Omg tell me about Four at the Gate!! How did the angels fall, how'd they find each other, what are their personalities and how does that tie into the horsemen??? I must know the things!
Hi!!! So sorry I didn’t get to this last Saturday, I didn’t see it until late and didn’t feel right answering it on a day that wasn’t Saturday!
Thanks for your interest in 4ATG! You can find the info I have so far (not as much as I’d hoped for at this point, not going to lie, but this semester has been A Lot) under “four at the gates ” or “4ATG” tags! Please let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist as well!
They Fell because they asked very serious questions about the meaning of and logic behind creation. God does not like to be questioned. The Father knew that Hell would need four powerful forces to keep it in check (stuff gets a little out of hand if Lucifer is left to their own devices) and to usher in Judgement Day, so God cast them down to fill that purpose. Mortem Fell first, followed by Infirmum and Esuriit in quick succession, and finally “baby” Bellum.
How did they find each other?
They were cast into Hell very quickly and essentially trapped there unless they needed to travel to the mortal plane to do Heaven’s dirty work. Hell is still a large place, though, and they were very weak for a time once their pure divinity was taken from them, so Lucifer left each of the Four’s horses waiting for them. The remaining steeds would then travel with their riders to the new arrival. (Mortem was alone for a little while aside from her ravens and her horse, so there was no one to come for her. The damage that experience casused her means that she makes sure to get to a new Rider as soon as possible.)
What are their personalities?
Mortem, Rider of Death- She is the oldest, and therefore the most bitter. Intense periods of grief and burnout from The Job, but she does her very best to provide comfort to the souls she transports to Heaven. Has a sensitivity to children and loathes taking them before they’ve had a chance to live a full life. You might think having been a Rider the longest, she would be resigned to her demonic life, but that’s not the case. She is still very angry with God and will go to great lengths to get the Father to notice the deadly fallout from the mortal plane’s activities. She does not form attachments easily, since The Job means she has to sever the connections of humans constantly, but she does make it her task to look after the other Riders and her animals. She is the only Rider who still has wings, the others’ were burned off when they Fell. These are really the only concrete thing about her appearance that does not change.
Infirmum, Rider of Plague-She and Esuriit are about the same age and function much like bickering twin siblings. She always looks, well, ill. Very pale/sallow in coloring, sunken cheeks, and distinctive wheezing cough. She usually wears a face mask. Her horse is “pale as a corpse” and shares her sickly appearance. Doesn’t talk much because too many words trigger more coughing fits. She has one of the lighter work schedules of Hell’s demons, so she does spend more time with Lucifer then the average dark entity. (No one knows if the morbid humor is internal or comes from prolonged Lucifer exposure.) When she is called in on The Job though, she wrecks havoc on Earth and isn’t seen at all in Hell for long periods, until an epidemic dies down.
Esuriit, Rider of Famine-She and Infirmum are about the same age and function much like bickering twin siblings. Hers is the only name which doesn’t end with the Latin -um suffix, and she is something of a black sheep in other areas as well. Nothing is ever enough for Esuriit, but can you really blame her when she’s in a constant state of starvation (along with the horse?) She hates The Job, but she is also the only one who receives any sort of physical benefit. She only gets full by taking in the food which fails to grow on Earth under her influence, which then generates in Hell. Despite this, she always looks like little more than a skeleton no matter how recently she ate. Nothing stays with her for long. She has a love-hate relationship with Gluttony, one of the Seven Deadlies who function something like the Riders’ B-Squad.
Bellum, Rider of War-The most recent addition to the Ride Out Gang as Lucifer calls them, Bellum is the “baby” in the eyes of the others, especially Mortem, who insists on looking after her. Bellum is red in every sense. Her horse is red, her hair is red, sometimes even her eyes are red. She often returns to Hell with blood on her person, much to her dismay. She seethes with barely-controlled anger when on The Job, borne of her fierce hated of injustice. She will not stand for what she sees as unfair, no matter the odds, and Seven Deadlies Greed and Envy get on her last nerve. She is best described as “bold,” while Lucifer does mock her with “firey.” (They know Bellum still has a hard time with not being an angel anymore.) However, Bellum is also not one to let Lucifer (or anyone else) push her around. She doesn’t have the prestige of Mortem, but she’s wracked up a reputation in her time and most will back down in the face of the full extent of her anger. While The Job means Bellum is often a force of destruction, all she really wants to to do is create. She tries to find a silver lining in Judgement Day, as destroying this world might allow for the building of a better, fairer one. As a manifestation of her desires to be a force for creation, she is the only one of the Riders who can get anything to grow. (Anything Esuriit touches withers, Infirmum makes blight, and Mortem...well...you know.)
