Angel Week: Angels in the Game
Angels are profoundly different than mortal beings. How will you, as a GM, roleplay these embodiments of law and good? Here are some ways you can approach the mentality of such beings.
Planar Police. Angels are the self-described order of the planes. Law and goodness are the only true path. They meddle in affairs of other planes, leading to battles with fiends and disagreements with beings that slightly differ in alignment. Sometimes, this is beneficial and can help rid an area of fiendish activity. Other times, this gets in the way much like a fey’s trickery or a fiend’s corruption. The angel might demand absolute purity from an area and punish the slightest vices. They may possess evildoers and force them to change their ways. When conversing with mortals, angels will judge them and attempt to make them conform.
Loving Parents. Angels are compassionate guardians. Each angel has the comfort and unconditional support of a mother and the indomitable strength to protect as a father. It sees mortals not just as children, but their children. The angel provides for them and cares for them, and will die to protect them. When one of their perceived children is led astray by corruption or evil, they will stop at nothing to try and return them to the light. When interacting with mortals, they encourage and teach the ideals of good to those that will listen.
Celestial Aliens. Angels are creatures of another plane, just like fiends, elementals, and aberrations. They might have unsettling appearances, hiding their true terrifying forms from mortal eyes lest they be burned from their skulls. Such alien angels would likely not share familiarity of any mortal concepts. They would see the desires, treasures, and experiences of the Material Plane in an entirely different way. When they converse with mortals, they speak of ideas as things that can be interacted with, and see physical interactions as obscure or trivial ideas.
Silent Observers. Angels are righteous and lawful, but they understand that the mortal realm is not to be meddled with. Fiends are to be destroyed when discovered meddling in the affairs of mortals (breaking the law imposed as dictated by angels), but otherwise they stay silent. They wait and watch, expecting mortals that wish to arrive in heaven will be virtuous and good and obey their order. When they do speak to mortals, they are filled with conviction and rebuke any evil actions or intent they sense.
Knights of Heaven. Angels are the crusaders of heaven. They exist not to judge mortals, but to fight in the never-ending war against evil. Fiends greatly outnumber and outweigh celestials, and they need all of the forces they can muster just to beat back the tide of demons and devils from the lower planes. They are succinct in their speech and have an intense presence, like a hardened knight. Perhaps the corruption eventually gets to even angels after an eternity of battle.
Unseen Benefactors. Angels are rarely witnessed by mortals, but they often appear in stories. They will sometimes assist those in need or will reward those who are good and just. Those that gain their assistance usually see no signs of their presence. The angels will disguise their true forms or be invisible and intangible. Angels do good because they are compelled to, but try to keep mortals’ intentions true by not showing themselves. When an angel does present itself to a mortal, it is always in a time of dire need.
There are many ways to imagine what the heavenly planes look like. Where do your angels live? What are their goals in relation to heaven? How do good-aligned creatures pass the time in their afterlife in heaven? Here are some examples.
ellievsbear
origamiaround
titsay
discoholicmusic
snowghoul
