Suffragan Archangels

For those tired of the Word game, here are the Suffragan Archangels.

A "suffragan bishop" is an assistant bishop without a diocese of his own. Suffragan Archangels have no Words. (The title comes from the Latin suffragari, to support, to help.)

There are, you see, some really good angels out there that don't happen to yearn for Words. They work diligently to Do Good, but they like a variety of approaches. Such beings often wind up working for several Archangels, over the ages, acquiring distinctions and attunements, and such, just not Words. And, once in a while, such generalists become Archangels, either through election by the Seraphim Coucil or (more often) by Divine Intervention.

The resulting Archangel is definitely a second-stringer – it can't draw on a chunk of the Symphony for Word-power, it has no neat Word or Choir attunements to hand out – but it is still a Superior. It can juggle Forces, create angels, be in several places at once, use any standard Choir resonnance, generally be beyond the range of PC quantification, and so on.

(Note that Suffragan-created angels are created without a Word. Also note that angels who go to work for a Suffragan do not automatically lose old Word attunements since there is no new Word to overwrite them.)

A Suffragan can also take any attunement of any Choir or Word, and such attunements are often the payment a Suffragan asks for specific services. It can then hand out these attunements to its own angels, as long as that angel could have received the attunement from the original Archangel. Suffragans acquire and pass along Rites in the same way.

Besides collecting attunements, Suffragans work harder than most Archangels at acquiring Songs and creating artifacts. They also hand out Songs and artifacts more freely than most Archangels.

The Vassal, Friend, and Master distinctions of a Suffragan only give +1 to the chance to invoke the Suffragan, for each level of distinction. (Thus a Master has +3 to invoke.) The base chance to invoke varies with the individual Suffragan, but they are, on average, easier to invoke than Worded Archangels, in large part because they usually have fewer servitors.

Suffragans can have Worded servitors. (It's not like they have anything against Words; they're just not their style.) Servitors, Worded and otherwise, can circulate much more freely among Suffragans than among other Archangels, since there is no change of Word mechanics on changing Superiors. This makes servitors feel freer to ask for such changes, though it does nothing to make the Suffragans more likely to grant them.

There are three classes of Suffragans:

• Most Suffragans work for a more powerful, Worded Archangel. But only because they want to. All they have to do is change their mind and maybe move office furniture. (They tend to have very modest "cathedrals," if you can call them that at all.) As a result, they often get wooed for their services and support.
• A smaller population of Suffragans are free-lances. They and their angels work on an unpredictably wide range of issues that changes over time. Sometimes, they can seem like semi-Outcasts, so loose are their relations to the more organizational parts of Heaven. Actual Outcast angels may feel somewhat easier about approaching them. They are the least likely to show up at meetings of the Seraphim Council.
• The smallest population of Suffragans is at the opposite pole from the free-lances: the Heirs. A few Archangels have Suffragan Archangels standing by, permanent high-level assistants, ready to take over in the event of their Archangel's demise. Such a being is already used to many facts of life as a Superior, along with the details of the Archangel's organization. If only Raphael had had an Heir... Some Heavenly rumor has it that Soldekai is Gabriel's Heir and Regent, a Suffragan Archangel in disguise, just hiding it very well because, well, an Archangel could.

Suffragans are all members of the Seraphim Council, and can be swing votes at times, even if the free-lances don't show up often.

Grand Dukes

There are "suffragan princes," too, though they prefer to be styled "Grand Dukes." Grand Dukes are much rarer than Suffragan Archangels, though, because most Princes, and especially Asmodeus, are aghast at the thought of so much power uncommitted to a solidly infernal Word. It's just a major Renegade waiting to happen, in Asmodeus' view, or, in the case of an Heir Apparent, an invitation to assassination. Heaven is more trusting.

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