BALSERAPHS, The Liars

"But won't my parents be upset?" the little boy asked. "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"Don't worry," I laughed, winking at him. "Anyway, an uncle's not a stranger. They won't even know I was here. Trust me."

Penultimate liars, the Balseraphs are powerful celestial forces, the most malevolent Band of demon. No other sort of being is so deeply wrapped in his own selfish perspective.

Balseraphs, widely regarded by the rest of Creation as the universe's biggest liars, don't see it that way -- but that's no surprise. A Balseraph cares for nothing save his own perspective, however warped and twisted a take on reality it may be.

Resonance
To a Balseraph, everything is a struggle, everyone is duplicitous, all motivations are suspect and there are no innocents. These demons skew their observations to support their dark suspicions. All evidence, however contrary to their position, merely reinforces their previous opinions. This solidity of perspective is what characterizes the personal symphony of a Balseraph, and it's what keeps his forces from falling apart without the ultimate truths of the Symphony to support his heavy soul.

A Balseraph can, through a minor exertion of will, extend his personal symphony into other people's hearts, making them see his lamentable, paranoid point of view. This ability serves a Balseraph well, as long as he keeps his stories straight . . .

Dissonance
Broken angels or not, a Balseraph is still a Seraph at heart. A Balseraph would no more lie to you -- from his perspective -- than his Heavenly counterpart would.

When a Balseraph lies, he creates an entire reality within himself in which the untruths his mind creates are true -- not could be true, but are true, must be true. Passionately earnest certainty is the devil's finest instrument.

But the artificial structures of lies a Balseraph builds in his soul are delicate, and must be perfect; imperfections are like broken strings to the instrument of his personal symphony. If a Balseraph contradicts himself to someone in a way that shows one of his personal truths to be a lie, then he fractures his synthetic truth and generates dissonance.

Manner and Appearance
A Balseraph is tall and slender in the corporeal realm, graceful and hypnotic. He dresses smartly, giving the same attention to his appearance as he does to his lies. In his celestial form, a Balseraph looks like a many-eyed, winged serpent, similar to a Seraph, though the distinction is immediately noticible. These creatures, the most malevolent of demons, shroud themselves in a palpable air of mystery and reservedness, directly opposed to the truthful open-heartedness of the Seraphim. When the Balseraphs speak, people listen.

Other Bands don't question the Balseraphs. Not because another demon would ever think the Balseraphs tell the truth, but because questioning their honesty only makes you look gullible, that you think a Balseraph wouldn't lie to you, as well as stupid, that you think he'd admit it. Asking a Balseraph if he's really telling the truth is like asking a politician if he really cares about his voters. And besides, it's rude.

Balseraphs, beyond being the most malevolent Band of demons, are also the most freakishly paranoid. Since they can seldom be troubled to tell the whole truth, they assume no one else does either.

Like their divine analogs, Balseraphs think of themselves as stringed instruments, from guitars to violins. The delicacy, precision and grace required to play such instruments serves to reinforce their smug vanity.

Game Mechanics
Balseraphs lie like rugs. They can invoke their resonance for twisting and distorting a person's reality any time they wish, persuading a number of people equal to the check digit of the successful roll.

The target of the lie may resist with a Will roll of his own. Don't treat this as a conflict; the victim only needs to roll his Will, or lower. If successful, the ensuing backlash will give the demon a point of dissonance, and he won't be able to use his resonance on that victim for a number of hours equal to the check digit of the victim's Will roll. If the target fails his Will roll, he will be impressionable to the words of the Balseraph for a number of minutes equal to the roll's check digit.

When resisting the lies of a Balseraph, a Seraph has the number of his Celestial Forces added to his Will roll whether the angel is aware of the liar's true nature or not!

Whatever the Balseraph says (within reason; see the next paragraph), the victim will consider to be an absolute truth. Other people may try to change the person's mind, but the victim will steadfastedly remain convinced otherwise for a number of days equal to the demon's Celestial Forces. Balseraphs don't generate dissonance just because an old victim changed his mind -- the demon still remembers what's "true."

Now of course, you can't convince someone of anything -- no one's going to believe the sun is really the moon. But anything which can't be proven by the hard fist of reality, either fact or opinion, is the playground of the Balseraphs. Even when a Balseraph is trying to convince a person of someone else's opinion ("He doesn't love you.") and that someone else is standing right there ("But I do! I do love you!"), the will of the Balseraph rules the day.

But when a Balseraph contradicts himself to one of his previous victims -- only by word, not by action -- this generates a note of dissonance, even if the victim no longer believes the demon. If a demon contradicts himself to a victim by action (for example, supernaturally convincing a woman he's not going to shave her head, and then tying her down and shaving her head) he'll still generate a point of dissonance, but only until he can successfully bring the victim under his thrall again. ("I didn't shave your head, you did.") And no matter how many times a Balseraph uses his resonance on someone, he can only generate one point of dissonance from that person at a time. Once that point is cleared up, he's vulnerable to getting another point of dissonance from that person but not for any lies which have already been aired.

It's important for the player and the GM to keep track of what a Balseraph character has said, and to whom. This might sound like work, but doesn't really amount to a lot of bookkeeping. Only really worry about it with characters who're likely to appear in more than one gaming session.

And any desire to stay in character aside, it's bad form to lie to the GM.


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