Urban Fantasy: On Celestial Spirits, Part 1

Seraphim by David Romero.

Obviously, as with everything else I steal from the World of Darkness because I'm a hack.

Most Spirits encountered are creatures of the direct and material world, even if it is reflected in the spirit world. They embody places, objects or some weaker abstraction of things such as 'hunger' or 'water'. They are the spiritual echoes of physical concepts. Much greater (and yet, arguably, different) are the so-called Celestial Spirits. These beings are greater, higher than earthly Spirits. Their minds are more divorced from our earthly understanding compared to the much more grounded and understandable Spirits most people encounter.

These are the beings sometimes called Angels but such a term is a misnomer. While it is true many of these beings appear to be aligned to (or, perhaps strangely or not, converted) a faith, especially an Abrahamic one these beings are not limited to it. There are Celestial Spirits which consort with the earthly demi-gods just as there are who  walk the courts of the thought-realms of the Bodhisattva. These beings have a presence all over the world across all cultures. Yet they are rarely seen, rarely interacted with. It is not their way to interact with (most) mortals. Their minds are alien not because they are eldritch abominations (granted, they might be from a certain point of view) but because they are 'plugged in' greater ideas and concepts: they see the world(s) in high concepts and at the macro scale, the churning of the minds of entire nations, entire people and entire faiths. They sense the ebb and flow of things we'd call time and fate and primordial powers. They are the agent not of direct, named deities but of incorporeal forces and abstracts beings.

On Celestial Spirits (Or Living Plot Devices)

Let's not beat around the bush here: Celestial Spirits are mostly 'plot devices' in the sense they have weird, inscrutable agenda focused on the big picture of reality that mortal minds cannot fully grasp. They make for poor allies or enemies with clear goals, unless that goal is so utterly simple and single minded such as the destruction of a specific thing, even if the 'why' might escape the Players. Plugged into reality in a way other beings can't grasp, these beings are the perfect mysterious patron and manipulators. However an important thing to understand is these beings not infallible. Alien in mind, rigid and orderly they sometimes approach a problem in a way that has little care for individual lives. In the grand scheme of things they are correct, as sometimes they will destroy lives related to certain projects which could end up harming more people. On a personal level it isn't so easy to be callous. Order and stability often does not care for the micro scale. Few people would find it a just price to pay for a bunch of people to die brutally all because the celestial intelligence have calculate there is a good chance their research and project could produce a weapon worse than the nuclear bomb. There is not certain fate, no absolute but the celestial spirits often see many possibilities: if certain 'endings' are more common than others then they will act purely based on % chance.

Macro-Scale Entities

Celestial Spirits are firm and just, but that 'justice' is rarely if ever kind. They are not evil, nor are they trying to spread suffering like Demons. The best way to understand Celestial Spirits is to play simulation games. Go ahead and boot Sim City, Europa Universalis, Civilization or Stellaris. You see everything in a macro scale, as raw large numbers of specific resources, people reduce to population units. Does your interface show you every detail of every untold billion your actions can impact? When you play a galaxy-spanning simulation do you even have the option to see the life of a humble shop keeper on some colony world, his struggles to make ends meet? You don't. You can't. These beings are, from your point of view, non-existent or non-entities. It's not that they don't matter, if these worlds were allowed to be more granular, realistic and detailed each and every single one of these souls would matter. However, to the Celestial Spirits life and reality is more akin to a simulation game's interface where such granular details are beneath their notice.

Celestial Spirits are not enemies of mankind. Indeed, they may very well be our allies but it is not an easy alliance nor is it always a welcomed one. One could argue they, at least partially, embodies 'high concepts' of the world's complexity and human society. All of this, of course, on a massive scale. They are not even Eudaemon, as they are too impersonal for that. Guardian spirits are more of the lower, more terrestrial type, even if some often take forms we would recognize as the pop culture definition 'angelic'. Any spirit can appear to be a glowing humanoid figure with wings and halo. Some might even be truly dedicated to helping people but they are not of the hosts of the Celestials. The Celestials are guardians of people, of nations, of ideas and structures who spend most of their time unformed, processing raw information. They do not appear commonly. One would think Protectors of Nations would actively intercede but this would be a misunderstanding: wars, revolutions, political corruption these are all by product of human nature and are not what attract the attention of Celestials. Despite what some may think, they are not our jailers. But they are, also, not exactly our saviors nor are they there to 'fix our problems'. Human free will (as complicated an issue as it may be) is strangely something these creature believe in. However it is clear that they seem content or driven by purpose to let humanity unfold, warts and all, only to subtly intervene should enough possible futures show a great calamity could lay ahead.

Incarnations Of Purpose

When something goes wrong (or is deemed to have gone wrong), a Celestial Spirit will incarnate. They will go from Unformed to Formed, becoming an entity which can be interacted with. They become linear and three dimensional (if still connected to their 'cosmic interface'). Celestial Spirits are Common to Mighty Spirits in terms of HD, but have many different traits compared to a regular Spirit.

• They are always a Nemesis, for one thing, with a Morale of 12.
• Celestial Spirits are completely immune to non-magical weapons, even if the character somehow has an ability to hit incorporeal beings. Unless the weapon's strike has been augmented by some Effort-using power or is itself magical in some way it will either not damage the spirit or cause insignificant damage that is instantly regenerated.
• Their Manifestation Rank is C or higher, but usually A.
• The true form of a Celestial Spirit is abstract and powerful. Unless the Spirit changes shape to accommodate mortal minds it will be overwhelming for mortals to gaze upon them. Any mortal NPC is no particular importance is immediately struck if they gaze upon the Spirit's true, with an effect ranging from temporary or permanent madness or blindness to being instantly slain. This effect will be covered in details in a future post.