Angel

Angels are formed by the Creator. Angels exist across vast tracts of both time and space. The appearance of an angel is often an avatar or illusory form that reflects an exemplar ideal for the mortal viewing them. The true form of most angels is utterly unfathomable to human perceptions. Contact with these beings often leaves humans blind or deaf. Moreover, they may resemble a mortal externally but their motivations and priorities are distinctly inhuman. A finite number of angels exists in the universe and while they grow stronger over time, they also die in combat or their personality fragments due to mortal influence. Replacing an angel, even a malfunctioning one, is a costly affair.

Their primary task is the protection the sanctity of free will. They are also charged with safeguarding the universe itself, though their methods and precise duties are unfathomable to most entities. For some mortals they even act as psychopomps or oracles. Besides this, they are responsible for correcting for variables introduced by mortal souls that unbalance the clockwork function of the machine that is the universe.

Despite how they appear to mortal life forms, angels are distinctly inhuman in many ways. They do not experience fear or uncertainty. The only nourishment they require is the Power Cosmic which holds their physical forms together. Angels are not motivated by base instincts such as hunger, arousal, attraction, or greed. Their respect for the sanctity of free will does not always correlate to a mandate to protect human life. Angels have been known to destroy civilizations and even waste entire worlds if it is deemed necessary.

Angels that serve in the Host are creatures of rigid, unwavering discipline. They are constantly and precisely aware of their rank and status regarding other angels. If a higher-ranked angel states a fact as true, then the lower-ranked angel will accept it as axiomatic truth no matter how compelling the logical argument against it. Against the backdrop of rigid adherence to rank and roles, compassion is a very alien and unusual emotion for them to express. Angels of higher orders, particularly the Archangels, direct the lesser entities. Lower order angels have very little in the way of independent thought. Many of them are employed as soldiers and created with the intention to fight with demonic adversaries or infiltrators of reality in face-to-face combat.

The overwhelming majority of angels in Creation are soldiers in the Heavenly Host.