Archangels

This article, **Archangels**, contains information that is far beyond the reach of any mortal in Esria. Most characters simply do not know these truths.

**Archangels** were the highest order of celestial beings in existence, responsible for the creation of Esria and the entire World as a result. In an age before time, they came to found the Kingdom of Heaven in the highest plane of the world, within which they created a powerful link to the mortal world they had brought into existence during the creation event known as the Resonance.

There were five Archangels in all, each equally responsible for the creation of the World and all life within it. After the fall of Netheriel, however, and his subsequent exile from the Heavens, only four would ever come to be known in the writings of mortals such as the Old Tome and the Book of Vadym.

## The Five Archangels

### Aethidus

According to Adenist teachings, Aethidus, the Archangel of Life, maintained the cycle of life itself on Esria. He was responsible for all mortal souls being born into the world and also those being taken from it, and was said to deliver departing souls himself, guiding the way into the paradisical Kingdom of Heaven for those that had lived good lives. Those who had strayed from the path of the righteous in the eyes of the Church of the Heavens were unable to enter, instead falling towards the eternal punishment of Hell itself.

In truth, Aethidus was far removed from the Adenist writings that claimed to tell his story. Only in the earliest years after Esria's creation was he greatly enamoured with the world that he and his kin had brought to life, a period during which he spent much time observing its endlessly rewarding nature. When strife first came to plague it, he stood alongside Israphel and worked tirelessly to maintain balance however he could. As the centuries passed, he would come to grow tired of it.

While Israphel was the first of the Archangels to raise a servant from the mortal world, Aethidus was responsible for the inception of both Angels and Seraphs. His were the very first of their kind, and their existences directly inspired the other Archangels to create their own.

By the time that Aden, the first Everchosen, came to walk in the Heavens, Aethidus had adopted Netheriel's responsibilities and introduced himself as the Archangel of both Life and Death. As such, the Old Tome depicted him as shouldering the greatest burden of all Archangels.

### Netheriel

See the page for the Archangel Netheriel.

## Adenism and the Archangels

### Different Truths

Although the word of Aden himself was directly recounted from his experience walking the Heavens in the company of the Archangels and their servants, the religions that worshipped the Archangels on Esria did not accurately understand nor represent correctly the true nature of the celestial beings who ruled over them.

Once he had told all that he had seen, Aden returned to the Heavens for good. In his absence, Adenist teachings and scriptures were interpreted in many different ways as they were reproduced, and over time they grew further and further from the reality of Heaven.

Further exacerbating the problem, as religious organisations such as the Church of the Heavens became more powerful and vastly influential throughout the Era of Harvest, as well as growing increasingly decentralised, they began to use the power of the Old Tome to influence matters to their liking. The growing spread of Adenism did serve to strengthen the actual aetherial link between Heaven and Esria, but dangerously enough it also served to further the corruption of the words that Aden himself had originally spoken.

### The Old Tome

According to the Old Tome and the word of Aden within, there were only four Archangels that reigned in Heaven. They were depicted as guardians of the mortal world and all-powerful beings that, although kind and merciful, were not above punishment for sins too great to disregard.

Depictions of each Archangel and their servants differed greatly during the early years of the Era of Harvest, but over time the Church of the Heavens came to adopt commonly accepted images and stories into their canon. Tales of benevolence and just punishment were added into the Old Tome, and the Archangels became immortalised as divine protectors that saw intensely devoted worship across all of Esria, even as their love for the world they had created was in actuality growing thin.

The existence of the Archangel Netheriel, sentenced to exile and fallen from grace long before the foundation of the Church, was a secret that would not come to light until the events of the Heartstone Crisis.