Angels: The Servants of Extermination

Fallen from sky, risen from beneath the ground, surfacing from the depths of the ocean, pieces of the Lost World constantly turn up, unwanted, in Adel. Though they form the technology and knowledge base of Adel, they represent a past that everyone would rather forget, or have rather never known about. Before Adel there was another world – a world of chrome and steel poured over poisoned land, of choking black sky, of alien fauna and flora playing out a caricature of natural life for destructive masters who had claimed and abused all of the world. At the height of its power, the Lost World was destroyed.

As Adelians plumbed the depths of their world, and thereby uncovered their history, they came into conflict with the remnants of the Lost World. The Elves were a part of this puzzle, but despite their xenophobic, genocidal culture, even they were more reasonable an enemy than the protectors of the old world – the Angels. Their name coming from an Ancient word meaning “messenger.” But the only message the Angels bring to Adel is a dirge of violence and extermination.

Origin of the Threat

During the Adelian Age of Exploration after the expansion of the Aptoan Empire, a number of expeditions into sites with connections to the Lost World were bookended by attacks from strange mechanical beings. The first contacts with the Angels were revolutionary for the Adelians. The idea that there are autonomous, intelligent mechanical beings, seemingly attacking people out of their own inherent malice, has shaped Adelian thoughts on technology since. Were it not for the Angels perhaps Adel would be a highly industrialized society, and on its way to the same devastation of the world once presided over by the dead masters of the Lost World. The Angels carried a message both helpful and terrifying to the Adelians.

Angels were once servants of the aberrant society of the Lost World. These automata were created to repair and maintain the numerous advanced systems that were required to keep the Lost World functioning, such as air purifiers to keep people from choking in the intense, polluted atmosphere, the food machines needed to grow the algae that fed the population, and the various Environmental Systems around the world that suppressed Nature’s wrath.

The Angels also served as war machines, the aberrant masters using them to control the population and maintain order. Angels were kept in containment units that held Workforces anywhere from 15 to 100 machines strong, and Warforces with hundreds or thousands of the machines. Each machine had the ability to construct and repair more of itself and its sibling machines, and an understanding of its body and its resource needs, allowing it to care for itself. Angels worked without supervision, their programming advanced enough to detect and eliminate threats to their masters.

Then the Cataclysm destroyed the Lost World. As the planet remade itself and the Spirits helped remake it, the containment pods of untold numbers of Angels were trapped in rock and magma that was blasted skyward, drowned in the sea or consumed into the Earth. In the sky, their pods hover magically among a sea of debris. Beneath the ground and sea the containment units await unearthing or for the pod to lose its energy and finally release its cargo. When a pod finally fails, the Angels within it are released out into the world, and begin anew their service to the Lost World.

No Adelian really knows much about Angels. Adelians think they know plenty about them, but their knowledge is terribly flawed in many respects. Adelians know that the Angels come from the Lost World, but they don’t know that the Angels were created. They have witnessed Angels repairing and constructing more of themselves, and believe them to be a distinct species of creature. They believe machines and tools have souls and essence, like themselves, and that if they become sophisticated enough they will cease to serve the flesh-and-blood folk and begin to slaughter them instead.

Seraphim are the foremost exterminators of Angels, and build their weapons and armor out of them. Even Cherubim know of the Angels and how to identify them. Seraphim style their suits of armor after the Cephaetera Angel, out of respect for their great enemy, and out of the practical knowledge that the Cephaetera armor is sleek and powerful. Normal people cannot wield the weapons of an Angel, but what is heavy, clunky and awkward for an Adelian is possible for a Seraphim to wield, and the power of an arrowlance gun and the protection of an angelic plate armor greatly compliments them.

Makeup And Modus Operandi

Angels are insectoid machines, and have the schematics for numerous “models” in their programming. As such, their makeup will vary depending on what the situation demands be built. Once an Angel workforce or warforce is released, the Diminitas, the smaller scarab-like angels the size of a child, will begin gathering resources from the surroundings, as well as scavenging the containment pod for materials and to release the rest of the force if necessary.

Once materials are gathered, more advanced types of Angel are created. One of the first goals of the Angels is to create a Cephaetera. The Cephaetera is a semi-organic, human-like angel that, once constructed, will guide the Angels from then on. The Cephaetera is constructed with a very pale organic outer layer of skin, an expressive face, hair, and the general body shape of a human, along with wings and various weapons. Cephaetera rarely express any emotion, remaining dispassionate, dead in the eyes regardless of what may be happening. To see one expressing an emotion is a powerful sign – and an incredibly dangerous one. The Cephaetera conveys the will of the Angel force and is one of the most dangerous Angels. Why a Cephaetera needs an outwardly beautiful, human appearance rather than an insect body is unknown.

The Angels follow a series of programmed routines known as The Directive. No Adelian has any idea, whatsoever, what The Directive entails. The major secret of the Angels is that it entails absolutely nothing. Over two millennia of entombment and surviving a major catastrophe has scrambled the The Directive to the point that every angel workforce or warband might have its own perverse version, and might even war with other Angels due to a glitch, their brains a proverbial error message, broadcasting endless, incomprehensible things. What’s more, if an Angel harvests Adelian bodies to build its Cephaetera leader, the Cephaetera is quite likely to have its own insane interpretation to add.

Powers, Allies And Equipment

The Angels possess incredibly advanced communications and analysis capability. They can interface with satellites still in orbit around Adel, pinpointing the current locations of ancient pieces of technology such as the Environment Systems, or the remains of Lost World cities. The Angels seek out these monuments, either in misguided efforts to repair them, or in concerted efforts to reactivate them and reverse the Spirits’ terraforming labors, or to use them to kill Adelians.

The Angels do not battle only the Adelians. They consider the Sorians, Furies and many enemies of Adel to be their own enemies as well, and just as often fight them. Angels may sometimes deign to ally with Elves, but this is usually temporary. The Angel’s true masters were the humans who ruled and despoiled the planet. The Elves were merely incidental in the rule of the humans, and to the Angels the Elves are only marginally useful. If the Elves’ motives ever conflict with The Directive they will find the Angel’s weapons immediately turned on them, regardless of the situation.

The following are summaries of many Angel models and weapons observed by Adelians.

Diminitas: Little scarab-like creatures the size of a small, walking-age child. They serve as the primary repair and construction units of the Angels, though they can fight by using their myriad of tools. Like most of the insectoid angels, they have only one red eye in their sleek exterior, which blinks and generates sound.

Exoptera: A larger scarab-type Angel, with a weapon mounted on its back and a cylindrical stub for a “face,” that it can extend around cover to spy areas with its red eye. This angel is the most common combat Angel, easy to build in large numbers. Many Cephaetera attack Adelian villages with enormous marching armies of these.

Areanae: A short tripod creature with a rotund top body and two arms, normally either ranged weaponry or slashing sickles, this is another common type of Angel. It cannot fly, unlike Exoptera and Diminitas.

Formica: Large creatures that resemble queen ants, with multiple legs pulling a large cargo hold. These heavily armored, typically unarmed creatures are used by the Angels to transport equipment or units.

Wasman: Wasman Angels are one of the more insidious types. Simply put, Wasman angels are Adelians in form, using material harvested from Adelians (mutilated, processed flesh and bone) along with metal and other resources to reproduce an Adelian body as faithfully as possible, along with “enhanced” internal systems such as hidden weapons. Wasman angels live among Adelian society to destabilize or spy on Adelian communities. Wasman are at all times communicating to other Angels via satellite link. When a Cephaetera falls, a Wasman might be converted into a new Cephaetera.

Carnipede: The Carnipede is a massive, worm-like machine with numerous layers of spinning, grinding teeth in its four-clawed maw of a face, its red eye resting somewhere within this horrendous array. It is used for digging and as a shock troop. Carnipede can smash through fortress walls and plow through nearly any defense.

Cephaetera: The Cephaetera is the leader of the angels. The Cepheatera and the Wasman are the only Angel types that can use magic, and they speak or sing in the ancient language. Theirs is the perfect, fluent version of the language, unlike the Adelian’s interpretation of the tongue in their Old Adelian language form. Cephaetera have weapons hidden in their lithe bodies, from blades to telekinetic force amplifiers, and their bladed wings allow them perfect flight. They are the strongest and most dangerous Angels, and also the most unpredictable. Some Cephaetera may recall their time as Adelians, if their bodies were built from murdered innocents, and might allow themselves to be captured or subdued. Cephaetera have no red eye, unlike the rest of the Angels – unbeknownst to Adelians, Cephaetera generally think for themselves.

Arrowlance: The Seraphim’s Arrowlance variants are derived from this Angelic weapon. It is essentially a magic railgun, firing a solid steel projectile through kinetic magic. The arrowlance launcher is heavy but reliable and easy to build, and takes up the top of the squat Exoptera, or the sides of a Areanae. Smaller versions can be hidden inside a Cephaetera or Wasman’s arms, or they might build them outside their bodies as pistols and rifles, and use those instead.

Thunderlance: The Thunderlance is a magical cannon that essentially fires a very powerful wave. The sound wave strikes like a bludgeon, crushing its intended target. The thunderlance fires extremely focused sonic blasts. This weapon, too, is used by the Seraphim, though theirs must be fired from a tripod mount hooked into the ground.

Blastlance: Angels can use guided ballistic missiles, unlike the Adelians who know how to use short-range explosives, but still use shells and cartridges for greater ranges. Many Adelians have boasted that they outwitted an Angel’s guided missile attacks and escaped to fight another day, and this is perhaps possible. Angels cannot build – at least without near-impossible levels of time, planning and effort – missiles that could devastate cities or strike far-away regions. But they can certainly build small missile pods to shoot at annoying Adelians. Some Angels also shoot flares, for unknown reasons.

There are some rare, unique models of Angel created for very specific purposes, such as to distract parties of meddling Adelians. Most Angels can be disabled by striking them in the red eye hard enough. Many Angels, however, develop ways to hide their red eyes, and only expose them once they have taken a lot of punishment.

Angel’s weapons can fail or jam, and they might sometimes shoot duds, such as their missile launchers shooting flares, or their railguns shooting rubber bits. Original angels have no such problems, but newly-constructed angels are often built by diminitas out of things that have been dug up, or out of scavenged ore.

Angels As Antagonists

Angels serve two great roles as antagonist. First, they are the unknown terror that lurks within sites of historical significance. Imagine an archeological expedition of religious, mostly rural Adelian adventurers meeting with essentially insect robots who shoot ballistic missiles and semi-automatic railgun weapons at them.

While seemingly “modern” weapons seem to pose a problem to the fantastic Adelians, whose greatest personal weapon accomplishments are seemingly anachronistic grenades and revolver-rifles, the majority of whom use swords and maces and even longbows, remember that the Adelians are plenty ridiculous enough to fight back. Adelian martial artists could be deflecting railgun shots with their swords, cutting through metal, crushing red eyes with their bare fists, while the magically-inclined use hymn songs and arcane spells to strike down their machines and protect their allies, and those with their firearms deftly strike shot after shot on Angelic armor until it fails, or a red eye is stricken. If a Seraphim happens to be accompanying, Team Adel has an even better shot of winning. But regardless, they would be terrified, and the danger is astronomical.

Secondly, as expressed above, Angels are a technological terror to a world with great religiosity and superstition. Adel is a very anachronistic world in some respects, because it arose from the death of a highly technological world. Adelians have recovered, and either very cautiously adopted certain technologies, and outright rejected others, but they are per capita not incredibly advanced. Regardless, the spirit-touched Adelian races and their strange ideas about technology play very well against the steel swarms of the Angels, fallen from the sky or risen from the Earth. A Cephaetera attempting to reactivate an Environment System in a volcano can seem to the Adelians like an alien songstress singing the song that ends the world.