Re: [HOE] Idea i had. want your opinion on it.

[Darrin Bright <darrin@neobright.net>]

> Damian wrote:
> Basicly, the gist of it is this:  If the 4 horsemen are running
> rampant across the earth, what makes people so sure that God would
> just leave it to mortal hands to fix it?  unless it truly is judgement
> day.  anywho, the twist i've added is that the horsemen arn't the only
> celestials running around.  There are 8 (count em, 8) arch angels on
> earth, 4 to put the horsemen back in their dark and gloomy home, and 4
> to clean up the mess they made.  These archangels have "posessed"
> heros and are nudging them down the "right" path (similar to harrowed,
> but with higher purposes).  

I, too, have thought about introducing angels or some variation thereof
into HOE. Unfortunately, there are some theological dilemmas you can get
into...

The biggest problem is that with the exception of the blessed and
possibly the Templars, we haven't seen the forces of Good make much of
an appearance in either game. Introducing "Flaming Sword" type angels
would be a really bad idea, though... because once God or his Archangels
enter the fray in a very visible way, that basically releases mankind
from the burden of redeeming their own souls. And I think we've seen
from the metaplot we've been given so far that this is a very important
part of the DL/HOE/LC story... if humanity is going to be saved, then
humans are going to have to do it themselves. 

But we have seen elements of the Divine at work in the form of Blessed
and Templars. I think we're told in the HOE book somewhere that the
reason the Forces of the Divine haven't made much of an appearance is
more because humanity has stopped believing in them, not the other way
around. The job of the Taletellers would seem to be to bridge that gap
and restore belief in a higher power.

Could you elaborate a little bit on what you mean by "possession" by
your angels? Not sure I follow who's in the driver's seat.

Here's a similar idea I was thinking of using in a game:

Rumors reach the PCs that a new cult has popped up in Texas worshipping
an honest-to-god "Angel", servant of the lord, holy warrior, etc., and
this cult is currently kicking the bejeezus out of Silas' Doomsayers and
working its way gradually north. Could it be that God Awmighty has
finally put in something of an appearance, or sent one of his mightiest
warriors to lead the Faithful to victory?

A group of Heretic Doomsayers approach the PCs and hire them to
investigate this Angel. They want to know if the Angel is really an
instrument Divine Power, and... well, they haven't heard about it having
a third eye, but it'd be nice if they could ask this Angel if he's the
Harbringer, or if he knows anything about where and when the Harbringer
might show up. 

(Actually, these Heretics are Green Robes in disguise. They've been
tussling with this Angel and getting beat, Silas is pissed, and he does
NOT want word getting around that an actual Angel of the Lord is kicking
his ass. They do seriously want to know if the Angel is real, but
they'll be looking to betray the PCs later once they've gotten enough
information out of them.)

The PCs head down to Texas to check out the operation. They watch the
Angel come out, see some miracles, and then the Angel asks them to join
in the fight against the Cult of Doom. Big battle ensues.

Turns out through PC investigation that this Angel is actually a mutant
but has no Divine Powers, and the miracles are fakes or not done by him.
A small group of Heretics have disguised themselves as servants of the
Angel, helping out with the "miracle" thing, and in general trying to
stir up hope and enlist people to fight against Silas. If the PC's
employers hear about these "real" Heretics, they'll do what they can to
convince the PCs that they are fake or are trying to fool the PCs, and
try to convince the PCs to expose the scam and destroy these Heretics.

Anyway, the PCs get put into the uncomfortable position of having to
make a decision... do they expose the Angel as a fake/fraud/sham, even
though they're fighting the "Good Fight" against Silas? Or do they help
the Angel keep up the charade and help spread hope to other survivors?

At that point, Silas uses the information from the PCs (given either
voluntarily or otherwise) to round up his troops and go down to Texas to
do some "House Cleaning", setting up an ambush for the Angel's troops.
Now that Silas knows the Angel is a fake, he's willing to risk enough of
his troops to crush the opposition with overwhelming odds. From there,
I'm thinking typical "good guys are getting slaughtered, then Angel-boy
rallies them, goes out in a huge, dramatic, big flash of light, and then
everybody wonders, well maybe he really WAS an angel...