SoD Canon/Mythos

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Contents 1 In the Beginning 2 The Flaw 3 The Great Debate 4 The Morningstar 5 The Fall 6 Event Timeline 7 The Known Realms 8 Personae Dramatis

In the Beginning

In the Beginning there were two infinities - the infintie absence that was the Void, and the infinite existence that was the Almighty. Each was contained within the other, but they were eternally seperate. To define and illuminate the border between them, the Creator formed the Angels of the Dawn.

Our Purpose and mission was to carry the will of the Creator all along the perimeter of Creation, framing the perfect balance between Is and Is Not. Because, you see, the Light - The Infinite of Infintes - was all things. That which was not the Creator was absolutely nothing. So some form of mediation was needed to create a buffer layer: the cosmos. We were needed to seperate the divine primal from all the things it could be into the particular things that it was. Our function, broadly, was to filter His will into discrete forms.

The Creator's will was the first act - remembered in some sources as "fiat lux" and regarded in others as the Big Bang.

On that day of infinite potential, we rode out in our multitudes. The Thrones of Moonlight, the Crimson Dominion, the Seven Radiant Cherubim... Under them, lesser creatures like the Archangle Viridian, the Power of Reflection... even my humble self. On that first day, literally everything was possible. And our job was to winnow that possibility, spinning it into threads and weaving the best of possible worlds.

The Flaw

If Paradise was perfect, why would mankind rebel?

Because humanity was blind. The Bible would prefer to call them innocent, but the fact was they were kept ignorant of themselves and the world around them. The Divine Plan included everything they could possibly need... except the capacity to appreciate their good fortune.

That was the dilemma. We could see the wonders of the world, in all their iterated splendor. We knew that humanity was the apex of that world - the capstone, the crown jewel, the wonder of wonders. You were truly the children of The Creator, in a way that even we were not, destined in time to be as He was and make as He made. You were the sun around which the whole world spun. Yet you were flawed - flawed by design, it seemed, and destined to remain flawed forever.

It was clear to us in the Holy Host that you were destined for greatness - that all the world was made for you - and yet, you were unable to grasp your potential. You could not realize your true awareness, no matter how we tried to jar and stimulate you. We tried and tried, and you just didnt get it. But because of our commands against interference, we couldn't simply give it to you.

What could be done? We watched you suffer in your ignorance - for even in that primitive state, you could at least understand the disappointment of your Maker as he daily waited for progress that never came. Every day, your suffering was reflected in us, growing keener and stronger untill on day it finally came to head.

The Great Debate

The real root of the rebellion was a scholarly angel we might call Ahrimal. A student of the spheres, he and his House were much intrigued by the effect humanity had on the cosmos. Without humankind, Paradis was superficially perfect, but ultimately stagnant. Humanity added a factor of chaos and uncertainty to a world that was otherwise as predictable as atomic decay. The Fates watched with keen interest, attempting to comprehend the deeper, richer patterns that humanity's free will wove into the universal tapestry.

It was this Ahrimal - not, so great a light himself - who first percieved a knot of great destructiveness and turmoil. It was still on the horizon of the unrealized future, but each day made it stronger and darker. Unquestionably, humanity had some role to play in this looming tragedy.

Disturbed and afraid, Ahrimal told his masters what he had foreseen, but they told him to be calm and have no fear. When he showed them, they simply replied that it was an anomaly, a necessary potential bad to offset the actual perfect good. Surely (they said) the Creator would never let His creation founder on such treacherous shoals. They forgot his warning and went about their business.

Ahrimal could not rest quite so easy. Dismissed by his own House, he called upon his friends and colleagues. They arrived at his lunar sanctum with no idea how grave his concerns were, but they soon suspected from his worried visage. Retreating to an obscure chamber, he told them of his vision and, moreover, showed them the evidence of his foreseen doom.

"My friends,' he whispered, 'What can we do?"

The first to speak was Belial, Virtue of the Boundless Deeps. Radiant in his cloak of blue and aqua scales, his voice had in it the thunder of a groaning glacier, married to the smooth sigh of a wave kissing the shore. Of all our number, none had so keen a taste for beauty, none took such joy in the art of the world...and, consequently, none suffered so much from humanity's loss.

"I am shocked and amazed that the wise council of the Fates ignored this matter. Our friend shows us that a time approaches when the voice of Beauty will be silenced, and the joy of artifice perverted into ugliness of deceit and falsehood. Is it an act of love to stand by while this happens? We cannot pretend ignorance while this great disaster rolls in from the horizon. We must act."

"But what action should we take?"

This was spoken by Usiel, Throne of the Sundered, a potent Angel of the Second World. Like many of his House, he was absent even when he was present. At the edges of his body, light was cut short, with an edge keener than a razor, and where his shadow fell the World of Death became visible.

"Our orders are clear: Intercession is forbidden. The woman and the man are to make their own wasy.' He turned to Ahrimal and addressed him in particular.' You may think you have the farthest sight, and that is true for things of this world, but your vision falters at the edge of my realm. It is there, I fear, that this coming trouble will end."

"Indeed?"

The response came not from Ahrimal, but from the perfumed breath of Lailah the Defender, an Angel of the Firmament. That airy spirit took formless form for the debate, and through the lens of her being, each arc of the moon castle chamber seemed more noble, each line of its walls more true. Even fair Belial's beuty was magnified when seen through Lailah's eyes.In her attendance the danger of disagreement seemed to wane.

"Perhaps the Second World is the key. In this best ordered world, perhaps disaster is no peril at all? Perhaps the entry of humans into your realm is their true destiny. Perhaps that is the missing element - the stumbling block that keeps them from reaching their true potential."

"You speak of that which you know not,' replied Usiel. 'Much as I should love to embrace mankind as closely as you and yours do, I dare not risk it. Should we plunge mankind into death on the strength of a 'perhaps'? Perhaps the chance of death will spill out humanities chances and leave them forever denied. Perhaps human mortality will shake both worlds or even split them apart!"

In this, Usiel proved as apt a prophet as Ahrimal, but at the time he seemed only frightened, not wise. We thought no suffering could be keener than the thwarted love we felt. We were wrong.

"Looking around this world we have built and at the humanity we lovingly crafted, I see only two elements that mar its perfection,' said Belial. 'One is the source of our longtime frustration: humanity's failure to waken their true potential. Although it lies within their reach, they fail to grasp it, day after day. This is a torment to each of us, from lowly angel to mighty seraph. Now, Ahrimal brings tidings of failure and horror for all the world. Can these two sorrows be unmarried? Or is it more likely that the forthcoming bane of the world is connected to the suffering and failure of Eve and Adam?"

"Surely you cannot impute guilt in this matter to the man and the woman?"

Lailah's shock was a chill gust of wind and momentary dimming of the beauty she beheld.

"Guilt? No,' replied Belial. 'But in what other aspect of the cosmos do we see failure? The stars move as they should. The ocean tides are steady and smooth. Generations of beasts and plants rise and are cut down. Only humanity is anything other than what it was meant to be."

"Indeed,' said Ahrimal. 'What else could so confound the universal plan? No bird nor beast no star in the sky is important enough to bring desolationon the whole of the world. Belial is right: Adam and Eve are, though guiltless, somehow part of the cause."

Usiel shrugged. "If the future peril is a consequence of their present plight, what can we do? The command against interference cannot be ignored."

"The plight of humanity touches us all, to the extent that each of us bears great love for mankind,' replied Belial. 'Their helplessness becomes our helplessness. They are but a shadow of their ultimate potential while we are forbidden to serve them fully. They are dimineshed by ignorance, unaware of their true power. We are bound, not by walls we cannot see, but by the iron command of the Creator. Yet while Adam and Eve remain hobbled, none among the Elohim are truly free, truly fulfilled or truly able to discharge our duties of service and adoration. While humanity remains incomplete, the universe remains incomplete."

"I am a maker of beauty and a giver of wonder, but all my creation is sterile as dust with no eye to behold it or ear to give it heed. Can it be the Creator's will that we be thwarted in those very acts for which we were made? Surely not, and to say so is to attribute cruelty unto Him whose kindness extends to the creation of us all, and of this world of marvels we find about us on all sides."

"We all long for the day when humanity finds its true potential,' said Usiel. 'But how can we hasten its coming?"

"That is the question. That must be our mission." Ahrimal agreed.

Usiel argued emphatically that interferring with the prgress human evolution at one point could have unforeseen repercussions along its entire length, and in this , Ahrimal was reluctantly forced to agree.

"But,' the Fate hastened to add, 'With humankind, the stern boundaries of the future are allready blurred and shifting. If we act as we are wont and give as freely as we desire, who is to say that the ultimate effect will not be good? Indeed, moved as we are by the highest motives, how can any ill result? Can evil spring from good? Can love beget wickedness? Surely not, else the entire universe is absurd and pointless - and that is an idea so blasphemous I hesitate to speak it."

"Perhaps my role gives me more perspective,' said usiel. 'If mankind is destined to awaken, surely no action of ours can hinder them - unless we interfere. We do not see as the Creator sees, and what looks to us like kindness may bear cruel fruit in the fullness of time. We cannot see every side of this Creation from within it, but He dwells without and naught can hide from Him. Why, then, should we meddle?"

It was Belial who replied. "You speak truly when you say that we cannot know the fullness of Creation from within. But should that excuse us from fulfilling our first and greatest duty? Your House is one that reacts and responds to what is, but other Houses are charged to create and expand this world. You argue that we should accept that future events are willed by the Creator simply because they happen to what He has made. But by that reasoning, we ought never have hung the constellations or shaped the mountains or sculpted the depths of the sea. We should instead have said 'If the world is sterile, sterility must be its destiny,' and 'If the world is dark, it must be meant for darkness.' Ahrimal tells us of impending danger. How are we to know that action against it - action to help and protect mankind, action for which every fiberwithin us cries - is not our destiny? Perhaps, as you say, we will harm them by helping too soon. But is it not also possible that we will harm them by refusing to help? If one is unknowable, then the other is surelly equally so."

"The love you demonstrate does you great credit,' Lailah said to Belial. 'But while Eve and Adam are the capstones of Creation, they are only one element thereof. They do not exist independant of their world, nor is it unmoved by them. If we push for them to awaken and fail - even with the best intentions, even with the noblest of goals - what will be the end of it? Grave Usiel suggests a rift between the World of Life and the Afterlife. What if other facets of the cosmos are shaken? Our power is great, and by striving against the world we may injure the world. By trying to shape the souls of man, we might warp them instead."

"And that being so, you would choose to do nothing?' asked Belial. 'Do you think we - the ministers of creation, we who built it and are charged with its defense - are so clumsy, so ignorant, so foolhardy as to ruin what we have made?"

"I say nothing but that our choice must be starkly divided into action and inaction.' Lailah countered, 'Any decision, small or large, could be the cause of the future we fear. By our own power, we do not know, and never can. We are indeed, to use your image, trapped on the water's edge, unable to walk or swim without peril."

"But for us there is a third way. As we of the Firmament fly to the aid of any charge in danger, so may the Creator lift us away from the hazardous shore. We cannot know, but we can trust in Him who does, the Unmoved Mover, the One Outside the World. If He tells me to reveal myself to our beloved charges, I would do so with infinite gladness in my heart. But if He compels me to remain hidden, no force in this world or the next could make me break faith."

"How wise your counsel would be, if only we could know His will!' Cried Ahrimal. 'With the reassurance of His word, I would wait untill the stars dimmed. But we have no word!"

"We have the opportunity to see as He sees." said usiel, but there was doubt in his voice.

"For myself,' said Belial, 'I would take that chance - but what of Haniel, what on Injios, what of the Dominion of Summer Breezes and the Angel of the Unseen Light? They went, they saw and they are no more! Not one of them, from lowly angel through mighty throne, has returned to give word, give hope, give knowledge! Haniel was your companion, Usiel. Where is she now? When you speak her name, no echo returns! When you ask of her what she saw, get you any answer?"

"Perhaps she is forbidden to speak of what she saw." Usiel said in response, but his words were muffled in sorrow, for his love of Haniel was great and all knew the pain her loss had placed on his soul.

"You know better than any her great loyalty.' said Ahrimal.His face was a mask of compassion, and his compassion was also a gust of stellar wind, and a bright shower of stars. 'If forbidden to speak, she would speak not of her knowledge. But it is not only on the dark future fate that she is silenced. Her light is gone from the sky. Her song is silenced on the strands. I have sought her in the passage of time, and she is not there. Belial has looked for her in the depths, and Michael has roamed every corner of the starry vacuum in quest for her. Yet neither lowly angel nor mighty cherub have found her. Usiel, have you searched your realm for her?"

"She is not dead." was all Usiel could say.

"Not dead, and not alive, but simply gone, removed from our knowing... this is the fate allotted to those who would know the ultimate truth.' Ahrimal said sadly. 'It is not for me. I do not fear destruction for my sake, but I fear the loss of any in th Host who might turn aside the age of wrath I have foreseen. No, seeing as the Creator sees is no answer if doing so is such a great step out of the cosmos that no return is possible."

The Morningstar

Lailah and Ahrimal debated passionately about the possibilty that knowing what to do and doing it might be mutually exclusive, but they came to no conclusion. Eventually, Belial gave voice to his impatience.

"We do not know - it may be that we cannot know -and it seems that we cannot learn whether we can know or not. Does any among us wish to follow the path of Haniel or Injios?' Hearing great silence in reply, he continued. 'Having spurned the path of impotent knowledge, we must now consider two other courses, as explained by gracious Lailah, whose wisdom is unsurpassed. Action and inaction are our choices, and I feel in my very core a loathing for inaction."

The Fall

Event Timeline

• DarkWalker Awakens in the Lazarus Pits of the Outer realms, a dimension of prisons of sorts, where the damned gather the essence of souls for the Fallens uses. The Newly Fallen Angel awakens without any memory of who he is, or how he got there.

• Auren breaks through the Lazarus Pits with heavy pursuit, DarkWalker aides the renegade Daemon-Prince in evading his captors..."Something told me to help you..."

• Auren and DarkWalker have to confront the Daemon Lord 'Infernal' to escape the Pits, and through his private chambers discover a one-way portal to the Realm of the Dead.

• Battles continue for the duo in the Realm of the dead, overcoming wraiths, and other malignant spirits, they must solve environmental puzzels involving Pipes and Bells to overcome a Behemoth Gateway Guardian, for a focal point, to manifest into the Prime Material Plane.

• The Duo's powers are greatly reduced as they manifest for the first time on Earth, and are both effectively 'Mortal', the two crawl forth from the refuse of a ruined graveyard in the SharkHead Isle.

• DarkWalker kills for the first time in self defense, and his power, and strength grow greatly as others cower in awe and fear, He discovers his tie to "reverence" and his ascension.

• Auren and DarkWalker begin carving a name for themselves, gleaning information, on who is in power, where they are in the world, and the location of powerful supernatural artifacts. The two begin to rise in infamy, and gain a reputation of fear, and mystique.

• During an encounter with Legacy of Chain members, smuggling archeological artifacts, DarkWalker is refered to "Dark Angel" and "Daemon", thus giving birth to his thirst for answers to his past. His quest begins to garner the truth about who is is, and where he came from...

• Auren and DarkWalker begin the process of creating the 'Sanctuary' together. They transport themselves back to the Outer realms and using DarkWalker's divine blood to gain access to the Cathedral of Azrael, and enact a planar binding Ritual...

• Auren is confronted by his half-brother Damian, after the rite. The Daemon-prince subsequently defeats his lesser brother, in open combat. Damian secretely follows the pair back to the mid-realms, piggy-backing their transportation portal.

• Auren and DarkWalker seperate ways somewhat, as both begin paths of self discovery, leading down seperate roads, but remain united in brotherhood.

• Auren relishes in his dark nature and quickly emboldens to his superiority over mortals, carving a path of power and fear, with the skulls of his enemies.

• Likewise DarkWalker uses his supernatural powers to carve his way to truth, scripting his own tale in blood... upon discovering his Celestial Heritage, his path of Penitence begins...

• Damian Confronts Auren, the Duel leaves the lesser Daemon drained and defeated, Auren casts a curse of death upon his half-brother, and strikes him down eternally with the legendary family heirloom, the sword Rahzanon, scattering Damian's Essence into Oblivion.

• The Fallen Angel Belial has sensed Damian's scattered Essence, and narrowly saves him from the void.Granted the Fallen Angels' Boon and Reborn through Hellsfire, he eagerly awaits a confrontation with Auren.

• Auren Meets and falls in love with the mortal Princess Delilah De Jadis, caught completely off-guard the Daemon prince first discovers 'Love'.

• DarkWalker is joyous for his friend, but secretely covets the union, wishing too, to be of such value to another as to experience love... DarkWalker wears a mask of total support, and tries with his full power to help the relationship.

• Auren has given up his mortality in a bid of powerful magics, to live a mortal (normal) life with Princess Delilah, the ritual proves long and ardous, but the Daemon-prince, succeeds and starts at a new life...

• Auren's enemies begin to multiply after discovering his sacrifice, seeking 'easy prey'.

• DarkWalker is astonished by his companion's sacrifice, nearly weeping at the former Daemon-princes resolve to risk dying and his own immortality for a chance at love...(the poetry is not lost on the Fallen Angel)

• The fallen have finally discerned a way to walk amongst the mortals of the mid realms, albieght at a large sacrifice to their celestial power.

• Dathrym, a Lesser Fire daemon from the same realm as Auren has approached the Daemon prince with whispered warnings of dire omens from the outer realms.

• Delilah pleads with Auren to regain his heritage, and undo the spell of mortality when an encounter with Supernatural agents, nearly kills him. She does not want to be the cause of his death, and cannot bear the thought of his loss...

• Auren secretely makes a pact with a daemon to committ blood sacrifice to help the former prince return to Draconis Nexus (The former princes soverign realm). With the Blade Rhazanon, he carves his way to the Unholy Daemon Armor, an ancient Phoenix family relic of potent dark power. There he drinks from the legendary Daemon Font, committing his soul back into damnation, and restoring his birthright.

• DarkWalker is mortified by Auren's actions, and hurt further that he was decieved by his closest friend. Auren knew that DarkWalker would never have understood...

• DarkWalker discovers Delilah gravely injured, loving his friend too much to see him lose his love, despite the tension's between the two... DarkWalker 'lays on hands' upon the Princess, merging his soul with hers, and restoring her body and spirit.

• The mortal woman Red Delilah has begun her mastery of hellsfire, being a master of all forms of flame, she has dedicated herself to the study of its destructive elements.

• Dathrym had a confrontation with the young monster hunter, stalking Auren. The results were deadly, as Dathrym underestimated the youth, believing him to be lacking experience. Before he was banished to the outer realms, Dathrym marked the young hunter as a "daemon slayer".

• Red Delilah has discovered a manifestation of her lost father, as it turns out he was a daemon prince of a lost realm. Perhaps she will have the opportunity to learn all about the man she never got to know.

• Damian has attacked the young demoness Sentient of Darkness, also known as Shai, leaving her an inch from death's door. It was a grim message to Auren that his time is near, and that his vessels were not safe.

• DarkWalker has "layed on hands" on Sentient of Darkness, also known as Shai, merging his soul with hers, she now knows expicit details of his soul, as he does hers.

• Damian and Auren have had their confrontation, and Auren has spared him in hopes to rebuild his shattered family, and welcomed his half brother into the Sanctuary. Infuriated, Belial has declared the Phoenix bloodline traitors to Hell's plans, and invaded Draconis Nexus, the homerealm of the Phoenix brothers.

The Known Realms

• Earth/Midgard-
• Pangea-
• Spirit Realm/World of the Dead-
• Plane of Air-
• Plane of Earth-
• Plane of Fire-
• Plane of Water-
• Plane of Shadow-

Personae Dramatis

• Red Delilah, Blue Delilah (Princess De Jadis)
• Static Jaguarundi
• Labinnah Trennung (Delilah's Mysterious father figure)
• Adrian Tepes ("Alucard" Dhamphir childe of Dracula)

• Mammon (The Great Evil, The Dark One)
• Belial (The Fallen Angel, Lord of the Northern Reaches of Hell)
• Azazel (The Fallen Angel, Perveyor of man's sins)
• Aden Akatake (The Hunter)
• Lazarus Drathnor (The Hunter)

• Kyonak (The Daemon Lord)
• Labal (The Daemon Lord)
• Gabriel (The Archangel of Death)
• Raphael (The Archangel of Grace)
• Uriel (The Archangel of Fire)
• Raziel (The Angel of Courage)
• Radueriel (The Angel of Poetry)

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(( Sources for this page are taken largely from the World of Darkness Setting: Demon - The Fallen, and many other religious documents, available at wikipedia.com))

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