Mariel

> The world is hardly worth remembering.
>
>

Mariel was an impudite who usually manifested as an elegant, beautiful noble who resembled nothing so much as the memory of an old love that remained just out of reach. Only her black, bottomless eyes told another story: one of loss and contempt.

Much like Novalis, the servitors of Mariel are charged with calming the souls of humanity, but also demons, gods, and the Symphony itself. Their remedy of choice: forgetfulness.

In the aftermath of the Fall, Mariel was the balm that Hell needed. Her cure helped many a demon cope with their loss, but not Mariel herself. As the one-time angel of Memory, its lack served as a constant reminder of what she wasn’t. By the time Haagenti came to devour Mariel, her Word had already consumed her.

## Dissonance

It is dissonant for a servitor of Mariel to help anyone remember (including assisting someone with an intelligence-based skill). If this assistance was completely accidental, the demon can remove the dissonance by removing the offending memory before it is shared.

## Band Attunements

### Balseraph *(partially restricted)*

These demons can forget at will, rendering them impossible to interrogate. In addition, balseraphim may use this ability to penalize their Will by their Ethereal Forces when attempting to wipe out their dissonance through self-deception.

### Djinni *(restricted)*

Mariel’s djinn may use their natural resonance to attune themselves to the person or thing that best recalls something the demon has just destroyed. The djinn may reduce their CD to attune to a number of additional records equal to the reduction (subject to their normal maximum).

### Calab

Oblivion’s Destroyers are the masters of unmaking. They may double the amount of soul hits that they cause.

### Habbalah *(restricted)*

Punishers who serve Mariel can be very depressing. These demons can add their Celestial Forces to the CD of their resonance when imposing Sadness, Emptiness, or similar emotional states.

### Lilu *(partially restricted)*

These demons can look into someone’s eyes and see what that person most wants to forget (this is not always a blessing). Lilim can treat this as an automatic success with their resonance and only need to roll dice for Intervention and CD.

### Shedu *(restricted)*

The shedim of Oblivion are particularly pernicious. When their host succeeds in a Will roll to eject the demon, the shedu can require a *second* Will roll. If this second roll fails, the demon can remain in control and force their host into a self-destructive act.

### Impudite *(restricted)*

People tend to forget *themselves* around Oblivion’s Takers. Every Essence one of these impudites steals is as intoxicating (and addicting) to the target as two shots of liquor.

## Servitor Attunements

### Bookrot

As Lucifer’s Document Shredder (Superiors IV p8), but limited to physical media The demon can make any physical information-storage media (such as newsprint or CD-ROM, but not digital records) blank itself utterly. A number of megabytes equal to the demon’s Ethereal Forces can be blanked at a time, at a cost of 1 Essence. Every megabyte is the equivalent of about 88,000 words or 350 sheets of typed paper. The information cannot be recovered by any means.

### Overdose

Demons with this attunement may cause someone who is freely taking drugs (i.e., under no outside celestial influence, but because of an addiction is okay) to consume to the point of overdose. The target must be currently using the drug, and the demon must win a Contest of Wills. The outcome depends on the drug, and what quantity was available. Heroin or cocaine overdoses are very likely to be fatal. Someone who drinks alcohol to the point of passing out might die or might just wake up a day later with an awful hangover, depending on whether he was drinking beer or Everclear. An overdose of cigarettes, on the other hand, will just make the smoker sick (and possibly hasten the onset of lung disease).

### Stupor

This attunement plays tricks with the victim’s perception of time and space. For 2 Essence, the target will enter “junkie time,” a muddled state in which the junkie thinks in illogical loops and swirls. Effects vary ~ the victim might believe that the last ten minutes have lasted for six hours, or the last six hours lasted only ten minutes, or he may obsess about a flower, or a certain song on the radio, or search his pockets endlessly for the $20 he swore he had. Specifics are up to the GM, but the net result is that unless the victim makes a Will roll, he will be completely disoriented and unable to react properly to outside stimuli for a number of hours equal to the check digit of his failed roll.

## Distinctions

### Vassal of the Forgotten

Any roll made to remember or research this demon is penalized by their Celestial Forces. Both rolls can only be attempted by someone who has met the demon.

### Captain of the Final Release

These demons double the amount of soul hits they inflict.

### Baron of Mercy

The Barons of Mercy are a bit like mobile tethers. *Any* celestial may work off a rank of dissonance by serving one for a week and releasing their Essence to Mariel.

### Higher Distinctions

Mariel was known to have granted higher distinctions like count, marquis, and duke to both Wordbound and non-Wordbound demons. However, since this effectively bound these demons even more closely to her Word, only the Wordbound ones have any real chance of being remembered.

## Rites

* Spend 3 hours in a mindless stupor
* Ensure someone dies alone and unremembered
* Destroy the last Celestial Force of a God or Celestial (Regain 3 Essence)

## Relations

**Allies:** Meserach

**Associated:** Gebbeleth, Lilith, Makatiel (Kronos)

**Hostile:** Andrealphus, Kobal (Alaemon)

**Enemies:** Asmodeus, Haagenti (Furfur)

### Invocation Modifiers

**+1** bottle of opium

**+2** blackout drunk (or similarly intoxicated)

**+3** unmarked grave or oubliette

**+4** dementia ward or opium den

**+5** temple to a forgotten god

**+6** unmarked, forgotten city

**+8** within Mariel’s Oubliette

## Songs

Mariel *did* teach the Songs of Concealment, Forgetting and Oblivion. In her final centuries, rumors started that she possessed a grand arsenal of forgotten Songs ~ and maybe it was so, but even Mariel would not have been able to remember what they were, that’s not the way her Word worked. Gebbeleth, on the other hand, was always good at saving the choicest morsels before the princess sealed them away for good.

## Tethers

* a forgotten diner in San Francisco is the secret tether into Gluttony’s stomach
* Haceldama (the original potter’s field)
* Limia River in Portugal
* assorted oubliettes and sites of immurement
* tethers abandoned by other superiors

## Mariel Lives!

It is always possible that Haagenti, in his haste to consume Mariel, did not actually destroy her, and that she is living whole and well *inside* of the Prince of Gluttony. This would certainly help explain why Sloth is more strongly associated with his Word than hers is.

Unfortunately, Mariel is unlikely to try to escape Haagenti because her own word is consuming her, and she wishes for its ultimate embrace. Her rites, attunements, and distinctions would still work, but she will not grant any more without a direct audience and does not respond to invocations. Anyone wishing to speak with Mariel must find a forgotten tether that lead to *inside* Haagenti’s stomach.

Most of her servitors have taken service under Haagenti, Kronos, Dumah, or Alaemon. The rest have faded into obscurity. Only a handful remain both active and loyal; their goal is to make Haagenti forget about Mariel (which they hope will free her).