth. But how solidly, and can that be changed, now that unprecedented masses of angels are invading the Marches?
Or PCs can infiltrate as spies, scouts, and saboteurs. Even totally un-military PCs can arrive openly as missionaries (from either side) to stir up appropriate feeling among the masses ~ the dreamshades and minor myth figures of a given realm.
=== Roleplaying seed: Bugging the Beast ===
Ever want to play an avenging angel in the form of a giant grasshopper? Sure you have! Really leap tall buildings in a single bound as you hop and fly through the streets of Therrian's "recovery centers," dealing out terror and agonizing stings to demons and Hellsworn. Then switch back to your old vessel and lay low. Or buzz out of town and join a swarm of buddies, to attack a slave labor camp, military outpost, or zombie factory.
Of course, every demon in Hell will be looking to Vapula for insecticide. And your locust vessel is by no means invulnerable. And, when you go celestial and vanish, you may find some recently-stung Calabim have just done the same thing, and are waiting for you.
== The Keys to the Abyss ==
Apollyon, the newly revealed archangel of the Abyss, rose before the Seraphim Council, addressing them and all the Host: "I bring report of the Lower Hells. They are, indeed, the opposite of the Upper Heavens, very much as Nothing is the opposite of All. They are the ragged edge of reality, and beyond them is utter nullity, but they do have inhabitants ~ the wicked soul-killed. Just as those in the Upper Heavens are more real and more truly themselves than ever, those in the Lower Hells hang onto existence and identity by the final thread, stripped of any Words they may have held, reduced to a few rags of Forces.
"And there is Lucifer, whose Word, if he has one, is Negation, and whose private realm these Hells are. The double-damned are his, his private Essence farm, one of the secret bases of his power, and all the more powerful for being secret. A few he has sent back, stripped of memory, introduced as new-minted demons or deranged damned souls. More often, he has used them as a source of Forces, so sending some into final obliteration.
"But, in the last extreme, he will reveal his secret hoard, restore Words, and send the double-damned back into the War, if he must.
"And he will, if he learns that Gabriel and Michael still live, and worse, the Upper Heavens have opened. And we cannot expect to keep such a secret for much longer.
"This negative resurrection must not be allowed, lest the old stalemate return, and we must face again Belial, Legion, Beelzebub, Vephar, Mesarach, Mariel, and the others. So we let us reveal ourselves, not wait to be discovered, while the Horde is drawn out into the Marches and Hell is emptier than ever before. This, indeed, was the reason for our campaign in the Marches, as worked out by Michael, Uriel, Lawrence, and myself. We are going to smooth off this ragged edge of reality. We will descend to the Lower Hells and destroy them, and all in them. We begin now."
The archangels of Death and the Abyss are descending to Hell, to sing a one-time-only Song to destroy the Lower Hells. Singing backup are War, Wind, Fire, Sword, Lightning, Judgement, and Protection. All are taking huge numbers of their angels with them, to make sure they are not interrupted. Any PC serving them can plausibly come along. So can PCs of Purity, Faith, and Stone. PCs of Words like Creation, Children, Flowers, or Dreams will have to be a little inventive, but the more the, uh, merrier.
Once they are all armed and gathered, the PCs and everyone else can follow the archangels down into Hell. For reasons of Word-mechanics, they are landing in Abaddon, Saminga's Principality. It is very empty, Saminga and so many of his demons being busy on Earth, but that will change very fast.
=== Roleplaying seed: The Harrowing of Hell ===
The archangels start singing immediately. Moments thereafter, Saminga will show up, followed soon by Ba'al. Then wave after wave of Death demons will come in, followed by War-devils and just about anything else that can be brought to bear. Lucifer himself could show up at any point.
PCs are in for as much celestial combat as they can withstand or the players want. Besides pure melee, there's:
* Seeking out the crypts containing Death-demon Hearts, so as to ambush them as they come home.
* Joining a party led by some heavy-duty Word-bound angels, who will try to take out particular Princes.
* Being handed a special artifact, equivalent to a bomb, and told to quick run into Gehenna and blow up some important property of Ba'al's. Also works for stuff in Vapula's labs.
* Facing very old enemies who come boiling up out of the Lower Hells as either (1) their bonds break, when the Lower Hells start to disintegrate, or (2) Lucifer starts to release them. These can be demons and undead the PCs have faced before, or they can be historical horrors like Legion, of whom everyone used to say, "Thank God, at least THAT one's gone."
=== Roleplaying seed: As Long As We're Here... ===
Of course, everyone is there to destroy the Lower Hells and their inhabitants, first and foremost. But if there's a chance, there are a number of things various angels might like to do in Hell, such as:
* Raid Vapula's labs.
* Raid Asmodeus's files.
* Raid Alaemon's files.
* Raid Mammon's treasure vaults.
* Raid Ba'al's armory.
None of these, or any similar side-raids, would be easy, but the chaos of battle could offer unexpected opportunities, and PCs' archangels could have handed them various goals with the general instruction "If you get the chance, go for it."
=== Roleplaying seed: Been Down So Long, It Looks Like Up to Me ===
A few of the double-damned may have repented during their time in the Lower Hells, and they've certainly had the opportunity to purge themselves through suffering. As the Lower Hells crumble around them, their bonds break, they are Redeemed by the direct grace of God, and they ascend ~ to Upper Hell. Whee.
But this is a possible reason for PCs of Destiny, or Flowers and other Words, to come along. They can locate new-minted Saints and angels (most of them stripped down to three Forces) and hustle them up to Heaven before they get painfully smacked by something (still) infernal. (Of course, even if they got "soul-killed," they'd just ascend to the Upper Heavens, but still, it's painful and Traumatizing.) Angels of Protection and Judgement could do the same, of course.
Before that, PCs have the interesting chance to meet some of the wicked soul-killed (either historical figures or old acquaintances) now on their side. What do you say to your old nemesis, groveling at your feet? Or to Dracula? Or Legion? What do they say? What if they aren't groveling, but want to stay and help you fight?
What if they claim to have valuable information, like the nature and location of some valuable item of Lucifer's? Can you believe them? (Not that they'd lie, but they aren't exactly stable at the moment.)
=== Roleplaying seed: Home Ground Advantage ===
Demonic PCs might have an exciting time, if not an enjoyable one, defending the home front, fighting the Host in Hell itself. This would also be a dandy time to go Renegade, or at least settle some old scores without anyone noticing.
The great bulk of the population of the Lower Hells is simply destroyed. The GM should decide which famous figures from the Lower Hells get destroyed, Redeem, or escape to Upper Hell. Any Heavenly characters that suffer otherwise-lethal soul damage ascend to the Upper Heavens, in Trauma that lasts as long as the GM finds convenient.
For the sake of the rest of the scenario, do not let the battle in Hell or the destruction of the Lower Hells change the status of Michael, Lucifer, Baal, Mammon, Saminga, Kronos, Kobal, Nybbas, or Therrian.
=== Roleplaying seed: The Awful Truth ===
Demonic PCs have an amazing roleplaying opportunity, reacting to the news that, not only is Michael not dead, no other angel is either, and the Apocalypse is proceeding according to their worst fears. Any angel will be happy to tell them all this, now. Particularly any seraph. Options include falling into despair, seeking Redemption, and retreating into delusion.
== The Rapture ==
As soon as the angels return to Heaven, they hear a loud trumpet call from the East. Turning, they see it is Gabriel who blew the call. They also see into the Light. Instantly, wordlessly, each angel knows they must descend to Earth and start bringing people up to Heaven. The exact place, the exact list of people, and the ability to translate them to Heaven all come to the angel in the same moment.
This is the Rapture, the 3.5-year-point in the middle of the Tribulation.
In moments, the world loses a third of its adult population. Without bias by creed, people vanish everywhere. Sometimes, they wink out before the eyes of others. Sometimes, there is a moment of ecstatic wonder in their faces. Sometimes they shout in fear at something invisible. Sometimes they run from unseen things for a few paces, before vanishing, or argue with the air a bit, then disappear.
Other times, the Raptured are taken by visible agents ~ people who appear out of thin air and disappear, taking others with them, even as they question or protest. Or onlookers, those left behind, may glimpse beautiful or surreal shapes that seize folk and vanish with them.
Huge percentages of the neurodivergent are Raptured. All the children are gone, or almost all. Hardly any below the age of ten remain. The Rapture-rate for thirteen-year-olds is about twice that for the adult population. For sixteen and older, the rate is the same as for adults. Any unRaptured woman who was pregnant more than three months is suddenly pregnant no longer, and soon delivers an afterbirth. All other pregnancies died stillborn.
In minutes, it's over.
=== Roleplaying seed: The Rapture ===
The GM should land angelic PCs in the midst of the mortals they care most about. The GM also picks which ones are on the pick-up list. The angels arrive in their celestial forms, though they can use their vessels if they want to. But they should hurry. They may want to give their passengers a bit of warning ~ they may have to catch some of them ~ but the main thing is to grab them and ascend, then come back for the next.
What do you say to them? And what do you say to the by-standers whom you aren't taking?
== Open War ==
Lucifer has had a Bad Day. The worst day since the Fall, in fact. He has just discovered that Armageddon is on track, with himself still safely cast as the losing bad guy.
There's a yawning chasm where two thirds of Abaddon used to be, and Belial's old Principality of Sheol has fallen into it, forming a lake of fire, just visible as a red spark at the bottom. Lucifer knows from a quick glance that the lake is the final boundary of reality ~ nothing that goes into it continues to exist in any way. All the ruins of the Lower Hells have already gone into it.
Only a handful of the double-damned got out of the Lower Hells; he's just lost his private Essence base, along with almost everything else he had in the Lower Hells, and the Enemy has revealed itself to be immortal.
Lucifer is frantic with rage and fear. His celestial form, a gigantic scarlet balseraph with seven heads, rampages through the skies over Rome, tossing off Songs of madness and physical violence, seeding the streets below with havoc and causing many to become Symphonically aware.
Meanwhile, in a human vessel, he confronts the Four Horsemen and Kronos in Therrian's offices. He berates Baal for incompetent generalship, Saminga for failing to defend his own Principality, Mammon for being generally useless. Therrian, the only human present, keeps a terrified silence, but notes with amazement that the Princes are not submissive ~ Baal argues back with cold dignity, Saminga snarls, even Mammon sulks. "How art thou fallen, O Lucifer," Therrian reflects, "in the eyes of your own servants."
The Lucifer turns on Therrian: "You! Putting you forth was my first mistake! With you, I set the prophecies in motion against myself! Now what good are you?"
Therrian: "I am good to do your will on Earth, my Father, as before. If you want more of me, then give me what you know I seek ~ a Princedom, to reign in Hell as well as on the Earth, like Lilith."
Lucifer : "You'll have what I choose, when I choose, greedly little monkey." (To Kronos): "And what of you, grand Prince of Fate? Why did you not foresee any of this, Hell's prophet? What of MY Fate?!"
Kronos (with chill calm): "You know full well that all my foreseeing is only of possibility. Nor did you ever suffer me or anyone else to investigate you."
Lucifer: "What ARE you?! If you are indeed part of God's Spirit, I will rend you myself, to cause some pain to Him. Answer!"
Kronos: "I am no one, not a soul. You found me a torn web of Forces, still echoing with the Symphony, and took me, at first, for a shattered seraph or balseraph. Then you decided I was an Aspect, like Yves. Like him, I am a swirl of Forces from God's own heart, but I was never fashioned into an ego, a soul, a self. I say "I" and "me" and they are lies, fictions, in my mouth. I was your last chance, Lucifer; God gave me to you to see what you would make of me. He gave me to you weak and wounded, to allay your pride and fear, but with the Symphony still within me. You could have made me your ambassador to Heaven, your mediator, and ultimately the guide to your Redemption. But you chose to make me your tool for seeking the worst possibilities, and that I am, the Prince of Fate, including your Fate."
Lucifer growls, turns away, and stabs at the air with a forefinger. By the time he completes the gesture, Kobal has appeared, startled, taking the jab in his sternum. "You jackanapes! It was you persuaded me to make Hell a realm of pain and destruction. Now look at the annihilation it leads to! If we had made of Hell a rival paradise, could the Lower Hells have been made to lead to that?! Go, fool, and help Nybbas with the propaganda. I would shred you all, but that I need every slave now. Go!" He gestures and all the princes vanish. In the next moment, he himself is gone, leaving Therrian to listen to the distant screams and sirens.
The War is no longer a secret. Huge numbers of people have become Symphonically aware from sheer exposure to disturbance. More than half of the (remaining) world population has seen a giant locust or watched someone get Raptured. EVERYONE can see that all the children and a third of the adults are gone.
Anticipating this, Heaven lifts the ban on secrecy. The day after the Rapture, a number of, er, street-preachers with Numinous Corpus Wings appear flying over cities all over the world and announce that the End Is Near, that Therrian is the Antichrist, and it's time to repent. (Several are shot down.) This just stirs the pot on the media hullaballoo following the Rapture. Lots of demons give up on secrecy without waiting to be told they can.
Since the early days of the Tribulation, the world has been a patchwork of "UN recovery zones" (Beast-held territories) and resistance territories, where it isn't howling wilderness and ruin. Some of the resistance territories are held by various nationalists who want their old sovereignties back; others are just held by people who don't like Therrian's ways.
Since the resistance territories tended to lose more people in the Rapture, they now shrink, in the face of less-depleted foes. But Hell's forces have taken a monstrous blow to their morale, propaganda or not, and there are even uprisings in Therrian's territories. So borders don't shift as much as mere changes of numbers would indicate.
Some of the resistance areas become openly held by Heaven ~ but only where angels and saints can convince the local authorities to ally. Other areas, particularly in Asia, turn to ethereals, who now walk the Earth openly. Still others want to remain independent, though few of these resistance areas are openly hostile to Heaven and many are very cooperative.
The whole situation vaguely resembles the partitioning of the world during World War II, between the poles of the Axis and the Allies. Vaguely.
=== Roleplaying seed: Superheroes ===
There's always been a "danger" of In Nomine turning into a superheroes game. Now it can happen safely. All it takes is for the battles to be out in the open more. Spandex optional.
=== Roleplaying seed: Superspies ===
Of course, the old covert mode is still quite useful. And, while it was nigh-impossible for angels and demons to infiltrate each other's home turf on the celestial plane, it's easy to do it on the corporeal ~ and, for the first time, they actually have significant corporeal territories, with boundaries and check points and supply lines. Lots of World War spy plots can be recycled for celestials and Soldiers.
=== Roleplaying seed: No Atheists in These Fox Holes ===
Now Heaven and Hell actually have physical battle lines on Earth. War zone adventures are now possible, though they will not be much like adventures set in World War II, since the combatants span such a wide range of races and powers. There are four tactical situations:
* Mortals vs. mortals, the most mundane and most like historical precedent, though even here there are Soldiers and Song-users.
* Angels vs. mortals, where one or a few angels slice through mortal Hell-troops, limited somewhat by the capacities of their vessels and their hope of converting some of the enemy.
* Demons vs. mortals, like the above, but without the option of moral restraint.
* Angels vs. demons; the previous two situations tend to turn into this one quickly, as celestials come to the aid of their mortals. The mortals then run away, lay low, or get thrust into the background, except for occasional interesting surprises situations.
=== Roleplaying seed: Celestial Diplomacy ===
Not all anti-Therrian enclaves are pro-Heaven. Heaven will want to do something about that. PCs can be sent to negotiate. Of course, they'll be hoping to convince the enclave leadership that "Yes indeed, we are the Forces of Good, and you want to work for us." They may have to settle for alliance or neutrality. Or failure.
This is especially true if the leadership of the enclave is heavily influenced by ethereals, or just plain replaced by ethereals. It's a lot easier to believe in the supernatural now, after all, and this has given a huge boost to many pagan pantheons and other ethereal groups. Pre-Rapture, many anti-Therrian groups were nationalists; now, old ethnic pantheons are coming back, or actually re-forming.
== The Mark of the Beast ==
Three days after the Rapture, Therrian goes on global TV and radio, and announces to the world (or the part of the world that still has media) that yes, he is the Antichrist, the Beast of Revelation. He's working for Satan, to drag the whole world to Hell. But this is a good thing. They'll like Hell much better than Heaven. The main points of his speech become the nuclei for the multiple propaganda campaigns of various princes, all circulated by Nybbas. These points include:
* Hell is for freedom, against the tyranny of God and the archangels. (Lilith.)
* Hell is for progress, God being just the earliest and hence most primitive state of spiritual evolution. (Vapula.)
* Hell is for fun, pleasure, ecstasy even, while Heaven is a widely-known wet blanket. (Andrealphus, Furfur, Flerity, Haagenti, and Rex "son" of Nybbas and Demon of Cool.)
* Hell is for prosperity, for increasing your wealth, not foregoing it or giving it away. (Mammon.)
* Hell could hardly do worse than Heaven, which has let the human race bumble through natural and social evils for millenia. (Kobal.)
* If you lot were going to Heaven, you'd be gone by now, so wisest to make the best of the inevitable. (Malphas, Kronos.)
* Yes, there's pain in Hell, but only for the foolish who get in the way of the Grand Plan. (Asmodeus.)
Of course, these Princes have been saying things like this all along, but now they are saying them at press conferences, in rock videos, in magazine articles, on web pages, and in "educational" programs. By the end of the month, every unRaptured journalist in the world knows the names of all the major Princes and main Bands of demons.
Of course, they also know the names of all the Archangels and the main choirs of angels. The world has never seen so much, or such high-quality, televangelism, and certainly not with such neat special effects.
=== Roleplaying seed: Media Wars ===
Angels of Lightning and demons of Technology can be kept busy trying to jam each other's transmissions, hack each other's nets, smash each other's presses, blow up each other's studios, and foil each other's attacks. Almost all other celestials have the opportunity to attack or defend human and celestial servitors of Revelation and Media, and put pressure on the poor mundane journalists in the middle.In Therrian's territories, Kronos assumes more and more power. He is known both as demon prince and in his Role as Therrian's spiritual advisor, Simon Airies, and the identity of the two is not public knowledge. As Simon Airies, he is presumed to advise Therrian, as advertized, but what he is seen doing is running Therrian's propaganda machine. This brings him into contact with Nybbas a lot, which unsettles the Media Prince and his servitors.
It also brings him into frequent contact with Kobal, who is livid. Kronos long ago replaced Kobal as the Prince in charge of luring humans to their Fates. Now, Lucifer has reduced Kobal to Nybbas's assistant, and Nybbas is scarcely more than Kronos's assistant. Kobal takes long and considered thought, and starts to work on . . . Saminga.
Kobal starts with some mild jabs, "praising" Saminga for being a "good team player," being supporting cast for Therrian, who is simply Kronos' tool. Then he begins pointing out the contempt that Kronos openly expresses for Saminga and suggests that Kronos is plotting with the other three Horsemen to do dirt to Saminga, now that he is at a disadvantage, with that new gaping hole in his Principality. Finally, he suggests that Saminga's Principality got trashed because Kronos arranged with Ba'al to direct the heat of battle that way. So Saminga conceives a grudge against Kronos. And Kobal points out that Kronos's main mission, now, is promoting Therrian.
It comes to a head during a news conference, on global TV. Therrian is addressing the camera. The other three Horsemen and Kronos are sitting in the background. Therrian mentions new Vapu-tech medical services, to be available only to Hellsworn. This, for some reason, is the last straw for Saminga. He rises, ranting about Therrian seeking to cut off his labor supply, pulls a sword from within his black robe, and decapitates Therrian on the spot.
Moments later, Lucifer is there, in his natural form of scarlet, seven-headed balseraph, but clearly visible to mortal eyes and cameras. His tail lashes Saminga's skeletal vessel into a pile of bones as his heads bend down and breathe blood-red fire on Therrian's corpse.
In an elegant apartment in Paris, Kobal watches all this, roaring with laughter. He doesn't even stop laughing when another instance of Lucifer's balseraph form appears, seizes his vessel in its coils, and squeezes. "This is your doing, Mockery! I read the whole thing plainly in that idiot Shedite's Ethereal Forces! What are you about?"
"Greetings, Lightbringer! Do you like my gift to you?"
"Explain!"
"Have I not arranged for you to resurrect Therrian before the world? Have you not shown that you and he are greater than Death?" Kobal tears his eyes away from the Devil's 42-fold gaze to glance and the screen, where Therrian is starting to stir. He splutters with laughter, then controls himself long enough to ask, "Have I not arranged for the crucial boost to your Cult of Therrian?" On the screen, Therrian groans, feeling his neck. "Ooh, great theater! Nybbas must be having orgasms!"
"I see," Lucifer says coldly. "And spot on schedule. You force us one verse further down the script of prophecy."
"About three verses, I think, in chapter 13, yes. You didn't just use Song of Healing, did you? Surely the occasion demands something more inventive?"
"His body is now a vessel. He's an Infernal Saint now." On the screen, Lucifer's seven heads seize Saminga's bones and begin to crunch them up. "Yes, you move us ahead to the next step. Did I tell you to?"
"No. Think of it as a puzzle. On the one hand, it's a step forward; why should you object? On the other, it shows you still haven't broken the prophecy's momentum. Better get cracking!"
"I shall break and crack many things," Lucifer answers, and his coils squeeze.
"You fulfill my every expectation," Kobal wheezes.
Lucifer soon gives Therrian six more vessels, for a grand total of seven. All are level 6. Three are identical to his original form. A fourth is fine-tuned by Andrealphus to be incredibly handsome. A fifth is a gorgeous female vessel. The sixth and seventh are nondescript male and female vessels, allowing Therrian to go about unrecognized.
Lucifer considers stripping Saminga of his Principality. Instead, he binds Saminga to Therrian with a massive Geas.
Kobal appears to go unpunished (other than by the death of a vessel), but acts nervous and irritable.
Kronos declares the founding of Therrianity as the state religion of the (soon to be) worldwide Therrianic Empire, now consisting of all the erstwhile "recovery zones." All places of worship are to be made over for the new religion. The central symbols of the new cult are an upright human figure with arms outstretched (vaguely crosslike), a cluster of seven stylized lion heads, and Therrian himself.
Asmodeus orders that all Hellsworn receive a bar-code tattoo on the right hand or forehead, as per prophecy, and Mammon is soon using them as credit and debit cards for Hellsworn. (Of course there's a "666" encoded in it.) Only Hellsworn can buy and sell. People in Therrianic territory who are not Hellsworn have to get by on barter with Hellsworn and each other. Most Hellsworn soon acquire an entourage or staff of dependents.
=== Roleplaying seed: Spin Doctoring ===
What do angelic PCs say to the mortals around them who are impressed by the on-camera appearance of Satan in person, the resurrection of Therrian, and the subsequent new religion.
=== Roleplaying seed: Old Time Religion ===
Even in Therrianic territory, many people do not take kindly to old churches, mosques, temples, and synagogues being turned into Therrianic shrines. Heavenly PCs, especially servants of Khalid, can certainly get involved.
=== Roleplaying seed: Missionary Stew ===
Kronos sends Therrianic missionaries out to spread the new "faith" in unconquered areas, as one way of assimilating them. Sometimes they travel alone, sometimes they travel with diplomatic or military expeditions. Even the solitary ones have weapons, Songs, or both to defend themselves, this hardly being a pacifist creed. Send the PCs after any of them.
=== Roleplaying seed: Dermabrasion ===
A Hellsworn converts. Now, what about that tattoo? If he has it removed, can he be back in the Book of Life? Or is he eternally sunk? An angel of Destiny might be able to say. What if someone wants him to keep it on for a while, to run an undercover mission? And what if he dies while on that mission? Is he Saved™? Suppose he has it removed and replaced with an exact copy? Does it still count?
== The Two Witnesses ==
Blandine stands on her tower and surveys the Marches. They are calm again ~ calmer than they have been for centuries, in fact, after the tumult of the Dream Locust Campaign, and the hasty withdrawal of demons back to Hell. Many servitors of Dream and Nightmare now work on Earth, loaned to other archangels and princes. It almost seems like peace.
But Blandine knows better, so she is only surprised, not shocked, when Shinniah appears at her balcony. Shinniah is an ofan of Dreams, a swirling cluster of misty, rainbow rings, studded with rows of eyes like those on peacock feathers. It is a senior scout in the Far Marches.
"My Lady," it cries, "movement in the Dawn Marches!"
"An attack? Diabolical or ethereal?"
"Ethereal, my Lady. The Hindu pantheon. But not, I think, an attack. They send forth heralds. In fact--"
A hawk's cry shrills. Rushing out of the Dawn Marches comes a giant eagle of gold, Garuda, the Mount of Vishnu.
Things never seen before have become frequent in Heaven, in the last three and a half years. But still people are surprised when Blandine ushers the Hindu gods into the Celestial City, commingled with the Taoist, Jainist, and Buddhist pantheons. They form a gaudy parade, marching straight into the hall of the Seraphim Council.
There, Trimurti speaks ~ the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The three gods address the archangels in perfect chorus, a single voice in three mouths, explaining their position and, to a degree, themselves.
Trimurti is no human-dreamed ethereal. Rather, it is a primal spirit, but even then not an ordinary primal. It is the primal spirit of the Symphony itself. (Many philosophically-minded angels and Saints wonder what the difference may be between Trimurti and God. Staring into the infinite Light that shines, now, from the visible Throne, they learn only that this question may be fascinating and profound, but it is not of immediate importance.)
Like other primal spirits, though, Trimurti has been shaped ~ or has allowed its appearance to be shaped ~ by human thought and belief. It appears in many aspects. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, and their wives, the various avatars of all of them, and many other members of the Hindu pantheon, are all members of this One. In impersonal aspects, it is the Way sought by Taoists and the Nirvana of Buddhists.
For many reasons, primarily for the stability of the cosmos itself, Trimurti has stayed out of the War as long as possible. It is possible no longer; clearly the Kali Yuga is at hand, and Shiva prepares to dance. To aid its followers, Trimurti casts its lot with Heaven. In earnest of this, it presents the Seraphim Council with a resource, an ally:
An ancient dreamshade, in the form of a young Indian man, steps out from behind the towering, flaming figures of the gods and bows politely to the archangels. He has been reincarnated myriad times and awaits one last journey to Earth. He is Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future.
Khalid now exchanges glances with Yves and the Metatron. "Welcome, Maitreya," he says. He then stands and claps his hands. A Saint appears in the Council Chamber, of Arabic appearance and garb. "I present to you your partner, the Hidden Imam."
The Two Witnesses of Revelation are Maitreya and the Hidden Imam. They soon take vessels and begin their careers as prophets, Maitreya mostly in Asia, the Imam mostly in the Moslem world. When not visiting plagues on the wicked, they preach. Maitreya exposes the deceit of Hell's lures; the Imam urges the lukewarm to righteousness. The Two preach cooperation among all good folk who are anti-Therrian.
=== Roleplaying seed: Guard Duty ===
Lucifer knows full well what is supposed to happen; the Two are to continue in this vein for three and a half years, then get killed in Jerusalem, for all the good that will do. To break the momentum of prophecy, Lucifer wants them assassinated before that date.
Opposing his agents are teams of angels and Saints. They are told, "Some time in the next three and a half years, your charges will be assassinated, but the longer you can put that off, the better." The guards include lots of malakim and cherubim, but some of everybody. If PCs aren't on the immediate team, they may be involved as backup or as aides in a particular locality. The Two move around a lot, whisked from place to place by ofanim.
Plot and foil can keep PCs busy as long as desired. Attacks can be as mundane or freaky, as subtle or obvious, as desired. I recommend that the powers attributed to the Two in Revelation be a slightly poetical expression of the powers wielded on their behalf by hosts of angels, Saints, and allied ethereals, none of whom feel obliged to pull punches any more.
=== Roleplaying seed: Nightmare Defection ===
The August Prosperity Collective, the modern organization of Japan's Shinto pantheon and its recent additions, decides to defect from Hell and join Heaven and the Hindu gods. This is a sticky proposition. First, Beleth always has demonic ambassadors and their retinues present in the Collective's realm. Second, not everyone in the Collective wants to defect to Heaven. But the defectors get secret word to Blandine. Now what to do?
Should they try for a massive, one-time breakout? Hard to coordinate. Should they try trickling out in ones and two and simply failing to come back? The Nightmare demons will notice eventually and make further departures difficult. Should they try exterminating the demons and Hell-loyalists in a coup? Depends on Nightmare's firepower.
=== Roleplaying seed: Ill-Met by Moonlight ===
The Seely Court is split over this new polarization of the ethereal plane. Oberon and Titania want to join the Heaven-Trimurti alliance. Puck wants to maintain independence and is willing to take help from Hell to do that. Many fays want to run even further away into the Outermost Marches. You can bet that both Dream and Nightmare are putting on the pressure.
Similar splits can occur in any surviving pagan pantheon you care to name.
=== Roleplaying seed: Uriel Again ===
So here are all these high-level ethereals, entering Heaven by some special dispensation of Blandine's and/or Trimurti's and/or God's. And here they are standing in the chambers of the Seraphim Council, face to face with Uriel. Now what?
Here's where GMs can resolve some Canon Doubt and Uncertainty, if they want to. Does Uriel express remorse for his Crusade? Does he justify it? Does he refuse to talk about it? Does he offer amends? Does he hint that the ethereals got off lightly?
== The Chimera Riders ==
There's a minor tether in Iraq, not far from Bagdad, near the ruins of Babylon. Years ago, longer ago than an archeologist would believe, people tried to build a tower to Heaven there. Something happened, and they failed. The something was a divine intervention, which did not in itself create a tether. Rather, the tether was created by the great human effort just prior to the intervention.
It would have made a good tether to Technology, but that Word was not held by anyone yet. Instead, it became a tether to Lightning. Jean was displeased, since the humans had been trying for just the kind of peek-at-the-back-of-the-book hubris he discourages. He was able to shuffle it off to Raphael, and the place became a minor tether to Knowledge. The renowned scholarship of Babylonian astrologer-priests helped stablize it. Yves inherited it when Raphael died and Destiny took over large parts of the territory of Knowledge.
Yves let it stay a minor tether, but he sent four angels to keep the Seneschal company, and he gave those angels very special powers and responsibilities. Using Songs and tricks discovered by the grigori and anonymously forwarded to him by Semyaza, Yves set the four angels to dancing in and out of Limbo, performing rites to harvest Essence and generating vessels. Very strange vessels. Two hundred million of them. Eli dropped by from time to time . . . .
Centuries passed. The Tribulations began. The War heated up and the world divided into a patchwork of territories, some held by the Antichrist, some held by his foes. Early on, Therrian made sure to capture Jerusalem, Mecca, Antioch, Medina, and as much of the Holy Lands in general as he could.
It didn't help.
Sometime in the latter half of the Tribulation, a Heavenly cavalry erupts from the Lost Tether of the Tower of Babel. Of course, Lucifer and Therrian are expecting the cavalry, but each and every lion-headed horse has all the Corporeal and Celestial Songs of Motion built into it, in addition to their breath-weapons and venomous tails. And each one carries a warrior-Saint or avenging angel on its back.
Soon, the cavalry of chimerae is dispersed all over the globe. Soon, the Holy Lands are held by Heaven's forces, and people begin flying and teleporting into them from all over the globe. Therrian forms a similar concentration in Italy, centering on Rome.
The horse/lion chimerae are all level 6 vessels. Each has the Corporeal and Celestial Songs of Motion built in, so they can fly and teleport. The vessels act as artifacts, so the chimera can teleport the rider to any place the rider has been. The fire breath acts like Gabriel's Smite attunement, and the snake-headed tail does 2d6 body hits with its bite.
The chimera vessel is capable of speech, but the soul animating it may not be, since, most often, it is a blessed animal's soul. Next commonest are ethereals aligned with Heaven. Third come relievers, often in the role of familiar to the rider. Blessed human souls, Saints, and angels are also possibilities.
The riders themselves are usually angels, but may be Saints. PCs could wind up as either chimerae or riders, if they wish.
=== Roleplaying seed: Demonic Detection ===
Lucifer has read Revelation; he is virtually certain that a fifth of a billion Heavenly cavalry will show up, sometime soon, somewhere in the Euphrates area. He has Ba'al send some spies (demonic PCs) to try to pin down exactly where and when. Laurence sends counter-intelligence agents (angelic PCs) to make sure they don't stumble upon the Lost Tether of Babel, or, if they do, that they don't recognize it as the cavalry launch point, or don't live to report it.
=== Roleplaying seed: Holding Action ===
As soon as the chimerical cavalry starts bursting out of the Euphrates tether, the forces of Hell will converge on them. How well-prepared Hell is depends on how successful Ba'al's agents were in the preceeding adventure. If PCs are interested in being, or fighting, chimera-riders, this is the place to start. Since the chimerae can teleport, Song combat is going to be very important, as the only practical way of pinning them down.
Since there are 200,000,000 chimerae, this will be a long-drawn-out conflict, lasting days or weeks. It is also likely that, having come to the Euphrates tether to collect their chimera, angels will then go to some other Heavenly tether to actually descend. So chimerae will leak out all over the globe, eventually.
=== Roleplaying seed: Chimerae on the Battlefield ===
Soon, there are 200 million flying, teleporting chimerae (minus casualties) flitting around the many battlefields of Tribulation Earth, carrying avenging angels. Cavalry may sound old-fashioned, but not with those tricks at its command. And the angels on their backs are packing anything from firey swords to Lightning-Labs ultra-tech zap-guns.
Of course, the demons and Hellsworn they're up against are packing Vapu-tech zap-guns, and riding mecha, ogres, and so forth, so the battle isn't entirely one-sided.
The battle becomes still less one-sided when Ba'al and the other warlike princes begin manufacturing the Hellish equivalents of Heaven's chimerae. These beast-vessels are quite varied in appearance, though variations on the classic dragon are commonest. Since Hell has not spent millenia stockpiling them, they have far fewer monster vessels, but they make them even more loaded with tricks.
These dragon cavalry can be animated by demons (including PC volunteers or draftees), but demonlings are commoner, and commonest are Force-stripped damned souls that have been degraded to bestial levels, Hell's nearest equivalent to animals.
Note again the huge number of chimerae. A fifth of a billion. That's one chimera for every thirty humans alive now; after all the losses of the Tribulation and the Rapture, the ratio gets even larger. So it isn't surprising that the chimera cavalry can kill off a third of the remaining human population.
The other thing the chimera cavalry does is move people around. Soon, almost nobody is in Therrian-held territory unless they want to be. The battle lines of Heaven and Hell used to run through every house and every human heart, infinitely crinkly, like a fractal curve; now they are becoming plainer and plainer.
== Plagues, Frogs, and Videotapes ==
By now, the world population ~ what's left of it ~ is divided about evenly into Heaven's faction and Hell's, consciously and deliberately. They occupy various territories all over the globe, intermixed with a lot of howling wilderness. Heaven's biggest territory is the Holy Lands, centered on Jerusalem, and including all of the ancient Fertile Crescent areas and the northern half of the Nile valley. Hell's biggest territory is Mediterranean basin, centered on Rome.
In between, the wastes and no-soul's-lands are stalked by opposing forces equipped with every conceivable mixture of supernatural powers and ultratech. Aircraft, giant locusts, dragons, chimerae, various ethereal grotesques, and just plain angels and demons whirl through the skies, attacking and counter-attacking.
=== Roleplaying seed: Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang... ===
How much surreal warfare do your PCs want? Give them that much. Although the centers of power around Rome and Jerusalem should remain relatively stable, PCs can be involved in as much military/political drama as they like, anywhere else. They can be at the final seige of Ulaan Baator, the taking of Chicago, the conquest of Australia, among the troops when Joan of Arc marches into Paris to re-take the Notre Dame tether. They can stand on the smoking ruins of Iceland and watch the Vapulan (or Jeanite) space station come crashing down into the Atlantic. Whatever.
Just salt in plenty of fast-forward skips, to keep them and yourself from going numb.
Things rumble along this way for over three years. As time wears, there is less and less Earth to fight over, or on. One military note: Hell's forces manage to re-take part of the Fertile Crescent and destroy the Tether of Babel, where the chimerae broke through. They then set up a command center there.
About two years after the Rapture, the Metatron issues an interesting invitation: Novalis and Jordi are called to Upper Heaven (or, since they are already and always standing before the Throne there, they are invited to limit themselves to Upper Heaven). All their Wordbound angels are invited to ascend. This is to protect them from what's coming next, which will involve mass extinctions. Non-Wordbound angels of these two may also ascend.
=== Roleplaying seed: Honorable Discharge ===
PCs of Animals and Flowers now get to decide if they want to sit on the sidelines or continue serving in the War. One would expect a PC to stay and fight, but there is roleplaying potential in acting out the decision-making, or you could take the opportunity to roll up a new character. Also, NPC friends of the PCs might want help deciding their next move.
Heaven proceeds to pound Therrian's territories, and the Earth in general, with a series of seven plagues. See Revelation 16, and compare to the Plagues of Egypt in Exodus.
First, Jean releases a series of plagues. The first causes disabling boils all through Therrianic territories (immunizations being spread just as fast in Heaven's territories).
Next, Jean releases a transgenically modified version of the Red Tide organism, causing all the oceans to turn blood red and exterminating all ocean life.
The next rev, plague three, invades the river systems. (You see why Jordi and Novalis were withdrawn.)
Fourth and fifth, Janus and Oannes treat Therrian's territories, first, to droughts and no ozone layer, then, to months of total overcast, carefully timed to screw up agriculture.
Sixth, David makes an earthquake that causes the Euphrates river to dry up, allowing Heaven's troops to re-take Babylon.
=== Roleplaying seed: Plague Duty ===
Is it getting hard to tell the angels from the demons without a score card? Is Jean acting a lot like Vapula? Are Janus and Oannes acting like low-temperature versions of Belial? Yeah, yeah, the targets of all this are demons and hellsworn, but . . .
If the PCs are feeling queasy about this, they'll feel even queasier if they're invited or ordered to take part. Someone has to spread the germs; Jean can't do it all in person. (Ditto the innoculations in God's Countries.) Janus and Oannes will make starring cameo appearances in their distasters, but they'll need all their angels to do all the fiddly bits of weather-work. Here's a chance for PCs to get angsty, or to tear loose and smite.
=== Roleplaying seed: The Apocalypso ===
The War is happening everywhere, but far from the monotheistic lands, ethereals play a more prominent part. Shiva is dancing in the Kali Yuga, in an avatar of a horse-headed giant. Do PCs want to join with him and Heaven's other ethereal allies on their front of the War? Here's a chance to vary the special effects.The bits about frog shapes is visionary symbolism, but after David re-takes Babylon, Lucifer resolves on a major assault on the Holy Lands. He has Ba'al rally the Hell-troops for this. (Ba'al is Frog One.)
Therrian pulls on his big Geas-hook into Saminga, and resurrects a carefully chosed corps of damned military leaders, as Anti-Saints (generally dubbed "the Hellrisen"). While he's at it, he steps up zombie production. (Saminga is Frog Two.)
Kronos, meanwhile, keeps the home fires burning with a propaganda blitz, engineered by Kobal. Kobal is galled at being Kronos's minion, but at least he gets to see Nybbas reduced to his minion in the process. (Kobal is Frog Three.)In a massive assault, Therrian invades the Holy Lands from the north and, by sea, from the west. He re-takes Jerusalem, and captures and executes the Two Witnesses, Maitreya and the Hidden Imam, who were in Jerusalem when it fell.
Publicly, the Lords of Hell give out that they beat the 1,260-day deadline, and that the prophecy is broken. Privately, they are unsure about their chronology . So, rationally enough, they were going to cremate the bodies and have Nybbas censor the whole topic into oblivion.
Except that, the moment the Two were slain, Litheroy, archangel of Revelation, shows up with his own private news team, and encloses himself, the team and its cameras, and the bodies within an archangel-sized Song of Shields, on a blistered battlefield outside Jerusalem. Of course, Alaemon, Prince of Secrets, shows up moments thereafter, with his own minions, and mayhem ensues.
=== Roleplaying seed: Witness Protection ===
PCs can take part in the three-day skirmish that goes on around Litheroy & company as they guard the bodies of the Two Witnesses. They need not be servitors of Revelations or Secrets; allies of either are certainly welcome.
They may very well be angels of Lightning or demons of the Media. These need not even be on the battlefield; the angels are just trying to punch Litheroy's feed through to the mortal audience, while the demons try to jam it.
And, of course, Media will not admit that Heaven is sending a signal they want to jam. Instead, they will pretend it is their propaganda-coup celebration of Therrian's victory over the Two.
As long as the signal is not getting jammed (and it usually won't be), Media demons can try distraction ~ say, by covering the skirmish itself, or by trying to cook up a fake pair of dead Witnesses (corpses are easy to come by), who won't inconveniently rise from the dead.
Need I say that, in the end, the Witnesses resurrect and ascend, adding to the demoralization of the Antichrist's followers?
== Armageddon ==
The Archangel David knows immediately when a society is at a peak of demoralization. He also knows all about geology. Very shortly after the Two Witnesses rise, as shown by Litheroy on global television, David leads an attack on Rome ~ from below. Fissures from an earthquake split the city into three big chunks. This is, in fact, plague number seven, and is topped off by a rain of hundred-pound hailstones, provided by Oannes and Janus.
PCs may take part as in the Plague Duty seed, or as part of general warfare.
The surviving civilian population of the area, together with some of the military, responds with a massive looting spree. But Therrian himself is unharmed. He isn't there; he's on the Plain of Megiddo, in Israel, with Ba'al and his gathering troops.
=== Roleplaying seed: Where Were You at the Second Coming? ===
Frankly, there probably isn't a lot of roleplaying at this point, except, perhaps, for creative reacting. In terms of game mechanics, the Battle of Armageddon is just some more combat for the PCs, unless they are close associates of their archangels. But they are present at cosmic events, and should see some of them, and hear about others almost immediately thereafter. Even should some PCs be killed, they should probably be allowed to watch in a visionary dream, while in Trauma.
=== What happens ===
In Heaven, Christ has stood before the Throne in the form of a Lamb for seven years. He now also manifests a human form and leads a mass descent to Earth, touching down on the Mount of Olives. Christ leads the 144,000, followed by every Saint in Heaven, followed by every mortal human in the area, Soldier of God or not, who stands with Heaven. In parallel, Michael leads the angels. All of them.
On the other side, Ba'al and Therrian, with Kronos at their side, lead the legions of Hell, every last demon, undead, and hellsworn.
It soon becomes clear that Heaven just plain has Hell out-gunned. Yes, there are more demons than angels, even including the angels that have come back from the Upper Heavens. But there are a lot more humans, Saint and mortal, who are willing to fight for Heaven, than there are active supporters of Hell.
Christ captures Therrian. Michael captures Kronos. Both are vessel-slain on the spot and cast into Hell, into the Lake of Fire, where they are obliterated in an access of agony and horror.Michael then turns his attention to Lucifer. They're well-matched, but Michael has many friends among his fellow archangels, while, by now, Lucifer has only Ba'al. In a fight that is mainly on the celestial plane, Michael seizes Lucifer and turns him over to Apollyon. Eli then presents Apollyon with a very special chain of his own devising. Michael and all the other archangels hold Lucifer while Apollyon binds on the chain and sings a Song of imprisonment.
(And, somewhere out on Megiddo, Lilith, who was given the Word of Freedom and made a Princess for releasing Lucifer from Hell, screams and falls down dead, killed by the Word-damage she's taken. Her Forces go whirling down into the Lake of Fire.)
Apollyon throws Lucifer into Hell. Christ and the Saints slay all the mortal and Undead hellsworn. The remaining princes, demons, and ethereals flee, routed.
Armageddon is over. But the Apocalypse isn't.
== Millennium ==
So Heaven has won Armageddon; the wrong failed, the right prevailed. Now time for the ultimate happily-ever-after, right? Well, yeah, but there's still plenty to keep an angel busy. 
=== Roleplaying seed: First Resurrection ===
There's a new government to set up. Christ rules in Jerusalem over the whole Earth. Ruling under him are the Saints, each with different talents. (The rest of the blessed souls remain in Heaven.) Then come the mortal survivors.
Angelic and Saintly PCs will be given a task and a place to go ~ possibly by Christ, less overwhelmingly by the Metatron, an archangel, an angel, or a senior Saint. The number of possible tasks is vast. Many are not glitzy, but they could be good roleplaying fodder from their human interest. Possibilities include:
* Lots of angels will be sent as assistants to Saints.
* Food, medicine, and shelter and urgently needed all over the world. It has to be delivered. Heck, it has to be created.
* As with any mundane government, lines of communication and supply, and centers of authority, need to be set up. This time, it's all over the world. Fortunately, the population is relatively small, historically speaking, and all on your side . . . theoretically.
* The ecology is devastated. Everything that mortal science and conservation efforts can do, must be done. On top of that, nature itself has to be guided along. At least no one has to worry about disturbance any more. How many of those ark space stations did Jordi get built?
* Lots and lots of people are either heavily traumatized, or expecting instant paradise, or both. The new, improved, but still not paradisiacal, reality needs to be explained. Sometimes, it needs to be explained to the violently disappointed.
=== Roleplaying seed: Return of the Raptured ===
What about the Raptured? Do they come back now? Do they get a choice? Do they come back in the bodies they left, or in vessels? They might be able to help a lot. They might be pressured by the remaining mortals to pass information back and forth between Heaven and Earth. They might be very different, after more than three years in Heaven, to the possible consternation of people who knew them before. This could be very striking with children.
=== Roleplaying seed: Divided. Conquered? ===
Satan was locked up in Hell, but it doesn't follow that all the demon princes were. You can continue the War at a less cataclysmic level by supposing that some subset of the Princes are still loose. With Lucifer gone, they're probably not cooperating with each other much.
They might be trying to establish their own realms in the remote ethereal plane, in the astral gap between Heaven and Hell, or in remote parts of the corporeal plane, like other planets.
The surviving princes may have given up the idea of conquest, but they're cut off from their Essence-farms of damned souls now, so the urge to predation will always be struggling with their sense of caution.
And some princes ~ Saminga, for instance, and Vapula ~ are probably nutty enough to go on fighting. Ba'al would go on fighting even if he thought it was totally hopeless. So might Asmodeus.
At the other extreme, some princes might be trying to cut a peace deal with Heaven.
=== Roleplaying seed: Refugees, Renegades, and Outcasts ===
Some demons are locked in Hell. Some are still following their princes, outside Hell. But the number of new renegades must be huge, especially if you include the involuntarily abandoneed.
Life for a renegade must be very different, now. They don't have to worry (or not nearly so much) about the Game getting them. They are much likelier to get pressure to Redeem. (Should Novalis set up a Purgatory in which to incarcerate them while she tries to convert them?) They are also likely to get caught by the Tsayadim or some other branch of Heaven and thrown into Hell after Lucifer (whole or in pieces). Should they seek out one of the remaining princes, or just run, run, run?
=== Roleplaying seed: Mortal Resistance ===
Heaven rules, but not all mortals are necessarily happy about that. All the actual Hellsworn were killed at Armageddon, but there are some people who just want to be left alone ~ if the universe isn't indifferent, they wish it would become so. Not all these people are necessarily evil, either. They may be clinging to goals that have no place in the Millennial world, or they may be the victims of the less adroit members of the Heavenly hierarchy. The result can be situations that require careful spiritual/diplomatic handling.
=== Roleplaying seed: Shut-Ins and Visiting Hours ===
Speaking of purgation, what's going on in Hell? Suppose that Apollyon can let select spirits in and out. There could be regular patrols of warden angels, keeping an eye on things. They could escort "missionaries" trying to redeem human and celestial spirits. There could be attempted prison breaks.
What's life in Hell like, cut off from Earth, minus several princes, but NOT minus Lucifer?
What's Lucifer up to? Is he consumed with sheer spite, planning to do his worst at the end, just for the satisfaction of hurting God as much as possible? Is he contemplating an apology, in the hopes that someone else will take over the position of the dragon that gets thrown into the Lake of Fire? Is he scheming to survive in the Lake somehow?
=== Roleplaying seed: The Wheel ===
Some people have been out of the loop during Armageddon ~ the ones due for reincarnation. As the population starts to climb again, they'll start showing up. Will the angels of Death and Destiny be more accessible now? Will people be given the options of remembering past lives?
For that matter, how about all the human souls in the Marches, the ones who went to pagan afterlives? Does Heaven want them on Earth now? Or in Heaven? Or can they stay put? Are Blandine and Uriel going to have another tiff about all this?
=== Roleplaying seed: Old Words ===
Shall we have a new Archangel of Light? or Laughter? or Valor? Or at least angels with those Words? Anyone want to try for one of these?
=== Roleplaying seed: Utopian Fantasies ===
The goal of the Millennium is not just to recover from Armageddon, but to spread the paradisal conditions of Eden all over the Earth.
If you, the GM, have a pet political or social theory, this might be the time to showcase it and see if you can convince your players. Is Christ a communist? a libertarian? a monarchist?
Or is Heaven going to cultivate a unique glory in each land? Make America the Land of the Free and China the holder of the Mandate of Heave and France the home of the Divine Reason, etc.
Will Jean now open his files to humanity? Will Jordi and Novalis play lovely games with evolution and ecology? What's life like on paradisiacal Earth?
== Closing Remarks ==
Finally, there's a little bit more to go. After the Millennium, Lucifer has one more chance to tempt everybody. Then he and his supporters are wiped off the corporeal plane by fire from Heaven.
Then there's your actual Judgement Day, when every soul in creation is hauled up before the throne of God and judged, the rejects being thrown into the Lake of Fire.
After that, there's a new creation. There are a few enigmatic hints about this at the end of Revelation, but very little material compared to all the colorful images used for the Tribulation. The most spectacular image is that of the New Jerusalem. Everyone has heard of the pearly gates and the streets of gold, but this city also has foundations of gemstone, and is more like a garden inside, being full of Trees of Life.
Most spectacularly, it's cubical, measuring about 1,400 miles on a side ~ about the distance from New York to Houston, London to Athens, or Rome to (old) Jerusalem.
But this would only be the starting point for a whole new setting.
Category:The Corpus