The campaign idea detailed below is heretical for what would be considered a canonical In Nomine game. End of warning.
There was war in Heaven.
Fully a third of the angels of Heaven sided with the Lightbringer, and their rebellion shook Creation. Michael prevailed over Lucifer his brother, and cast him down from the walls of heaven. Lucifer, the Light that once was, fell into the depths of Hell where God’s Symphony did not reach, and when Lucifer struck - he shattered.
Lucifer was a Seraph, even during the Fall. He knew the Truth with every fiber of his being. The mystery of how Lucifer the favored Archangel could become Lucifer, Prince of Hell, remains unanswered. Here’s one take on the matter.
Imagine Lucifer (before the Fall) as a prism, with the shining white light of Truth taken into him and refracted so as to wring greater beauty from it. This was how Lucifer was intended to be. As a Seraph and an Archangel, Lucifer explored the possibilities of the Symphony and showed his brethren new ways of looking at God’s creation. This ability to reveal to his brethren all of the colors and refractions of the Truth, unique to Lucifer, was at first a source of pride.
Lucifer’s pride was not Truth, and the dissonance of that pride drove him to madness and rebellion. When Michael cast Lucifer down, the prism that was Lucifer shattered, and forces which had been part of Lucifer flew free from the metaphysical impact, creating a number of distinct "shards". It is already known that Archangels can replicate angels of Choirs other than their own, and that Demon Princes have similar ability in creating demons of other Bands. Any Superior, according to canon, may utilize the resonance of a Choir or Band other than his own. Lucifer, maddened and glutted with new power, maintained his new nature by compartmentalizing those parts of his psyche that did not mesh with the being that he became in the moment of his Fall. Those fragments broke free as shards, each with a number of forces attached - sort of a spontaneous creation of new celestials. As ages passed, some of those fragments of his personality have gained form and more forces - the children of his thought, the (often distorted) pieces of his Truth. Each shard holds a fragment of the Truth that was Lucifer, or a fragment of his nascent madness. The Lucifer that God created (henceforth referred to as "Lucifer Prime") is no more. The largest shard, a Balseraph, convinced himself that he was Lucifer, and with the amount of power that had flowed into Lucifer Prime during the rebellion, none of the new demons had the will or temerity to challenge. Besides, the rest of the rebels arrived in Hell somewhat later than Lucifer, who could create any story he wished and as a Balseraph believed it.
One shard, which embodied the insubordination of Lucifer, became Uzal, the Balseraph Demon of Insubordination. Another shard, embodying the reverence of Lucifer for God over all, even in spite of God’s favor for Man, became Iblis the Djinn, who by Islamic tradition was damned when he refused to bow before Adam and betray the commandment that nothing be honored before Allah. Yet another shard, embodying the impulse which led Lucifer to test Eve with temptation during the Eden Experiment, became Samael of Hebrew tradition, a Habbalite, still testing the worthiness of humanity for Heaven and firmly convinced that he works in God’s service. The shard embodying the need of Lucifer to uncover and reveal the Truth eventually fledged into Litheroy, now the Seraph Archangel of Revelation. Perhaps one shard, holding fragments of outrage upwelling from Lucifer Prime’s consciousness, nursed its rage through the eons until eventually fledging as a Malakite, and so on. . .
Only those shards that originally possessed (or later gained) forces in all three realms (Corporeal, Ethereal and Celestial) could be considered viable celestials. Other proto-shards, possessing forces in only one or two realms, might still exist somewhere but would most likely have dissolved into the Symphony. Still, there might be shadows in the Marches, each with a bit of disjointed wisdom, which never gained corporeal or celestial forces, and Remnants of Lucifer Prime may lurk somewhere on Earth.
Shards are independent beings, with unique motivations and distinct personalities. Though they share a common origin, they will not conveniently fit back together like some celestial jigsaw puzzle, and most would heartily resist any efforts to do so. They do not merge into celestial amalgam beings when they come into contact with one another. Some ancient celestials who were around before the Fall might see a faint resemblance between a shard and their memory of Lucifer Prime, but it’s been a long time...
Only a few celestials know or suspect the truth. The shards themselves would be largely ignorant of their origin, and have few solid avenues of inquiry, since Lucifer Prime (and presumably God) would be the only beings cognizant of this essential Truth. Yves certainly would have guessed, and by extension so might Kronos. Litheroy might have uncovered the truth of his creation, but it’s likely that the enigmatic Yves would have asked that he not reveal that fact for risk of adversely affecting the destinies of other beings or parts of the Symphony. Others may suspect but lack any facts. Certainly the Lucifer shard would maintain his first and greatest Lie by spreading misinformation about the shards, and crushing any who seriously grew close to the Truth.
Story seeds:
The PCs come into possession of an ancient relic - a crystalline statuette which depicts an angelic being. The mysterious artifact draws the unwanted attention of powerful forces, both infernal and divine, all bent on obtaining the relic at any cost. The relic is a pre-Fall depiction of Lucifer Prime, and is a central clue to unraveling the mystery of the shards. The Lucifer shard would certainly not wish such an artifact, which might reveal his biggest Lie, to continue existing... and other celestials would want to get their hands on it based upon their own suspicions.
Those few who know of the shards have surmised that Lucifer Prime may only be restored to wholeness should all of his errant shards join in achieving the Destiny of the Lightbringer, or in sealing his Fate. Such an event would alter the course of the entire War for good or ill, but the angelic shards are not likely to favor Falling, and the demonic shards will be resistant to the idea of redeeming... even if they were let in on the truth. Still, the shards have quite a potential for individual power stemming from their origins, and both Heaven and Hell would be remiss to allow such power to fall into the hands of the opposition unchallenged.
Litheroy may not be the only shard to rise to the rank of Archangel. The most ancient among the Archangels (and the first Princes among the Fallen) suspect there may be a resemblance between the First of the Fallen and Heaven’s general. These suspicions remain closely guarded secrets because these ancient Archangels fear that Laurence might falter if he were to learn his origins. Some might benefit if those suspicions were revealed at a crucial time, but there are many on both sides of the War who would keep those suspicions unspoken.
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Elizabeth McCoy <arcangel@prismnet.com>
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