Saminga, Archangel of Fulfillment
”The world is full of uncompleted tasks, dreams and hopes. What are you just sitting around for?”
Even for a Kyriotate, Saminga multitasks. He’s never in one place longer than absolutely necessary, and can split his focus between two planes with a speed and skill that baffles his peers. Unusually for a Kyriotate, Saminga’s basic personality retains a specific gender, so he’s usually in a male host, but that’s just a character trait, not an obligation.
Unlike his two newly Redeemed counterparts, Saminga has excellent relations with all of Heaven’s war faction, so his organization is running along nicely. This is fortunate, because the new Archangel has had no former Servitors follow his lead in Redeeming, and doesn’t expect to. His former demons are too busy trying to claim his old Word of Death, and serving it by killing each other.
Saminga doesn’t mind: it just makes for less work for him later on…
Dissonance
Angels of Fulfillment are expected to finish what they start. It is dissonant for them to leave undone for more than a day any significant task that they have voluntarily undertaken, or any task given to them by their Superior. Failing completely at a task is also dissonant.
Being sent into Trauma while undergoing a task is not grounds for dissonance, as long as the angel goes back to work within a reasonable time of recovery. Likewise, an angel does not have to rush through his current task, if it is legitimately complex enough to merit spending extra time. Finally, an unfulfilled task that is accomplished by someone else will stop the dissonance from accumulating further.
A habit of not finishing insignificant tasks will likewise eventually cause dissonance. Absent-mindedness is definitely not a good trait for these angels, nor is laziness: a Servitor without a significant task in hand will be assigned one by Saminga fairly quickly.
Organization
Saminga is one of those bosses that humans would alternately hate and love. Slacking off on the job is a definite mistake with him: his angels are expected to stay busy and useful. On the other hand, he’s showing a talent for matching the specific job to the Servitor, he’s liberal with resources and backup, and he’ll accept honest failure and mistakes. Happy Servitors are efficient Servitors, and efficient Servitors get things done. Saminga is also good about vacation time, although he’ll cancel them on you in a nanosecond if he’s got a job that you’re perfect for.
It’s also fortunate that his organization has, so far, been given fairly straightforward assignments. Right now, one of Saminga’s main goals is to finally resolve the problem of undead by removing every single one of them, and the demons and sorcerers who know how to make them, from the Symphony forever. This might take a while, so he’s also cleaning up other messes, but taking out a mummy or Servitor of Death is always good for brownie points. Note that ”discovering an undead or creator of undead and not killing it” (or at least reporting it through channels) counts as ”a significant task left undone”…
Choir Attunements
Seraphim (Restricted)
These angels always can tell exactly how much effort a person is putting into what he or she is doing.
Cherubim (Restricted)
Cherubs do not suffer dissonance if one of their attuned objects must be damaged or destroyed to accomplish one of their assigned tasks. This will never, ever apply to living creatures. In cases where this might potentially happen, Saminga (when alerted) will either remove the task, or the attunement to the entity in question: he doesn’t want to see any more Djinn. Still, Cherubs who serve Saminga are uncommon.
Ofanim (Restricted)
There are almost no Wheels of Fulfillment: the patience needed to accomplish long term goals is difficult for them. As partial compensation, Ofanites are not subject to dissonance for inaction while actively engaged on an assigned task if they make a Will Roll at –2. They also tend to receive the ”Go there, smash every demon you see, and come back once the building is in flames” types of missions…
Elohim (Restricted)
While Seraphim can tell you whether or not a person is trying his best to complete something, Elohim always know why the subject is working hard, or hardly working, to complete it.
Malakim (Restricted)
A Malakite can always find the person that would be the greatest hindrance to one of his tasks. This can be done only once per task. Killing this person still causes a disturbance in the Symphony.
Bright Lilim (RESTRICTED!)
There is currently one Bright Lilim in Saminga’s service, and she apparently has ”merely” had all of her Geases removed (without visible ill effects). Whether or not this will be a standard option for any new Bright Lilim is unknown.
(In actuality, a Bright Lilim of Fulfillment can examine the strains of the Symphony as they apply to Superiors. Upon making a Perception roll, she can either add the check digit to either an invocation roll for any Archangel, or else modify the reaction roll by (the check digit/2, minimum +1): the Lilim must choose beforehand. This is unknown to anyone except Saminga, the Bright Lilim, and certain Archangels … and PCs who find out, and are indiscreet, will have many, many problems.)
Kyriotates (Restricted)
These angels can possess undead or corpses that are currently being made into undead. They also receive a +2 to rolls to possess a living person who is undergoing the ritual to become a mummy or vampire. The possession of the Kyriotate interferes with the ritual, so the person’s soul is not subject to obliteration. In these cases only, they acquire no dissonance for leaving the vessel in worse shape then when they found it.
Note: while this Attunement is listed as ”Restricted”, Saminga has permitted his Malakim access to this Attunement, mostly because it’s fairly funny to watch.
Mercurians
Mercurians may kill sorcerers or those seeking undeath without dissonance. However, when they do so, the usual Symphonic disturbance is increased by 50%. The Song of Thunder is very common among these angels…
Servitor Attunements
Keen Nose
Those with this Attunement can automatically detect sorcerers and the undead within their (Celestial Forces times 5) yards. This manifests as an unmistakable smell of decay and death, which increases as they move closer to the target. Unfortunately, this attunement does not enable the user to determine whether or not the target is using his abilities for good or evil, and cannot be shut off: also, completely ignoring the stench counts as ”a significant task left unfulfilled”…
All Servitors of Saminga must take this Attunement upon character creation. Most of his Soldiers will take this, as well.
Harmony
Angels with this Attunement are masters at bending their tasks so that they fit within the Symphony. Any Symphonic disturbance that results from an action necessary to fulfill an official task is decreased by an amount equal to the angel’s Corporeal Forces. This can be added to a Role, but at a lesser bonus: use (Corporeal Forces/3), rounded off to the nearest number.
Distinctions
Vassal of Cross-Training
Angels with this Distinction receive either the Seraphim or Elohim of Fulfillment Attunements (”doubling up” on those Attunements has no game effect) at no cost. The player chooses which.
Friend of Ingenuity
An angel with this Distinction will automatically know what would the most useful tool available to accomplish a Task, whether it be a hammer or a statistical study. Unfortunately, this Distinction does not include any inherent ability to use that tool. This games as a +3 to any learned skill (not default) that has a direct bearing on a Task. Angels with this Distinction are finding it wise to learn a wide number of skills…
Master of Accomplishment
This distinction allows the angel to smooth the path, once per day, of any mortal (not including Soldiers) who is attempting to fulfill a vital Task or duty. Distractions will disappear, non-celestial interference will be deflected, any illness suffered by the target will go into remission for that day only, etc. If the target succeeds in the vital Task, he or she will get a +2 to the check digit.
Relations
Saminga has entered into his new life with less difficulty than that of his fellow former Princes, oddly enough. Unlike Haagenti and Malphas, Saminga’s new Word does not alarm the Host, and the usual hostile attitudes of David and Laurence disappeared rapidly after the new Archangel began systematically wiping out sorcerers and undead in record numbers. Dominic, of course, keeps an eye on him, as does Michael: between the three new Archangels, the two most powerful Seraphim have been working together more than in … well, ever.
The Archangel of Fulfillment is less popular with the more peaceful Superiors, but relations are fairly good there, too. Novalis disapproves of his violent tendencies, Blandine is uncomfortable with his directness and Eli winces at the finality that surrounds Saminga like a cloak, but they all recognize that he’s sincerely trying to atone for his past. They also appreciate the fact that he’s more than happy to pitch in appropriately with certain problems of theirs. Marc especially likes doing business with him.
One last note: almost no one ever openly discusses the difference between Saminga now and Saminga before the Fall. There’s a definite strain of embarrassment that the Host missed the potential of this Archangel the first time around, and not a little regret. Only Novalis has had the grace to publicly apologize to Saminga, and his only response was that he appreciated the gesture, but he preferred not to dwell on his ”stupidities”. Saminga also gently pointed out that Malphas merited similar treatment, a suggestion that the Host is still mulling over…
Allied: Laurence, Dominic, Michael, Haagenti, Malphas
Associated: David, Gabriel, Janus, Marc, Yves
Neutral: All others
Blandine: ”Work, work, work: that’s our new Archangel. His Servitors are allowed to dream: I hope I never see the inner vision that keeps him from doing the same. Still, he’s polite.” ”I don’t begrudge others their Dreams, and I actually do have one, myself. It’s just that I’d rather have the reality, and I must work to Fulfill it.”
David: ”Finally, someone who’s useful. He’s completely different now, and that’s just fine.” ”Stone understands completion, and David understands what I’m trying to accomplish. I’m sorry that he doesn’t trust my fellow Redeemed, though: he’d be less hostile if he really knew what we were like before the Light…”
Dominic: ”Of the Three that have come to us, he’s needed the least help fitting in. He’s making my job easier, too. Saminga. Who would have thought it? (Noise follows that, if it had come from any other individual, would be recognizable as a chuckle.)” ”I have been Judged, and not found wanting. That is good. I also find that the things I need to Fulfill help him to Fulfill his aims, as well. That is better.”
Eli: ”Well, he’s not exactly my cup of tea. The best Creations aren’t ever finished, after all. Blandine’s right, though: he is polite. Can’t fault his priorities, either. Just so he doesn’t go overboard, that’s all.” ”There comes a time when you have to look at something that you have done or made and say, ‘I am finished’. I know Eli disagrees with me on this. His Word is more important for mine than he thinks, though. I respect that, and hope he realizes that I expect that humanity’s final Fulfillment is beyond all of our meager skills.”
Gabriel: ”He is solid, where I am fluid. He walks below the space where I fly. I am not surprised that few of my Choir serve him. But his angels, when Tasked with destroying the cruel, do so with as much fervor as my own. He’ll do quite nicely.” ”Haagenti was right: she has a Task that requires Fulfillment. How pleasant that particular Task shall be…”
Haagenti: ”You have no idea … the intelligence level alone … I mean, you can actually talk to him now and not want to kill him! Unless you’re a Demon Prince, I suppose, but they kind of have more important things to worry about these days. And the sense of humor! He actually has one now! Sorry, Sam, but you were an aggravating, egotistical lunatic back then…” ”In the old days, I would have tried to kill him for that. Now, I just laugh. He and Malphas are the ones who understand me best, and their friendship Fulfilled a thirst I never knew I had until it was gone.”
Janus: ”Different style and a static Word: I’m not surprised that most of my Choir won’t work for him. As for me, I like him anyway. Why? Well, let me tell you a story…” ”He could care less about what my Word represents. However, he does respect results, and hopefully my results are respectable. Balance is necessary thing for the cosmos: it just doesn’t happen to be my Task.”
Jean: ”If even Saminga can see the foolishness of Rebellion, can the rest be far behind?” ”Jean understands the joys of completion better than most, although he would never admit it or any other emotion aloud. It will be gratifying to actually get reliable equipment for a change.”
Jordi: ”Another Archangel. Seems friendly enough.” ”Animals are capable of Fulfillment, too, and thus need my attention. I won’t do anything to Fulfill Jordi’s self-imposed Task, though: some projects are best completed by never beginning.”
Khalid: ”His arrival is important. Finality has come with him, and I am somehow certain that we have seen the last Penitent. What this means, I do not know, but I have Faith that it will not turn out badly.” ”In t he old days, I scorned his Word: now, I take comfort in its promise that I am not working in vain. And his insights are … very interesting.”
Laurence: ”Takes orders, does them without fuss, and keeps busy. What’s not to like about him?” ”The eternal knight, on his eternal Quest to rid the planes of evil. But Quests have an end, and anything I can do to help him achieve that end will be my pleasure. I look forward to the day when he can finally rest, and truly see what he has been protecting all these weary years.”
Malphas: ”It seems that I am Destined to see those I disliked most when I was … wrong … join me in our new home, cleansed and shining with their unique light. I am glad that he can see me, not as I was, but as I am now.” ”To see him and Haagenti there at the Council when I was cleansed was frightening, and reassuring, and confusing, all at the same time. Now I sit by their side, and I know that we will together do great things, separately and together. We will repay the trust and honor that God and Heaven have given to our unworthy selves, and remake anew what we had shamelessly broken.”
Marc: ”Someone I can dicker with, and he pays and delivers on time. Hard on himself, but that’s not too surprising. His Servitors are useful, too.” ”I never dealt with him much, before, and I’m thus still surprised sometimes by his ways. Trade needs commitment, so his Word and mine are harmonious. I just wish he’d stop telling me that I need a vacation: I have all eternity for a vacation, when we’ve won. Well, probably not even then (multiple small smiles).”
Michael: ”If he had smartened up, but still stayed a rebel, he would have been a nightmare worthy of Beleth. Of course, smartening up showed him that rebellion was stupid, so that was really never an issue, was it? I like his style, too.” ”War can complete some Tasks, and make others impossible to Fulfill. The trick is in knowing when. His trust is … important … to me.”
Novalis: ”He’s … interesting. A bit of a paradox, but then so are all of our Redeemed Superiors. I wish that he’d realize that if peace and love worked for him, then they’d certainly work for all of his deluded former comrades. Violence isn’t the answer, after all: to his credit, I don’t think that he likes it, but he’s a little too quick to use it to get results. We’ll see. He’s still so much more than what he was, even when he was with us the first time…” ”Heaven has underestimated this Archangel more than Hell ever has. In my days of stupidity, she was a constant thorn in my side: now, she is more like the rose that reminds me why I have taken up my Tasks. And she’s right: I’m not fond of violence for its own sake. But it is a tool, and an apt one for many problems … and I enjoy watching any tool do its work for Good. I will be happy, though, when I no longer need that tool.”
Yves: ”And so it begins…” ”I see the permutations of his Task settled about him like a cloak. He has the hardest job of all of us to Fulfill. Whenever we can ease his load, we should.”
Role in the War
Right now, it’s to Smite, Smite, Smite. Saminga always had a fairly good idea about where all his undead minions were located, and his new organization has been putting that to good use. Sorcerers are also on his short list for destruction. His former demonic Servitors are not, however: they’re doing such a good job killing each other that Saminga’s content to wait until the most powerful ones get killed off in the struggle for his former Word. He is, however, willing to stir the pot if things look like that they’re settling down. Just as important is the Task of repairing some of the incredible damage that he caused as a Demon Prince.
Of course, violence isn’t the only tool Saminga uses. Many problems caused by him can’t be fixed with a gun, or flame-thrower, or burning sword: in these cases, he and his Servitors will use the most efficient tool available. A Servitor of Fulfillment is expected to be competent in a wide range of skills, as well as perceptive enough to know when and where his or her talents should be utilized.
And busy, of course. Always busy.
Basic Rites:
: Noticeably aid a mortal in accomplishing a vital Task or duty.
: Kill an undead or Hellsworn Sorcerer (This is a temporary Rite.).
: Take a puzzle or problem (legal, entertainment, mathematical) that someone has left unsolved and solve it.
Chance of Invocation: 2
Modifiers (must have been done, or at least assisted greatly, by the summoning angel, except where starred):
+1 A completed crossword or mind teaser.
+2 The severed head of an undead.
+3 A person who has achieved his or her Destiny. *
+4 An authentic masterpiece of art or craftsmanship. *
+5 A person who has finally accomplished his or her life’s dream.
+6 The instant that a person achieves his or her Destiny (that person must be present at the Summoning).
History
Saminga barely noticed when Haagenti and Malphas left Hell forever, unlike the rest of his peers. It didn’t distract him at all from his own private projects, and they were obviously so inferior, anyway, that they didn’t deserve to be Princes. Saminga had other fish to rot.
Saminga had always been annoyed that the Legion experiment had been never successfully replicated, and he had been toying for centuries with the idea of trying again. However, the other Princes had always thoroughly opposed the idea, for fear that another Rogue Prince might succeed where the first one failed. Grumbling, Saminga had simply let the matter slide.
But now it seemed that Hell was especially agitated, for some reason. All sorts of little projects could be kept hidden, thanks to the chaos that was reigning anywhere. Frankly, something new to do was welcome, anyway. Saminga was struggling with an unfamiliar emotion, and trying to make sense of the Legion fiasco was assuaging it better than anything else was.
The emotion, though Saminga hadn’t realized it at the time, was boredom. Megalomaniacs don’t suffer from it much, as a rule, and paranoids suffer from it even less. However, something had happened that no one had expected; Saminga’s general intelligence level was slowly going up. It must have begun even before Haagenti’s Redemption, but at such a rate that the change was unnoticeable. And with this rise in intelligence came a certain weariness for the mundane work involved with promoting his Word. People were dying all the time anyway: success in his project would be a better long-term use of his time.
At first, Saminga tried using his Servitors as assistants, but his paranoia made that impossible. Mummies and vampires were likewise too … independent for his purposes. None of them could understand how important it was to just shut up and take orders. Zombies, now, zombies could take orders very, very well, so he started to use them whenever he could. And they were of assistance … for a while. But he kept running into a problem: they were obedient, but deeply stupid. After a certain point, they were more hindrance than help.
By now, unbeknownst to everyone (including himself), Saminga was reasonably bright. There was a fairly obvious solution: get the stupid meat-bag humans to conspire in their own destruction. A careful examination of his organization found a Circle of Hellsworn Sorcerers that had bizarrely combined modern science with Diabolic magic. Perfect for his purposes. And this is where Saminga made his big mistake.
The Demon Prince of Death hadn’t been in a living host since he achieved Princedom. There was no need, when one considered the amount of corpses in the corporeal plane. However, he was too paranoid to simply animate a zombie and direct matters that way: he needed to control his unwitting researchers directly, and thus keep constant tabs on who was progressing most quickly. Unfortunately, it never occurred to him that he was still a Corrupter, and that he would have to pervert his hosts or suffer dissonance. The first note of it was both surprising and painful: like intelligence, acting contrary to his nature was a concept unfamiliar to the Prince of Death. Saminga was in a bind: acting contrary to his Band would cause more dissonance (but help serve his Word), but indulging his Shedite nature would soon make this project fail. And he did not dare leave them alone for a moment, now that the project had begun
He decided to go ahead with it anyway. Trying to limit his corruption to as little as possible (a half-hearted attempt even from the beginning, as he became engrossed in the task at hand with a new-found intellectual interest), Saminga flitted from Sorcerer to Sorcerer, trying to push them ahead in their research. A new problem arose: his hosts were unable to maintain such a hectic schedule, and their health suffered. One of them even seemed at the point of death. He was made into a mummy … but his work and insights were never as good afterwards. The schedule of Saminga’s unwitting researchers would have to be lessened if the project was to continue … but that would be considered as ‘encouraging life’. Now Saminga had a worse choice: either shut down the project, or be dissonant to his nature and his Word.
But he had to know. The project continued … futilely.
By now, Saminga was quite mad: mad but very intelligent. The madness seemed to be less when he wandered through the minds of his hosts: obviously, it was more efficient to regularly peruse their inner thoughts. Short-term memories were too full of raw terror, so Saminga routinely looked through their earliest remembrances and, in a sense, relived their lives. It was very, very dreary: pain, humiliation, rage, thwarted desires and repressed lusts … all the petty urges that make a person seek petty power. He started to notice how some of the memories that he experienced second-hand resonated with his own personal experiences. This was … disquieting. Then it became disgusting: and then finally pitiful. That emotion shocked Saminga back into some semblance of sanity, and broke his obsession.
By now, it was obvious that this entire project was a fool’s errand from start to finish: nothing real had been done that he could not have done himself, and the personal cost was too high. So, Saminga casually obliterated the Circle and the lab, and waited for the dissonance to disappear. It didn’t. He had been acting contrary to his nature for too long. Apparently, he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was – a deeply galling notion.
It was a deeply self-loathing Demon Prince of Death that went back to his Bone Citadel. He was angry with himself, angry at a system that would require him to hide his weakness until he could get rid of it, and finally angry at a universe that had forced such a disgusting emotion upon him. And he was still bored, bored, bored. Wasn’t there anything that he could do that would be fulfilling? Had he ever done anything that was fulfilling?
And a tiny memory broke the surface: a memory of quiet day, when a weak, pitiful Saminga had sat and watched the first sunset on earth, and marveled at the colors, and was content. A day that happened before he had even heard the first words of the Lightbearer, or thought of rebellion, or War. A quiet day when he was an angel.
And then came the tears of the Prince of Death.
When the tears stopped, a resolution came. There was, in point of fact, a job worthy of his talents. He started it by summoning his Servitors, who came not knowing that their personal death lay waiting. He only got about a tenth of his total organization of demons in that first battle. It would do for a start. After all, he knew where he could find help to complete his first Task.
And so Saminga smashed his Heart (and his citadel, and a large portion of his Principality) and sought Heaven.