Rachel
Outcast Grigori, formerly of Creation
Corporeal Forces: 5 Strength: 10 Agility: 10
Ethereal Forces: 5 Intelligence: 8 Precision: 12
Celestial Forces: 6 Will: 12 Perception: 12
Vessel: middle-aged woman, Charisma +1
Skills: Dodge/3, Emote/3, Fighting/6, Knowledge
(Child-rearing/6, Occultism/3, Research/3,
Theology/6), Language (Latin/3, Greek/3), Large
Weapon/6 (sword), Lying/3, Move Silently/6, Ranged
Weapon/6 (shotgun) Small Weapon/3 (knife), Tactics/6
Songs: Charm (All/3), Entropy (Corporeal/3,
Ethereal/6), Fruition (All/3), Harmony (Ethereal/3),
Healing (All/3), Light (Celestial/6), Shields (All/3),
Thunder/6
Attunements: None
All she ever wanted was a child. That's what God
wanted too, surely: why would She give the Watchers
the ability to procreate with humanity if they weren't
meant to exercise it?
Apparently, the Malakim disagreed. Worse, they were
able to do something concrete with their disagreement.
Rachel remembers that day quite well, the day when
the massed forces of Heaven turned their backs on the
Grigori and condemned them for loving well, if not
wisely. Eli tried to stop it from happening, of
course: he went as far as anyone could without
stepping over the line into outright rebellion. In
fact, her old Superior actually went a few steps over
that line. If it wasn't for Dominic's timely
intercession, there might have been one more Archangel
going Outcast that day. Rachel doesn't blame Eli for
what happened next.
What happened next came perilously close to being a
slaughter. Someone had tipped off Hell that this was
going to happen, and the demons came out to play. The
next few years were nightmarish: too many Watchers
were trapped, tortured, played with... and what
happened to their families was simply obscene. And,
of course, above it all you could see the black wings
as those sanctimonious emotional cripples looked upon
their handiwork, and found it good. But the battle
wasn't one-sided: oh, no. The Grigori have always
understood the virt... the _benefits_ of togetherness,
and they were able to do a little trapping and killing
of their own. And, if a few Malakim disappeared now
and then, well ... so what? It's a dangerous world
out there.
Rachel wasn't ever involved in that sort of thing.
She just wanted to try to help the humans that she
lived among, trying her best to keep true to what she
believed in. Eventually, she settled in what would
become the Roman Empire, taking on the identity of
various members of an extensive Roman clan. She had
her children, she had her family, she had her purpose.
And then the Malakim took everything away from her
again.
Those Grigori living in the Roman Empire were always
fond of the holiday of Lupercalia: its emphasis on
fertility resonated with their own nature and tragedy.
Rachel was especially fond of the festival, and made
it a point to walk among the crowds and help,
anonymously, those in the crowd especially desirous
for children. It made them so happy, nine months
later - and Rachel would smile when she saw a baby of
the right age, and wonder whether she was the
facilitator of this most priceless of gifts. Still,
when the Christian Church finally managed to suppress
the holiday, Rachel was disappointed, but didn't see
it as a premonition of disaster.
She spent the next thousand years cursing herself for
her blindness. You see, certain Servitors of Purity
had ferreted out the Grigori presence in Rome, and had
bided their time until the natural unrest from the
suppression of such a popular holiday could hide their
activities. That night, every Grigori in Rome was
attacked. Many died: most, even. Rachel survived -
but wished she hadn't. For, you see, the Malakim also
struck at the Watchers' families. They killed every
single mortal member of her kin, down to the smallest
baby. They even took the time to sow the ground with
salt.
After that, Rachel was happy to play the game. Well,
not happy, but willing. The blackwings had killed her
family, in defiance of even their own hypocritical
rules: well, if the rules had been tossed aside, then
there was no reason to being a fool. 'Ten for one'
became her motto, and by now she's about halfway
there. It took forever to discover the actual
participants of the attack on her family, and almost
as long to soul-kill them all. After that challenge,
she branched out to the worst examples of the breed -
not that any of them are especially worthwhile, in the
Grigori's view. Rachel wants to live to enjoy each
drop of her revenge, so she is careful to attack only
when she's sure to win - and when she does, it's
without mercy.
Her deepest regret is that she couldn't be there when
Uriel was exiled in his turn. But that's fine: Rachel
suspects that the Archangel of Purity can still
observe events on the three planes. She’ll be happy
to give him an especially good show. Uriel was
responsible for the death of her sons: somehow,
someday, she’ll be responsible for the death of his.
Rachel is probably insane by now through grief and
anger, but she still realizes that killing the
Archangel of the Sword is beyond her powers - but
there must be a way. There must be. It's the only
comfort that she can allow herself. She doesn't even
associate with her Choir-mates anymore. They always
end up trying to dissuade her from her purpose.
All she wanted was a child.
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EDG <edg@sjgames.com>
In Nomine Collection Curator