Emily K. Dresner writes:
Worse... what I'm thinking about doing in my game, is to make some infernal tethers rips in the fabric of reality into the Pit from which the demons come and go.
Casca responds:
I've had a nagging question in my head for a while and I think you might be the one to answer it, based upon what you said in your post.
What purpose do tethers serve? I don't see any reason for their existence. Sure, they make it easier to go to Heaven or Hell, but the same can be done by assume Celestial form and ascending/descending. They make it easier to summon the Superior they're consecrated to by adding, what, a +2? Big deal. Celestials can work off dissonance at a tether, and that's about all the use I can find for them.
Hmmm...What good is a tether...
Well, first, there's the obious: It's a little bit of heaven (or Hell, or The Marches) pulled down to Earth, a place where the barriers between the realms are weakened, making travel between the planes a lot easier. If you want to deploy a lot of your Angels/Demons/Spirits at one time, A tether's a good place to bring them down. And there's the Dissonance thing.
Second: It's a turf marker. It says "This High-School Chemistry Lab, and the rest of its environs are the Dominion of Vapula, Demon Prince of Technology. Angels, Spirits, and Small Yapping Dogs beware." for example.
Third: It's a status symbol. It says "Not only am I an Archangel, but I'm a pretty cool Archangel. My Word evokes sufficient responce on Earth that thethers can be built, and I'm powerful enough to do it." The more Tethers one has, usually, the more powerful one is. Tethers. Collect 'em, Trade 'em, Race 'em. Well, maybe not the last two.
Fourth: It's a mighty fortress. Should the Host decide to break up your operation in a city, it's a place to fall back on, where, should you decide to, you can start pouring reinforcements into the corporeal world from.
Fifth: It's a refuge. Should your servitors or friend's servitors bite off more than they can chew, they can high-tail it to the Tether and wait for help. Generally, the Tether's staffed by a sufficiently powerful celestial to deal with most threats, if she's inclined to.
Sixth: It's a reward. Appointment as a Seneschal is a reward to the servitor who gets it. Do well, and it practically guarantees a Word. And to take the Demonic View, it will be a Word that poses no threat to your Superior's word. A Word that can never become Demon Prince Caliber. Whoever heard of a Demon Prince of the Sunken Hulk of the Titanic?
Seventh: It's a cloak. Tethers make lots of Noise. Celestials go up, celestials go down. Aftereffects of Songs Sung in Heaven ripple down it. Wanna do something noisy? Do it in a tether. Gain the tether's protection, plus submerge the Disturbance among the other disturbances it's making (I think this last one is based on a Non-Canon opinion)
Well, there are seven things Tethers are good for. Collect 'em, trade 'em, race 'em. Well, probably not the last two. \|=)
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Elizabeth McCoy <arcangel@prismnet.com>
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