A Balseraph's View

By Charles E. Smith

**Flaming
Feather**

From: Azah, Balseraph of Technology
To: Concerned Celestials everywhere
Re: God and the Universe.

Greetings. I am Azah and I write to you concerning my findings on the true nature of God, in keeping with the research of the Genius Prince in this matter. Hard as it may be to believe, I am writing this in your own best interest, to explain why exactly we in Hell are conducting our just war for freedom and why it is imperative that you of Heaven understand us demons and join us, for your own sake as well as our own. Rest assured, my writings come from a scientific perspective and do not contain the blind fanaticism of less informed demons.

To begin, we should clarify what God is and isn't. Firstly, there is no question that God is a Superior-level being. What is in question is whether or not He transcends all other Superiors. That He has access to tremendous stores of Essence, a great many Songs and the power to grant Words is not in doubt. However, considering that the Lightbringer has similar attributes, it is a question of whether or not God is the only being that can claim supremacy. I will inform you of one popular theory in Hell. We theorize that, just as the Archangel Janus of the Wind and our own Prince Valefor of Theft may well be linked (in that they have similar attunements, gifts to their Servitors, operating procedures, etc.), so too may God and Lucifer be. Leaving that be for the time, I focus on the theorized origins of God.

We well know that ethereals beings have been worshipped as gods. Indeed, this was part of the moral justification of your Purification Crusade some centuries ago. It is common belief today that ethereals rise from the thoughts, dreams, nightmares, fears, and desires of mortal beings, growing in power in an inverse proportional to the level of belief and/or worship in their existence by mortals. However, serious scientists on both sides of the War well know that ethereal beings well predated the rise of humanity. Your Archangel of Dreams was tending to the Marches before even the Eden Experiment and the Fall. Where did the Ethereals gain their power before mortals came along to fuel it?

Tests done on ethereals captured in the Marches would indicate that they have their own stores of Essence, which is why an ethereal creature might survive as the ghost or remnant of what it was until sufficient mortal belief re-energizes them. This, I believe, marks an evolutionary development in the Ethereals, but more important, it would indicate a great deal of the origins of God. We know that nothing arises spontaneously. Even the universe has some prime components to it, else it would not be. Have you ever stopped to think as to how and why God could claim otherwise, in spite of all physical evidence to the contrary? Based on this information, it is safe to hypothesize that the being called God is really no more than a super-charged version of Odin or Zeus or any of the ethereal gods. That being the case, we must look at how He came to His current prominence.

Given the nature of the Marches and the competiveness between pantheons, I think it is scientifically feasible to assume that the God-entity accumulated power until He was able to create a domain for himself. It is not uncommon for powerful Ethereals to claim portions of the Marches as their own. Having accomplished this, He, much like the unlamented Legion, grew in power to such a point that He was able to claim a far vaster dominion for His own. To wit, the Celestial Plane. It is of note that, having once seized the power to grant Words, the first two He granted were Destiny and War. Let us look at this fact in greater detail.

It has been my observation, based on careful research in the Archives of Fate, that human tyrants often set into place social and philosophical codes and ideals to justify their tyranny. What better form of this could there be than to claim that the Tyrant's rule is truly the best and brightest future for the universe. Like any tyrant, God placed a good PR man up front to justify His reign. If one thinks of it, that makes Yves nothing more than an ancient and degraded version of our own Prince Nybbas of The Media. Next of course, a good tyrant needs a violent thug to enforce his decrees, and who better for that task than Michael? It is no coincidence that War was the first-born angel.

But you ask, what of the other Words? Surely if God was simply another Ethereal, He could not grant Words? No, but we know that he created the Symphony, a suspect creation in and of itself. Surely in His version of reality He could grant the powers he deemed fit. Hence Destiny and War, Stone, Creation, Fire, The Waters, and Light. It was with Light that God made His mistake.

The original Archangels, and those who came later (Dreams, Love, Laughter, Purity, Knowledge, The Wind, and Animals) were mindless sheep, guided by the sadly deluded Metatron who served as mouthpiece for the Tyrant. The idyllic times some of the older angels claim is, by my research, simply the time when everyone accepted the Tyrant's whims without thought or question. Then Lucifer, first of my Band, whose word is Light, exercised a portion of his Word that God had not anticipated. Is not Light that which illuminates, which drives back the Darkness of ignorance and folly? The Lightbringer exercised his Word and saw through the Divine Tyranny. He tried to guide the humans away from mindless obedience, but that effort sadly failed, save with Princess Lilith. So began the so-called Fall, when wise angels and Archangels, save as Andrealphus and Kobal, turned from the pretender and tried to enlighten Heaven. Based on my analysis of the situation, Lucifer actually did you a favor in removing Metatron from your midst. By silencing the Voice of God, the Lightbringer was attempting to show you the weakness and folly of His position.

Although we were cast into Hell as political exiles, the Truth would out. Princess Lilith freed us and the War against your willful blindness began. The setback in the initial uprising in Heaven proved that we must employ tough love to educate you. Rapine, Fate, Corruption, Secrets, The War, The Game, Cruelty, Greed, and the other words, ancient and modern, may have seemed harsh, but it did get your attention and thus we can reason with you now. Unfortunately, the Tyrant appointed Judgement to kill those who would listen to reason, just like the most savage human bully, punching out those who dare question him. We do hold hope since more intelligent Words like Flowers and Revelation have been cultured by your side.

Some who read my words will argue that I do not speak Truth. But we must consider, if God created this universe and the angels, then he created the fixed and rigid Truth by which they live. Just as the Seraphim of Flowers cannot help but to project an aura of peace about them, then, by this premise, the Seraphim have been made incapable of thinking outside the box. Further, look at the position of the Seraphim. The Most Holy Choir, above all else, the Choir of Michael. Is it any wonder then, that War and Judgement both are Seraphim? Who better to prosecute the War than those incapable of recognizing any "Truth" but that of the Tyrant's will? Note also Dominic's association with Yves, the justifier of the absent Tyrant's will. Judgement draws strength from the fact that Destiny sanctions his actions. War shows glimmers of intelligence in severing his association with Destiny, but until he realizes that all truths are subjective, he will forever be stuck in his rut.

I turn my attention to other Archangels now. The Waters and Knowledge are dead, Song and Death in exile (perhaps because they stumbled upon the nature of God?), Purity is in absentia, and Love and Laughter have seen the Light and accepted their places as Lust and Dark Humor. But what of the rest of you? Flowers, Revelation, and Children, the most peaceful and reasonable amongst you, are stifled by those who will not see the Light. Creation is gone, and hopefully will be wiser when he returns. Faith carries out his appointed task, making sure that all human essence flows to the Tyrant to keep him fueled in Essence. The Sword, young and naive as he is, smites those of us who are the free-thinkers of the universe. He cannot help it. His Word makes him a living weapon, and he is guided by such bad influences as War and Judgement. Stone is obtuse by his very nature. Lightning comes close to the reality of things, but is too hidebound to really think outside the box, which is unfortunate. The Wind promotes his change, but in forever playing the role of revolutionary, he himself stagnates. Protection adheres to a system of protecting those in God's favor only, never realizing that she is serving the same type of sadistic bully that she fights so fervently against. Animals and Dreams are isolationists and render themselves futile for the present.

Thus, by clear scientific evidence, I present to you that we of Hell are in the right in our struggle for freedom and call upon all right-thinking angels to join us in our noble quest.

Azah of Technology

**Flaming
Feather**

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