#celestials

[ultrvmonogamy]

she's got those tormented angel vibes but she still brings the light

[mochaaaaaaaa]

Would you mind if I requested you to draw one of my fav MSM monsters, Loodvigg? HIS VIBES JUST MADE ME SAY OMG! The aesthetic of this guy is just fantastic! (Specifically, do the adult version. This is when the gothic vibes show up really well.)

AAAHHHH THIS TOOK SO LONG 😭😭💔💔

Also when I started adding the filters and lighting into the drawing I JUST remembered you said something about gothic vibes but I completely forgot about that 💔💔 i'm so sorry 😭😭

[artbyblastweave]

Recently read the original Jack Kirby run on Eternals. Really did enjoy it. However, it's incredibly funny to me how decisively the in-house stance on the Celestials and their role in the Marvel Cosmology has shifted from Kirby's original "well, who are we to question the wisdom of the Gods" approach to "we gotta decapitate the gods and stick their heads on a pole as a warning to their buddies."

[honourablejester]

A thought I’ve always had with the celestial warlock is that …

So warlocks are mercenaries, right? They make pacts to gain power. They do things for patrons in exchange for magic. I mean, not exclusively, but bargaining is something of a core concept of the class even if you’re not focusing your roleplay on it. Warlocks are mercenaries.

And the thing with that in the context of a celestial warlock. So often I see the concept for the patron as a celestial who rescued you, or who’s trying to redeem you, a hand of good laid upon your soul, a plaintive Jiminy Cricket in your ear.

But the question I always have is not what kind of mercenary makes deals with angels, but what kind of angel hires mercenaries?

I feel like you could do some really cool things and have a really cool and interesting relationship with an angelic patron who is … greyer than the stereotype here. Because. They are a force for good who is perfectly willing to hire agents. Not by seeking a true champion or relying on conscience, but by the simple mercenary inducement of payment. Your morals don’t come into it, your beliefs don’t come into it, the arrangement is simple. You do a service for them, you help the cause of good, and they pay you. There’s a certain amount of pragmatism in that, and subtlety, that I find fascinating to imagine in a holy being.

Also. Celestial warlocks get mostly good-seeming powers from their subclass, healing and the like, but they’re also still getting the whole warlock package from their patron as well. Your eldritch blast and your hunger of hadar are still coming from that source. What kind of angel equips someone with those powers?

What kind of relationship could you have with such a being? Is it rigid and remote, a handler towards their agent? Something more casual, you do some jobs on a freelance basis and they pay you in healing and spell slots? Or something more collegiate, warmer, conscious of the moral greys and the sometimes extremely physical horrors they’re sending you into, but knowing that it needs to be done? Do they trust you enough to let you colour outside the lines a bit, or are their instructions extremely strict? Or do they want to know the details at all? Are they so grey that they give you carte blanche, a need to know that they don’t need to know, so long as there is a net victory for good at the end of it? Or are they extremely conscious, not only of everything you do but everything that is done to you?

I don’t know, I just feel like there’s a lot of room to play around with what sort of being your celestial patron must be to even enter into the relationship you both find yourself in. The kind of celestial that is at least a little bit greyer in nature, by pure implication of the bargain itself. You could do something … very Cold War-ish there, a more pragmatic and sordid sort of relationship.

And, yes, there are also evil gods and evil celestials. But honestly I like the grey celestial idea better, a servant of a genuinely good and holy cause, who’s just that bit more pragmatic about it. Yes, yes, moral champions, but when we’re short on time, or bodies on the ground, or when we need someone to blend in that little bit more … I mean, if the job gets done, does it matter by who? We can just pay someone to go in and do the needful. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. And if we save a sordid soul in the process, great, and if not … it’s no overall loss? We can’t lose what we didn’t have in the first place.

Are you expendable to such a being? Are you used to save the truer champions, genuinely good and worthy souls, at least some trials here or there? If so, what does that make such a being, who would use and sacrifice you so? Do the ends justify the means? Do you have opinions on such questions, regarding both yourself and your patron? Do you hate them, as much as any fiend warlock might hate their cruel master?

Or do you live in world where the things that must be done must be done, where principle is all very well but only so long as it does get the job done, and thus you and your patron understand each other quite well. You are a mercenary, after all. So long as the jobs are reasonable and you’re getting paid up front, that’s all any mercenary can ask.

I just really like the idea of a pragmatic angel, a handler with their agents, operating in a more subtle realm than that of crusades and champions. Sometimes, if you need a job done, you just hire someone to do it. No muss, no fuss. Get your bodies on the ground, and work out the rest later.

And the question then is, what’s it like being the poor hired muggins in question?

[mayapapaya33]

I wonder if anyone in Aramán has tried to cure the celestials of their madness? So far we've seen pretty low lvl magic but that's to be expected in the first 2 episodes of the campaign. Brennan said that running across a feral celestial would be a death sentence for most people, but there's gotta be some higher lvl magic people lurking around out there somewhere. I'm sure we'll run into them eventually. I wonder if that'll ever be part of the plot. Is their madness incurable? Were they ever fully sentient or were they merely extensions of divinity?

I'm leaning towards fully sentient because if not that raises all sorts of moral and ethical dilemmas about the existence of Aasimar. And if they're fully sentient then that means that an entire race of people who were enslaved went mad. (And to a certain extent Thaisha's family is directly responsible, in freeing themselves {Yay! Obviously} they condemned others to madness and death {uh oh}. There are no right answers here Brennan you philosophy class motherfucker).

As far as I can tell, no one has tried to help them. That's fucking dark. No wonder Thaisha feels a responsibility to get out into the world and try to make things better. I imagine this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of fucked up chaotic aftermath from 70 years ago.

Could they rescue and cure Wicander's grandpa somehow? (Greater Restoration or something like it, they don't have that kind of power yet, but they might eventually) He's been trapped in a basement for 70 years so he'll need some therapy but in principle I don't see why not.

[night-market-if]

Gabriel - Post Chapter Ten

What is that I hear? Pen coming around to have a little conversation with our favorite angel? Yes please! Join us for a post chapter ten ficlet where Gabriel waits for our dearest Night to get back and a, lets say 'protective' friend comes along for a chat. :)

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[merrymarvelite]

Cover of the Day: Thor #300 (October, 1980) Art by Keith Pollard