Angel Wings & Feather Colours
With demons coming in all shapes, colours and sizes, it is kinda sad that we have so little variation, when it comes to angels.
So, as I was working on my story, I came up with my own head-canon…in part to have more fun with character designs, but I also ended up working it into the story itself.
Now, angels seem to see themselves as the embodiment of justice, order, righteousness, champions of the light, and they want to look the part. Shining, white wings, gilded armour, the whole thing.
We see high ranking members within angel society like the Archon and Usiel have four wings, which might just be genetic variation. It is possible that angels born with extra wings are highly respected among their kind, perhaps it’s even seen as some sort of divine sign or blessing.
There is also Azrael with his unique wings, which were probably deliberately altered, when he became the Angle of Death. I just doubt he was born with glowing runes on his feathers.
Meanwhile, the wings of soldiers in Darksiders 1 all have a bluish glow and are armoured, giving them an almost artificial look, while Uriel’s glow golden. Still, we can be pretty sure that all angles are born with wings, since there is blood, whenever they are cut off. In the other games, we also encounter more and more angles with natural looking, white wings (Nathaniel, Seventh Legion). You can even see the bone structure in Darksiders 3, when fighting the undead.
We also know that Fallen Angels go through some physical changes, among others, wings turning a dark brown/reddish-brown. This was at least the case for both Abaddon and Astarte.
So, it stands to reason that coloured wings are stigmatized, even if some angels are born with them. To get to the actual head-canon; at first no one probably cared all that much, but as Heaven came into conflict with Hell, as more angels fell, opinions and perceptions may have changed. Now, pretty much any and all colours are associated with impurity and angels with coloured wings are treated more like second class citizens.
If angels have something like nobility or a high society, white wings or multiple wings might even be something families select for. Over the generations this could mean that pearly white wings are the norm for the ruling class, but coloured ones being more common among average citizens/lower class angels.
In the White Army, wings are also kind of part of the uniform, so there is even greater pressure to conform.
Therefore, in order to avoid discrimination and/or to be able to join the army, angels bleach their wings, maybe with a potion, possibly using magic. This would explain why especially lower rank soldiers have glowing wings, while most officers or other high ranking angels have more natural looking ones in game.
Also, it is possible that soldiers occasionally lose wings in battle, or have them amputated after severe injuries and replace them with prosthetic wings instead. Other might deliberately intensify the glow of their feathers to look more divine.
In my story “Pariahs”, the angels Strife meets stopped bleaching their wings after every moult, so he sees them with their natural colours. While some are white, there are plenty of other reminiscent of various birds of prey; eagles, owls, you name it.
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Bonus Note from Strife: Do not, DO NOT, tell your angel friend that she reminds you of a plucked pigeon, when she’s moulting.
