Angel

A Monarch on the Throne, although completely disembodied and difficult to understand or be understood by, is not, outside of their Throne-gift, helpless to interact with the world. Monarchs naturally an intuitively are able to create artificial minions in the physical world that act as the Monarch's limbs, hands, and eyes. These beings are called "angels," and are themed around the Monarch's domain and signifier. The Monarch of Souls would create angels of Souls. The Monarch of Banners would create angels of Banners.

Angels can look vastly different depending on the nature of the Monarch, the nature of their signifier, and how early or late it is in the Monarch's reign that they are made, but angels are essentially artificial, without even animal-levels of self-awareness or intelligence. They exist only to serve with perfect, mindless neutrality the will of their Monarch and their Monarch's signifier. They have will, but no ambition, in contrast to demons, who have ambition, but no will. Collectively, angels and demons are sometimes referred to as "Throneborn." An angel is capable of speech, but not of complex thought, in a similar way to artificial "speaking" devices made with technology. Angels are fragile, and not created lightly. They are not intended to be made into troops or armies, only messengers, scouts, or pairs of hands in the rare occasion when a Monarch has the presence of mind and is able to muster the focus to interfere directly in a physical affair.

Upon the death of a Monarch, their gift vanishes from the world and their mind, usually by now as vast as a cosmic object, un-tethers entirely from physical affairs and ascends to an unknown plane. Their angels become intangible, but do not completely disappear.

A person wishing to use the Prince-gift of a dead Monarch can summon onto the physical plane an angel of that corresponding Monarch and form a contract with it. This summoner is known as a Warlock. To borrow the power of a dead god is a risky thing, and an angel will ask in return for its services (access to its Monarch's spells) a task related to forwarding its Monarch's domain. The risk assumed by the mortal contracting is that an angel does not have the capacity to know what demands are reasonable, possible, or safe, and that each contract comes with heavy consequences if left incomplete. An angel of Apples may demand one million apple trees be planted by year's end, or the summoner will die. An Angel of Winds may demand that the summoner give up their career and live at the top of a tower, each day meditating on nothing but the air, lest every breeze they ever feel from then on cause them unspeakable agony. Angels cannot be reasoned with; they have no reason to appeal to. Angels cannot be easily cheated; their judgement is unpredictable and often errs on the side of harshness. Many summoners do not find such contracts worth their time, but some of the truly unscrupulous or desperate have found uses for them. In particular, binding an Angel into an object or location rather than a person will allow a summoner or a group thereof to only pay their price once, and be able to easily continue using the Angel's services once it has been paid off.

Throughout history, several organizations have existed dedicated solely to the containment (within objects) or outright destruction of Angels that remain from departed Monarchs who are considered dangerous, heretical, or too powerful to allow in the hands of the public. The Blade of Sacrifice is a a famous device designed solely to sever a Warlock's contract from its Throneborn, but in later times was also used to outright destroy Throneborn, and even Monarchs themselves, if only at a great and terrible cost.