Don't bother with looking for him on the official
registry of Catholic saints: the Church anathematized
his teachings more than a millennium ago. They
excommunicated him, too - several times, actually -
but it had no effect on the blessed soul, Matthew
16:19 notwithstanding.
Origen's 'heresy', essentially, was his rejection of
the concept of eternal damnation. While he did not
deny the existence of Hell, the theologian believed
that eventually all sins would be expiated, all
lessons learned and that all sinners would earnestly
seek to be reunited with God - Who, being an
infinitely compassionate being, would welcome them
back. This would not just apply to mortals, either.
Even the fallen angels would one day all repent. Even
the Devil himself would come back home.
One can see just how badly this would sit with a
Church busily making the transition from persecuted
underground faith to agent of temporal power - and
using both carrot and stick to do so. Origen's
beliefs never stood a chance of being accepted as
correct doctrine: even today it's a rare theological
position to take. The Bodhisattva was understandably
annoyed at the resulting blackening of his name and
teachings (the more so because Heaven readily admitted
at least the theoretical Truth of his position).
Origen therefore delayed his ascension up the Ladder
until he could prove to those idi ... 'errant
brethren' ... that they were dangerously wrong.
He still hasn't made the trip.
Organization
The current Order of St. Origen is one of the many
groups that populate Litheroy's Abbey. The members
are usually former monastic types who either showed an
interest in life in Origen's theories, or else just
showed up bemusedly looking for the monk that the nice
angel at the Gates had recommended as good at
explaining what was really going on around here. As a
result, the Order generally operates on a variant of
the Benedictine Rule: nobody has to, mind, but the
members usually find it familiar and relaxing.
The Order generally acts as a clearinghouse, keeping
dossiers on every demon and/or damned soul that they
have any sort of hard evidence on. What they track
are documented examples of selfless, ethical, moral or
generally 'good' activities. Personality profiles are
generated and updated whenever possible, with a
special emphasis on demonstrated 'weaknesses' that
might prove fruitful to a Redemption Squad. Many
Redeemed demons have been relentlessly debriefed here,
as part of their integration into Heaven: the
experience is eerily evocative of an interrogation by
the Game, except for the comfortable chairs and decent
coffee.
By now the Order has become an almost indispensable
resource for anyone trying to Redeem a demon; at the
very least, their general psychological personality
assessments of the various Bands are the standard
texts in a very specialized field. Most agents of the
Game would love to get uninterrupted access to the
Order's files: the resulting treason trials would take
decades and rock Hell to the roots. Certain angels
wouldn't mind providing said access, for precisely the
same reason. As a result, security is tighter than one
would expect around an organization under Litheoy's
aegis. It wouldn't stop an Archangel, but they all
have universal access anyway.
Angels could get involved with the Order in several
ways: the most obvious reason is, of course, to
facilitate a Redemption attempt. The Order is willing
to assist any legitimate inquiry: note that they will
not be amused if the data that they provide is used to
soul-kill a demon, and that they have powerful patrons
to help give that lack of amusement teeth. On the
other hand, using their data successfully, or
providing them with useful intelligence, is a good way
to get on the Order's good side; how useful that this
would prove to be depends on the campaign, but as a
general rule it never hurts to have friends. Even if
said friends are apparently perennially optimistic to
the point of actual insanity, and are prone to
involving others in various harebrained Redemption
schemes.
Another interesting possibility is to feature the
Order in a former demon's back story: they'll still
have his, her or its file (placed in the 'Rescued'
section of their archives), and are institutionally
predisposed to give one of their 'clients' the benefit
of the doubt. They'll also be a bit more willing to
give a client somewhat more access to their complete
files. Of course, clients are the first people called
when the aforementioned harebrained scheme hits a
snag...
Adventure Seed: Putting Your Forces Where Your Mouth Is...
The major problem facing the Order of St. Origen is
that they have to act passively, rather than actively
- much to their frustration. Some (read, 'most') of
the researchers are absolutely certain that, given a
clean shot, he or she could pull off a particularly
tricky salvage job. The fact that, in certain cases,
they are undoubtedly right only makes things worse.
You see, as a general rule Heaven does not
particularly think that letting blessed souls
voluntarily go to Hell as missionaries is such a good
idea (to put it mildly). Indeed, formal membership in
the Order makes it even harder than normal to become a
Saint: the Host can easily imagine what kind of
targets they would make, and acts accordingly.
Unfortunately, Origen himself has managed to go
missing, along with a couple of assistants and a few
briefcases of files; the investigation of how he and
his team managed to get vessels has not yet been
satisfactorily resolved, either. Based on the state
of his desk and prior investigations, it's clear that
the AWOL Bodhisattvas have gone after big game: a
Duke, perhaps, or a senior Word-bound, or...
...well, let's not think about who they could be going
after, all right?
Motivating the PCs should be easy (pick as the target
someone that the party regularly interacts with), but
resolution should be harder. The Brighter the
campaign, the farther away from Hell Origen and Co.
should be when the party catches up with them. This
is where the headaches should really begin: Origen has
12 Forces, a keen sense of celestial psychology, a
force of character that could stop bullets and the
Divine Logic Attunement from Yves. In other words,
he's blessed hard to argue with.
Now, demons should have theoretically had a simpler
set of options to choose from, except that apparently
some of their Princes are playing the usual devious
games and actually want Origen and Co. Downstairs, for
the usual mutually contradictory reasons. After all,
there's nothing more embarrassing than having one of
your most powerful Servitors defect to the Other
Side... and the Game usually finds tales of cover-ups
to be most engrossing. Add a frantic reclamation team
from Heaven, and one is good to go.
Of course, perhaps the PCs won't actually know (or
care) that anything's gone 'wrong' until Origen and
his team shows up on the party's metaphorical
doorstep, burned, battered, bloody and bruised ... but
with a penitent Haagenti or Furfur in tow. They just
need a little favor...
Yes, this would work for demonic PCs as well: you tell
even a Renegade Prince (or Named NPC) no. Bowing to
the inevitable (even if only to work the angles and
set up a quick betrayal) probably won't help you with
the Game much, but then, what does?
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