By: redneck@txdirect.net (Redneck Gaijin)
The world is unclean; it must be cleansed with fire and sword. Only the holy and righteous may walk in God's light.
Dominic acted as the Provost Marshall of Heaven in the final battle, forcing retreating Angels back into the fray, refusing to accept defeat even when the heart of the Eternal City was overrun. Stunned into submission, he was the last defender of the City to fall, and with his last awareness he beheld the removal of the Upper Heavens from the spheres of the world.
Dominic awoke in a cell in Hades, angry beyond belief and sick to his heart at the last sight in his memory; the glory and purity of God, the reassuring rule of order which he had supported since the Beginning, turning its back on Creation. His guards were more than happy to tell Dominic of the outcome of the Great Battle, telling the truth but not the whole truth... they told of Michael and Laurence's Last Stand, but not of the hundreds of angels and two Princes who had died to pull them down.
At length, the demon guards left Dominic alone in his cell to stew, and the Seraph's rage boiled hotter and hotter as he brooded and sulked. (Anybody can tell you that brooding and sulking in Hell is not a good thing for an Angel to do.) Still, he held on to one hope. The Lord would rescue His own. The faithful and holy could not be forsaken so easily, not after so long, hard and miserable a service in His name.
But when rescue came, it was not God, but the Adversary, Lucifer sneaking through a Hell he no longer ruled, rescuing those Angels he could swiftly and quietly.
Lucifer's repentance was one straw too many for Dominic, and his mind snapped like a camel's back. The first lie came easily to his lips, and another followed, and another, and before Lucifer could escort the handful of rescued Archangels from Hell, Dominic had Fallen from grace, totally mad and filled with unrighteous fury at the Creation which had betrayed his hopes.
Dominic went straight from Lucifer to the center of Hell, gibbering wildly in his growing world of delusion, raving to the Demon Princes about his Divine Mission, his intent to slay all the evil, the cruel, the infidel, the unfaithful, etc. etc. etc.... Through him, the Princes learned of Lucifer's defection, and the resulting chaos left Dominic the short time he needed to consolidate his own regrowing power.
The Balseraph Dominic has chosen Cleansing as his new Word, dimly aware that he can no longer claim his old. Thanks to the hate groups and fundamentalists on Earth, Cleansing is a *very* powerful Word, and Demons whose Superiors had been slain - chiefly Belial's remaining Servitors, but also demons from Asmodeus, Baal and a couple of Kobal's most evil, twisted demons - have flocked to his side, not out of any loyalty to his mission but to catch the rising wave in Hell. Despite his lingering wounds from Armageddeon, Dominic is now on a par with the other Demon Princes, and in his madness he sees the Granite Throne not as the symbol of ruling Hell, but as the holy sword he needs to complete his quest of eliminating the unclean from the Universe.
In corporeal form, Dominic (or Dominique) appears as a gloriously beautiful man or woman, seemingly without flaw within or without. In Celestial form, he wears the same dark cloak as before, not out of humility, but because his Balseraph form is so hideous and twisted as to wreck the mind of the beholder.
Servitors of Dominic must perform at least one act of 'purification' - destroying a Stop & Go that serves those instruments of evil, slaying life equal to five or more Forces (one man, two dogs, etc.), or some equivalent - each time they gain Essence at sunset or through one of Dominic's Rites. If they do not, they gain a point of Dissonance, which goes away when such an act of cleansing is performed.
It is also Dissonant to punish any transgression with anything other than death. If someone wrongs you, you must make every effort to kill them or see them killed. Forgiveness and mercy are Dissonant.
A Balseraph of Dominic may add his Etherial Forces to any Resonance roll to convince others that any particular act of destruction was justified by the evil nature of the victims. The subjects may resist with a Will roll.
Djinn of Dominic gain no Dissonance if the object or objects they are attuned to are destroyed, by any means (including their own hand).
Dominic's Calabim are both his most despised and most loved (by him) servants. (See Invocation for more details on the hate side.) They are attuned to the way Dissonance strains and tears at Celestial forms - and when using their Resonance for destruction on a Celestial, may add the Dissonance to their roll -and- to any resulting damage!
Habbalah of Cleansing may add their Celestial Forces to a Resonance Roll to inspire righteous hate in another being, causing them to strike out against the object of that hate.
Lilim of Dominic gain +1 Essence if they succeed in Geasing a victim into performing an act of destruction in the name of Cleansing... or +2 if they somehow manage to Geas a victim into self-destruction.
Shedim of Dominic are assigned to lead souls not to corruption, but to destructions. A Shedite may add its Celestial Forces to its Resonance roll to possess the victim, and gains no Dissonance if its host dies while it possesses them... but they do gain Dissonance if they leave a host undestroyed.
Impudites of Dominic may charm one person into unreasoning hatred against another person without a Resonance roll; both the victim and the victim's target must be within eyesight, and the victim may resist with a Will roll.
A demon with this attunement may project a sphere of fire from themselves. The fire may cause either Corporeal or Celestial damage - the wielder must choose before the act. The Corporeal fire burns only living things - dead bodies, buildings, etc. are immune. The fire has a radius of (Essence used X Corporeal/Celestial Forces) in feet, and causes 2D damage to each target within the radius except the caster. The fire vanishes at the end of the round if the caster does not sustain it.
The demon's gaze and accusation may cause those with the weakest Wills- 2 or lower- to confess to being unclean, unholy creatures, and beg for destruction.
As before, except Wills of 3 and 4 also submit!
The bearer of this distinction may appear in Corporeal form (or if a Shedim, make their host to appear) as a truly upstanding, noble creature, incapable of error, the perfect ideal of what one of God's creatures should be.
*NOTE: On a successful invocation of Dominic, roll 1D. Add any Dissonance to your roll. Shedim add 3 to their roll. On a roll of six or greater... you had better RUN. Dominic has no love at all for his minions, less so for those on whom the taint of the world is evident...
--- Redneck
Redneck: "Saminga doesn't care about other people's words, so once he takes over, no more Worded demons until he's deposed, -if- he is."
Beth: "So how did Dommie get his Word-swap, then?" (Asked the Demon Princess of Nitpicking.)
Redneck: "Oooh, good nit, too.
Um, okay, how's this? Saminga heard about this new demon, saw he was promoting Saminga's Word, and approved of his choice of Word, making it official."
(Dominic terrorizing a wrecked city, and Saminga comes along.)
SAMINGA: Watcha doin'?
DOMINIC: KILL! KILL THEM ALL! SCOURGE THE WICKED WITH FIRE AND BRIMSTONE, BURN, BURN, BURN WITH GOD'S WRATH!!
SAMINGA: Cool. What's your name?
DOMINIC: Know you that I am Dominic, Archangel of Cleansing, the puissant and terrible Sword of God!
SAMINGA: So you are. Keep up the good work.
Kris Overstreet, will write for food... | Do not taunt Happy Fun Belial. http://www.txdirect.net/users/redneck | * * * c/o White Lightning Productions | "I love the sweet smell of http://www.jurai.net/~redneck/wlp/ | humiliation in the morning!" Webmaster for Antarctic Press | --- Kobal reaffirms himself http://www.antarctic-press.com/ | ***QUESTION EVERYTHING***
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