Hell's Allegiance.
In this universe, there are two types of Demons. The first (and most powerful) type demons are the ones that were originally Angels of the Lord that had fallen with their elder brother, Lucifer, after the creation of Man. They were thrown from Heaven and forced to roam the earth for a few centuries and many of the Fallen had made lives and lived amongst the Humans that their estranged Father held so dear (Anita being one of them).
This displeased Him so greatly that he ordered all creation that was associating with these Fallen to be slain. He ordered his remaining fleet of Angels to build a place for all of the "lost" souls of his children (both Angel and non) to be sent so that they could do little to pull others of his "holy flock" away. And thus, Hell was created. Lucifer was put into a cage and suppressed and they were all left in the torment that was Hell.
The other type of demons are the ones that were once human souls. These souls were rejected from Heaven for various reasons (such as selling their souls for various tasks, worshipping Lucifer or other demonic entities, and just generally being a bad person. The qualifications of "you must follow your Lord" are laughable in this world and not actual rules for access to Heaven. In order to be sent to Heaven, a body must have tried to do as best they could with their lives.) and were thus condemned to hell.
Once sent into the pit, these souls were tormented by other demons, with the promise that the torture would stop if they too would torture other souls. Each day that passes in the surface world passes as 50 years in Hell for the beings being tortured. There are some that lasted for centuries of surface time before eventually succumbing to the promise that their pain would stop.
From there, their work would begin. Many were stuck on the task of torturing incoming souls, and gradually, some were moved up to "surface-world interactions," meaning that they were permitted to leave Hell for a short period of time in order to perform a task, which normally meant they would be "borrowing" a human's body in order to perform said task.
Unlike the Angels, though, their true forms can be seen by humans; they do not have a blinding light about them as their Holy counterparts do. Their natural forms are typically a black wisp-like orb shrouded in a cloud of smoke and backlit by deep red lights that shine from within. While Demons can lose the filth of the smoke, their essences are still corrupt; stained with that black and red light that can't be cleaned. They are forever demons, even if they don't live the demonic life style.
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The Knights of Hell are demons who were hand-picked by Lucifer from among the first fallen humans to be made into demons, the first of which was Cain, who in turn trained the Knights and built the entire order with his own hands. They're some the most powerful demons in the world and are only able to be killed by the first blade in the hands of whoever holds the Mark of Cain, whose whereabouts are unknown.
Most of them have been neutralised; bodies cut apart and spread throughout the world in hopes that they may no longer cause any harm, though some have been restored ad others remained in-tact, despite Heaven's efforts at destroying them.
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Hellhounds are aggressive, violent dogs that can and do serve demons. They commonly appear to kill a person who has made a deal with a crossroads demon allowing the person's soul to be harvested by Hell. In the days proceeding the end of a person's time, they will appear to the victim in dreams. Their origin is unknown. They are also used to hunt down renegade demons and drag them back to Hell.
Though because of the chaotic state of things, the Hell-hounds, normally mindless creatures in complete control of Hell, have become sentient. Because of their origin, they have a huge control over magic, the ability to change their form and the way they appear to others. Some have retained their memories, others have lost them. With no one to control them, they are much less vicious and blood-thirsty, able to socialise almost normally, though now they hunt for food instead of because of Hell's influence.
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As far as the Horsemen go, their beings are, typically, gender neutral. Their vessels, though, vary depending on summoning. How human their bodies appear is directly proportional to how powerful they are. The more human bodies (like War and Famine) are the lesser powerful ones, whereas Conquest and Death both have horns, as their beings have corrupted their bodies. Death's is far more corrupted than Conquest's, as his body has multiple sets of horns and multiple sets of ears.
All of the Horsemen have specific rules for their summoning and must be bound to a body after. It takes extremely powerful magic to be able to summon and bind them, and even more to suppress any of their powers. That being said, the individual(s) that summoned them to this world have extreme power. All four of them know this, and they also know that pursuing them would most likely end up as a suicide mission. This is why they are begrudgingly trying to find their purposes in this world and figure out the purpose of their summoning, if there even was any.
Neutral Allegiance.
Reapers are divine supernatural beings. They are responsible for escorting deceased souls to the afterlife, and they refuse -- or are unable -- to tell the deceased what awaits them, reapers allow the deceased to choose to accompany them, or to remain in the Veil as ghosts, which eventually leads to the spirit becoming a vengeful spirit.
Reapers gather in groups at times of great catastrophe or distress, (e.g. the Chicago Fire of 1871, the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, and the destruction of Pompeii as examples). This is because it takes time to find and convince all of the newly-deceased spirits, console, and guide them to the next world. Reapers can appear to a dying person in any form, as well possess a human or appear in their own corporal form to the living.
A reaper's true form appears to be incorporeal and spirit-like, with a white aura surrounding them. They take on the more human appearances as a way to make it easier to convince a soul to pass on to the next plane of existence. While the majority of reapers that have been seen have been male, they do appear to have different genders, Deathy being an example of one.
While reapers serve Death and are not aligned with Heaven or Hell, their origins are unclear, and it is also unknown what relationship, if any, they have to other beings such as God or Fate. (Though it is presumed that Death created them by many.)
In recent years, some reapers becoming rogue operators, collecting souls or moving them between Heaven and Hell for a price, and other reapers also appear to work as bounty hunters. The reason for this changed behavior could be a side-effect of Death losing his strength due to an unwarranted summoning.
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Heaven's Allegiance.
Angels in this universe are vast and extremely powerful, but typically only do things at the ordering of their Father, the Judeo-Christian God. However, what most don't know is that their Father left them many centuries ago. The orders they are receiving are coming from a small group of Angels up top that have taken his place and are going on with the plan their Father had originally made for them.
In Heaven, the angels appear to have the bodies of their chosen vessels, though their true forms are just blinding wisp-like orbs of bright light (if seen, this orb will burn the eyes out of most creatures). When inside of their vessels, they do have wings but they typically do not appear on this plane of reality.
When using a vessel, they are able to appear freely before humans. Not all creatures can be used as vessels, as the angelic energy is too much for many and will burn the body out extremely rapidly. That being said, Angels also can't take on a vessel without permission from the host.
While "Angel" is an umbrella term for all celestial beings, there are many sub-divisions. The main sub-classes of angels are as follows:
1. Seraphim, Cherubim, and Archangels, which serve as heavenly counselors.
2. Dominions, Virtues, Principalities, Rulers, Authorities, Powers, and Thrones, which serve as governors.
3. Angels, who serve as messengers.
However, while these are the main types, there are a few outlying types, such as the Nvnehi, that do not align with heaven; they are classed by themselves.
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Characters.
Demons:
1. AnitaTheHeretic - (Neutral Alignment) A fallen angel turned demon with a vendetta against Heaven and an extreme distaste for working in hell, Anita used Kriia to form a spell to create her own permanent "humanoid" vessel so that she could abandon her job in hell and live on the surface world with the humans. She's extremely bitter about what happened in her past life as an angel and looks to take out this frustration on all of her Father's creation. Despite this, she has a soft-spot for romance and love.
2. Kriia - (Unaligned) A human soul damned to hell that was contorted and converted into a demonic entity after years of unbearable torture. She attached herself to Anita and was extremely eager to please her and even moreso when Anita came to her with news that the two of them would be leaving Hell together.
3. Vaako - (Slight Hell alignment) Anita's younger sister from heaven that fell with her. The two were never close, but Anita was shocked to find out that Vaako had a way to escape from Hell so that the other demons couldn't suck her back down into the pit. This demon was the one to cause Anita and Kriia to start searching for their own way out.
4. (TBN) - (Hell Alignment) A fallen angel turned demon that heavily resents both Heaven and Hell for the way his life has turned out. He begrudgingly enjoys the freedom to torment his Father's creations, but he hates and despises most of the demons in Hell.
5. Xvante - (Hell Alignment) A fallen angel turned demon that is becoming bored of the lack of excitement that has come with being a prince of hell.
6. Shameless - (Unaligned) A lesser demon that left her duties in hell behind to live the way she wishes to. She's currently under the protection of a certain Urchin and living in his house on his world to avoid being captured by the demons sent to pursue the defectors.
7. Zoya - (Hell Alignment; slight neutral lean) The first human to be converted into a demon before death. The only time Heaven will allow something like this for the forseeable future. She's got a bit of split-personality disorder, though both her main self and her 'other' self are conscious within her at once. She serves as a living jail-cell for all the captured demons that have betrayed Hell in some way or another.
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Knights of Hell:
1. Guilty - (Hell Alignment) Guilty's entire purpose is to torture and kill as many innocent (and not so innocent) souls as possible, as well as corrupt them to the point in which they themselves become demons. She loves bringing and causing pain and unrest wherever she goes.
2. Azmodania - (Hell Alignment) Azmodania was one of the many knights whose bodies were eviscerated and scattered about to prevent them from destroying humanity. She is the first to be reassembled and finds her appetite near unstoppable now. She's a thirst for blood that has yet to be quenched. She relishes in the screams of her victims as she takes bites from their flesh. Relishes in the despair as she laps their blood up from their wounds. Adores the feeling of the ever-sensitive and tender soul wiggling and struggling against her hands as she forces it down her tight gullet.
3. (TBN) - (Hell/Neutral Alignment) While Vivenzo does do his "job" in hell, he does it at his own pace. His job happens to be something that he likes, so he aligns with hell because of that. If Hell's direction started to pull toward something he didn't like, he would drop the allegiance in favour of continuing to do what he likes. Over all, he cares most about his own best interest and what amuses him. He functions as an incubus and a deal-making demon, taking souls as "pets" and "slaves" that serve him.
4. Obscenity - (Neutral Alignment).
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Hellhounds:
1. Vitauny - (Unaligned/Hell) Split-personality. Her "main" self doesn't like hell or any of the work done there; on-duty self revels in the violent and vicious work she does.
2. Hound - (Hell alignment)
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Horsemen:
1. War - (Hell Alignment) The most violent horseman; she was least effected by her improper summoning, as she is the weakest of them all. However, her summoning cursed her with extreme fatigue that she can't escape.
2. Famine - (Typically Hell Alignment; currently Unaligned) Not much stronger than War, Famine was summoned with a guilty conscience, causing her to question her appetite and (for once) try to limit herself on what she eats.
3. (Pestilence/Victory) - (Hell Alignment) Greedy and self-absorbed as ever, Conquest was cursed with extremely hit-and-miss luck and is also stuck in her current guise, which is preventing her from using her typical means of becoming victorious.
4. Deathy - (Neutral Alignment) The oldest and typically most powerful of all of the horsemen (Though with his odd summoning, he is left nearly powerless and almost completely unable to do his job.). He is very aloof in personality, though it isn't impossible to get on his good side. Unlike his siblings, he is not associated with either side (Heaven or Hell).
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Reapers:
1. Tesa - (Neutral Alignment) The second in command of the cycle of death. Tesa is a powerful reaper, albeit extremely weakened by Death's weakened state.
2. Cien - (Neutral Alignment) An older reaper who hasn't completely fallen away from his duties, but sometimes bends the rules for his own gain.
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Angels:
1. Effy - (Heaven Alignment; slight lean towards Neutral) A young angel that still remains (mostly) aligned with Heaven. She hasn't fallen, but she does have her doubts with how things in her home are running. She is mostly responsible for Anita's hatred for anything "holy."
2. King_Lucifer - (Hell Alignment) The only known fallen that still retains his angel status.
3. (TBN) - (Heaven Alignment) The angel presiding over night, conception, gestation, and guiding souls back to the Garden after death. He does his job and loves Creation, though anyone watching him might think he loves it too much...