Threats To Eden III: The Angels

Between the surface of Adel and the Crawling Chaos of the Forlorn Void is a concentration of cloud and debris known as the “Second Sky” to the Adelians, as it lies so far above that it takes a long time for even their most advanced prism flying ships to reach — the travel takes as long as traversing two skies, it is said. This magic-suffused region of the sky is home to the palaces of the sky spirits, but also to chunks of the old world. The Pre-World didn’t cease to completely exist — it was rocked by explosions, it was swallowed into the ocean, it was blown into the sky and buried into the earth. But pieces of it remain. On the ground and beneath it, and in the ocean, ancient ruins still keep the pre-world’s secrets.

Elemental Teardrops are floating testaments to the destruction wrought by the cataclysm. The quantity of these chunks of enchanted material hidden in the sky is almost without number. These islands in the sky, suffused with powerful magic energy, were all once parts of the Pre-World. The Cataclym’s energies lent their exteriors qualities of the elements – flowing pools of crystalline water or magma, or lush gardens of rare near-extinct plants, or tiny floating storms. Hovering across Adel, the architecture once upon them now lies trapped within them. These dungeons and ruins hold within them strange, mechanical beings, ever toiling for masters long gone. Over time, Elemental Teardrops lose their power and fall to the ground — when they do, the creatures within them are forced out into a world unknown to them. Their only guidance is The Directive — orders given to them which entail nothing good for the Adelians now ruling what was once their world.

Machines From The Sky

Adelians call them “Angels,” stemming from a spirit word that literally means “fallen from the sky.” But cherubs these beasts are not. In times past, the Angels were part of the functioning of the Pre-World. When the previous keepers of the world, decadent with overabundant magic, found common labor beneath them, they built machines that would maintain the processes they had set in motion. Angels toiled in vast complexes and temples where water was processed, crops grown, weather regulated. They built the structures where their masters would live, and they fought for them. During the Last Cataclysm, the Angels were decimated attempting to protect their masters and their civilization. It is perhaps because of their efforts that the Pre-World ruins and relics still exist, scattered around Adel. Perhaps without a trillion-strong underclass of machine slaves that helped secure the pieces, nothing of the Pre-World would remain at all.

Many of them were jettisoned into the sky or locked beneath the ground in the attempt. The majority of those that remain are trapped inside elemental teardrops, still maintaining the old machinery of their masters, extending its lifespan by just a little bit with each passing century of their labor. But eventually, as all things, their power comes to an end. The Elemental Teardrop fails and falls to the ground, its contents striking the surface of Adel. The angels crawl out to assess the damage and see an entirely new world, one in which their masters are gone, and their magic with them.

This will not do at all, for the angels. In the event of their master’s destruction, the Angels follow a collective programming known as “The Directive.” This is a series of actions long ago thought out not by the humans and elves who created the Angels, but by the Aberration Masters who gave the humans and elves their power. These beings had plans stretching across millennia that accounted even for their diminishment and exile. The Angels ruthlessly follow The Directive and whatever its esoteric strategies entail, one thing is certain — they would not be undertaking this if it would not result in the return of their foul and evil masters. Few parts of The Directive are visible or known to Adelians.

The Skittering Iron Horde

Physiologically, the angels differ by function. The majority of Angels are “Diminitas Class,” as known to the Adelians by things written in old language on their metal shells. These are insect-like creatures, metal beetles the size of a small child, with almost perfectly oval bodies and blade-like legs. Various compartments of tools are hidden beneath the surface of their shells, and the Diminitas have multi-faceted mouths made to saw, crush, melt and funnel anything they wish to consume. Diminitas are resource-converters — they can eat something, build parts inside them, and then assemble something with those parts. Diminitas are the most common Angels, and their part in the Directive is simple. They must consume and construct more Diminitas angels until they have enough manpower and materials to construct better Angels than Diminitas. The Diminitas slave away within the wreck left over in the crash site, putting out any fires and recycling all the material.

The next class is the Exophera. These are spider-like, bulkier versions of the Diminitas Class with eight legs instead of six, helping to support the weapon carried on their back. The weapon, referred to by the Adelians as a Lightning Cannon, fires red and blue crossing streams of energy that alternatively seem to bludgeon and burn, destroying whatever they touch. The mission of the Exophera is to scout away from the initial crash site, and destroy all intelligent, biological life which is encountered along the way in order to secure the crash site up to a certain distance. They are made from the scrap metal from the crash site, and their cannons built out of the ensorcelled steel and runic clusters likewise recycled. If supplies to make cannoned Exophera are too low, flying ones are made instead. Exophera wings used up less magical materials than constructing a lightning cannon, and offer an advantage roughly equivalent to the Exophera when trying to exterminate Adelians.

When the crash site has been deemed secure and a battle-group of 30-45 creatures has been created (usually 2/3s Diminitas), the Angels turn towards crafting themselves an intelligence to further strategize. They craft the Cephaetera class angels. These are sometimes referred to as Artificial Spirits, for their humanoid-insect appearance. They appear to the average Adelian like one of them, merely a Iomadi with strange ears, in this case half-orbs on the sides of their heads, wearing light metallic armor. Their deceptive humanoid appearance conceals plenty of weaponry and an increased capacity for magic. If the Diminitas do not have enough material to make them magical, they will set out to find some, usually by pillaging alchemist stores or Prism Engines if they get lucky enough. All proper Cephaetera can cast some form of magic. Whether their outer appearance is male or female is up to chance – it seems a random choice made by the Diminitas. Cephaetera hide small blade-like magic wings within their backs, which generate a field that allows them flight. Once a Cephaetera is created, it directs the group from there. The Cephaetera is considered the most dangerous class of Angel because it can infiltrate and communicate with Adelians, allowing it to play on their society and emotions.

Usually the direction will be to exterminate all Adelians within a greater and greater radius, consume their resources, and build more of themselves. Nastier classes of Angels begin to be created. Eonopoda class, centipede creatures the size of houses, sometimes armed with lightning cannons, which roam at much faster speeds than their siblings; Teras class, tunneling metal creatures with grinding mouths and bladed arms made for harvesting larger quantities of underground resources, as well as surprising enemies; and finally the Atlas class. This is the pinnacle of the Angel’s designs. Once a single Atlas class is created, it is said that no force, short of a Dromidae’s black hole missile, can destroy one. Luckily, none have ever been completed – many Cephaetera have had to activate one that is half-complete as a desperate final move, and seen it be felled.

Many battles against small bands of angels have occurred – and many more will occur as more and more teardrops fall from the sky and more and more long-sleeping, buried colonies of diminitas are unearthed. Unlike the rest of the horde, however, a Cephaetera will not remain to die with its compatriots in a bloody final battle against the Adelians – it will attempt to flee and discover a new colony of diminitas, if it cannot make away with one of its own, to raise its army again. The Adelians are unaware of many parts of The Directive that force the Angels into this cycle – from what they can piece together, it follows many different patterns depending on the location of the initial crash. Some Angel groups seek the awakening of ancient relics and artifact sites, old weapons of their past Gods. Others merely hunt and kill as many Adelians as they can before being destroyed.

There has been at least one Cephaetera that has been found “broken.” That is, it destroyed its comrade angels by itself, and left to wander the world. Such creatures have been captured by Adelians and are kept in academies and forts to be studied, and then are magically suppressed until they might be necessary again – to fight their own kind. While it is possible that, right now, there is a hive of angels drumming away and expanding, it is unlikely. Whenever a hive rises to prominence it is always within a timeframe very close to its crash. The Adelians can’t afford to let Angels live for long – and they don’t, whenever they can help it. It is a rare occurrence when a hive manages to do tragic damage. Often, hives are found in their nascence by explorers or mercenaries, and if not defeated then, they soon are with the help of military force.