#written 2022

Angels are from the realm called the Aether (ee-thur). A very bright realm with two suns in its gold-hued sky, pale pink flora, silver soil and bark, and opalescent mountains. Due to all of its inhabitants having wings, the most common structures are tall, columned buildings with multiple floors. The only way to the higher floors is to fly up. The primary mode of travel is flying.

You might be thinking, well how do non-angel visitors get around if it’s so centered around flight?

They don’t. Outsiders are rarely allowed in the Aether. The number of mortals let in (key words “let in”— the portals are open, most are simply turned away at the gates with a warning. Demon invasions being slaughtered are an excellent example of what happens when someone tries to enter anyways) in the past few millennia could be counted on a hand. Other immortals, maybe two hands.

Well, what about angels who can’t fly due to injury? Or were born that way such as my character Eva?

They are escorted around by being carried and often put up with microagressions throughout their (may i add immortal unless killed) life. They rarely are instated in high (figuratively and literally) or visible positions. All while their valid frustrations are waved off with polite smiles or outright scorn. (oh wow oh gee it’s great that stuff like this doesn’t exist irl /s)

Wouldn’t stairs or ramps or elevators be a simple solution?

Yes. Yes it would.

Well then why—

The higher ups don’t want to ruin the hundreds of millennia old architectural styles by changing the aesthetic.

Doesn’t magic exist? Couldn’t they assist individuals with magical personal aids—

Yup.

Then why—?

The Aether’s government is more focused on promoting “goodness” and “perfection” according to their religion and maintaining the status quo than actually improving things. Black magic is outlawed and dark magic has so many restrictions that most performed magic is with light magic, severely limiting what can be done. They’d also rather put their resources into military or their own lifestyles than things helpful to a relatively small number of people. But basically ableism. Ableism and some deeply entrenched conservatism. Making change there is really fucking hard.

Angels pushed for at least a millennia to have a single community with looser restrictions in order to have freer self-expression (colorful clothes, piercings, tattoos, “unpleasant” art styles such as screamo or rock— basically non-conformity in general).

The Aether has a stick so high up its ass, the angels who leave for educational excursions to other realms often either don’t come back (officially “assumed dead” to discourage others from following suit), or end up leaving for good eventually anyways. Even the revered archangels. Uriel hasn’t been back in centuries. Samael and Azazel are living much more fulfilled lives after their banishment. Eva had several very fulfilling centuries before her decline into magic addiction. And, even now, she’s not miserable, things are just much more complicated (permanent body or mind-altering magic is a risky thing to tamper with and the latter rarely goes “well”). Still, there are plenty who want to stay and make change. It just takes extremely long given that hardly anyone dies.

While there’s plenty sucky with Aetherian society, I want to highlight some things I think are neat.

There aren’t gender roles. The concept is very bizarre to angels, who when visiting other realms will usually adopt whatever gender they are given— or whatever is most beneficial in an interaction. Many angels (unsure of percentage currently) would be considered intersex and look fairly androgynous.

Though angels may identify as a man, woman, or non-binary outside of the Aether (or other things in realms with other gender sets), it doesn’t make sense there since the native language Aetherial doesn’t have any more of a concept of gender than its society. Sexual promiscuity is viewed negatively, however. Intercourse is a very don’t ask, don’t tell. It is for baby making and not many of those are needed. It isn’t illegal to woohoo for funsies but most don’t and it’s associated with the lower (implications, “lesser”) realms, so it’s viewed as weird.

The most common orientations are panromanticism and asexuality. This works out well considering angels stop aging around 25 and don’t die unless killed. Low death rate and low birth rate.

Because births are so spread out and family structures are fairly loose— the community has caretakers comparable to daycare and school that mostly take over for the parents— many don’t know who all of their siblings, cousins, etc are. There aren’t a whole lot of terms for distant family members either. Before starting a relationship with someone, an angel must visit the ancestral archives to make sure they aren’t too closely related.

Angels have two names. A given name, and a virtue name. The virtue name is chosen and often represents a trait that they admire and strive for. However, some choose a name that is in remembrance of a passed loved one. There are other exceptions but those are the most common directions.

I wanted to show more of this, or at least the ableism, architecture, and polite facade, and of how different the Nether is in Fallen, but many scenes were cut or reduced to finish in time. Hopefully I will get around to making a comic of what I intended, but either way a lot of it is still there.

I could go on and on, but I’ll leave social hierarchies for another time!