This one actually is still on the Internet, at an old site of mine – but when I looked at it I realized that the layout needed fixing. Put the stats for the item next to the description, not at the end where people have to flip through the entire thing to look them up. Sheesh, younger-me. Sheesh.
Anyway, since it needed editing anyway…
superior-relics-justice-mercy-google-docs
Superior Relics: Justice & Mercy
Justice & Mercy
Superior Relics: Judgment
These two relics are considered by many to be symbolic of the larger struggle within Judgment; whether this is actually True, or just propaganda, is up to the individual campaign. Both relics are exceptionally old; they, in fact, date back to the First Rebellion. They are also both exclusively associated with Dominic’s female persona Dominique. Justice and Mercy are otherwise very different.
Justice (Dominique’s Sword)
This weapon would be easily recognized by any person who has ever seen the Heavenly Judgment attunement in action: the sword that materializes when it is invoked is a good, but imperfect copy of the blade that Dominique bears. While it does not really resemble a katana, the general sense of smooth, deadly simplicity that it projects would cause most humans to remember it as one. The weapon is almost aggressively undecorated, although a hint of faint etching can be seen at various spots on the blade.
Justice started off existence as a decorative metal pole that led a remarkably uneventful existence as part of a ornamental decoration in what would become the Seraphim Council chamber, up to the moment that the Angel of Judgment ripped it off the wall and used it to kill the assassin sent to kill her at the start of the First Rebellion. She then proceeded to beat it out flat on every Rebel skull that she saw. It is said that Dominique gave Justice its first edge by whetting it on her sheer rage, mostly because it happens to be True. The hilt is practically prosaic by comparison, being “merely” a personal project of the Archangel of Creation to commemorate his protégé’s ascension to Archangel.
The decoration that Justice came from has never been repaired, by the way: Dominique felt that keeping it in plain sight might help remind the Seraphim Council of the consequences of a lapse in Judgment.
While Justice is an exceptionally dangerous weapon (Power +10, Acc +2, ignores Protection), its metaphysical power is even greater. Bearing Justice automatically gives the holder access to Judgment’s Inquisitor Distinction and Elohite attunement. Possibly more importantly, the current possessor of the sword knows at all times what Dominique would want him to do in any given circumstance. This can be glorious, tragic, or both.
Mercy (Dominique’s Blindfold)
This item of clothing is somewhat more complex. It looks like what it is: a blindfold that has been made out of what was once a heavily embroidered, black silken shirt. The shirt was Kobal’s, the embroidery was Dominique’s, and on that hangs a tale.
In the immediate aftermath of the Fall, the Angel of Judgment had the unenviable task of determining which Rebel angels could be salvaged, and which ones were lost causes. Even after the horrors of the War in Heaven, Dominique was certain that none of her former colleagues was irredeemable. It would simply be a matter of finding the flaw in each angel’s reasoning or emotional state, correcting it, and helping them regain their perspective. It would be a long task, to be sure – but a very rewarding one, and the alternatives were all worse. This rather optimistic, if not utopian, aim did not survive Dominique’s first interviewee: Kobal, Angel of Laughter, an angel chosen for reasons that no wise Servitor of Dark Humor and no polite Servitor of Judgment ever, ever refers to. The details are sketchy, but suffice it to say that when the room was burst into by the alerted guards they found a chained Kobal on the ground, smirking at the sword at his throat. The stillness was palpable as Dominique stared down the Rebel, and then slashed her blade… to cut off the embroidered shirt that she had once gifted the angel, and that he wore to Rebellion.
The next interviewee – who was, incidentally, allowed to stay in Heaven, and showed every sign of repentance until his soul-death fighting off the First Incursion ten thousand years later – entered the room to discover that the Angel of Judgment had converted the shirt into a crude blindfold. She wore this throughout the interviews, and later trials: when asked, Dominique calmly replied that she already knew the Truth of what the Rebels had done. What was needed from her now was her determination of what they would do if given another chance, and for that her Seraph resonance would simply get in the way.
Mercy provides the possessor access to all of Dominic’s Servitor attunements and regular Distinctions. It does not interfere with normal vision, but a Seraph wearing it would not be able to use his or her resonance. The wearer will also acquire a terribly complete empathy towards any person he or she sees: they will instantly comprehend and experience every act, compulsion, impulse, temptation, and influence that might lead a person to a particular action. A single dose of this can (and often did) knock a human unconscious, and can make even a hardened Malakite stop in his tracks. It has been suggested that being given Mercy has sometimes been a somewhat subtle punishment…
Justice and Mercy in the Campaign
Dominique has been known to allow a Servitor of Judgment to carry either Justice or Mercy (never both at the same time), provided that it would be both Truly necessary, and Truly not something that Dominique would need to handle herself. This effectively means that the relics are not often handed out, and invariably only in response to exceptionally sensitive problems. While Servitors of Judgment would rather die than give either one up, both relics have ended up possessed by unaware humans and demons at various times in the past. The former typically “lose” them swiftly, and the latter invariably end up being splattered on a wall somewhere. Valefor, the Demon Prince of Theft, could no doubt survive stealing either; but he has apparently never chosen to do so.