Todahlael, Habbalah of Ignorance*, Demon of Gratitude

Well, it's a day late and a dollar short, but I created a character for In Nomine encapsulating some of my feels/observations from yesterday (the so-called "Thanksgiving").  I'm actually quite fond of her.

She's a servitor of Ascetus, the balseraph demon prince of Ignorance and one of many non-canon Superiors in my version of In Nomine (which I call Reality Beulah, for reasons I'll explain later).  I'ven't written him up yet, but he's a blend of Ascetus and Astaroth from the In Nomine Collection's Rogue Gallery.  All relevant game information has been provided.

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Todahlael, like many celestials, is a very old being.  She was created in Ketriel's service, and diligently, dispassionately served the aeon archangel of Grace for millions of years before the Fall.  And it wasn't the Fall that sent her to Hell, either, as she fought those who are now her friends and allies after Metatron's murder.  Afterwards, secure in the knowledge that the newly-minted demons were safely locked away forever, she continued just as she had before the Rebellion, bringing joyful surprises and easing luck to the humans who had been the excuse for that shocking crime.  And then the human Lilith freed the demons.

Though her faith that everything would turn out for the best by the grace of God had finally been shaken, Todahlael settled into the new role with which Ketriel, the first of the Archangels known as the Four Soteroi, charged its angels with an odd mix of comfort and desperation.  Salvation, after all, comes from many sources ~ famously, from grace, faith, and acts.  Todahlael and her coworkers coordinated well with Yves's angels, arranging for the sort of inexplicable gifts and luck that came at just the right time to rescue a human soul from becoming the plaything of the liberated demons.  But the entire time, she hid in her Heart a secret wish that someone would do the same for her, would restore her faith in the God which created her and rescue her from the Fate she feared she knew was awaiting her.

Ketriel had been clear in its charge ~ grace is not grace if it can be caused.  In other words, asking for grace destroys the possibility of grace.  Todahlael was nothing if not dutiful, and took the aeon's teaching to heart.  She never asked for the help she needed so greatly, and so she never received it.  Her Outcasting and Fall were slow, a creeping teeter that lasted from Lilith's unlocking the gates to Hell in 15,000 p.e.v. (prior era vulgaris, before the common era) all the way to her Heart shattering during the first part of the 4th century e.v., during Constantine the Great's reign as Byzantine Emperor.

Rejecting the gentleness of her past, Todahlael took up with Malphas, wielding unexpected luck as a weapon against relationships and unity.  Nothing promotes a lonely individuality like jealousy over a friend's seemingly unbalanced good fortune.  This work kept her busy for a millennium and a half, slowly working her way all over the globe, taking inconspicuous roles amongst the irredeemable throngs of the human herd.  Often, she chose to appear as a supporter of some alliance or solidarity, while secretly working to undermine it, to set it ablaze with the disastrous inferno of envy.

Like most of her friends in the service of Factions, the American Civil War was yet another orgy of a party in an increasingly dense social calendar.  Such joy Todahlael found as brother fought against brother, bloodily severing ties for often insignificant reasons.  General Lee, for example, who believed in the North's cause but fought for the South simply because it was his home.  It was one of Todahlael's friends who outmaneuvered the malakim surrounding the general, turning Lee's honor against the unifying actions Heaven wanted to see from him.

As so often happens, this constant din of fun and games lent itself to a moment of melancholy.  For Todahlael, this came when she read Lincoln's declaration of Thanksgiving (reproduced after this paraggraph).  A long-unaccustomed sadness struck the habbalah who couldn't help remembering her days with Ketriel as an angel, as the "[n]o human cousel [that] hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things."  She finished the war out with a dingy enthusiasm, unable to shake that memory, so incompatible with her habbalic belief that Hell was where God wanted her.  Returning to a familiar feeling ~ desperation ~ Todahlael sought to eliminate these memories and thoughts, to no longer be troubled by an unwelcome longing for the Light of Heaven.  If Mariel hadn't been devoured by a munchy-haunted Haagenti, she'd likely have pulled off some hare-brained scheme designed to remove herself from Malphas's service to that of Oblivion.  However, Mariel had proved tasty some centuries before, and so Todahlael settled for jumping ship into the service of Ascetus instead.

"The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth."

Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863."

The work of Ignorance didn't suit Todahlael as well as her previous two jobs, and it certainly did not have the memory-exorcising effect she wished.  She found herself obsessed with Thanksgiving Day, doing her prince's work by using it every month as a way to spread ignorance of the true cost of the pleasures and gifts the U.S. populace had received.  The rest of the year saw the fruits of Todahlael's practice for that one day in November; she grew quite deft at nurturing vague, impersonal gratitude as a way to prevent atrocities from coming to light or responsibility being taken for the actions of an individual, group, or their ancestors.  Ironically, she became known among Ascetus's servitors for exactly this kind of work.

Though she had been, quite naturally, stripped of all the gifts Malphas had given her in her 1500-year-service to the prince of Factions, Todahlael found herself quickly acquiring replacements over the course of a mere century serving Ascetus.  By the century's end, she was among Ascetus's knights, and she was granted a captainship shortly after Macy's started their parade.  Her focus, nigh unto a djinnish obsession, with the day in which an entire country ate more food than any other day, even more than a few days combined, convinced Haagenti to grant her his attunement, as well.

It was Thanksgiving Day, 1954, that Todahlael, firmly ensconced in the role of a sweet little old church lady, led a prayer at a charity dinner her church was leading.  Afterwards, a snappily dressed man who had been introduced to her an hour or two before as one of the big donors to the church's charity programs walked up to her.  "I liked your prayer," he said.  "Especially how it avoided any of the real reasons we've got all this food to give.  And why they're poor, for that matter.  It's you who should be Grateful."  And suddenly, Todahlael knew who the handsome man was, as she felt the Word shoulder itself a space among her Forces.  She stammered out a "Thank you" to the man's bemusedly cocked eyebrow, one half of his mouth smiled, and he turned and disappeared into the crowd.

Ever since, Todahlael has continued the same work that earned her her Word, encouraging humans to mimic the humble selflessness of thanks as a way of avoiding guilt, responsibility, or critical thought as to what they could do to prevent the evil of the world.  Not a few demons distrust her now, uncertain what to do with a demon ~ especially one of the habbalot ~ who carries such a seemingly Heavenly Word.  To tell the truth (but why would we do that?), Todahlael herself has struggled with her Word, as it is all too easy for her efforts to have the opposite effect of that she intended.  Her doubts about her place in the Descending Hierarchy have fled, however.  God's Hellish representative (Lucifer) rewarded her for her efforts, after all ~ this must be the work God wants her to do.

Todahlael is still adjusting to having received a Word, and such a big Word at that!  She's only held it for about 65 years, two-fifths of her time in the service of Ascetus, and a mere fraction of an eyeblink for a being whose age is measured in the billions of years, which accounts for her possessing only a single Word-Attunement when most celestials with such a Word have two.  In truth, she knows that she has access to fewer Word-Forces than she should ~ surely Gratitude is a major Word! ~ but she's been facing some strong opposition from Maodea, her Heavenly counterpart, the angel of Giving Thanks (ofan of the Sword under Etiquette), who's been getting aid from the angel of Charity (a malak of Generosity) and the angel of Restitution (an eloah of Judgment).  The inherent dangers of her Word, on top of the lasting effects of her earlier doubts concerning her diabolicity, have resulted in a bit of Discord.  Todahlael's vessel's stoop and slow gait aren't intended to mimic arthritis ~ they are actually arthritis, and will be carried over into any other vessel she might take.  Similarly, she finds a good feast almost impossible to pass up, and she always overeats.

Celestial Appearance:  Todahlael has allowed the ravages of age to show on her celestial form.  It remains luminous, glowing with a grayish-brown light the color of poorly-cooked meat, and her eyes appear even larger than they did before the Fall behind broad-diametered rose-colored coke-bottle glasses.  They are human eyes, though, not the alien eyes of the elohim, and they are a much more pleasant brown than the light which surrounds her, the color of a crispy, fatty turkey skin promising delicious delights beneath.  Whereas elohim tend to carry an ageless, vital androgyny, Todahlael's Fallen form is androgynous by dint of age, so withered and twisted and stick-thin dry that no gender can be ascertained among the pale wrinkles that envelop her form.  It is those wrinkles that provide a topographical map to the self-mutilations that mark Todahlael as a habbalah.  Piercings ride the crest of these fleshy waves, while tattoos peek out from their valleys.  Scars artfully interrupt their sumptuous curves, and the twin edges of her flayed edges blend imperceptibly into the ridges of ancient skin.  No clothing covers her form, though a couple of napkins seem to have blown against her chest and crotch, stuck there by a wind unseen and unfelt except by those napkins' flapping.  A fork and a knife (to which is attached the flag of whichever country the nearest human is a citizen of) fill her hands.

Vessel:  An older woman in her 80s, shorter than her skeleton would actually warrant thanks to a stoop that tells of long hours spent hunched over a keyboard.  Her hair is the faded black of a cheap dyejob covering up a soft silver, and her brown eyes are filled with a watery-warm sincerity.  Cat-eyes glasses on a pearled string often rest atop a pale blue sweater that covers up a long, floral dress.  Her shoes are reasonable, and her nails sport a new pastel every other week.

Total Forces ~ 12
Word-Forces ~ 9
Corporeal Forces ~ 4  Strength 8  Agility 8
Ethereal Forces ~ 3  Intelligence 7  Precision 5
Celestial Forces ~ 5  Will 12  Perception 8
Vessel ~ Human/1
Role ~ Little Old Church Lady/4 (Status/2)
Servant ~ Pastor/2 (Class/4)
Skills ~ Artistry (Cooking)/4, Computer Operation/2, Emote/5, Savoir-Faire/3, Singing/1
Attunements ~ Captain of Twisted Memory**, Demon of Gratitude***, Habbalah of Gluttony, Habbalah of Ignorance****, Knight of Stupidity*****, Memory Gap******, Modern Dark Age*******
Songs ~ Charm (Ethereal/6, Celestial/3), Forbidding (Ethereal/3), Harmony (Corporeal/6), Opening (Ethereal/3, Celestial/1), Seals (Ethereal/5), Solace (Ethereal/5), Succor (Corporeal/2)
Additional Rites ~ Lead a prayer (or equivalent) of impersonal or vague thanks; Spend an hour in conversation, monologue, or writing (et cetera) downplaying/ignoring/covering up past or present atrocities
Discord ~ Disabled/3********, Gluttonous/1, Pity/1, Obsessed (Thanksgiving)/1

*  It is dissonant for a servitor of Ascetus to correct any belief that goes against the facts, or to promote education or enlightenment.  Rites:  Convince someone not to think twice; Spread a lie to the public, by posting it to the Net, handing out flyers in the street for an hour, etc.
**  These are the most feared vassals of Ignorance, as they can twist known and unknown concepts into knots that cannot be deciphered. By spending 4 essence, they can change a 'truth' into whatever they chose. For example, they could change the answers in the back of a particular book, change a few 1's to 0's in machine code, or make a Macintosh a real computer, but they couldn't change pi to equal 4 or any universally affecting 'constant'.
***  As long as someone is even vaguely or indirectly experiencing pleasure, Todahlael can cause them to ignore one unpleasant thing per point of Essence spent, with a successful Will roll.  The Attunement's effects only last as long as the specific pleasure does, though events during its effects can prolong the results.  Normally, this Attunement must be activated individually for each intended victim; however, if Todahlael cooks a feast to be used as the anchoring pleasure, the Attunement will affect a number of people equal to the check digit of her Artistry (Cooking) roll with each activation.
****  Same as Habbalah of Factions.
*****  By concentrating on someone and spending one essence, the knight can sense the one thing that the person has little or no knowledge, but wishes to learn about.  {And, yes, "stupidity" is a word with a long ableist, racist, and classist history.  This is Hell we're talking about, after all.}
******  The demon can cause a target to forget a specific piece of information. This requires a Contest of Will vs. the target's Perception; the demon may spend Essence to add to his will. The check digit determines the type of information that can be erased:
Check Digit~Information Lost
1~Something minor in short-term memory (a name or phone number just heard)
2~Something major in short-term memory (the just-heard time and place of a meeting)
3~Something minor in medium/long-term memory (the phone number at work; your spouse's middle name)
4~Something major in medium/long-term memory (the exit to get to your parents' house; the password to your AOL account)
5~Something minor in long-term memory (the name of your first-grade teacher)
6~Something major in long-term memory (your wedding anniversary; the Pythagorean Theorem)
Information lost in this way will be "on the tip of your tongue" or misremembered in such a way as to be useless. The target can be reminded of it, but must make a Will roll; the information is not retained until a successful roll is made.
*******  By spending 2 essence per person the demon wishes to affect (to a maximum of his celestial forces) he can have them interpret a sign, image, or oration the wrong way, or ignore the enlightening effects of teachers and books (negating any potential for learning from that source) for one day.
********  "Crippled" is a slur.