Mahanehdan

### Artifacts

Stun Rod (celestial artifact, containing the Corporeal Song of Lightning/1; attuned to user)

### Skills

Detect Lies/3, Dodge/2, Escape/5 (as a preventive measure), Fighting/3, Knowledge(correctional facilities)/2, Lockpicking/3, Small Weapon (baton)/3, Running/2, Tracking/2

First off, it's not "angel of Prisons", it's "angel of Correctional Facilities".

Mahanehdan is a model cherub of Judgment, dedicated in his service to Heaven and in rooting out dissonance and discord amongst his fellow angels, no matter how much they complain about him doing it. It's for their own good, after all. If an angel is suffering from discord, isn't it a good cherub's duty to point it out so they can correct themselves? Nevertheless, what makes Mahanehdan stand out is that he has some ideas that make him even more unpopular then the usual brand of Dominican.

Basically, he wants to put a prison in Heaven.

Yes, he gets a "Are you insane?" whenever he talks about his idea. But he does have some . . . "valid" . . . arguments. For one thing, Mahanehdan points out that casting angels out doesn't solve the problem of heretical angels. In fact, it only makes them more dangerous, since they can potentially Fall and join Hell. Didn't the whole War start because Lucifer's angels got kicked out of Heaven, instead of being put away in a prison to be rehabilitated? Doesn't the old saying go "Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer" after all?

Still, Mahanehdan is aware that prisons, as a whole, are not seen as very good places. They're seen as dumping grounds for criminals of all sorts, as a place where minor crooks learn how to commit crimes from older, more experienced criminals, and where brutality, violence and corruption reigns. Mahanehdan aims to change that image by making as many earthly prisons as he can into good and just correctional facilities, where prisoners are kept from learning more criminal behavior and are instructed in how to become productive members of society. It's an uphill battle, but he feels strongly enough about doing so.

He's even established an experimental prison for celestials on Earth, in an abandonned prison ship, with the assistance of a few malakim, Soldiers, and elohim of Judgement, Lightning, and Stone, all open to his ideas. Within the prison ship (reinforced with a few experimental devices to prevent the escape of celestials) are imprisoned a few dozen celestials, both outcast angels and newly Fallen demons (and one prisoner of war). With the help of his associates, Mahanehdan has created a few "rehabilitation" techniques designed to force the prisoners to suppress their demonic tendencies and foster their angelic ones.

Cherubim and djinn, for exemple, are given small animals and are forced to attune themselves to the animal and are instructed to care for the creature. Any lack of care is punished appropriately, while privileges are given to prisoners who take great care of their attuned. Seraphim and balseraphim are given books to read and copy and are punished should the copy deviate in any way from the original, so they must truthfully retell the story. Habbalot are forced to use their resonances to induce emptiness upon one another until they Redeem, and so on. Mahanehdan hasn't come up with ways to rehabilitate calabim or lilim, but he's confident he can find something in time.

Mahanehdan's operation is highly controversial to both the War faction and the Peace faction: the former because too much time is spent working on the Fallen, and the latter because of the apparent brutality of the methods used. But he IS getting some results. Already twelve outcast angels have recanted their previous acts of defiance and gone back to their former masters and appear genuinely remorseful (if a bit shaken by their experiences) and willing to toe the line. And seven demons (three djinn, two habbalah, a balseraph and an impudite) have indeed been Redeemed through the rehabilitation process. So, he IS getting results.

Unfortunately, his very results have gathered the attentions of Lilith, the Princess of Freedom. Her very Word is anathema to prisons, good or ill, and the idea that prisons might become a Heavenly Word only, to her, reaffirms the idea that Hell must struggle for the individual freedom of everyone. She wants Mahanehdan and his little project ended, and she doesn't care how many Geasa she has to call in to get it done . . . .