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[NUKE9.13]

Chiaroscuro Arms Race
Angelic Team Thread
Core Thread Link
Discord Link

PS: All updates have "TURNTURNTURN" in them, so you can search that to pull them all up.

In a world filled with suffering, every act of kindness is a miracle. Literally, in fact; every good deed done creates a small amount of Good (the tangible magical element), creating something out of nothing. Ordinarily, Good simply suffuses the world, providing all with a measure of subconscious comfort. At times, however, the swirling currents of Good spiral inwards on one location, forming a cluster. Brought together by the hopes and prayers of mortals, a consciousness emerges, and draws more Good towards itself. A being that radiates harmony and benevolence, the newly formed Angel is charged by her very nature with the mission to destroy Evil, and to rescue sinful mortals from their own wicked ways- by force, if necessary.
Such is the beauty of an Angel, that those who see her fall to their knees in admiration, and readily swear an undying loyalty to her cause. Within weeks, her following has swelled, the area of her birth firmly under her command, and any sinners forced to accept her benevolent (but lethal) touch. Now is the time to strike against her nemesis; the hideous Demon who has taken form in distant lands, whose mere existence is the cause of constant irritation. Her followers are ready, her powers primed; all that remains is to actually develop the means of defeating the dark menace.


Welcome to the Angelic Team Thread. If you are a member of the Demonic Team, or are undecided about which team to join, turn back now (there's a link to the Core Thread above).

If you have familiarised yourself with the basic rules, and have decided to join the Angelic Team, then welcome aboard. No need for formalities, feel free to get started.

There will be one preliminary turn- that is, a turn without a combat phase. During this turn, you must make several decisions about what manner of Angel your team controls:

-Name: Angels tend to have smooth, flowing names, yet still with an eldritch touch indicating their otherworldliness. Merely hearing the name pronounced can elicit feelings of euphoria in people, and may also render them insane.   
-Appearance: An Angel's true form is beautiful, but in a way as disconcerting to the human eye as a Demon's, so it fills in an approximation. This can be anything: a glowing mass of tentacles, an amalgamation of crystalline shapes, a golden orb burning with holy fire- go nuts.
-Base Location: Where did your journey begin? Describe the environment that your base is situated in. This will have slight mechanical effects, although don't bother trying something like "At the peak of a mountain, accessible only by a narrow, winding path"- I will forcefully balance things if necessary; you can have a base at the peak of a mountain, but it will not be strictly better than one situated in open fields (though it may influence what tactics work better).

You have until the end of this turn to decide on these things.

Right now, it is the Design Phase. You have two designs (or one High-Effort design). They will be rolled simultaneously.

Spoiler: Equipment (click to show/hide)

Angel: The benevolent leader of your faction, a being of immense power. There is very little they cannot do. Needless to say, they are Unique. Their Power is currently 20.

Mundane Units:
Armed Cultists: Being equipped with only a rusty dagger, a spear, and a wooden shield, combined with their lack of training, mean these are not elite warriors- they'd lose a one-on-one fight with a real soldier-, but they're cheap and plentiful. Like regular cultists, their dedication makes them more resilient mentally than civilians. Common

Cultist Archers: Cultists who have some experience with a bow are valuable assets in combat, harassing the enemy from a distance. They aren't sharpshooters, and their bows are designed for hunting, not piercing armour, but they're better than nothing. Like regular cultists, their dedication makes them more resilient mentally than civilians. Uncommon

Acolytes: Cultists who have begun their exploration of the magical arts, studying under the Angel. They can cast any Common spells (unless noted otherwise). Their physical strength leaves something to be desired, but their mental fortitude is even greater than regular cultists. There are not many Acolytes in a unit. Uncommon

Summoned/Mutated Units:
You don't start with anything in this category. Feel free to ask whether a proposal is viable, at least until you have a grasp of difficulty.


Spells/Rituals:
Magic Missile: Known by many names, the simple technique of blasting your opponent with raw Magic/Good/Evil is a tried and true method of making things go away. Efficacy increases with caster's mental might, and decreases with the target's. Common


Infiltration Techniques:
Proselytise: Cultists go forth and spread the Good word, finding those sympathetic to their cause and slowly winning them over. Not the fastest way of gaining converts, as baseline cultists are not expert missionaries, but it keeps the cult growing.

[Strider03]

Maybe I'll post an idea later, but posting to keep track of this now

[NRDL]

Name: Teramuel
Appearance: A glowing orb of light, surrounded by eight floating and rotating face masks.
Base location: On a series of rolling green hills.

[Failbird105]

Spoiler: Sahaquiel (click to show/hide)

Name: Sahaquiel
Appearance:

Base location: Atop a steep hill in the middle of an otherwise open field.

Spoiler: Ramiel (click to show/hide)

Name: Ramiel
Appearance:

Base location: ?

Some Angel options, ripped from Evangelion.
I don't have any good Base ideas for the second, but I gave Sahaquiel the location I did because I felt it would fit, what with being the 'Angel of the Sky'

Edit: Worm

Spoiler: THE WORM- I mean Netzach (click to show/hide)

Name: Netzach
Appearance: Netzach takes on a worm-like shape, similar in form to her true self, yet far more comprehensible in scale. She possesses a trio of stylized(but functional) eyes on both the top and bottom of her head, which opens straight down the middle horizontally. Along the sides of her body are a series of winglike structures, seemingly made of glass or crystal with an entrancing array of colors. From end to end she is as tall as most trees, and roughly as thick as well. As her Power grows, so too will her size.
Base Location: The central cavern of a vast network of caves and tunnels. Some natural, others less so, some uninhabited, others not so much.

[Strider03]

Name: Isosceles
Appearance: A two dimensional red triangle, practically invisible edge on. When one views the triangle from the front, it is apparent in the mind that it is isosceles in nature, but attempts to measure angles or lengths, or even approximate, yield illogical results.
The red of the triangle is unnatural. It seems to shine with it's own light, and thus can be seen in the dark, but will not illuminate anything. It hurts the eyes to look at in the way certain neon colors might.
Base Location: Behind a waterfall on a cliff face.
I may come up with something more serious later.

More serious name ideas: Akhilesh, Nherelin, Irathaen, Medina, Yaviraam, Garahim, Halahmet, Indrid, Phosphos, Athanasios, Idona

Continued not really serious ideas
Name: Septa
Appearance: An angel of transportation, will think of a fitting appearance later
Base Location: Philadelphia
Bonus: Does mental damage to MoP

Name: Zovirax
Appearance: An angel of the pharmaceutical industry, will think of appearance later
Base Location: A pharmaceutical laboratory

[frostgiant]

Name: Gregorium
Appearance: Gregorium the angel takes the form of a living blizzard, a snow-white storm, bound in 3 glacial rings of clear ice.  Each ring has 3 wings attached to them, covered in ice feathers, each a different size and shape with no two feathers being alike. As the rings rotate around the Inner blizzard of Greforiums being that wings will pass through other rings as they touch, never entangling and passing through each other.
A blizzard surrounded by 3 Crystal rings, Each Possessing 3 Ice Wings.
Base:location: Gregorium manifested at the base of a snowy mountain, with his followers coming from far and wide to see the manefestation of their faith.


Name: Cenarius, The Guardian of nature and the many Eyed stag.
Appearance: taking the Appearance of a Massive stag, With fur of green and gold Cenarius Destroys all those who would profane nature with unholy ways. upon his brow rests a massive rack, Made of ivory antlers. Splitting many times like the branches of a white tree, on every junction of his horns rest a doe's eye, forever watching for his enemies. None can sneak up to his holy visage, as the guardian angel of the wild places sees all.
Base location: Located within a massive forest, The base is protected by a natural, winding maze of trees and the predators that lurk within. The Tree's of the forest Scrape the sky with their very height and are wider than any man. All those who worship Cenarius are left in holy awe the first time they lay eyes on the home of their religion.

[chubby2man]

Name: Teramuel
Appearance: A glowing orb of light, surrounded by eight floating and rotating face masks.
Base location: On a series of rolling green hills.

+1

How would you feel about each face mask representing a different aspect of Good? Such as Love, Peace, Justice, Kindness, Mercy, Creation, Purity, and Judgment? (Not a firm list or anything, just off the top of my head).

And perhaps further down the road we could develop a ritual or something to “lend” a mask to a champion to further empower them.

Edit: Base Appearance: Hmm I think like a desert location would go well with a light/purity theme. So what about a Village around a Desert Oasis. It could be a fairly known spot for trade with nomads and herders, providing an in fiction source of recruitment. It could also include the waterfall idea as well!

[NRDL]

YES.

[Shadowclaw777]

Templar Initiates: Joining the militarized holy order and making the militarized force of the Angels takes steps before we can have a true army, templar initiates are what one would called military recruits to actual paladins, however their zeal, physique, and combat training are still greatly improved compared to the armed cultists.  Actual dedicated soldiers given the proper gear of chain mail to chain shirts, equipped with a kite shield and long spear for defensive and aggressive military staying power for infantry, as well as minor skirmish range potential by giving the angelic forces javelins and throwing daggers allows for when the melee forced rush them. Trained in basic military camps and instruction, designed to adapt to all the general military and environment of our will, however they will always have an innate environmental understanding of their home environment.

Divine Command: A source of divine and celestial magic is imbued into the vocal components of this spell, it is given raw power and enchantment magic to this spell

Kneel!, Grovel!, Flee!, Obey!

The user utters a command single-word to the target verbally and the targets brain is forced to follow the instruction on how they would interpret the word, however the command can’t be directly harmful to the target. This spell is successful to most civilians and even hardened cultists, thus allowing this spell to be more general-use for both infiltration by convincing the heretics that have difficulty in believing in the ways of Angels and to make the armed forces of Demons to flee and grovel before us, though the spell is only a single-target version. It is known to work on lesser-willed elementals and demon and the like, but the spell is more designed for creatures with neural systems so it has less effectiveness there, and as always the success rate is based on the raw willpower compared to the mental might of the caster, but the spell is indeed a powerful intimidation mind enchantment spell.

Aasimar Outsider Scions (Mutation): What happens when you imbue raw celestial magic into a human, you get what you call an Outsider Scion, and for the Angels their is called the Aasimer. Many look at their sight, light grey skin, eyes of pure light glow, divine beauty, and just an angelic presence on them. These angelic humans still contain free will to them even with an angelic insight and to them naturally follow an ordained path with the angelic magic inside them. The physical improvements can be attached to that they have darkvision as their vision cut through darkness, adapting their eyes to see shades of grey in moonlight, caves, or other areas that lacked light. Aasimer as well can create pure balls of glowing light, always being a light source for the humans that lacked sight in the darkness known as light bearers, and can imbue their hands with holy magic, channeling healing hands innately can healing up to moderate wounds several times a day. The skin of Aasimer contain raw divine magic in their blood, and this gives them amount of minor magic resistance to the magic of the Demons. The most potent ability an Aasimer possesses is that of radiant consumption, the celestial magic that is subtle and inactive for most of the time can be used for a singular big burst of holy fire. A searing light radiates from the Aasimer, pouring out this energy from their eyes and mouth, the ball of lights around them lasts for around a minute burning any heretic that gets near them. This is the first mutation, the gift of Angels to the civilization of men.

Dominate Mind: Raw angelic force and arcane enchantment magic is combined for the mental domination of a humanoid target, the beguiling and mind-twisting charming magic causes the brain to slow down and the angelic presence to take hold of the mind, the spellcaster when successful sets up a temporary telepathic link between the two, allowing the mind of the spellcaster to issue commands to the target, even self-harming ones, and must follow the until the spell runs dry. The main questions of range, duration, and and how long it takes to “charm” the respective target are the spell are answered within the construction of the spell takes place. As long as the spellcaster maintains in social conversation length between each other, the spell can be used for infiltration and combat-based purposes for up to a ten minute duration, and the spell can take somewhere from a minute to within ten seconds of the casting the time, this would be a more higher-tier based enchantment spell that spellcasters can be used when negotiations go south and quickly enough to a tool for combat, this spell can serve its raw purpose. Resisting the spell is as usual based on the innate willpower of the target compared to mental might of the spellcaster, and can end prematurely if directly self-harming commands are issued, but the connection and the only target this enchantment spell can take place to is humans and so it’s general utility is somewhat reduced, but a spell for actual mind control even with limitations can take place for our casters.

difficult assessment plz, also I like the idea of the Desert Oasis

[Xantalos]

Gonna PTW here as well.

[Taricus]

Edit: Base Appearance: Hmm I think like a desert location would go well with a light/purity theme. So what about a Village around a Desert Oasis. It could be a fairly known spot for trade with nomads and herders, providing an in fiction source of recruitment. It could also include the waterfall idea as well!

Honestly, the waterfall idea might work better if it was a river rather than an oasis, but that's a small change, and the village could just be at a part of the river that can be more easily crossed. Could even make the village at the base of the waterfall at well or something. To add a little... something to the whole thing, why not add in some volcanic sands or soil to the mix along with a (dormant) volcano?

[NUKE9.13]

Templar Initiates: Joining the militarized holy order and making the militarized force of the Angels takes steps before we can have a true army, templar initiates are what one would called military recruits to actual paladins, however their zeal, physique, and combat training are still greatly improved compared to the armed cultists.  Actual dedicated soldiers given the proper gear of chain mail to chain shirts, equipped with a kite shield and long spear for defensive and aggressive military staying power for infantry, as well as minor skirmish range potential by giving the angelic forces javelins and throwing daggers allows for when the melee forced rush them. Trained in basic military camps and instruction, designed to adapt to all the general military and environment of our will, however they will always have an innate environmental understanding of their home environment.

Although not a particularly exotic design, this would still be quite a significant step up from Armed Cultists. Training professional soldiers and providing them with a variety of well-made equipment would result in an overal difficulty of Hard. There would also be a question of rarity- equipping and training soldiers like this costs a fair amount, meaning you wouldn't be able to throw them around like Armed Cultists. They'd be Uncommon, with a somewhat smaller unit size than Armed Cultists (unit size could potentially be increased in future, by organising a source of equipment or trained soldiers).

Divine Command: A source of divine and celestial magic is imbued into the vocal components of this spell, it is given raw power and enchantment magic to this spell

Kneel!, Grovel!, Flee!, Obey!

The user utters a command single-word to the target verbally and the targets brain is forced to follow the instruction on how they would interpret the word, however the command can’t be directly harmful to the target. This spell is successful to most civilians and even hardened cultists, thus allowing this spell to be more general-use for both infiltration by convincing the heretics that have difficulty in believing in the ways of Angels and to make the armed forces of Demons to flee and grovel before us, though the spell is only a single-target version. It is known to work on lesser-willed elementals and demon and the like, but the spell is more designed for creatures with neural systems so it has less effectiveness there, and as always the success rate is based on the raw willpower compared to the mental might of the caster, but the spell is indeed a powerful intimidation mind enchantment spell.

Quite doable. As described, this would be Normal- a basic foray into the world of mind-altering magic. It may have a hard time affecting artificial personalities (elementals, demons, and the like), but you mentioned that already. Being single-target would make casting easier, resulting in a Common spell.

Aasimar Outsider Scions (Mutation): What happens when you imbue raw celestial magic into a human, you get what you call an Outsider Scion, and for the Angels their is called the Aasimer. Many look at their sight, light grey skin, eyes of pure light glow, divine beauty, and just an angelic presence on them. These angelic humans still contain free will to them even with an angelic insight and to them naturally follow an ordained path with the angelic magic inside them. The physical improvements can be attached to that they have darkvision as their vision cut through darkness, adapting their eyes to see shades of grey in moonlight, caves, or other areas that lacked light. Aasimer as well can create pure balls of glowing light, always being a light source for the humans that lacked sight in the darkness known as light bearers, and can imbue their hands with holy magic, channeling healing hands innately can healing up to moderate wounds several times a day. The skin of Aasimer contain raw divine magic in their blood, and this gives them amount of minor magic resistance to the magic of the Demons. The most potent ability an Aasimer possesses is that of radiant consumption, the celestial magic that is subtle and inactive for most of the time can be used for a singular big burst of holy fire. A searing light radiates from the Aasimer, pouring out this energy from their eyes and mouth, the ball of lights around them lasts for around a minute burning any heretic that gets near them. This is the first mutation, the gift of Angels to the civilization of men.

Minor physiological alterations would not be a challenge, but including several kinds of inherent magical abilities pushes up the difficulty. Making lights is fairly trivial, but moderate-strength healing and the holy-fire-burst are not. Tying the magic to a mutation does make things easier, but still, you have no real experience that would lend itself to either, pushing this design into the lower end of Very Hard.

Dominate Mind: Raw angelic force and arcane enchantment magic is combined for the mental domination of a humanoid target, the beguiling and mind-twisting charming magic causes the brain to slow down and the angelic presence to take hold of the mind, the spellcaster when successful sets up a temporary telepathic link between the two, allowing the mind of the spellcaster to issue commands to the target, even self-harming ones, and must follow the until the spell runs dry. The main questions of range, duration, and and how long it takes to “charm” the respective target are the spell are answered within the construction of the spell takes place. As long as the spellcaster maintains in social conversation length between each other, the spell can be used for infiltration and combat-based purposes for up to a ten minute duration, and the spell can take somewhere from a minute to within ten seconds of the casting the time, this would be a more higher-tier based enchantment spell that spellcasters can be used when negotiations go south and quickly enough to a tool for combat, this spell can serve its raw purpose. Resisting the spell is as usual based on the innate willpower of the target compared to mental might of the spellcaster, and can end prematurely if directly self-harming commands are issued, but the connection and the only target this enchantment spell can take place to is humans and so it’s general utility is somewhat reduced, but a spell for actual mind control even with limitations can take place for our casters.

As you surmised, going from zero to total domination in one design would be harder than the previous Divine Command suggestion. Still doable- it sounds like you're going for a fairly brute-force approach, making the spell more costly and less efficient, but making the design process somewhat easier. This would be Hard. However, it would be an Uncommon spell, due to the high cost.

[Shadowclaw777]

Aasimar Outsider Scions (Mutation): What happens when you imbue raw celestial magic into a human, you get what you call an Outsider Scion, and for the Angels theirs is called the Aasimer. Many look at their sight, light grey skin, eyes of pure light glow, divine beauty, and just an angelic presence on them and just feel and awe on their existence. These angelic humans still contain free will to them even with an angelic insight they can still make the occasional disgrace to their kind, however the majority of them will naturally follow an ordained path with the angelic magic inside them and serve the Angel. The physical improvements to them can be clearly seen, to that they have darkvision as their vision cuts through the darkness, adapting their eyes to see shades of grey in moonlight, caves, or other areas that lacks light. Aasimer as well can create pure balls of glowing light, always being a light source for the humans that can’t see in the darkness and as given are known as light bearers. The most significant trait that an Aasimar can do is that of healing hands, in which they imbue the channel the divine magic into their palms and restoring wounds up to even a moderate level, pierced guts to broken limbs, and can do this several times within a day. The skin of Aasimer contain raw divine magic in their blood, and this gives them amount of minor magic resistance to the magic of the Demons. This is the first mutation that is bestowed to us, the gift of Angels to the civilization of men.

Noted to be Hard difficulty once the burst of holy-fire is removed, this is what is used for a first-aid medic/support unit for the armies of men that gives experience to mutations, healing, etc. I think we should get a Mutation-based for one of our first entrees since they seem useful, they can quite easily adapt to the roles that humans can fulfill as well, spellcasters, warriors, and even infiltrators. As well I think that Command is a common spell that gives mind-altering experience, many people might say that enchantment-based magic is pretty “manipulative” however I think Angels and Good can be more relaxed in term of definition, the spell can be used for both combat and influence purposes and basically a utility spell. I mean mind-altering spells are designed to be abused with the influence mechanic, and you can use them in combat as well.

Designs:
Aasimar: (1) SC777
Divine Command: (1) SC777

[Twinwolf]

Military Workshops

The bulk of our army is underequipped and undertrained. But while they lack proper drilling in military matters, that does not mean they are without skills; many cultists had lives before they joined the cause of Good, and we can put that to good work. The Military Workshops are a collection of smelters, smithies, leatherworkers, and other craftsmen drawn from the ranks of the faithful. They are supplied by ores mined or purchased from nearby areas and they work hard to provide a source of better equipment for the army, increasing the quality of our basic troops and the quantity of better armed and armored troops that we can deploy.

An idea to take advantage of the fact we have a couple turns before we start up. I think in the preliminary phases we can do worse than to build some infrastructure to improve the general quality of our troops.

[NUKE9.13]

Military Workshops

The bulk of our army is underequipped and undertrained. But while they lack proper drilling in military matters, that does not mean they are without skills; many cultists had lives before they joined the cause of Good, and we can put that to good work. The Military Workshops are a collection of smelters, smithies, leatherworkers, and other craftsmen drawn from the ranks of the faithful. They are supplied by ores mined or purchased from nearby areas and they work hard to provide a source of better equipment for the army, increasing the quality of our basic troops and the quantity of better armed and armored troops that we can deploy.

Expanding your basic industrial capacity to this extent would be fairly simple- probably Easy. (Further expansion would become progressively harder).