Cassiel

Cassiel was once the head of the elohim of Water. Though high in rank, the position received very little recognition. Oannes did not want pride to tempt his senior servitors into following the path of Vephar. As an eloah, Cassiel could comprehend the compassion and grief behind his mentor’s choice and never once begrudged the older angel his mourning.

When Belial slaughtered Oannes, the malakim of Water were quick to join David, Gabriel, Michael, Laurence, or anyone else who they felt would give them a shot at retribution. Many of his other servitors also quickly found new homes among the archangel’s allies. When it came time for the Seraphim Council to appoint a new guardian of the Earth’s waters, the only angel of sufficient seniority who remained was Cassiel, who had been leading the heavenly lament for his old master.

Cassiel quietly made a home for Oannes‘s servitors who could find no other, then turned to Marc and Janus for help in managing his former Superior’s domain. With these alliances secure, Cassiel accepted a role as an observer, taking few direct actions on the corporeal plane. Instead, his focus has been on the curative properties of sorrow and temperance (especially among the heavenly host).

Although an eloah by nature, Cassiel often comes across as a mercurian. He understands social dynamics especially well and is surprisingly emotional for one of his choir. However, he does not allow this emotion to cloud his judgment, and as such his tone rings as true today as it did when Oannes first formed him from the stuff of Heaven.

## Dissonance

Cassiel is noted for his tolerance. His servitors gain dissonance whenever they hold someone’s past deeds or actions against them. This puts the Lamentations in a delicate position when dealing with demons, but they must still extend their opposite numbers the benefit of the doubt.

## Choir Attunements

Cassiel’s forgiveness flows from him like a balm to the soul. Any angel possessing one of his Choir Attunements is treated as if they had one less dissonance when determining whether or not an action will cause them to Fall. This does not reduce any of the other penalties of dissonance.

### Seraph

The seraphim of Tears are Heaven’s alchemists. They may add their Ethereal Forces to their Chemistry skill.

### Cherub

With a touch these angels may absorb the brunt of another’s emotions. Sorrow will still be sorrow, anger will still be anger, but any mechanical effects (like those from a celestial discord or habbalic resonance) will now impact the angel. If a Will roll can resist the effect, the angel may attempt that roll even if the original target had already failed it.

### Ofan

Cassiel’s Wheels can always find someone in need of comfort. Generally speaking, they follow their feet, but if someone specific is in mind they can use their resonance.

### Eloah

These elohim can tell at a glance what someone’s greatest regret is.

### Malak

These Virtues cannot be blinded. Attacks against their eyes will automatically fail and even in the darkest black or thickest fog their sight is unencumbered. By touching a mortal on the eyes, they may share this blessing with them until the start of the next day.

#### Sample Oaths

* I shall take time to mourn the fallen
* I will never act out of anger or ignorance
* I will always consider the good along with the bad
* I will turn the other cheek unless others would come to harm by it
* I will not blindly trust any celestial; I have eyes and reason of my own
* I will strike only to defend my charges or in response to another’s violence

### Kuriotes (restricted)

These Dominations may possess precipitation, generally allowing them to move around freely through rain, fog, sleet, hail, and snow without risking the madness of their observers. However, unless the angel is powerful enough to possess an entire cloud, they will be ejected from their host(s) once the particular whether event comes to an end.

### Mercurian

The mercurians of Tears have a sixth sense that lets them know when they are about to wear out their welcome.

### Grigori

The Watchers were exiled before Cassiel rose to power. Should he accept one of them as his own, he would likely extend Oannes’s old attunement.

### Bright Lilu

If Cassiel takes on any Gifters, they would be able to automatically detect if someone needs solace.

## Servitor Attunements

### Abstention

Angels with this attunement may turn down any offer of food, drink, drugs, or sex. No Will roll is ever required. In the case of Gluttony, Lust, or Need it does not negate the discord, but it does mean that the angel can satisfy it on their own terms.

### Solace

This angel may guide others to a moment of catharsis. When these angels spend an hour in conversation with a mortal who is out of Essence, they restore one point of Essence to that mortal by bringing them to tears (maximum 1 per person per day).

### Temperance

Laurence, archangel of the Sword, mistrusts Cassiel but cannot deny the quality of his smiths. Cassiel produces some of Heaven’s best metallurgists. Weapons that they forge have a number of additional hits equal to the angel’s Corporeal Forces.

## Distinctions

### Vassal of Tears

By kissing someone upon the eyes, this angel gives them the opportunity to retry a failed Will roll. While the angel cannot assist that role directly, they can transfer Essence just before the roll is attempted.

### Friend of Temperance

The friends of empathy understand darkness as well as light. They are treated as if their dissonance were three ranks lower (not one) when resisting a Fall. If you are using the perverted resonance rules, these angels may choose to gain discord rather than permanent dissonance. Once the choice is made it cannot be reversed.

### Master of Empathy

Whenever one of these angels goes a week without gaining dissonance, they lose one point of dissonance as if they had spent the week at a tether.

## Relations

**Allies:** Janus, Marc

**Associated:** Blandine, Novalis

**Hostile:** Dominic, Gabriel, possibly Laurence

**Enemies:** Uriel

## Basic Rites

* Cry for an hour
* Attend a wake or funeral
* Stand in the rain for two hours

## Invocation

**Chance of Invocation:** 2

**+1** a crying child

**+2** tears of joy

**+3** a sunshower

**+4** a mournful wake

**+5** tears of a saint

**+6** the Mirror to the Sky in Bolivia

## Tethers

* the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
* the city of Karbala in Iraq
* Lazarus’s tomb in Bethany (where Jesus wept)
* various saltwater springs (such as “the Sea of Erechtheus” in the Acropolis)
* mirror lakes (like the one in Bolivia)
* a slew of temporary tethers that crop up during funerals, wakes, and other spontaneous laments (especially after the death of a world leader or major religious figure)
* the lab where Marie Curie worked
* a traveling tether tied to sunshowers.