And I Feel Fine - Part 9: The Rapture
"At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and
all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man
coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he
will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his
elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other."
-- Matthew 24:30-31
"For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes
and lights up the sky from one end to the other. ... I tell you, on
that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the
other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be
taken and the other left." -- Luke 17:24, 34-35
As soon as the angels return to Heaven, they hear a loud trumpet call
from the East. Turning, they see it is Gabriel who blew the call. They
also see into the Light. Instantly, wordlessly, each angel knows they
must descend to Earth and start bringing people up to Heaven. The exact
place, the exact list of people, and the ability to translate them to
Heaven all come to the angel in the same moment.
This is the Rapture. Dispensationalists -- on whose theory I am basing
this scenario -- place the Rapture at one of three dates: the beginning
of the Tribulation (the most popular option), the 3.5-year-point in the
middle, or the end (the least popular option). I am using the
mid-point.
In moments, the world loses a third of its adult population. Without
bias by creed, people vanish everywhere. Sometimes, they wink out
before the eyes of others. Sometimes, there is a moment of ecstatic
wonder in their faces. Sometimes they shout in fear at something
invisible. Sometimes they run from unseen things for a few paces,
before vanishing, or argue with the air a bit, then disappear.
Other times, the Raptured are taken by visible agents -- people who
appear out of thin air and disappear, taking others with them, even as
they question or protest. Or onlookers, those left behind, may glimpse
beautiful or surreal shapes that seize folk and vanish with them.
Huge percentages of the mentally retarded are Raptured. All the
children are gone, or almost all. Hardly any below the age of ten
remain. The Rapture-rate for thirteen-year-olds is about twice that for
the adult population. For sixteen and older, the rate is the same as
for adults. Any unRaptured woman who was pregnant more than three
months is suddenly pregnant no longer, and soon delivers an afterbirth.
All other pregnancies died stillborn.
In minutes, it's over.
Roleplaying seed: The Rapture
The GM should land angelic PCs in the midst of the mortals they care
most about. The GM also picks which ones are on the pick-up list. The
angels arrive in their celestial forms, though they can use their
vessels if they want to. But they should *hurry*. They may want to
give their passengers a bit of warning -- they may have to *catch* some
of them -- but the main thing is to grab them and ascend, then come back
for the next.
What *do* you say to them? And what do you say to the by-standers whom
you *aren't* taking?
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EDG <edg@sjgames.com>
In Nomine Collection Curator