[Curseborne] The Outcasts #2

In our previous blog entry on the Outcasts of Curseborne, we explored what the Outcasts are and one of the most secretive families: the Nephilim. Now, we go to the other extreme, a family devoted to openly combatting the archons wherever they can be found. These soldiers train all their lives to fight against the alien creatures that threaten to invade from the Outside, and their militarism rubs many of the Accursed the wrong way. Today we present…

The Battleground Angels

As far as the Battleground Angels are concerned, every Outcast is at war with the archons, but they’re the only family that realizes this. The Outside seeps into the mortal world in insidious and terrifying ways. Servants of strange powers kidnap and experiment on humans. Demons walk the earth. Whole towns have been swallowed up when some archon decided they wanted more real estate. 

So the superiors of the Battleground Angels see enemies everywhere, and respond to any perceived threat with overwhelming — sometimes excessive — force. More radical members come across like a violent cult; they know they’re right, fighting a war of the just, and the ends justifies the means. They get called out as fanatics and militants, and some embrace the label because a fanatical militant is what you need to take on the archons.

Our narrator, Jamie Walker, explains more:

Other Exiles say that we, as Outcasts, are the inheritors of the Battlegrounds. This is technically true, I guess. There is a difference, however, between those lazy fools who rest on their inheritance, and those who make something of it. We are the latter.

It is our job to resist the archons whenever possible. There is no such thing as safety in this world. We know the archons can find us whenever they want, if they want to put the effort in. It doesn’t matter what precautions we might have taken to keep them out. Sure, there are spells against prying, but they don’t mean shit to the archons. The powers of the Outside are sinister and infectious. 

Our family is dedicated to archangels. We take our name from the four Watchtower archangels of various Abrahamic magical traditions: Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, and Uriel. Each of these angels holds a special role within our family, and members dedicate themselves to one each. Often, this dedication takes place upon your eighteenth birthday, though adults who choose to pledge themselves to the Battleground Angels do so once their so-called “training” is complete. 

We consider ourselves among the most open of the Outcast families. Our superiors will tell you that breeding an army is all well and good, but building an army is faster. They’ll take all the militants we can get, no questions asked. Which is a problem, because some folks like me think we should be asking more questions of those who get accepted into our ranks.

These militant Outcasts snub many of the others of their Lineage, considering those like the Munificents (which we’ll cover in a week’s time) to be fools. They have some kinship with the Nephilim and the Sorcerers, who generally understand the value of family and intel, but all in all they consider themselves to be the only people with an eye on the bigger picture.

Battleground Angels possess a unique Inheritance, should an Outcast focus primarily on their family Path: They are good at leading and organizing teams. As a result, teamwork actions are more effective, causing the overall difficulty of the task to drop.

Play a Battleground Angel if you want to…

… fight the forces of the Outside, toe to toe.
… believe wholeheartedly in your righteous crusade.
… challenge the ethics of an unquestioning army.

Jamie Walker

Jamie Walker is a rarity within the Battleground Angels — a soldier who questions orders. They are utterly loyal to both their family and the mission in front of them, but after a few years of seeing some of the atrocities committed in the Battlegrounds (on both sides), they’ve started to question if “by any means necessary” is always the right attitude.

From birth, Jamie was destined to be aligned with Raphael, one of the four angelic Watchtowers the Battleground Angels use to divide their family up into rough disciplines. As a Raphaelite, Jamie was trained in medicine, defense, and healing magics, in order to provide a supporting role in the ongoing war against the archons. Despite their superiors constantly reminding everyone of the importance of having a good battlefield medic and someone focused on providing unparalleled defense, many of their family members sneer at the Raphaelites, considering them to be minor soldiers at best, or wastes of recruitment potential at worst. Jamie weathered the worst of the abuse from their family, because they believed that the overall mission against the archons was just.

But in conflict after conflict, Jamie saw just what some of their family were capable of. Because the Outcasts almost never die while on the Battlegrounds, many delighted in their monstrous forms, throwing themselves at their enemies over and over with little regard to not only their safety, but that of those around them. More than a few took this mentality back with them into this world, where their mortal shell was far less impervious to death and destruction.

Lately, Jamie has started speaking up, willing to speak out against orders they perceive as immoral or against the overall goals of the family. They have not gone so far as to withhold aid from family members that are too radical, but Jamie has considered the option more than once. If they keep getting pushed by the militant and power-mad elements of the Battleground Angels, those same bullies might find themselves with inadequate defenses and support when the enemy closes in.