Martin
Angel of Military Disaster
Elohite Master of Valor
(c)Doug Muir 1999
Corporeal 5 | Strength 10 | Agility 10 |
Ethereal 5 | Intelligence 10 | Precision 10 |
Celestial 5 | Will 8 | Perception 12 |
Martin is very old, and quite powerful. He has been serving his Word since at least the days of Athens and Sparta. Martin's Word can be served in two ways.
First, he can create military disasters. Usually he does this by infiltrating one side's command structure and setting them up for a catastrophic failure. Sometimes he works alone; for large projects, he can call in two 10 Force assistants, a Kyriotate and a Mercurian.
Second, Martin can work to make sure that the appropriate lessons - particularly "moral" lessons - are learned from military disasters. It was Martin, for instance, who made sure that Thucydides recorded how the Athenians betrayed their own ideals, and who their hubris led them on to defeat.
Not all military disasters are Martin's doing, of course. Humans are perfectly capable of screwing up big time on their own. Martin had nothing to do with (for example) the Spanish Armada, the battle of Midway, or the 1994 Russian campaign in Chechnya. But he was deeply involved in the Persian defeat at Salamis, Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, Operation Desert Storm (from the Iraqi side), and - perhaps his greatest achievement - the battle of Stalingrad.
In many instances Martin has worked to make sure that the "bad" side suffered a disaster. This is not always the case, though. Martin might engineer a disaster for a "good" combatant in order to achieve a higher purpose... to check overweening ambition, to make sure that the "good" side doesn't betray its own ideals, or for more obscure purposes handed down from On High.
Even for an Elohite, even for an Elohite of War, Martin is a very cool (or cold-blooded) character. Without ever losing his unruffled calm, he has carefully, meticulously arranged the violent deaths of hundreds of thousands of humans in order to serve the greater good. Many other angels - even some Elohim and Malakim - find this slightly unnerving.
Martin is in excellent standing with Michael. He's served loyally and well for a long, long time. Furthermore, he's a good soldier in his own right (setting up disasters isn't simple or easy). He gets a +1 chance of invocation, although he'd never even try unless the situation was desperate.
If encountered on Earth, Martin will either be a military officer (non-combat headquarters staff, probably Intelligence or Logistics), or he'll be in some sort of obscure but important civilian position - Special Assistant for Planning to the Undersecretary of the Navy, Chief of Staff to the Committee on Foreign Relations, something like that. If he's setting up a disaster, he will have used his resonance to really, really understand the emotions and motivations of a few key players and will be quietly, carefully manipulating them. If he's not actively planning a disaster, he might be organizing a conference of historians on "The Lessons of Vietnam" or some such.
A strong party of demonic PCs might be given the job. A weaker party, or one not associated with Baal, might stumble into the middle of it.
Corrupt Martin (Diabolical): As above, but the goal is to turn him Outcast rather than kill him. If this is the case, then assume that the long centuries of setting mortals up to fall is finally getting to Martin; give him some dissonance and Discord to give the diabolicals a fighting chance. If Martin does become Outcast, GM's discretion as to whether Baal will try to kill him or make him Fall all the way.
Oppose Martin (Diabolical): The PC demons want to avoid a military disaster. Perhaps Martin is preparing a nasty surprise for a Third World dictator or a genocidal regime in the Balkans, and the demons are trying to prevent him from kneecapping the cause of evil. In this scenario, the demons probably won't confront Martin directly (though they might cross swords with his Kyriotate and Mercurian assistants). Instead, they'll try to upset his plans and possibly discredit him in his Role.
Martin Outcast (Either): Martin has cracked! Now he's one powerful Outcast angel, with at least two points of dissonance and two serious Discords (level 3 or higher). Either side, or both, may want to kill him or capture him; Martin may have his own bizarre agenda.
Defend Martin (Angelic): This one assumes that Baal's hostility is known; perhaps Martin has recently been killed and sent into Trauma, and is cautiously returning to Earth, and the angels or Soldiers are trying to protect him. A good job for a Cherub. Of course, a Djinn may already have a line on Martin...
Work with Maritn (Angelic): This one gets interesting if Martin is setting up a disaster that is not obviously serving the cause of righteousness. It's no big deal if Martin is arranging a disaster for Saddam Hussein... but perhaps he's planning to sink a US aircraft carrier, wht all hands. Even if there's a good long-term reason for this ("The US Navy was getting dangerously overconfident. Michael believes they'll need to be a lot less smug, and soon."), many angels may find this distressing... especially if you, as GM, introduce them to some of the sailors that Martin is planning to kill. If you really want to make thing stough, have them work with Martin on an assignment that seems to make no sense at all ("Yes, the rebels are certainly a plucky but lovable band of honorable freedom fighters. We're setting them up for an ambush where the dictator's forces are going to wipe them out to the last man."). If you do this, you might emphasize Martin's cool detachment...
Oppose Martin (Angelic): Possibly some othe Superior violently opposes Martin's plans. Superiors hostile to Michael (Yves, Dominic, Blandine, Novalis) are the best candidates, but it could be almost any of them if Martin is planning a disaster for something that they're attached to.
Alternatly, the PC angels just get caught up in Martin's plans, and find themselves trying to avert the disaster - perhaps from the other side ("If the guerillas take the town, they'll kill thousands of innocent people! We have to tell the General that he's advancing into a trap!").
If the PCs foil Martin's plans, he won't hold any hard feelings... but Michael may.