By CeIestiaI7@aol.com
I'm currently working on a series of NPC celestials (angels), each of whom holds a particular Sacrament as their Word. I'm not familiar with any such series to date, so I thought I'd give it a try. For those not familiar with the Seven Holy Sacraments, they are: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Anointing the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. I have a few ideas for each of them and will post each as I finish it. If you have any *must see* ideas, send them to my private email address. Otherwise, I'd rather just have public discussion on what I've already posted. So here's part four...
Corporeal Forces - 4 Strength 8 Agility 8 Ethereal Forces - 4 Intelligence 10 Precision 6 Celestial Forces - 5 Will 8 Perception 12
Human/2 (Adult Female), Role: Photojournalist/4,
Raven/6
Artistry/3 (Photography), Dodge/3, Driving/1, Fighting/4, Large Weapon/4, Medicine/5, Ranged Weapon/1, Running/2, Singing/6, Tactics/3
Charm (Corporeal/6), Form (Corporeal/3, Ethereal/2, Celestial/3), Healing (Corporeal/1, Ethereal/4, Celestial/4), Wings/2, Shields (Corporeal/1), Tongues (Corporeal/2)
Elohite of War, Seraph of War, Ofanim of War, Proficiency, Vassal of War
"Te quiero, mi corazÛn," JoaqÌn's mother kissed him on the forehead one last time before the doctor and her oldest son helped her out of the ICU. His brother left a baseball in his limp hand.
JoaqÌn was up for a baseball scholarship before the headaches began. He received the acceptance letter from UCLA the same day that the test results came back. He had a tumor, and the prognosis was not encouraging. As the visitors left the room, a nurse came in to dim the lights and close the door. A second later, Rephaia materialized next to the dying teen and took his hand in hers.
"You've fought a brave battle, my warrior," She dipped a towel in warm water and washed his forehead, "but now the time has come for you to come Home."
Rephy had looked over the charts. The doctors were optimistic about JoaqÌn living until morning. He might survive another day , maybe two if they continued to follow their current treatment. But the boy was in pain. He couldn't express it to them, but he wanted to die. He needed to die. Rephy read over his soul and knew his suffering. JoaqÌn would join her in Heaven this evening.
The angel removed a small vial from her bag. She opened it, touched her finger to the lip of the vial, and then touched the teen's forehead. She leaned in close as she crossed his brow with the sacred chrism and whispered in his ear, "You belong to God now, hijo. Let your spirit go, hear how He calls you to Him. You are His now and for all eternity. In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."
JoaqÌn squeezed Rephy's hand and with his other hand, curled the baseball and inch or two closer to his stomach. Rephy lay her free hand on his chest. A warm glow flashed over his heart as she touched him. Two seconds later, the heart monitor flatlined.
Rephaiah is an old and venerable celestial. She has worked with Michael and his most trusted Ambassadors in the Symphony's major conflicts consecrating the dead and escorting their souls to their glorious reward in Heaven. In the Dark Ages, she and her peers became known to some as the Valkyries, elsewhere as the Bean Sidhe. Among her fellows, she has earned great respect for her bravery, her skill, and above all her compassion.
It was during the years of the Black Plague that she earned her Word. As most of Europe fell to the dread illness, the mortal priests could not (and some would not) attend to all the dying. Rephaiah rallied her peers to aid the Church in its mission to anoint those who could not seek the Sacraments themselves. The ensuing venture proved to be more of a task than any they had met in battle. It would only be centuries later that her skills would be pushed to that limit again. And so, Michael acted with the approval of the Seraphim Council and bestowed the Word of Unction upon Rephaiah.
As the centuries turned, so did the nature of war, and she adjusted her role to accommodate it. She has been a field nurse, a M.A.S.H. doctor, and most recently, a combat photojournalist. Through the latest Wars, she found fewer and fewer people who welcomed her ministrations. Hope and faith are essential to the salvation of a soul, and many died with little of either. In desperation to serve her Word, she began ministering to those who fought for their own lives on personal battlegrounds. The terminally ill, she found, had fought wars as difficult, and often much longer than those of the mortally wounded.
Now, she works alone mostly. She has a few servitors of her own, and a handful of human servants who work to preserve the dignity of the dying. She has taken to lurking the halls of cancer wards and AIDS hospices as of late. Her one failing, if it can be called as such, is her sympathy with the right to die movement. She is unaware of the demonic origins of the movement, and would be appalled if she thought she was buying into an infernal scam.
Within the last five years, she has assisted in the deaths of several terminally ill individuals. She is careful not to directly interfere with the Symphony in such cases, but is coming perilously close to doing so. Tania, the Demon of Suicide is aware of Rephaiah, and is having a good chuckle at her moral confusion.