forum Angels

Started April 30, 2018 by @Lord_Dunconius

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How do you guys write angels? I use different setups for them myself, varying from Biblical to Welcome to Night Vale. I use angels in a lot of my stories, so it'd be great to see how y'all write them.

i have never actually used Angels in any of my stories, but I always use them (in notes, rps, short ideas, etc.) as beings who are able to blend in with normal people so they live in the sky or somethin and come down often

I dunno, I always sort of write them as any other fairytale creature, but almost more stuck up because the humans practically worship them. Massive, white wings and golden blood. But definitely not god-like and all-powerful, if that's what you mean. I sort of spun it so they have personalities and conflicts with other creatures like demons and faeries.

My angels are just a winged race. They're short but strong with talons and natural fighting instincts. They're honourable and respectable warriors that are bound to strict ancestral laws to prevent them from abusing their power. Angels are probably the best race because they're the only ones who haven't had a go at world domination.

There's actually tons of angel lore if you go looking for it - like if you're trying to emulate the bible's angels, they have echelons and categories, and names and distinct personalities within the larger narrative. I haven't written any stories with angels in them myself, but I like the angels from The Golden Compass series, all knowing beings that are both pure and terrifying at the same time.

If I write demons into my story, should I write angels too?

If angels would be relevant to the plot you could write them in, or you could just make casual mention of them at some point if they are not in the main story. Write what your story needs!

There's a race of animal demons (cats and owls) that use a human form. Should I have a race of animal angels, (maybe dogs and doves) then?

yes!!!!

I don't use angels much, but I have them somewhat the same. For my world, angels come in varying orders of authority and holiness. The top angels respect humanity, but do have a certain reluctance when summoned by a "puny mortal." The farther you go down the ranks, the more willing the angel is to help a human who summons one. Beyond summoning, they don't have much interaction with humans, except with the occasional half-angel that roams the land

I have a real world style story where one minor recurring character says he's an angels but by the rules of heaven he can only tell someone not show them, they'll have to believe him on faith alone. Most people think he's high or crazy but for some reason when he suffers what should be fatal injuries he gets up leaves very quickly and a few weeks or days later returns complete fine saying that he could be an angle or could just be lucky and that would maintain plausible deniability.
Then I've got another story with those badass Bible angles that have been warriors for 6000 years and have eight wings and are holy but broken creatures who spend their nights alone mourning the fall of their friends who sided with lucifer and now burn in hell.
In a more supernatural story I use guardian angels who physically fight the demons of temptations to make sure that no temptation could ever be presented to a human that they didn't have the strength to overcome. Most of them are very friendly but some of them are comically always annoyed with their guarded because they constantly keep screwing up. The angels are really human in their social skills, they hang out together doing sports and hobbies and gossipping and bragging about their humans like moms of preschoolers.
I love angels, they're so fun to write.

The bible gives you a hierarchy of angels to go on… But I don't use that, and while I write most of my angels differently from series to series, my favorite series angels go like this…

Seraphim: The Blazing Wings, The Tall Ones, the Grand Consuls. They have vastly, vastly superhuman intelligence and mental function, capable of storing more information in their minds than all humans combined and accessing it faster than the speed of light, on top of this, they can travel between Solar Systems in moments, lift worlds, and are absolute Eldritch horrors without corporeal form, though they can take it. They really can't even be called angels as they can warp space, time and reality to their will. They are abstracts, serving as the idea of virtues

Cherubium: These are some of the most beautiful, terrifying and captivating angels ever, and simply serve as attendants. Looking upon their true form causes the soul to fizzle out and instantaneous blissful death. As such, they can become invisible, intangible, and take human form.

Angels of Death: These are the Grim Few, cold, merciless and ruthless, they are charged with making sure that the righteous can die so as to go to Paradise. As such, they can become invisible, and intangible, can manipulate time as they see fit, can induce death, resurrect, warp reality, and move faster than the speed of light.

Guardian Angels: These angels are there to block, evade and heal. They can can generate nigh-indestructible forcefields, heal with a gaze, and teleport anywhere in the universe, not to mention they can travel through time.

Watcher Angels–Grigori: These are the angels that observe the living world. Their sight is sufficient enough to see things as grand and slow as the workings of the Earth, and as insignificant and fast, as electrons rotating around an atom. They can see in pitch darkness, and through dimensions. Their hearing is keen enough to hear the grass grow, and to distinguish every separate word said by any human, and they can hear through dimensions. Their sense of smell and taste, while not as advanced, are still vastly superhuman, but not transdimensional, and their minds are made to process this information, because an ordinary one would fail spectacularly.

Bible angels are so lame.

Give me Lucifer!

He's got character! He has the gall to challenge his father.

Make angels that are seen as all mighty and kind and benevolent but are actually evil and self centered and self absorbed.

Make angels that are just assholes and don't care about anything or anyone other than than themselves.

@Blackmerexv So like…demons?

Bible angels are so lame.

Give me Lucifer!

He's got character! He has the gall to challenge his father.

Make angels that are seen as all mighty and kind and benevolent but are actually evil and self centered and self absorbed.

Make angels that are just assholes and don't care about anything or anyone other than than themselves.

I was once writing a story where my MMC was the son of Lucifer and he went on a quest with a fallen angel/human hybrid to find a sword that could kill Archangels so his father could use it in battle against Michael.
I had Michael and Eve (I made them married, as there is lore surrounding the fact that Adam is Michael the Archangel or some such thing) as extremely proud, and arrogant, and Lucifer was more calm and collecting, but still extremely ruthless. And Lucifer was married to Lilith (the mother of hellhounds, crazy as hell and the first wife of Adam; so then you can imagine neutral meetings between Michael/Eve and Lucifer/Lilith haha)

@Blackmerexv So like…demons?

well why do demons have to be 'evil'? there can be good demons, it's just a type of species/race, right? So you can assume that not all are going to be bad, horrible people/creatures. Like, not all angels are holy and pure.

I mean you certainly could have good demons but it's obviously a huge stray away from the original mythology. Since demons aren't copyrighted you can do whatever you want with them creatively and choose to turn them good if you want to the same way Stephenie Meyer choose to turn dark bloodsucking monsters into sparkly teenage heartthrobes.
-if you're into that sort of thing.
And if you want to get technical with it demons were at one point angels and then became demons after they turned to evil. Think Gollum from LOTR, he was once a hobbit but when he was corrupted by the ring and his own greed he was twisted both mentally and physically into the beast we know him as. I guess you can say he's technically still a hobbit in the same way a demon is technically still and angel. But having good demons and evil angels twists the original intention of each creature. (I mean it might be to dramatic to call it actively disrespectful of literally 1000s of years of culture and tradition but it certainly is not like super respectful to do) Other mythical species were made to be more 'human like' in their morality which is why you get good wizards and evil wizards and chaotic neutral wizards. But God and the Devil are essentially the embodiments of perfect good and perfect evil and it makes sense that their followers would follow suit, they're made to have their holiness or their cruelty be their defining characteristic. But like I said you can do whatever you desire with them but even though there's no legal trademark on either of these creatures it's kinda like writing an occ fanfiction.

I think angels are scary.