Players

As far as anyone could tell, God and Lucifer disappeared in the same moment. None of the celestials — the loyal angels who serve God, and the demons who rebelled against him, and accepted Lucifer’s rule — saw them go, but their disappearance was instantly felt. For seven days and seven nights, the celestials went about their business as though nothing had changed, with most believing that one or both of their lords would be back soon, that however they behaved during this unprecedented event would eventually be judged, and that it would be dangerous to be found wanting. On the eighth day, the princes of hell rose up against each other, seeking advantage and power. And the most puissant of the angels descended on them, sensing an opportunity in their discord. The Cold War between heaven and hell raged hot again, as the two factions tore the heavens apart.

At first, you were untouched by the war. The angels and demons serving their purposes among mankind were not part of the great heavenly battles. But one by one, the greater powers of Earth abandoned it in order to join the war. Now only a handful on each side are left behind, and the hierarchies that kept a regimented sort of piece on Earth have fallen. You are among the few who truly care about humanity, more than you care about the battles of Powers far above your head. In your way, you each love God's messy, discordant, confused mortal children, and you try to guide them into what you see as the light. Each of you embodies a principle, the ideal that called you into existence and into service, and each of you wants to continue to forward that ideal as an agenda on Earth. And each of you will embody it as you meet and try to work out a new plan of governance for Earth, a new covenant that will keep you from fighting in ways that could tear the planet apart.

This is an intrigue game, as angels and demons come together in a secluded space, wearing their human guises, disguising their celestial power, at least long enough to feel each other out and find out who’s stayed behind to be reckoned with. One side may vastly outnumber the other — or your numbers may be equal. Until you know for sure, it’s dangerous to reveal too much about who you are, but your principle (and your secret personal goals and connections and powers) will guide the choices you make.

Angels in this story do not necessarily embody good. They are the loyal servants of a higher power that they do not question, and their goal is to bring humanity closer to what they see as the ideals of that power — which sometimes might mean doing terrible things and making terrible choices. They are more powerful than demons, and less common.

Demons in this story do not necessarily embody evil. They chose independence over servitude, and their goal is to bring humanity closer to choosing their own independent paths, even if those paths come at other human’s expense. They might do kind and selfless things if they felt those things would manipulate a human closer to making a fully self-regarding choice.

Every principle has both angels and demons, who work to forward the agenda of that ideal, but in differing ways. For instance, an angel of charity might try to inspire a rich man to give his money to churches and private church-run schools, to overseas missions and outreach groups, essentially to organizations that might promote spiritualism and further charity. A demon of charity might try to inspire a rich man to give his money to libraries and state colleges and science labs, to state-run think tanks and arts organizations that might promote creativity, intellectualism, and secular humanism. But both would feel that the man would become his best self through divesting himself of money and challenging himself to make more, through financially forwarding his preferred agendas, through improving the world. And if it came down to it, the angel and demon of charity probably have a lot in common, and if they wound up in a bar together, they’d be more likely to talk philosophy all night over drinks than to outright slaughter each other. The angel of charity certainly has a lot more in common with the demon of charity than with the angel of preservation, who would urge that same rich man to hold onto his fortune and amass as much as possible for use in some later, as-yet-unknown crisis. The demon of charity has more in common with the angel of charity than with the demon of miserliness, who would want the man to expand his fortune endlessly, to secure his power over all other rich men and grant him options and opportunities they couldn’t dream of.

For game purposes, who is playing angels and who is playing demons will depend very heavily on head count for this LARP, in order to maintain balance. (It’s not much of a game with two angels and 10 demons, or vice versa.) So you’re not likely to have a choice there. But if you have a specific principle or ideal in mind that you think would be fun to play, or even a specific (LARP-friendly power) that you think would be interesting to have, let me know. Note that a good principle is something that would be fun and colorful to play, but wouldn’t be immediately obvious. (If you’re the demon of fire, and your instant reaction to social conflict is to set everything on fire, you’ll get caught out pretty quickly — and for game purposes, you don’t want anyone to be able to instantly guess your principle.)