Looking at him, you'd never know that he was an Elohite, now (and some are muttering that he isn't). Vapula has cleaned up his appearance and manner a bit, but he's still running around in (apparent) glee, fiddling with gadgets and dubious-looking pieces of machinery. He's just not killing or maiming people anymore.

Well, not good people. Bad people and demons are pretty much fair game. And often disposed of in a manner that would make a Malakim of Creation green with envy.

Anyway, these days Vapula, when he shows up on Earth, usually appears to be a refugee from a 1950s saucer movie: square-jawed, vaguely military uniform or lab coat, handsome in a rough-and-tumble way. His (rare) female vessels are usually drop dead gorgeous, but alternate between the "hair in bun, lab coat and prim glasses" type and the "wearing cammos/gun oil/sweat, sleekly muscled and carrying a truly enormous gun" type. It's fairly obvious that Vapula's watched one too many movies.

If you want to serve this Archangel, you had better mean it: Servitors of SCIENCE! suffer dissonance whenever they let a new piece of machinery or scientific mystery go by unanalyzed. They don't have to solve it right away, but they have to keep on plugging until somebody comes up with a solution (although going into Trauma works, too). Servitors of Vapula tend to be fairly blasé about their possible corporeal deaths: it's sometimes the only way to get out of a project…

Many of Vapula's minions (the best of them) Repented with him, so his organization is pretty well set up. Unfortunately, it's still based around his old Infernal hierarchy. It's not as bad as before, of course: Vapula's Servitors aren't going to get "volunteered" as guinea pigs, or anything like that. But they still don't talk to each other, and they still all work on parallel projects, and the collective motto is still "Firepower at any cost". It'll be decades before they all straighten out and fly right.

Things aren't helped much by the Archangel's routine habit of going down to Earth whenever something really interesting is going on. Vapula is good about not completely taking over parties (his subordinates need to practice responsibility), but having him as an observer is nerve-wracking. Inexperienced Servitors try to use him as a mobile, sentient juggernaut of doom. Wise Servitors look for a team of inexperienced angels ("who need the help more") involved in something unusual.

Still, he's a pretty good boss, if you like to fiddle with stuff until it's fixed and can appreciate quality pyrotechnics. Vapula isn't big on formality, and always fully attributes his sources. Come up with a great new idea, and he'll let you play in a Tether (where all the really fun stuff is) for a while. Mess up … well, as long as the explosion takes out a demon or two, you should be OK.

It's the thought that counts.

All Servitor Attunements are officially "partially restricted" unless stated otherwise: other Choirs may duplicate the abilities, but do not receive the gadgets associated with the Attunements.

These are Vapula's pure researchers: they can immediately tell if an experiment or theory is based on honest data. They receive clipboards that serve as a level/1 reliquary and give Fast-Talk/3.

Cherubim of SCIENCE! can automatically detect humans that have any scientific skill of 6. Any rolls made to protect that person have a +2 to the check digit. They receive a reliquary/3 (pipes) that can only be used to power the Ethereal Song of Might.

Vapula likes this Choir a lot more than the Infernal counterpart. They can use their resonance to cut in half the time it takes to conduct an experiment. They also receive fuzzy dice that act as a level/6 reliquary, but the Essence stored can only be used for the Songs of Motion.

These angels never suffer dissonance for subjective feelings about SCIENCE!, as long as they do not allow those feelings to affect their behavior in other areas. It's widely assumed that this is the only reason why Vapula isn't a 'yo-yo'. They receive brooches that act as relics, providing the Ethereal Song of Harmony/3.

On a Perception Roll, a Malakim can find or make a functioning weapon out of anything, the utility of which being dependent on the check digit. A 1 means (for example) that the angel can tinker with a nail gun and give it better range, while a 6 means that there's enough parts lying around the stable for a fully-functional armored car. They also receive either a padded rattan (a form of bamboo) sword or a fiberglass bow. While they look cheap, they're actually level/3 relics: the sword uses the same statistics as a Long Sword and the bow causes damage equivalent to a Carbine Rifle…

Many, many Servitors of SCIENCE! take this Attunement.

Vapula has more Bright Lilim than average, actually: they came along with him when he Redeemed. Like their infernal counterparts, they add the Celestial Forces to any Computer Operation roll: however, they no longer have a bonus on resonance rolls against technical/scientist types. Instead, Bright Lilim of SCIENCE! may, on a Perception roll -2, determine whether or not a currently online user is a Celestial, Ethereal or knowing servant of "higher powers". They also receive glasses that give a Knowledge/3, determined at character creation. This Knowledge skill will always be related to science, technology or "geekdom".

Bright Lilim tend to be highly popular at science fiction conventions and scientific conferences.

Kyriotates are Vapula's engineers. They can possess a piece of machinery for up to ten minutes. While there, they can cast the Corporeal Song of Healing on the machine without penalty. Also, the act of merging with the machine gives them a +2 to their next roll to repair or maintain it. Kyriotates don't get artifacts or reliquaries, but they are all taught the Corporeal Song of Healing at level 3. The Scottish accent is optional, but would make a good Corporeal Discord.

Mercurians are Vapula's social scientists and statisticians. They always know if a survey or study is biased, in any way: with a Perception roll, they can even determine what the results should have been. Mercurians of SCIENCE! also avoid dissonance for violent actions if there is no significant, permanent harm done. They receive a talisman that gives them Dodge/4: for some reason, it's usually in the shape of a fedora.

That wasn't the original name, but it stuck. This Distinction allows an angel to temporarily imbue a technological device with Songs, Attunements, and skills. Once a device is created, the angel may not create another until it is destroyed (on rare occasions, it actually lasts a week, whereupon it breaks down anyway). Cost to create is 2 Essence, plus 2 times whatever Essence would be needed to fuel Songs: half cost to operate each day. Once created, the device may be used by anyone willing to pay the Essence. If no Essence is paid, the device remains inert (and will still break down within a week).

All Servitors of SCIENCE! must take this Attunement upon character creation.

The angel has the ability, once per day, to convince a group of scientists or engineers (maximum of 5 for every Ethereal Force of the angel's) to actually listen to each other, instead of just repeating their own positions over and over again. This condition will only last for an hour, but if the ideas are sparking by then, no one might notice…

Vapula isn't too keen on the old naming styles.

Treat as the same as his old Infernal Knight of Combustion Distinction.

Just "Professor". Holders of this Distinction will never have their academic or scientific credentials challenged. Unfortunately, this Distinction does not actually grant any scientific or academic skills, but Vapula never gives it to any angel who doesn't have an appropriate Knowledge/6 anyway, so that's not much of a problem.

These angels can see the most obvious flaw in a scientific (hard or soft) theory, engineering design, sociological model, etc. If they make an Intelligence Roll at -2, they can even come up with the most efficient way to fix it.

One thing that hasn't changed about Vapula: most of his peers think that he's insane.

Most of the more conservative Archangels find this most modern of Superiors quirky at best and starkly incomprehensible at worst. His mere presence is enough to make Gabriel grit her teeth, David glower, Jordi growl and Laurence fiddle with his sword. Khalid finds his mystical leanings impious, Jean is disquieted by his exuberance, and Marc is shocked by his utter disdain for financial realities. On the other hand, Eli and Blandine think that he's hysterical, Janus likes his style, Michael appreciates the shiny new toys, Novalis likes everybody, Yves does his inscrutable routine and Dominic … well, Dominic would never admit it, but apparently he just likes the guy. Why, no one has any idea.

Allied: Blandine, Eli, Janus

Associated: Dominic, Michael, Novalis, Yves

Hostile: David, Gabriel, Jean, Jordi, Khalid, Laurence, Marc

The Archangel of Science isn't the "storm the barricades" type: however, he's more than happy to come up with bigger and more destructive barricade-stormers for those who do. Assuming, of course, that his gadgets don't end up scattering burned fragments of said barricades evenly across three square miles. His Servitors are much the same way, if not quite as dramatic about it.

Despite what their Superiors might think, many angels (and many more Soldiers) are quite pleased to see Vapula's Servitors. There is something to be said for access to mad geniuses with all sorts of bizarre, working equipment. Better yet, they tend to have a wide range of skills. As long as you keep them out of the range of fire, they're worth their weight in gold.

These aren't meant to be literal.

: Build a better mousetrap.

: Inspire someone else to build a better mousetrap.

: Think totally out of the box and come up with a non-destructive way to make mousetraps obsolete forever.

: Locate a Diabolical mousetrap factory and scatter its flaming wreckage across three counties (+2 Essence, +3 if the colors are really neat [GM call]).

+1 A better mousetrap

+2 A schoolroom of kids enjoying a science exhibit

+3 A prototype of a new machine or device

+4 The final draft of a well-written, hard science fiction novel

+5 Anything personally owned by Nikola Tesla

+6 The instant of a human scientific or technological breakthrough

The official version is Vapula's Redemption was rooted in his particular obsession. Like a bad little Habbalite, the Prince went looking for God in his own way by analyzing (read: 'taking apart') the physical universe. Ineffably enough, he succeeded in actually finding Him. The shock of his discovery (and the Light of God) was too much for a Hellborn to withstand, and his very being was transformed into the Elohite he was always meant to be.

His Servitors in Tartarus (physically) followed him into the Light, and the best of them came out the other side all happy, shiny and Redeemed. The rest didn't come out at all. Afterwards, he and his newly minted angels blew up their old Principality and skyrocketed up to Heaven, where a highly bemused Seraphim Council had to recognize his apparent promotion by God. They've since integrated themselves into the Host, and seem to have less trouble settling in than most Penitents.

That's the official version.

Some Superiors (on both sides) may know the Truth, but they're not talking. Vapula isn't a normal Elohite, by any means. His apparent belief that enthusiasm about neat scientific theories and neater gadgets can be safely expressed frightens many angels: almost as many are frightened by the fact that he's apparently right. Vapula's claim that technophilia is not a subjective way of looking at the world is preposterous. But he (and his Elohim) never shows any dissonance from it. This is starkly incomprehensible.

There are rumors, though, that have wormed their way up from Hell. Fairly reliable sources indicate that the sudden Redemption of Vapula was too sudden: there was, in point of fact, no warning at all. There is also the question about Vapula's fellow-Redeemed: at least one or two were widely thought to have been soul-killed long before they showed up in Heaven.

It is even said that Lilith doesn't recognize half of Vapula's Bright Lilim at all … and of the ones that she does, some were never Servitors of Technology, some were dead, and at least one was nowhere near Tartarus at the time of the incident. It's also said that every Geas held on these Redeemed shattered at the moment of their Redemption … including those held by Lilith. It's almost as if they were all completely different entities.

The implications of that piece of news have been highly disquieting to some of the more speculative members of the Host.