History Fanfic / TheAngelOfTheOwlHouse

* SicklyChildGrewUpStrong: With the reveal that Luz was born prematurely and was dangerously stunted developmentally (according to angelic anatomy, anyway), [[spoiler: her metamorphosing into an archangel in just under three months certainly qualifies]].

* BornOfHeavenAndHell: {{Nephilim}} are said to be angel/demon hybrids, though they are considered a myth in the Divine Realm.

* BureaucraticallyArrangedMarriage: While angels are capable of falling in love, marriage is typically assigned to angels by Crest Chasity in order to control the Divine Realm's population-rate and their offspring are taken to be raised by the state. While none of this is mandatory by law, thousands of years of tradition have made family units non-existent, and those who refuse are often shamed. The whole reason Camilla moved to the Human Realm was so that she could find love and have a family without angel society breathing down her neck, as she was born to fill a specific position in Crest Kindness and didn't want to give birth to a child just so it could take her place while she became a Missionary Angel.

* TheExile: It's implied that Camila is living on Earth out of contempt for the Divine Realm's FantasticCasteSystem, particularly Crest Chastity's matchmaking. This is later confirmed, as she wanted to become a Missionary Angel, but since she was born to fill a specific position in Crest Kindness, they wanted her to give birth to a child to eventually take her place first, and she fled to Earth after she refused.

* OurAngelsAreDifferent: Angels in this AU originate from a realm called [[{{Heaven}} the Divine Realm]], separate from Earth and the Demon Realm and basked in near constant-light (so angels in the Divine Realm wear just enough to preserve their modest), which are capable of interbreeding with humans to produce hybrids like Luz, though [[DominantSpeciesGenes said hybrids are usually almost completely indistinguishable from pure-blooded angels]].
** Angel society is focused on being orderly (on a related note, [[CannotTellALie angels cannot knowingly speak a lie without it feeling like their throats are on fire]]), with angels divided into seven Crest Orders based on the SevenHeavenlyVirtues, determining their roles, with angels from each Crest tending to resemble each other strongly (it specifically being compared to a StrongFamilyResemblance, with switching being rare but possible), each Crest headed by a Seraphim.

** Rasiel was a seraphim from Crest Humility who somehow found himself imprisoned by Savage-Age witches 100,000 years in the past. Luz and Amity find the first piece -- a Crystal Ball kept in a puzzle-box, itself in an [[TempleOfDoom ancient, booby-trapped temple]] on the Knee -- and they agree to find [[DismantledMacGuffin the rest of him]] in exchange for his help in curing Eda's curse when they free him. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that he was EvilAllAlong and he was imprisoned to protect the universe from his machinations, making him a SealedEvilInACan.]]

* SevenHeavenlyVirtues: The Divine Realm is divided into a FantasticCasteSystem in the form of "Crests"; Crest Kindness (the crest Camilla and Luz belong to) are medical professionals, Crest Chastity rear children and play matchmaker for adults, Crest Charity runs the economy, Crest Diligence are law enforcement and the military, Crest Temperance are food production, Crest Patience are the courts and Crest Humility are administrators and organizers.

* SealedGoodInACan: Rasiel was a seraphim from Crest Humility who somehow found himself imprisoned by Savage-Age witches 100,000 years in the past. Luz and Amity find the first piece -- a Crystal Ball kept in a puzzle-box, itself in an [[TempleOfDoom ancient, booby-trapped temple]] on the Knee -- and they agree to find [[DismantledMacGuffin the rest of him]] in exchange for his help in curing Eda's curse when they free him.

* WhamEpisode: Chapter 37. [[spoiler:Luz and company travel to the heart of King's mother, which is in ''space'' as the Wailing Star, Luz bonds to the Earth glyph and learns the Lightning glyph, we learn that part of why Angels were often feared and hated in the Boiling Isles pre-Belos is that they were wrongly blamed for killing the Titan and his mate Cassiopeia because the Archivists somehow used Angel magic to get around how their natural magic was useless against Titans, the Black Tomb in the temple has six glyph markings like Luz's instead of his wings or memories, they learn that the last Black Tomb is in the In-Between Realm, and while Luz destroys the heart and frees her spirit, this has the side-effect of breaking the curse she placed on the Archivists, who have returned their attention to the Demon Realm...]]

* WhamEpisode: Chapter 37. [[Luz and company travel to the heart of King's mother, which is in ''space'' as the Wailing Star, Luz bonds to the Earth glyph and learns the Lightning glyph, we learn that part of why Angels were often feared and hated in the Boiling Isles pre-Belos is that they were wrongly blamed for killing the Titan and his mate Cassiopeia because the Archivists somehow used Angel magic to get around how their natural magic was useless against Titans, the Black Tomb in the temple has six glyph markings like Luz's instead of his wings or memories, they learn that the last Black Tomb is in the In-Between Realm, and while Luz destroys the heart and frees her spirit, this has the side-effect of breaking the curse she placed on the Archivists, who have returned their attention to the Demon Realm...]]

* AlbinosAreFreaks: [[spoiler:The Silver Sentinel is revealed to be an angel with an uncanny resemblance to Luz, but with white hair and red eyes. Belos claimed these were symptoms of a curse that other angels would shun her for. Since Luz has never heard of such a thing, it's likely that Belos has ulterior motives for keeping her identity hidden.]]

** [[spoiler:It's unclear if Belos has undergone an AdaptationalSpeciesChange like Luz has. He ''claims'' to be an angel (who CannotTellALie without experiencing extreme pain, though interestingly he seems unaware that angels ''can'' lie beyond using ExactWords), and has the wings to go with it, but he uses terminology different from what's used in the Divine Realm, and even claims to have once been a member if a Crest Order that doesn't exist when Luz asks to test him, making it unclear if he's just powering through the pain, believes his own lies, or is human like in canon, but has experimented on himself to make himself more like an angel. Rasiel suggests that his affliction, which isn't something that should normally be able to affect an angel, is the result of self-experimentation gone wrong. Vee's Intermission reveals that he smells of both a human and an angel to her Basilisk senses, but twisted, indicating that he's either a hybrid like Luz or a human that tried to become an angel. It's later confirmed that Philip was indeed a human like in canon.]]
** [[spoiler:In "Oracle of Angels", it's revealed that Lucy -- the Silver Sentinel and Hunter's sister (actually cousin) -- has a resemblance to Luz (with the exception of having albino features) and cherub wings, meaning that she, like Luz, is an angel of Crest Kindness. Is she an angel, or a grimwalker like Hunter? Repeat mentions of a Kindness angel named Cassiel are brought up, and the timeline could mean that she is either her daughter or a grimwalker made in her likeness. Or are they unrelated? It's eventually revealed that she's a Grimwalker of ''Luz'', made from a finger Philip severed when Luz went back in time.]]

* MayflyDecemberRomance: While witches of good health can live over 100 years, angels can live for much longer, [[spoiler:Luz's ascension into a High Angel meaning she'll live for 1,000 years at least]], so part of Luz's apprehension in dating Amity comes from this.

** Angels start as Cherubs with [[WingsDoNothing useless wings]] and limited powers, with pure-blooded angels usually growing full wings and coming into their powers around puberty, with more powerful angels gaining more wings up until Seraphim, who have eight. This is connected because Angel wings passively absorb energy from ambient sources to fuel their magical abilities, and their feathers have potent mystical properties, along with their tears, especially in regards to healing. Their power and number of wings is also tied to their lifespans, regular Angels have a lifespan of around 1000 years, High Angels about 3000 with their four wings, Arch-Angels 10,000 with their six, and Seraphim are TheAgeless. Some Seraphim can rarely go beyond eight wings to ten, upon which they gain CompleteImmortality, though there's apparently an upper limit on how many can exist.

* WhamEpisode: Chapter 37. [[Luz and company trave to the heart of King's mother, which is in ''space'' as the Wailing Star, Luz bonds to the Earth glyph and learns the Lightning glyph, we learn that part of why Angels were often feared and hated in the Boiling Isles pre-Belos is that they were wrongly blamed for killing the Titan and his mate Cassiopeia because the Archivists somehow used Angel magic to get around how their natural magic was useless against Titans, the Black Tomb in the temple has six glyph markings like Luz's instead of his wings or memories, they learn that the last Black Tomb is in the In-Between Realm, and while Luz destroys the heart and frees her spirit, this has the side-effect of breaking the curse she placed on the Archivists, who have returned their attention to the Demon Realm...]]

* HealingMagicIsTheHardest: Healing magic, while useful, has limitations that make it harder to treat certain conditions. It certainly doesn't help that because of Belos's restrictions on mixing magic, a lot of potential methods either require workarounds or are impossible under the Coven system. Even Angels, whose magic [[WhiteMagic is naturally aligned with healing and regeneration]], find it harder to heal things like missing limbs on others than on themselves.

* HealingMagicIsTheHardest: Healing magic, while useful, has limitations that make it harder to treat certain conditions. It certainly doesn't help that because of Belos's restrictions on mixing magic, a lot of potential methods either require workarounds or are impossible under the Coven system.

** [[spoiler:It's unclear if Belos has undergone an AdaptationalSpeciesChange like Luz has. He ''claims'' to be an angel (who CannotTellALie without experiencing extreme pain, though interestingly he seems unaware that angels ''can'' lie beyond using ExactWords), and has the wings to go with it, but he uses terminology different from what's used in the Divine Realm, and even claims to have once been a member if a Crest Order that doesn't exist when Luz asks to test him, making it unclear if he's just powering through the pain, believes his own lies, or is human like in canon, but has experimented on himself to make himself more like an angel. Rasiel suggests that his affliction, which isn't something that should normally be able to affect an angel, is the result of self-experimentation gone wrong. Vee's Intermission reveals that he smells of both a human and an angel to her Basilisk senses, but twisted, indicating that he's either a hybrid like Luz or a human that tried to become an angel.]]
** [[spoiler:In "Oracle of Angels", it's revealed that Lucy -- the Silver Sentinel and Hunter's sister (actually cousin) -- has a resemblance to Luz (with the exception of having albino features) and cherub wings, meaning that she, like Luz, is an angel of Crest Kindness. Is she an angel, or a grimwalker like Hunter? Repeat mentions of a Kindness angel named Cassiel are brought up, and the timeline could mean that she is either her daughter or a grimwalker made in her likeness. Or are they unrelated?]]

* AmbiguouslyHuman: [[spoiler:It's unclear if Belos has undergone an AdaptationalSpeciesChange like Luz has. He ''claims'' to be an angel (who CannotTellALie without experiencing extreme pain, though interestingly he seems unaware that angels ''can'' lie beyond using ExactWords), and has the wings to go with it, but he uses terminology different from what's used in the Divine Realm, and even claims to have once been a member if a Crest Order that doesn't exist when Luz asks to test him, making it unclear if he's just powering through the pain, believes his own lies, or is human like in canon, but has experimented on himself to make himself more like an angel. Rasiel suggests that his affliction, which isn't something that should normally be able to affect an angel, is the result of self-experimentation gone wrong. Vee's Intermission reveals that he smells of both a human and an angel to her Basilisk senses, but twisted, indicating that he's either a hybrid like Luz or a human that tried to become an angel.]]

* DivergingEvolutionaryPhases: Basilisks are unique in many ways, one of which being that they can undergo a physical change that reflects on what type of magic they typical eat. Subject Zero (the basilisk that attacked Hexside) was a Greater Basilisk, a species that comes about from eating various different types of magic throughout its lifetime. Vee winds up becoming a Quetzalcoatl Basilisk after eating enough angelic magic through Luz and Camilla's angelic blessings.