In Nomine / Characters

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Heaven

God

The God of Abraham, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, who created the angels and humanity and all things in nature. He hasn't spoken directly to His creations ever since the Fall.

God: He is the Abrahamic God — and also the deity of other monotheistic faiths, such as the Zoroastrian supreme deity Ahura Mazda — the creator of Heaven and Earth, the omnipotent source of everything that exists.
God Is Good: Ineffable and mysterious as His plans might be, it's taken as a given by angels, blessed souls and most game supplements that God is good and loving. It's particularly notable here that Yves, an archangel often treated as either the most closely connected angel to the divine or a direct manifestation of God, is genuinely the nicest, kindest being in Heaven.
Greater-Scope Paragon: He's the most powerful and ultimate force of Goodness in the setting. He also hasn't been uncontroversially encountered for millennia, and his help towards stopping the marauding hordes of Hell is patchy at best. While most angels have faith, doubt has started to creep in even among the faithful.
Have You Seen My God?: God Himself hasn't directly communicated with anyone — at least, that anyone knows about (barring two messages breaking up the trials of different Archangels) — since the Rebellion. However, it's almost certain that Gabriel's occasional moments of prophecy are communications directly from God, and it's also hinted that Archangel Yves is the spokesangel for God, replacing the Metatron, whom Lucifer killed as his first act of rebellion. Yves, however, refuses to confirm or deny. That's ineffability for you. There's also speculation that either Yves or Eli is God. Regardless, the game material suggests that God not show up in your campaign.
In Mysterious Ways: Nobody — not the angels, not anybody else — truly understands God's plans and ways. There are certainly reasons to think that God continues to interact with the world, but His ultimate aims and His methods to achieve them are poorly-understood mystery that the angels can do little more that fret over.

Archangels

Anthropomorphic Personification: Each Archangel embodies part of the symphony, and has their nature, power and worldview heavily flavoured by their Word. They can bestow this to favoured servants with the council's permission, making them personifications of some aspect of their Word.
Celestial Paragons and Archangels: The Archangels are the leaders of Heaven's forces, each charged with overseeing a part of the celestial Symphony. While their goals are usually good ones, and they're a fair sight better than what their counterparts downstairs would like to see achieved, they also tend to follow priorities, concerns and guidelines often rather distant from human morality, and can come across as anything from manic and unreliable to inflexibly dogmatic. A few were the first beings that God created to aid in the shaping of the world, and are among the oldest beings in creation; as the War as gone on, others have since been raised to the position from the ranks of common angels, including some only "born" long after the original Fall.
Council of Angels: Deconstructed. The Seraphim Council fits this trope — and has all the politicking, factionalism and power plays you'd expect from any other major bureaucratic body.
Greater-Scope Paragon: The distant forces of cosmic goodness behind the angels acting to protect and improve the earth. Generally, they're operating on a bigger scale, and it's your job to make the world a better place (or worse, if you're on the other side).
Holy Is Not Safe: The Archangels are major forces of holiness and goodness. However, they're also immensely powerful, archetypal beings working on incomprehensible scales and timeframes. Even the nicer ones are still extremely dangerous if given a reason, and the less nice ones can border on apocalyptic in their manifestations. Angels might not fear their bosses in the same way demons do, but they still know to tread lightly around them.
Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: At least to some extent. They try to keep a united front, but each one has a very different view on the correct way to deal with Hell and win the war. Depending on the campaign this can be anywhere from "a minor annoyance" to "utterly crippling Heaven's efforts".
Time Abyss: While a few younger archangels have risen in historic times, the majority of Heaven's powers were alive and in their current positions during the Fall 20,000 years ago. The eldest of their number, such as Michael, Gabriel, David and Blandine, were part of God's original round of creation and are among the oldest things in existence anywhere.

Blandine, Archangel of Dreams

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_blandine.jpg

The world is a dream, nothing more.

A Cherub and the ruler of Heaven's side of the Marches, Blandine has little time for the political games of her fellow archangels, and mainly concerns herself with protecting the dreams of humanity from the depredations of her enemy and former lover Beleth.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: Hope and Prophecy provides a few alternate views of her character, according to which she may be a nauseatingly saccharine Pollyanna, a recluse whose isolation from reality borders on senility, or a tyrant who rules over the Marches with an iron fist.
Arch-Enemy: Blandine's primary enemy and opposite is Beleth, the Princess of Nightmares and her former lover. They fight a constant battle over the minds and dreams of mortals, and have ever since Beleth betrayed her lover during the Fall.
Beware the Nice Ones: She's one of the kindest, most gentle archangels, and a staunch member of the Peace Faction. She's also one of the eldest and mightiest Cherubim in existence and, like all her choir, is unrelenting in protecting that which is under her guard — which, in her case, happens to be the dreams and hopes of all humanity.
Dare to Be Badass: As well as protecting dreams, she considers a large part of her role to be inspiring people to actually act on their dreams. She can ensure people have a vision of a brighter world, but only they can make it real.
Dreams vs. Nightmares: Blandine and her angelic servitors send pleasant dreams to inspire hope and ease stress, thus encouraging people to act in a positive manner, and oppose the nightmares, stress and despair sent by Beleth and her demons.
Dream Weaver: Blandine's servants gain a number of abilities related to tweaking dreams, soothing nightmares, merging dreamscapes or making dreamers lucid.
The Eeyore: She's not obvious about it, but she's clearly filled with despair and weariness even at a casual glance.
Fairytale Motifs: She's strongly associated with fairytales and fantasy imagery, being a magical princess isolated in an enchanted dream castle. This is leaned into more heavily with a parodic account, where she's a literal fairy godmother, or a darker account, where she's covering up her overwhelming grief with false light.
Hero of Another Story: Blandine and her angels play a very important role in safeguarding humanity's mental well-being and preventing the demons from overrunning the Marches, but their interactions with the material world are minimal at best. In stories not focusing on the Marches, they're largely assumed to be holding Heaven's flank off-screen.
Hope Bringer: Her role in the Symphony — she ensures that humanity always has dreams of a better day, and works towards them, in contrast to Beleth's role of Hope Crusher.
Hope Springs Eternal: No matter how unrealistic it is, no matter how much blood and horror there is and how much more cynical angels scoff, Blandine still keeps faith that one day all the fallen — including her beloved Beleth — will rejoin the Heavenly fold once more.
Intrigued by Humanity: While all angels hold that Humanity Is Special in a kind of abstract sense, Blandine is the angel that is closest to humanity, spending most of her time literally seeing into their souls. She's one of the few archangels to genuinely care about individual humans rather then Humanity, and basically the only one to treat us as equals.
I Work Alone: Blandine has been isolating herself from other angels, even her own servitors, for a very long time. Even with those few people she talks to, she tends to be polite but detached.
Mood-Swinger: While more subtle than most examples given her reserved demeanour, she's still notable for an emotional state swinging between Pollyanna optimism to utter despair with little warning.
My Greatest Failure: 20,000 years later she still hasn't got over Beleth's betrayal. More recently, failing to stop Uriel's crusade has also been weighing on her both emotionally and practically.
Proper Lady: While she takes on many different forms, all are regal, beautiful women of some variety, and even in less human forms she keeps up the demeanour.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: She has no interest in Heaven's politics, bureaucracy and rules, dedicating herself to protecting the Marches no matter what they say. To be fair, Heaven's politics mostly leave her alone too, content to leave her to her job.
Silk Hiding Steel: She's an elegant, aristocratic Princess Classic. She's also been protecting humanity's dreams for millennia, and people only mistake her kindness for softness once.
The Shrink: One of her less well known roles, but its in her realm that insane angels are treated. Some theorise Uriel is still in her asylum, with the story of him ascending to the Higher Heavens being a fabrication.

Christopher, Archangel of Children

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_christopher.jpg

The world is a child, clumsily growing. Treat it well and tomorrow will be a better day for all.

A Cherub, Christopher is charged with protecting humans during the time when they are their most vulnerable and impressionable — their youth. In addition to safeguarding children, a role that he takes very seriously, Christopher also works to foster the best qualities of youth in all of mankind, and to inspire parental feelings in those who are already grown.

Arch-Enemy: One-sided. Christopher hates Kobal more than any other demon because Kobal's idea of a comedic magnum opus was the Children's Crusade. Kobal, for his part, just thinks Christopher needs to lighten up.
Friend to All Children: Christopher has it in his job description — he's there to protect and nurture all children on Earth.
Lies to Children: Intrestingly enough, defied — doing this causes dissonance to his servitors. They must plainly tell children anything they have to tell them.

David, Archangel of Stone

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_david.jpg

The world is a strong and hard. Be stronger, be harder.

Once a mighty Cherub who shaped the stony body of the physical world, David joined the Malakim in the wake of the Fall. He rules over the hard earth beneath mortal feet, and charges his followers with embodying its strength and purity.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: War and Honor provides a few alternate views of his character, according to which he may be a kind-hearted patron of communities or a slow-minded clod with granite between his ears.
Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Fitting his preferred approach to combat — reactive and often slow, but overwhelmingly powerful once brought to bear — David favors the use of a great two-handed warhammer.
Close-Range Combatant: David and his followers make it a point of honor to only ever fight with melee weapons or their own two fists, and never use ranged weapons like bows, throwing knives or guns.
Dishing Out Dirt: David's servants gain various abilities pertaining to controlling, manipulating, or gaining knowledge of or through all mineral substances, such as stone, metal, gems, and sand. This covers modified forms of these things, such as glass and asphalt, but doesn't extend to soil, especially when it's host to living material such as grass or fungus. David's Cherubim, for instance, can pull mineral objects into their hands from a distance, while his Kyriotates can shape vessels out of stone instead of having to possess a human or animal.
Dumb Muscle: Well, by archangel standards at least. Stone isn't exactly a concept known for quick thinking or complex meditations, and he's mentioned as being one of the few Superiors that's relatively easy to outwit. Still, an avalanche doesn't care if you outwit it, and in most cases David is more than strong enough to punch through clever plans.
"Asmodeus spins Gordian knots of intrigue, well beyond my ability to unravel. I do not bother unraveling them. My hands can tear the strongest knot."
Elemental Personalities: As the Archangel of Stone, he's stern, unyielding, and greatly concerned with duty and justice. His Word symbolizes a resilient, reactive form of strength; his servants are charged with never starting fights, teach mortals how to endure times of hardship, and usually restore essence through Rites involving long periods of quiet prayer or contemplation.
Good Is Not Nice: David is fundamentally devoted to serving God's plan, defeating the demons, and helping mortals grow into their best selves and purge their vices. He can however be extremely brutal in how he does this, has very little mercy for those who fall short of his standards, and is willing to support some very distasteful organizations to achieve his aims.
Martial Pacifist: David refuses to strike the first blow as a matter of principle, and his angels follow his example. When he strikes the second blow, there's no third; he is one of the mightiest warriors of the Host, and nearly as formidable as Michael. For this reason, he considers Novalis to be something of a Worthy Opponent, though he has less respect for her angels. While he disagrees with her and thinks that it's time to stop beating around the bush, the Angel of Stone understands that her pacifism does not mean she's weak by a long shot.
Scary Black Man: David's human shape is normally a big, black guy. He's one of Heaven's strongest warrior angels and extremely lethal to any demon who attacks him.
Sink or Swim Mentor: David and his servitors tend to take this approach in their attempts to make others stronger. Mainly, they subject them to tribulations meant to bring out their true selves — if you endure them and come out as a better person, good; if you can't and the trials break or overwhelm you, well, tough.
Taken for Granite: Some of his angels can temporarily convert their enemies into stone. The unfortunate victim remains aware but unable to do anything until it wears off, which for weaker foes can take awhile.
Totalitarian Utilitarian: David has sworn an oath never to be cowardly in decision making, which here means letting morals get in the way of what must be done. If the way to protect Heaven involves sacrificing leagues of angels and thousands of humans? He does it, and neither hides, apologies or grieves for it. He'd border on The Unfettered if not for his oaths.
The Omnipresent: In the corporeal realm at least. It's mentioned this is one of the reasons he's among the most feared of the Archangels to demons. Other words have areas where they don't reach or that are antithetical to them, but if you piss off the servitors of David — where can you hide from the ground?
Unreliable Illustrator: In his full write-up, it's stated that he primarily manifests as a black man, having kept the same vessel since humanity's origins in Africa. In illustrations, he's usually depicted as white and blonde. This can be handwaved as he does temporarily alter his vessel's race based on the environment but still, it's a bit odd.

Dominic, Archangel of Judgement

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_dominic.jpg

The world is ruled by order. Without law, all is cacophony and madness.

A Seraph and Heaven's inquisitor, Dominic seeks to ensure that Heaven remains pure and untainted. His endless crusade has won him few friends and many enemies, and earned him the title of the Hyena of Heaven. In celestial form, Dominic is always covered by heavy robes, showing nothing but many eyes gleaming from the shadows of his hood; in corporeal form, he manifests equally often as a man (Dominic) as he does as a woman (Dominique). One of the few archangels to openly support a mortal religion, Dominic wishes for all mortals to be united under the Roman Catholic Church.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: War and Honor provides a few alternate views of his character, according to which he may be an ineffectual nanny, an uncompromising tyrant, an outright Balseraph in disguise, or the smartest, most clear-eyed person in Heaven.
Black-and-White Insanity: Dominic has a habit of seeing the world in extremely stark moral absolutes, with no room for ambiguity, shades of gray, or subjectivity. As far as he's concerned, everything can be sharply separated between Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, True and False, Dominic's side and the wrong side. He is essentially to Seraphim what Seraphim are to everyone else.
Black Cloak: Dominic is well known for wearing a black cloak that conceals all of his body save his glowing eyes and even blocks perceptive supernatural powers directed at him. Whether he's a Knight Templar, a genuine good guy with a really hard job (he's the Archangel of Judgment, responsible for keeping the angelic host free of corruption) or secretly outright evil is up to the individual GM.
Enemy Mine: Normally, an Archangel and his Evil Counterpart are Arch-Enemies, but this is not the case for Dominic and Asmodeus. They instead have a secret alliance across battle lines for the purpose of dealing with serious problems — just hunting Outcasts and Renegades won't cut it, but serious issues — large groups of Outcasts or Renegades, rogue Superiors, potential emergences of the Grigori, large plots by pagan gods — can see Dominic's angels and Asmodeus' demons assigned to cooperate.
Flying Weapon: Heavenly Judgement, one of Dominic's Servitor Attunements in Superiors I: War & Honor, creates a luminous sword that attacks serious criminals.
Freudian Excuse: Once, before the War in Heaven, Dominic was a mere word-bound angel and essentially little more than a glorified guidance counselor — since no angel back then wished to defy God's will, all transgressions were done by accident and needed nothing more than a gentle reminder to be corrected. It was a simple job, and Dominic was innocent and trusting. Lucifer's rebellion shattered his world, and he lost many of his oldest and closest friends to Hell — chief among them his most trusted aide, the Cherub Asmodeus. Beyond all this, Dominic was also left deeply shaken by the fact that he himself nearly succumbed to Lucifer's temptations; he concluded that, if even the Angel of Judgement could be nearly swayed into damnation, then nobody can truly be above temptation, and to this day remains unable to truly trust anybody.
Good Is Not Nice: Perhaps the most extreme example in a Heaven full of them. Even his begrudging allies have to admit Dominic is a complete and utter bastard, totally merciless in purging Heaven of any sign of dissonance. It reaches the point that many angels are now doubting the "good" part — many consider his ruthless punishment of every minor weakness a threat to Heaven, and a few have started theorising he's outright fallen under the black cloak.
Hated by All: Based on his superior opinions, nobody likes Dominic — David, Jean and Laurence accept his necessity, but even they don't like him, while his servitors respect him in more of a fearful way then a loving one. Ironically, the entity with the nicest things to say about him is his Archenemy Asmodeus.
Hand Signals: In Superiors I: War and Honor, Dominic's angels can communicate with each other using finger/hand codes.
Heinous Hyena: Dominic's tendency to endlessly patrol Heaven for impurity and mercilessly pounce on any weakness has led other angels, especially Michael, to scornfully call him the Hyena of Heaven.
Heroes Prefer Swords: If they feel confident, a Servitor of Dominic can try to insta-trial an opponent for execution. If they succeed, they get to rent his (rather nice) sword for summary punishment.
Internal Affairs: Dominic's angels serve this role for the forces of Heaven, policing them for discordant or likely-to-fall angels. Like most fictional IA officers, this means they're also seen as overstarched pokerspines most of the time.
In the Hood: In celestial form, his face is always covered by a deep hood, from whose shadows many eyes gaze out at the world.
Meaningful Name: "Dominic" comes from the Latin name "Dominicus", which depending on context can mean "Lordly", "of God", or "of the Master". All fitting names from the most imperious of the Archangels, and one of the most devoted to preserving the purity of Heaven and of God's law.
Mercy Kill: Dominic deeply and genuinely believes that Falling is the worst thing that can happen to an angel — more than merely switching sides, it is a fundamental perversion of one's nature, dooming the former angel to ages of service to evil and to working against everything that they stood for and believed. As such, he considers sentencing Discord-riddled angels to death to be an act of mercy, since it gives a clean end to those who would otherwise Fall — die they may, but at least they die as angels and with their suffering cut short.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Dominic has an interesting relationship with this trope. On the one hand, he normally has very little patience for those who go against Heaven and Judgement's rules. On the other hand, he cares far more about justice than he does about law; his followers are to respect mortal laws insofar as they are morally correct and can and should ignore them if they cease to be so, and Dominic hates it when his angels try to hide behind legalisms and loopholes. Even in Heaven, of the few ways to dodge his harsher judgements is to provide a strong justification for why whatever landed you under his eye was the morally correct course of action.
Sour Outside, Sad Inside: While he is every bit the ruthless Knight Templar he presents himself as, a good chunk of the reason he interprets his Word so harshly is that he never quite recovered from the betrayal of his closest friend or his guilt over nearly falling. There's a reason his black cloak shields him from all supernatural observation — he can't risk anyone seeing his fear of weakness, nor his grief over what he must do in the name of justice.
Eli: So many eyes, how can he be so blind? Such shining wings, why doesn’t he fly? Such a beautiful voice, why doesn’t he sing? Poor Dominic.
Power Trio: Angels of Judgment normally work in triads, in order to ensure that they can detain an angel if necessary, to ensure a balance of talent, and to ensure that any judgments don't face deadlocked votes.
We Used to Be Friends:
- Before the fall, Asmodeus was Dominic's most trusted servitor, his confidante, and one of his closest friends. The Cherub turned traitor after being assigned to keep an eye on Lucifer, and in the modern day Judgement and the Game are bitter foes.
- Dominic and Gabriel used to be allies and close associates, as his role as the enforcer of justice meshed well with her mission to punish the cruel. However, they eventually drifted apart over Gabriel taking issue with Judgment's often cruel verdicts and Dominic becoming frustrated with her haphazard methods and narrow focus, broke fully during the controversy after Islam's creation, and now remain on extremely hostile terms.

Eli, Archangel of Creation

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_eli.jpg

The world is creation, the application of will against entropy, bringing life and beauty from the void.

A quintessential Mercurian, Eli is one of the most benevolent and peaceful of Heaven's powers. He has also been missing since 1957, when he assigned most of his servants to other archangels and left to wander the mortal world.

Arch-Enemy: Andrealphus, the Prince of Lust, is Eli's most bitter demonic foe. Once, very long ago, when Andrealphus was the Archangel of Love, the two were close allies. In the modern day, they furiously oppose everything the other stands for. Eli embraces love as a spiritual and physical sacrament, a selfless sharing of joy, and a means of creating new life; Andrealphus' lust stimulates the body while neglecting mind and soul, and is for the benefit of nothing and nobody but the individual. Each views what the other champions as a repulsive heresy.
Beware the Nice Ones: It's easy to think of the guy as a washed up, laid-back cosmic hippy. Even a lot of angels dismiss him as a basically harmless weirdo. But while he is a nice guy, he's still an archangel, and one of the most powerful ones at that. It was him who destroyed an entire Choir when they abused his word. It's hard to get him genuinely angry but when he does, Creation itself rages.
Didn't Think This Through: His Fatal Flaw. He embodies Creation, not the moments afterwards, and most of his biggest mistakes have been from letting something loose with no thought as to what it will do next.
Doing It for the Art: In-universe; he views genuine artistic expression as one of the best expressions of Creation among humans. One of the few things that really pisses him off is soulless, cash-grab art, or people creating the same rote works over and over. He'd rather have a crappy artist who truly has artistic vision then a genius producing by-the-books products for the cash.
Eccentric Artist: He's one of the strangest archangels (even by archangel standards), and a lot of this is due to his nature as Creation. He's often compared to the artist so focused on their masterpiece they can't see the world around them.
Jesus Was Way Cool: Maybe. It's a recurrent theory (in and out of universe) that he is Jesus, or created Jesus, or taught Jesus, or was in some other way involved in the whole affair. He denies it but then he would, wouldn't he...
Humanity Is Infectious: Possibly. He's certainly one of the most human-focused Archangels, and some have theorized that the sheer volume of Creation humanity is responsible for has started infecting him through his word.
Religion Is Wrong: A particularly weird case given he's, you know, an Archangel, but he's surprisingly anti-religion — one of the reasons that Dominic disliked him even before he went rogue. He sees religion as a source of creativity at best and a source of conflict at worst, but he himself doesn't have any religious beliefs and doesn't really see any particular need for them.
"If Shinto sputtered out and left behind the manga, that would be fine with Eli."
Sanity Slippage: While he was already on the Eccentric Artist side in Heaven, many of his servitors have found him increasingly confused and incoherent since leaving, sometimes forgetting loyal servants or responding to invocations with vauge, rambling nonsense. This is leading some of his followers to worry being away from Heaven for so long is wearing on him. On the other hand, some have reported him acting like this until they bring up something important, at which point he's immediately focused and coherent. Still others haven't reported any change at all. As with most things about Eli, no-one knows for sure.
Sex Is Good: To Servitors of Eli, sex is a sharing of joy and the highest of sacraments, as well as a symbol of creation.
Shrouded in Myth: Is he fallen? Dead? Insane? Working with Hell? A deniable agent for Heaven? A secret mastermind behind everything? Attempting to become human? Somehow cast from Heaven by the publication of The Cat in the Hat? Rumours abound, but no-one knows the truth. Maybe not even him.
Walking the Earth: Eli left Heaven in 1957 to walk the Earth. No one knows why — and no one's quite sure if Eli remembers any more, for that matter...

Gabriel, Archangel of Fire

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_gabriel.png

The world is energy, hot and fluid.

Gabriel is an Ofanite, inscrutable, ancient, and mad — she has to constantly endure the dissonance of having a Prince of Hell sharing her Word, and Dominic's inquisition of her purity following the birth of Islam didn't help. She has spent the past millennium secluded within her personal domain, and, when she emerges, she acts erratically and unpredictably. Other archangels would prefer to see her removed from her position, but Yves has continued to protect her so far.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: Hope and Prophecy provides a few alternate views of her character, according to which she may be stark raving mad, an air-headed celestial ditz, a would-be enforcer of Heavenly law who misses obvious sins happening right under her nose, or lying about hearing God's voice in order to manipulate other angels.
Archangel Gabriel: Gabriel is the Ofanite Archangel of Fire, and a Mad Oracle who lives in a Heavenly volcano. He may have been driven to madness by the persecution of the Archangel Dominic, who believes that Gabriel rewrote the Quran when he was sent to dictate it to Mohammed, or by the strain of sharing a Word with a Demon Prince. These days, Gabriel more frequently appears as a woman. She used to be Heaven's messenger, but has refused this duty since the scandal that surrounded the birth of Islam. She also owns a trumpet whose sound can be heard through all creation and, when certain very specific things happen, she sounds a single blast from it. When the trumpet is blown seven times, Armageddon begins.
Arch-Enemy:
- Her former servant, Belial, is now her greatest foe. The two struggle constantly for control of their Word in an enmity that has become legendary among Celestials, and this conflict is credit as a major reason for Gabriel's poor mental state.
- In The Final Trumpet, this spot is taken by the newly-released Magog. Gabriel's purpose is to punish the cruel; Magog is the Prince of Cruelty. Once she hears of his release, she goes mad with rage and becomes unable to focus on anything except finding and killing Magog.
Elemental Personalities: As the Archangel of Fire, she's unstable and prone to sudden mood swings. Her servants love her with a fierce, mad passion, and she encourages them to be aggressive and to bring battle and judgement to evil wherever it may lurk.
Elemental Punch: Malakim devoted to Gabriel can cover their hands in green celestial flames to burn those they strike.
God of Fire: She embodies the Word of Fire, giving her a level of power over and connection to the flame far greater than that of any Ethereal deity. Gabriel once embodied fire's light and illumination, but now focuses more on the flames of Heaven that punish the cruel.
Go Mad from the Revelation: Some demons and outcast angels claim that Gabriel's madness stems from a vision of the end of days — one where Heaven falls and Hell stands triumphant. Her tormented ravings and wanderings, the story goes, are a desperate attempt to escape the fate that she knows will come.
Immune to Fire: Ofanim devoted to Gabriel are immune to damage caused by heat, radiation, or electricity. Any excess such energy affecting their physical vessels is redistributed across the world, usually in areas such as the Sun where a little more heat has little impact.
Mad Oracle: Gabriel has a unique connection to God through which she can see visions of the past, present, and future, but she is also, for a number of reasons, quite mad — some speculate that the weight of this knowledge and connection are at least partly responsible for her instability; among other things, she's not always able to tell the present from the past. Her prophecies still come, but they're often extremely difficult to comprehend or to distinguish from her normal stream-of-consciousness rants and monologues.
Playing with Fire: While Gabriel's boons have more to do with smiting the wicked than manipulating flames, a few of them grant this sort of powers — her Ofanim are Immune to Fire, her Malakim can cover their hands with celestial flames, and any of her servants can gain the ability to raise local ambient temperatures, strengthen, reduce or constrain fires, or create a sphere of flame around themselves.
The Redeemer: She's one of the better Archangels for this. Unsurprisingly, her angels usually go for a baptism by fire; getting the demon to agree to the redemption, then calling Gabriel in immediately, rather than trying a longer process of preparing the demon. Those who survive (more than you might expect) are reborn as angels and are usually recruited by Fire themselves, and those who don't are honored for trying.
Sacred Flames: Gabriel embodies her Word in the form of the holy flames of Heaven. In ancient times she focused on the holy flames' illumination, acting as Heaven's messenger. In modern days she embodies the flames' destructive aspect, casting herself as a punisher and scourge of the cruel.

Janus, Archangel of the Wind

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_janus.jpg

The world is a whirlwind. It sweeps across bodies and hearts, bending the soft things and destroying the rest.

A broad and stout Ofan, Janus sees himself as an agent of change, disturbing calcified order and confounding evil with daring thefts and exploits.

Elemental Personalities: As the Archangel of the Wind, he's gregarious, passionate, and prone to mood swings. His role is to promote change and renewal, and he commands his servants to upset static systems, disrupt normality, and generally cause as much chaos and trouble as they can without disrupting the Symphony.
Living a Double Life: He's hinted to be leading one as Valefor, Demon Prince of Theft. First there's Janus' name^note. Next, their servitors' powersets and various other details are identical — to the point of cut-and-pasted descriptions. And when you think about it, an Archangel who encourages petty theft as a way to keep the Forces of Heaven on their toes? More than a little odd. The question is, which side is he really on, and how does he get away with it? In the Revelations Cycle, this is likely debunked at the blowing of the Fifth Trumpet both Janus and Valefor are on-camera simultaneously — one attending a meeting of the Seraphim Council in Heaven, the other in conclave with all the Demon Princes in Hell. (It's "likely" because it's possible for an Archangel or Demon Prince to have more than one manifestation active simultaneously — although it would be extremely difficult to conceal this from all of their fellow Archangels/Princes at the same time, let alone from Lucifer.)
Walking the Earth: Janus' servants are compelled to keep in motion — they gain dissonance if they stay in one place for more than three days — and spend their lives roaming the material realm, stopping in new towns only long enough to throw matches onto societal powderkegs before moving on.

Jean, Archangel of Lightning

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_jean.jpg

The world is lightning, the spark of life and the flash of insight.

Jean, an Elohite, is the patron of knowledge and science. Unlike most of his fellow archangels, who dislike being called away from their duties too often, Jean strongly prefers his followers not to take needless risks, and is far more forgiving of needless summonings than he is of screwups fueled by overconfidence. For his servants, the Heavenly master of technology is often literally only an email or phone call away.

Arch-Enemy: He struggles constantly against Vapula, the Prince of Technology. While Jean seeks to carefully manage technological progress, Vapula wants for it to spiral out of control and for humanity to gain powerful, destructive devices before it's ready to properly manage them.
Control Freak: While most superiors are mostly content to leave their servitors to their job, only interfering if things have gone really off the rails, Jean is happy to be summoned and help. He can probably do a better job then any of them, after all.
God of Knowledge: He presides over applied scientific knowledge and technology. He views the advancement of science and technology as something that must be carefully shepherded, and wants to ensure that mortal scientists and organizations learn how to properly manage their technological bases before advancing further.
Haunted Technology: His Kyriotates can possess machinery as well as people.
Humans Are Morons: He doesn't exactly have a high view of humanity, mostly seeing them as children who he needs to keep dangerous toys away from.
Insufferable Genius: He is undeniably one of the most intelligent beings in the setting. Unfortunately, he knows it, and basically all of his appearences give off the vibe of knowing better then whoever he's talking to.
Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Justified — he gained all the secrets of science directly from God, and thus is an expert in every field.
Telephone Teleport: An angel with the Ofanite of Jean attunement may travel as lightning along any suitable conductor, including telephone lines. They cause damage at their entry and exit points, however.
The Stoic: He's the archetypal Elohim, externally emotionless no matter what he's feeling inside.
Straw Vulcan: He's a very rationalistic entity. It's mentioned that he's not religious because he refuses to hold beliefs that lack proper empirical support. The fact those beliefs are true is beside the point.
Supernatural Phone: Cherubim of Jean can call the nearest phone to any person or object they are attuned to. If there is no nearby phone, they can spend one Essence to cause a cell phone to materialize for ten minutes within seven feet of their attuned.
The World Is Not Ready: This is his primary job— ensuring humanity doesn't have access to destructive technologies before they can handle them. It's a major cause of friction with Litheroy, who would prefer humanity was given as much knowledge as possible immediately.
You Have Failed Me: A rare heroic example — more then any other Archangel, Jean doesn't tolerate incompetence.

Jordi, Archangel of Animals

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_jordi.jpg

The world is an animal, wild and quick.

The Kyriotate warden of the animal world, Jordi cares little for Heavenly politics and nothing at all for what humanity gets up to on its own time; his concern is only for protecting animal life from mortal and demonic depredations. In ancient times God had to prevent him from simply exterminating humanity, but he has since come to — grudgingly — accept mankind as a part of the Symphony and to even count individual humans as allies, when they prove sufficiently dedicated to the welfare of the beings that they share their world with.

Animal Motifs: The angels who serve Jordi are often attuned to animals who match their Choir's role or mannerisms in some way. Ofanim, who are creatures of motion and freedom, are attuned to flying animals. Malakim, who are defined by unflinching commitment to duty and loyalty, get pack hunters such as wolves. Mercurians, closest to humanity of any Choir, have the apes.
Animal Wrongs Group: Jordi's duty is to protect the animal kingdom, and he has no concerns about the human impact of doing so. By the same token his few human servants are ardent animal rights activists, and rarely the rational or restrained ones.
The Beastmaster: Jordi mostly gives his servants abilities intended to let them communicate with, call upon or charm animal life. Each angelic Choir attunes itself to a different type of animals — Seraphim get amphibious and marine creatures, Cherubim get felines, Ofanim get flying creatures, and so on.
Commander Contrarian: Due to being apathetic-to-hostile regarding Humans, the central focus of Heaven's plans, Jordi tends to be go against the grain in most of his appearances. Virtually every Superior opinion he has is him dismissing that superior's area of influence as irrelevant.
Gaia's Vengeance: Jordi is tasked with overseeing the welfare of the natural world, and humanity's long history of hunting species to extinction, stripping natural environments away to build farms and cities, and dumping their garbage every which way is a persistent sore subject for him. By default, his angels, whom he prefers to take animal over human form, are charged with watching over animal life and bringing Heaven's vengeance down on those who torment helpless creatures, hunt wastefully or for pleasure, and despoil nature. In some scenarios, he might decide outright that enough is enough and human civilization needs to go. Notably, he extends his understanding of his Word and duty to the creatures of myth born from the Ethereal — one of the reasons Uriel's trial was so tense was that Jordi was entirely ready to start another war over his slaughter of mythical beasts.
Hero of Another Story: Jordi and his angels have very little interest in either humanity or Heavenly politics, and tend to focus their time and efforts on protecting the natural world from demonic and human activity. Since most campaigns tend to be urban in character and focused on human themes, celestial politicking and/or the complexities of the War, Jordi and his servants are typically assumed to be fighting their own campaigns elsewhere in the world that rarely intersect with what the PCs are doing.
Kill All Humans: Jordi hates humanity, and has at several points had to be talked down from wiping us out completely. He's a bit calmer now, but he still sees humanity as a mistake, and one possible Godzilla Threshold scenario proposed to get Heaven and Hell to join forces is him deciding to go through with this.
Nature Is Not Nice: Jordi embodies the animal kingdom as is, not the rose-tinted version humanity often believes— he's easily one of the most sinister and dangerous archangels, and has little regard for the laws or norms of the celestial (and none at all for human laws and norms). The Angelic Player's Guide describes what happens when someone really pisses off their superior. In most cases it's something like "inflict dissonance" or "report to the Council", but Jordi? He just eats his rogue servitors.
Out of Focus: Jordi simply doesn't care about anything that the average campaign is focused on. As such he's rarely brought up in sourcebooks beyond the odd token appearance, and any campaign not specifically focused on him will likely have him as a background character at best.

Khalid, Archangel of Faith

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_khalid.png

The world is as God wills it. All is God. God is great; there is no god but God. Our duty is to believe.

In ancient days, the Elohite Khalid was the Angel of Faith and a prominent member of Uriel's host, and served his Word and his Archangel ably and well. Khalid eventually came to convert to Islam, viewing it as the true and purest faith, and deeply resented Gabriel's trial and exile after its founding. When Uriel was recalled to the Upper Heavens, Khalid took this as a sign that the time of Christianity, the faith that Uriel had championed, was over, and viewed Laurence's ascension to leadership of the Host — a position that Khalid felt should have gone to him — as a deliberate manipulation by Dominic. The newly-minted Archangel expressed his disgust with his peers' actions by following Gabriel's exile into the wilderness, retreating to the mortal world to be closer to the mortals true to his beloved faith.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: Hope and Prophecy provides a few alternate views of his character, according to which he may be a devoted pacifist, a guardian of all faiths, a militant religious fanatic, or Fallen and a Demon Prince.
The Atoner: His envy, resentment and fear lead to him turning on his fellow angels and helping a Demon Prince nearly cause the apocalypse. Now he's in a better place, he's horrified by this and is trying to redeem himself in the eyes of heaven.
Bad Boss: Zigzagged. On the one hand, he's one of the most unforgiving of the Archangels, regularly inflicting dissonance for faliures or slip-ups most archangels would dismiss. On the other hand, he's also one of the most generous, lavishly rewarding his servitors when they succeed. Get in his good books, and he's one of the best archangels to work for... as long as you stay there.
Crisis of Faith: In The Final Trumpet, long years of solitary campaigning have caused the Archangel of Faith himself to start questioning his trust in God, and he will gladly risk Armageddon for the sake of bolstering his flagging conviction. Depending on the actions of the player characters, he may renew his faith and return to Heaven in glory or Fall completely to become the Demon Prince of Fanaticism. Supplements written after the Armageddon cycle assume that he worked through his crisis and rejoined the other Archangels.
Face–Heel Turn: While it didn't happen in canon, he very nearly Fell as the Demon Prince of Fanaticism, and the rules are there for games who would prefer to explore this.
Fearless Fool: At least by some accounts. As the Archangel of Faith, he's sure that the whole war is a Foregone Conclusion — God will give them victory when He wills it, and thus all of the strategy and planning is pointless. He still fights Hell, but because he considers it his duty rather then because he thinks it will change anything if doesn't. His less optimistic peers are starting to get annoyed at this approach.
The Fundamentalist: He went through this for a few centuries, as he reacted to his Crisis of Faith by clinging all the harder to dogma and becoming increasingly devoted to a xenophobic, fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. He was very nearly setting himself up for a Fall when a near-miss with Armageddon shocked him back into a more open, accepting mode.
Green-Eyed Monster: While he's got over it now, his resentment over Laurence being chosen as Uriel's successor over him lead to him become outcast for several centuries, and many theorise it was a factor in the Crusades.
Good Is Not Nice: Deconstructed. While not inherently opposed to being a supporter of Faith and warrior of God, his fanaticism, hatred and intolerance still slowly eroded away his goodness until he was on the brink of becoming a demon. He still has those traits, but now he's working to overcome them as best he can.
Hot-Blooded: A rare trait for an Elohite, and one that often unnerves his choir-mates. While Khalid can still act objectively without being swayed by his emotions, he's never been one to hide them.
The Masquerade: His angels cannot reveal that they're angels, or that miracles are possible — you can't really have faith if a winged serpent grows your leg back, after all. This applies even with people who already know they're angels and can perform miracles, which leads to some annoyance with Soldiers of God.
Metaphorically True: Khalid is Muslim. He expects all of his angels to be Muslim as well, but he has a personal definition of what "Muslim" means. Angels must believe that there is one God, and that Muhammad is a prophet — but both statements are demonstrably true to angels, and adhering to any tenets but the shahada isn't required (although it certainly doesn't hurt). Many of his angels are Christian or Jewish, or take a more ecumenical view of individual religions.
Middle Eastern Terrorists: He came close during his darkest hour, but he's currently trying as hard as he can to avert this and promote a more peaceful, tolerant form of Islam.
Nobody Poops: He can grant an attunement to his human followers which, provided that they maintain a very strict fast, will put all their biological functions on hold. Among other things, this means that they will not need to either urinate or defecate.
No Periods, Period: Invoked. Khalid can grant an attunement to human Soldiers, called Fast, which allows them to essentially put all of their biological needs on hold as long as they maintain a strict fast. Among other things, this means that women will not menstruate during this period.
Religious Bruiser: Probably the most conventionally religious angel in Heaven, and certainly one of its most powerful warriors.
Sacred Hospitality: He holds firmly to this, even refusing to harm demons who are in some way under his care (unless they're stupid enough to attack him). It's a common oath among his malakim too.
Sixth Ranger: Having been a de facto Outcast for the last millenium, Kahlid isn't really part of angelic politics. Many archangels don't know who he is, or have only very old memories of him — even most demons only really know of him. He's still very much an outsider, even having rejoined the fold.
Stop Worshipping Me: Of a sort. His Word is empowered by all acts of faith, from organised religion to outright delusions. As a devout muslim, though, he ideally wants it to only be empowered by Islam. He's willing to tolerate other divine religions, but he actively discourages pagan or dangerous faiths no matter how much they prop up his Word.
Token Evil Teammate: Downplayed, but for a good few centuries he was an Outcast on the verge of falling, spreading a dangerously fanatic branch of Islam and actively hostile towards his fellow angels. He got over it and is now trying to make up for it, although not everyone in Heaven trusts him.

Laurence, Archangel of the Sword

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_laurence.jpg

The world is a blade that cuts the unwary. Respect the power that comes with your station. Keep yourself finely honed, and never cease to be vigilant when hunting the Diabolical.

When Uriel was taken beyond the ken of angels, Laurence was made archangel, master of his Word, and general of Heaven. He is still relatively inexperienced, however, and still relies on periodic advice from the ancient Michael. A general and a Malak to the metaphorical marrow, Laurence expects absolute obedience from his angels, and tolerates very little dissent. Laurence is quite probably the most devout follower of Christianity in Heaven, paticularly its Catholic branch, and has worked hard to champion it among mortals.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: War and Honor provides a few alternate views of Laurence's character, according to which he may be a jumped-up kid grievously out of touch with reality, a noble and virtuous knight among knights, or a poker-spined disciplinarian with no tolerance for foreign viewpoints or independent thought.
The Chessmaster: While Laurence acknowledges humans as free-willed allies (especially since his experience with Martin Luther), he tends to view the angels and demons of the War as pieces on a board. It's mentioned in War & Honor that Hell has been able to disrupt his plans by "cheating" in a way that he didn't account for, but also that Laurence never forgets a trick ... and over the centuries, there are only so many tricks to play.
Church Militant: He's the patron of Christianity and a devout Catholic, and also the general of Heaven.
Draw Sword, Draw Blood: In the supplement Superiors I: War and Honor, one of the oaths that can be sworn by a Malakite angel of Laurence is "I will not draw my sword unless I intend to kill someone".
Ensign Newbie: Laurence is the youngest of the major Archangels (this is relative; he was about 750 years old when he was elevated, which was more than a millennium ago), and is the Commander of the Host. He's in way over his head, and Michael is getting tired of playing Sergeant Rock for him.
Hammerspace: In Superiors I: War & Honor, his Servitors have an Attunement called "Scabbard" that can hold an unlimited number of personal weapons.
Heroes Prefer Swords: As per his Word, the general of Heaven's armies strongly favors swords. Besides being a true blademaster, he can imbue any sword he uses with permanent supernatural power.
Logic Bomb: It's dissonant for Servitors of Laurence to disobey his orders. Sometimes he issues contradictory orders, or orders that (because of incomplete information) make the mission impossible to complete. Fortunately, he's usually a Reasonable Authority Figure, and he'll fix dissonance if it's his fault.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Justified — he's an angel and what he looks like is basically arbitrary — but he primarily appears as a short, skinny Pretty Boy. He's still the Archangel of the Sword and general of heaven.
The Paladin: Laurence and his angels of the Sword tend to see themselves as knights in a fallen world.
Weapon Specialization: Take a guess! It's mentioned in Book of Relics that rather than having a single powerful weapon like most combat-minded superiors, his power is such that any sword he uses becomes a powerful superior relic, no matter how shoddy it was before. He sometimes hands them out to his most trusted servants after he's done with them.

Litheroy, Archangel of Revelation

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_litheroy.jpg

The world is waiting to be revealed, in all its glory.

Litheroy is somewhat unusual among Seraphim, as he has made a thorough, if not always successful, attempt to understand humanity and its penchant for deception. He is particularly concerned with secrets and obfuscation, and has made it his mission to ensure that no part of God's creation should remain hidden away or obscure.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: Litheroy provides a few alternate views of his character, according to which he may be naïve comic relief or a tragedy waiting to happen, a relentless crusader against obfuscation and deception whose opposition to Heaven's own secrets skirts the edge of rebellion, a patsy for the Inquisition, or a borderline Outcast who left Heaven entirely to focus on his research.
Arch-Enemy: Alaemon, Prince of Secrets and — probably — Litheroy's former servant. As Litheroy works to reveal the world and make truth available to all, Alaemon seeks to make the world a place of ignorance, obfuscation, and selfish hoarding of knowledge.
Cannot Tell a Lie: Much like their Seraph archangel, Litheroy's servants cannot lie or deceive, and gain dissonance if they do. In fact, they're often more extreme about this than even non-Litherite Seraphim, because under normal conditions a Seraph can use Exact Words or otherwise try to deceive without explicitly committing to a falsehood; Litheroy's servants can't. This extends to not being able to explicitly deny their angelic natures if asked or to take Roles. In Heaven, they get on great; on Earth they run into problems.
When it comes to blurting out the inconvenient truth that leaves other agents slapping their foreheads in dismay, a Litherite will out-Seraph the Seraphim. Asked if he is a police detective, an ordinary Seraph might reply, truthfully, "I'm assigned to investigate this case," and hope for misdirection. A Litherite might, at best, answer with a question and hope the questioner would subside. A Litherite Seraph, of course, would answer "No."
God of Knowledge: He is focused specifically on the discovery and dissemination of hidden knowledge, under the belief that the work of God is best celebrated by ensuring that no part of it is concealed or besmirched by falsehood. His followers are charged with ferreting out secrets and disentangling lies and conspiracies, and may not lie or obscure knowledge in any way.
Humble Hero: Litheroy is notable among the archangels for his great degree of personal humility. He's very plainspoken, rarely stands on ceremony, will readily explain his intentions if his angels ask, and is by his preference on first-name basis with his servants — he will accept descriptive titles like Archangel or Abbot, but would really prefer for his angels to just call him Litheroy.
Information Wants to Be Free: Litheroy believes that no part of God's creation should remain hidden away or obscure, and he and his angels labor tirelessly to uncover secrets, untangle conspiracies, and make the wonders of the world visible to all. This is the root of his conflict with Alaemon, who instead views knowledge as a resource to be carefully hoarded and judiciously spent, and whose minions work to bury away all knowledge of themselves and anything important to them behind layers of untruth, misdirection and deceit.
Insult Backfire: Insulting Litheroy to his face is a very unsastifying experience, due to his intense literalism and seemingly inability to take offense. Depending on whether he understands what the insult means or not, the process just results in him either calmly correcting the insult to a slightly more approriate form or asking for clarification on what it means well beyond the point where something continues to be funny or hurtful. For instance, the one time he was called "Babblesnake" to his face, he replied that, since his followers are also called babblesnakes, he might be better referred to as Head Babblesnake or Archangel Babblesnake, just for clarity.
Locked Out of the Loop: Litheroy, by his nature, is extremely bad at keeping valuable information private — it's difficult for Seraphim to deceive by default, and it's especially contrary to the nature of the Archangel of Revelation. The other members of the Seraphim Council don't begrudge this — he is simply following his nature and Word, after all — but at the same time prefer to not let him access valuable secrets to begin with. When the Archangels meet to discuss the strategy of the War, it's easier for everyone that Litheroy is just left out of the loop.
Rhetorical Question Blunder: Asking Litheroy rhetorical questions is generally disadvised, since he'll usually just give you an honest answer. Notably, he knows perfectly well what rhetorical questions are — he just chooses to answer them anyway, in part because he feels it's a good way to make the other party question their own assumptions.

Marc, Archangel of Trade

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The world is trade, the give and take of day-to-day life.

Marc rules over the complex systems of trade — of wealth, of goods, of favors, of information — that govern human life. A Mercurian, he is well-suited to this complex and fundamentally human task.

The Almighty Dollar: A variant. Rather than ruling over wealth per se, Marc presides over trade — the equitable exchange of things, most commonly focusing on the process of commerce and wealth exchange in the traditional sense but also extending to any situation where people exchange tangible or abstract things of value.
Friendly Enemy: Lilith. He sees her as the only honest agent of Hell, she sees him as the only trustworthy agent of Heaven, both enjoy the challenge of going up against each other. As such the two get on surprisingly well, and in The Final Trumpet one possible way to stop the looming apocalypse is just to have them talk it out on behalf of their factions.
Good Pays Better: Part of his role in the cosmos — plenty of people who might not be swayed by appeals to conscience might be redeemed through sheer self-interest.
Honest Corporate Executive: He's the one who balances Heaven's budget, and so far he's stayed reasonably clean doing it.
I Gave My Word: Once an angel of Marc makes a deal or a promise, they are obliged to follow it to the letter and the spirit. It's dissonant for one to break their word or cheat on a deal.
Magically-Binding Contract: His angels can sign contract that, if breached, cause direct damage to the breacher.

Michael, Archangel of War

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_michael_2.png

The world is a war, raging across reality.

First of the angels created by God and eldest of the Seraphim, Michael is the greatest warrior in Creation and was the one to personally thrash Lucifer's rebellious behind and throw him out of Heaven. He used to lead the armies of Heaven before he had to step down after Dominic put him on trial for vainglory, but still provides guidance for Laurence and is getting quite tired of pulling the younger archangel's ass out of the fire every other century.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: War and Honor provides a few alternate views of Michael's character, according to which he may be an amoral warhawk willing to accept any cost in lives for the sake of his crusades or a testosterone-laden Rambo parody.
Archangel Michael: Michael is the Seraph Archangel of War, the eldest of the angels made by God, and the one who personally threw Lucifer out of Heaven; in personality, he's a stubborn old soldier who isn't much impressed with the younger greenhorns. He's no longer in charge of the Armies of Heaven, however, after Dominic put him on trial for vainglory and for letting his followers promote heathen traditions such as trophy-hunting and warrior cults; God intervened directly to acquit Michael. Michael works with Laurence, Archangel of the Sword and the current commander, but Michael is patron of warriors, not soldiers.
Battle Trophy: Angels who follow Michael have been known to take the weapons, insignia or even body parts of defeated demons as trophies — a few of them have necklaces of demon ears, and one group of Malakim devote themselves to finding and skinning Balseraphs — which is a practice that other archangels, especially Dominic and Novalis, are not fond of. Angels of War serving Michael are also the only angels allowed to take trophies from demons they slay. It is a form of pride, but one officially allowed to Michael and his angels after the inquisition of heresy led by Dominic, in which Michael was pardoned. (Not because he was innocent, but because his pride had inspired his triumph over Hell in many conflicts.)
Boring, but Practical: It's commonly believed in Heaven that Michael's axe, the personal relic of the eldest and mightiest archangel, must be a wondrous relic, since this is usually the rule for other Superiors' possessions. It isn't. It's a perfectly mundane, if very well-made and -maintained, axe; Michael is just very good at using it.
Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Michael, Archangel of War, the strongest single living being under God, favors a battleaxe in combat. In fact, even though the game has rules for adding miraculous powers to angels' weapons and entities of Archangelic power levels are kept deliberately vague, Michael's axe is explicitly statted in a player supplement: it's a simple piece of sharpened metal whose only power is to teleport in on command. He doesn't need any others.
Combat Pragmatist: In contrast to Laurence's more honourable, knight paladin approach to battle. He's under no illusions as to the dignity and honour of war — he fights to win, whatever it takes.
Good Is Not Nice: Michael is rude, arrogant, insulting, short-tempered, violent, close-minded and domineering. However, despite this, he's still the guardian of Heaven, and his entire existence is dedicated to making the world as excellent as it can be. Few of his angels like him, but all know that he has their back should they need it.
Hidden Depths: It's been mentioned that his Word encompasses not just fighting but the end of fighting- he'll do whatever it takes to win but no more. This is in contrast to Baal's Word, which is just mindless, brutal fighting without purpose or end.
Ideal Hero: Michael likes this trope even if he doesn't embody it, as he's the patron of the ancient concepts of Hero and Champion. This is his major reason for hating Nybbas, whose Media spreads the idea that the Anti-Hero is cool.
Misery Builds Character: He's a staunch believer in (and maybe embodiment of) this trope. He believes that only through constant challenge and struggle can people grow. He considers himself to have the job of challenging his fellow Archangels, to force them to demonstrate the truth of their Words in the crucible of battle. This, naturally, doesn't make him very popular.
Old Master: Michael is the second or third oldest angel in the universe — and, since he's also the Archangel of War, he can take down just about any opponent or group of opponents you care to name. After he personally booted his older brother Lucifer out of Heaven, the rest of the demonic army decided to show itself out.
World's Strongest Man: Michael is the single mightiest warrior in Heaven, and quite possibly in the universe. He personally thrashes Lucifer during the Rebellion, and Laurence still has humble memories of the time when they crossed iron. This is one of the primary reasons for his prideful bearing — he's the greatest warrior in the Host, he knows this, and he makes little effort to hide it.
Worthy Adversary: He sees Baal, the Demon Prince of the War, as this, and the feeling is reciprocated. In a strange way, he actually respects his mortal enemy more then many of the angels - at least he's taking this seriously.

Novalis, Archangel of Flowers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_novalis.jpg

The world is a garden — peaceful until disturbed by the strident voices of the savage and cruel.

The Cherub Novalis stands out among the archangels for being a very dedicated pacifist. In spite of many millennia of the War, Novalis has never given up her faith that diplomacy can prevail, and that none, not even the demons of Hell, are beyond redemption.

All-Loving Hero: A major part of Novalis' word is that she is, to the very core of her being, endlessly loving and forgiving. She is willing to see the best in anybody, up to and including the Princes of Hell, and steadfastly believes that the War can and should be won by changing hearts instead of at the point of a sword.
Alternate Character Interpretation: The Gamemaster's Guide gives a few alternate views of her behaviour, from a naive fool waiting to be fatally betrayed, a ruthless killer beneath the all-loving facade, a hippy-stereotype handing out flowers to demons and a completely amoral force of growth.
Badass Pacifist: This is Novalis and her angels' preferred methodology when they cross paths with demons and evil humans; they want to redeem them, not kill them. Some can be Martial Pacifists, but, even then and even towards demons, their first weapon is words and kindness. Most other angels don't really get this, even her fellows in the peace faction. (While David does appreciate Novalis' strength and courage, he still thinks that the time for her methods has passed.)
Enemy Mine: She and Andrealphus are, by necessity, allies against the war factions in Heaven and Hell. Both of them absolutely agree on the preservation of humanity and prevention of unnecessary deaths, both prefer evangelization to direct combat, and the services that they trade across the line are perilously close to treasonous.
Granola Girl: Novalis can come across like this, partly through her strict stance on benevolence and partly because she often affects this trope's visuals when manifesting. She isn't as dumb as she seems, although how much of a plan she actually has is up for debate.
Zombie Advocate: While some angels treat demons with pragmatic kindness or hope for their redemption, Novalis is the only Archangel to truly care for the infernal as they are. Whether this makes her an naive fool, a vital complement to Heaven's war faction or the only hope the Symphony has is a topic of great debate in and out of universe.

Yves, Archangel of Destiny

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archangel_yves.jpg

The world has its own destiny. Accept it, embrace it and help things along when possible.

Yves is ancient, ancient beyond words. He was the first being made and named by God, and it was his role to name God in return. In the modern day, Yves is endlessly patient, wise and contemplative, and seems privy to knowledge beyond that which archangels can normally access.

Alone among the archangels, Yves has no Choir. Some angels speculate that he represents a higher order of being, sent to guide angels like angels are sent to guide mortals; others believe him to be a direct manifestation of God.

Akashic Records: His Library is often understood by angels as being the sum total of the Symphony's knowledge, which if true would make it an extension of God as much as Yves himself is. One of his more powerful attunements also goes by this name, and allows his angels to ask any question to Heaven itself about the present or past and have it answered with perfect truthfulness, provided that it can be answered in three words or less.
Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: Hope and Prophecy provides a few alternate views of his character, according to which Yves may be a secret mastermind, a doddering old man, or God in disguise.
Arch-Enemy: Kronos, Prince of Fate, is Yves' dark mirror and his greatest foe. They share a unique connection to the Symphony and represent a higher class of beings than common celestials, but have diametrically opposite natures — they embody nothing less than the bright Destiny and dark Fate of God and the Symphony, and struggle furiously for control of the world's final end. Where Yves seeks to bring it towards a grand finale and completion, Kronos would see it all dragged into the Pit.
Benevolent Abomination: It's very clear that he's something other from a standard angel, some kind of higher, incomprehensible being from the realms so holy even angels cannot tread there. However, he's also one of the most genuinely benevolent beings in heaven, and one of the few angels who is unambigiously working for the good of humanity.
God of Knowledge: In addition to his primary task watching over the Destiny of humanity and the Symphony, he is the keeper of Heaven's knowledge. His Cathedral is a library holding copies of everything that was ever written, including some things only penned in dreams. His servants are given Attunements that enhance their ability to learn things, such as becoming privy to a mortal's true name, past or potential future with a look or a touch, supernaturally bypassing any barriers between them and records that they wish to access, reading and understanding any written material, and directly communing with the Records for a brief answer to any question.
Great Big Library of Everything: Yves' Library in Heaven contains anything ever written or recorded by mortals, ethereals and celestials, including some works that were only created in dreams.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Yves is well known for being calm, reflective and serene, unflappable and unfazed by even the most grievous of events — until Kronos comes into the picture. Yves' dark mirror is the one being that the Archangel of Destiny cannot predict or account for, and the moment he catches wind of the Prince of Fate's presence in a plot he sends in his own heavy hitters and does everything in his power to ensure that whatever Kronos is after does not come to fruition. Only those who know Yves very well pick up on the driven urgency that overtakes him in these situations, but they find it very unsettling.
Past-Life Memories In a variation, the Past Lives attunement lets his Servitors view the memories of someone else's previous incarnations, even though the person in question doesn't consciously remember anything themselves.
The Redeemer: Every demon's destiny is to ascend to Heaven, if only they can grasp it. Yves' angels have the best Redemption Teams in Heaven, surpassing even Novalis'.
Universally Beloved Leader: Yves is the most respected soul in Heaven, and unique in that, despite the factionalism and politicking that divides the powers of the Host, he maintains the trust and admiration of almost every Heavenly resident. With the singular exception of Michael, who finds it difficult to trust the cryptic Archangel of Destiny, all of the Archangels view Yves as a fount of wisdom, a trustworthy ally, and a dear friend.
Windows of the Soul: He appears (in all three realms) as a mundane-looking old man. However, several bits of fluff mention people — even angels — meeting his gaze and being overwhelmed by the infinte, ancient being behind it.

Zadkiel, Archangel of Protection

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The world is harsh. I will give you solace.

A Cherub once in service to Novalis, Zadkiel rose to her Word and her station due to developing an endless love for humanity and a deep desire to see it thrive and grow as well as it could. In order for this to be so, they must be protected from those influences that would do them harm, and Zadkiel found her purpose in being the shield that humanity needs in order to thrive. She remains formally outside of, and between, Heaven's War and Peace factions, and takes it upon herself to spread her forces to serve the various roles that Heaven's other factions cannot, from shielding the peacemakers of Flowers to healing the soldiers of War and the Sword.

On a personal level, Zadkiel is notable for two main additional traits. Firstly, she is female. Gender isn't especially rare among Superiors — Novalis herself always takes female form, for instance — but Zadkiel has an unusual personal investement in the concept, as she believes that her ideals of guardianship and nurturing resonate best with the concept of womanhood. As such, she dislikes giving male vessels, and strongly prefers that her angels emulate her in this regard. Secondly, she is a devout Muslim, having found the faith while searching for Khalid during his exile, and finds it especially important to extend her Protection to the Islamic nations. She takes a somewhat more heterodox approach to doctrine than the Archangel of Faith, however; most obviously, she is highly skeptical of the concept that angels do not take female form.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: Zadkiel provides a few alternate views of her character, according to which she may be a shrewish, demanding matriarch who endlessly harangues and belittles her angels, coddles humans while overlooking their every failing and clearly never got over her own mommy issues with Novalis, a saccharine Granny Classic stereotype all apple pie and obliviousness, or Jewish instead of Muslim (with accompanying Jewish Mother mannerisms).
Been There, Shaped History: While Zadkiel is a later-generation angel, having been made as a reliever when history was already well underway, she is old enough to speak on historic events from personal experience. She spent most of her early career in central Italy on the plain of the Tiber, and knew Romulus and Remus when they walked the world (Heavenly rumor to the contrary, she was not the wolf that raised them). Her personal efforts in preventing the Rape of the Sabine Women^note from degenerating into war was what earned her promotion to the Angel of Protection. Her later work in guiding Roman cultural growth were what saw her rise further to her current seat as an Archangel.
Characterization Marches On: Zadkiel first appeared in Heaven and Hell and is treated quite differently from her later, expanded writeup in Superiors: Zadkiel. Originally, Zadkiel had no connection to Islam at all, and only a slight one to women. Her later splatbook makes being a Muslim and female core parts of her identity, to the point of strongly preferring her servitors assume female form on Earth.
Former Teen Rebel: ... sort of. Heaven has a surprisingly active rumor mill for a place where you literally cannot lie, and Zadkiel is a fairly popular subject of discussion. One of the most common themes is that she had a wild history in her pre-Archangelic days, such as fighting with her "mother" Novalis over Zadkiel's less pacifistic tendencies or leaving Heaven altogether in an angelic equivalent of running away from home to wander the mortal world, and that she became outright Outcast or Fallen during this period — the wilder rumors here speculate that she began as a Cherub of Stone that Fell after a spat with David and was redeemed by Novalis, or that her walkabout coincided with or was followed by a secret pregnancy (the really wild ones usually finger either a human or Lilith as the other parent; note here that Lilith is part of Hell's hierarchy and dalliances with humans got an entire Choir kicked out of Heaven).
Guardian Angel: Zadkiel is essentially a Cherub's Cherub — her existence is devoted entirely around the concept of protecting mortals from evil in order to let them thrive and grow. As a result, her servitor attunements are themed around making her angels better at protecting people — for instance, her Ophanim attunement can make angels faster when heading towards humans in need of help, her Elohim attunement lets angels know with a glance or touch if a human is seeking self-destruction, her Bright Lilim can automatically sense when people have need to be protected, and so on.
Mama Bear: At the core of Zadkiel's sense of identity is that she views herself as, essentially, humanity's collective "mother" — and she tends to see this along the lines of the mother bear or lioness that will ruthlessly destroy any threats to her brood before returning to comfort her cubs.
One-Gender Race: Roughly eighty percent of Zadkiel's angels of Protection choose to manifest as female. This is interesting since her splatbook says that she is a Muslim, a faith which specifically says that angels do not appear as female. Said book notes that this is a bone of contention between her and Khalid, who hews more strictly to the dogma of Islam then Zadkiel does; Zadkiel believes that bit of the Koran to have been a mistranslation from Angelic to Arabic.
Unreliable Illustrator: Zadkiel is described as favoring matronly female forms, of whatever race or ethnicity would make the other party feel more "at home", and always with a shawl, kerchief, tignon, hood, or other hair covering. Her artwork matches the first part well enough, but shows her with her hair uncovered.

Lost Archangels

Archangels generally experience much less turnover than the Princes of Hell, but on rare occasions the Host's best and greatest may be lost as well. Each time that this happened has been a devastating blow for Heaven.

Raphael, Archangel of Knowledge

Bright Raphael was one of the eldest of the Host, and one of the mightiest foes of Hell. However, by the game's time, she is long dead, having fallen in battle against the mad Demon Prince Legion in 1008 AD. Some of her duties were taken up by Yves and by her fellow Elohite Jean, but she was ultimately irreplaceable and Heaven mourned her deeply.

Archangel Raphael: The Archangel Raphael is prominently missing from the ranks of Heaven. Canonically, she died in 1008 AD in the battle against Legion, the Demon Prince of Corruption. However, a sidebar in one of the supplements hints that there may be more to the story, that Raphael did not die outright but instead suffered the loss of all her Celestial forces to became a Remnant — effectively a Corporeal "ghost" of a former angel — and that the amnesiac Remnant became the Renaissance artist Raphael.
God of Knowledge: As the Archangel of Knowledge, she oversaw the abstract processes of knowledge, philosophy and wisdom, and served as a bridge and link between the specialized and sometimes conflicting interests of her fellow archangels. She perished in battle against the Demon Prince Legion in 1008 A.D.; her duties were taken up piecemeal by Yves, Jean, and her former servant Litheroy, but this was at best a patchwork fix.
Heroic Sacrifice: She gave her life to destroy the Demon Prince Legion, who threatened to consume the entirety of the mortal world.
Mutual Kill: She and the mad Prince Legion died killing each other.
Posthumous Character: In the game's canon time, she has been dead for over a millennium.

Uriel, Archangel of Purity

When Michael was put on trial and left the leadership of Heaven's armies, the ancient Uriel, who had been the first angel to become a Malakite, stepped up to take his place. He led the Host ruthlessly and efficiently, but in time his devotion to his Word led to him to seek to purify the Earth of everything that was not part of God's original design. Desiring a clear boundary between the real and the imaginary, he led a bloody crusade against the creatures of myth, slaughtering all of the fantastical creatures of the Earth before moving on to purging the Marches as well.

Uriel's actions led to his being called before the Seraphim Council, and nearly saw another civil war in Heaven. However, before the fateful vote could be cast, God called him to the Upper Heavens, and he has never been seen since. Nonetheless, Earth and Heaven's side of the Marches still remain bare of the Ethereal beings, and the tattered survivors that remain have never trusted Heaven since.

Archangel Uriel: Uriel was the Archangel of Purity and the leader of the hosts of Heaven in his day. He possessed a single-minded devotion to his duty that led him into a particularly dangerous form of zealotry, necessitating his "recall" to the Higher Heavens.
Fantastic Racism: While most angels are cold at best to the Ethereal, Uriel tried to wipe the entire realm out.
Here There Were Dragons: He's the reason there aren't anymore — him and his angels wiped out all the fantastical creatures of earth and a good chunk of those in the Ethereal. He was so thorough that even 13 centuries later, no-one has found a single spirit whose Image is a dragon.
Knight Templar: Uriel went off the deep end as Commander of the Host, launching a massive crusade against nearly the entire Ethereal. God personally intervened to recall him to the Higher Heavens, and he hasn't been seen since.
Pure Is Not Good: Uriel was the Archangel of Purity. His commitment to his ideal of a pure, unblemished world was such that he led a crusade of genocide against the world's pagan gods and myths, driving many of them into the arms of Hell.
Sealed Evil in a Can: There is a rumor among angels that Uriel's recall to the Upper Heavens is a lie, and that what actually happened was that the Seraphim Council judged him dangerously insane and chained him beneath Gabriel's Volcano, trapping him with Gabriel's power and an endless dream woven by Blandine. Supposedly, the Archangel of Purity is trapped there still, dreaming of escape and vengeance. Supposedly...
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: He decided to lead with the growing power of the Ethereals by leading a genocidal crusade against the creatures and pantheons of mythology, including many which weren't even aligned with Hell, sometime in the 8th century. The Ethereals have never entirely trusted Heaven since then.
Uncertain Doom: Officially, he was taken by God to the Higher Heavens until the end of days. Unofficially, there's various theories that he's been imprisoned by any of various Archangels or simply executed by the Seraphim Council. No-one knows for sure, but its notable that when the end of days were imminent in the Final Trumpet, there was no trace of him...

Angelic Choirs

The Armies of Heaven: All of the angels of Heaven oppose the demons of Hell in their own way, but the hosts of angels led by the Archangels Laurence, Michael and David are the closest to being a heavenly army. Of the various types of angels, Malakim (regardless of which Archangel they serve) are most often involved in anti-demonic combat.
Always Lawful Good: Downplayed. All Angels are innately beings of selflessness and love, charged with making the world the best world it can be, which makes it hard for one to be genuinely evil — but far from impossible. As Falling requires more then just malice, it's very possible for an angel to take its love, selflessness and dedication to very dark places while still remaining on the side of Heaven. On a lesser level, its also very possible for an angel to be selfless, loving, dedicated and a total prick.
Our Angels Are Different: Angels are heavenly beings charged with guarding and guiding humanity and the physical word, and are divided into a number of Choirs each attuned to a specific part of the heavenly Symphony.
Winged Humanoid: While not universal, the archetypal winged human appearance does turn up relatively often among angels. Mercurians are the classic humans with avian wings. Malakim are similar, but with black wings and shadowy bodies. In the process of becoming angels, Bright Lilim lose their horns and green skin in exchange for a pair of translucent wings. Cherubim whose animal forms are those of apes or monkeys also resemble this archetype in a looser sense.

Seraphim, the Most Holy

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The Seraphim are the angels closest to God's mind and cannot stand any untruth or deception, seeing them as perversions of the Symphony. They can see through lies to the truth beneath, but lie at damnation's peril. Contrary to what other angels think, the Most Holy can and do understand what metaphor, figurative language and the like are (although they don't use them much) and know the difference between lies and imagination (although they don't have a lot of it themselves). Their reputation for stiff necks notwithstanding, the Seraphim are still greatly respected by their peers, and do their best to deserve the respect that they are given. In their celestial forms, Seraphim are great winged serpents with six eyes. Among the archangels, they are represented by Dominic, Litheroy, and Michael.

Brutal Honesty: Seraphim value the truth above all else, and do not even like to lie by omission. They also have a very low tolerance for deception, dishonesty or immorality in other beings, and tend to get snappish and irritable when others are less than perfectly honest. If a Seraph thinks that you're a deceitful, immoral ape, he will tell you, plainly and directly, that you're a deceitful, immoral ape. This combination of absolute truthfulness and intense moralism makes them excellent investigators, but lousy diplomats.
Cannot Tell a Lie: Seraphim never lie or deceive, on pain of Falling. They do not even use nicknames if they can avoid it. They can give themselves some wiggle room by using Exact Words or choosing not to challenge the incorrect conclusions of others, but ever there there's only so much that they can push their luck.
Exact Words: This is one of the ways that Seraphim try to avoid outright lying while on Earth. They cannot say any untrue thing, but they can carefully word their statements to avoid actually committing to saying that something is or is not a certain way. For instance, a Seraph named Zebadaiah who's been nicknamed Zane by his associates would never actually call himself Zane, but might introduce himself with lines such as "People call me Zane" or "I go by Zane".
Feathered Serpent: In celestial form, Seraphim usually resemble immense serpents with feathered wings.
Internal Affairs: Seraphim tend to be used as this within the Archangels' personal organizations, due to their ability to suss out lies and deceit. They're often tasked with keeping an eye of their fellow angels in general, and, if an Archangel suspects that some of his followers are hiding dissonance or plotting something, they will usually send Seraphim to investigate.
Living Lie Detector: Seraphim are innately able to tell when someone is lying, and depending on how kind the dice are when they try to do this they can tell what specific parts of the statement are a lie, if the other person knows what the truth is, what they think the truth is, and what the Truth of the matter actually is.
Mathematician's Answer: One way that the Seraphim use to get around their inability to lie is to give answers that are technically truthful but effectively useless. Technically true answers keep them from the edge — if sometimes just barely.

Cherubim, the Guardians

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Second-closest angels to God, the Cherubim are protectors by nature. They can attune themselves to other beings, gaining supernatural knowledge of their well-being but gaining dissonance if they let them come to harm; if the Seraphim are celestial nobility, the Cherubim are celestial knights. In their celestial forms, Cherubim can resemble any natural animal, but always with wings. Among the archangels, they are represented by Blandine, Christopher, Novalis, and Zadkiel.

Almighty Janitor: Many Cherubim choose to work in jobs that most other celestials would find beneath them, such as janitors. This allows them to keep a low profile and go anywhere without being questioned.
Guardian Angel: Cherubim are innate protectors and can attune themselves to individual mortals, after which they will single-mindedly protect them from all harm and will be supernaturally aware of any danger menacing their charges.
Heroic Sacrifice: To a Cherub, her attuned charge is more important than her own life. If one must lay down her own life to ensure its safety, she will gladly do so.
Little Bit Beastly: In Nomine: Anime suggests that, if Cherubim manifest as humanoids in celestial form, they should retain some outward animal trait — slit-pupiled eyes, horns, pointed ears, light fur, or the like.
Mix-and-Match Critters: A downplayed case. In celestial form, Cherubim look like various animals, usually mammals, with the wings of birds.

Ofanim, the Wheels

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The Ofanim are creatures of motion, so tied to activity that sloth or even failure to move risk dissonance. They cannot stand being still for any amount of time and always come across as twitchy and restless, but are uncannily good at knowing how to get to any desired spot as fast as possible. As a rule, they're quite fond of humanity's recent propensity for inventing faster and faster vehicles. In their celestial forms, they resemble constantly-spinning wheels of fire. Among the archangels, they are represented by Gabriel and Janus.

Drives Like Crazy: Ofanim dearly love automobiles and motorbikes, and especially love driving them at speeds mortals wouldn't dare. Their skill in finding the shortest route between two points doesn't always account for mortal safety guidelines, either, and Ofanim will happily charge the wrong way down one-way streets, barrel along in rear march, speed down crumbling old mountain trails, or cut across pedestrian malls to get around red lights. They're still the designated drivers in angelic teams, because their skills in navigation are truly second to none, but other angels and mortal soldiers both prefer to keep their eyes closed when an Ofan is at the wheel.
Immune to Fire: Ofanim devoted to Gabriel, the Archangel of Fire, are immune to damage caused by heat, radiation, or electricity. Any excess such energy affecting their physical vessels is redistributed across the world, usually in areas such as the Sun where a little more heat has little impact.
Personality Powers: Ofanim are speedsters and navigators, possessing a number of abilities themed around moving as quickly as possible. In personality, they're twitchy, hyperactive, impatient, and full of nervous energy in constant need of burning.
Speed Demon: Ofanim are angels of motion. They are stereotypically known for driving like maniacs and constantly moving.
Super-Speed: Ofanim can spend some Essence to temporarily move at incredible speeds, typically in the range of several miles per minute. This can be dangerous when in corporeal form, however, since physical bodies aren't meant to move at such speeds.

Elohim, the Powers

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At the midway point of the celestial ranks, halfway between the mortal and the divine, sit the Elohim. Their role in Heaven is as arbiters and mediators, and they carefully guard themselves from irrationality, bias or emotion. To do otherwise, and let bias taint their decisions or allow their emotions to rule them, starts them on the path to Hell. Their celestial forms resemble androgynous, hairless humans with large heads and dark, perceptive eyes. Among the archangels, they are represented by Jean and Khalid; before her death, Raphael was also a member of this Choir.

Dissonant Serenity: Elohim maintain their calm, collected and detached façades at all times, including when performing actions that others would find upsetting; an Elohite will display no more emotion when smothering a man to death than when pouring themselves a coffee. Other angels find this extremely unsettling.
The Empath The Elohim can sense a person's emotions, determine why they feel the way they feel, and determine how they'll react to any given situation.
The Greys: In their celestial forms, Elohim resemble big-eyed, sexless, hairless and pale-skinned humanoids, matching their studiously dispassionate natures.
The Needs of the Many: The Elohim's detached, logical and objective approach means that they're often the angels most willing to sacrifice individuals or small groups for the sake of the greater good. Archangels often use them for missions that would upset more emotional angels, but which Elohim will calmly accept once provided with an explanation for why, say, assassinating this one person will benefit the world as a whole.

Malakim, the Virtues

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The Malakim were only created in the wake of the Fall from angels of other Choirs. As a result, they define themselves by their purity and honor, studiously keeping to their strict moral codes and fighting evil wherever it may lurk. They bind themselves with oaths, gaining power and status but risking dissonance if they break them. They do not Fall. Not ever.

In their celestial forms, Malakim resemble shadowy human figures with wide black wings. Among the archangels, they are represented by David and Laurence. Uriel, too, was a Malakite — the very first, in fact — before he was recalled to the Upper Heavens.

Elemental Punch: Malakim devoted to Gabriel, the Archangel of Fire, can cover their hands in green celestial flames to burn those they strike.
Draw Sword, Draw Blood: In the supplement Superiors I: War and Honor, one of the oaths that can be sworn by a Malakite angel of Laurence is "I will not draw my sword unless I intend to kill someone".
Knight Templar: Angels tend towards strict moralism as a rule, but the Malakim are infamous for their extremely low tolerance for impurity. They have little concept of negotiation, and are so strict that they often see even a single point of dissonance as grounds for shunning or even summary execution. Uriel, the strictest and harshest zealot Heaven ever saw, had been the first Malakite and was seen as the embodiment of the Choir's values, and the majority of the angels of Purity that continue his genocidal war in his absence are Malakim.
Good Wings, Evil Wings: Malakim, the most inflexible and merciless of the angelic Choirs, have black wings instead of the white ones of other angels.
Leeroy Jenkins: This is often a problem among younger Malakim, who take their oath to never allow evil to live a touch too zealously and charge headlong into battles that they cannot win — or that will tie up their efforts while something worse happens elsewhere. Older, wiser Malakim are aware that their oath does not enforce time limits, and before attacking their foes take time to reconnoiter, contact allies, gather resources, and make sure that there aren't any more pressing issues to deal with.
The Paladin: Malakim live by honor, fight evil relentlessly and cannot Fall — but remember that Good Is Not Nice.
Purple Is the New Black: Malakim wings are black, but glint purple in the light.
Winged Humanoid: Malakim resemble shadowy humanoids with black wings.

Bright Lilim, the Gifters

The rarest angels in Heaven, Bright Lilim all begin as demonic Lilim whose personal journeys have led them towards Heaven. In their celestial forms, they resemble glowing humans with translucent wings. There are perhaps a dozen or less Bright Lilim in existence at any given time.

Heel–Face Turn: By definition, Bright Lilim are all the result of such a turn. The Demon Princess Lilith is the only being who can create Lilim, and as such all Lilim begin life as demons on the side of Hell. Each and every Bright Lilim thus had to, at some point, make a conscious decision to abandon Hell and the ruination of humanity in order to seek Heaven.
Special Snowflake Syndrome: There are probably more Bright Lilim in an average group of PC angels than there are in all of (canonical) Heaven. This generally happens because there is no angelic equivalent for the (admittedly unique) powers Lilim have, and most groups will probably be playing angels rather than demons. Game writers eventually got the hint and started creating canon Bright Lilim powers for different angelic Words in the expansions.
Winged Humanoid: As part of her transformation into an angel, a Bright Lilim gains a pair of wings of light in her celestial form.

Kyriotates, the Dominations

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Among the strangest of all the angels, the Kyriotates possess no physical body of their own and cannot craft vessels like other angels can, and instead must inhabit the bodies of other living things. By default, they can inhabit humans and animals; depending on their Archangel, they can also possess plants, machines, or statues. They can possess multiple hosts at once and must move on from borrowed bodies within a week or so, always carefully leaving them better off than when they moved in, and live lives of constant change and novelty, experiencing creation from many different points of view. They must also be careful with their hosts, as they gain dissonance if they leave them in a worse physical, mental, or spiritual state than when they moved in. In their celestial forms, Kyriotates resembles roiling clouds of eyes, hands and mouths. Among the archangels, they are represented by Jordi.

Automated Automobiles: Kyriotates in service to Jean can possess machines and often possess cars and other vehicles to provide convenient transportation for their allies.
Body Horror: In their true forms, Kyriotates are roiling, pulsing clouds of disjointed body parts, with limbs, mouths and eyes constantly emerging, moving and vanishing again. Humans who see these forms risk remaining stunned for a short period of time.
Body Surf: Kyriotates are Body Surfers by necessity; they must possess the bodies of other beings while on Earth (unlike most angels, who are given special bodies to use in the physical world) and they can only possess their hosts for a limited amount of time; they have a hard limit of anywhere from a day to a week or so as to how long they can borrow a given body continuously.
Demonic Possession: An inversion — Angelic Possession, essentially. Kyriotates must take over the bodies of humans or animals in order to interact with the world, leaving their hosts in a dream-like state for the while. They prefer to do this with the knowledge of their hosts if they can, and often have good relationships with Vodoun practitioners who are happy to let righteous spirits ride their bodies for a while.
Stolen Good, Returned Better: They suffer dissonance if they leave the host in a worse condition than when they "borrowed" it, so they'd rather be safe than sorry and put in some extra effort. This only applies to living being; in cases where they can possess inanimate objects, harm done to these vessels won't give them dissonance.

Mercurians, the Friends of Man

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Mercurians are the most mentally human of all the choirs, and the ones intended to interface the most closely with mortals. To do this, they are gifted with an uncanny ability to intuit relationship networks among mortals, and often develop a strong appreciation for trappings of human culture — and especially for matters of fashion and taste. Also as a result of this, they gain dissonance if they harm a living human in any way. In their celestial form, Mercurians resemble idealized humans with feathered wings. Among the archangels, they are represented by Marc and Eli.

Actual Pacifist: Mercurians are required to be this. They are meant to be guides, helpers and friends of humanity, and cannot harm any mortal — including Soldiers of Hell — without generating dissonance. Mercurians in sticky situations are expected to rely on diplomacy and talk their way out.
Winged Humanoid: Mercurians are the classic humans-with-avian-wings type of angels.

Menunim, the Messengers of Hope

Servants of Blandine, Menunim rarely take part in the dramatic battles of the War. Instead, they seek to spread hope among mortals, subtly encouraging them to have faith in themselves and others. In their celestial form, they resemble clouds of vapor capable of temporarily forming distinct faces. There are no archangels drawn from their ranks.

Rousseau Was Right: The Menunim firmly believe that humans are fundamentally good and naturally inclined towards becoming their best selves. As such, they mostly limit their interventions to gentle pushes and subtle influences, as they believe that that's all that's truly needed to influence people towards goodness.

Hell

Lucifer

The Morning Star, the Lightbringer, the former Archangel of Light, Lucifer had a... clash of opinions with the Almighty concerning humanity. God considered the newly-made mortals to be His crowning achievement and beings of great importance. Lucifer strenuously disagreed. Lucifer pressed his point, murdered the Metatron, and tried to take over things for himself. After Michael threw him out of Heaven, Lucifer and his rebels built a new society in the pit of Hell and to this day scheme to seize control of Creation to establish a new cosmic order — one with Lucifer firmly on top.

Absence of Evidence: Most of Lucifer's known limits are only known because they're things he would've done if he could. For example, inflicting dissonance on Angels at will (i.e. forcing them to Fall) and turning humans into demons would've immediately tipped the War in his favor and he wouldn't stand to gain much by hiding it, but he's never done either (Lilith was an anomaly, and the book notes that she's still a human even with her Word) so these are things he probably cannot do.
Bad Boss: Ironically enough, he's got no interest in his angels rebelling against him. As such, he works to keep Hell in a state of constant civil war and inflicts casual cruelties whenever the whim takes him. Most of Hell is just as scared of the Prince of Darkness as everyone else.
Be Careful What You Wish For: If a demon happens to meet Lucifer (which they don't expect more than an average person would expect to meet the President), he may offer to grant them a boon: any sort of special favor they want. That demon had better hope Lucifer is in a good frame of mind and that they don't ask for too much, or too little. One demon pestered Lucifer for a Word of his own until the Devil had had enough. Imbap, the Demon of Stale Bong Water, is now an object lesson in why you shouldn't ask Lucifer for anything if you have the option. Lucifer also offers this to angels sometimes; any angel who accepts deserves what he gets.
Consummate Liar: Basically everything about him is some form of deception or performance to mislead others — he is, after all, the Balseraph. Lucifer wants to keep everyone guessing about him, his motivations, and his powers.
The Dreaded: Basically everyone but Michael is scared shitless of him — and with Michael, that's as much a product of his bravado as anything. Angels fear him as the most powerful demon around and essentially a terrorist leader, demons fear him because he likes to mess with his subordinates to keep them too weak to try overthrowing him, humans fear him because he's Satan, and the Marches fear him because of his position and malevolence.
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Kobal is essentially the personification of Lucifer's sense of humor. And the one thing he absolutely cannot stand is being made the butt of the joke himself.
Faux Affably Evil: Lucifer may be charming, sociable, and even funny at times (there's a reason Kobal is a Prince), but make no mistake he is Evil with a capital E. Any friendliness he may show is either for his own amusement or to catch people off guard.
God of Evil: Some demons worship him as a dualistic evil counterpart to God. Lucifer himself doesn't mind this (especially if it keeps his minions too scared to try anything), but he personally knows better. The books make it clear that while no one knows exactly what he can or can't do, he is limited in ways that God is not; he still has to use Essence to enact his will even if he does have a whole lot of it, he can't force souls to go to Hell, he can't inflict or remove dissonance on angels without their consent, and he cannot change the fundamental nature of a soul (so he can't turn humans into demons or vice versa).
Greater-Scope Villain: He's the primary force of evil in the setting, but if your players are actually fighting him, then something has gone terribly wrong. Even demons don't interact with him much...if they're lucky.
Pride: Obviously. Pride is a central facet of his character. Sometimes this can be to the player characters' benefit — Lucifer is, for example, too proud to consider breaking minor promises, which will usually include ones made to the players. More often than not, it makes him dangerous to be around — don't show enough respect and your ass is grass.
Satan: The First of the Fallen, the Morning Star, the Archangel Lucifer, the Devil himself, the ruler of Hell and the demons who schemes and plots for God's destruction and mankind's ruination.
Shrouded in Myth: By design. Lucifer, as a supernatural liar, has gone to great lengths to ensure there is very little clear information about his capacities, goals or plans. Even the sourcebooks give nothing but hints and suggestions.
What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Lucifer is much more likely than the Archangels to issue bizarre and/or insignificant Words, either as part of his 'quantity over quality' approach (sure, the demon of Unexpectedly Short Fuses might be weak now, but if he's smart/powerful/lucky enough he might become a demon of something useful, like Careless Handling of Explosives), as a punishment for annoying him or getting too ambitious (just ask Imbap, Demon of Stale Bong Water, about that), or just because he finds it funny/wants to keep his minions on their toes.

Princes

Anthropomorphic Personification: As with their Angelic counterparts, although obviously leaning more towards corrupting and destructive influences on the symphony then integral parts of it (the distinction can be subtle — see Micheal embodying War while Baal embodies The War.)
Bad Boss: While Archangels run the gauntlet from "demanding taskmaster" to "generous boss", all Demon Princes are some varient on "will rend you down to spare forces once you stop being useful". Few demons serve their masters out of loyalty and respect.
Beyond Redemption: Possibly. While Archangels can fall, it's unknown if Demon Princes can ascend. Certainly, none ever has, or even got close — those Princes who've become severely dissonant (Legion, for example, is believed to have been badly Dissonant when he died) have been of the 'still evil, but now batshit insane' flavor and not the 'realized they were wrong about being evil' flavor — and it's not clear how an Archangel could patron a being of such power even if you could find one willing to risk it. It might be the case that a group of Archangels or the Seraphim Council could do the job, but it's equally possible that the Princes have made their bed barring direct divine intervention.
Decadent Court: While Archangels at least try to be a united front dedicated to the good of the world, the Demon Princes make no bones about being backstabbing traitors with no interests besides increasing their own power and status. At least as many Demon Princes have been killed by Demon Princes as Archangels.
Demon Lords and Archdevils: They're the most powerful demons in Hell and Lucifer's lieutenants, and each has a Word that they must act in accordance with. The oldest were Archangels before the Fall, but most of the others have risen through the demonic ranks since then by skill, luck, and ruthlessness.
Greater-Scope Villain: They typically take this role in the game, with the game focusing more on the evil that their minions perform on the Coporeal Realm while they organise in the Celestial Realm. Even in a demon campaign, they primarily appear to give you orders and then send you on your way. That said, they're fully capable of manifesting directly if needed, and Malphas takes legitimate Big Bad status during The Final Trumpet.
Full-Circle Revolution: Having rebelled against Heaven for the sake of freedom, they're now more controlling of their minions then God ever was.
Sadly Mythtaken: The Words and interests of the Princes whose names were drawn from real-life demonology and religion were assigned more or less at random, and often don't really match their traditional associations. For instance, Asmodeus is Hell's inquisitor instead of being the ruler of Lust, which instead in the charge of Andrealphus, who in medieval demonology oversaw geometry and measuration. A number of demons drawn from the Ars Goetia also lack their associations present there — in addition to Andrealphus, Haagenti was associated with the transmutation of substances but is here the Prince of Gluttony, Furfur is a metalhead rocker rather than a deer-like figure who creates weather and storms, and Malphas is a patron of factionalism and paranoia rather than a creator of buildings and fortresses. Kronos is also depicted as being concerned with manipulating human lives for the worse instead of being a deity of time. The primary exceptions are Mammon, who retains his traditional association with the sin of Greed; Valefor, a Goetic demon who tempeted people into theft and is here the patron of thievery as a concept; and Vapula, another Goetic figure associated with philosophy, mechanics, and science and who is here the Prince of Technology.

Alaemon, Prince of Secrets

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_alaemon.png

The world is a labyrinth, layer upon layer of hidden things, and secrecy is power.

One of the youngest of the Princes, Alaemon the Impudite rose from obscurity when he was suddenly given his Word and Princedom — and then promptly vanished back into the shadows. Alaemon is a paranoid puppeteer, as obsessed with learning the secrets of others as he is with guarding his own, and plays a neverending contest of espionage and counter-espionage against a host of enemies real and imagined — his fellow Princes, his former superior Litheroy, and his own servants, all of whom Alaemon unshakeably believes to be plotting his demise.

They probably all are, of course. This is Hell, after all.

Becoming the Mask: One possible explanation for how Alaemon became the Prince of Secrets. According to Superiors 4: Rogues to Riches, he may have been a Balseraph sent to capture the real Alaemon but who killed him by accident and took on the identity rather than admit his screwup. Being a Balseraph, he pulled off the deception so well that he even convinced himself.
Chalk Outline: His Chalk Outline Attunement gives his Servitors the ability to make a corpse vanish entirely by chalking its outline around it.
The Conspiracy: Alemon's faction is structured as a byzantine mess of secret societies, cells, lodges, conspiracies and cults, infiltrating and manipulating the other Princes' organizations, human society, and one another. Each one believes itself to be the ultimate hidden puppetmasters who direct, or rebel against, Hell, Earth, and the demons of Secrets alike. In reality, the actual group in charge varies constantly, as Alaemon carefully keeps the pot stirring in order to make sure that his followers remain too divided, busy and paranoid to actually strike against him.
Eat the Evidence: In his thoughts on other Princes, Alaemon suggests using Haagenti as evidence disposal by cooking incriminating evidence into food and letting the Prince of Gluttony take care of it.
Haagenti doesn't care about secrets, but he's convenient if you need to destroy evidence. Shred the document and bake it into lasagna — he'll never know.
Double Reverse Quadruple Agent:
- One of his possible origins is that he's actually a deep-cover agent for Heaven and for Michael in particular who agreed to Fall in order to go behind enemy ranks. However, he's also been in Hell so long that his actual allegiances are unclear — beneath his demon front he's still a celestial loyalist, but beneath that front he could have gone over to Hell in truth, or be working for himself, or just have cracked under the strain.
- The shifting mess of conspiracies that makes up Alaemon's followers is such that the more experienced demons inevitably find themselves embedded in multiple subfactions and conspiracies as moles, countermoles, counter-countermoles and so on. A low-level grunt in one conspiracy might be secretly the leader of a second, while feeding misinformation from both to a third on the pay of a fourth whose own leaders suspect that he's selling them out to yet another...
God of Knowledge: A variant. He views information as power, whose utility is lessened by dissemination. He charges his followers with discovering hidden facts and burying them deeper still, holding the best knowledge for their own use, while keeping them in the dark regarding one another's work to make sure that only he himself knows all the hidden secrets of Creation.
Internal Affairs: Alaemon directs a tremendous numbers of secret societies, cults, and spy networks with which to study and control other Princes and humanity. These all spy constantly on one another, but one specific group, the Black Crescent, is utilized specifically to keep tabs on the rest. They perform external espionage insofar as their covers within other groups require, but their true purpose is to observe the other rings and feed information on them up their own chain and to the Prince. Of course, Secrets being Secrets, Alaemon can never be quite sure that they aren't really on some other payroll, and that all the information is reported accurately...
Kicked Upstairs: In the hierarchy of Secrets, notoriety is the last thing that one wants. As a reasult, being awarded Alaemon's higher Distinctions is usually a sign of losing favor and influence by being made into the publicly visible — and vulnerable — face of your particular conspiracy, while the real puppetmasters continue to work in the shelter of anonimity.
Multiple-Choice Past: The Prince of Secrets has gone through a great deal of work in obscuring his past, which is a subject of guesswork and confusion in-universe and out. Superiors: Rogues to Riches presents three possible and mutually exclusives origin stories for him — a Fallen Mercurian once in Litheroy's service, who now seeks to undo the work of Revelation; a former Balseraph of the Game sent to capture the real Alaemon, who has been pretending to be his mark to hide the fact that he let him get killed; and an extremely deep-cover agent for Heaven — each of which would explain why his life is ruled by secrets and paranoia. Even his superior when he was a common demon isn't certain — he likely worked for Asmodeus, but it might just as well have been Malphas or Kronos.
"Not So Different" Remark: Alaemon views himself and Yves as being very much alike — Yves, in the Prince's mind, is the ultimate hoarder of knowledge, keeping all of the Symphony's wisdom to himself and only doling out bits and pieces with reluctance. The only difference between the two, in Alaemon's reckoning, is that Yves has a larger hoard and that Alaemon aknowledges what he is.
Yves has the golden prize — all the knowledge of the world is at his fingertips. And he hoards it and keeps it secret, even if it means Heaven burns. I am Yves, ultimately, only more honest.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Most Demon Princes (and Archangels) think that Alaemon is a paranoid weakling completely incapable of filling the place of his deceased predecessor Gebbeleth, who was a much-respected Prince in his day. Kobal is the only one who has noticed the irony that the (dead) Prince of Secrets was a well-known and visible presence in Hell while his "weak" successor is overlooked and ignored.
The Paranoiac:
- Whichever of his various possible origins and goals are true, Alaemon lives in a shell of secrets upon secrets and of plots within plots, and is deathly afraid of being dragged out into the light. His life is ruled by endless paranoia, as he imagines the shadows to be full of hidden enemies — in his mind, each and every one of his servants, the other Princes and the powers in Heaven is out to get him personally, and everything he does is a depserate attempt to hide himself deep enough to escape their searching gazes.
- In turn, demons of Secrets live in a complex, treacherous web of secret societies, plots and counterplots, and hidden agendas that leads to lives of constant terror and paranoia. An Alaemite cannot trust anyone — not his fellows and certainly not his Prince. He is likely to be a member of multiple secret plots and societies at once, and can never know for certain which ones are just fronts for something deeper or which ones are using him as a patsy. He allies with other demons that he knows mean to betray him, but not when or how. He himself betrays people day in and day out, always dreading their eventual revenge. He hides everything about his history and motives and knowledge, and forever wonders what his fellows actually know about him and what he doesn't know about them. Service to Alaemon doesn't foster peace of mind.

Andrealphus, Prince of Lust

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_andrealphus.jpg

The world is lusting, writhing with desire.

Andrealphus is a quintessential Impudite, endlessly fond of humanity and the pleasures that a demon can extract from it. An ancient being who predates the Fall, Andrealphus was once the Archangel of Love and now takes great pleasure in perverting the Word that he once served.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: Pleasures of the Flesh provides a few alternate views of his character, according to which he may be a shallow, flighty prima donna or a hardcore sadist who only gets off on the pain of others.
Arch-Enemy: Eli, the Archangel of Creation, is Andrealphus' most bitter angelic foe. Once, very long ago, when Andrealphus was the Archangel of Love, the two were close allies. In the modern day, they furiously oppose everything the other stands for. Eli embraces love as a spiritual and physical sacrament, a selfless sharing of joy, and a means of creating new life; Andrealphus' lust stimulates the body while neglecting mind and soul and is for the benefit of nothing and nobody but the individual. Each view what the other champions as a repulsive heresy.
Erotic Dream: There are rumours that he rivals Beleth in control of the Ethereal, what with Lust having such an influence over dreams. Beleth violently squashes any indications of this, but Andrealphus is nothing if not subtle...
Enemy Mine: He and Novalis are, by necessity, allies against the war factions in Heaven and Hell. Both of them absolutely agree on the preservation of humanity and prevention of unnecessary deaths, both prefer evangelization to direct combat, and the services that they trade across the line are perilously close to treasonous.
Extreme Libido: Ironically, subverted. It's easy to read him as obsessed with having sex with every angel, demon, etheral and human he meets, and that's the impression he aims to give off, but it's not actually the sex that matters to him. He does it ensure he has control over others — for him, sex is a means to an end rather then something that's actually valuable in itself.
Hot as Hell: He only takes beautiful vessels, and typically demands his servitors do too unless there's a very good reason. Even if he did take an ugly form, it's likely his Word would make him impossibly appealing anyway.
Living Aphrodisiac: His Word makes people horny around him whether they like it or not, and most of his granted powers revolve around making people aroused against their will or otherwise eroding their ability to consent.
Lust: Andrealphus' Word and sin of choice, embodied as a sterile, empty and predatory thing focused solely on the selfish and short-sighted pursuit of physical pleasure at the expense of both personal growth and of the person from whom pleasure is extracted. In this, Adrealphus stands in particular contrast to Eli, the Archangel of Creation, who embraces sex as a joining of loving bodies and as an act of creation.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: Most Archangels, and even more Demon Princes, see Andrealphus as a weakling. He likes it that way; under the radar, he's been responsible for far more than his share of corrupted mortals and Fallen angels, and the sexual revolution and his alliance with the Media have been reaping a substantial harvest.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Most people see him as nothing but a cosmic playboy with no greater plans than determining whose bed he'll be in that night. He makes sure of it.
Safety in Indifference: As Love, he never quite recovered from all the heartbreak the War inflicted on the world. Lust is his attempt to emotionally disconnect himself from everything and ensure he never suffers the same way again.
Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: Andrealphus's favorite trope. Just liking sex usually isn't enough to get a person damned, but a person who honestly believes that they're doing something evil by seeking out sex is both discouraging themselves from seeking out healthy outlets for their sexual desires and putting themselves in the mindset to sin again.
Sexual Deviance Is Evil: He's very strongly connected to kink and other such "weird" sexual acts in his writeups.
Succubi and Incubi: He's the archetypal example in the setting, and his servitors are sent to fill the role in other realms.
Tsundere: Despite his best efforts, he is still capable of caring about people. Those unfortunates who he starts to feel for find themselves suffering the worst of his cruelty, as he violently proves to himself that he has no such weakness.
Wilfully Weak: His word is a powerful one, universal and near-indestructable, and he's one of the oldest and most connected Demon Princes. He could easily be a bigger player in Hell then he is, but he has no interest in painting a target on his head. Better to just be the horny pervert with no ambitions beyond getting laid — at least until he's prepared enough to make a power play stick.

Asmodeus, Prince of the Game

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_asmodeus.jpg

The world is a game, whose rules must be followed.

Asmodeus is a Djinn, the leader of Hell's secret police, and one of the most powerful people in Hell. He enforces the laws of the Pit ruthlessly, weeding out any demon suspect of hindering Lucifer's plans or of seeking to defect, and is greatly feared and hated by his peers. He also has an unofficial, off-the-books agreement with Dominic, his Heavenly counterpart, where their agents will collaborate on tracking down renegade demons and rogue angels on Earth.

Alternate Character Interpretation: His writeup gives him three — dropping the order part of his word to make him a cosmic gamer complete with video games and tournament arcs, dropping the game metaphor to make him a brutal enforcer of order at all costs, and making him a pitiful victim of his own success, twisted into Lucifer's pawn by his own Word.
Asmodeus: Asmodeus, the Demon Prince of the Game, is the overseer of Hell's secret police, and charges his followers with hunting down and destroying any demons whose actions would interfere with Hell's plans or who could defect to the side of the angels. Physically, he resembles a tall man with red skin, pointed ears, and horns.
The Chessmaster: Everything Asmodeus does, down to his tone of voice, is a conciously calculated play on his part. He's also extremely good at actual chess.
Chess Motifs: Currently, although its mentioned that he's used other games as symbols in the past and might do so in the future ("We must pwn the noobs of heaven and collect the phat loot drops of Fate...")
City of the Damned: He rules one in the form of Hades, although it's more a grey police state then the violent anarchy of most examples.
Creepy Monotone: He intentionally speaks like this, knowing it makes the few times he shows genuine anger even more impactful.
Enemy Mine: Normally, an Archangel and his Evil Counterpart are Arch-Enemies, but this is not the case for Dominic and Asmodeus. They instead have a secret alliance across battle lines for the purpose of hunting Outcasts and Renegades. Dominic's angels and Asmodeus' demons are often assigned to cooperate for this reason.
Evil Counterpart: To Dominic, his former superior. Dominic, while stern, harsh and extremely moralistic, is driven by a genuine sense of ethics and desire to enforce justice, will listen to pleas and extenuating circumstances, and will enforce no more punishment than he feels is just and appropriate. Asmodeus is a profound nihilist who cares for nothing but personal power and does not believe anyone — not God, not Lucifer, not himself — to be anything more than an opportunistic tyrant, sees all laws as arbitrary tools, informs his judgements solely based on what would be useful for him, and doles out punishments sadistically and as harshly as he can get away with.
Great Big Library of Everything: Asmodeus' archive in Hell is an ultra-comprehensive store of legal contracts and laws, is very byzantine, and it's difficult to find anything there without approval. Trying to find something without approval is likely to get a demon sentenced to indexing until the sought item is found.
Loophole Abuse: He's a very skilled practicioner of it. He supports it in his servitors as well... as long as they're good at it.
Not a Metaphor: Most people assume his treating the world as a game is an elaborate metaphor. It isn't, at least from his perspective — he genuinely considers the Symphony a literal game. Among other things, this means its rules are completely arbitrary, based on nothing and can be changed by whoever's running it. To him, God is literally just the universe's GM, and there's no reason anyone else can't take the role and retcon the campaign.
Mundane Utility: While his Word primarily revolves around concepts like dispassionate strategy and manipulating the rules of situations, it does make him superhumanly good at mundane games should it ever come up.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: He runs the infernal beauracracy, and very intentionally not in a way that makes it efficent or helpful.
In Their Own Image: His ultimate goal is to reshape the world into a new state with rules that better favour him.
Secret Police: His forces perform this role for Hell. Much of its effort goes into tracking down Renegade demons and bringing them home to "face justice".
Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: He personifies law as arbitrary declarations that are followed purely because a higher power says to rather than for any good reason — rules of a game, rather then moral obligations.
The Spymaster: He's the spymaster of Hell, and he takes great pride in no-one — maybe not even Lucifer — being fully aware of what he knows or who works for him.
The Starscream: While most demons see Lucifer as The Antigod, Asmodeus sees him as just one more piece in the game — an important one, but ultimately sacrificable. Indeed, given he wants to be the one running the game after Hell takes control of the board, he acknowledges it might benefit him to do so.
We Are Everywhere: A one-person example. While most Superiors show up radiating power, Asmodeus can pass flawlessly as a human and is more then happy to take uncharacteristic forms. Any random bystander might be Asmodeus in disguise, and more then a few of his servitors have friends or contacts that are secretly him. A smart servant of Asmodeus knows to trust no-one.
Villainous Crush: It's rumoured by more reckless demons that he might have one on Blandine, Archangel of Dreams. Obviously no-one has asked him for comment, but his oddly personal obsession with her is strange for someone who mostly dismisses dreams as nothings...

Baal, Prince of the War

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_baal.jpg

The world is a war — and the demons are out to win it.

The former Archangel of Valor and one of the eldest celestials in existence, Baal is the Balseraph who leads Hell's armies and a killer, but a cultured one. Baal is more of a strategist than a fighter, expecting absolute loyalty and leading his troops with expert precision, but also keeps a number of monstrous, alien vessels in reserve, just in case he should ever need to get his hands dirty.

Been There, Shaped History:
- Played with. Baal has fomented his share of bloody conflicts, but he is always quick to point out the many, many wars that he had no hand in. Baal likes to emphasize these specifically because they help support his point that humans are pathetic and unworthy beings — if all historic disasters were made by Princely intervention, then it might seem that God's belief in the worth of the human spirit might be onto something after all. The fact that the apes don't need any external encouragement to slaughter one another, Baal says, is all the proof he needs that he was right all along.
- On a more mythical level, it's good as confirmed that he was the one responsible for Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit and being thrown from Eden.
Control Freak: Baal doesn't tolerate any degree of disobedience. Any demon of Baal showing personal initiative is either an extremely favoured servant, or completely doomed come debrief. This explictly extends to servitors disobeying orders that they know to be going against Baal's wishes and desires — he will deal with the problem on his own time, but does not tolerate disobedience to rank even when it benefits him and his goals.
Evil Is Petty: Ultimately, all of this — the war, the corruption, the slaughter, the soul-deaths — is done for the purpose of getting Michael to admit Baal is better then him.
Friendly Enemy: Downplayed with Michael. They are ultimately the champions of opposite sides, and each fully expects and intends to kill the other when the final battle comes. However, they also still respect one another and their old, lost bond as comrades-in-arms, and from time to time they will meet under a peace banner to reminisce about how things used to be in the dawn of days and grumble about the younger generations.
Forever War: The primary difference between his word and Michael's. Michael represents simple fighting and struggle down to an individual level, but in all cases fights that can end. Baal represents the cosmos at war, with Hell simply refusing to let peace occur except by conditions of they or their enemies being dead.
Green-Eyed Monster: His Fall was motivated chiefly by his bitter jealousy of Michael. The two ancient beings were friends, but Baal secretly resented how the elder Seraph would always get more respect than he did, and how he would likely go through eternity as "the mightiest of the Archangels... except for Michael". Lucifer found it rather easy to inflame this jealousy into open resentment.
Kill All Humans: With the possible exception of Beleth, no demon hates humanity quite as much as Baal. To him, humanity's very existence is a personal insult, and he's eagerly waiting for his peers to give him the go ahead to openly invade Earth and wipe them out.
Leave No Survivors: One of his rites allows his demons to regain essence by making sure that no enemy survivors remain after a battle.
Noble Demon: Downplayed. Baal does retain some of his sense of honour as Archangel of Valour — as long as following it wouldn't make him lose.
No-Nonsense Nemesis: This is mentioned as the aspect of his personality to lean into for a more serious and threatening depiction of Hell. Other princes might get distracted with self-indulgence and petty cruelty, but Baal is focused, competent and utterly ruthless. His organization is a well-trained, well-prepared, well-ordered military force, not a mob of cackling supervillains, and far more dangerous for it.
Omnicidal Maniac: He's not there yet, but he's well on the way. He wants to win the war, and questions like "but will Earth/Hell/anything survive?" are becoming progressively less important to him. He's so far held back, but some are getting concerned that if the war goes on much longer, he'd happily silence the whole symphony rather then admit defeat.
One-Winged Angel: He has "combat vessels", which are monstrous war forms he can take when he needs to personally enter the battle.
Reasonable Authority Figure: One of the only Demon Princes who can even half-way claim this. He'll happily slaughter incompetent minions but beyond that he rewards good behaviour, reins in abusive lieutenants and avoids selfishly pulling rank. He's far from a good boss but, as Demon Princes go, he's positively heroic.
Pragmatic Villainy: Why he's a Reasonable Authority Figure. Other Princes might sabotage their servants in whatever way (from telling them to do stupid things to destroying them for frivolous reasons) due to their egos and personal obsessions, but Baal is in the War to win, damnit (...literally). He's consistently meritocratic and will only punish his subordinates if they actually screw up, because he wants his servants to work together and generally be the most effective army possible. Petty bullying and intrigue just mean more weaknesses for the angels to exploit when the last trumpet sounds.
Pride: His fatal flaw was ultimately his pride. Baal took immense satisfaction in being one of the eldest and greatest beings in existence, and built a great deal of his self-image on the nobility and value of his age, his power, his splendor, and his rank. This resulted in two problems: firstly, his status as almost, but not quite, the top of the angelic pecking order led him to deeply resent his subordinate status to Michael, the truly eldest and mightiest Seraph (Lucifer, who was also older, avoided the issue by being so ingratating and flattering that Baal never registered him as a rival); secondly, he could not bear the thought of God giving His favor to something so lowly, so pathetic, so degraded as human beings, or of accepting such animals as greater than angels. Once the Eden experiment went underway, Baal's Fall was assured.
The Strategist: He's in charge of Hell's strategy, and even angels have to admit his genius — he's likely one of the reasons that Hell is still a significant rival to Heaven.
Wicked Cultured: To the suprise of many who expect the Demon Prince of the War to be a savage brute, Baal is an elegant, suave and cultured entity. The savage brute is waiting underneath the demenour, though, so few trust him.

Beleth, Princess of Nightmares

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/princess_beleth.jpg

The world is terror; a never-ending nightmare.

Once, Beleth, was a Cherub, and the Angel of Fear. Ancient even by the standards of celestials, she and Beleth had been the first two of God's creations to love one another, and took complementing roles in guiding humanity; as Blandine taught it to aspire to greatness, Beleth used fear as a teaching tool to guide them away from dangerous paths. Over time, however, Beleth grew to bitterly despise her subservient role and Blandine's greater prestige, and was easily drawn into Lucifer's rebellion. She is now the Princess of Nightmares and Djinn, and her heart is filled with nothing but hate — for those pathetic mortals, for the angels she fights, for her former lover, for her rivals in Hell, for her wretched servants, for Lucifer and his lies, and for herself. She lashes out against the world, seeking to punish existence by turning it into an endless nightmare; she is deeply feared, and this fear is one of the few things left that bring her joy.

Arch-Enemy: Beleth's primary enemy and opposite is Blandine, the Archangel of Dreams and her former lover. They fight a constant battle over the minds and dreams of mortals, and have ever since Beleth betrayed her lover during the Fall.
Being Evil Sucks: One presented option for her character is that behind all the scariness and hatred, she really just misses Blandine and regrets her betrayal.
The Dreaded: Beleth is a figure of dread and fear among angels and demons alike. Her talent for brining fears to heart-stopping life means that even the greatest Malakim exchange nervous glances when discussing her. The Princes of Hell know that she spies for Lucifer and will not even work alongside her if they can help it for fear of what she may find — or place — in their heads.
Dreams vs. Nightmares: Beleth and her demon underlings try to get humans to choose the path of evil by sending them terrifying dreams, and also because they just like torturing people by preventing them from getting a good night's sleep. Every night they war against Blandine and her angelic servitors, who seek to prevent this.
Hates Everyone Equally: One of her character interpretations is that she holds an Ebon Dragon-like hatred for everyone and everything to exist, desiring to see each of them trapped in their personal worst nightmares.
I Know What You Fear: Her Calabite attunement allows its bearers to see a person's worst fear.
Nightmare Weaver: Beleth's servants gain a number of abilities related to creating, strengthening and seeding nightmares.
Never Be Hurt Again: What lies at the core of her drive to spread fear — "The creatures of Beleth defend themselves from life by becoming the most terrifying things in it." As well as the general spreading of fear, she embodies the drive to become monstrous to protect oneself, and she pushes many humans to their fates by getting them to hurt others rather then risk being hurt themselves. And, as much as she may deny it, that's the real reason she's so focused on being the most terrifying thing in creation herself.
The Resenter: Her resentment towards the more prestigious Blandine is what intially led to her Falling. Since then, that resentment has twisted over the millenia to encompass literally everything in the world. Other demons may be more destructive, but no-one hates quite like Beleth.
Sadist: While admittedly not a trait rare among Demon Princes, most tend towards large-scale atrocities. Not so much Beleth, who's the most personal torturer in Hell. She doesn't just want to make humans suffer, she wants to make each individual human suffer in the way that hurts them the most.

Belial, Prince of Fire

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_belial.jpg

The world is burning — like the ovens at Belsen, like the eyes of a madman, like the heart of the Prince of Fire.

Once, long ago, Belial was a common Ofanite in the service of Gabriel. When Lucifer began to plot rebellion, he promised Belial the Word of Fire in exchange for his support, and did his best to make good on that promise when the rebellion fell. Nowadays, the Calabite Prince of Fire is a brute with pretensions of sophistication; he favors well-built vessels dressed in fine suits, but at heart he's little more than a madman seeking to burn the whole world down.

Ammunition Backpack: He often appears wearing a flamethrower with a fuel tank backpack.
Arch-Enemy: He's this to his former master, Gabriel. The two struggle constantly for control of their Word in an enmity that has become legendary among Celestials, and this conflict is credit as a major reason for Gabriel's poor mental state.
Been There, Shaped History: Belial has a habit of wandering the Earth in search of interesting things to set alight. As such, he has been present for a lot of famous conflagrations: he was there for the Great Fire of Rome, the burning of the Library of Alexandria, and the Great Fire of London, started the Great Chicago Fire outright, took efforts to confuse and disorganize firemen after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake to help its resulting fires spread out of control, and was a cheerful spectator at the atomic bomb droppings and the Chernobyl disaster.
The Brute: He's no subtle manipulator. Him and his servants show up on Earth for one reason — burn everything they can find to the ground.
Burn Scars, Burning Powers: Belial is the Demon Prince of Fire and has great control over fire. His skin is covered in burn scars.
Fire and Brimstone Hell: Sheol, his Principality, is the place most earthly depictions of Hell are describing. The exact details vary — lava, burning forests, hot coals, bombs, napalm — but everything's burning all the time.
God of Fire: He embodies the Word of Fire, giving him a level of power over and connection to the flame far greater than that of any Ethereal deity. Unlike Gabriel, who represents more figurative interpretations of the Word, Belial strictly focuses on fire as an agent of destruction and consumption.
Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much of a spark to ignite Belial's wrath.
The Horde: Much to the annoyance of more organised agents of Hell like Baal or Asmodeus, Belial's "organisation" can be boiled down to a bunch of crazed killers who are given flamethrowers, pointed at Earth and told to go nuts. He's been persuaded to bring a little more structure lately, but even so, most of his demons are near-literal loose cannons.
Immune to Fire: Servants of Belial elevated to the rank of Baron cannot be harmed by any kind of heat, and can temporarily pass this immunity to other beings by touch.
Man of Wealth and Taste: As part of his attempts to give an aura of sophistication. The fact he combines this with a fully functional flame thrower kind of puts the lie to it.
Set the World on Fire: Many Demon Princes have complex, subtle plans wrapped in layers of neurosis and self-deception. Not so much Belial, whose goals and motives start and end at "everything should be on fire all the time".
Playing with Fire: Belial is far more focused on Fire's literal meaning than Gabriel is, and his servants grant a number of abilities focusing on creating and controlling flames.
Pointy-Haired Boss: Belial barely govens his servitors, and doesn't really pay much attention to anything that isn't happening directly in front of him. Most of his demons find they can do whatever they like short of redemption or active revolt.
Wicked Pretentious: He likes to think of himself as a suave, sophisticated villain. What he is is a half-mad brutish pyromaniac who occasionally puts on a nice suit.

Fleurity, Prince of Drugs

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_fleurity.jpg

The world is a drug, and I am, as they say, the Man.

The Habbalah Fleurity is only the latest in a long line of demons to hold the Word of Drugs, but also one of the most successful. Fleurity's stock in trade is degradation of the soul, driving people into pits of selfish pleasure with one hand and fomenting violent, brutal reprisals with the other. The Colombian drug cartels are one of his greatest tools; so is the War on Drugs.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors 4: Rogues to Riches provides a few alternate views of his character, according to which he may be a slave to his own product doomed to be disposed of and forgotten about by the other Princes or a comical stoner stereotype looking for God at the bottom of a bong.
Bald of Evil: As part of his tightly controlled, professional front, he usually manifests with a smoothly shaved head.
Beard of Evil: His favored physical form sports a neat, sharply trimmed goatee.
Been There, Shaped History: He originally obtained his Word after goading the British into selling narcotics in China and starting the Opium War, rose to fame by inflaming the United States' drug panics and eventual passing of disproportionate control laws, and earned his Princedom on the twin impetus of the crack epidemic and the War on Drugs.
Drugs Are Bad: He both embodies this as the Prince of Drugs and works to spread this view. While he's certainly not opposed to casual drug use, his ideal vision of drugs is as a thing that is believed to be evil, but used anyway; the combination of the forbidden fruit effect and the mindset created by overwhelming temptation to do what one sees as evil create large populations of desperate and miserable people unlikely to even try to get clean and are thus bound to his Principality upon death. He also wants drugs to be just illegal enough that brutal criminal organizations control their trade, but not so illegal as to restrict their usage.
Man of Wealth and Taste: Fleurity enjoys affecting the appearence of a cultured, suave man of buisness. When manifesting, he takes the appearence of a handsome younger man, clad in a tailored steel-grey suit, with a shaved head and a sharply trimmed goatee, leaning on a cane and smoking a cigar. He also takes pains to hide the worst of his Habbalah disfigurements, keeping them tucked out of sight beneath his suit except usually for a small earring.
Running Both Sides: Of the drug trade. It's a pretty good deal; his cartels spread violence and addict people to hard drugs, while his police programs prevent drug addicts from seeking help or getting medical attention out of fear of penalties for drug possession, with the bonus of driving young people to seek out drugs through misinformation and the temptation of the forbidden.
The Stoner: An alternate take on Fleurity proposed in Superiors 4: Rogues to Riches for more comical campaigns has him as a mellow, tie-dye wearing stoner who spends his days blissfully floating around on the Black Lotus alongside his Santana records and collection of hand-made bongs, requiring his Servitors to keep the Principality afloat in his stead while their Prince looks for God at the bottom of a bowl.

Furfur, Prince of Hardcore

The world is just hardcore, man.

A Calabite formerly in Belial's service, Furfur hatched a grand scheme to become a Prince by invoking Lucifer and demanding a Word and title. His efforts make up the storyline of Night Music, the first installement of the Revelations cycle, and seem him successfully becoming the Prince of Hardcore. He is currently the most junior Superior in Hell, blissfully unaware of his immense unpopularity with his erstwhile peers and lack of political acumen or capital.

Ensign Newbie: While his bid for Princehood does canonically succeed, he relied heavily on the support of Lilith and Nybbas to come to power, and alienated Belial in the process. He has no true allies, merely people who he owes and dire enemies. He may be too stupid to realize this.
Rock Me, Asmodeus!: The Revelations Cycle starts with his attempt to get himself promoted to Demon Prince of Rock and Roll by performing a song intended to summon Lucifer — the song needs to be sung ten million times to work, so Furfur records himself singing it, tricks a rock band into performing it, and dubs his own voice over the radio broadcast. Lucifer grants his wish, but on a whim makes Furfur the Demon Prince of Hardcore instead.

Haagenti, Prince of Gluttony

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_haagenti.jpg

The world is starving — it must be fed.

The Calabite Prince of Gluttony began life relatively recently, as demons go, as a lowly, abused familiar. He promised himself that one day he would eat those who had used him, and — with some help from Kobal — grew in power and size until he eventually became a Prince, which he celebrated by devouring the Princes that he liked the least. In the modern day, Haagenti appears as a hairy, horned, many-limbed beast with a maw ringed by razor-sharp fangs, skittering and leaping, and devouring anything he can get his hands on.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: Pleasures of the Flesh provides a few alternate views of his character, according to which he may be gluttonous comic relief too busy stuffing himself to do anything evil, or a manipulative mastermind who carefully encourages destructive and harmful forms of consumption. The same book also describes an alternate female version of Haagenti who unlike her monstrous male default form is outwardly beautiful but just as dim, hungry and crass and who is presented as much as the demon of consumerism as much as 'pure' gluttony (it is noted she loves crashing expensive cars and growing bored with her haute coture clothing and jewellery half way through meetings and destroying them, demanding equally priceless replacements.)
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humour: He's an ally of Kobal and tries to play the part. Alas, while Kobal's jokes are funny and clever in a very dark way, Haagenti's jokes are very blunt "slapstick" of the "set a guy on a fire and laugh while he tries to put himself out" kind. Most of the servitors of Dark Humour find it trite, most of everyone else finds it indistinguishable from random homocide. Haagenti finds it hilarious, though.
Food as Bribe: One of the more reliable ways to distract Haagenti and his minions is to offer them food. Pleasures of the Flesh suggests emphasizing this in scenarios where Haagenti is played for comic relief, such as by depicting them as very easily bribed or distracted with anything edible ("Hey, is that a truckload of mozzarella?")
From Nobody to Nightmare: Haagenti began life as a lowly, abused familiar. He promised to himself that he would one day devour those who had wronged him, and over time managed to increase his power until he became the Prince of Gluttony.
Genius Ditz: He's not as stupid as he comes across. He's just very focused in his intelligence — when it comes to plans to devour something, he's easily as brilliant as any of his peers. Less so in other areas but then again, why would he care to plan for anything else?
I Taste Delicious: In his commentary on Beleth, Haagenti mentions that she once gave him a nightmare where he was eating himself, and when he woke up he started gnawing on his own leg. He didn't mind the experience — he quite liked how he tasted.
I once dreamed I got so hungry I started gnawing on my own leg. Then I woke up and TRIED it. Ha! Some nightmare! I taste goooood!
Killer Rabbit: His default form is a 3ft tall furry gremlin. A 3ft tall furry gremlin who's killed and eaten two superiors singlehandedly.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Most Demon Princes think that Haagenti is only slightly smarter than Saminga, obsessed with constantly eating more and more and more. A couple of Princes — and Michael, Archangel of War — think that he's a lot smarter than he's letting on, and they're waiting a bit nervously for the other shoe to drop.
Obsessed with Food: He loves to eat, all the time.
One-Track-Minded Hunger: He spends all his time either eating or getting more food, and anyone around him is at risk of becoming his next meal.
Unwitting Pawn: To Kobal, and likely to lots of other people too. He's not quite as unwitting as he first seems, though, and has been putting steps in place for when he outlives his usefulness. But for now, as long as the food keeps coming, he doesn't care whose agenda he supports.
Villainous Glutton: Haagenti is a vicious beast with few ambitions beyond indulging his indiscriminate appetite and feasting upon his enemies.

Kobal, Prince of Dark Humor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_kobal.png

The world is a joke, and humanity is the punchline.

Humor is one of God's great gifts, fostering friendship and making misfortune bearable. Kobal the Calabite, who once was the Angel of Laughter, specializes in perverting this gift, turning humor into mockery, making reverence into blasphemy, and disguising hatred as levity, all under the guise of good fun. In Hell he acts as a court jester of sorts, saying with an easy laugh the things that other Princes wouldn't dare even think.

Actually Pretty Funny: He's able to laugh at himself, and a disobedient servant might evade punishment if they can make their disobedience witty enough. They'd just better be damn sure they're actually funny enough to pull it off — if there's one thing Kobal hates more then a disobedient minion, it's a disobedient bore.
Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: Pleasures of the Flesh provides a few alternate views of his character, according to which he may be a destructive mocker who only takes fleeting contentment from the suffering of others, or a whimsical joker who's lasted as long as he has only through Lucifer's protection.
Beware the Silly Ones: You wouldn't expect "Dark Humour" to be a threat on the level of "Death" and "Fire", would you? Neither do a lot of people in-universe. But they really, really should.
Black Comedy: The only humor he can appreciate is when someone suffers as part of it.
Dude, Not Funny!: Perhaps the one trope Kobal disdains most. In his view, people really being hurt because/as part of his jokes just makes the joke even funnier. He's the sort of person who'd tell a bomb joke in Hiroshima and keep a stash of Twin Towers jokes for every September 11th.
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Kobal is the Prince of Dark Humor — just so we're clear, his favorite joke was the Children's Crusade, and he thinks that Christopher, Archangel of Children, can't take a joke.
Faux Affably Evil: He can, as the Demon Prince of Dark Humour, come across as a harmless comedian interested in nothing but the next punchline. But he's just as as evil as the other Princes, and just as dangerous. He's just better at hiding it.
Hidden Agenda Villain: Sure, he wants to promote Dark Humour and make the world laugh at misfortune. But what is his Big Joke? Why did he invest so much into Haagenti? What secret mission did God give him just before the fall, and is he still (willingly or unwillingly) following it? Hell's Jester hasn't played all his cards yet, and those who realise how much mystery there is around him are getting worried.
Laughably Evil: Invoked. His jokes and silliness make it seem like he's not that bad a guy — which is entirely his plan. His sense of humour is monstrous, he's just good at making it seem affable.
Omnicidal Neutral: He's hidden it well, but Kobal wants the War to be over. At this point, he doesn't care whether Hell wins, or even whether the world survives. He's planning his "Big Joke", something that will end the war for good...one way or another.
Sad Clown: While he'd never admit it, he's been increasingly tired over the last century. He's sick of the war, sick of being treated like a clown, sick of everything. He's heard all the jokes and played all the pranks, and everything else is just repeats. More and more, he's starting to feel the ultimate joke was on him all along.
Too Funny to Be Evil: His (offical) primary goal in the world. By presenting genuine evil as something wacky and silly, he can push people towards their fate all in good fun. Every time someone sees another person's wickedness as a joke, he gets just a bit more power.
Who's Laughing Now?: His silly word and reputation have kept him safe and helped his plans, but he's grown sick of not being respected despite his power. He's planning to do something that will put him on the map and show everyone how dangerous he really is.

Kronos, Prince of Fate

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_kronos.jpg

The world is sliding towards the Pit — but not quickly enough.

Kronos is the most powerful figure in Hell after Lucifer himself. He and his servants are the only demons with a connection to the greater Symphony, which they use to pervert it and to exploit its weaknesses. Their task is to identify the mortals with the greatest potential, whose Destinies lie bright and shining ahead of them — and crush them under the dark hand of Fate.

Officially, Kronos is a Balseraph. In truth, he's something much darker — a higher being, or perhaps a manifestation of God, much like Yves, but somehow Fallen. Probably Fallen. Probably a higher being. Few things are certain about Kronos, and he keeps his cards close to his chest.

The Antigod: Ironically, for all that Lucifer claims this position, Kronos is likely the closest example in the setting — he's still connected to the divine Symphony in a way other demons are no longer capable of, can infiltrate Heaven and is in at least some sense a true higher power. It's strongly implied he's a fallen aspect of God, putting him well above his alleged master.
Beneath Notice: While other Demon Princes rant, rave and monologue, Kronos is just stood quietly in the background, ignoring the politics of the pit and slowly turning the world to rot.
Beware the Quiet Ones: Amidst the torture pits, battlefields and monstrous horrors of Hell, he's a little old man quietly sitting in his office. But he might well be the biggest threat to the Symphony that exists.
"He doesn't rant or smash things like his peers do, but everyone who crosses his path will be the worse for it."
Eldritch Abomination: What exactly he is known to neither the libraries of heaven nor the lord of hell, but it's a open secret that whatever he is, it's something far darker and more alien then just a powerful demon.
Enlightened Antagonist: While the rest of Hell falls into squabbles, power plays and petty self-interest, Kronos is focused entirely on the perfect darkness of Fate. In every way he gives off the sense of a higher being that transcends even the Celestial realm...and looks on everything beneath it with unending hatred.
Evil Counterpart: To Yves. On the surface, they represent opposite Words — Yves embodies the shining Destiny that each being can aspire to, while Kronos works to drive them towards their darkest Fate. On a deeper level, they're both probably the same type of entity — some kind of celestial higher than angels, or manifestations of the mind of God, but Kronos has become twisted and Fallen. Probably. A quiet rumor in Heaven and Hell speculates that Yves and Kronos may represent the Destiny and Fate of God Himself, opposite drives in the Symphony as it attempts to determine what its true nature shall be.
Faux Affably Evil: Kronos is always polite to everyone, and never loses his temper. After all, anyone he might have a problem with... isn't around anymore.
Great Big Library of Everything: Kronos' Archive is a dark mockery of Yves' Library in the form of a comprehensive and thorough store of every tome on demonology ever penned, alongside the records and bookkeeping of Hell itself and histories of the War and treatises on the universe written from the demons' point of view.
Humanoid Abomination: Unnervingly, his celestial, physical and ethereal forms all look the same. A little old man, with no signs of illusion or transformation. This only adds to the question of what he is and where he came from, as this isn't the case for anything else — except Yves, which answers some questions while raising many more.
Outside-Context Problem: Yves understands what Kronos is, but not where he came from. He has no memory of ever naming him, nor of any being that could have Fallen to become him. This gap is unique to Kronos and worries Yves immensely.
Shrouded in Myth: Nobody, save maybe Lucifer and Kronos himself, truly knows what Kronos actually is and where he comes from. The official line is that he's a Balseraph. In actuality, he's... well, probably something like Yves, whatever that actually is, and definitely more than just a fallen angel. The most popular theories among those who suspect is that he's either a member of some higher celestial order of beings, an embodiment of the Symphony itself, or an aspect of God broken off by the War in Heaven. One demon NPC believes that he's actually Jesus, caused to Fall by the trauma of the Crucifixion and death.
The Stoic: No matter what happens, Kronos never express anything more then a furrowed brow or faint smile.
Tall Poppy Syndrome: His main difference from Yves (beyond, you know, whether humanity should be destroyed). He doesn't hugely care about each minor "destiny to feed a stray cat" or "fate to be rude to a cashier", instead focusing on the brightest destinies and darkest fates. Yves, meanwhile, wants everyone to reach their Destiny, no matter how minor it may be. So far, evidence is unclear as to which strategy is most effective.

Malphas, Prince of Factions

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_malphas_9.jpg

The world is a chaotic patron of factions within factions — but in the end, we have no allies at all. Each of us is a faction of one.

Malphas, a Shedite, has an interesting position in Hell. He's unique among demons, especially demons of stature, in being fairly well-liked; he's in favor with Lucifer, popular with his peers, and respected by his servants. He returns none of these affections. Malphas is a paranoid, manipulative monster, constantly playing everyone against everyone else because he fears them and because he can. This is precisely what Lucifer counts on; if his princes are kept busy fighting each other, they will not team up against him.

Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: His job is to reduce society to a horde of paranoid lunatics who are unable to trust anyone at all (after all, they can't betray you if you betray them first). Even his own followers are prone to this, and the core book states that Malphas is actually able to backstab himself. The only reason he hasn't tried to overthrow Lucifer is that he's too busy making his fellow Demon Princes fight among themselves (and that he's smart enough to know that he would be destroyed if he did try). This is also said to be why Lucifer keeps him around; with Malphas in play, the rest of Hell will never get organized enough to overthrow the Prince of Darkness.
It's All About Me: Even by the standards of a demon. For most demons, they're the only being that matters. For Malphas, in his heart of hearts, he's sure he's the only being that exists.
I Work Alone: He's obsessed with isolation, and was even before he fell. His ideal world is one in which only he exists, and his primary interpretation of his word is the pursuit of isolation by driving away everyone who could work with you.
Properly Paranoid: He is absolutely right about everyone in Hell being out to get him; everyone in Hell is out to get everyone else. That said, he wants people to be Improperly Paranoid; if they're too busy investigating their friends, then they won't see their enemies (like him) coming.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Subverted. He does stoke bigotry, but he has no particular objection to any group (unless you're counting the group of 'everyone who isn't Malphas'); he ultimately desires the isolation of every individual from every other individual and, while stoking racial, religious, sexual or other tensions is a good way to start fracturing society, he views this as simply a means to a larger end. "In the end, we're all a faction of one".
The Sociopath: Or some angelic equivalent, at least. Even before falling he had almost no emotional life, no desire for company or emotional connections and no guilt.
Villain with Good Publicity: While most Princes who affect to compassion, charm or nobilty have the facade clearly skin deep, Malphas is one of the few princes who is actually well-liked. It's no less fake, of course.
We ARE Struggling Together: Any group with Malphas in it will quickly degenerate into this.

Mammon, Prince of Greed

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_mammon.png

The world is full of worthy things, and they should all belong to you.

The Balseraph Mammon is a simple brute, and lives by a simple creed — Creation is full of fine, fine things, and he wants them all. Everything that he sees belongs to him, as far as he cares; so does everything else, he just hasn't gotten around to appraising it yet. Mammon is something a political archaism in Hell, and has been struggling to keep up with changing times. This can be seen even in his choice in appearence, as he still favors manifesting as a fat medieval merchant, all rich velvet and dagged sleeves and draped in heavy golden jewelry.

Alternative Character Interpretation: While the "default" Mammon is both a fool and a fading power, Superiors 4: Rogues to Riches also gives an alternative take of him as every bit as cunning and dangerous as he thinks he is, with his supposed weakness merely a ruse to disguise his true strength.
Arch-Enemy: Marc, Archangel of Trade, has a cold, intellectual loathing for Mammon, whom he sees as the embodiment of profit over principle. Mammon, on the other hand, sees Marc as a fellow profiteer — alike in mind, to be sure, but a dangerous competitor as well. The two struggle furiously for control of human economies, and their economic and ethical battles have become the stuff of legend among celestials.
Bad Boss: Mammon views himself as owning his servants just as much as he owns his riches, and wants to make sure that they know this. When he drops in for a visit, his minions are expected to drop everything and make with the bootlicking, and will be made to perform a variety of menial, disgusting, and humiliating tasks for a few coins or a grubby handful of banknotes — and this can range from serving him his meals to crawling around on their bellies, licking his shoes clean, or performing "more intimate services". Mammon will only mellow out once his is fully satsified that his servants know who owns them.
Blood Oath: Mammon's favored way of sealing contracts with mortals is to have them sign with their own blood. This is for practical reasons more so than symbolic — the supernatural link between the blood and its original owner can be used to track down the signee should they try to run.
Characterization Marches On: Mammon first appeared in Heaven and Hell and is treated quite differently from his later, expanded writeup in Superiors 4: Rogues to Riches. Originally, Mammon was presented as a cunning and serious power with no particular hostility to Haagenti. The later writeup has him as a self-absorbed buffoon whose power base in Hell is being badly eroded by the Prince of Gluttony, who might well be eyeing him as his next snack.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mammon's servants are expected to be ruthless, amoral profiteers driven by a thirst for material wealth and absolutely nothing else. Progress in his organization is done strictly through crooked deals, wholesale buyouts and open backstabbing, and a Miser's work on Earth is devoted to making sure that this kind of culture remains firmly in charge of the mortal financial world.
Deal with the Devil: Due to his focus on business and crooked deals, Mammon has a particular focus towards drafting supernatural contracts and suckering others into signing them.
- When he was still a Word-bound demon, he advised his Prince, Asmodeus, to bargain with Lucifer for the right to claim any soul that signed itself away to him in addition to the basic quota all Princes claim. When he became a Superior, Mammon again talked the Devil into granting him this particular largesse. Humans who bargain their souls to a Miser don't automatically go to Hell — it's ultimately just paper, and they need to be damned the usual way — but, on passing the gates of Hell, anyone who entered such a contract is automatically claimed by Mammon, and he emphasizes to his servants that they should offer such deals to as many mortals as they can and then follow through to make sure that their contractors then head directly to the Pit. The highest invocation modifier for attempts to summon him to Earth is in fact a binding contract for a human's immortal soul, freshly signed in blood.
- This extends to the powers granted to his servants. His Balseraphs can place an illusion over legal documents to mask what they say, only revealing their true contents when the desired name is safely on the dotted line. His Knight of Treasure distinction allows demons of this rank to trick reality into thinking that a target has signed something they didn't — for a time, at least. His Art of the Deal attunement allows his servants to, after talking aloud with someone about a deal and agreeing on terms, spontaneously generate a matching contract by reaching into a pocket or briefcase and producing the agreed-on document with a flourish, ironclad and ready to sign.
  "If a duplicate or triplicate of the contract is required, it can be produced with equal aplomb."
Evil Lawyer Joke: One of the factors that increase the change of his answering a call to Earth, in between a wealthy thief and a millionaire who hasn't given anything to charity for a year or more, is a room full of lawyers.
Greed: He embodies the selfish desire to own, to hoard, to claw at everything that catches your eye and to keep it all for yourself not because you have any need or use for it, but because you want it.
Mammon: Mammon is the Prince of Greed, views the gathering of material goods as the highest pursuit in life, and makes his personal domain in a towering skyscraper staffed by the souls of damned magnates and profiteers, eternally doing menial tasks for Mammon's demonic servants. Mammon's demons aren't allowed to give away anything... even the time of day. On Earth, he likes to manifest as a greedy, ostentatious medieval merchant or, of late, as a corporate magnate clad in the most expensive business attire that money can buy. Marc, the Archangel of Trade, has a cold, intellectual loathing for Mammon, seeing him as the embodiment of profit over principle; Mammon, on the other hand, sees Marc as a fellow profiteer.
Taking Candy From A Baby: Literally. One of the advanced rites given to his followers provides a point of Essence if they steal a piece of candy from a baby.

Nybbas, Prince of the Media

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_nybbas.jpg

The world is what you think I say it is, half-off this one-time sale. Call today!

An Impudite and the newest major Prince in Hell, Nybbas was a low-ranking servant of Vapula until 1884, when he and several human allies invented the television. This invention forever altered the way that humans think and dream, and catapulted Nybbas to power.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors: Pleasures of the Flesh provides a few alternate views of his character, according to which he may be a sociopath who'll happily stoop to any atrocity for ratings, a cartoonish studio head stereotype who's more sleazy than evil, or a clever trickster who'll charm you while picking your pocket.
Attention Whore: He almost literally feels like he'll cease to exist if people stop noticing him. Or worse, cease being important and become a nobody again.
Eyes Out of Sight: Nybbas is famous for his reflective glasses, always flickering with static, that he never takes off. No demon in Hell remembers what his eyes even look like.
Faux Affably Evil: He seems far more casual and laid back then most Princes, allowing his minions to refer to him with nicknames and treating them like friends. Pity the poor demon who mistakes this for a forgiving nature or a tolerance for actual disrespect.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Nybbas was still a low-ranking, fairly unimportant demon when Lucifer crowned him Prince of the Media in reward for his invention of the television. Other Princes are well aware of his parallels with Haagenti, which they find especially worrying in light of his barely-concealed disdain for them. Deconstructed in his write-up in Pleasures of the Flesh : Nybbas literally can't believe his luck and is sure the other boot is going to drop soon, if his more established peers don't tear him down first once the shock has worn off. Most of his actions are him scrabbling to cement his position before that happens.
It's All About Me: Even before he got his Word he saw himself as the main character of the universe, with everyone else just bit characters in his life. Becoming the embodiment of the media has only worsened this.
New Media Are Evil: The television is his greatest invention, and one of his main tools for manipulating human minds and hearts. That said, he's much less in control of it than he'd like to pretend.
Religion of Evil: He's working on one by pushing "worship of the media" from metaphor to literal truth. Ultimately, he aims to be worshipped by every human on earth and gain enough power to eclipse both sides of the war.
Scary Shiny Glasses: His glasses are always flickering with static, hiding the eyes.
Stalker without a Crush: He sees Eli, Archangel of Creation, as a natural fit for his organisation, and is constantly working to get him on his side. Eli hates him as the embodiment of every churned out, throwaway work of art in the world
Stepford Smiler: "The Prince of the Media is afraid. Desperately afraid". Beneath the sleazy game show host persona, Nybbas is fully aware of the sheer dumb luck of his position, and lives in constant terror of the other boot dropping.

Saminga, Prince of Death

The world is dead; it just doesn't know it yet.

A Shedite, Saminga is the creator of the undead, a master necromancer, and a puffed-up fool. About three millennia ago, he gathered immense power on the back of his undead, enough so as to potentially threaten even Lucifer, but the Dark Prince has never bothered slapping him down — Saminga is largely content to stay in his realm, gloating over his power and fancying himself the embodiment of death and evil, and too sedentary and complacent to threaten the status quo in Hell.

Beware the Silly Ones: As mentioned in the Gamemaster's guide. He might be a complete idiot who talks like a saturday morning cartoon villian, but he's also an extremely powerful Omnicidal Maniac. However much he cackles and monologues, he's got the highest death toll of anything in the setting, and he's constantly aiming to get it higher.
Big Bad Wannabe: He considers himself the primary force of evil in the setting. Lucifer, the actual primary force of evil in the setting, finds this hilarious.
Evil Is Hammy: He'd almost be a parody of himself if he didn't take himself so seriously.
Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. It's mentioned he's furious at the mass killings of the 20th century...because he had absolutely nothing to do with them, and he can't stand the idea that mere humans might be better killers then the Prince of Death. He's come up with, and discarded, various plans to start his own genocide that he can actually take credit for.
Genius Ditz: In the field of Necromancy he's a genius, almost certainly the greatest practitioner to ever exist. In literally every other area, he's a complete moron.
God of the Dead: Saminga likes to think of himself as this sort of being, viewing Death as the ultimate fate of reality and himself as its supreme master, wielder and embodiment. He styles his realm and organization accordingly, shaping Abaddon to resemble an immense charnel field and filling the ranks of his servants with necromancers and the undead. In practice, he's merely a skilled necromancer with delusions of grandeur.
Necromancy: Saminga is the inventor of necromancy and the creator of the undead. About the only bragging right he truly has is that he knows more about necromancy than anyone alive or dead.
Omnicidal Maniac: In principle, but he doesn't really put much effort into it. However, one Godzilla Threshold mentioned as a possibility that could make Heaven and Hell team up is him getting off his ass and genuinely trying to kill everybody.
Powerful, but Incompetent: A clever demon with Saminga's power and influence would be a genuine threat to Heaven, Earth and likely Hell. In raw power he's easily one of the most powerful superiors in the setting. Luckily for everyone else, Saminga is a lazy idiot who spends most of his time sitting in a wasteland randomly murdering people. The rest of Hell leaves him alone as a mild embarrasment and Heaven generally sees themselves as having bigger fish to fry — David, in a moment of uncharacteristic subtlety, advocates leaving him alone lest Lucifer appoint a competent Prince of Death in his place.
Stupid Evil: In raw power, the Prince of Death is nearly a match for Lucifer himself, but he's too busy being a stereotypical Necromancer and hamming it up to be an effective archvillain.

Valefor, Prince of Theft

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_valefor.jpg

The world is there for the taking, so take whatever you can.

Theft is an old, old concept, but the stylish Calabite Valefor only made his debut on the grand stage of the War a few centuries back, when he stole the yet-unwritten Prophecies of Nostradamus from Yves' library. Since becoming a Prince, Valefor has kept himself busy with grand, flashy heists, but his main contribution is the constant stress that his minions and his Word put on human society.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors 4: Rogues to Riches provides a few alternate views of his character, according to which he may be a freewheeling punk only interested in keeping himself entertained, a double-agent for Lucifer, Asmodeus, Janus, or God Himself, or a supernatural terrorist who will keep striking at his fellows until he's torn the foundations out from under all of Hell.
Been There, Shaped History: Valefor claims responsibility for a number of world-changing thefts in the last millennium or so, such as setting up the Templars' disgrace to loot their treasuries, stealing the sealant for the Spanish Armada's gunpowder barrels, and filching Nikola Tesla's electrotherapy cure for cancer.
Boring, but Practical: His work on Earth mostly consists of encouraging thefts of normal things like money and valuables. Sure, it's boring, but it's a consistent way of keeping on pressure (even at minimum, it wastes people's money and resources and forces them to live in paranoia), occasionally inspires greater crimes (like a burglar killing someone who catches him), and people are much more likely to steal things if they think they'll get away with it.
City Noir: Sin City is a town in Stygia that Valefor has remodeled into a send-up to noir movies, apparently mainly for his entertainment. The result is a maze of perpetually wet streets, lit by streetlamps that always leave deep pools of shadow, home to demonic mafiosos in pinstripe suits and fedoras, mysterious and furtive figures in concealing trenchcoats, and cat burglars in black leather scurrying around the rooftops. His mansion, the Palazzo Furto, lies on a hill overlooking the city.
Genius Loci: Valefor's demesne, the Palazzo Furto, has an awareness of its own that it developed when it was still Genubath's home. Its time spent serving the Prince of Rapine and then the Prince of Theft has left it with an abiding love for stealing, and it will attempt to steal items from any visitors not explictly protected by its master. Somehow or another, the stolen items always wind up among the fences of nearby Stygian towns.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Valefor's moods are notorious for their tendency to shift abruptly, especially when he's presented with bad news or a Servitor's failure story. He might be calmly listening to a minion's report, then suddenly backhand him across the room and beat him senseless with his own arm, then just as abruptly calm down, put his servant back together and send him on his way.
Impossible Theft: He loves to do this, but this is mostly for his own personal enjoyment, because a demon prince picking random bystanders' pockets is just sad. His more notable takes include stealing the Word (an intangible metaphysical concept) from the Prince of Rapine and lifting the souls of famous horses from Jordi's Savannah to start a breeding program in his domain (moving blessed souls, even animal ones, from Heaven to Hell should be literally impossible). On Earth, he and his servants prefer more mundane things like embezzlement and shoplifting, since it's an easy form of temptation and makes the world just that little bit worse.
Intangible Theft: In the backstory, Valefor was promoted to Demon Prince of Theft after he stole the Word of Rapine from its previous owner. Words, in this context, are abstract concepts that grant semi-phenomenal, nearly-cosmic power to those bound to them. His career began with a book lifted from Destiny's Library, when the book hadn't even been written yet, and he's also stolen the entire Russian Revolution.
Man of Wealth and Taste: A variant. Valefor is something of a clotheshorse, and enjoys going around in bold outfits that mix and match styles that would look horrible on anyone else and include expensive or historically famous items with which to show off his skills. He has a seemingly inexhaustible supply of Armani suits, French silk shirts, and Italian shoes and sunglasses, all lifted right out of the best tailor shops or paid for with stolen credit cards. He expects a similar committement to style from his followers.
Trophy Room: Valefor uses a special gallery in the Palazzo Furto to display his most interesting, valuable, or historically signficant prizes. The treasure in this vault includes three copies of the Mona Lisa — the true original and two excellent fakes — the original complete manuscript to Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony, and Lenin's last will and testament. It's tended to by the Demon of Looting, who serves as security and as a tour guide for favored visitors. Valefor also used to have the only copy of the proof to Fermat's Last Theorem here, before Janus counter-stole and returned it to Heaven.

Vapula, Prince of Technology

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prince_vapula.jpg

The world is an experiment gone awry — just waiting to be taken apart and examined, piece by piece, to see what broke.

A Habbalah, Vapula is fascinated by technology and invention, which he views as the only true path to divinity. He always seems to be working on something in the back of his mind, and is always eager to tinker with a new relic or device. Unlike his rival, Jean, Vapula can't access the secrets of Creation, and must experiment the old-fashioned way to develop new ideas. Of course, over time, he's become very good at experimentation — and if testing out his new ideas means strapping down a servant or two to the experimentation table, or if a new device malfunctioning leaves a hundred people dead, well, c'est la vie.

Alternative Character Interpretation: Superiors 4: Rogues to Riches provides a few alternate views of his character, according to which he may be a coldly intelligent monster weaving subtle and horrific schemes, a scatterminded genius barely aware of the world around him, and a cybernetic horror, more machine than celestial, that dreams of the day when synthetic life shall rule over all.
Arch-Enemy: He considers Jean to be his counterpart, opposite, and fated nemesis. He views the Archangel's careful and controlling shepherding of technical growth as an obscene obstacle to his own philosophy of ascension through technological hyperaccelerationism, and directs his minions to oppose the agents of Lightning above all other Heavenly factions.
Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Lighter versions of him are easily distracted by something new from his labs.
Back from the Dead: Sort of. There's a persistent in-universe rumor that Vapula was raised from the remains of Raphael, the deceased Archangel of Knowledge. Vapula came into being very suddenly, with nobody in Hell remembering an imp or demonling from whom he could have fledged; he was "born" very shortly after Raphael died fighting Legion; he and Raphael have thematically similar Words and interests (Technology and Knowledge); and they are of matching Choir and Band (Habbalah and Elohite). Thus, some celestials whisper, Vapula was created when Kronos tracked down Raphael's broken Remnant on Earth and reshaped it into a new servant, restoring her to a form of life as a dark mockery of her previous self.
Dark Messiah: As the most individually powerful Habbalah in existence, Vapula's particular brand of delusions of righteousness are especially inflamed. He views himself as God's chosen one, tasked with rendering down the fallen world to look for clues to divinity and thereby direct the worthy towards the path of self-perfection, ascension, and unity with the Divine.
Dissonant Serenity: Vapula is consistently calm and soft-spoken, even when very angry or about to perform an atrocity in his lab. He remains patient and composed around damned experimental subjects and screwup Servitors, smiling encouragingly even as he straps them down to the experimental table.
Evil Counterpart: To Jean, the Archangel of Lightning. While Jean seeks to carefully manage technological progress, Vapula wants for it to spiral out of control and for humanity to gain powerful, destructive devices before it's ready to properly manage them.
Godhood Seeker: Of a sort. Vapula's particular brand of Habbalah delusion manifests itself in the belief that the goal of life is to achieve full unity with God, which must be done by tearing Creation to pieces to look for clues to the righteous path. Through intense self-discipline, constant personal growth, and a ruthless pruning and reshaping of the fallen world, one can divine the true will of God beneath the mess made by lesser beings and ascend to true perfection and unity with the divine. The only being who knows how to do this, of course, is Vapula himself.
God of Knowledge: He views science, technology and experimentation as the paths to transcendence and unity with God. He serves as Hell's primary source of weapons and technological gadgets; among mortals, he encourages reckless experimentation, technological accelerationism, and the willingness to ignore moral lines in the pursuit of knowledge.
Griping About Gremlins: He can grant demons who distinguish themselves in his service the rank of Baron of Gremlins, which allows them to cause a minor defect in any technological device that they touch. Ten uses of this will cause the target device to fail disastrously.
Mad Scientist: Vapula views technological advancement as the key to divinity, and pursues it with a manic zeal and an absolute lack of care for ethics or fatalities. He flits from project to project, becoming gripped by a driven obsession when an experiment or machine fails to work, and sets to it like a dog to a bone in his mad drive to prove that nothing, nothing, cannot be solved by Technology, but loses interest almost as soon as the problem is overcome and drifts over to the next shiny idea. Lacking Archangel Jean's Heavenly access to the secrets of the physical universe, Vapula works to catch up by experimenting on every soul in sight — literally. He has an excellent relationship with Baal, Prince of the War, who has little trouble finding uses for the endless stream of experimental weapons that comes out of Vapulan laboratories.
Polluted Wasteland: His realm, Tartarus, is a barren industrial wasteland ruined by centuries of ruthless exploitation and industry. Massive factories and laboratory complexes sprawl across the landscape, spewing out vast clouds of smog that cover the entire Principality. Interspersed with these are forests of rusted scaffolding, ruined machines, and broken infastructure from failed or abandoned projects, alongside junk heaps of broken machinery and flawed creations and bodies of filthy water covered in floating waste. The smoky darkness is filled with the heavy noises of machinery, the gurgling of liquids along snaking pipelines, and the howls of passing transports.
Technobabble: One of his Servitor Attunements, Technobabble, allows his minions to spend a few seconds fast-talking in abstruse technical jargon to leave a target dazed and confused for a few rounds.
They Called Me Mad!: As an archetypal Mad Scientist, Vapula does not handle rejection well. Supposedly, for instance, when he was first made a Prince he approached some of the Archangels to try and persuade them that his mission was truly God's work and to join him in his journey. His offer was flatly rejected, since ultimately it was just the ravings of a lunatic, and he never forgave them for the insult.
Tranquil Fury: Vapula practices immense self-restraint, as he dislikes squandering energy that could be more productively used on something else. This doesn't mean that he doesn't get angry; it means that he's going to remain as impassively calm as ever when he turns a disappointing servant into an expanding cloud of Forces.

Lost Princes

Many Princes have risen in Hell over the ages, and many of these have fallen to angelic retribution or to the ruthless, backstabbing politics of their realm. Many have long since been swallowed by the mists of history, but others remain infamous and remembered to the present day.

Legion, Prince of Corruption

Around a millennium after the birth of Christ, Saminga and a Shedite under his service attempted a daring experiment — giving the Shedim the ability to possess multiple hosts at once, a power that the demons lose when Falling. The experiment worked, and the Shedite, Legion, additionally gained the ability to take Forces from his hosts and integrate them into himself. Lucifer crowned him Prince of Corruption, but his hopes to see more Shedim with this trick were disappointed by Legion's unwillingness to reveal how he achieved his change. Instead, the new Prince spent much of his time possessing crowds of mortals... then villages... then more...

In time, Legion ceased to answer any orders or messages from Hell, and it became clear that he had gone rogue. He did not — yet — have the power to threaten Hell, but his rampages posed a clear existential risk to the physical world, and who knew how powerful he could grow with all of humanity's souls to feed on? Legion was only destroyed by a combined effort from Heaven and Hell, and before he was put down for good he managed to send several Princes screaming back to Hell and drag the Archangel Raphael into oblivion with himself.

Eldritch Abomination: He was a Hive Mind so powerful and terrifying that it threatened to absorb the entire world. It was only stopped by an alliance between Heaven and Hell and the sacrifice of the Archangel Raphael.
Godzilla Threshold: Legion's rampage threatened to see all mortal life assimilated under his Hive Mind; the potential destruction of humanity and the terrifying level of power he would have gained were so horrifying that Archangels and Demon Princes willingly put the War on hold and fought side by side to put him down, something that never happened before or since; their combined might was barely just enough to put him down.
Hive Mind: Uniquely among the Shedim, Legion regained the ability to possess multiple hosts at once. As he assimilated increasingly large numbers of humans and animals, ruling over a growing horde of bodies with an iron will, he began to go insane and refer to himself in the plural, and sought to unite all living things on Earth under his will.
Mutual Kill: He and the Archangel Raphael died killing each other.
Paradox Person: Shedim can't possess multiple hosts because It's All About Me doesn't work well with multiple 'me'. Legion had the ability to possess multiple people while retaining his selfish nature. This is widely thought to have given him some severe dissonance but made him a unique threat.
Posthumous Character: In the game's canon time, he has been dead for over a millennium.

Magog, Prince of Cruelty

The world is harsh — rid it of weakness and show no mercy.

Once, long ago, Magog was the Angel of Fortitude, a Kyritotate in the service of David and the Archangel of Stone's strong right hand, and worked hard to make mankind stronger by putting it through tests and trials. In time, however, the angel grew increasingly contemptuous of the fragility and weakness of mortals, and his testing gave way to wanton tormenting. Magog Fell soon after, and was the highest-ranking celestial to go into Hell's embrace since the original rebellion. Lucifer crowned him Prince of Cruelty, but the new demon was soon after ambushed by his former master and by Khalid, a young Elohite of Purity, and sealed within his own fortress in the Saharan sands. Lucifer wrote off Magog as a failure and moved on to other projects, and the Prince of Cruelty remains in his tomb to this day, seething and hating.

And I Must Scream: He's spent the last millenium sealed and powerless in a tomb in the desert, unable to do anything but fantasise about revenge.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: His strategy for everything, which poses a problem when he breaks out in the middle of the modern day secret cold war between Heaven and Hell. Even after he calms down, he's still going to spend most of his time personally going out possessing people and making them kill each other.
Body Horror: As with the others of his Band, Magog's true form is a thing of nightmares. His skin is pierced and twisted by long hooked chains, while his hunched back and thick neck bristle with agonized human faces and a tangle of slimy tongues pours from the gaping maw splitting his eyeless head; two rows of malformed udders dangle from his chest, and a second maw opens in his groin and releases a snarl of long tentacles.
Fish out of Temporal Water: Magog has been functionally sealed within a time capsule since the early days of the War, when Heaven and Hell fought directly and celestials walked in the open on Earth. Should he break free, he would have considerable trouble adapting to the idea of a cover cold war and of celestial secrecy from humanity, in addition to most of the new Princes being new faces to him.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Deconstructed. When he breaks out, he's going to go on a frenzied attack against heaven and humanity...which will almost certainly result in his death. Whether he survives to become a new player primarily depends on whether or not he can calm down enough to recognise that personally storming the gates of Heaven and attacking every Demon Prince who tells you otherwise is not a wise plan.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Several centuries before the birth of Christ, the Archangels David and Khalid battled Magog in his fortress beneath the Sahara, and sealed him within it. Lucifer was either unable or unwilling to break Magog out, and the demon remains there still, sealed in a prison lost beneath the sands. In The Final Trumpet, his breaking free from his cage marks the third sign of the apocalypse.

Demonic Bands

Always Chaotic Evil: Downplayed. All demons are innately selfish by nature of falling, live in an environment that heavily incentivizes paranoid ruthlessness and (with the possible exception of Lilith) all Demon Princes are hateful monsters who will brutally punish anyone who wavers on the whole "spread misery and corruption among the world" thing. This means that almost all demons are very evil creatures. But for all that, they're not compelled to be evil. Even discounting the (rare but far from unheard of) Ascended Demon route, there's nothing inherently stopping a demon from being a decent person in an Affably Evil, Punch-Clock Villain or Noble Demon kind of way.
Became Their Own Antithesis: Just being an asshole won't make an angel Fall (although it might get them in trouble with their bosses); there are plenty of Jerkass angels in Heaven. Falling involves deliberately going against an angel's core nature (i.e. gaining dissonance) until it inverts and transforms the angel into a demon. A Seraphim who lies might find lies becoming all they are, a Cherubim who refuses to protect might end up resenting their duty until they turn to stalking and terrorizing their charges instead, an Ofanim who stops might never get moving again, et cetera. Becoming an Ascended Demon requires the same thing in reverse; Habbalah need to understand the truth about themselves, Shedites need to look outward for other points of view, and Impudites need to serve humanity instead of exploiting it.
Being Evil Sucks: Demons do not, as a rule, greatly enjoy their lives. Being part of the hordes of Hell means living under a brutal Police State that will ruthlessly destroy you for any perceived disloyalty, surrounded by peers that will throw you under the bus without a moment's hesitation if they stand to gain something for it, served by underlings eager to betray you for the chance to climb in influence, and obeying superiors who will destroy you the moment they think you're trying to do the same to them — the closest demons get to friends are allies of convenience. Demons live lives ruled by paranoia, since any perceived weakness will be pounced upon by their fellows, and find joy in little outside of the pain of others.
Evil Counterpart: By nature, each Band serves as a twisted, evil mirror to its matching Choir:
- Seraphim are beings of absolute truth and honesty, honed to perceive cases where others would twist the Truth of the Symphony to suit themselves. Balseraphs are liars without equals, who can impose their personal whims on the Symphony with such force that they can make others believe that their lies are the Truth.
- Cherubim are protectors and wardens, who define themselves by their bonds with others. Djinn are miserable loners, who care for nothing and no one and go through life nursing the holes in their hearts.
- Ofanim are creatures of motion and activity, filled with energy constantly in need of burning. Calabim turn that energy inwards, affecting lazy, complacent personalities while their pent-up energy destroys everything around them.
- Elohim are calm and dispassionate, devoting themselves to pure objectivity in their study of the universe, and are particularly good at understanding the mindsets and motivations of other beings. Habbalah are entirely lost to their bitterness and passions, have let their biases twist their perceptions until they no longer understand what they truly are, and no longer see anything in others beyond every flaw in their hearts, real or imagined.
- While Lilim and Malakim aren't each other's direct counterparts like the other Choirs and Bands, they still serve as mirrors of sorts — Malakim bind themselves with oaths where Lilim bind others with geasa, and Malakim are the one Choir who never Fall where Lilim are the one Band that has no connection to Heaven. The fact that Lilim can, albeit very rarely, become angels is something that the Malakim prefer to not to dwell on.
- Kyriotates live their lives from as many points of view as possible, both in their constant drifting from one host to another and by inhabiting many different mortal bodies at once, and experience dissonance if they don't leave their hosts' bodies better off than when they took them over. Shedim have become so absorbed in their selfishness that they can no longer muster up the self-abnegation to inhabit more than one body at once, forcefully impose their base desires on their victims instead of experiencing their own points of view, and experience dissonance if they don't leave their hosts' bodies worse off than when they took them over.
- Mercurians love humanity, love the cultures it produces, and want to help it achieve its best spiritual and intellectual potential. Impudites love humanity, too, but only as food, and no longer view it as anything more than a resource to be exploited.
Flat-Earth Atheist: Many demons are professed atheists, despite actually being fallen angels cast down from heaven. This is largely because a) many demons were actually created as such post-fall, b) God is generally a very mysterious fellow even to angels, and, most importantly c) Demons are really good at lying to themselves.
It's All About Me: Demons are selfishness incarnate, and defined primarily by the refusal to submit or accede to anything but themselves. All demons believe, in their heart of hearts, that their personal aims and desires are the most important things in the world.
Our Demons Are Different: They originated as the rebel angels who rose against Heaven, and some angels still Fall, but most modern demons are created from lesser infernal spirits shaped by the Infernal Princes. They're divided into a number of Bands, each defined in opposition to an angelic Choir, and tend to be maladjusted, misanthropic and often downright sociopathic beings.

Balseraphs, the Liars

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/balseraphs_in_nomine.png

Fallen Seraphim. Balseraphs are pathological liars who can force their falsehoods onto reality, and selfish beyond belief. Balseraphs fancy themselves the nobility of Hell, much like Seraphim enjoy high status in Heaven, but this status exists solely in their own minds. In their celestial forms, they resemble immense blood-red serpents with bat wings and six eyes. Among the Princes, they are represented by Baal, Mammon and, ostensibly, Kronos — and by Lucifer himself.

Believing Their Own Lies: How a Balseraph's Consummate Liar ability works — they trick themselves into believing what they're saying. This is also why they gain dissonance when their lies are revealed — the dawning realization that the world they think they see is a self-induced Lotus-Eater Machine causes them to lose control over the Symphony and may eventually send them into a complete Villainous BSoD when they realize they don't know what's real anymore.
Consummate Liar: Balseraphs lie as easily as they breathe, and in fact are almost unable to be truthful and honest. They're also nearly immune to attempts to figure out that they're lying — after all, from their pespective, they aren't.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Balsreaphs are so caught up in their belief that everyone is as deceitful, false, and self-serving as they are that they often cannot recognize or predict genuine goodness. As a result, it's not uncommon for their plans to fall through when they come into contact with the one thing Balseraphs never truly account for — an honest person with genuine integrity of character.
Good Wings, Evil Wings: The primary physical difference between Balseraphs and their angelic counterparts is that the demons have batlike wings instead of the angels' feathered ones.
Ouroboros: Their band symbol is a snake swallowing its own tail and coiled in a figure-eight pattern.
Smug Snake: They have a reputation for this among other demons. It's not unwarrented.

Djinn, the Stalkers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/djinn_in_nomine.png

Fallen Cherubim, the Djinn slouch their way through life, carefully affecting a pretense that nothing and nobody matters to them. In truth, they're obsessive stalkers and prone to attuning themselves to the objects of their obsessions; in contrast to the Cherubim, their attunements are strictly temporary and anything but beneficial for their targets. In their celestial forms, they resemble monstrous, twisted animals. Among the Princes, they are represented by Asmodeus and Beleth.

Jackass Genie: Djinn suffer dissonance if they actually harms the person they're attuned to... unless they can somehow claim that they're "giving them what they asked for". As such, they have a strong drive to "creatively interpret" requests given to them by their charges.
Little Bit Beastly: In Nomine: Anime suggests that, if Djinn manifest as humanoids in celestial form, they should retain some outward animal trait — horns, fur, claws, hooves, or the like.
Our Genies Are Different: The Djinn are a type of demon, the fallen counterparts to the Cherubim. They are sullen, moody and cynical, and prone to developing possessive, stalkerish obsessions with mortals. Their humanoid vessels tend to be short and stocky; their celestial forms are monstrous, surreal beasts.
Stalker without a Crush: They like to deny that they're protective entities like Cherubim, but they still feel the need to bond to and guard a single person. Since they absolutely hate acknowledging that they might have positive feelings, they stalk their targets and attempt to mess up their lives while "protecting" them.
Tsundere: As former Cherubim, they're still beings of love and protection. As fallen Cherubim, they refuse to admit it, and will often end up in strange, toxic and abusive relationships with their charges where they will go to extreme extents to avoid showing they care about them.

Calabim, the Destroyers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/calabim_in_nomine.png

Fallen Ofanim, the Calabim externalize their angelic counterparts' constant motion, manifesting it as a field of entropy around themselves. Calm and distant in between bouts of violent rage, the Calabim want little in life but the chance to kill people and take things apart. In their celestial forms, they're dirty, sneering humanoids, with scarlet skin and batlike wings. Among the Princes, they are represented by Belial, Furfur, Haagenti, Kobal, and Valefor.

Big Red Devil: In their celestial forms, Calabim resemble the archetypal red-skinned, bat-winged demons.
Blood Knight: Calabim motives are fairly straightforward: they like breaking things and they like hurting people, and they need very little encouragement to indulge in either activity.
Hidden Depths: The straightforward nature of Calabim and the fact many of them do specialise in breaking things and people often leads other celestials to see them as Dumb Muscle. In fact they are as capable of being intelligent as any other demon as a look at the Calabim princes shows - Belial indeed fits the brute stereotype but there are many hints that Haagenti is smarter than the buffoon he likes to act as and Valefor is a sharp witted and stylish thief.
I Know What You Fear: Calabim that serve Beleth can see a person's worst fear.
Make Them Rot: The Calabim are surrounded by invisible fields of entropy that can break down the integrity of any ordered structures within their reach.

Habbalah, the Punishers

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Fallen Elohim who allowed themselves to be consumed by bias, emotion and selfishness, Habbalah believe themselves to still be angels working where God's hand is needed most — in the abattoir. Everyone else recognizes them as violent maniacs lost in their own delusions; the Balseraphs love them dearly. In their celestial forms, they resemble their Elohite selves but covered in hideous scars, painful piercings, and elaborate mutilations. Among the Princes, they are represented by Fleurity and Vapula.

Body Horror: In their true forms, Habbalah are figures of nightmares. Their bodies are covered with elaborate, painful piercings and carvings, leaving patches of flesh bare and pulling their faces into twisted grimaces.
Emotion Bomb: Habbalah can impose anger, hatred, depression, love/attraction, fear, or nearly any other emotion upon others, and can also impose "emptiness", which is essentially a state of total emotionless apathy. However, if the target successfully resists, the emotions will sometimes backlash upon the demon, who can either accept them, and be affected by their own power, or absorb them and eat dissonance. If the demon is subjected to his own emptiness, though, there is a small chance that he may instantly realize that he is a demon.
Heaven's Devils: The Habbalah claim to be this; they live in Hell and are demons, but they believe that they're angels working where God needs them most, and that God has given them free license to punish sinners (and every human's a sinner, of course). Canonically, they're even more deluded than most demons.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Ask any Habbalah, and they'll tell you that while their job might suck, God needs them there to make sure that sinners are properly punished. The truth that everyone but them can see is that their judgement is merely self-justification; they already decided that Humans Are Bastards and refuse to be proven wrong.
Villainous Respect: Habbalah like and respect the Malakim, seeing them as some of the few beings who meet their high standards of strength and purity. In practice this just means that they test them all the harder, however, and the Malakim very emphatically do not return this respect.

Lilim, the Tempters

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There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

Lilim motto

There ain't no such thing as a free Lilim.

Common mockery of the Lilim motto

Limim are a study in contrasts. They are the daughters of the Princess of Freedom, and each and all are born indentured. The lives of the Lilim are defined by the duties that they owe to others, and by those that they make others owe to them. All Lilim dream of someday becoming truly Free and owing no debts to anyone, but in practice this is probably impossible — not least because they all ow at least one debt to their mother, one which Lilith will be very careful to never call in for good. In their celestial forms, Lilim resemble humans, usually women, with green skin and short horns.

Amazing Technicolor Population: In celestial form, all Lilim have bright green skin.
Conflicting Loyalty: Due to the Geas system, Lilim tend to face this on a routine basis, with favors called in that require them to betray existing loyalties. Their sisters understand that this happens, their other employers are far less understanding. With that said, deliberately setting a Lilim up so that she'll suffer dissonance from rival Geasa pulling her both ways is considered abuse, and Lilith won't be happy with the one involved.
Deal with the Devil: Their primary schtick is to offer to fulfill a Need for another being — a human, another demon, an ethereal, a particularly luckless angel — in exchange for a binding Geas. Humans usually deal with their undercover Roles, unwittingly giving the keys to the backdoors of their minds in exchange for that ever so helpful advice, service, or off-the-books problem solving. Celestials and ethereals know better, so the Lilim usually come to them only when they're so desperate that they have no real choice in the matter. Of course, in all cases, Lilim are perfectly happy to subtly arrange for someone to find themselves dealing with some kind of insurmountable problem just in time for a helpful Tempter to swoop in and offer to fix things... for a price.
Geas: The Lilim's signature trick is their ability to place geasa on other beings, inflicting dissonance on them until they fulfill whatever promise they made to the demon.
Heel–Face Revolving Door: Lilim attempting redemption are likely to go through a period of this, as they almost certainly require Divine aid to become a Bright Lilim, but still owe demons and/or Lilith before they earn their freedom. It's possible for them to have their Archangel clear their debts, but Mom won't be amused.
Indentured Servitude: All Lilim are expected to pay off the cost of their own birth. On creation, they may be traded to another Prince or may choose to owe Lilith nine favors, with their freedom given to them once these are filled. This is simple enough in theory, but two issues complicate the Tempters' quest for freedom: firstly, Lilith can and does sell these favors to Princes, other demons, Lucifer himself, spirits of the Marches, mortals, and even archangels — Lilith knows a lot of people. Secondly, Lilim who want to get anywhere in Hell will need to take on more debts in exchange for alliances and favors, burying themselves ever deeper in duties owed.
Magically-Binding Contract: If a Lilim can fullfil a target's Need, she gets a "hook" that she can later use to place a Geas on that person, forcing them to do a return favor or else suffer dissonance (for celestials) or physical harm (for humans). It is possible for a strong-willed person to resist the Geas at the time when the Lilim tries to call in the return favour. They can also place a Geas on a willing target (including on themselves).
No Eye in Magic: Lilim can see a person's desires by looking in their eyes. This power can be blocked by wearing sunglasses.
Oddly Common Rarity: Canonically Lilim are by far the rarest major band of demons in the setting because they are all created individually 'fully grown' by Lilith rather than beginning as the lowly generic imps and gremlins created in countless numbers by the other Princes. However because the vast majority of In Nomine campaigns are set on Earth rather than in Hell and because most Princes use their Lilim Servitors on Earth they are just as like to be encountered as NPCs (or justified as PCs) as any other type of demon. .
One-Gender Race: Downplayed. A majority of Lilim identify as female, they are collectively called the "Daughters of Lilith" and are created generically female. However, a substantial minority identify as male ("Sons of Lilith") and a few like to appear as either sex depending on their whim. Lilith herself doesn't care either way.
Your Heart's Desire: When a Lilim looks into someone's eyes, they can see that person's greatest need. They can then use their demonic abilities and resources to meet that need and gain a geas (control) over that person.

Shedim, the Corruptors

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Fallen Kyriotates, the Shedim work much like their angelic kin, with two differences. Firstly, they lack the ability or willingness to abnegate their egos in order to inhabit many different bodies at once; they can only control one at a time. Secondly, their victims remain vaguely aware of what their bodies are doing while possessed, and the Shedim work hard to make sure that they believe that the violent, disgusting and perverse actions done by the demons are actually their ideas. In their celestial forms, Shedim resemble pulsing, roiling clouds of twisted, deformed body parts and organs. Among the Princes, they are represented by Magog, Malphas and Saminga.

Body Horror: A Shedim's true self is a chaotic, pulsing cloud of monstrous body parts, eyes and mouths and wings and tendrils and organs and things beyond recognition, twisting around each other to the pulse of an infernal beat.
Body Surf: Shedim are Body Surfers by necessity; they must possess the bodies of other beings while on Earth (unlike most demons, who are given special bodies to use in the physical world) and they can only possess their hosts for a limited amount of time; they're required to force their hosts to perform evil acts each day, and the host becomes more likely to resist the longer they have been possessed, so the demons don't usually stick around for more than a few days at a time because the host gets too hard to control.
The Corruptor: Shedim specialize in attaching themselves to individual humans and driving them steadily into sin, violence and depravity, calling themselves satisfied once their host has been made to utterly ruin their life and those of everyone around them. They particularly enjoy targeting morally upright and respected people, partly to maximize the impact of their actions and partly because they enjoy the challenge.
Demonic Possession: Shedim work by taking over mortal bodies and driving their victims to perform unspeakable acts of evil, violence and perversion, while convincing their hosts that this is all actually their idea. Some seek to desensitize mortals to evil and violence, and to ruin their lives in order to force them rely on violence to survive. Others just want to cause as much wanton destruction as they can before the body they're using breaks down.
Even Evil Has Standards: Nobody likes the Shedim. Even other demons generally look down on them as being crude, vile and repulsive.
"It" Is Dehumanizing: Shedim are routinely referred to as "it" even by other demons, who consider them loathsome.

Impudites, the Takers

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Fallen Mercurians, Impudites love humanity just as truly and devoutly as their angelic kin. The trouble is that they love it for about the same reasons that a glutton loves a rack of prime ribs. In their celestial forms, they resemble their most recent physical vessels but with short horns, leathery wings, and a dark halo. Among the Princes, they are represented by Alaemon, Andrealphus, Nybbas, and Kobal.

Big Red Devil: In their celestial forms, Impudites resemble the archetypal red-skinned, horned, bat-winged demons.
Charm Person: The Impudite resonance is to Charm humans, making the Impudite seem like their best buddy. All the better to consume your Essence with, my dear.
Good Wings, Evil Wings: The Mercurians' feathered wings become batlike membranes in the process of Falling.
Pragmatic Villainy: They, like Mercurians, suffer dissonance when they harm a mortal. Unlike Mercurians, however, Impudites' dissonance is because doing so is a waste of a good meal.
Vampiric Draining: Impudites feed by consuming the Essence of other beings, primarily humans.

Pachadim, the Frighteners

Fallen Menunim, mainly found in the service of Beleth. Pachadim work to ensure that human lives are ruled by fear and insecurity, often spending years or decades in a single role to make sure that the people in their lives become well and truly broken. In their celestial form, they resemble hideously obese, diseased humans.

Body Horror: In their true forms, Pachadim are grotesquely obese, diseased, and covered in pustules.
Rule of Three: Pachadim are obliged to respect humans who can overcome their fears. If they attempt to prey on a human's fears and fail three times in a row, they can never trouble that human again without acquiring dissonance.

The Marches

Ethereal Spirits in General

The numberless spirits of the Marches, brought into existence by the resonance of human dreams, culture and beliefs. They range in scope from props that vanish alongside the dreams that made them to the mightiest pagan deities. Once, they were powerful and mighty beings; in the wake of Uriel's Purity Crusade, however, they are mostly reduced to a few scattered holdouts in the Deep Marches.

Clap Your Hands If You Believe: They're born of human belief and dreams. Usually this leads to them flickering away once the belief fades, but particuarly strong, widely-held beliefs can make things that rival some superiors.
Dream People: As a rule, every single dream creates an accompanying cast of ethereals, but these are essentially mindless puppets with no self-awareness; they simple act out their roles and vanish when the dream ends. Occasionally, usually by pure chance, one remains behind when the dream ends; these don't gain any particular intelligence, willpower or lucidity just by this action, and consequently end up repeating whatever very specific role they were made for until something stronger scoops them up and eats them for their Essence. The few exceptions, usually born from very vivid or lucid dreams, possess just enough awareness to scurry away to cover and try to find a way to sustain themselves. The most successful either become roving predators of other dreams or manage to tap into whatever cultural image spawned them to sustain themselves off of humanity's collective desires and beliefs.
Elemental Embodiment: Elementals are Ethereal spirits who strongly embody one or two basic concepts, and, instead of taking on a more complex role and identity, fashion their appearances and personalities in ways that directly represent the concepts that compose them. They're a fairly loose category and can be based on any of the elements that dominate human thought and culture, so it's just as possible to find an elemental of Duels, Vehicles or Knowledge as it is to find one of Water, Light or Mountains.
The Fair Folk: The fae of the Marches are often capricious and dangerous beings, but this trope is truly embodied in the unfortunates chosen for the tribute that Arcadia must pay to Beleth in exchange for protection. The tributes who aren't simply consumed for their Forces are given a sliver of Beleth's own power, which corrupts them body, mind and soul; the resulting fae become cruel, hard and bitter beings, whose only joy comes from the suffering of others. They lurk in the dark corners of the Country of the Teind, a dreamscape in the shadow of Beleth's tower, and periodically sally out to hunt the dreams of mortals. Besides their use in tormenting dreamers and disposing of disappointing minions, Beleth keeps them in large part because of the impact they have on mortal culture — their influence on their victims is a large part of the reason why the modern concept of fae as evil, monstrous beings, as opposed to just wild and capricious, has developed; since the Marches resonate strongly to human beliefs, this serves to weaken the true fae of Arcadia by drawing essence and belief away from it and into Beleth's own domain.
Fantastic Racism: Celestials have a very rocky relationship with ethereals. Angels typically view them as interlopers who have no rightful place in God's plan, and are quite happy to fence them off in the Far Marches to slowly die from Essence-starvation. Demons view ethereals as lesser beings, but are quite happy to use them as tools to achieve Hell's ends. Ethereals, naturally, bitterly resent both factions. Such attitudes aren't strictly universal — some ethereals would be willing to ally with Heaven if given the chance, and some angels are willing to give ethereal spirits the benefit of the doubt if they meet their ethical standards — but are the main ones coloring Celestial politics.
Flat-Earth Atheist: A more reasonable version than Hell's "superhuman self-delusion" version — while ethereals acknowledge God's existence, most are convinced that he's simply an extremely powerful spirit rocked to unprecedented heights by being the patron of the world's largest faiths rather than the actual omnipotent creator of the world.
Gods Need Prayer Badly: Ethereal spirits, including the pagan gods, are essentially dreams and cultural archetypes that became real and living things through the belief and prayers of humanity. As such, they're very dependent on continued human worship, or at least continued presence in human culture, to generate Essence for themselves. The decline of classical polytheism has been a serious problem for them, although Uriel's attempted genocide of beings of myth didn't exactly help. Many of the deities who survived faded away in time from lack of worship, and the few who maintained some cult followings on Earth now cling to existence in scattered holdouts in the Dream Land, tattered remnants of once-glorious palaces that are now crumbling for lack of Essence to maintain them.
The Greys: The Grey aliens are Ethereal spirits, servants of the Beleth who specialize in invading human dreams to create vivid nightmares of abduction, vivisection, and torturously invasive surgery. They feed off of the Essence generated by their victims' terror, and additionally cultivate a small myth around themselves by tricking their victims into thinking that their dreams were real and by occasionally making an appearance in the physical world. They have a bitter enmity with the Benevolent Space Brothers, another group of Ethereals who sustain themselves by impersonating the myth of benevolent, advanced new-age aliens and who feel that the Greys are poachers and copycats, and with the Elohim, dispassionate and logical angels whose true forms resemble hairless, pale-skinned, big-eyed humans.
Kraken and Leviathan: The kraken is given as a sample creature of myth in the Ethereal Player's Guide. It is an ancient primal force and one of the oldest ethereal entities, which lived in the depths of the oceans long before humanity existed. It took an entire host of angels armed with powerful relics to slay it during Uriel's Purity Crusade, and it has since spent its time in the Far Marches, avoiding both angels and demons while building up the essence needed to rebuild its immense corporeal vessel. Should it achieve its goal, it will likely vanish back into the abyss and pass from the knowledge of the surface-dwellers outside of haunting the dreams of sailors.
Land of Faerie:
- Faerie, also called Arcadia, Avalon, Hy Brasill, Lyonesse, and the Fair Lands of the West, is an Ethereal domain that serves as a refuge for the various Anglo-Celtic fey, nature spirits and gods that were driven into the Far Marches during the Purity Crusade.
- The Country of the Teind is a dark reflection of Faerie, populated by fey who have been given as tribute to Beleth and corrupted by the influence of Hell. Fires give no warmth there, light is cold and cast by neither sun nor stars, and the shadow of Beleth's Tower looms forever in the sky; the landscape itself is bleak and forbidding, scarred with harsh mountains, tangled forests, cold lakes and dark cities home to the twisted fey that serve Beleth and her demons.
No Such Thing as Wizard Jesus: While ethereals are born of belief, the divine religions haven't produced any Ethereal Jesuses, Mohammads, Satans or so forth. Any such spirit is instantly destroyed by Heaven (although there's nothing stopping one from temporarily taking on the form of such a being).
Magical Eye Streamers: Elder Thunder, an Ethereal spirit of storms, manifests as a living stormcloud with a pair of crackling, trailing arcs of electricity for eyes.
Monstrous Cannibalism: One of the most straightforward ways for ethereal spirits to grow in power is to kill and consume other spirits whose Image resembles their own. The closer the resemblance, the greater the benefit — a spirit in the form of Jack the Ripper would have to go through thousands of humanoid killers to get the same power boost as he'd get from consuming another Whitechapel Murderer. As a result, ethereal society is often ruled by paranoia and a ruthless food chain, although most established Domains enforce strict rules about dueling and feuds in order to avoid degenerating into cannibalistic free-for-alls.
Our Gods Are Different: The pagan gods are generated by the dreams of humanity. Some have aligned themselves with Heaven or Hell, but the majority of them simply want to be left alone. Unlike God, they need worship to survive and the lack of same has caused many of them to weaken and even disappear.
Our Sphinxes Are Different: Sophronia the sphinx is an ethereal spirit in the form of a winged Greek sphinx; she claims to be the same one confronted by Oedipus. In the modern day she never leaves the Marches and acts as an information broker, selling interesting facts, secrets and insights in exchange for fresh information, riddles she hasn't yet heard, and essence. This puts her in a delicate position because numerous Ethereal spirits bear grudges against her for spilling their secrets, but her services are useful enough that the angels of Dreams and the demons of Nightmares have an informal agreement to protect her.
Tulpa: Ethereals are living beings created from mortal dreams, thoughts, and culture, although they range very widely within this definition. Many are simple figures created within dreams, which by some means or another managed to escape their native dreamscape or survive its collapse when the dreamer awoke; they're rarely very bright and often lack much situational awareness or means to provide for themselves, and so most don't last long. Also common are the embodiments of broader archetypes or concepts, created from the stuff of the Ethereal by the resonance of stories and culture; this can range from living character archetypes to embodiments of human perceptions of nature or technology. The most powerful ethereals of all are the personifications of specific myths, beings such as fey, mythical monsters and pagan deities. All of them, least to greatest, require essence to live, and thrive best on human thought and attention; for a living story, being forgotten is quite often deadly.
Valkyries: Valkyries are a type of ethereal spirits in the service of Odin. They resemble tall, fair, athletic women, usually in the tunics, chain mail and helms of Viking warriors, and attune themselves to mortal worshippers of their god so that they can carry them to Valhalla when they die. They used to favor people who died in some notable manner, but since the decline of the ethereal powers Odin can neither afford to be choosy nor to spend what followers he has left. As such, Valkyries will also manifest to help mortals out of tight spots.
When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Ethereal spirits regain Essence and regenerate lost hits of Body damage at midnight.

Notable Ethereals

Jormungandr

The World Serpent, an apocalyptic monster currently slumbering somewhere beneath the Atlantic.

Beast of the Apocalypse: In The Final Trumpet, Malphas and Kobal arrange for Jormungandr's awakening and unleash it on an unsuspecting world in order to fulfill one of the prophesized signs of Armageddon, "An Ancient Evil Breaks Its Bonds". Even its first stirrings — its equivalent of turning over in its bed — scourge the countries of Northern Europe with tidal waves soaked in neurotoxyn; by the time it fully awakes, it's a monster that can fight a Superior on even terms and which stands good on its goal of clearing the Earth of life. The Princes don't actually think that it's the Evil in question, mostly because it had no particular bonds to break, as it was just regenerating after nearly being killed by Uriel, but they want to use him as a distraction from their freeing of Magog, and if he does turn out to meet the criteria then hey, bonus.
Boom, Headshot!: At the climax of its battle in The Final Trumpet, it swallows Thor whole, but the god calls down a bolt of lightning that spears through the serpent's head and causes its skull and brain to explode.
The Great Serpent: At its height, it was so huge that it could coil around the entirety of the world. Currently, following centuries of recovery after being decapitated, it's only regrown to the point where its head is sixty yards long and it stands two stories tall when rearing up.
Healing Factor: Jormungandr can regenerate from any injury as long as its head is left intact. It survived being decapitated by Uriel during the Purity Crusade, and has spent the centuries since slowly regrowing its body from where its head was left on the bottom of the North Atlantic.
Not Quite Dead: During the Purity Crusade, Uriel cleaved Jormungandr's head from its body and threw both parts into the ocean. The serpent has been assumed dead in the centuries since, but unknown to most it cannot actually be killed as long as its head is intact. As a result, it has gradually been regrowing its body while protected by the secrecy of the ocean and the fact that nobody thought to go looking for it, and is sufficiently restored to become a very serious problem once he's stirred back to wakefulness. Notably, as The Final Trumpet points out, the Aesir are perfectly aware of this detail and could have told Uriel, if he hadn't been so busy trying to kill them.
Omnicidal Maniac: Its driving motive in life is to kill everything and eat Thor whole, in no particular order.
Poisonous Person: It produces a supernaturally deadly neurotoxyn with no existing antidote, which it can spray with high accuracy at up to ten yards. As it starts to stir awake, the tides of this stuff leaking from its mouth are enough to sterilize a good portion of the North Sea.

Thor

The Norse god of thunder, who vanished during the Purity Crusade.

Amnesiac God: After almost being killed during the Purity Crusade, he fell to Earth in spiritual tatters. These days, he wanders around New York as a homeless bum, usually going by either "Tor", "Don" (from Donar, he continental Germanic name), or "that big scary dude", with no memory of his origin or nature; he likes singing "If I Had a Hammer" as he roams, but doesn't recall why. In The Final Trumpet, a major sideplot involved the players tracking him down, getting him to remember who he is, and reuniting with his regalia Mjolnir, Jarngreipr, and Megingjord in order to kill Jormungandr when the serpent is awakened by demons. The easiest way to restore his mind is to reunite him with Mjolnir, as he will instantly regain his memories and faculties once his hammer is back in his hand.
God of Thunder: He was the Norse's storm god in his day, and if he regains his full strength he will once again become capable of feats such as calling down destructive bolts of lightining.
Heroic Sacrifice: Once, and potentially twice. Thor's myth is one of protection, mighty deeds and heroism, and it is not in his nature to run from battle.
- In the backstory, he held the Aesir's rearguard while they fled from Uriel's forces. He was last seen holding off six Malakim, and was afterwards presumed dead. He survived, but only just, and at the cost of his memory and most of his power.
- In The Final Trumpet, the players get Thor to battle against the awakened Jormungandr. As prophesied, the thunder god successfully kills the monster and prevents it from destroying the world, but perishes in the fight.
He's Back!: After having spent centuries wandering the Earth as confused, amnesiac shadow, he can be restored to his full memory and power over the course of The Final Trumpet.
Hot Blade: While not a bladed weapon per se, Mjolnir's head glows red-hot when swung. It deals quite a lot of damage, but also severely harms its holder unless it's grasped using the magic gauntlet Jarngreipr.

Humanity

General

Humans Are Special: This is the crux of the war between Heaven and Hell. God claims humanity to be His greatest creation, and Lucifer argued that they're instead simply filthy, immoral, inferior animals. Consequently, the angels are trying to protect and guide humanity and help it achieve its destiny, while demons are trying to debase and corrupt it in order to prove that Humans Are not Special. Either way, however, the War is and remains fundamentally about humans, humanity's creation precipitated the current state of the universe, and humanity's nature and destiny are the prize of the great conflict.
Puny Earthlings: Zigzagged. On the one hand, sure, even the weakest celestial can destroy basically any human in a straight 1 on 1 fight, and its hard for even angels to avoid some sense of superority due to it (demons, naturally, don't even try). On the other hand, there are billions of them, and collectively they can make grand changes to the symphony through their actions and beliefs on a scale that even superiors find it hard to match. Whether this makes humans superior to celestials or just a lucky swarm of beasts is the focal point of the War.

Sorcerers

Humans, once they catch on to the preternatural, are rarely content with their station, and most will gladly take opportunities to increase their standing and power. Sorcery is among the most common means of doing this.

It's All About Me: Sorcery is based on this form of thought, so much so that it is fundamentally impossible to use it if you don't think this way. Sorcery is essentially an act of will where the sorcerer imposes his desires on the Symphony; as such, its practitioners need to honestly, genuinely believe that they're entitled to impose their will onto the rest of the world and force the universe to reshape itself to meet their ends.
Magic A Is Magic A: Sorcery can only be used by mortals — Celestial and Ethereals can learn or devise sorcerous rituals, but cannot perform them themselves. Sorcery is done through complex, customized rituals, used to delineate the general thing you're trying to do, at the heart of which is a raw exercise of will; essentially, in performing the ritual, the sorcerer tries to force the Symphony or some element within it into shaping itself according to his desires. The key elements needed for sorcery to work are immense strength of will and a genuine belief that you have the right to impose your wants onto the universe. Most actual sorcery is little more than parlor tricks in the eyes of more powerful beings, but certain experienced sorcerers are rumored to be able to do things that should theoretically be impossible.
Magic Is Evil: Downplayed. Sorcery was created as a tool of Hell, and its core it is based on selfishness — for his magic to work, a sorcerer must truly, genuinely believe that he is entitled to enforce his will upon the world and make it serve his own ends. Most sorcerers pursue their path for petty reasons, almost invariably find their abilities and aims outstripping their sense and knowledge, and almost all are damned; some think that they can use their powers for good, but most are deluding themselves or end up corrupted by the forces that they bargain with. As such, the default gameplay assumption is that sorcerers are dupes or agents of Hell. However, a minority of sorcerers manage to contain their ambitions and genuinely use their powers ethically enough to avoid Hell's snare; a few even manage to achieve considerable fame and power and strike great blows against the demons — Solomon and Merlin are two of the most historically notable such cases.
Riddle for the Ages: The Dozen, a rumored cabal of undying mortal sorcerers who wield impossible powers. They're very much Shrouded in Myth, but here's what we know for sure:
- Sorcerers believe that the Dozen are real, are immortal, and can use their magic to accomplish things impossible for normal sorcerers.
- Demons made up most of the stuff about the Dozen and use the myths for their own purposes but acknowledge among themselves that it's entirely possible that the idea is true by complete fluke.
Shrouded in Myth: There's a persistent rumor in-universe about the Dozen, a cabal of twelve immortal sorcerers, sometimes with a thirteenth as a leader, who can command powers that should normally be impossible. The details vary wildly in telling — they might be led by Merlin or Solomon or Cain or the Wandering Jew, they might be able to command angels or summon Demon Princes or raise the dead — and ultimately nobody knows anything for sure. Demons make a point of playing up the joke in order to mislead ambitious sorcerers... but when they talk among themselves, they aren't too sure that the Dozen really are fictitious, and maybe some of those stories are real after all...

Half-Breeds

In theory, Celestials and Ethereals are not supposed to reproduce, not with one another and especially not with mortals. In practice, certain Songs exist that permit spirits to beget children with the progeny of Adam; the fruit of such unions inherit a portion of their otherworldy parents' powers, at the cost of risking physical and spiritual disfigurment and being hated and hunted by mortals, angels and demons alike.

Blessed with Suck: Gorgons and Nephallim inherit an inherent connection to the supernatural from their nonhuman parents, allowing them to learn Songs and attune themselves to otherworldly forces in a way that most mortals can only dream of. However, the price they pay for this is to be physically warped, mentally unstable, feared and hated by humans, and hunted and despised by angels and demons.
Medusa: Gorgons are children of humans and ethereal spirits — which can include anything from animate dreams to efreet and valkyries to the surviving pagan gods — who changed to be born as warped, terrifying monsters. In essence, they're the ethereal equivalent of the celestial-born Nephallim. Like the Nephallim, most live in isolation, hunted by angels, demons, and humans, but they're not more inherently evil than any other mortal.
Nephilim: When an angel or demon uses the Songs of Fruition to have children with a mortal, the issue is usually just a human with some extra supernatural power. Sometimes, however, the child is born or becomes a monster, warped in body and mind; these are referred to as Nephallim, and are shunned and hunted by both humanity and celestials. Most were born to the ancient Grigori, giant angels meant to guide humanity directly, and were hunted down when the Grigori were cast out, but some still emerge in the modern day. Despite their reputation, however, Nephallim are free-willed mortals, though it's a point of Canonical Doubt and Uncertainty whether they're capable of actually obtaining salvation.
Semi-Divine: By using the Songs of Fruition, it's possible for celestial beings — i.e., angels and demons — and for ethereal spirits — typically the more powerful ones, such as fey, embodied archetypes, or the pagan gods — to have children with mortals. The fruit of these unions have greater inherent spiritual power and affinity for the supernatural than regular humans do. However, they also have a chance of being born as monsters, warped in body and mind, and shunned and feared by celestials, ethereals and humans alike. These unfortunates are known as Nephallim when sired by celestials and Gorgons when born of ethereals.

The Undead

Saminga's greatest creations, the undead are mortals who have made a terrible bargain with Hell, obtaining physical immortality and supernatural power at the cost of their souls and their chance at an afterlife.

Blessed with Suck: Undead are powerful, capable of learning Songs, and undying. However, most become saddled with powerful Needs and cannot stand beneath the sun. Even those without these drawbacks simply buy the immorality of their bodies at the cost of that of their souls; the spirits of the undead cannot survive their bodies' destruction, and simply stop existing where living humans would pass on to the afterlife.
Cannot Dream: Becoming undead costs you the ability to dream, along with many other simple human pleasures. Technically, the undead don't even need to sleep, but, if they do, they can no longer reach the Dream Land of the Marches without supernatural help — they've actually severed themselves from humanity's collective imagination.
Cessation of Existence: The process of becoming undead also causes the mortal's body to become the only thing to hold their Forces together. Should they die, their forces will scatter and return into the Symphony; there is no afterlife or rebirth for the undead.
Demonic Vampires: As with all other undead, vampires can only be created through rituals created by the demons and only passed down to favored Hellsworn sorcerers. As a result, all vampires in existence are part of, serve, or are fugitives from circles of Hellsworn sorcerers, and are common servants and patsies for the demons of Death and Fate.
Evil Counterpart: Undead largely act as Hell's counterpart to Heaven's saints, being more formidable, potentially immortal, and supernaturally aware former mortals.
Mummy: Mummies are the most perfected kind of undead that Hell can create. They're essentially immortal humans with more supernatural clout, and are functionally straight-up upgrades on the human condition with one major downside — like all undead, their souls cannot survive their bodies' destruction. Ironically enough, the real-world Egyptian-type mummies were created to make sure their dead couldn't be turned into Hellish mummies; the process of creating an undead mummy requires the brain, and the brains of Egyptian mummies are removed during the process specifically to prevent this.
Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires are undead created when a ritual meant to make a mummy goes awry. They're harmed by direct sunlight and need nightly intake of some substance or stimulus — archetypally blood, but it can be essentially anything — to regenerate Essence.
Our Zombies Are Different: Zombis are undead created when a ritual meant to make a mummy goes very badly, leaving the would-be undead as nothing more than a mindless corpse. Servants of Saminga, the Prince of Death, can also create them directly from corpses. Zombis have an innate Need, usually revolving around consuming specific body parts, that they need to meet nightly, and steadily degenerate if they don't. Vapula has developed a technologic alternative to Saminga's original ritual, which creates shamblers that lack a Need and are instead kept ticking by being fed Essence every so often.
Tragic Monster: The Corporeal Player's Guide notes that the rare few undead to redeem themselves are tragic figures — they deeply regret their choices and their state, but nothing and no one can restore them or save their souls from eventual oblivion. Unlike mortal soldiers, they can never reach Heaven, and so fight for no hope of reward and no chance of salvation. In a way, they may be some of the most selfless beings of all.
Weakened by the Light: Vampires take damage from being in sunlight.

The Dead

In the normal course of things, the souls of the dead are drawn away from the Corporeal plane and into Heaven or Hell. Many, however, cling on to the mortal world through sheer brute strength of Will, desperate to escape the judgement of the afterlife or seeking to settle matters of vengeance, passion or love that they could not complete before death. These figures become ghosts, immaterial spirits often much diminsihed from what they once where. A similar process allows mortals to linger in the Ethereal as dream-shades, living within their own dreams or in the realms of the pagan gods for as long as they can resist Hell or Heaven's call.

Our Ghosts Are Different:
- Ghosts are the spirits of humans who would be drawn to Heaven or Hell (souls who deserve neither simply reincarnate), but who instead attempted to remain in the material world to deal with some Unfinished Business. In order to do so, spirits must latch onto a corporeal anchor and sacrifice one of their Forces and try to hang on the material plane; if they fail, they may try again at the cost of another Force. They can move on to the afterlife whenever they please, usually after dealing with whatever caused them to want to linger, but can also be forced to do so by destroying their anchors. Since they usually lose several Forces in becoming ghosts, most are weak, incomplete beings, with the precise losses that they suffered determining their specific kind — some end up as will'o'wisps, with no sapience or ability to interact with the world; others end up as poltergeists, non-sapient but able to interact tangibly with the physical world, or apparitions, with intelligence but not the ability to affect the physical world directly. True ghosts with both intelligence and a physical presence are quite rare, both because it's difficult to become one and because they're the likeliest kind to either deal with their business and move on or to be recognized and exorcized.
- Dream-shades are similar to ghosts, but technically a distinct type of being. Ghosts are mortal souls who cling to the corporeal plane; dream-shades cling to the ethereal plane instead. Some are the souls of mortals who died in their sleep and knowingly or instinctively clung to the dream world; others are anchored there by powerful spirits. They always retain all of their memories and sense of self, but cannot manifest in the material world.
Poltergeist: Poltergeists are a lowly kind of ghost, having sacrificed all of their Ethereal forces in the struggle to remain in the physical world, and thus having lost all of their intelligence and memories. They can be friendly, playful or malicious, but are no smarter than animals; some manifest as glowing balls of light or incorporeal noises, but most only show themselves through the objects that they throw around.
Unfinished Business: Ghosts and dream-shades resist the call of the afterlife due to lingering desires, attachments, and unfinished tasks that motivate them to cling on to the physical and ethereal worlds as tenaciously as they can; others linger due to fear of the afterlife. In some cases, helping them deal with whatever hangups they've got it the easiest way of making them move on; however, working out what this is can be difficult, since most ghosts are deeply confused, irrational, or simply uncommunicative.
Will-o'-the-Wisp: Will'o'wisps are the least form of ghosts, having sacrificed every part of their spiritual selves save for sheer Will in their struggle to remain anchored to the physical world. They cannot affect the material realm beyond manifesting as balls of light or pockets of cold, and lack the intelligence to do much even if they could do more. They're sad, lonely, wandering things, lacking the ability to let go of the material realm and having long forgotten why they wanted to stay.

Lilith

Lilith, Princess of Freedom

The world is what you make of it.

Lilith is a unique being — an immortal Princess of Hell who holds an extremely powerful Word but is not a Demon. The only known human ever to be granted a Word (something which should be impossible), Lilith was the original mate of Adam in the Eden experiment. Once the experiment was explained to her she exercised her personal freedom and walked out. Later she was recruited by Satan who granted her a coronet.

Although she holds a Word, a title and a great deal of power in Hell, Lilith doesn't rule a domain or have permanent servitors. Instead she relies on trading favours with other demons and on the creation of the Lilim, which she alone is able to make.

Alternative Character Interpretation: To an extent this is the case even with the "default" Lilith given she is the most morally grey of the Demon Princess and mysterious and enigmatic by inclination. Superiors: Lilith gives several other views, offering a more or less powerful version and with varying degrees of maliciousness. She might be the most redeemable of all demon princes, might be a petty monster who genuinely hates humanity after betraying them for her own vanity, and might be a lot of things in between.
Ambiguously Evil: Lilith is not particularly good — she's ruthlessly obsessed with her own personal freedom, is a born schemer and her grudges are engraved in granite especially against Heaven. On the other hand she doesn't seem to be personally malicious or cruel, her word is "neutral" rather than inherently bad and she has been known to work with angels and outcasts.
The Archmage: She's the most powerful sorcerer in the setting, having become immortal and greatly powerful even before becoming a word.
Deal with the Devil: Her and her children are the primary force making them in the In Nomine verse. Unlike demons, where a "deal" is just a way for them to screw you over, she'll even keep them.
Femme Fatale: Lilith is a beautiful, selfish, very clever woman and expert manipulator. She is also unusual amongst the Demon Princes (and Archangels for that matter) in only ever appearing in female form.
Friendly Enemy: With Marc the Archangel of Trade. There is a lot of overlap in their domains and they seem to view each other in quite amicable terms (and it is hinted at perhaps more than just mutual respect.)
Liberty Over Prosperity: She has a very libertarian, "pull up by the bootstraps" approach to freedom — she doesn't care if people are happy or safe, so as long as they're free. It's very notable her first choice was to give up literal paradise for a starving, precarious freedom, and that's the conception of freedom she still promotes.
I Gave My Word: Suprisingly to many, this is something she takes very seriously. When she makes a bargin, she'll always keep her end of the deal. She claims this is pragmatic — who'd want to deal with someone known for backstabbing their allies? — but some are hopeful it might be a genuine moral stance.
I Just Want to Be Free: Her primary motivation is to ensure that no-one has the power to control or enslave her. Ensuring no-one can control or enslave anyone else is a secondary motivation.
It's All About Me: While not to the pathological extent of a true demon, she's still an immensely selfish being. She'll help others as long as she doesn't lose anything from doing so, but she'll ultimately screw over anyone else if it helps her out.
Hypocrite: Lilith is the Princess of Freedom and claims that she struck out on her own in rejection of a plan that would have controlled her life and destiny against her wishes. She grants very little of this freedom to her Lilim daughters, who at birth are all pressed into either becoming a Prince's servant or debtors to their mother. In particular, Lilith is famous for always holding onto to at least one debt owed to her by each Lilim, never calling it in in order to ensure that they will forever remain under her influence.
Monster Progenitor: To the Lilim, which is one of her major bargining chips in hell.
Rage Against the Heavens: Her primary motivation for siding with Hell. She hates God, seeing Him as the tyrant of all creation, and works with Hell to tear him down and liberate the cosmos. She's cooled down on her inital fury — several millenia is plenty of time to get over things — but she's never considered reconciling with Heaven.
Token Good Teammate: Downplayed — probably "token neutral" is closer — but she's easily the most reasonable and benevolent Demon Prince (admittedly not exactly a position with stiff competition, but still...). She lacks the casual cruelty of her peers, can usually be trusted to keep her end of any bargins and is just as happy to promote the positive aspects of her Word as violent bloody anarchy. Those angels invested in redeeming Hell rather then destroying it see her as their best "in". In no small part, this is due to her being a Word-bound human rather than an actual demon.
Token Human: The only human superior. And for good reason — making a human into a superior is impossible, and no-one knows how Lucifer pulled it off.
Unholy Matrimony: She was Lucifer's consort for a good while, and still is intermittently now. It's mentioned that one of the things that truly scares her is the possibility that the entire thing was manipulation and Lucifer never saw her as more then a pawn.
Villains Out Shopping: While an extremely powerful being, Lilith is still a human, meaning she has normal hobbies rather then the laser-focused Word promotion of celestial superiors. This means it's entirely possible for the party to bump into Lilith, Princess of Freedom and Mother of Demons, on a shopping trip or something that has absolutely nothing to do with the war for the symphony.
Weak, but Skilled: Lilith is believed to be one of the weakest of the Princes (although her own enigmatic nature makes this hard to judge), in part due to being a Word-bound human instead of a Celestial being, but there are things she can do that no one else can, including the creation of Lilim.
Wild Card: While nominally aligned with Hell, Lilith is ultimately on Lilith's side and everyone knows it (even if no-one's quite sure what that side entails). She'll happily side with demons, angels, etherals, humans and anyone else that happens to support her goals.
Would Hurt a Child: The legends of Lilith being an eater of children aren't entirely false - she once had to steal the forces from infants to create Lilim. She doesn't do that anymore, of course. She has far more efficent ways of getting forces now.

Characters / In Nomine

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