Name: Saef Harken
Title: Heavenly Thaumaturge, Captain 1rst Heavenly Mechanized Squadron
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Allegiance: Heaven
Race: Ascended Human
Height: 6' 1"
Weight: 180 lbs
Personality: Long campaigns against the forces of Hell have a way of teaching a person what is really important. Over the past year Saef has gone from being a vain and arrogant physicist to a shining beacon of hope and solace for his men. On the battlefield he leads with a cool head, striking for effect rather than glory or honor.
A paladin is more than just a crusader however. When not fighting the forces of the Pit Saef is a pretty nice guy. Always willing to listen to another's problems and do what he can to help out. It may be how much time he has spent around angelic beings or simply the natural growth a person undergoes in a stressful situation but Saef is a much better person now than he was before.
He is not without his scars though. Most of his planet has been turned into uninhabitable wasteland by the demons. Unsurprisingly he holds a grudge. Deep within him the paladin holds a cold pit of rage against all the forces of Hell.
Billions dead on his own planet, trillions elsewhere.
Saef won't rest until Demonkind is no longer a threat.
History: Fittingly, it was a dark and stormy night when the world ended. The worst storm in recorded history was scouring much of the surface of Dinas Affaraon. Even with the advanced technology of the planet's inhabitants it was going to be a task to repair all the damage.
The storm was more than just a mass of electromagnetic and kinetic energy though. It seethed with magical power as well. A massive wellspring to those who knew how to harness the arcane. One such group had gathered at the center of the megastorm. The Brotherhood of the Pit Beyond. An insane cult that had somehow gotten in contact with several high level demons. It was a tale as old as time. The demons whispered promises, handed out hints of knowledge and passed tidbits of power over the interdimensional link the cultists had formed.
Open a Gate for us. They whispered in the minds of the Brotherhood. We can give you so much more if you just open the way.
The members of the Brotherhood never gave it a second thought. So enthralled were they by the power just out of reach. Demonic corruption had run so deep through them it was starting to effect physical changes. A dark ceremony was performed at the eye of the hurricane. Human torture and sacrifice so vile it tore the very fabric of reality asunder.
To the rest of the world it looked like the gigantic storm had somehow triggered a volcano. Magma shot hundreds of feet into the air, accompanied by sulfurous fumes. Fire and brimstone rained down on the surrounding landscape for miles in every direction. It took almost a day and multiple cases of live video footage before the reports of things in the area were taken seriously. And by then it was too late to repulse the foothold Hell now had on the planet. The Gate at the center of the disaster zone was mystical in nature and the various militaries were a bit short on spellcasters.
Militaries mobilized slowly at first, then with ever increasing speed and desperation as the the demonic forces overran the countryside. Over the next three months the entirety of Dinas Affaraon's forces were pushed back along an ever widening front. Problems they could only attribute to the invaders hindered them the entire way. Their machines of war broke down far more often than they should have and loyal soldiers and officers turned traitor seemingly at the drop of a hat.
Once it became clear that the first of Dinas Affaraon's two major continents was lost the commanders in charge of the war switched tactics. All forces fell back to the remaining demon free landmass, taking as many people with them as they could. The plan was to build a massive series of fortifications along the shores. A grand barrier meant to give what remained of the world a chance to catch its breath.
In the end it didn't matter. The Gate was still spewing forth legions of filth and the grand defensive line around the second continent stalled the demonic advance for a bare two weeks before leviathans and colossi swept it aside and horror poured through. Outnumbered and overwhelmed it was all the defenders could do to send refugees and essential civilians to ever shrinking safe zones.
It as one of the latter that Saef found himself. As a well known physicist he was thrown at project after project, feverishly trying to find the magic bullet that would at least slow the monsters down. As the brass frantically shuffled him around he found himself watching people die to protect him, fighting off Corrupted assassination plots and occasionally taking up arms himself when the nearby battle lines broke before he could be evacuated.
At the start of the war Saef was an arrogant fellow. At the top of his field, a field that wasn't easy to get into in the first place. He was assured of his place in the world. In his thoughts the smartest mind in a society that valued a person's intellect over their physical strength. He had it all. Over the course of those three months his worldview was shattered. He froze the first time he saw a demon. An act that cost the lives of half the platoon assigned to his protective detail. His assistant and best friend went mad and tried to strangle him with electrical wires.
Contrasted against untold horror the arrogant scientist saw the best that Humanity had to offer. Acts of selflessness and courage in the face of certain doom. Generosity when one had nothing to give. Self sacrifice so that the child of a stranger might live. Saef saw it all and it changed him.
By the end of those three months eighty percent of the planet's inhabitable landmass was under demonic control. The only nation still fully intact was the realm of Falias. Its capital was also the holy city of the largest organized religion on the planet. The fact that it laid on the exact opposite side of Dinas Affaraon from the portal to Hell was likely not a coincidence.
A great demonic host had gathered to strike at it. Slice deep into the core of remaining human territory and cut the heart out. Shatter their symbol of hope and have a good old time hunting down the rest at their leisure. It was set to be the defining battle of the war. Both sides had gathered their forces and the disparity was obvious. Even without their inherent advantages the demons outnumbered the humans by ten to one.
Moments before the battle was joined however, something extraordinary happened. A rift opened in the sky with the sound of ten thousand trumpets. Rays of light shot out and burned entire formations of demons to ash. The barrage was followed by hundreds of thousands of angelic warriors who fell upon their mortal foes with a fury. What had been a foregone battle suddenly turned into a turnabout rout as the mortal forces on the field recovered from their shock and joined the fray. Dead demons soon covered the open plains, their brethren fleeing or being struck down themselves.
It was explained later that Heaven had known about the invasion almost from the start. No aid had been sent sooner because they, (the only forces who cared enough to help humans) had been tied up in another campaign elsewhere and had only just been released from their duties.
What followed after was a ten month slog back across the planet as the combined Human/Angelic forces pushed their way to the demon spewing gate that was the cause of all their woes. During that time Saef took to an area of study much more helpful to the war effort. Thaumaturgy. Seeing the effectiveness of the holy magic used by the angels and sick of working on projects that never went anywhere the scientist turned his mind towards the study of magic and its uses.
With the holy magic he picked up came the ability to join the battlefield himself. And join it he did. For three long months he had been watching others fight and die while he ran away to some laboratory and failed to keep demons from overrunning his world. Now he had a way of fighting back. Saef's newfound combat power, fame and the high casualty rate earned him a commission in the army. It was not a position he was completely unfamiliar with. Small unit tactics was something he had learned from all the bodyguard details given to him over the course of the war. It was with small groups that he excelled. Taking a strike team and leading them to hit critical targets in the enemy's line of battle.
Over the long slog he continuously proved himself, gaining respect from the Heavenly Host and raising to his current rank of captain in the Dinas Affaraon military. He took part in the assault on the Gate and personally helped in sealing it. When the Gate had been closed and all the demons on the world captured or killed the Archangel leading the Host came forward with an offer. Many of the humans had fought well and bravely. The fight was over here but it would continued on elsewhere. Would they be willing to ascend to Heaven and join them in the fight?
Many said no. It had been a long and terrible fight. They just wanted to be able to pick up the pieces of their world without somebody trying to kill them and/or do horrendous things to their body and soul. For others like Saef simply kicking the demons off their world wasn't enough. The war on Dinas Affaraon had claimed billions of lives. That could not be allowed to happen elsewhere and the Hellspawn needed to pay
They took the offer.
Powers:
Heavenly Body
Upon accepting the Archangel's offer the new recruits from Dinas Affaraon underwent a transformation. Their bodies changed, becoming more idealized versions of themselves. Features became sharper and more defined. Muscles were denser and organs more robust.
They became superhuman. Many times stronger and faster than a normal person. The group could now take blows that would have most certainly killed them before. It would still hurt but they wouldn't be removed from the battle just because they caught a punch from the wrong demon.
A Glimpse of the Truth
When Saef ascended something unexpected happened. While cosmic energies swirled around him the former scientist, now soldier and thaumaturge caught a glimpse of something. For the barest of moments the very bones of the universe were layer bare to him. That glimpse changed him.
On the surface the only clue of his extra transformation is a head of permanently white hair. The real changes run much deeper though. When Saef looks at something or thinks of it he can't help but see how it works. Magical or scientific the mechanics are always laid bare.
It's not an instantaneous thing though. The more complicated a thing is the longer it takes him to figure it out. Nor does it allow him an automatic immunity to illusions. Any mental effects will still take place, he will simply be able to know that there is some sort of spellcraft taking place and eventually be able to puzzle through the mechanics of it.
Divine Thaumaturgy
While still young at the craft Saef has learned enough of the how's and why's to manipulate the mana and underlying principles of the holy spells taught to all the new warriors from his world.
Using those as a basis he has expanded his offensive repertoire immensely. He can now freely manipulate holy light in offensive and defensive manners as well as a variety of other spells generally associated with the angelic.
Weapons:
Hywelbane
Despite being a member of the armies of Heaven Saef and his comrades came from a highly technological world. Their weapons and equipment show that.
Hywelbane has two modes. The first takes the shape of a three foot long golden scepter with a white crystal at the end. Arcane runes run the length of the rod and the entire thing pulses with a soft white light.
In this form Hywelbane focuses and enhances Saef's power. Allowing him to perform greater feats of magic with more finesse.
When the second form is activated the scepter shortens to two feet. The extra material comes up to form a crosshilt and a blade the same color as the crystal extends.
The blade can be as long or as short as the wielder wishes it to be and is is made up of holy light. The sharpness of the blade depends on the abilities of the user. With Saef's skill at light magic the edge of Hywelbane can be measured in single digit photons.
LSW-27 (Modified)
Every good soldier needs a backup weapon and this is what most people used on Saef's home world.
A sleek looking silver pistol, the LSW-27 fire beams of coherent light capable of burning through several inches of steel. Since coming to Heaven Saef has modified his. It now has a row of runes running down the barrel that bestow a holy element to each shot.
Equipment:
Duban-X7-99
The Duban is a suit of highly advanced power armor and a big part of why the people of Dinas Affaraon could fight demons at all. Now that Saef has ascended the strength and speed enhancements are less obvious but even so it is a highly useful set of equipment.
Metal/ceramic armor plating is augmented by hard light energy shielding. While the shielding can take several hits it wasn't designed to withstand a sustained barrage. Instead the designers built it to survive short bursts of fire, after which they would start to recharge.
It's not an instantaneous charge. If all the capacitors are empty it can take up to a full minute to refill from the onboard reactor. A long time in a pitched battle.
An onboard sensor suite uses a wide variety of means to keep track of the user's surroundings. Not designed as a scout or full scanning platform the Duban's passive scanners can keep an accurate reading of the battlefield out to about five hundred meters.
That's not factoring in things like the binocular function on the helmet. It's an average of what the onboard computer can tell the user at any one moment.
It has highly effective air filters.
Duban has two different types of comms. The first is your traditional radio., it's usually kept locked down when fighting Machina. The second is quantum entanglement. Each suit has a series of entangled particles linked to both fellow squad members and command.
Communication between those so linked is crystal clear and unhackable no matter how far apart they are. The downside is that it only extends to people with linked particle pairs.
The last major piece of the suits is the jetpack built into each one. Technically called Quantum Particle Propulsion Systems, most everyone just calls them jetpacks.
Since it uses newly created quantum particles for thrust the user never has to worry about running out of fuel. However the system is quite the power hog. Power has to be diverted to it when in full use leading to reduced sensor range or increased shield recharge time.
After many long hours spent with Librarian Si, the combination of magic and science that is "Knowledge Is Power" was crafted. Aside from the fact that it is double the size of a standard book the primary thing to catch an observer's eye is how white the thing is. The covers are made out of a nonmagnetic white metal alloy and the pages all look crisp and new. It's not completely white though. The name of the book is emblazoned on the front in letters that glow an electric blue and is surrounded in an intricate magical circle of similar luminescence.
Of course carrying such a large and heavy book at all times would be a major pain. To circumvent that a few extra features have been added. When not in use the tome is stored in a personal pocket dimension. Nothing else can enter the dimension either with the book or by itself.
When called upon "Knowledge Is Power" activates a combination of antigravity technology and levitation magic to hover in the air near its master. The tome moves according to Saef's thought but cannot go more than a couple yards away at any one time
In order to prevent a predicted increase in size and weight the two who made it pulled a little trick with the pages. When a reader is about halfway through pages that have already been read will start to vanish. As this happens new pages will appear under the yet to be read pile. It is essentially a never ending book.
Of course those are all ease of use side benefits. The real power of the book lies in the name. Everything that Saef considers useful information is automatically captured by the book. The book then turns that information into power. The more important or useful the information is the more more power the tome can draw from it. These facts are not consumed to create magical energy but rather they add to the book's capacity to generate mana.
TLDR: It's a magic floating book that acts as a secondary mana generator for Saef. The more interesting stuff he finds out the more power it can give him.
Other:
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