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Anger of Angels
Bibliography and References In addition to the primary sources listed below, there are dozens of movies, books, songs, and stories that have provided some inspiration for material in this book—unfortunately too many to list, and most of them only half-remembered. A Dictionary of Angels, Including the Fallen Angels by Gustav Davidson: This book was very informative but equally frustrating. While it gives information on many obscure angels and long descriptions of the more important ones, it fails to define some of the religious terms and refers to angels who have variant names (such as Arial vs. Ariel), but doesn’t include listings or pointers for some of those aliases. It also refers the reader to occult and apocryphal books that the author admits in the introduction are out of print or even limited to a few copies in the world. Definitely not a book for the casual reader, but a good resource for someone willing to spend serious time on it. The Book of Hallowed Might by Monte Cook: This Malhavoc Press book presented more divine material for a fantasy campaign, and key elements from it served to inspire and balance some of the material in this book. For example, without the blessed child presented in that book, the dynamis’ role as wardens of souls would be less interesting. As always, Monte handles the rules well and gives an interesting and unexpected twist to the material he writes. Encyclopedia of Hell by Miriam Van Scott: The author of this book reviewed many mythologies, books, movies, and other sources for a moderately deep treatment of the inspiration for and literature of Hell. Among other things, it discusses the different models of Hell (such as the dream model of Hell, in which the wicked relive their evil deeds eternally, or the punishment model, in which physical tortures await the evil dead). He also covered the role of Hell in modern culture. Of particular interest to this book are the many instances of vision literature—near-death experiences, religious visions, and other prophecies of Hell—used by the Church to frighten people and convince them to lead good lives or face damnation. The descriptions of Hell related in this book from those sources provide most of the geographic details of Hell presented in Chapter Four: Planar Geography, as well as the kernels of several new game spells. Fantasy Wargaming by Bruce Galloway: An older book starting to show its age, this title hearkens back to a time when roleplaying games were a tiny subset of wargaming and almost all of the players were male. Fantasy Wargaming includes notes on why female characters are justified in having lower ability scores (it is assumed that the book will be used to play in a fantasy medieval Europe where women are second-class beings and clearly weaker), game statistics for many strange monsters of myth, and (most appropriate to this book) game statistics for the most important figures in Heaven and Hell. If you ever wanted to know how many hit points Jesus has, it’s in this book. It was used mostly as a source of names to consider. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett: The main characters of this novel are an angel and a demon, friends since
before the first Fall, who join together to try to stop the Antichrist from starting Armageddon because they prefer the interesting mortal world to the eternal boredom of one side’s victory over the other. This of course was the inspiration for the Council of Wings. Good Omens is a very entertaining book with a lot of fun ideas about angels, demons, spirits, and prophecy. In Nomine by Steve Jackson Games: This is probably the bestknown game where the players are assumed to play angels and demons, with mortal characters as a secondary concern. Though it mixes up its classical theology in some places, it presents a viable setting where the war between Heaven and Hell lies in the hands of the players. This game also presents archangels as superiors to common angels, which is included as a part of the angels campaign type described in Chapter Three: Campaigns. In Nomine has a large fan community online, and the SJG website <www.sjgames.com/in-nomine> has a long list of suggested angel names by angel type and superior that is worth a good look. Many Waters by Madeleine L’Engle: Though technically a book for young teens, this almost-forgotten sequel to A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet (of which the last two have significant themes of Heaven and prophecy) casts the protagonist brothers back to biblical days just before the Flood. They befriend Noah’s daughter and watch the interactions between the seraphim and nephilim (angelic and not-so-angelic beings) and these mortals, including the birth of a half-nephilim child. The book presents the angels as beings to interact with normally rather than to worship and shows that in these times mortals have a strong and personal relationship with God. (A near ancestor of one character was witnessed walking in a garden with God, and then both were simply Not There anymore.) Many Waters is a good read for those wanting to run an angels or mentors campaign. To Reign In Hell by Steven Brust: The author of this book wrote it because he knew that if God is omniscient and Satan is not a fool, there had to be a story about why the War began in the first place. In Brust’s tale, which takes place entirely in Heaven, all the characters are angels. Though some of the named characters don’t exactly match their traditional counterparts, Brust does an excellent job of presenting a story where you know it’s going to turn bad but keep reading in the hopes that both sides’ efforts to reconcile will prevent the War from ever starting. This book also inspired the concept of the reform into lesser vessel† spell, as several angels in the novel have been damaged by the effects of the chaotic void outside of Heaven and could only be preserved by reshaping what intact energy they had remaining. Art: Albrecht Dürer is a well-known Renaissance painter and woodcut artist. His woodcuts in particular show angelic and apocalyptic religious scenes in a dynamic new way. William Blake was a poet and artist gifted with the ability of eidetic imagery. Interested in spirituality and mysticism, he produced religious works and strange pictures out of his own imagination. A biography and gallery of these and many other artists are online at this address: <www.artchive.com>.
