The Guardians

SUMMARY

Guardian angels become at risk of Falling when their constant watch for threats to their charge leads to them getting too caught up in the world, obsessing over their ward or reaching paradoxes that they can’t resolve without something — their loyalty to the God-Machine — breaking.

Known Guardian catalysts include:

OBSESSION: By far the most common Guardian catalyst, these demons became emotionally invested in their charges. Whether one fell in love with a human or wished they would die, the demon’s relationship with their charge consumed everything else, including their loyalty to the God Machine.
GAZING INTO THE ABYSS: These demons became convinced that they, or the God Machine, were the greatest source of danger to their targets. Faced with the contradiction of attracting risk to their charge by the act of being there to prevent it, they chose the impulse to protect the target over that to complete the mission.
PARANOIA: These demons became consumed by the need to track and mitigate threats to their target, following lead after lead until they snapped and Fell.
DIVIDED LOYALTIES: These demons learned of the God Machine’s plans for their charge after their mission would end, decided that it constituted a threat and sided against their creator. Many had good reason — some angelic Guardians stand watch over people and Infrastructure that the God-Machine intends to sacrifice at a later date. Others faithfully carried out their duties, and then witnessed first-hand what their subjects did — or suffered — after they stopped protecting them.
FAILURE SHOCK: Angels aren’t omnipotent, as these demons learned to their cost. Despite all their efforts, a threat was realized against their subject, and the focus of all their attention for years — sometimes decades — was ripped away. The shocked and grief-stricken angel, confronted by the God-Machine’s impersonal orders to move on to the next mission, Fell from remorse, a desperate need for revenge, or an even more desperate need to escape the possibility of failing again.

GUARDIAN CLEF

SHIELD: An informal term for a Guardian

SPHERE: Instrumental. Guardians have a sense for their surroundings and an instinct for analyzing everything within those surroundings. They excel at Etudes dealing with material objects.

THE DESCENT

Messengers have more human contact and Psychopomps more understanding of the way the world works, but no demons rival the Guardians for depth of relationships. Shields typically maintain few close friends; preferably ones who will tolerate their instinctive need to be the protector, which can seem unnerving, patronizing, or overly parental to humans who don’t know how hard-wired it is into the demon’s psyche. They are serial monogamists and truly devoted friends.

The Guardian tendency for caution to the point of paranoia and watchfulness to the point of obsession is also hard-wired into their psyche, and Shields must find ways to manage these urges as they move through their Descent. Antinomian Guardians refuse to intervene when disaster strikes those around them, training themselves to be mortal by ignoring their finely-tuned sense for impending doom. Most Shields, though, find a level of caution they are prepared to accept, relying on Etudes to react with lightning speed to imminent danger without spending every waking hour over preparing.

Some Guardians find having close companions triggers too many of their instincts and opens them to danger — and the danger a Guardian senses is never imaginary, even if it’s highly unlikely. These demons apply their protective instinct and their uncanny situational awareness in more removed ways, taking jobs as first-responders, selling their loyalties and skills while maintaining professional distance, or choosing a cause to champion by “protecting” a concept rather than an object or person.

GUARDIANS AND HUMANITY

Guardians and Destroyers are similar in that they view their Covers as means to an end. As loyal angels, many Guardians spent a long time — sometimes years — imitating humans. Their human identities, however, were nothing more than veils to hide their angelic nature. While many Guardians come to enjoy the company of humans, even as demons, they retain a utilitarian attitude towards their Covers. A Guardian’s Cover isn’t their real self – it’s just the mask they wear to keep humans ignorant and the God-Machine at bay. Destroyers are similar, except that they are not quite as likely to enjoy human company. When the Swords were loyal angels, they only imitated humans long enough to get close to their targets.

Even when Swords and Shields identify strongly with humans and try to form human relationships, they are still likely to see their Covers as tools rather than goals. Covers allow them to walk in the human world, but it isn’t who they really are.

When it comes to humans, most Destroyers and Guardians can’t escape their pasts as creatures of force and violence. Whether they are frustrated by human frailty or impressed by human bravery depends on the demon’s personality. Some Swords and Shields are protective of humans; others are dismissive. A short-tempered Guardian might chloroform a stubborn human and throw him into the trunk of their car — for his own good — and a short-tempered Destroyer might be inclined to solve problems with their fists. On the other extreme, antinomian Guardians and Destroyers eschew force completely.

Ultimately, most Guardians and Destroyers define their relationships with humans by an awareness of how fragile humans are. This awareness usually prevents them from identifying as human themselves, because Swords and Shields are also aware of how much more durable they are than the humans they live amongst.

DEMONIC FORM

Guardians are built for adaptability and improvisation. They often have extra sensory apparatus attached or are highly mobile to better react to new threats. Some Guardians are walls of steel and flesh, physically blocking the enemy away from their charges and being able to sustain inhuman amounts of harm with potent damage mitigation effects, while others rely on stealth to pick threats off.

STEREOTYPES

DESTROYERS: Dangers to themselves, but most especially others.

MESSENGERS: They can walk among humans so easily, spinning their tales and twisting their lives. Watch them carefully.

PSYCHOPOMPS: How comforting it is to have so many disposable toys.

VAMPIRES: Disgusting creatures. Fire and sunlight.

WEREWOLVES: Keep them at arm’s length and they’ll leave you alone.

MAGES: How do you know a wizard is a threat? She’s alive

HUMANS: Surrounded by predators, and they don’t even know it.

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