Fallen Angel

### Summary

Former angels who are banished from Heaven for their crimes of breaking the orders of God.

**Fallen Angels** are former angels who were banished from Heaven and the main inhabitants of Purgatory. Alongside the angels and devils, they form the Three Factions of the Abrahamic pantheon.

## Overview

In Abrahamic religions, **fallen angels** are angels who were expelled from heaven. The literal term "fallen angel" appears neither in the Bible nor in other Abrahamic scriptures, but is used to describe angels cast out of heaven or angels who sinned. Such angels often tempt humans to sin.

The idea of fallen angels derived from the Book of Enoch, a Jewish pseudepigrapha, or the assumption that the "sons of God" mentioned in Genesis 6:1–4 are angels. In such accounts, God sends the Great Deluge to purge the world of these creatures; their bodies are destroyed, yet their peculiar souls survive, henceforth roaming the earth as demons.

Christian theology indicates the sins of fallen angels occur before the beginning of human history. Accordingly, fallen angels became identified with those led by Satan in rebellion against God, also equated with demons.

Academic scholars have discussed whether or not the Quranic jinn are identical to the Biblical fallen angels. Although the different types of spirits in the Quran are sometimes hard to distinguish, the jinn in Islamic traditions seem to differ in their major characteristics from fallen angels.

## Appearance

Fallen angels appear as people of unnatural beauty and attractiveness, capable of inducing intense lust and sexual desires in anyone and everyone regardless of their own sexual orientation and established relationships. Their voice is said to be tempting and seductive, like the dark whispers in the back of one's mind.

However, they entirely lack the unrealistic beauty that their angelic brethren possess, having a beauty much more possible and comprehensible. To many, comparing a fallen angel with how they were as an angel is like comparing a flawless masterpiece of a portrait to the flawless beauty who acted as the model - Similar, but different on entirely different levels.

Their wings are very much the same as their former angelic version, though all of their wings are now a jet-black color instead of the numerous colorful variations they had as an angel, and their eyes are much more melancholic than authoritative. They lost their halo, or if not, shards of their former halo laid broken around their head like a corrupted version of an aureola. Their angelic power also became mutated, much more twisted and deformed, and reminiscent of a demon's demonic power but much less intense.

### True Appearance

Even after their banishment, they still retain their true form as an angel, albeit a twisted version of it due to their crimes. In place of gold is now a strange dark-colored metal, and instead of wings of gold and silver, theirs are the color of a never-ending darkness. Their true form is also said to be smaller than the angel's due to the unbalanced power between the two species, even if the latter used to be parts of the former, and appear to be not as insanity-inducing as the angels'.

## Characteristics

Fallen angels are generally believed to be the corrupted and tempting version of the angels who were banished from Heaven for disobeying the commands of God by constantly/repeatedly breaking the Enochian laws. Despite this, like demons, they still follow the heavenly duties given to them by God to maintain the balance and order of Creation, though they are still generally more efficient than their demonic counterparts. According to Raziel, most fallen angels are *tsundere* when it comes to their relationship with Heaven.

They are much closer to humanity than their angelic counterparts, to the point where most of the supernatural world acknowledge that the fallen angels are secret protectors of mankind. In antediluvian times, many angels were banished and became fallen angels when they broke Enochian laws to teach them valuable, and typically forbidden, knowledge that helped them reach immense advancements.

However, despite their love for mankind, all fallen angels are adamant about making humans stronger by their own will through trials and hardships, such as monsters or natural disasters. They are also tasked by God to tempt men with power and authority to see if humans were mentally strong enough to resist temptation, though Azazel claimed he perfectly remembers the names of all people who resisted and there aren't enough to fill out a 200-page notebook.

One of their most known characteristics is their hedonistic lifestyle, enjoying the company of multiple lovers of all genders. In the Bible, they are said to have descended from Heaven to "tempt the daughters of men" and sired half-angel hybrids known as Nephilim who wreak havoc across the antediluvian world. Even in modern times, a large portion of their population consists of the artificial half-fallen angel hybrids created by them to be them and their lovers' children, as the chances for genuine half-fallen angel hybrids are infinitesimally small.

They are known to be masters of deception and are rumored to have taught faeries how to bend around their rules and how to tell half-truths. They are adept at using a person's own inclinations against them in order to make choices that they wouldn't make otherwise. They know how to add enough anger, self-recrimination, guilt and despair into the mix, effectively taking one's free choice away from them in an insidious way.

While they are prideful and arrogant, they aren't on the same levels as their angelic or demonic brethren and know when they should be humble and honorable. They are extremely cunning, having thousands of centuries worth of experience of manipulating people and pulling strings behind the curtains, and know how to most effectively use every resource they have on heart to gain what they want. They have no problems committing heinous acts in the name of peace and order, and have no shame in fighting dirty and unhonorable.

## Types of Fallen Angels

* **Pure Fallen Angels** (純粋な堕天使, *Junsuina Datenshi*): The fallen angels who were banished from Heaven due to them breaking the Enochian laws set down by God and the Heavenly Council multiple times, and were thus considered flaws among the remaining perfect angels. They make up over 65% of the fallen angel population.
	+ **Cadres** (カドレ, *Kadore*): The leaders of the fallen angels who are noted for their power. They were once high-ranked angels within the first order, holding positions of [Seraph], [Cherub], and [Throne], and possess multiple pairs of dark feathered wings. They are noted to be extremely powerful and proficient in their angelic abilities, and many were once parts of Samael's guards during the Celestial War before the Celestial Prince's imprisonment.
* **Half-Fallen Angels** (半堕天使, *Han Datenshi*): Artificial half-fallen angel beings created by the fallen angels to be the offspring between them and their lover. Due to the already low population of pure fallen angels, hundreds of thousands of half-fallen angels were created during the Great War to serve as the Grigori's servants and foot soldiers, and this tradition still continue to this day, though several cadres have displayed disapproval of this methods as they consider it "inhuman" and "humiliating".
* **Reincarnated Fallen Angels** (転生堕天使, *Tensei Datenshi*): The reincarnated angels who became fallen angels due to flaws within their reincarnation systems. They consisted of a very small part of the fallen angel population, barely even 5% of the fallen angels, and consisted mostly of failed lesser angels and Brave Saints who fell because of a "bug" within the Brave Saint system.

## Weaknesses

### Harming

* **Witchcraft**: Due to its nature as a bastardization of the demons' infernal magic, witchcraft holds the power to oppose all those of celestial origins, such as angels and fallen angels. There are many witchery spells and rituals that can be used to trap and weaken fallen angels, with some even capable of banishing them back to Purgatory for an extended amount of time.
* **Enochian Magick**: As the original and most powerful kind of Ancient Magicks, Enochian Magick is capable of a variety of powerful and primordial phenomena and can affect all those of celestial origins, regardless of their alignments. However, depending on the amount of angelic power a fallen angel possesses, the effects of Enochian Magick has upon them may differ, as the greater the amount of one's angelic power, the less effective it will be upon them, and vice versa.
* **Celestial Metals**: Weapons made out of sacred metals can be used against the majority of supernatural beings, fallen angels included. However, the amount of damage that can be caused by regular weapons on them is usually little to none.
	+ **Divine Weapons**: The celestial weapons of the gods, imbued with their users' divine power and made out of the highest-quality celestial metals, can be used to cause semi-serious damage onto fallen angels, even possibly killing low-ranked fallen angels or half-fallen angels. The gods' Symbols of Power are the only known weapons capable of inflicting serious injuries on higher-ranked fallen angels.

### Killing

* **Enochian Weapons**: Like all beings in existence, fallen angels can be killed with special heavenly weapons made out of divine metals.
	+ **Angel Blade**: All fallen angels can be killed with an angel blade with their true angelic name engraved upon the blade with human blood and in Enochian hieroglyphs.
	+ **Original Longinus**: As the original 13 Longinus are exceptionally powerful Sacred Gears crafted from the most powerful divine metals and are imbued with immense power by the Biblical God, those with enough power and experience can use their Longinus to kill all immortal beings such as the fallen angels.
* **Faustian Weapons**: Like all beings in existence, fallen angels can be killed with special infernal weapons made out of divine metals.
* **Primordial Regalia**: Weapons and artifacts belonging to the primordial entities can be used to permanently and absolutely destroy every and any being in existence, aside from other primordial entities, and erase their existence completely so that they can never be reborn or resurrected without the involvement of God.

## Death

When a fallen angel's physical form is destroyed and they are "killed", their soul will be instantaneously transferred to the Empty, where they will sleep for possibly millions of years until their body can be reformed, either on their own or by God's will. However, when a fallen angel is resurrected, they will return to their original state as a pure angel, with their entire memory, experience and personality wiped and they will return to "factory's settings", completely lacking any of their own free will.

In addition to that, whenever a fallen angel is killed with an Enochian or a Faustian weapon, their physical body will instantaneously incinerate itself and leave behind a burnt imprint of their wings on the surface where their body lies.

## Population

The fallen angels' population consists of the angels' exiles, criminals and rebels who broke the Enochian laws set down by God and the Heavenly Council through means such as stealing Heaven's knowledge and teaching them to humans, or tempting humans and siring the Nephilim with them. Their number also consists of the artificial children between the fallen angels and their lovers, who were created through a thaumaturgical process similar but superior to the process to create artificial humans.

During the Great War, the fallen angels suffered the greatest number, in addition to already being the smallest faction within the Three Factions, excluding the demons. Their leaders themselves also don't have any intention of trying to continue the existence of the fallen angels as a race, as they opted not to make a reincarnation system like the devils' Evil Pieces or the angels' Brave Saints, despite being capable of doing so.

According to Azazel, the fallen angels can end with him and the Grigori, though they would gladly accept any new fallen angel that Heaven banished, as shown with the reincarnated fallen angels who joined the Grigori following the official signing of the Kuoh Treaty.

## Factions

### Grigori

**Grigori** (グリゴリ, *Gurigori*) is an organization founded by Samael and the fallen angels who fought alongside him in the Celestial War. In addition to the original fallen angels, they also includes Sacred Gear users, stray exorcists and magicians, and human scientists who work in the various Grigori-owned facilities across the mortal world, After the Great War, the organization became more peaceful and try to avoid conflicts as much as possible and became invested in maintaining the peace between the various supernatural factions.

## Trivia

* The term "fallen angel" does not actually appear in the Bible.
* They are the inspirations behind many myths and legends and the basis for many pagan gods.
	+ Many of them are even worshipped as pagan gods of old.
* Depending on their rankings, a fallen angel may still keep most of their rank's unique power when they were banished.
* They have started going into the entertainment industry in the Netherworld, where they have started to make vacation homes for powerful allies like Odin and the Four Great Satans.
* The Cadres all are quite taken with the game *mahjong* to the point they created a competition many years back called the "Leader of Fallen Angel Mahjong Competition", which currently has had a total of 316 competitions.