Talents

The "coin" of the Celestial Plane's economy is generally taken to be Essence. This is fine and good, and Marc, as an eminently practical Archangel, usually goes along with this. But remember that Marc invented the idea of money, and he has reasons for wanting to apply it to the Celestial Plane, too.

So Marc issues and backs a currency. The basic unit is called the "talent," on the rare occasions when it's discussed on the Corporeal Plane. The name was first applied in the eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenistic period. For centuries, a "talent" was a unit of weight in that area, and a talent of gold or silver was a common unit of money – well, commonly referred to; since a talent is several pounds, it's not a common amount of money to encounter.

The Celestial Talent is likewise a pretty formidable unit. It's worth one character point. This means Marc is able to put a monetary value on Songs, relics, reliquaries, geases, and of course on demons and angels.

The reaction of several Archangels, when they first heard of the idea, and heard the price of a new-minted reliever, was (in the most ineffable and celestially dignified way, of course), "Eep!"

Jean was not much moved; Michael laughed. But Eli and Dominic, in a bit of cosmic irony, found themselves on the same side of the issue, sharing a feeling of deep distaste.

Mammon, of course, tried to copy the idea and issue infernal currency. In fact, he's tried several times, but each currency winds up devaluing to less than the essence it's printed on, due to logarithmic inflation, after a few months or years. As a result, talents circulate briskly in Hell.

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