Excerpts: Angels

[hong]

Wait, 4E has a monolithic evil angel servitor race?

 

[warlockwannabe]

Angels as a pop icon.

Angels arent just judeo christian. Its more of a popular culture thing now. If youve seen a picture of a cherub, then read what a cherub is like in the Bible, its a big difference. The paintings everyone sees of angels are not what they were depicted as.

I like these angels. I like that they are Purpose specific. If you read occult stuff, this is similar to that.

As for rebelling, maybe they went to work for the primordials? Or just broke thier contract?

 

[AverageCitizen]

I'm trying to recall angels showing up in fantasy novels I've read. All I can come up with was the Cherub from A wind in the Door who was described as looking like "A drive of Dragons".

Oh wait, there were the angels from the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Whom the protagonists fought against.

Gods show up in person more often than angels in the fantasy I've read.

You're right.

 

[Cadfan]

Scar Night.

Carnival.

When an Angel goes wrong.

 

[Cadfan]

I can think of lots of other fiction with angels in, but usually they're not in roles where they can be stabbed.

 

[Korgoth]

You can also run a campaign in which the game world is monotheistic. Then all the angels will be serving the good deity and that's that.

 

[Voss]

I'm trying to recall angels showing up in fantasy novels I've read. All I can come up with was the Cherub from A wind in the Door who was described as looking like "A drive of Dragons".

Oh wait, there were the angels from the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Whom the protagonists fought against.

Gods show up in person more often than angels in the fantasy I've read.

If you want fun Angels in fantasy(ish) fiction, try Simon R Green. The Nightside Series and 'Midnight Wine', particularly. They're fun- when they show up, everybody hides. They're the will of god made manifest and focused solely on their goal. No pity, mercy or even vague interest in collateral damage or incidental deaths.

Much more the flavor I was looking for, rather than Rent-an-Astral.

 

[FireLance]

You can also run a campaign in which the game world is monotheistic. Then all the angels will be serving the good deity and that's that.

It doesn't have to be monotheistic, as long as all the gods are good-aligned (or nominally so, e.g. the Sovereign Host in Eberron).

 

[hong]

My plan at the moment is:

- The gods were originally a unified pantheon

- The angels were created by them collectively to rule Creation (which is why they all look the same)

- The most powerful angels developed free will/became arrogant/were corrupted/insert your own interpretation, and invaded Heaven

- They killed off the leader of the gods, but the war splintered Heaven into the astral dominions

- The remaining gods imprisoned the rebellious angels, now called devils, in one of these dominions, now called Hell

- Ever since, the pantheon has been broken, people have worshipped individual gods, and the cosmos is what we have today

 

[VannATLC]

We're steeped in Judeo-Christian myths. Its part of why this stuff is interesting. Using angels vs demons to represent good vs evil draws on familiar concepts and symbols and allows us to paint a story using a familiar pallete. Mixing in 'juicy extraplanar politics' is like mixing in neon green and yellow. It will get old fast. The new system allows for one new story: x betrays y because of z. I can see some good potential there, to be sure. But wiping all allegiances and the flavor associated with the has left us with only one trick. And its not good enough to last another 2000 years.

Angels and Demons predate Judeo-Christian Myth.
Vedic for the win!

(And really, the Vedic religions are FAR more interesting in their mythos.. and hideously complicated)

Hong - Its just too.. Christian.

I like the general feel of the default 4e world.

I like my understanding of the Angel-as-written (Very Simon R Green, as commented)
I also like the possibility of ages-old angels developing a personality, free will, and, essentially, a soul.

As it is written, I see an Angel consisting of Body, Aninums and Divine Spirit, as opposed to a soul.

Extrapolating from the W+M Preview, I'll be having my Gods as beings who've managed to seperate their soul and animus from the body, and attach it to the raw stuff of creation, giving them stupendous levels of power, focused on the keys aspects of their personalities,