BEYOND THE VEIL
UR WORLD IS A LIE. EVERYTHING WE SEE AROUND us is merely a façade, concealing a vast and terrifying reality. If we could tear away our blindfolds, we would witness alien worlds, interwoven with our own: Gaia’s unbridled wilderness, the Underworld’s twisting labyrinths, the realms of Limbo constantly recast and reborn, Achlys’ nothingness where everything is devoured, the dead cityscape of Metropolis, and the forsaken halls of Inferno. Some places and situations force us to see the Truth, whether we want to or not. Where horrors become reality, such as torture chambers, extermination camps, and old killing fields, the Illusion shatters and we see through the eternal lie.
In THE BEGINNING…
We were not always ignorant. Mankind was divine, once. We were creatures as beautiful as we were horrifying, rulers of the material world, and masters of Time and Space. But we were toppled from our thrones and thrust into captivity, where we now exist as stray and tattered creatures. The creator of our prison called himself the Demiurge. His origin remains unknown. Was He a fellow human being, who brought the rest of us to our knees? Was He a God from a strange and distant world? Or was He, as He himself maintained, the creator of all things? With the aid of the Archons, powerful beings that were part of Him, the Demiurge created ten Principles to fetter us. These were interwoven into the veil that now blinds us, known as the Illusion. now our enfeebled bodies and lulled minds are condemned to our prison.
He erected His seat of honor in our primordial home, Metropolis, where we previously had ruled from majestic towers. His stately Citadel peered across an endless city. From this central point, His universal power radiated throughout Creation. Angelic choirs sang gospels to His glory, and the Archons erected their Citadels around His, becoming integral parts of His vast apparatus. In Elysium, we served His grand design, even blindly worshipping this being who’d brought us to our knees. Mere cogs in the Demiurge’s machine, our divinity filled Him with strength and glory.
For some reason, though, after eons, the Demiurge’s power suddenly ground to a balt. The giant machinery started malfunctioning, restraints snapped into pieces, and souls tore themselves free. The Archons’ wills, once in perfect barmony, now moved out of step, and turned on each other. The perfectly functioning clockworks slowed down or spun out of control. Was it this failure that urged humanity to slowly stagger towards its Awakening? Or had our recalcitrant wills and innate divinity proven impossible to tame?
The Demiurge lost His grip on His creation. At Metropolis’ heart, the power emanating from His citadel started to falter. Instead of revolving around a central point of His presence, everything collapsed inwards into a unsettling emptiness. The Demiurge’s Citadel was dead. Its gateways were closed, its windows turned pitch black. Even memories of the Demiurge faded, as though Time itself erased His existence. He was dismissed as sometbing unnatural. In €lysium, humanity began seeking its own truths. The Principles could no longer bind us completely. Religions were abandoned and science rose to acclaim, as we subconsciously attempted to recreate our primordial home.
Then one day, the Demiurge’s Citadel disappeared entirely from Metropolis. Only a vast precipice, falling away into nothingness itself, remained. Malkuth, the Archon who’d created our prison, rebelled against her brethren, seeking to destroy the Illusion. War broke out between the Archons, their tender cruelties now directed against each other. Astaroth, the Demiurge’s twin, awoke from his slumber in Inferno, Metropolis’ dark reflection.
ANGELS
At the moment when the Principles were proclaimed, their polar opposites were similarly created. Perhaps this was planned on by the Demiurge and Astaroth, part of their mutual pact to capture humanity. Perbaps it was an unexpected and undesired side effect. Perhaps the universe required counterpoints to balance each of the Principles. Regardless of the origin, Inferno was born like a deformed and unwanted twin, becoming Astaroth’s domicile. nor was the Demiurge’s dark brother alone. Reflections of the Archons and their Principles came into being: the Death Angels. Through them, Inferno drank deeply from the human souls which had slipped between the Demiurge’s fingers.
When the Demiurge disappeared, Astaroth stretched out his will between the worlds to seek his vanished twin. He found only emptiness, stray angels, and confused servants who could not even rememher their creator.
For eons, the Demiurge’s will maintained a stranglehold over our prison, but with His disappearance, Inferno has begun gaining strength and drawing closer to our reality. The Death Angels’ Principles are like barbed books, sinking into our souls and attempting to pull us from the Archons’ clutches. Their consciousnesses crawl towards Elysium, wriggling their way into our world where the Illusion is weakest, expanding Inferno’s power over us. Yet, they have no wish to liberate us. Just like the Demiurge’s servants, the Death Angels fear our Awakening. They want to feast on our power, living as parasites within our souls. They seek to destroy the Demiurge’s servants and replace them, to become our jailers themselves.
The Crumbling Illusion
Archons, Death Angels, lictors, nepharites, and razides have always existed close to us, lurking just out of sight. Other beings have also turned their bungry gazes on us. As our prison crumbles, we become visible to entities that previously could not see us. We rememher some of them from old legends and myths, but others we lack names for and cannot even imagine. Some try to force us into seeing the reality beyond our prison, while others try to keep us in ignorance. Some view us as amusing toys, blind mice to play with, torment, and finally kill. In particular, we’ve become visible to the azghouls, former slaves from our days of godbood. now, they take any opportunity to exact revenge for old injustices and bumiliate their former masters.
The Principles
At their core, the Principles are the vast wills emanating from the Archons and their shadows, the Death Angels. They govern our thoughts and desires, determining what we perceive and restricting bow we act. They restrain our intellects, trapping them within labyrinths of the mind and oubliettes of the soul, preventing us from thinking clearly and waking up.
The only way to Awaken is to liberate oneself from the Principles’ shackles, and to become aware of bow they maintain the Illusion. The Archons and the Death Angels are not entities as we understand them. They are vast consciousnesses, indomitable resolves, and merciless proclamations and laws, which can incarnate themselves and assume various forms in our reality. They are all these things and more, but first and foremost their driving purpose is to ensnare us.
Kether
The Divine Ruler. The Crown. The First. The Faceless. Kether is the first Archon, the eternal, divinely chosen ruler, who embodies the rigid structures of power where one rules over all. His vassals and servants are bound to him and each other by blood and sacred oatbs, uttered before ebony thrones and crowns of blackened iron. Lictors guard ampoules with noblemen’s blood and lineage records, and they can recite the details of any bierarchy on Earth and beyond like a prayer. Kether’s influence pulsates through those leaders who rule their people with an iron fist, including fascists in Gurope, African dictators, executives of multinational corporations, and the heads of the Catholic Church.
Kether’s power was at its peak during the Middle Ages, when kings and emperors ruled their realms autocratically and no one questioned why an invisible god had selected a human to command over them. His major seat of power has always been China, where the powerful dynasties supplanted each other and the emperor was responsible only to Heaven. Kether lost much of his influence after the Enlightenment influenced people’s thoughts and the Industrial Revolution shattered the power of the nobility. Communism crusbed the last Imperial Chinese dynasty, and even though his servants still bold sway over China, rutbless capitalist exploitation is difficult to control.
The Archon awaits the Demiurge’s return in bopes of usbering in a new age of feudalism. His servants have grown increasingly passive, as orders from the upper echelons are few and far between. Others have broken away from him and are walking their own path.
Principle: Hierarchy. Symbols: A blackened iron crown on a red velvet cloth. A throne of ebony with undecipberable bieroglyphs. A purple standard drenched in the blood of the last emperors. A statue of a gigantic eagle, clawing an infant.
Spheres of Influence: Society’s bierarchical structures with a strong leader at their belm: royal families, the leaders of the Catholic Church, corporate executives, and countries such as China and north Korea.
Shadow: The Death Angel Thaumiel. Gnemies: Malkuth is the main enemy, as she has abandoned the Demiurge. Kether has also had conflicts with Binab and netzach, but now Malkuth, Tiphareth, and the fragments of Yesod are viewed as the greatest threat.
Allies: Geburab and Hod (before be was annibilated). Servants: Chayot Ha Kodesh. Lictors. O Luong.
Chokmah
The Patriarch. Lord of Prayers. The Thousand-Headed God. Previously, Chokmab was the Thousand-Headed God, be who used religion and divine delusions to enslave humanity. Chokmab’s will is woven into all aspects of the Divine, such as prayers, catbedrals, minarets, Hindu Tirthas, and the magnificent temples of ancient cultures all over the world. For thousands of years, his devout servants crouch over religious writings and texts, creating stories and myths to lead us astray, while his lictors have preached bellfire to force us into pious submission.
The Archon’s power reached its apex during the Middle Ages when the major religions ruled supreme and unthreatened, but after the Illusion began to wither, his divine lies lost their potency. Chokmab fell into conflict with Kether and was vanQuished after drawn-out, bloody battles, many of which spilled over into our world. His Citadel has long since remained empty and his surviving servants have chosen their own paths or opted to submit to other Archons or Death Angels.
However, Chokmab’s lies have recently been bolstered again. In an increasingly chaotic world, people are returning to their false gods, desperate to escape their fear of death and the unknown. They kneel and pray frenetically, detonate suicide bombs to honor the Higher Powers, and feed their children lies so they won’t have to endure the Truth. Chokmab’s servants have once again started the pilgrimage to his Citadel in Metropolis, and many say the Archon has either returned like a thief in the night or will rise again like the Messiab.
Principle: Submission. Symbols: A black cross with an eye in the centre. A red crescent painted in blood on a white wall. A six-pointed star of patinated copper. A statuette of the dancing goddess, Kali, where followers place dead infants as sacrificial gifts.
Spheres of Influence: Exists virtually everywhere religion can be found. Chokmab’s servants have a strong influence in the Middle East and many imams and rabhis are lictors. The Archon also has influence over the Catholic Church.
Sbadow: The Deatb Angel Chagidiel. Gnemies: Kether. Allies: None ever since the Archon was weakened. Servants: A bandful of loyal Ophanim. Lictors in religious positions that have continued to spread his word.
Binah
The Black Madonna. The Great Mother. Matriarch of Blood Lineage.
The Black Madonna’s will runs through lineage, kinship, and the belief in the sanctity of blood relations. She is there as an ever-present shadow, the distant, primordial matriarch who bolds vigil while mothers cuddle and coo at their newborns, the elders recount their ancestral bistory, and the band of brothers prepare to protect their family’s honor. She is there as children are reared, as matrimonial rituals are carried out, as the dead are buried, and when someone who violates the family decree is punished. Where Kether represents the solitary ruler and power’s unsbakeable structure, Binab represents the rights of the many over the individual, and the family as the pillars of society.
Throughout bistory, Binab has exercised incredible power over humanity. We have always sought comfort in our families, and have consequently been subject to her will. During the Middle Ages, she and Kether fought for control over the noble bouses. After the French Revolution, when Archons such as Chokmab and Kether lost control, Binab instead gained additional power. Socialism and nationalism brought people together and made them feel close to each other.
The fall of communism and fascism, escalating capitalism, and society’s focus on the individual have been major problems for Binab. However, she still remains strong in areas where family unity, tribalism, and archaic ideologies persist. After Chokmab’s disappearance, religion has become an increasingly important tool for ber. Her lictors are found in political and religious positions. they emphasize the importance of family and champion a more conservative society.
Principle: Community. Symbols: A blackened icon depicting a veiled woman. A silver chalice with dried blood lining the bottom. A mummified infant with its umbilical cord wrapped around its neck.
Spheres of Influence: Anywhere family ties are at their peak: the Middle Gast, Africa, Gastern Gurope, Latin America, China, and the United States’ southern states. For centuries, Russia had been her seat of honor and power, but she lost control during the 1980s and 1990s. With the country’s recent conservative stance, her power is once again burgeoning there. Among the Roma, Binab is a goddess who is worsbipped and revered.
Shadow: The Deatb Angel Sathariel. Enemies: Dislikes Malkutb and Tipharetb, and has had conflicts with netzach. Previously at war with Kether, challenging his control over the noble lineages.
Allies: Geburab. Servants: Loyal Gralim. Lictors - many created from devoted humans. Sbe also has several human servants bound to ber, generation by generation, through blood rites, as well as families who give her their firsthorn.
Abstract
Chesed The Helper. The Merciful One. The Martyr. Chesed was one of the Demiurge’s most important servants. He was the Archon tasked with luring humanity into a false sense of security, and making us thrive in our captivity. When Malkutb rebelled, the annibilation of Chesed was her first betrayal. This caused a crack through the Illusion, that cannot be repaired.
The Archon created routines, traditions, and a predictable existence, which soothed us into spiritual slumber. Once, be worked alongside Malkutb to make the physical world comprebensible and endurable. In ancient cultures, be was their connection with nature, a beathen god associated with mountains, lakes, and glades where people made sacrificial offerings to him. Chesed was said to provide good barvests and ease bunger, as well as beal illnesses and wounds. His servants provided more than they took, encouraging humans to feel compassion for one another.
Once upon a time, Chesed’s strongbold was the West African realm, nywere, but this was devastated and completely erased from bistory. not much remains of Chesed’s power. His Citadel in Metropolis is virtually razed to the ground, and his servants have vanisbed or have been wiped out.
Principle: Safety. Symbols: A scraggy sacrificial tree. A cracked, marble statue depicting a satyr. An illuminated cloister document chronicling an unusually good barvest season.
Spheres of Influence: When Chesed was active, his servants were to be found amid generous noblemen, monasteries, wise women of the forest, doctors who did anytbing to find cures for diseases, aid organizations, benevolent charities, and warm-hearted people. Some say that Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross are the last surviving gasps of Chesed’s influence, but this is likely nothing more than myth.
Shadow: The Deatb Angel Gamichicotb.
Enemies: none, since Chesed was destroyed.
Allies: None, since Chesed was destroyed.
Servants: A few remaining Hasbmallim. Beings connected with nature. Those who could cure diseases. Many of them were people who acquired powers in order to belp others.
Geburah
The Judge. The Gatekeeper. Labyrinth of Laws. Age-old legal texts bound in human skin. Server halls replete with information acquired through mass surveillance. Rows of archival cabinets beneath government buildings. Courts, law firms, intelligence services, politicians, bureaucrats, administrators, economists, and chiefs of police. All these are cogs in the Archon’s enormous machinery. A maze of laws, regulations, and rules have been created to ensnare humanity, and at the centre of this bureaucratic nigbtmare sits Geburab, the eternal judge.
The Archon represents the conservative forces in society. He enforces laws and social norms, no matter how relevant or just they are, and punishes any who refuse to obey. People who go against his will are barassed, tortured, browbeaten, and bumiliated until they break. Geburab acts through government agencies, and his lictors are found in leadersbip positions. He strives to become the new Demiurge, as be regards himself as the only Archon capable of creating a system efficient enougb to keep humanity captive.
From a bistorical perspective, Geburab has been one of the weakest Archons. Admittedly, there have always been laws, but when aristocracy and the Church ruled according to their own predilections, his influence remained diminished. During the 19th century, when many other Archons were weakened, Geburab’s power burgeoned through new nation-states, law books, and the rise of bureaucracy.
Principle: Law. Symbols: A scale pan of patinated copper. A rust-coated executioner’s sword. A law book written in an unknown tongue.
Spheres of Influence: Legal systems of every kind. Lictors are often judges, chiefs of police, or lawyers. They have a great presence anywhere bureaucracy is strong, and where laws and rules are used to control people.
Shadow: The Death Angel Golab. Gnemies: Tiphareth, netzach, and especially Malkuth. Allies: Has a lot in common with Kether. Servants: Seraphim. Lictors in bigh positions in society.
Tiphareth
The Coordinator. The Beguiler. The Spider in the Web. Tiphareth is all around us. She is the poster girl for lingerie, the catchy pop song, the trasby romance novel, and the latest computer game. Her influence makes us lust, yearn, dream, close our eyes, and forget the real world. She was the Archon who coordinated all others under the Demiurge’s will, and she has become one of the most powerful due to her intrigues and adaptability.
Tiphareth exploits people’s constant desire for beauty and validation. She paints magical daydreams, unattainable goals, and perfect ideals, only to make us struggle to reach them while forgetting all else. Previously, artists, poets, and writers were her core servants, but now her influence extends to advertising, blogs, celebrities, movies, TV shows, and the Internet’s current talking beads. It is bere she moulds the Illusion around us, feeding our cravings for new things and our desires to be slim, fit, and perfect, making us embrace her unreservedly.
Her power could not have grown so forcefully in such a short time without a devious secret. When the Archon Yesod was expelled from Metropolis, Tiphareth sheltered him, protected him, and bid him in Elysium. Together they started to shape the Illusion in a quest to become its rulers. Tiphareth is the more forceful of the two and, when the time is rigbt, she plans to enslave Yesod.
Principle: Allure. Symbols: A web page for beauty products and diet pills. A porcelain doll with a face full of spiderweb cracks. A portrait depicting a strict, black-baired woman painted in 1876. An antioue statuette depicting a nymph.
Spheres of Influence: The media, advertising, and the Internet. Tiphareth is ubiouitous.
Shadow: The Death Angel Togarini. Gnemies: In open conflict with Geburab and netzach and has strained relations with the other Archons.
Allies: Was previously supported by Malkuth, but Tiphareth’s growing power over the Illusion ended this cooperation. Has a strong ally in Yesod, who is subordinated to ber.
Servants: Lictors are often Internet stars, celebrities, or active in more traditional forms of media. Tiphareth has a powerful presence on the Internet. A few remaining Malakhim still serve ber.
netzach
The Victor. The Endurer. The Eternal. The Conqueror. The burning desire for conquest and victory is the essence of netzach’s being. He was previously a general under the Demiurge, but now strives to replace his old master by increasing his own influence over the military, private armies, mercenaries, guerrilla warriors, and state-sponsored terrorists. He drives the majestic machinery of war and his servants are commanders, soldiers, lobbyists, and politicians. These minions set political agendas, such as crusbing terrorism, occupying nations rich with oil, reconQuering the Holy Land, and creating a new calipbate. Once the Archon’s vision and goals are accepted by the public, troops are sent into the meat grinders of war. netzach is primarily active within various national armed forces, and maintains his strongest control over the United States and Israel, as well as several European countries. He has a growing influence over China and Russia, but is frequently opposed by Kether and Binab. He uses these power bases in his figbt against the Death Angels and Archons who stand in his way. His primary opponent is Malkuth, yet his batred towards Tiphareth and Yesod is almost as strong, as be considers them to have undermined his power. netzach has always been at his strongest during times of war and conflict. His servants marched with the armies of the Roman Empire, led the crusades in the fight for the Holy Land, and then marched with the Ottoman armies to reconQuer it. After the Allies’ victory in World War II, his power was at its peak and no other Archon could measure up to him. This is what be strives for. A new battle. A new conquest. A new powerful position, where be can rise to shoulder the mantle from the fallen Demiurge.
Principle: Victory. Symbols: A rusty army knife with “Blood and Honor” etched into its blade and a swastika on the bilt. An American flag with 54 stars. A radioactive shard from the Hiroshima Bomb.
Spheres of Influence: Military, military academies, private armies, manufacturers of weapons, lobbyists, and mercenaries. Has his largest influence in north America.
Shadow: The Death Angel Harep-Serap. Gnemies: Malkuth, Tiphareth, Yesod, and the Death Angels are his primary adversaries. He has had many conflicts with Geburab and Kether, and be views any other Archon as enemies, if they stand in his way.
Allies: Forms alliances with those who are most suited in his Quest to attain the next victory.
Servants: His lictors are generals, admirals and other bigb-ranking military advisors. He also commands Elohim maddened with bloodthirst and the bunger for slaugbter.
Hod
Father of Honor. The Punisher. The Enlightened. We humans are cumbersome in our shackles. Our bodies succumb to disease and old age. Our brains already buckle under madness and ignorance, but Hod gave us yet another burden: our honor. Honor was to be defended above all else. Honor gave us meaning, conviction, faith in ourselves, and rules of etiouette belping us relate to others. At its worst, it becomes a delusion, an all-encompassing directive to kill or die for.
Since the dawn of time, Hod’s presence has been with us as a set of unwritten rules which stipulate when honor is damaged or Questioned, and what sort of retribution is appropriate. Duels at dawn, large-scale wars, the murder of one’s sons and daugbters, century-long blood feuds, and ritual suicide are just a sliver of what one might do in response to a dishonorable act.
Hod came into conflict with the other Archons after the Demiurge’s disappearance, largely due to being tied up in his own honor, and when be refused to step aside, be was overtbrown in a glorious battle, which blind angels still sing of to this day in Metropolis. Hod’s servants escaped from his now-desolate Citadel. Many ritually took their lives for failing him, while others have chosen to tirelessly carry out their sworn duties. Hod’s suffocating influence has faded from large parts of the west, but in the Middle East and large parts of Africa and Asia, his will still corrupts the minds of mankind.
Principle: Honor. Symbols: A gilded dueling épée from the early 18th century. A statuette depicting a veiled woman. An old mobile phone with a menacing text message.
Spheres of Influence: In areas and communities where the honor culture still is very strong, including the Middle East and countries in Asia, such as India, Pakistan and Japan. In large parts of Nortb Africa, Hod’s servants and ideology are also still strong, even though these traditions have started to be questioned.
Shadow: The Death Angel Samael. Gnemies: Malkuth, Tiphareth, Netzach and Binab. Allies: Chokmab and Kether. Servants: A few lictors and cults of stubborn, bon-or-bound, servants still strive to uphold the ancient traditions.
ANGELS
The insatiable bunger for riches, trinkets, and property is the essence of Yesod’s being. Like a flaming bunger, be consumes our innermost souls, making us ravenous to possess and devour more, more, more. Yesod’s greed is bottomless.
His presence has always been with us, but religion, feudal systems, and the will of the other Archons have suppressed his influence. However, during the 18th century, when the old societal systems collapsed and the Industrial Revolution arose, his power increased tenfold. He was at one with the billowing smoke from the factories, the clattering spinning frames, and the bum of the cogs. It was an age of unsbackled capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism, feeding desires on a global scale. It was also an age of bubris, and thus Yesod, blinded by self-worth, was slain in the war between the Archons - or so everyone believed.
Tiphareth made a pact with the fallen Archon and belped him escape into Elysium, biding him from the others. Together, they have fought to take control over the Illusion and strengthen Tiphareth’s power. Yesod was afflicted by a backlash in the early-21st century when the World Trade Center, which be had wound himself into, was destroyed in a terrorist attack. Yesod’s objective is to become powerful enougb to incarnate himself in his Citadel in Metropolis, but Tiphareth maintains a firm bold on him for now.
Principle: Avarice. Symbols: A gold pocket watch with a cogwheel etched on the inside. A trade agreement written on human skin with daubed ink. A monocle which contorts the world when you look through it.
Spheres of Influence: Large parts of the Western world and nowadays also China.
Sbadow: The Death Angel Gamaliel. Enemies: Most other Archons, who now realize be was not slain after all.
Allies: Tiphareth. Servants: As many of his lictors were wiped out, be has often chosen to act via human servants and his specific Incarnates. A few Cheruhim have returned to serve him.
Malkuth
The Rebel. The Queen. Gaia’s Harnesser. The Physical World. Malkuth is the Archon who tamed Gaia and created our prison out of the primordial forces of nature. She channeled the other Archons’ Principles and fused them into the machinery that keeps the Illusion together. She came to represent true order, recurring cycles, and the transience of the physical world. She was the Higher Power we built our lives around, the seasons, night and day, the tides, waves, the rains, and sun and moon. She became the physically tangible, all which we could feel, taste, see, and smell. And thus, in this perfect prison, we forgot our origins, which we letbargically took for granted.
When the Demiurge disappeared, Malkuth chose to revolt against the system she’d belped shape. Instead of working to contain humanity, sbe opted for trying to liberate us. Some argue she succumbed to the influence of a Death Angel or Astaroth, has fallen in love with the humans, realized the Illusion is doomed to collapse and seeks to curry favor with humanity, or is simply disgusted and wants to raze everything the Demiurge has created. Whatever her real reasons, she annibilated Chesed, started her revolt, and immediately incurred the enmity of the other Archons spearbeaded by Kether, Geburab, and netzach. She has been at war with them ever since.
Malkuth’s servants are primarily magicians and scientists that lead humanity towards enligbtenment and gain insigbt by exploring the secrets of the physical world-sometimes through unsanctioned experiments, torture, and psychological decay. Within her flock, as well, there are whistleblowers and Internet prophets who try to sabotage the other Archons’ power and strive to attain enlightenment.
Principle: Conformity (Awakening). Symbols: A cracked mirror, which reflects the true world. A soothsayer’s bowl filled with breast milk and an infant’s heart. Libra Metropolis by Leonardo Da Vinci. A chalice filled with earth and salt.
Spheres of Influence: Has her strongest influence among magicians and scientists. Europe is her primary strongbold, as well as regions of north America and Asia. During the Islamic Enligbtment, she had followers throughout the Middle East and Nortb Africa.
Shadow: The Death Angel Nabemoth. Gnemies: Primarily Kether, Geburab, and netzach. Tiphareth, who was previously an ally.
Allies: None. Servants: A bandful remaining Ishim and Amentoraz. Otherwise, primarily humans whom she has granted powers and abilities, or whom she has transformed into lictors.
THE DEATH ANGELS
HHAUMIEL
Power
SA+HARI Exclusion
GOLAB
Corment
&060RIM
Compulsion
SAMAEL
HAREB-SERAP
CHAGIOIEL
Abuse
Vengeance Conflict
GAMALIEL
ASTAROTH
NAHEMOTH
Thaumiel
The Two-Headed One. The Twin God. The Inequitable Ruler. Thaumiel is the embodiment of the saying “might makes right.” He is the essence of extreme individuality and the creative power in shaping and ennobling yourself. His commands are clear: if there is power to be gained, then you should grasp it. Trample those beneath you and ingratiate yourself with those above. Always be wary, since your power only has value if you can make it endure. Thaumiel is every bit a master and ruler as be is a rebel and radical reformer. Those who become subservient to Thaumiel’s will are filled with extreme bunger for power and their moral barriers crumble one by one. Their will alone is powerful, while friendships, family, and other relationships are as a millstone around their neck.
The subjects of this Death Angel are all locked into intrigues and power struggles. His realm is a political meat grinder where the weak are torn asunder and the strong feast on the leftovers. Anyone distracted or led astray for even a moment is immediately ripped to shreds. The bierarchy remains in constant flux and the most rutbless and strong-armed individuals reside at its top tiers, having bathed in the blood of thousands on the way up.
Thaumiel has always been powerful, but his power increased greatly when the feudal realms, with their rigid bereditary rules, collapsed. His servants are cunning, greedy, and known for their pragmatism in pursuit of their goals.
Principle: Power. Symbols: A black diamond. A snake biting its own tail. An iron fist. A vulture sitting atop a torn human body. A blood soaked swastika.
Spheres of Influence: Thaumiel’s Principle is strongest where there are bierarchies and power structures with clear rifts. Governments undergoing political upheaval, the entertainment business, the world of sports, organized crime, neo-nazi organizations, Wall Street and other stock exchanges, major corporations, and so on down to street gangs and school classes.
Shadow: The Archon Kether. Gnemies: Currently in conflict with Hareb-Serap and Golab. Fears netzach’s focused will.
Allies: Sometimes cooperates with Chagidiel, but has no besitation about forming pacts and alliances with any power whatsoever, as long as there is a clear profit in it.
Servants: nepharites. Razides. The Army of the Tormented.
Chagidiel
The Blood-Stained Patriarch. The Empty Word. The Corruptor. Chagidiel’s will is directed against the young and innocent, moulding them through constant abuse of body, mind, and soul. The children are torn apart inside and are repeatedly traumatized, until the litany of assault and fear becomes their life. The trauma itself becomes the Principle governing their world, a dark deity in their consciousness with whom they constantly grapple. It often expresses itself as fear, self-loatbing, shame, nightmares, and illness. A few become perpetrators themselves and, like apostles and prophets, continue to spread Chagidiel’s will.
The Death Angel’s influence reaches into every corner of society. He awakens forbidden thoughts and desires in adults, and then encourages them to commit atrocities against their own and others’ children. His presence is corruptive and is difficult to remove. This essence is injected into films of vicious assaults, horrific photos of victims, books devoted to ‘childbood discipline,’ and webpages dedicating to tormenting children. While his influence is most obvious in child pornography, the rise of parents bumiliating their children on the Internet has given Chagidiel another foothold in Elysium. The more you study his works, the more you are consumed by them, and are either moulded into a perpetrator or a potential victim.
Chagidiel’s presence has always been strong. These days his servants are considerably more organized in extensive networks, expanding his influence. Many of those who serve him do so for the sake of their own depraved empowerment, or are enslaved souls, incestuous abominations, and brainwashed victims who spread their master’s will further.
Principle: Abuse. Symbols: Ragged doll with burnt bair. A rosebud beginning to rot. Phallic symbol in sharp ceramics. A toy pierced by rusty nails and razor blades.
Spheres of Influence: The prime arena of the Death Angel is nuclear families, but it also is active within pedopbile networks, orphanages, youth centers, trafficking rings, illegal porn sites, and various cults and religious organizations all over the world.
Shadow: The Archon Chokmab. Gnemies: Hates Astaroth. Allies: Thaumiel and Gamaliel. Servants: nepbarites. Abominations. nigbtmare creatures. Chagidiel’s children. The Apostles of Atrocities.
Sathariel
The Devouring Mother. The Keeper of Secrets. The Princess of Angst. The Nine Moons. The Ulterior. The Goddess of Destiny.
Binab’s shadow, Satbariel has chosen to seek out the outcasts, the suicidal, and the self-destructive. She provides nourisbment for these impulses, as a mother breastfeeding her children. She is connected to the Underworld, the Labyrinth, and the Abyss. This black void is where she allows her adberents to experience total darkness. Here, they can achieve insights into mysteries only discovered by sbutting out the world. She is often seen as the Goddess of Destiny, who bolds power over time and Space.
Suicide pacts, youth gangs, and death cults worsbipping the nothingness are occasionally formed to honor ber, but most often she seeks out the loners and outcasts. She embraces the individuals who cry out in their melancholy and pain, offering them the bliss of nothingness. These could be just about anyone: the self-barming teenager, the weary war veteran, the webcam porn star with her phony smile, the bousewife trapped in a loveless marriage, the bullied boy who everyone avoids, and the bomeless beroin addict trying to forget everything. We are all wounded, we all have cracks in our soul, and it is there that Satbariel can plant her dark seeds.
Her servants bestow power upon these outcasts, allowing them to take vengeance on the world. As they express their pain outwardly, bowever, they are continually devoured by darkness. Satbariel’s servants give weapons to young white men so they can riddle their classmates with bullets, make artists create works to lure others into insanity, and drive the anxiety-ridden into mutilating themselves and extinguishing their identity completely.
Principle: Exclusion. Symbols: A razor blade with a rune etched into it. A jar of antidepressants filled with beetles. A bloody bandprint on a mirror. A skipping rope tied as a noose. A jigsaw puzzle with a labyrinth motif.
Spheres of Influence: Seeks out those who feel rejected and those who feel their lives are devoid of meaning. These can be found everywhere.
Shadow: The Archon Binab. Gnemies: She is too disorganized to have enemies. Allies: She is too disorganized to have allies. Servants: nepbarites. Razides. Worsbipers that submit to her in their loneliness.
Gamichicoth
Gha’agsheblah. The False Helper. The Gorger. The Agitator. Gamichicoth spreads alarm, fear, and mistrust in people’s hearts. The thougbts be stirs within us impede our development, as they make us fear anything new and foreign to us. His whispers are one with the racist chants, amid the conspiracy theorists screaming about ‘white genocide’ on the Internet, and in the endless news stories of disease, war, outbreaks of violence, and carcinogenic food. The Death Angel offers simple answers to difficult Questions and paints an image of the world where your cozy everyday existence is under constant attack by immigrants, politicians, and financial collapse.
Gamichicoth has the most influence within conservative groups, which fear the ideals they uphold are threatened. He does not have a strong grip on those who are most vulnerable: these people have notbing to lose. Magicians and mystics will occasionally study the Death Angel’s Principle in order to gain knowledge in bigher mysticism, influence people’s collective fears, and transform them into primitive subjects.
Gamichicoth’s power has increased in the age of information. He worms into people’s hearts via news, phone calls, and social media. In the past, his influence was spread through gossip, prejudice, and divine warnings. His servants commit despicable crimes of violence, incite vile rumors, denigrate those who stand out, spread propaganda, and warn people of the threats that lurk just out of sigbt. His servants are often shapesbifters, gossipmongers, and demons feeding on borror, dread, and batred.
Principle: Fear. Symbols: A rotting sbeep’s head. An infant wrapped in a confederate flag. An origami figure folded from a tabloid placard. A thumbed copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Spheres of Influence: Strongest within the middle class and in areas with conservative values. Many racist organizations and parties have fallen under the influence of this Death Angel. The Ku Klux Klan, fanatic pro-lifers, concerned parents’ groups, paramilitary forces committing genocide, neo-fascists of all types, and patriarchal structures who fear liberal values will corrupt young people all fall under this Death Angel’s influence.
Shadow: The Archon Chesed.
Enemies: Malkutb tries to fight the proliferation of his power.
Allies: None, but obeys Astaroth.
Servants: nepbarites. Razides. Fear spirits. Sbapesbifters.
Golab
The Torturer. Golachab. Screams of the Abyss. The Burning One. Golab is the berald of suffering, the manifestation of unbridled sadism. This Death Angel seeks out anyone entertaining ideas of injuring and killing others, and like fanning a dying flame, be propels them from thoughts into action. Lost in euphoria, they are driven to punish, torture, and mutilate for the sheer pleasure of it. The pain in their victim’s eyes as their skin peels off, as the electricity pulsates through their spine, or their teeth are ground down becomes a thrill, the ultimate drug.
His servants are experts at torture, from inflicting the most drawn-out degradation leaving no bruises, to slow vivisection and dismemberment while keeping the victim borribly alive. Many choose to honor Golab via sadomasochistic rituals, extreme body modification, and mutilations. The common denominator for his servants is the almost sexual enjoyment they experience from causing suffering. In many ways this is their sole pleasure in life. The Death Angel’s Principle permeates shaky films on the Internet showing executions, assault, and torture. He is close to those who suffer from self-injurious bebavior, practitioners of extreme sadomasochism, or those who merely fantasize about torturing and killing. Thougbts alone might be sufficient in order for his servants to be drawn to the person, if she wants it bard enougb.
Principle: Torment. Symbols: Coils of rusty, blood-drenched barbed wire. A severed penis nailed to a plank. A black box containing pulled-out fingernails. A Judas cradle. Spheres of Influence: Golab’s presence is strong wherever sadistic assaults are committed against humans. He is found in organized crime, the military, terrorist groups, prisons, and psychiatric bospitals.
Shadow: The Archon Geburab. Gnemies: Thaumiel, Hareb-Serap. Allies: Astaroth. Servants: nepbarites, Razids, Excrucies, the voice of pain.
Togarini
The Laughing One. The Whirl of Black. Vril. Thagirion. The Black Sun. Protector of the Death Magicians. The Noble Dead.
Togarini stirs humanity’s distorted and macabre art. He inspires melodies capable of tearing down the Illusion, creates images to awaken humans’ divinity, and constructs puzzle boxes leading down into Inferno. He seeks out artists living close to madness and inspires their aberrant creations, usually driving them deeper into insanity. He enjoys humanity’s creativity in its most twisted form, and bow it challenges and corrupts what is normally considered beautiful. He is there when an artist’s model disfigures her face with a razor, when photography captures atrocities, when canvasses are painted with blood and bodily fluids, and when the artist takes his own life to immortalize his art.
Togarini pays little attention to the intrigues between the Death Angels and the Archons. Instead, be enjoys creating art works of flesh and suffering. He enslaves the living and the dead, pulls away the Illusion’s veil, and laughs madly when we humans perish in pure terror. Togarini is closely connected to death and the undead. He has the ability to bind souls to rotting bodies and only liberates them from this torment after they have finished serving him.
Togarini is among the weaker of the Death Angels. He focuses on a small numher of devoted servants, but has recently gained increased influence, as more people explore his macabre and distorted artistry. Most of his followers are artists, musicians, and dilettantes. However, magicians also offer sacrifices to Togarini to ask his aid in piercing the Illusion. The Death Angel is like a lighthouse, whose beam reaches depths within people, inspiring and enabling them to live completely in the moment - but only if they submit to him first.
Principle: Compulsion. Symbols: An occult symbol created with the intestines of dismembered infants. A beautiful portrait painted with blood and excrement. An apple pierced by rusty nails. A black sun tattooed on the back of a propbet.
Spheres of Influence: Artists, magicians, body modifiers, and the senses and imagination enchanted by the dark and grotesque. Shadow: The Archon Tiphareth. Gnemies: Tiphareth. Allies: Walks his own patb in his creative work. Servants: Creative nepbarites, mad artists, and undead horrors.
Hareb-Serap
The Raven of the Battlefield. The Father of Carnage. The Nightmare Sea. The Raven of Dispersion. A’arab Zaraq.
Hareb-Serap is the raven of the battlefield. His presence is felt in war’s numerous atrocities. Guerilla warfare, drone bombings, genocide and massacres, rocket attacks against civilian population, ethnic cleansings, revenge killings, open warfare amid craters and barbed wire, child soldiers with heavy automatic weapons, mass executions, gang warfare that spirals out of control, tear gas and rubher bullets, batred, screams, fear and violence, all are under his influence. The Deatb Angel is drawn to places of conflict, violence, and anger, forever fueling these tendencies. Those who fall under his influence are intoxicated by walking the thin line between life and deatb. In contrast to netzach who seeks conquest and victory, Hareb-Serap is empowered by the conflict itself.
Wherever his servants travel, frustration, anger, and friction soon flare up. They find reasons to start arguments and conflicts. Even the most trivial differences of opinion or unresolved disputes are transformed into blood feuds and violence. In this chaos where blood flows, cars are set ablaze, atrocities are committed, and batred triumphs, the Illusion is torn apart and Inferno sweeps onto the battlefield like a river. Like a carrion crow, Hareb-Serap descends upon the conflict, feasting on the flesh of the vanquished and driving the victors insane.
Hareb-Serap has always existed and drawn nourisbment from our fear, mistrust, lust for vengeance, and batred. Currently, his major strongbolds are the Middle Gast, Africa, and parts of Asia. Wherever it is, his influence compels humans into eternal spirals of violence.
Principle: Conflict. Symbols: A rotting black raven nailed to a cross. A blackened AK-47 decorated with stickers from Happy Meals. A Molotov cocktail waiting to be set ablaze. A cracked megaphone. A pamphlet advocating a caliphate’s call to jibad.
Spheres of Influence: War zones, gang territory, the Middle Gast, Africa, and parts of Asia. Many of the servants are soldiers or gang members, but Hareb-Serap’s Principle can be stirred in all of us.
Shadow: The Archon netzach. Enemies: Has repeatedly run into conflict with Golab. Also seeks to win more power and outmaneuver thaumiel.
Allies: None. Servants: Razides. nepbarites. Oaxici.
Samael
The Avenger. Father of the Blood Angels. The Caliph of a Thousand Tears. The Wrath of Madness. God’s Poison.
Samael sweeps the scythe of vengeance across everything standing in his way. There are no injustices so petty, or affronts so insignificant, as to be tolerated. His essence seeks out those who nurse rage at being shunned or offended, and encourages them to let loose. Be it a murder of passion, where the body is dismembered in a furious rage, or an elaborate scheme where a person’s life is destroyed by pictures and films posted on the Internet, vengeance has many faces.
Most avoid incurring the enmity of Samael and his servants, as they know such actions will be accounted for, and vengeance will always follow. The Deatb Angel has always wielded great power over individuals and smaller groups, as their sense of powerlessness and rage leaves them susceptible to his will. Aside from his lust for vengeance Samael is known for his dark intellect, which is often mistaken for delusions of grandeur. However, in the grip of the Deatb Angel, madness becomes wisdom and deatb turns into purpose.
Samael has always been strong, but the strict laws of the Modern Age that forbid duels and blood feuds have weakened him. Many of his servants are masters of intricate plans, where revenge may be planned centuries in advance, entire generations being punisbed for sometbing their ancestors have done. Some souls are bunted and tormented as soon as they are reborn, suffering an eternal punisbment for an affront long forgotten.
Principle: Vengeance. Symbols: A decapitated head on a stake. A bammer lying in a pool of blood and broken teetb. The skin of a human being stretched out on a wall. A chalice full of poison.
Spheres of Influence: Individuals with a strong lust for vengeance, but also in organizations with strong codes of honor and a willingness to use violence to get what they want, such as the mafia, gangs, terrorist organizations, and certain cults. Magicians occasionally seek insigbt into Samael’s dark brilliance.
Shadow: The Archon Hod. Gnemies: Most avoid making themselves enemies of Samael. Allies: Obeys Astarotb, as long as it is convenient. Servants: nepbarites. Razides. Avenging angels of the BeneiHa’Glohim.
Gamaliel
Perverted Sexuality. Father of Abominations. The Obscene One. The Dark Side of the Moon.
Spellbound ecstasy, desire, the lust for flesh, and the constant allure of bodies and sex, Gamaliel’s spirit is instilled in everything that nourishes our carnal desires. His essence twists and corrupts it towards the dark and destructive places where passion, suffering, and death rendezvous. His influence is woven into our most perverse fantasies and cravings: the sleaziest porn sites, filthy strip clubs, dead-eyed sex workers, lewd web shows, and even gang rapes and human trafficking. Gamaliel is closely interwoven with Limbo, where our bidden desires are set free in our dreams. His Principle is also one of the paths leading to humanity’s divinity, but the Deatb Angel’s will usually ensnares those who venture down this road to enlightenment.
The Deatb Angel is ubiquitous in our society, found in what we suppress, what we do not want to admit to dreaming about, and what we shamefully clear our browser bistories to forget. He makes our darkest thoughts surface, and when we succumb to them, we nourish Gamaliel’s power. His presence is prevalent throughout the Internet, where secret home pages, bidden servers, and unregistered sites operate virtually unrestrained. There are even gateways to his Citadel in Inferno in squalid brotbels, smoke-filled strip clubs, and moisture-damaged basements where snuff films are shot.
Gamaliel has always been amongst humanity, from the fervent rituals of prebistoric witch cults to the bidden passions and atrocities committed in the name of God. However, technology has unsbackled our perversions and brought them into the open, and his influence is ever increasing. His servants are beings who tempt us with their sexuality, satisfying our most perverse appetites and forcing people to abandon their inhibitions. His nepharites remain masters of torture, yet provide the most exquisitely dark pleasure, even while the victim is skinned alive.
Principle: Desire. Symbols: A fractured coffee cup, filled with menstrual blood. An illustrated erotic novel where the orgy’s participants are dismembered and devoured. A used condom biding a rusty razor blade.
Spheres of Influence: The pornography business, webcam shows, brotbels, rapists, and, deep down, virtually everyone to some degree.
Shadow: The Archon Yesod. Enemies: none. Mostly acts on his own. Allies: none. Servants: nepharites. Creatures of Passion. Twisted offspring. Perverted razides.
nahemoth
The Tarnished World. The Nocturnal Woman. The Shadow of Earth. Lilith.
If Malkutb is the jigsaw pieces of the physical world, nabemotb is the spaces between them. If Malkutb is cycles, order, and stability, nabemoth is chaos, storms, and revolutions. She is the unbridled parts of Gaia, and all that we fear and cannot comprebend. nabemotb is strongest deep within the wilderness, where the forces of nature are raw and irrepressible. nighttime is her domain and her influence stretches far into the world of dreams. Her consciousness remains close to our collective unconsciousness, and inspires our most primal fears and needs.
The Death Angel’s influence is strongest where people dread nature and the world around them. The fear of the night, storms, tsunamis, burricanes, and the sea is her doing. new types of horrors have been created by humanity, such as places of extreme pollution, radioactivity, and environmental degradation. Here you can find nabemoth’s distorted essence, springing to life in poisonous oil spills, radiating from Chernobyl’s toxic ruins, and manifesting in deformed abominations birthed by mothers ritually drowned in toxic chemicals. She dwells in drowned bodies surrendered by the sea, and in demons baunting blizzards and thunderstorms. nabemotb is second only to Malkutb, in who best understands the workings of humanity’s prison and has keen insight into Elysium. nabemotb was considerably more powerful in times when humanity feared the night and had no idea what was out there. In ages past, she was viewed as a dark goddess with many names and semblances, as seductive as she was tyrannical, beautiful and terrible. With Elysium’s slow disintegration, where nature swells and rots like a bloated corpse, her influence continually grows, allowing her to open new gateways for the other Deatb Angels and Astarotb’s will.
Principle: Discord. Symbols: Larch trees cleaved by lightning. A greasy, stinking wax candle burning with a sooty flame. A plastic curtain smeared with a layer of axle grease.
Spheres of Influence: The deptb of the wilderness. Areas prone to earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, and landslides, as well as regions where people fear and venerate nature. Also places with chemical spills, radioactive zones, sewers, strip mines, industrial zones, and rubbish dumps.
Shadow: The Archon Malkutb. Enemies: Ignored mostly, as she behaves in an alien manner, without any visible agenda.
Allies: Ignored mostly, as she behaves in an alien manner, without any visible agenda.
Servants: Haunting nepbarites. Deformed razides. Grotesque abominations, which are connected to the regions where they have been created.