Introduction
Angelos and Daimons From the dawn of civilization, people have wondered about how they came to be and what happens to them after they die.
o answer the first question they invented religion, a means to explain the creation of the world and themselves, usually by a benign god or group of gods. Often the gods live apart from mortals, in a realm unreachable except by the divine: Heaven. In most cases these gods used messengers and servants to communicate with mortals. These quasi-divine creatures are what we today call “angels,” a word derived from the Greek word angelos, meaning “messenger.” The angels aid the gods in Heaven, watch over mortals in the world, and fight against evil, both abstract and personified. The answer to the second question often developed out of the answer to the first. Death is when the spirit is either allowed to join the gods as a reward or removed from them as a punishment. These punishments vary by culture. In some the dead souls are annihilated, in others they sleep forever, and in others they experience boredom for eternity. In most religions, however, the souls of the wicked are punished in a horrible place of torture, and only the souls of the good are released to be with the benign gods. We call this place of punishment Hell, though other lands and faiths call it by other names. The other residents of Hell are called demons, from the Greek word daimon, meaning “supernatural deified spirit.” (Though originally a term used for good or evil spirits, by 200 B.C. it became nearly synonymous with evil and lost its use as a neutral term.) These demons are responsible for confining and torturing the evil dead as well as tempting living mortals to evil. In some faiths the demons are leaderless, in some they serve dark gods, and in others they bow to a former angel who fell into corruption. Wedged between these two realms and their inhabitants are the mortals, inspired to greatness by Heaven or tempted to ruin by Hell. Traditional medieval fantasy roleplaying games focus on mortals as the primary agents in the stories. They serve one god or another with little thought of the more secret battles kept from common eyes, when in truth angels and demons battle each other all the time. Legends tell of sorties made against Heaven by armies of fiends, and of raids angels make against Hell to rescue wrongly imprisoned souls. While mortals cry out at the unfairness of the world and the evil within it, angels are sacrificing their lives to prevent demons from gaining any more than a toehold on the world. We have yet to see another perspective to this eternal war—that of the angels, creatures of pure spirit created to serve and praise good but forced into battle and death because of the actions of demons, some of whom are their own former brethren. This book explores, in game terms, the four common pillars of these religious concepts: Heaven, angels, Hell, and demons. In addition to providing game information on the classical types of angels, it describes new items, spells, lore, and careers for those
T
who are directly involved in the war between Heaven and Hell. It describes the history and geography of the Judeo-Christian cosmology, the role archangels play in a mortal-based campaign, the place of angels and demons in the world, why angels and demons love or hate mortals, how to tune angel powers to suit a patron deity, and how to better customize the part-outsider crossbreeds that are the staple of the d20 System. Because this book’s author is an American, the material’s focus is on religious elements common to the American experience, namely the Christian and Jewish faiths. Elements from other religions, including Islam, Buddhism, Shinto, and Hinduism, are included in some parts of the book where they parallel the JudeoChristian model or provide interesting features or contrasts for discussion. However, this book is not a religious book and does not endorse any particular faith as being superior to any other, nor is any disrespect intended to any religion whose literature, history, or culture is referenced here. This book wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for the dedication and respect that people throughout the ages have had for religion. It is that respect that created and maintains many archetypes of lay culture, including that the suffering hero is eventually victorious, that good deeds are rewarded, and that evil will be punished. With that said, enjoy reading, and enjoy bringing angelos and daimons into the game.
Using This Book Throughout Anger of Angels, a dagger (†) is used to signify a spell, domain, feat, or item introduced in this book. A double dagger (‡) designates spells, items, classes, or creatures that originate in The Book of Hallowed Might. Otherwise, all references to spells, feats, and other rules are from the three Core Rulebooks: the Player’s Handbook, DMG, and MM. Specifically, occasionally you may want to refer to the MM for important information about celestial creatures like hound, trumpet, and lantern archons, devas, solars, couatls, lillends, and planetars. Bonus source material and ideas to augment the information in Anger of Angels appear on Monte Cook’s website. To find the links to these free web enhancements, visit the book’s product page online at the following address: <http://montecook.com/mpress_Angels.html>. This sourcebook is protected content except for items specifically called out as Open Gaming Content on the title page. For full details, please turn to the Legal Appendix. Open content is not otherwise marked in the text of this book.
3
