Infrastructure Condition & Angels

[Leetsepeak]

So, is it me or does the Infrastructure Condition make it just that much harder for Angels to move around as freely as Demons do? If an Angel is pretending to be somebody, how do they stay manifest long enough to evade suspicion? Do they have to go back to the nearest Infrastructure in Twilight and re-manifest and come back if they return to Twilight?

Also, is it purposeful that it's so hard for Angels to possess people/fetter themselves to people, in comparison with other Ephemeral Beings? Since the Infrastructure Condition is bound to be rarer and not as easily inflicted on people as the Resonant or Anchor conditions, what do they do?

[Kirby Jerusalem]

You've hit upon one of the biggest truths about the game that is weirdly glossed over in the text: angels and demons exist and move in very different worlds. Yes, angels are very tethered to Infrastructure - it's their safe habitat, their fast transit stations, and their beachhead into the material world. Most angels do in fact need to have easy access to Infrastructure to renew their Materialization (or their possession, if your ST allows angels to possess those inside Infrastructure) as well as for a myriad of other reasons. This reliance, along with their normally ephemeral nature and being built for a specific purpose, signals to me that angels are usually very goal driven and deal with threats to that purpose in a very reactive and defensive way. They rely on Infrastructure in the same way covert agents rely on the assets and resources of the Company.

It's one of those open things that the game doesn't spend many words on: demons usually don't interact with angels because their loyalist brethren are ephemeral and usually in the heart of Infrastructure, where demons don't dare go unless they have to. Angels don't interact with their Unchained kin because they're fundamentally indistinguishable from the masses of humanity, and they usually stay a significant distance away from Infrastructure so it's tough for most angels to track them down. This is why, in my opinion, most interaction ends up being with the cultists, stigmatics, and other assets working for each side; when angels and demons come into contact, it's usually very dramatic.

As for what they do about possession, I believe there are several ways to handle this. The easiest place to start is for your ST to decide whether or not being in or near Infrastructure is close enough to open someone up for possession. If so, then as Infrastructure spreads normally the easier it becomes for angels to find targets to possess and ways to keep them possessed. If it's not possible to possess someone like that, or if the ST wants to supplement normal possession, I believe it's entirely in genre for angels or mortal agents of the God-Machine to find, kidnap, process and then erase the memories of potential sleeper agents, planting living Infrastructure in significant positions to be utilized in an emergency. Failing all subtle methods, the God-Machine can always try to use rank 4-5 angels that can create the necessary Infrastructure out of thin air, allowing hunter angels to forage out to find their prey, then to create Infrastructure in a suitable possession host and then take them over.

Past that, you start getting into specialized angels and specialized solutions that the God-Machine might put to use. In my game I plan to allow mortal agents to specially prepare corpses as specialized mobile Infrastructure that allows for sustained possession, essentially allowing them to create psuedo-Prometheans. By default the corpse's cover would be what it was when it was alive, though specialized Infrastructure might allow it to alter it's cover as it sees fit (note: this type of Infrastructure could then be used by demons to remove glitches, etc). You could easily riff on the same idea to create angelic Claimed, You could also mess with the idea of deep cover angels that are specifically designed to blend in among regular people/Unchained for long, long periods of time.

[Penta]

I don't think they mean the Destiny Merit from Mage. In an earlier version of the rules, all characters had a Fate and could have the Destiny Merit. These mechanics were eventually removed, but some references survived. So I would disregard that comment about Destiny.

[Satchel]

Worth pointing out that The Key, from GMC, is considered mobile Elimination Infrastructure and the Unchained's Covers are mentioned as being maintained by Infrastructure - it could be that angels with cover identities treat a sizable chunk of the people, places and things relevant to their missions as Infrastructure, or carry their relevant Condition with them as a sort of abstract quality.

[RickJonzz]

Yeah, that's something I've tried to figure out.

If I'm reading this right....

Rachel Fearson, Process Manager for the Deva Corporation (p255 DTD) is Rank 3, Power 5, Finesse 6, resistance 4, Corpus 9, Willpower 10, Max Essence 20. And she's got Mortal Mask, Discorporate, Materialize and Twilight Form.

As an angel, she is by default in Twilight. But suppose she's got a meeting at 3:00 PM so she needs to appear in her human form.

Rachel has Mortal Mask, so when she Manifests, she looks normal.

The ST marks off 3 Essence, rolls Power + Finesse (11 dice) and counts successes. She is Manifested for that many hours, and then fades back into Twilight.

That doesn't seem to jibe with the fiction, where angels who fell described spending days, weeks, even years in their Cover before falling. I must be missing something, but I don't know where....

[Kirby Jerusalem]

Yeah, that's something I've tried to figure out.

If I'm reading this right....

Rachel Fearson, Process Manager for the Deva Corporation (p255 DTD) is Rank 3, Power 5, Finesse 6, resistance 4, Corpus 9, Willpower 10, Max Essence 20. And she's got Mortal Mask, Discorporate, Materialize and Twilight Form.

As an angel, she is by default in Twilight. But suppose she's got a meeting at 3:00 PM so she needs to appear in her human form.

Rachel has Mortal Mask, so when she Manifests, she looks normal.

The ST marks off 3 Essence, rolls Power + Finesse (11 dice) and counts successes. She is Manifested for that many hours, and then fades back into Twilight.

That doesn't seem to jibe with the fiction, where angels who fell described spending days, weeks, even years in their Cover before falling. I must be missing something, but I don't know where....

If you're missing it, I'm missing it. Although I've not read much about angels staying continuously in their covers for long periods of time, it's more implied, really.

[pgolasze13]

They could Claim a mortal that the God-Machine created to be that angels cover.

[MCN]

I think its because an Angel's Cover isn't as complete as a Demon's. So, that job the Angel has? Doesn't really exist. He only manifests and does stuff when, say, he comes home to his husband and kids. Then, they go to sleep, the angel ensures the family sleeps soundly well, then recharges. Manifests in the morning, does his thing, goes to "work" ie go in twilight and chill, intercept phone calls, etc. Rinse, repeat.

The Infrastructure holds up this illusion, and gets things to settle into a pattern. Its easy to see the holes in this kind of Cover... if anyone bothers to look. Usually, they don't. (Of course, demons would look and see it. Much easier than a fellow demon, usually)

When an Angel falls, however, the Infrastructure is torn down and the Cover is burned more completely into reality. The job now really exists, and not just a placeholder.

[Leetsepeak]

Doesn't Claiming them physically mutate them and whatnot? Also that'd take up one of their Manifestations. Yeah, I have a hard time imagining Angels living lives at all.

While I don't want to grognard over the math of that...

Manifesting requires 3 Essence. Making the Infrastructure Open to Manifest requires 1 Essence. You gain 1 Essence a day from Infrastructure.

So you lose 3 Essence every day, and that's to manifest only once. That seems impossible to keep up and impractical.

[pgolasze13]

More than that actually, they'd also need to take Fetter and Possess. As for the mutation bit, I could see the gm making a specific mortal body for a specific angel, kinda like the concept of vessels in Supernatural. Claim a mortal purpose built for you? No problems. Claim a random Joe off the street? that's when you start seeing the mutations.

[MCN]

Hmm... I assumed that Infrastructure provided more Essence. Perhaps something similar to spirits feeding on their Conditions.

[MissMaddy]

Hey, I found this in the book...

"Angels are mechanisms in the God-Machine, and like
any machine they are sustained by fuel. God-Machine
cultists sacrificing precious resources (metaphorical
or literal), animals, or even humans to the angel in its
presence allow it to regain the Resources value of the
item or animal, or the current Integrity of a human
sacrifice, as Essence."

... so this implies that having Angels on extended cover is fine, they're just getting fuel from somewhere. Maybe they're plugging themselves in at night, maybe they eat lotsa yellow M n Ms that are provided by a certain vending machine in the office, who knows? Somehow, the Machine is giving them the juice they need to function. They ambiently can draw a point per day, but that's not the primary source of how they work.

You just gotta have a pipeline of people creating the 'sacrifices' that delivers the fuel to the Angel when needed, which sounds very God Machine. Those yellow M n Ms are made in a special factory, ya see...

[MCN]

Your quote does say "in its presence." So, I don't think its necessarily able to be produced and stored and shipped in M&M form. But, yeah. Having cultists around to sacrifice to you seems to be the way to go.

Ghosts' main source of essence doesn't come from their anchor, it comes from people leaving oferenda. Spirits likewise gouge on feeding. It makes sense for angels to have a method as well.

[RickJonzz]

Perhaps there needs to be some sort of new Numina for long term materialization? Something like Cover where the Angel has to maintain its role and has a limited amount of power available to it in exchange for extended stay in the physical world.

[Satchel]

This is the kind of thing that should have been covered in development, instead of twinked-out Exploits.

This is unhelpful.