Provided by Anthony Damiani

My esteemed colleagues,

Over the course of the past few centuries, a substantial amount of criticism and analysis has been leveled at the Purity Crusade and its ancillary movements, which has traditionally focused on the proper nature of the relationship between Heaven and the Ethereals. Was it ethical to kill millions of ethereals? Does Uriel's ultimate fate justify or invalidate this movement? Those familiar with my previous work will be aware of my long-held position on the matter; however, I would like to refocus our attention to the costs of the Crusade, not only the number of ethereal lives it took, but in terms of the diversion of angelic resources to the Marches, and the corresponding gains Hell was able to make as a result. It is, in fact, my contention that this movement represented dereliction of the duties implicit in Uriel's role of General of God's Armies, leading to disastrous consequences.

To begin with, I agree with the many distinguished scholars which suggest that the Purity Crusade has its roots in the destruction of Beelzebub during the fall of Rome. One need not suggest that superior/superior combat can lead to madness (1) to believe that Uriel's expansion of his traditional duties-- combating Hell and Corruption, promoting the cause of Purity-- into control of the Marches was a result of the fall of Corruption. Simply put, having vanquished his longstanding adversary in Corruption, he had vastly greater free resources (2), and searched for a way to put them to use, able to largely neglect corruption now that it was no longer organized and personified.

Secondly, I wish to point to Beleth and the estimated two million ethereal entities (3), that found themselves forced into alliance with Hell as a result of that action. Measuring the damage done here in raw force totals is incomplete. It also represented a massive influx of research and new ideas into Hell. I've recently the data for an unpublished study that was in preparation by some of my colleagues IST Knowledge (Yandiel, et al.), before their untimely demise some ten centuries ago. This leads me to suggest that almost twice as much information flowed into Hell during the Crusade than has been generated in any comparable period, including a 43% increase in the number of known songs (4). An Infernal renaissance, as it were.

So, from a hellish perspective, we see a confluence in factors: vacancy in corruption coupled with a relative absence of Heavenly pressure in regard to the efforts of the former soldiers of Beelzebub, combined with a massive influx of information and the corresponding research into new techniques. Now, our records on the matter are incomplete, but reports from defecting demons of Kronos (5) and Vapula (6) regarding the research conducted during this period suggest that substantial productive research was made by these former servitors of Beelzebub in researching corruption.

Now, by agreement, the so-called 'Shal-Mari concordance', (7), each Prince appointed agents responsible for debriefing the Ethereals seeking asylum in Beleth's Marches and disseminating it through the rest of the hierarchy. Angels of Dominic and Lawrence have published studies attesting to the increased technical resources of Hell during this period (8,9). More interesting, however, is an examination of the agents responsible for facilitating this transference (10). Among the agents of Saminga involved in the initial debriefing of members of the Olympian and Egyptian Pantheons, and quite likely possibly others (for which records are unavailable to us) was a former servitor of Beelzebub, a Shedim known as Legion.

It would not be irresponsible to suggest that this played an immediate and possibly crucial role in the subsequent development of Legion. It is therefore possible that, among the Purity Crusade's consequences, we must consider that it may have led directly to the rise of Legion, and the resultant consequences (the death of Raphael, the elevation of Haagenti and the creation of Vapula).

Charavin

-Angel of Knowledge, IST Destiny