Raphael is the Ur-Elohite. As such, her Celestial form is a heart-achingly beautiful androgynous figure, reflecting an ideal human form. She also appears on any plane looking like a slightly prim schoolmarm, complete with glasses, gray hair in a bun, and chalk dust on her hands.

It is dissonant for Servitors of Knowledge to destroy a source of information. As this includes the Symphony, any action or inaction that degrades the Symphony is dissonant.

Raphael has a complex organization, based around the needs of the Exiles. There are at least four teams: The Symphonic Researchers, The Teachers, The Investigators, and The Repository. These are also known informally as Brain-brains, Mommies (or Nannies), Spooks, and Bookworms. It is also rumored that there is a cadre of Knowledge servitors trained in all kinds of dirty tricks fighting, but no proof has been found of that.

It should be obvious what each team does, but their organizations are completely different, depending on the needs of the team. The Brain-Brains are organized like a large research institute, with Directors, Senior Researchers, Junior Researchers, and so on down to Lab Assistants and Administrative Aides. The Teachers are more like a faculty at an inner city High School - at least one of their self-appointed tasks is helping to reform the human denizens of Hades. The Spooks have a cell-style organization, and consider themselves expendable if The Watch or The Sword gets hold of them (oddly enough, the Spooks have made Nybbas' espionage efforts easier - Laurence and Zadkiel were used to dealing with Raphael's style). The last of the groups, also known as the Archivists, is organized less hierarchically, with everyone doing their appointed job with little fuss and much efficiency. They maintain all of Hades' records and do their best to keep a shadow version of the Library.

Her single-minded (almost obsessive) research into the Symphony's degradation has allowed Raphael to grant her Servitors full use of the original resonance of their choir, without harmful side effects. (All Choir Attunements of Raphael are Restricted, for obvious reasons.) However, they thus also have their Choir's original dissonance conditions, and it is dissonant for them to use a Tattered-version resonance. In addition, each choir has a skill that it Knows automatically.

Seraphim have Detect Lies/6 (Note that detection of the Truth when it involves any Superior on any side is still impossible for Seraphim of Knowledge)

Cherubim have a weapon skill or Brawl (their choice)/6

Ofanim have Driving (or other appropriate maneuvering skill)/6

Elohim have Psychology/6

Malakim have Investigation/6

Lilim have Negotiation/6

Kyriotates have Dodge/6

Mercurians have Savior-faire/6

Works as Yves' Divine Logic, except that the user must believe the information imparted to be true.

With a successful Will check, the user can bury one piece of information from anyone's knowledge, but only one piece of information at a time can be so buried.

As Yves' Attunement from his extended write-up.

A Friend of Information has a complete eidetic memory. Any information that the character has seen can be recalled with a turn of concentration.

A Vassal of the Sages will be able to impart information easily, cutting all training times in half for someone they are teaching.

Has the equivalent of Knowledge/3 in all knowledge skills.

Exiles:

Allied: Nybbas, Vapula

Associated: Eli, Blandine

Neutral:

Hostile:

Enemy:

Others:

Allied:

Associated: Gabriel

Neutral: Fleurty, Jordi

Hostile: Mariel

Enemy:

Host:

Allied:

Friendly:

Neutral: Israfel, Marc, Jean

Hostile: Zadkiel, Laurence, Novalis

Enemy: Demogorgon

+1 A dictionary

+2 A place of learning

+3 A student, willing to be taught

+4 A piece of information no one else knows

+5 A rare collections library containing at least one unique manuscript

+6 The Hermitage, Petrograd, Russia

Its been a long, hard existence. And not even she knows that she's lucky to be alive.

At first, it seemed so easy. As the First Elohite, objectivity was her bread and butter, and her quests for knowledge to bolster her objectivity became legendary. Eventually, Yves proclaimed her the Angel of Knowledge, and she welcomed her word, one of the first handful given out (along with Destiny, Light, and Stone). Eons passed while Raphael learned all she could about the universe around her. To help her in her task, she created servitors, in the same manner that Lucifer and Michael had. These servitors, among them Jean, Beth, and Sophia, were her research assistants, her students, and her children, all wrapped up in precious, individual lives of divine fire.

Then came the Rebellion. Heaven was rent by angel fighting angel, Choir-mate fighting Choir-mate, and Servitors fighting each other. Raphael knew that Lucifer was wrong, for she had discovered early on the uniqueness of humanity and its response to knowledge. The Eden experiment had offended her sensibilities - the test population was too small, the parameters were too narrow, and the theory it putatively tested too unclear. It is rumored that she influenced Lilith to leave the Garden, but no one is sure just how. It is also rumored that Ophis was actually sent by the Angel of Animals to make sure that 'the interfering wench' wouldn't. In the end, Michael's death at the hands of Lucifer forced her to stand aside. Objectively, there was no way that the remnants of the Loyalist faction could win the fight with Michael and the Metatron both dead. Logically, the Loyalists couldn't stay in heaven with the Rebels. So (and whisper this not among the Exiles) it was Raphael, the eldest of the Elohim, who suggested to the victorious Lucifer that exile was the only option.

It was Raphael who pointed out the existence of Hades to the Lightbringer, and Raphael stood to guide the angels who still believed in God's supremacy out of the Light of Heaven. And when she went, she left behind almost all of her servitors, beings who knew, as only servitors of Knowledge could know, that there would be precious few opportunities for research where the Exiles were going.

An age came and went, and Raphael did her best to keep the Exiles together, and strong, and united in purpose. The other Archangels did their best to aid in the task, but it was Lilith who became the most useful of them all, when she discovered tethers to the corporeal plane.

And that, perhaps, is the most telling of the changes wrought in Raphael's soul. Knowledge is no longer a joy to be sought out for its own value. It is a tool, only collected when it means an advantage to the Exiles, and destroyed or muddied if that would provide an advantage. But she holds much of the knowledge of the universe, and her research shows her, clearly and objectively, that without some great change, the symphony will crumble and die - perhaps within the fleeting breath of time that is a mortal lifespan.

And Raphael does not want to die.

Blandine: "Her silence is more eloquent than some people's dramatic speech. Oh, my sister, have I failed you?"

Eli: "He's trying very hard, perhaps too hard. I'm afraid he may have forgotten the big picture in all the little pictures he's dealing with."

Nybbas: "The youngster is very good at his job - perhaps good enough to save us all."

Vapula: "He is one of the brightest of my protoges. But I fear that his obsession is misguided."

<Sidebar>

When Vapula's latest project was starting, he brought a number of preliminary sketches, equations, and arguments to Raphael. They were closeted for several days, at the end of which Vapula returned to his Cathedral and started feverish work - work that continues to this day. Raphael has, curiously, sent two of her Symphonic Researchers, both Masters of Knowledge, to Vapula as assistants. Once it was developed, Vapula offered his former superior the Seat Attunement - which she refused. No one knows why.

</sidebar>

Malphas: "I'm fairly sure the Malphi would have had a sister had I been created as a Kyriotate."

Host

Andrealphus: (sigh) "He just doesn't get it, does he? I feel so sorry for him... By some measures, he's the most damaged of us all."

Asmodeus: "Is he what he seems to be? If so, why is he there?"

Marc: "I know why he made the choice he did. I just hope he remembers in time."

(Rumor)

Has Raffa been dating Marc? There are some who say so...

Demogorgon: "Why does Chaos have such a destructive spokesman? It's counterintuitive. But then, Lucifer never was strong in Math."

Israfel: "Her pain is my deathknell. Her madness is my defeat."

Kobal: "The tears of a clown are the most wrenching. Let him weep while entertaining those who need him most."

Lucifer: "How thou hast fallen, o Son of the Morning... and you don't even realize it, do you?"

Malphas: "I'm fairly sure the Malphi would have had a sister had I been created as a Kyriotate."

Zadkiel: "Does she know what she's doing to us? Do we care what we did to her?"

Others

Mariel: "Why did she refuse us? She and I could work together as we one did - subjective and objective in synergy."

Jordi: "I pity him. He doesn't even understand his own downfall."

White Star: "And what is Nirvana? The candle's flame after it has been snuffed. Be careful, youngster, that you understand your own goals."

Raphael's role among the exiles is to be the conscience. Any member of the Exiles who looks at one of the Servitors of Knowledge knows just how far they have slipped from what they once were. However, Raphael is paying a terrible price for her children's purity - she is now one of the weakest of the Archangels because she has expended herself so thoroughly fighting the effects of the Tattering in her Servitors.

Her organization winds up acting as support for everyone else on the side of the rebels - she simply does not have a specialized role any more.

She may be afraid, but she's still an Elohite. She will do her best to objectively come to the right decision and take the right action. Raphael, because of this, sits as chair of the Hadean council, running the meetings, taking items for the agenda, and generally making sure that business gets accomplished.

Raphael believes that there really isn't a War on, anymore. It's just ignorant thugs trying to carve out control of a pie that is being ruined by their struggles. She despairs of ever getting Baal to acknowledge that, let alone ruffians like Ogiel or Laurence. If she knew about Beelzebub's efforts, she might just give up on the whole thing.

She's essentially fighting for status quo ante - she wants the humans left alone, the Celestials among them as observers only, with perhaps subtle guidance to greater understanding.