MARKET OF THE VANITIES: Jaunt Info

[powersthatbe]

MARKET OF THE VANITIES
Revisiting Purgatory
January 17 - February 26

The Market of Tech Duinn sits on a hill just above the banks of the river Styx, on the edge of the Asphodel Meadows. Oaths sworn over the black water of the Styx cannot be broken, making the Market a favored location for Heaven & Hell to bargain with one another, although few angels and demons reside there. Sithen, the half-fallen angels whose only crime was to refuse to fight demons, consider it a center of culture, and often use it to trade Demesnes (feudal land grants among the Sithen which comes with supernatural powers, like an angelic Grace or demonic Dignity, but with added real estate). But that is not why it is there. Dhuosnos, the Old Man of the Market, a powerful Sithen who claims the hill as his Demesnes, first weighed and codified Virtues and Vices as tradable commodities 1,800 years (or 140 Eschatons) ago.

Strange as it may seem in these latter days, he conceived of the trade as a mercy to the Peregrines - lost souls caught in Purgatory - because they entered the afterlife with no wealth to match the Immortali (humans who have achieved undeath or eternal life, and thus keep their souls forever), and no station like those Angels, Demons, and Sithen use to measure their relative worth. The Market has always been a friendly place for Peregrines, and since the beginning of the Asaph Eschaton (which started with the speaking of the Name in Melasurei), it has been a place Peregrines rallied. In times of old, Dhuosnos sold four Princedoms to the Market - one to the Angels, one to the Demons, one to the Sithen, and one to the Immortali.

Now he has sold a fifth, to the Peregrines - and they pass and trade it between them, rather than appointing a single spokesperson. But six positions on the Market Council means votes may be deadlocked (for of course, Dhuosnos keeps a vote for himself), and so he is considering the sale of a seventh Princedom… and Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory have all noticed.

The growing Peregrine presence at the Market could nearly be considered an army. The Demons would pay almost anything for the power to bind it to their service; the Angels, to redeem these lost souls and bring them to Heaven - whether they wish it or no. The Sithen fear a third front in the war waged across their homeland; the Immortali fear being outnumbered by a group who no longer needs them for survival & who may grow wealth to threaten theirs. And the Peregrines - they seem to wish something different with every passing day, every new argument.

All creation is sending their subtlest diplomats and agents, their most coveted treasures, to this place on the banks of the Styx, where everything is for sale, all contracts are binding, and all sales are final. Who will gain a second seat on the Market Council - and what other bargains, trades, and sales may be made in the shadow of that distraction?

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[powersthatbe]

Okay, so. Angels, Sithen, and Demons can have physical siblings, whether or not they have parents - not all do. And those who have physical families have them without pregnancy and with sex optional.

Here's how this works.

Almost all Angels, Sithen, & Demons originated in the same moment as Creation itself - the beginning of the universe - as Angels. At the moment of Creation, the generative forces of the universe invoked by the Divine provided a sufficient population of intelligences to monitor and oversee each unique aspect of Creation. One Angel set over Hydrogen, one Angel set over the weak nuclear force, one Angel set over the idea of conflict, et cetera.

As the possibilities of these Creations grew, these immensely powerful Arch-Angels had 'children.' The Archangel of Conflict birthed angels of War, of Debate - Conflict and Combustion together created the Angel of Wildfire.

These 'births' and 'relationships' were primarily emergent properties of the universe, not intentional, planned families. And as the combinations of matter, energy, and information became more and more complex, while the number of new creations decreased, the affinity of such angels also became blurred or generalized. Not all Angels were Guardians of any definable substance or property.

With the origin of mortal sentiences came The Fall - a dispute among angels about the role of mortals in creation and the correctness of the Divine Plan. In this first rebellion, many new ideas were spawned - the first Demons who were never Angels first, and a few new Angels as well, because Righteousness could not exist until there was Unrighteousness to distinguish it from.

The death of Angels, and the rejections of foreordained roles by Demons, lead to many roles being vacant, so now affinity-at-the-moment-of-creation no longer determined what a given Angel or Demon would be set over. Instead, the Divine Bureaucracy assigned Angels to those tasks and roles most sorely needed, and the Parliament of Princes did much the same as Demons.

Now, in a mature Creation, very few concepts or substances are truly new enough to be considered an act of Creation and spawn a new Angel or Demon. Those that do are often the product of prolonged and deliberate research - Angels working with other Angels, Demons with other Demons, to deliberately introduce a new element into existence. These Angels or Demons must work well together, and be passionate about their research, so they often are romantically entangled, but it is not the sex or connection which births a new spirit, but the existence of the unprecedented in the universe.

There is so much precedent that these births are very rare among Angels or Demons - and almost impossible for Sithen, because Sithen are defined not by their Rightful Place in Creation, nor for Forging Their Own Way, but for their Rejection alone, and Rejection rarely leads to Creation. If there are ten new angels and ten new demons per Eschaton, or even one new Sithen, it's a Baby Boom.

Angelic or Demonic spirits are born not fully developed, but fully sentient - they are never infants or toddlers, but they may be children before they are adults, simply children who can move about on their own, who speak and reason and perceive, but lack experience.