Evangelism is the art of utilizing the forces and powers related to Angels to perform esoteric feats. Those who utilize this form of magic exclusively are known as Evangelists.[1]
Methodology[]
Evangelism is a divine and conjure oriented school of magic. It primarily involves taking on vows to protect themselves while they summon angelic Cherubim and Powers. Failing to follow through on vows or becoming corrupted may result in those summoned angelic beings retaliating against their evangelist.[2] Angelic energies can also be channeled without conjuring beings directly.[3]
By virtue of associating with the forces of Creation, Evangelism is one of the more powerful and widely accepted schools in the Pactverse.[2]
At higher levels, they can produce absolute effects, such as containing the uncontainable or killing the unkillable.[4] The most powerful Evangelists can also deal with true Angels.[2]
Types of Angelic Summons[]
Main article: Angel.
Cherub - Appearances range from geometric figures (lesser) to having specific features like a lion or baby's head, fractal wings, or a Rubik's cube pattern (greater). Each comes with a unique identity and are generally summoned to perform tasks.
Power/Sword - Appears as a shrouded or indistinct figure wielding a weapon. They are essentially mindless soldiers whose primary purpose is to defend other angelic beings.
Virtue - Appears as stereotypical winged human. They perform purely passive effects. Also forces evangelist to take on new vows every time they are summoned.
Throne - Appearances vary greatly. Each are incredibly powerful, and very good at performing the task given to them. However summoning these requires time, resources, tertiary preparations, permission from the throne's creators after it has been summoned (with punishment if permission refused), and a way to hide them and their effects from the public.
Madonna - "Madonnas carved of ivory" are mentioned being summoned by Evangelists in Black Lamb's Blood.[5]
Angel - Appearances vary greatly. They are the creators of all the other angelic beings. Best left alone.
Archangel - ??? Best guess is don't even think about it.
An Alternate Perspective[]
Black Lamb's Blood touches on the idea that some believe Evangelists are "charlatans" who actually call forth beings based on "the power of ideas... and iconography".[5] Whether this view is widespread, or even real, is uncertain given the unreliable nature of the text.
This may be borne out by the fact that a Summoner of Winter Fae would tap into structural practice as well.[6]
Notable Evangelists[]
- Johannes Lillegard (technically)
- Father of the author of Black Lamb's Blood
References[]
- ↑ - EVANGELISTS, document by Wildbow.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Evangelism
Despite conventional wisdom, the Evangelists do not deal with Angels, exactly, but rather with the forces and powers that relate to angels; only the most powerful tap into the choirs themselves. Where angels position themselves at the doorway of creation, the Evangelist reaches through and by means of the things and powers that angels put into motion. They typically bring forth angelic constructs and cherubim that are powerful but mindless, and they stand resistant or protected from these things by operating by very strict rules and beliefs. With the lesser cherubim, akin to demonic imps, even the smallest impure thought is a chink by which the being will irrevocably alter the practitioner. - Pact Dice: The Practices - Wbow Version - ↑ Pact Dice: Evangelists
- ↑ It's relatively accessible and acceptable, which does count for something, but it's primarily something that gives you an incredible degree of clout and supportive power. That is, if you do it right, and if you're willing to make personal sacrifices. A lot of the effects you can get into with deeper study can border on the Inevitable effects, the guarantees, the absolutes, the One Option that will break a curse or stop many things that can't otherwise be stopped.
Say you're a practitioner in Europe. Your town is hundreds of years old, and it borders a bog. In that bog lives a Very Old Thing. It predates Solomon, it predates tidy labels, and it is nasty, predatory, and prone to kidnapping children to eat. It can't be killed and most conventional ways of binding it will see it throwing itself against the walls of its metaphorical cage until the people who set up the seal give up or people start to notice something's up.
Enter the Evangelists. Where other practitioners can operate in secret, the Evangelists can operate more openly, because God is pretty well accepted in villages and out of the way places and people are going to accept ritual and rite, chant and symbol. That counts for something, the accessibility and acceptability. It means they're going to hear the news of what's going on if the Very Old Thing starts to migrate to greener pastures, or if a child wanders into the bog and disappears, when other practitioners might be out of the loop.
And when it comes to containing the Very Old Thing, or maybe, maybe even stopping it for good, they're going to have a bit of an edge, because their stuff is the kind of stuff that works against things without label, and their stuff is the sort that kills things that are especially disinclined to being killed. - Comment on Reddit by Wildbow - ↑ 5.0 5.1 Practitioners called him an evangelist, a summoner, a man powerful enough to sway the world with words. He called angels forth, cherubim, Madonnas carved of ivory to give others shelter.
[...]
My sister called my father a charlatan. My brother, set to be a templar after my father’s footsteps, did not disagree, but argued for the benefit of symbolism.
The idea of angels with wings was not situated in record or text, my sister argued. Take away the invented things, the cultural aspects and art, stick to the written word alone, and the world was left with a deity who focused all efforts recorded in texts on a relatively small section of the Middle East.
My brother argued for the benefit of symbolism, for the power of ideas. In the heat of battle, ideas and iconography could lend strength to those who needed it. - Excerpt from Gathered Pages: 4 - ↑ The Evangelist tackles these ground-level forces by focusing on the most structured elements possible. They use vows to protect themselves, restraining their own actions, words, or shoring themselves up, and summon things with explicit rules and patterns of behavior. The stock evangelist summons cherubs and can tap the power of angels, but you could slap a different name on a Winter Fae conjurer and get a very similar effect.
Think: building your own spacesuit/rocketship before venturing out into vacuum, except you're really bringing the vacuum to the battlefield, and it could be anything from rewriting of the landscape to creating life. - [https:redd.it/j3xqzm Wildbow on Reddit]
| Conflict | Deals | Material | Immaterial | Divine | |
| Conjure | War magic/Goblin Raider | Summoning/Glamour Aesthete | Elementalism/Clay Sculptor | Necromancy/Curse Adept | Evangelism/Psychopomp Shamanist |
| Prices | Harbinger/Halflight | Host/Contract Lawyer | Blood/Hyde | Heartless/Haunted | Cultist/Martyr |
| Tools | Goblins/Weaponsmith | Sympath/Peddler | Collectors/Abyssal Bearer | Luck/Ruins Gardener/Valkalla | Chosen/Blackforester |
| Realms | Scourges/Storm Chaser | Nomad/City/Alcazar Psychist | Technomancy/Warrens Runner | Astrology/Path Runner | Draoidhe/Historian |
| Interaction | Oni/Fae Duelist | Faerie/Enchantress | Item Crafting/Tantric Practitioner | Finder/Chaos/Egoist | Shamanism/Aspirant |
| Lore | Heroics/Oddfather | Spellbinding/Corrupter | Alchemy/Undercity Scholar | Augury/Complex Practice | Priesthood |
| Protection | Ogre/Exterminator | Sealing/Licensed | Wards/Chainer | Incarnate | Law/Sanctuary Tender |