(Created by: Peter Frederick <peterf@geko.net.au>)
>>Why you malign me, it's all the Truth. I am reminded of one of my favourite scenes from Deep Space Nine. [...]
>>Garrok: "Why Doctor, all of them were the Truth."
>>Dr Bashir: "Even the lies."
>>Garrok smiles: "Especially the Lies."
>>I have been working on a full write up for Phasekiel, but true to his nature he is unhappy with the results of a single definitive version of his history and abilities.
>Well, if you can ever pin him down to something he at least is amused by...
<sweeping bow> By your command. BTW, Phasekiel got a bit funny when we got to the bit about Summoning and the modifiers to it, so that bit may not be as accurate. Otherwise here he is.
"All Paths may lead to God"
As a newly created Angel, Phasekiel was fascinated by the diversity of Destinies that Mortals could achieve. His Celestial nature predisposed him to observe without judging and he became increasingly interested in not only the Destiny of Mortals, but in the paths that they reached those Destinies by. "Many watch over the main paths, but the roads less travelled are just as important."
Phasekiel was as surprised as anyone else when Yves petitioned the Seraphic Council for his appointment as the Angel of Heresy, and many thought it not an appropriate Word for an Angel. As a Servitor of Destiny it is Phasekiel's function to provide the mental space within which Free Will can reside and to ensure that Mortals may reach their Destiny by whatever path they chose. Since his appointment Phasekiel has redoubled his efforts to ensure that those who follow the roads less travelled still reach the Truth.
While not a major theme in the Symphony, the Angel of Heresy still manages to be a bit of a political hot potato. Dominic and Lawrence are continually concerned that Phasekiel's efforts seem to directly oppose their own, as Angel of Judgement and Patron of Christianity, while he continues to have an interesting relationship with Khalid. Since the rise of the Archangel of Faith, Phasekiel has tried to work with Khalid wherever possible, faith as easily embracing multiplicity as reductionist ideals. Janus approves of Phasekiel's function, being a shaker of the Heavenly intellectual status quo. Surprisingly, Phasekiel is not impressed with Eli's current absence as he feels that Eli is just not doing his job with due diligence.
Amongst the Fallen, Phasekiel has a mixed reputation. Some see him as ineffectual and weak, some as so obscure and subtle as to be insignificant and others look at his resilience and his successes and wait to see what he will do next. Phasekiel's most recurrent Diabolic opponent is the Demon of Ideology, a Major Servitor of Asmodeaus, and Ideology's "four hoursemen" Organised Religion, Academic Orthodoxy, Political Correctness and Economic Rationalism. He also has butted heads with the Demon of Patriarchy, one of Malphas' Servitors.
Servitors of Heresy are bound to allow Mortals to explore any path that might lead them closer to God. Whenever a Servitor of Phasekiel blocks or discourages a Mortal from exploration of a line of reasoning or a course of action that does not lead directly to that Mortal's Fate they generate dissonance.
Servitors of Heresy can open a Mortal's mind to possibilities that they would not normally consider. The effect is to remove prejudice and provide a brief period within which balanced neutral consideration of those possibilities can be undertaken. To invoke the Divine Prism takes a point of Essence and a Perception Roll at -1 for each person after the first that is to be affected. Affected targets are freed from any outside forces that are warping their judgement (supernatural or mundane) and further allows them to reconsider their current course of action.
As any action may come within the bounds of God's Plan it is possible that actions that seem dissonant are actually not contrary to an angel's nature. This attunement allows a Servitor of Heresy to put off the effects of dissonance until a later time, when hopefully they will have taken actions to remedy the possible dissonance. When a point of dissonance is gained the Servitor may make a Perception Roll to neutralise it. The dissonance doesn't go away -- it just doesn't affect the Servitor.
Whenever the Servitor gains Essence they must reroll seperately to re-neutralise each point of neutralised dissonance. Failing to re-neutralise any of the previously neutralised points of dissonance results in the Essence not being gained and all the neutralised points of dissonance becoming effective dissonance.
A Friend of the Heretic may illuminate the Divine within a line of reasoning or course of action. To do so costs one Essence and requires a Perception Roll. This is not as useful as it sounds, because by the Angel of Heresy's approach many courses of action from any particular point contain some aspect of God's Plan. The two things it does do are to show the target what relation their plan has to God's -- it may not be what they think -- and if your course of action has NO relation to God's Plan you might want to reconsider. This may only successfully be done for an individual or group of individuals once a month.
for one Essence spend 4 hours teaching a doctrine Heretical to the local consensus view of reality, this can be a political, moral, economic or spiritual doctrine.
for two Essence convince a Mortal of the equal validity of two radically opposed ideas or theories.