Disturbance, Dissonance, Discord and Disaster:

Or, "Why Superiors Can't Smite"

Collated by Maurice Lane, from the posts of Benjamin Acosta, Eric Alfred Burns, EDG, Neel Krishnaswami, Maurice Lane, Beth McCoy, Ryan, Matt Walsh, Jonathan Walton and quite a few others.

One of the first questions of most new angels (from either side) usually involves the necessity to keep their presence a secret. After all, things would be so much easier if Heaven or Hades could move openly among humanity, the better to foster awe/courage/abject fear among them. Instead, too flagrant a use of celestial abilities is strictly banned, and enforced by stern-faced Servitors of the Sword or Justice who seem to have had both their senses of humor and of fun surgically removed. To the Host, this seriously interferes with their playtime: to the Exiles, this sometimes makes them feel like they've been forced to run a footrace with a broken leg. Inexperienced angels will thus push the envelope when they think nobody's watching.

More experienced angels don't even touch the envelope at all: they've seen what happens when it falls apart in one's hands.

Disturbance is generated just as in canon, but with a special wrinkle: it doesn't go away as quickly. In fact, it may never go away at all.

Less than 10 points: will not linger past actual action that caused it

10 - 19 points: dissipates at the rate of 1 point of disturbance per minute

20 - 39 points: dissipates at the rate of 1 point of disturbance per hour

40 - 49 points: dissipates at the rate of 1 point of disturbance per day

50 points or more: does not dissipate at all.

The area affected will have a radius equal to that of the current disturbance level in feet.

These numbers are cumulative. For example: an angel wishes to use the Celestial Song of Light and spends 3 Essence to do so. This will generate 3 points of disturbance. If there is no lingering disturbance in the area, then the disturbance will fade normally. However, if the Song was used to hurt a human, and caused 7 or more points of damage, then the disturbance for that area will only gradually subside (until it reaches 9 points, at which point it disappears). If, at any point during this subsiding, more disturbance is generated, it is added to the cumulative total. Widespread killings of human beings, or massive property damage, will quickly result in an area that is permanently affected.

Removing permanent disturbance is tricky. Generally, any Superior can do so (they also have all learned the Canonical Dominic's trick of appearing and disappearing silently), but it requires their active attention. They also will not be pleased if that's the only reason that they were called in (especially if it's their Servitors who caused the mess). Some Servitors of the Symphony and Flowers have their own methods of reducing disturbance (as do Servitors of Chaos, but that's a cure considered by many to be worse than the disease). Generally, prudent angels from both sides just try to keep from generating disturbance in the first place.

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If an area ever acquires more than 200 points of permanent disturbance (very possible in the modern era: a single celestial terrorist attack can easily generate it), the problem reaches a whole new level. This is usually called 'Symphonic dissonance', but it would be more accurate to call it 'Symphonic death'. In short, the disturbance is now so great that it actually drowns out the Symphony. The change from disturbance to dissonance will shrink the affected area: 'dead zones' have a radius equal to their disturbance level in inches.

The actual effects are dependent on the plane. In the Corporeal, these "dead zones" seem exempt from what humans would consider natural laws. Chemical reactions work fitfully if at all; electronic circuits mysteriously die; at their most severe, the passage of time itself seems no longer to be uniform. In the Celestial, the mildest dead zones produce disorientation in nearby angels; more intense ones actually draw Essence out of beings (and items) in their "event horizon", and some of the strongest actually exert a pull on nearby things, sucking them in to be dispersed. The dead zones in the Marches are the worst; they leech significance from anything within them. Dreamscapes become pale and sparse, their owners awaking with apathy in their hearts. Ethereals actually lose Forces, as they're separated from their underlying concepts. This last type of Symphonic Dissonance also appears in the corporeal plane: it's not as rare an occurrence as it used to be.

All of this would be bad enough: unfortunately, it gets worse. Symphonically Dissonant areas actually grow (their mere existence disrupts the Symphony further). The rule of thumb is that a corporeal 'dead zone' will at first grow at the rate of about a yard a week (in game terms, the disturbance level will increase by 10 each day that a Symphonically Dissonant area is left unchecked). However, that's just the first stage: once the zone reaches a radius of about 100 feet (i.e., a Disturbance level of 1,200!), the size will double every month. The largest one that anyone's ever encountered on the corporeal plane grew to about a mile and a half in diameter before it being shut down.

At this stage, those trying to correct the problem have several options, none of them really optimal. The simplest is to acquire the aid of a Servitor of the Symphony capable of quelling disturbance: repeated uses of their specialized abilities will arrest or even reverse the effects. Unfortunately, this takes time, and at this level of intensity, tends to use up the Servitor.

Another option is to enlist the aid of a Superior: any Archangel can shut down a Symphonically Dissonant area, pretty much at will. However, doing so is one of the few things that can drain a Superior, and they don't like doing it at all. More than one Archangel has gotten ambushed this way: in fact, it's one of Ogiel's favorite tricks (he won't deliberately create a dead zone, but he'll use an existing one in a heartbeat).

A third choice is not personally dangerous, but can lead to problems later. As disturbance is a graphic demonstration of unnatural interference with the Symphony, the collected emotions of humanity can counteract it. This will inevitably result in Symphonic Discord (see below).

Example: a cold-blooded murder committed by a celestial has created a dead zone that is leaching out the emotions of everyone within the area. In order to fix it, an angel (preferably the one that committed the murder, since it has the strongest symbolic link) would have to gather up a bunch of people and perform some strong act of charity and empathy as a ritual to halt the damage. Alternately, it could bring a murderer and his victim's survivor to the place, and let the victim take vengeance on the murderer -- negating the cold-bloodedness with rage and fury.

Finally, there's an option that has only recently become available. Servitors of Demogorgon, being natural sources of disturbance, seem to be naturally proficient at minimizing the effects of it. Any Servitor of Chaos can apparently eliminate disturbance at will - including those in dead zones - without creating Symphonic Discord. They are thus in demand (by both sides) in time-critical situations. Israfel and her Servitors loudly decry this practice, but cannot explain why they are so opposed to the idea. It just seems wrong to them, somehow.

Sometimes you just can't make things right. When that happens, wise angels accept the fact that they have to accept that they can only make things stable. Symphonic Discord is that stability, at the cost of irreparably scarring the fabric of the universe itself.

Generally, only Ethereal and Celestial Discords (plus the Corporeal Discord Vulnerability) can be imposed on the Symphony. The actual Discord is normally reflective of the triggering action used to transform the disturbance, but an entity may attempt to specifically choose one. Doing so requires a Will Roll at -6 and 10 Essence. An angel that happens to personally have the Discord in question gets to add the level of said Discord to the roll. Whether successful or not, attempting this feat will cause 3d6 Mind Hits.

The level of Symphonic Discord will depend on the disturbance level at the time of transformation. Every 200 points of disturbance (round up) will result in one level of Discord. The new area will has a radius equal to (the level of Discord times 5) yards. Symphonic Discords may apparently overlap without significant effect, but few angels are prepared to experiment along those lines.

Symphonically Aware individuals will automatically know when they have entered or exited an area with Symphonic Discord: those who are not, but are aware about the phenomenon, may make a Perception roll to detect. Alternatively, they can just watch everyone else's behavior: anyone entering an area with Symphonic Discord will suffer from its effects as if they had that Discord while in the area of effect. This is cumulative: an angel with Angry/3 that enters an Angry/4 area will be effectively Angry/7. However, the permanent warping of the Symphony into a particular shape can be oddly convenient for those similarly damaged. Any celestial that spends a day in an area with the same Celestial Discord as him or her subtracts the area's level of Discord from his or her daily roll to determine whether Essence is cajoled from the Symphony.

Officially, both sets of Archangels officially disapprove of deliberately encouraging Symphonic Discord (to say nothing of trying to steer the final result). Unofficially… only a few Archangels have attunements that can fix Symphonic dead zones without Discord, and none of them have the manpower needed to shut down problems. Furthermore, it's a judgement call: when the choice is between waiting and letting the dead zone grow, and making a imperfect patch RIGHT NOW, who can blame an angel for trying to make the patch (and advance its master's Word)?

Well… Israfel, for one. Doing this sort of thing in her presence may very well cause her to flash on an alternate reality where the perpetrator is a Servitor of Chaos. That's her excuse, at any rate. It's hard to blame her. Once an area is made Discordant, it can't be fixed, ever, short of direct Divine Intervention (not a 111 roll: the real thing). What this does to her sanity is yet to be fully determined, but it can't be good.