Lucifer’s Shadow (Demon:The Fallen Game Fiction Anthology)
286 pages, $6.99, ISBN- 1-58846-824-0
A Review By Stephen Joseph Ellis
Firstly, I'd like to explain my approach to this review. The book received was a comp copy, so I can’t really factor price into the assessment. Secondly, I don't believe game fiction is literature, so it doesn't qualify for literary criticisms. Rather I assess it on game content in terms of examples of play, plot ideas, character templates and metaplot history. I also include huge spoilers, so if you want to be surprised by plot twists (and there are only a few) then don’t read on!
The book consists of 10 short stories, all written by different authors. I'll look at each briefly and then sum up what use the anthology could be in playing the yet to be released RPG.
PROLOGUE
This sums up the basic Demon introduction and concept. God creates the angels and then the earth. Everyone’s happy and creating universal constants, concepts like love in a Gaimanesque fashion. Then God creates Man and Woman and says unto the Elohim (Angels) "Love them and Protect them, but do not reveal yourselves or your mysteries to them".
Trouble is, while all the angels Love God and Love Man, some find a contradiction in the injunction against direct intervention and teaching Man how to survive and prosper.
The image of Aziraphale an Angel with a flaming sword (from Good Omens ) watching primitive humans freeze and suffer in the cold comes to mind here, as the third of the Host decide they love Humanity more than God, and start handing out flaming swords, teaching agriculture, building shelters and cities to Man. God naturally disapproves as his chief lieutenant and universe creator Lucifer agrees with the dissidents and leads them into Rebellion claiming that God is Mad.
So they battle for a thousand years, across time and space and conceptual reality. They build a city called Eden and teach Mankind much, but are eventually beaten by the loyal two-thirds of the Host. The Host then kick the Fallen rebels into the oblivion of Hell, without sensation or light. All except Lucifer who doesn't join the Fallen in their punishment. And the demons are a tad suspicious about why their great general got a pass and isn’t there to share their torment.
Human souls turn up and get tormented by the angry demons who now feel betrayed and beaten and mad. 666 demons manage to escape Hell (shades of Brimstone!) over the aeons and are known as the Earthbound. They get fat and powerful and generally live the high life while their comrade’s rot in Hell.
Then the Avatar Winds come along and blow Hell open. The great spiritual storm of the 6th Maelstrom rips open the gates to Hell and demons start migrating to earth in ever increasing numbers. Discovering they are much reduced from their glory days, they must now feed off religious and emotional belief to survive. They possess the bodies of those weak-souled individuals they can ‘hijack’ and begin to search for Lucifer…….
"Midnight in the Garden" - Michael Lee
This opening story is set in LA (as are most of the anthology tales) and is told from Lucifer’s point of view as he discovers that the demons are coming to earth. But this isn't the cool, ever calmly graceful Lucifer of the Sandman/Carey comic or 'Ninth Gate’, nor the grand Miltonian rebel, or even the cool evil of ‘End of Days’ Satan. Instead he’s afflicted with doubts, guilt, anxiety and dare I say it- angst. This is a Lucifer who cuts and runs, who thinks " I've failed -yet again" and exhibits surprise and confusion over the Fallen's escape ( "How could I have been so blind?" he thinks). Now while its certainly original to have a somewhat wimpy and angsty Lucifer, I suspect the reason we haven’t seen this portrayal before is that no one wants a second-rate Adversary. Give me overweening pride to shake Heaven and the supernatural grace, calm and cool malice of Gaimans Lucifer any day.
Turns out that Lucifer has been trying to convince the world for centuries that God, and angels and demons don't exist, because these entities feed of belief. And Lucifer knows that his former army has become a stir-crazy, rampaging, pillaging force of destruction while locked in Hell who would destroy the Humanity that fought to protect in their rage. So he starves them of belief and acts as Hells Jailor.
Then the plan goes to pot with the Maelstrom and he decides instead to 'light a fire' of faith…… (Practically screaming 'To Be Continued' and it is.......)
"All Good Things"- Myranda Kalis
This story is about a man gradually realising he’s got an Earthbound demon within him (a personality/entity that's been sleeping for a while) as the spiritual and geological tension of LA rises as the powerful Earthbound's realise Lucifer is in the City of Angels. The Great Beast (big ass Earthbound) flexes his 'will upon the earth' causing a massive earthquake to shake and destroy much of LA, leading to 3 days and nights of looting, rampage and demonic activity.
This grand catastrophe has two results- Morael awakens from his dormant state, subsuming his host personality and picks a side (though at the cost of his boyfriend). And the Great Beasts shaking and scouring of LA does succeed in flushing out Lucifer in one grand angelic 'Visitation', the Morningstar appears in LA like a tide of light inspiring or shocking all those who see him, in person or on national TV, before disappearing again.
This story gives an idea of why the Earthbound are so powerful (forming a natural hierarchy for the newly released Fallen to obey or evade) while examining the relationship between demon and host- in this case manifesting as effectively Multiple Personality Disorder. The game interest comes as its a Demon character idea I hadn’t thought of before- say a Prologue before the game where the GM asks you to create a human PC to whom all this weird stuff occurs until you realise that the strangeness is coming from within rather than an external source.
"Tiger by the Tail" - Ellen Kiley
This story concerns a feral demon of the wild called Malakh in the body of an Argentinean torture victim. Now he hunts the urban jungle, while trying to protect his 'lair' or ethnic neighbourhood. Possessed of surprising altruism he protects his fellow Argentineans from both rioters and the various Fallen factions trying to recruit the great hero of the War. (Malakh refused to surrender until Lucifer commanded him, thus taking the fight out of the Elohim)
In short order he’s ambushed by technically competent soldiers and wakes to find himself looking at a blood covered sign saying "top lice ality" which I first read as "To Police Reality" . Wow I thought- a big crossover reference to Mage and the Technocracy. Are they stepping in to cover-up the demonic supernatural shenanigans I thought?. Alas not, this is a crossover-free book and the sign actually reads "Stop Police Brutality". So Malakh gets captured and used as part of the bait to lure out Lucifer (given his prior contact with the great general) but just at the right moment, the Visitation occurs, heartening Malakh enough to escape, though rendered literally 'armless.
It was this piece that first made me think about the similarity between Demon and another, now out of print RPG called Ray Winnigers Underground also set in LA. Both are really about old soldiers who are coming back to normal life- forgotten by the populations they once died to protect they are powerful combat monsters in a world that doesn’t need them. What are they then to do? Is there Justice or Just Us? And that’s how the Demons are- like old Vietnam vets for whom the horrors of war happened just yesterday, but who now cannot relate to civilians who no longer acknowledge the sacrifices of those conflicts.
Other than this comparison (which had my digging out my Underground RPG stuff) the story is of limited game value other than to emphasis the power of combat-twink devourer demons and suggest some ideas about War in Heaven taking place in scales and situations beyond normal conception.
"What Shelters Them" - Sarah Roark
Getting back to more traditional angelic fiction here with a homeless, hobo tramp who is actually a good-hearted angel (well it is set in Hollywood) who seems not so much to have Fallen as briefly tripped. He comes to the aid of two kids orphaned by the LA quake, and befriends them, learning the secret lore of childhood stories and belief.
And that’s when the Blue Fairy gets mentioned and I suddenly have horrific flashbacks to the movie 'AI'. They don’t call it the Blue Fairy- rather the angelic Blue Lady, but still it’s a reference too far.
Once I recovered, the story proceeded entertainingly enough. The benevolent near-angel messes around with some fundamental universal forces (he designed molecules dontcha know!) and gives the kid a gift of protection- a doohickey charm that deflects all harm that would come to the wearer and anyone holding hands with her. Evil demons get wind of this, pretend to be the Blue Lady and snatch/trick kids so they can abuse the power of the doohickey.
Good angel saves day, but at the cost of destroying the kids faith in him as a benevolent angel and resolves not to give anymore uber-gifts to pre-teens.
Now this is a very fairytale like story with some nastiness, though its never gratuitously explicit. It reminds us that demons can be nearly redeemed and as the original architects of reality they can cause some major trouble when they become cowboy builders. As a useable plot for a game it’s not bad, with some interesting NPC's. Overall I liked it, despite the whole Blue fairy thing.
"The Devils Sugar" - Greg Stolze
At last a demon story without any real heroes. Gavriel is a slick tongued, ever cool, unflappable Devil (Balseraph in In Nomine terms) who meets and recruits two other demons- a feral brick 'Joriel' and a seer 'Edasul' for a mission not unreminiscent of the last act of the 'Usual Suspects'. They have to steal the drugs and money from a coke deal that they know is going to be raided by the cops.
In true demon style, Gavriel (charming TV ministers son bringing succour and faith to the LA Disaster Relief zone by day, Machiavellian 'Face' by night) fast talks his way into and out of trouble, betrays his companions, cannibalises Edasul for power before getting tazered by a mortal hunter. Fade to black.
Some wonderful dialogue then follows as Gavriel awakes to find himself pinned down by having two Eucharist wafers lightly placed on his wrists. His conversation with the wild eyed, ranting hunter goes a bit like this-
”You saw Lucifer didn’t you?” [Gavriel said]
“She spun, her eyes wide. “How did you know?”
“I’ve seen his effect on mortals”
“Everything’s ruined now” she muttered
“Yep, that’s the Morningstar all right”
From this inauspicious start, the smooth-tongued Gavriel talks his way into her confidence, then friendship, then trust, before ultimately convincing the (small H) hunter to sell her soul to him, and then die as he coldly drains her life essence because she inconvenienced him.
Sure there were no heroes in this tale, but Gavriel is the closest to the Carey ‘Lucifer’ character in the book, and so would present a tremendous enemy if the GM was smooth tongued enough to present him as an NPC, or a truly game twisting PC if run by a sufficiently charismatic player. Not a bad read at all.
“She Kindly Stopped For Me”- Diane Piron-Gelman
This tale is possibly the most introspective of the whole anthology concerning a Fallen angel of death finding purpose in euthanatising a terminally disabled woman. Vast swathes of introspection, inner angst and a lack of sympathy for those involved meant that this quite short story was one I blinked and gladly missed.
“A Legitimate Obligation”- Carl Bowen
This tale introduces Harvey Ciullo/Hasmed the pudgy ageing Mafiosi/Butcher from the War who will star in the upcoming Demon trilogy. Basically he has been sent to LA to help the sister of a Mafia Don who has lost her daughter.
The foul-mouthed Harvey/Hasmed stomps around LA being generally rude to mortal and demon alike and finding wanting all those involved with the missing girl- from mother, to father to boyfriend/pimp to the girl herself, now a ruined addict. He then kills her rather than watch her degrade herself further, and then returns to New Jersey and the mortal daughter he loves more than life.
This sort of activity would make me think he belonged to the Kevorkian-like Slayer-splat like in the previous tale, but apparently he’s a Scourge- a former guardian angel which may tie in to his devotion to the daughter of his mortal host body.
Again this is one for metaplot fans only- introducing the signature character of Harvey, and reminding us that Demons can inherit their hosts mortal passions almost as often as they successfully destroy the host personality.
“Gingerbread Houses” – Lucien Soulban
This is one of the better plots since it has a real element of mystery and surprise to it. A Fallen German detective (Ahrimal) in Vegas meets up with another demon, whose former incarnation he has slain. The previously disincarnated demon, Thaol is a changed demon from the vicious Turkish gunrunner he used to be in his previous life. Now he’s peaceful, and serene and working as a friendly waiter in a Vegas Casino.
Ahrimal is naturally suspicious over this Damascene conversion from a demon who “commanded the 7th Phalanx against the Principalities and almost boiled an entire ocean to kill one angel. God entrusted you with drumming the hearts of predators before casting you into an Abyss for eons. How could you forget that?”
Apparently Thaol has found a special host, a personality-less amnesiac who has a mental ‘hole’ into which the demon can push its immortal anger and rage and so approach a state of calm serenity and near redemption.
As Ahrimal investigates he discovers that there is more on earth than is dreamt of in heaven and hell. Namely a mortal psychopath with a mind more twisted than that of a demon- serving as a blank host body ‘honey trap’ which allows a reverse possession- to lure in and destroy the demonic personality while keeping its powers.
An exciting showdown goes down between Ahrimal and the ruthlessly evil mortal with the power of 4 demons, before our heroic ‘tec casts the mortal into the ‘little sister to the Abyss’ the Shadowlands! Though this damns the protagonist a little (he mentions feeling the call of the Abyss and his “razor-edged short temper. He felt angrier, cagier. He knew he’d slid back slightly, destroying months of altruism and charity.” Which seems to hint at a fairly hefty morality meter mechanic.
It’s a nice inverse to the set-up in ‘All Good Things’ which has the demon submerge the man, with the man (far more wicked than the then repentant demon) replacing the demon. (shades of Neutronium Alchemist here) It also makes for a far more frightening NPC concept to have a villain who is so humanly evil that he puts the Fallen to shame.
"Jilted" -Matthew McFarland
This tale starts off interestingly with an obvious Britney Spears character crying her eyes out in her dressing room at the revelation of her secret lesbian affair and ruination of her born again Christian virgin reputation. For it seems that her demon lover (Sabriel) was a succubus-like tormentor and tempter of humanity.
Since it was set in Chicago, my first thought was “At last- they address Gulfora the Succubus!” First mentioned in V:TM Chicago By Night she seemed like a perfect reference for an Earthbound demon that has been lurking around the sewers of the WoD since the early Rein-Hagen demon-obsessed days. But alas its not to be and the two succubi seem unrelated.
The focus shifts perspective and remains on said succubi, Sabriel as she assumes a disturbing Lolita-like form of a schoolgirl actress who seduces the paedophiliac director. What then follows is a fairly explicit sex scene that made me think the anthology had morphed into some porn novel, should earn the book a 'Mature Adults Only' label (but doesn't) and which seems both gratuitous and unnecessary (and a possible write in vote for the British Bad Sex In Novles Award) . Sabriel seems less of an avenging angel and more a reveller in depravity and torturer of lust.
Indeed the story doesn't go anywhere, with a small personal revelation for a character that lacks any redeeming feature. This more than invites comparison to the much lambasted 'Eternal Hearts' book and doesn't rate so well.
“Taking His Name In Vain”- Adam Timworth
At last a complete change of scenery. Set in London with name-checks and familiar landmarks abounding the protagonist is Magdiel, another Slayer splat demon, recently arrived to the body of a happily married Pakistani social worker.
She witnesses the Visitation on TV and is awed by the re-appearance of her idol, the Morningstar. So awed in fact that she becomes righteously miffed when some skinheads murder a bunch of people in praise of Lucifer. Killing two of the trio, she becomes entranced with the belief of the skinhead mastermind as he praises demon-kind and prostrates himself before her demon form.
Then learning that this was all the work of another, more powerful demon based in London who is bent on bringing her into his service, she throws down with the Big Bad. Against the odds, her faith in Lucifer pulls her through and she is triumphant, though now ready to enjoy a lifetime of peace with her husband before seeking the Morningstar.
The best part of this tale is that its one of the few which show a meaningful human reaction to the Visitation. (the other big reactions were complete catatonia in ‘All Good Things’ and madness in ‘Devils Sugar’) Magdiel/Anila's husband sees it with her on TV, and begins to mumble towards the possibility of faith. The next day, rationality has set in and him and ‘the lads at the office reckon it was staged’
Its an interesting because it shows 2 things- that Lucifer has already defeated himself because the rationality he strove to foster over centuries runs too deep for him to reverse, and that the rest of the WoD can keep their Masquerade/Veil/Secret societydom for a little while longer.
Overall worth reading, especially for Brits. More Shadowland material, with hints that Demons have a lot of interaction with Wraiths.
COMMENTS
This anthology was an interesting read in that it explains the cosmology and society of the new WW bad-boys, far unlike the previous portrayals of WoD demons. The idea of 666 Earthbound demons escaping hell preserves some of the prior continuity, but combined with Lucifer’s quest to keep the Fallen jailed it does lend itself to a ‘Brimstone’ based campaign with Lucifer hiring the PC’s to return the escapees to the Abyss. Armed with Demon: the Fallen you could run it either for human souls (with the mortal or thrall rules for a Detective Stone) or for escaped loyalist demons of good character (at least by the Devils definition).
However I did pick up a distinct homoerotic subtext throughout the book with either gay or homophobic characters appearing in many of the stories. (and in psycho Darren’s case, a homophobe with a gay lover) which reminded me of the early V:tM era with its poorly concealed sexual metaphors (and artwork that used to scream – “Buy Vampire Today to Become a Better Lover!” ). A disturbing amount of sexual situations directed against either young girls, or entities that resembled them also made me a bit worried that there was no cover label advising sale to Mature Readers Only. I’m not entirely convinced that all of it was perfectly necessary, so it seems there as much to emphasis that Demon is a ‘Mature’ game as anything.
GAME IMPLICATIONS
So what does Lucifer’s Shadow offer as a game resource?
Well if you are running a canon based WoD game in LA, then you’ve just been Denning’d. (reference to Troy Denning who became infamous as a FR author for blowing up campaign locations that people had games set around). LA by Night is now obsolete, Demon: City of Angels is here to stay. For that purpose, Lucifer’s Shadow offers a wide variety of NPC demons to meet and greet in LA, though the big powerhouses like the Great Beast and Princess Nazathor stay resolutely off-screen.
It also fills in some detail on Lucifer’s motivations and plan and why the Fallen are so obsessed with locating their missing leader. Some want to kill him because he never suffered in the way they did, whilst others just want their old general to lead them again so the world makes sense again, like it did in the War.
Finally it gives some demonstration of the game mechanics in action, from the different splatitudes, to the Redemption based morality meter to the Belief-fuelled energy bar.
COMPARISONS
Throughout my reading of the book I found myself making a lot of comparisons with other Biblical/Lucifer based RPG’s. Be it feeding on belief (like the false gods of Archangel ) or the concept of angels rebelling out of love for mankind which resembled that of Heaven & Earth's Jesus’ split from the Father, while the splats had close similarities to the In Nomine Infernal Bands (Devils= Balseraphs, Scourges= Djinn etc) which may be because both games are based on the same source material. Certainly its familiar material without a big surprise.
The biggest comparison though was on the central character of Lucifer. In Demon he appears to have none of his usual attributes, and becomes a major presence more in absentia (through others opinions of him) than his portrayal would warrant. I’ll admit its innovative yes, but convincing, no. Not a Lucifer that I’d use in my game.
The major problem for me came in the demons motivation. These are creatures who once loved humanity so much that they fought God! And yet now they mostly want to harm, manipulate and abuse humanity. This is quickly dismissed as being due to “love turning to poison” over the centuries and ascribed to the madness of the sensory deprivation Pit. But for me it doesn’t explain the demons who are clearly not mad, and have more of a score to settle with God rather than humanity.
But the game it reminded me the most of was Ray Winnigers Underground RPG with all its combat-stressed, demobbed combat vets who have been fighting so long that they cannot re-adjust to civilian society. And because that society doesn’t match the rose-tinted view they had when they protected its ideals from foreign threats, then they feel betrayed from the lack of gratitude. This betrayal and hurt seems to be present in some of the demons described and goes a long way to making them embittered but playable characters rather than rampaging lunatics.
CONCLUSION
Is Lucifer's Shadow an anthology worth reading?
Well it covers some major bases for the WoD fans, introducing the Demons close up and playing around with a metaplot event large enough to compare to the Week of Nightmares or Red Star.
As a portrayal of demon characters it has some interesting ideas for both PC’s and NPC’s (particularly Lucien Soulban's Ahrimal and Darren, and Sarah Roarks Sephidor/Gepetto). It’d be useful as an introduction for new players to the game and the post-Visitation LA setting.
However, some of its sexual content is dubious at best and the portrayal of Lucifer was a gamble that didn’t pay-off in my view.
Overall I’d give it a 3 for Style (Mixed, occasionally inappropriate) and a 4 for Substance (some useful material for Demon fans, comprehensive coverage of the splats and LA).
Stephen Joseph Ellis,
October 2002,
Email: assam60@hotmail.com
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