Fallen angels
Introduction
A fall is an angel's greatest punishment: banishment from Heaven and their bond to its light. As a result, fallen angels are fragile and vulnerable during their first years, facing the persecution of their former siblings and being the target of hunts. Should they survive the experience, their powers will mutate to reflect their new alignment with Hell. The higher the angel's original rank, the slower and more unpredictable the change.
When creating a fallen angel, consider:
Elapsed time since their fall, their gender identity, age, unique powers, and old rank.
Related
The fall
Should an angel be condemned to fall from Heaven's grace by succumbing to a severe sin or by the judgment of an archangel, they would experience a quite literal fall across the realms. Their wings would burn into featherless husks, unable to keep the angel in the air, leaving behind burned scars and seared flesh. Their halo would crack, stripping away Heaven's light and revealing the truth hidden behind the veil of the holy shroud, allowing the fallen angel to see the world as it is: imperfect, broken, and irreversibly corrupted.
Eventually, as the halo takes a new form and turns into horns, whatever feathers the angel has managed to grow back start to lose color and darken. After an angel has fully transformed, their wings have turned black, and their true form has become riddled with corruption, displaying black patches, spikes, and scales. They have become unable to heal themselves, having to resort to human medicine or drinking demon blood to regenerate, and find no solace in holy places such as churches. They are renegades, independent for the first time in their lives, and have to either find a prince of Hell to serve and protect them or live free among mortals and continue evading their kin.
Depending on the angel, the experience can be utterly traumatizing or the beginning of some much-desired freedom. One thing is sure: should a fallen angel hope to achieve redemption, the path back to Heaven's grace is painstakingly long.
Ranks
Hell knights
Hell knights, also known as Az-Zabaniya, are Lucifer's personal lieutenants: 19 fallen angels who fell from Heaven with their master. They are of equal rank as the deadly sins and take no orders from Hell's residents except for the Devil. They carry personal symbiotic weapons and can command any lesser demon to serve them even without using true names.
Other fallen angels
Any fallen angel not part of Az-Zabaniya, regardless of their previous rank, are considered lesser compared to all demons except for the youngest runts. Forced to gain status and power like normal hellions, it takes time and effort to gain authority over Hell's residents, if any at all. While some fallen angels choose to respect an individuals old rank, their value often comes from actions after their fall.
Powers
Fallen angels are stripped from most of their inborn abilities, but some remain: they can still fly, turn invisible, and transform into their true form. However, their skills mutate, either immediately or through time. They also lose their innate power of self-sustenance, having to learn to rely on food and rest to regain their strength.
Immortality
Despite losing their self-sustenance, fallen angels keep their immortality and immunity against mortal ailments. They can theoretically survive an indefinite banishment to the bottom of the sea, in excruciating pain from the lack of oxygen and the immense pressure of the depths, yet perfectly capable of making their way back on land if given the chance and time. They would be weak and vulnerable against attacks during this time but nowhere near death or permanent damage.
Smiting
Instead of releasing a blast of divine force, fallen angels are empowered by Hell's power; thus, their smiting inflicts a concentration of unholy energy. The ability's range and effects stay the same, leaving behind a short-lived cloud of corruptive radiation and a burning sensation at the point of impact. The smite's bright flash dims into twilight, giving off a short burst of red light.
Biokinesis
Fallen angels cannot heal as they have lost their feathers, replacing the ability with a harming one. With barely more than a touch, a fallen angel can singe their target's flesh, cause internal and external bleeding, send pain straight into the nervous system, and even cause organs to fail. Their feathers carry the same power and can be lethal to anyone unfortunate enough to touch or find them.
Grace channeling
Fallen angels can still channel grace to their kin but cannot receive or offer it to an unfallen celestial. Their grace becomes depleted twice as fast, and a third has to be reserved for personal use, lest a fallen angel becomes fully powerless. Hell knights can transfer a speck of their grace to mortals, causing their victims to succumb to their vices, and then restore their powers by feeding on the human's tainted soul.
Shadow manipulation
As an angel loses their ability to control light, they gain a new power in its place: the ability to weaponize shadows. Wherever sunlight does not reach becomes the fallen's territory, turning a former weakness into strength. Old masters of light-bending may find themselves natural at controlling shadows, reaching their peak at nighttime and during an eclipse when there is still little light but not total darkness.
Teleportation
At first, fallen angels may feel like they've lost the power to teleport until they re-learn to use it. No more are they able to appear next to their immaculate kin but close to other fallen hell knights and Lucifer himself. The ability may lose some of its precision and potency distance-wise before the angel gains mastery over its changed behavior.
Innate abilities
Fallen angels have the same innate abilities as their divine kin.
Weaknesses
Divine weapons
In addition to regular angelic weapons, divine weapons can range from blessed artifacts to objects made from—or imbued with—primordial material. Cain's blade, a sharpened saint's rib, arrows dipped in holy water; the applications and options are countless. While artifacts created by God himself are rumored to exist, any records of their locations have long since been destroyed, and most details of them forgotten.
Enochian sigils
Enochian sigils remain the greatest threat to any angel, including the fallen. Despite the hell knights being on an active lookout for any sigils they could find, any knowledge regarding them continues to evade both the residents of Hell and Heaven alike. One sigil, in particular, might prove interesting to a fallen angel regretting their disobedience and wishing to regain Heaven's grace: the Word of Absolution.
Magic
While curses pose less danger to a fallen angel, magic continues to be a threat. Able to momentarily weaken celestials and disarm them, fallen angels should still steer clear of any magic users and magical items in case of enchanted traps. The effects might not seem particularly dangerous until combined with more severe weaknesses, leading to potentially serious situations.
Holy items and elements
Both holy water and holy fire can trap fallen angels by creating a circle around them or harm them through direct contact with either substance. Any sacred items, like crosses or other blessed objects, can be used to burn and repel fallen angels like demons, though with a less severe effect.
Hallowed ground
Consecrated land acts as a natural repellant to any hellspawn despite their origin, including angels who have lost their alignment with Heaven. They'll find hallowed ground impossible or painful to walk on, intolerable to fly over, and will need to find another way to pass across. Churches, graveyards, burial sites, and places of religious worship are usually considered hallowed locations.
Silver
While not an immediate change, fallen angels eventually become affected by silver while keeping their adverse reaction to iron. Both metals can momentarily neutralize a fallen angel, with silver having a more substantial effect. Depending on the purity and amount of silver, one could even imprison a hell knight for a limited time.
Damage to true form
As fallen angels cannot heal themselves and can't regenerate like demons, any damage that penetrates through to their true form can be fatal. Only time can heal a true form's wound unless the injured angel manages to get their hands on a still-beating demon heart and consumes it to steal its regenerative power momentarily.
Primordials
Besides Enochian sigils, primordials are the second most severe threat to angels, particularly fallen ones. Powerful enough to kill any annoying celestial, fallen angels should continue trying to avoid a primordial's attention, lest they wish to become nothing more than a passing memory.
