(Elizabeth "Archangel Beth" McCoy <arcangel@prismnet.com>)
The world must remember the past, to build the future.
One of the little-known Archangels, Beth spends most of her time in Yves' Library, sorting, filing, cataloging, reading... The rest of the time, she's hanging out around the Halls of Progress -- usually with a certain Elohite of Lightning. O;>
Her Choir is debatable, but she seems to be either a Bright Lilim with the Kyriotate resonance (from Yves' Master of Divine Knowledge Distinction), or vice versa. She's also been known to show almost Elohite "but on the other hand" waffling, but her occasional emotional reactions show that she hasn't gone that far yet... Given some of her rants on "Lilim Rights," most think she's a Redeemed Daughter. (She's also been known to say she was sired by a Balseraph; take that for what it's worth...)
If you want to find some information, Beth is usually the person to ask first -- if she doesn't know the information, she often knows who will. She's particularly adept at hunting out records of discussions: her function in the Seraphim Council is that of transcriber.
Though she is one of the least involved in the War (just don't threaten her precious records and books!), there are a few who serve the Word of Archives...
Destroying or misfiling records. Defacing books counts, though not necessarily underlining in a textbook. Yelling in libraries is not dissonant, but it is highly frowned upon.
Most of the Servitors of Archives work in Yves' Library, and have appropriate duties there. Not all have the Celestial Song of Tongues, but it's reccomended.
Many Servitors are actually Relievers of Archives, with one (or more) of the Choir Attunements to assist them in their duties.
When they gain Essence from an attunement, this is 1 Essence per day. (24 hour period, in Heaven.)
Seraphim of Archives are assigned to coordinate errata, correct mistakes in books (keeping records of the errors that were discovered) and proof-read. With their resonance for facts, they also make good technical writers. They gain 1 Essence for completely proof-checking text for errors, and do not suffer check-digit penalties to their resonance rolls for visual-only reproductions -- i.e., text. (p. 57 for the CD penalties.) On the WWW, they check for broken links.
Beth's Cherubim keep track of specific reference books, making sure that they're available and complete. When someone needs to know the "official" seven Archangels, it's a Cherub who will go digging that up -- often from several different books. They gain 1 Essence for answering a question that pertains to their attuned books, and can attune to any number of books so long as they all fall into the same "catagory." (Baby names, gardening, Ethereal Spirits, Medical, etc.) Word-Bound Cherubim of Archives usually go for things like "Angel of Baby Names Books," or"Angel of Anthropology Books."
The Wheels of Archives are responsible for "epherema" -- mostly periodicals, newspapers, magazines, etc. They gain 1 Essence for placing a selection of magazines into a binder and filing it on the shelves. (And including all references for the databases, of course.) They can use their resonance to seek out materials in a place where information is kept -- they'll be led unerringly to the Mystery section in a bookstore (if that's what they want to look for), the correct drawer of microfiche, and the right key to access a computer's Search Database functions...
The Elohim of Archives resolve contradictions between books, deciding which ones are more accurate and passing that on to the Seraphim for errata-listing. (This often means they work with material regarding the sciences, where the newest breakthroughs happen; you can find many of them around Jean's Cathedral.) Beth's Elohim regain 1 Essence for sorting through several books and drawing out the most correct information. With at least fifteen minutes and a successful Precision roll, they can cite references and precedents to prove/disprove just about anything -- the check digit of their roll subtracts from rolls to resist going along with what the Elohite thinks is right.
Beth's few Malakim are the Servitors of Archives most likely to be found on the corporeal plane, busily collecting books (especially rare and out-of-print ones) and defending them from those who would ban, burn or otherwise mutilate books. Celestially, they're mostly restricted to wandering around the Library shushing loud people and thwarting anyone trying to steal books. They gain 1 Essence from saving a book from destruction. With a resonance roll, they can draw out the sins and virtues related to how the subject treated books and information. They often take Oaths relating to their jobs: "Never allow the defacement of a book when it's my choice" is popular, though it disqualifies them from going onto campuses (hilighting text usually counts).
At least one Malakite of Archives is sadly wandering the world, seeking someone who will part (honorably) with the first of Ms. Egan's "Ivory" series. [This may have been accomplished! Thanks, Maya! --11/11/97] Another haunts used bookstores for the Alan Burt Akers/Dray Prescott "Scorpio" epic.
They know which books you *need* to read, and they'll happily tote out a stack of them. They're most concerned with genre fiction. Lilim of Archives are able to tell with eye contact which kinds of books a subject enjoys most, and can suggest similar ones that she's read herself. They get 1 Essence when someone enjoys a recomended book (one Essence per day, no matter how many people have been enjoying it...). They are very good at inflicting Geases that protect archives -- their Ethereal Forces subtract from the subject's Will roll for such instructions, but they will suffer dissonance if any Geas of theirs causes the subject to violate Archives' dissonance conditions!
It is suspected that not all of Beth's Lilim are Bright -- archives are archives, and having a spy in the heart of Kronos' Principality would be just her speed. Not that she'd bother to mention it to anyone unless they asked, though some of the links might lead to: "Filed: Hell." Her version of "Restricted Stacks," perhaps. [Yes, this does imply that you might find a demonic Lilim of Archives. <evil grin>]
Everywhere at once, the Dominations of Archives are the ones who make sure that there's a place for everything, and everything in its place. They're concerned with overall filing, keeping related books together, putting the dewy decimal codes (or bar codes) on everything, and maintaining the Archive Web-page links ("Fiction: Little Fuzzy, H. Beam Piper. Written Sequals: <list>, Unwritten Sequals: <other list>"). They get 1 Essence for finishing a series of elegant, intuitive and complete links. They can also possess *books*, for minutes equal to total Forces, and access any information within the book with an Intelligence roll. (This ability may be bought by a non-Kyriotate Servitor of Archives with the Song of Possession, too.)
These are the keepers of non-text-media archives -- paintings, music, sculpture or videos -- though they are expected to make sure that they've got all the appropriate references to text works (the complete plays of Shakespear, for instance, or Mercedes Lackey's "Eumenides" and David Weber's _Path of the Fury_). They get 1 Essence for watching/listening to/viewing a new work and adding the appropriate references to incorporate it into the Library archives. Similar to the Lilim of Archives, they can tell what sorts of art/plays/music a person appreciates with a Perception roll, and know which similar things (that they've viewed themselves) would be well-received.
("You get to read all these *books*! What do you want with Servitor Attunements?")
With a touch, this Servitor can grant someone Literacy in any language that he knows, for a number of hours equal to his total Forces. For 1 Essence, he can grant Literacy (only) in a language he does *not* know (as with the Corporeal Song of Tongues) for an equal time. If he cares to spend Essence equal to the *subject's* Forces, he may make this *permanent* with a successful roll against Intelligence! (This is noisy, and if the Intelligence roll fails, that language cannot be given to the subject by that Servitor.)
Even as Yves' Servitors may use Divine Logic to show how something is obviously right, so may Beth's use this Attunement to show how something is worth reading/seeing/thinking -- passing on their own true enthusiasm to someone else for check-digit hours with a Precision roll. If someone wishes to resist, they may, with Will; otherwise, they will become passionately interested in the subject. (Elohim so "infected" are, however, quite able to prioritize -- the enthusiasm will not cause them dissonance.)
(Sometimes called a Library Card, but that is also an Attunement of Destiny.) This owner-only relic comes in the form of a library-card rectangle, the substance of which depends on where one is. (Plastic is most common.) With a turn of concentration, the user can change it into any kind of library or bookstore-discount card. The owner must be physically near the library or bookstore in question. The card bears the appropriate signature and numerical code/magnetic strip/barcode to be accepted as a legitimate card for checking out books from a library, or getting a discount on buying them. If you don't return checked-out books on time, you don't get dissonant, but the Archangel of Archives *will* be annoyed with you.
("Distinctions? Oh, right, gonna need those. Um... Librarian.")
There is only one Distinction of Archives: Librarian. Upon entering a place where text is stored (or accessing a computer with that data), a Librarian will automatically be able to mentally access the titles, subjects and authors of all the textual material in the area. With a successful Perception roll, the Librarian may also get a brief summary. A Librarian may voluntarily restrict this ability to "all books within eyesight" to prevent brain-explosions when in Yves' Library.
Relatively inoffensive, Beth has so far managed to avoid the worst wrath of the "old guard," though she is the youngest Archangel by far. Bemusingly, it sometimes seems as if she's unaware of her status, and functions as a Servitor of Yves -- indeed, many of *her* Servitors report to him as well; their angels often have Servitor Attunements from both. Michael is usually reduced to standing in a corner, covering his eyes with his hand and shaking his head -- she's too focused on her precious archives to be part of any mysterious schemes of Destiny.
Allied: Eli, Jean, Yves
Associated: Blandine, Gabriel
Neutral: everyone else
Hostile: Jordi, sometimes (his Servitors don't respect
books enough)
Beth's primary goal in life is collecting and providing information; this includes providing information to her Servitors.
Blandine: "She's a bit overly focused with recording things, writing them down so they can be found again -- but I'm hardly going to complain when she's so enthusiastic about preserving dreams."
Chistopher: "She'll read a book to a child as happily as she hands a tome to a scholar -- learning should be one of the joys of childhood, and she knows that."
David: "The first records were preserved on stone. Who am I to argue with that?"
Dominic: "Her Elohim make fine lawyers and legal assistants, and I am... indebted to her for the team she sent to reorganize my own records after some of Janus' angels got... over-enthusiastic."
Eli: "Some things can't be recorded -- a good sunset just *loses* something in the transition -- but preserving beauty for others, that's cool."
Gabriel: "I don't know why she praises me for giving and preserving knowledge. I was just doing my job, then. Still, passion for knowledge is passion none-the-less."
Janus: "Records, filing, everything in its place...
I'd get fed up with her if she hadn't given me that complete 'Simon Templar'
set."
("Does this mean that you'll put the Library map back?")
Jean: "Computers and records go together quite well."
Jordi: "Records are a man-made artifact. Instinct
is written in the genes, and true knowledge cannot be bound within sheets
of paper. Still, without the memory of the lost species, humans would not
know to mourn them."
("I love you too, Jordi -- what, no comment about library cats?")
Laurence: "It is said that those who do not know history will repeat its mistakes -- and there are, indeed, many useful resources within the Library. Someone needs to keep those resources from being lost."
Marc: "If I have to hear about how awful waiting for an over-seas Pratchett book is again... I'm doing what I can! The electronic-books stuff is in Jean's hands right now."
Michael: "I'll write my memoirs *after* the War is done. I could wish she didn't hang around Yves so much, but his notions don't seem to affect her much."
Novalis: "I admit, I'm glad her Word no longer
*requires* the slaughter of trees to pursue! And there's
plenty of joy curling up with a good book in a garden."
("Just you wait -- I'll have people with books-on-disk curled up in
gardens yet.")
Yves: "The future has its roots in the past -- and having the lessons of the past at our fingertips is a blessing."
Zadkiel: "We're both concerned with protection -- I take care of the living, and she takes care of those whose time has passed. There's validity in her point of view."
Most of the Princes couldn't care less about an Archangel of Archives, but you can get them to give opinions anyway. There's not much that's more opinionated than a Prince.
Andrealphus: "She keeps everything -- even if she
does crate the porn up and stick it in the basements. I'm sure my annotated
Kama Sutra is up there somewhere."
("The Elohim decided the Creation edition was more accurate and useful.")
Asmodeus: "If I find another spy of Archives in
my Principality..."
("But we'd tidy up your records for you!")
Baal: "Yeah, yeah, so they've got the records of all the old warriors up there. It just means Larry's predictable."
Beleth: "Nightmares need no 'recording' -- they are engraved in the victim's brain."
Belial: "Books are paper. They burn niiiiiice."
("_Farenheit 451_, right here in living color, ladies and gents.")
Fleurity: "The worlds you can visit with books are nothing compared to the worlds I can unlock inside your head."
Furfur: "That crap can *never* be Hardcore."
Haagenti: "I ate a book once. Dry."
(*sob*)
Kobal: "Books are so boring. Not one of them contains
the Ultimate Joke."
(*SOB* "He just doesn't *get it*!")
Kronos: "In some ways, she is even more my rival than Yves -- her Word and mine are as close as Jean's and Vapula's. She would subsume me if she could, but use the past to inspire Destiny."
Lilith: "Oh, *her*. <amused sigh> I could wish she didn't give away so much knowledge for nothing, but that's angels for you."
Malphas: "Archives. So? Unless I can get someone arguing over filing methods..."
Mammon: "She likes *loaning* books, instead of selling them! Gah."
Nybbas: "Reading, reading, reading! I hate books!
At least she's keeping all the soaps and talk-shows!"
("Something's gotta prop up the ceiling.")
Saminga: "Books are useless. They don't keep anyone 'alive' after I've claimed them."
Valefor: "Okay, if she'd been around when I got
the Nostradamus stuff, I'd have had a harder time of it. As it is, she keeps
sending me these 'overdue' slips demanding its return!"
("To: Prince Valefor of Theft. Re: Nostradamus. This work is now seven
centuries overdue. Please return it and pay the library fine. Your library
card has been revoked for five centuries now. --Archangel Beth")
Vapula: "Who needs technical writers? I know how
to work everything around here, and my instruction manuels are perfectly
understandable!"
("Yeah, yeah. But Jean's machines don't crash and lose data.")
From: w_mazur@primenet.com (Walt Mazur)
Regarding Distinctions
How about the above [Librarian] as Master of Librarians, plus:
The angel can use the Celestial Song of Motion at no essence cost to teleport to the correct filing location for a book (or other information- containing item) in her hands, or back to the stacks of un-filed books. This distinction can only operate within a single library. Inter-library loan books must be returned by other means.
Within Celestial Forces miles, the angel can detect the presence of any
specific desired book (or any other infomation-containing item) in all libraries,
bookstores, or any other places the book may be obtained legitimately (garage
sales, conventions, etc.) She is also aware of the conditions for obtaining
the book in question from each source: cost, library card fee, check out
duration, etc. She may choose one of these to have a Cherubic attuning to:
the attuning lasts only until she reaches the book, and she can attune to
only one book at a time (unless she has other means to maintain attunings
-- that is, she's a Cherub or has the Corporeal Song of Attraction).
(These are perfectly good -- but it's still just "Libararian," much as Vapula has a rank called "Inspector." If only one Distinction appeals more, make these above into Servitor Attunements.)
I like the Attunements, though I'd had the thought of Kyriotates being able to create -temporary- Vessels (complete with Roles) based on fictional characters...(Or perhaps as a Servitor Attunement; cost 1 Essence per Force (with the note that a lot of animals in fiction, say, Puss In Boots, are definitely 5 Force creatures...) the `original' would have had, and can then be maintained for 1 Essence per day...but in addition to granting the form and Role, it DOES force you to act within that Role...)
These ones I think I'd suggest bumping up a bit, even granting her tendancy to make herself relatively easy to get ahold of...(eg a bookstore or medium-sized library is +4, a large public libary is +5...and +6 requires a large and somehow distinct collection - the Library of Congress, or perhaps the study of a collector who has a number of rare books...)
And then there's the Dark Victory version. (Armageddon arrives, Hell wins... Concept by "Redneck Gaijin.")