Scourges

"Nothing can protect you forever. So don't worry about forever. Worry about right now."


Before the Age of Wrath, the Guardian Angels had an enviable role in Paradise. Entrusted with carrying the sacred Breath of Life, their duties brought them in close contact with their beloved humanity. Even better, they were charged with the ongoing protection of every being they animated. Where another angel might have felt guilt for skirting the edges of the command against interference, the Angels of the Wind were wholly within their purview when they adoringly watches the humans that they secretly considered their own children, as well as God's.

But even as they keenly felt the pleasure of humanity's presence, they felt more keenly the pain of humanity's frustration. Their nearness was both torment and elation, and the tension between the two extremes eventually drove many to the snapping point. When the rebellion came, Lucifer found many eager followers in the Firmament. Indeed, other than his own House of the Morning Star, the House of the Rising Wind produced the most highly ranked angels to fall.

In the war, the Scourges were committed warrior. The condemnation of Heaven did not break their will: Far from it, the weight of the punishment that fell on humanity did much to steel the Scourges in opposition to God and the Holy Host. Poorly matched against the Fundamentals and Wild Angels in battle in the physical world, Scourges' speed of movement and powers of concealment made them excellent harriers, scouts and spies.

In this age of escape, the Scourges are widely respected. Their courageous exploits in the war have given them a deserved reputation for loyalty even in extremis. Every faction among the newly escaped fallen wants loyal defenders, especially those who can heal with the right hand and harm with the left.

Factions

The most hopeful Scourges tend toward the Reconciler camp. The concept of a world healed is more tempting to them than the notion of one ruled by the Faustians or ruined by the Raveners.

Other Scourges continue to pledge fealty to Lucifer, believing that he somehow escaped the rage of the punishing angels. If he could spare himself eons ago, maybe he's the key to apring humankind now. Certainly, finding the only one of the fallen with a continuous experience in the world is usually considered a better way to find concrete answers than joining the Cryptics' debating society.

Faustians find few Scourges in their numbers. The Second House was, and in some way still is, intimately concerned with the safety of humanity. They may bless or curse, but coldly using people as tools doesn't come easily.

Prelude

Fearful souls cry out for defenders, and even in their fallen state, the onetime Angels Protector find that cry hard to resist. Scourges were once the parents to humanity - indeed, all life - and the needful call of one of their children still draws their attention.

But this world, the wreckage of paradise, is full of fears, real and imagined. A Scourge may be drawn to genuine fear, only to find that it's selfish. Unlucky Scourges find themselves trapped in the bodies of those who dreaded the consequences of their own poor decisions, or those frightened of the final fruit of problems they've done nothing to solve or avoid.

Faith

On a practical level, gaining Faith from mortals is an easy job for Scourges. Health is a precious commodity for humanity. For some, no price is too high for a cure beyond the purview of medical science. Founding a church or cult based on "Spirits of Wholeness" is not challenging for beings who really can cure AIDS or repair a shattered spine or correct the deformities of a newborn with spina bifida. The primary challenge with these strategies is often an ethical one, as such structures promise, even implicity, that the demon patron can protect the faithful forever. On the other hand, Scourges who have given up on humanity simply take an honest route and present themselves as spirits of health and harm.

Scourges who are cruel (or simply cavalier) tend to be wanton with the use of their thralls. God's particular curse on the Second House hit them hard, and the nagging knowledge that every human is doomed to die anyway can quickly lead to despair and callousness. From the perspective of an infinite being, what difference does it really make whether someone dies at 15 or 50?

Low-Torment Scourges are more likely to understand the temptation of resuming a protecting role. ccordingly, they are more likely to enthrall those they deem worthy of their protection. "Worthy" mortals who are willing to sell their souls are often hard to find, of course, but the bonus is that their moral qualities make it easier for the scourge to resist wanton draining.

Character Creation

The people who draw Scourges tend to have low Social Attributes: A life lived in fear tends to limit one's chances to meet and greet. A nervous hypochondriac may have surprisingly high Physical traits, particularly Stamina, as a benefit of a life spent in the gym, running one more lap to try and keep the Grim Reaper at bay. Among Mental traits, Perception is often high, enhanced by a lifetime of jumping at every sound and nervously peering into the dark when home alone.

Habitual fear can also translate to an above average Dodge Ability. Often, the hosts possess a low-level Skill or Knowledge reflecting the nature of their personal bogeyman. For instance, low-level Medicine Ability is common for those who weren't medical professionals, but who were constantly concerned about their health. Someone who was less afraid of illness but who lived in terror of physical attack might have a dot or two in Firearms. Other, subtler fears - fears of intellectual of social inadequacy - could lead to studies of Etiquette or Academics.

Backgrounds vary widely, though many hosts who lived in selfish fear were misers with high Resources. For those whose fears are more justified - because they live in a dangerous area or situation - Contacts or Allies are common.

Starting Torment: 3

House Lore:

Lore of the Winds
Lore of Awakening
Lore of the Firmament

Weaknesses

One problem other Houses have with Scourges - and which the Scourges have with themselves - is their problems with mortals. Fallen Guardians tend to have extreme views about mankind. They're either seen as precious treasures who must be guarded and aided at every turn, or their brief and ultimately terminal lives are seen as pointless, worthless and finally absurd. Mortal are the central factor of a Scourge's existence, and one way or the other it's hard to keep their attitudes balanced.

An outgrowth of this problem is a tendency to judge things collectively. Scourges rarely make case-by-case decisions: They try to live their lives by absolute and inflexible principles. Therefore, some Scourges condemn Gandhi and martin Luther King along with the rest of humanity, while others defend Hitler and Stalin as part and parcel for mankind. Seeing humankind as a harvest, it's hard for them to focus on individual seeds.

Stereotypes

Devils: Once the Angels of Light bore the animating will of God, but now God's will is sealed away, unknowable, and the Devils have no function. They may blather on with their own voices, but God's curse upon them is finally clear: They have been made pointless.

Malefactors: Humans love things, and the malefactors supply them. That alone makes them worth something. Their pragmatism makes for a good leaven to a Scourge's abstraction —- if one can convince them that they have as much to gain as you do.

Fiends: The world may be scrambled and broken, and the onetime Fates see as through a darkened glass, but they are not completely blind. Rather than despise them for what they have lost, the Scourges tend to respect the tattered remnants of insight that the Fiends still retain.

Defilers: They were once an ocean for humanity to explore. Now they've become a reef upon which men are wracked. On a practical level, their powers are worthwhile, but anyone can be used.

Devourers: Where others tend to dismiss the Devourers as mindless savages, the Scourges see deeper. Angry Scourges see the Devourers as a fit punishment for a human civilization sunk to their level. Scourges with more equilibrium wonder if Devourers might be the key to healing nature instead of harming it.

Slayers: While the Slayers tend to view their demesne of death as all-important and all-consuming, it must be said that the modern world offers a lot of good reasons for that belief. As the House with the best connection (however tenuous) to the fate of dead souls, they're important allies to cultivate.