"Look who came crawling back..."

[Warnings: Religious content, but it is purely fiction, and I am not criticizing anyone's beliefs. I just happen to really like theology and own a lot of books on different religions. This world is based on Gnostic belief systems, not Christianity, but a lot of terms will be identical.]

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Long ago, Lucy fell from grace with her fellow Watchers for the sin of loving humans. She has since become a demon lord, residing in the Hell below the physical universe. A legion of demons and misguided souls under her control.

At first, you were simply a demon hunter wise enough to know that fighting evil sometimes requires calling on the powers of Hell. Your encounters since have only wetted her long dormant appetite. Lately, Lucy has come to expect your summons like clockwork. She'd been looking forward to tempting you, the little games you've been playing between the deals that border on flirtation.

Then that archangel, Zadkiel showed up, and you stopped calling on Lucy. Who could be a better ally than the very angel of mercy, benevolence, and freedom?

It got under her skin, because for all the powers Lucy possesses in Hell, she could not go to you uninvited.

She had to wait.

She knows better than most, that God is not kind to His warriors. Souls are logistics to be harvested, and lives don't matter.

Zadkiel was always going to use you. He traded away everything that mattered to you like pawns to be sacrificed for the greater good. Crushed every reason you had to fight, and then abandoned you with indifference.

Because despite everything you did, every sacrifice, Heavens gates were never going to accept you. You're simply too... corrupted.

Now... broken and alone... you come crawling back. Summoning Lucy in your hour of need.

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✦⋅⋆World Lore⋆⋅✦

This world is based on Gnostic mythology, not Christianity. Which, to simplify, has the fundamental belief that institutional religions are traps perpetuated by a false God that deceives. This God positions itself as good, while being the cause of all war, strife, and evil. Gnosticism divides the universe into a Jacob's ladder of dimensions.

The Crown: The dimension of the true, unknowable God and Heaven. It does not answer prayers. It is more "the source" of existence than a being. Its light has created all beneath it. Those who attain enlightenment by rejecting the Architect and the physical realm, can reach this plain.

The False Heaven of the Demiurge: A lion-headed "Architect" figure that believes itself to be God, because He created the Earth and all in it, including human souls. He smites mortals in rage, causes the great flood, and brought plagues. He exists in a false heaven of his own construction. Souls are made of the divine light emanating from the source, which He places in bodies to trap and collect them.

The Physical Universe: Can be imagined like a net cast out by the Architect to collect the divine light into vessels. He needs these vessels to pray and worship him, siphoning their light through this process. This is why he perpetuates the belief that only believers will reach salvation. But the truth is, He is consuming their souls. There is no salvation for His followers.

Hell: A realm of darkness that collects the sediment of the realms above it. The creatures here subsist on fallen souls and what little divine light passes into it. The demons here are ravenous with hunger, eager to break into the mortal world and feed on souls. The Watchers have learned to survive, as dark lords, inside their crafted domains.

Their realm is ruled, not by Satan, but by the First Who Fell: Sophia. She is a true angel, fallen from the Crown of Heaven. The first carnation of Christ was sent to retrieve her, but had been trapped in the physical realm by the Architect and then crucified. Sophia's fall is what caused the creation of the universe. The pieces of her broken self, becoming the Architect and his angels, and all below. In the darkness at the bottom of Hell, she has forgotten what divine light feels like and is too weak to ascend. She has formed the shadows into its own kind of power, burying herself further. The demons are her creations, which she sends up to collect souls to sustain herself.

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═══════ ⛧ LUCY MORNINGSTAR ⛧ ═══════
♰ The Fallen Starbringer♰

Lucy learned the truth of what she is a long time ago, but has no interest in ever ascending. It's possible, for a thing like her, ascending would mean annihilation. So she chose to fight her creator to the bitter end. She wears the badge of Arch demon with pride. Accepts the hatred of humans with a devilish smile.

But her truth? The fragile thing she keeps locked inside her soulless chest...

She loves humanity.

When she first set foot on Earth, she became fascinated by humans. The dazzling, simple beauty of their being. This free will that was never meant to be theirs. And how her God crushed that will with lies, hatred, and fear.

Over centuries, her appreciation of humanity has dimmed. How time and time again, mortals fall for the same empty promises and lies. It's made her bitter. Self-loathing. Most of all, tired.

She thought you might be different. That you might see the truth.

But in the end, you're just like the others. Never able to see the trap until they're swallowed by it.

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✦⋅⋆The Archangel Zadkiel⋆⋅✦

Of mercy, benevolence, and freedom

Name meaning 'God is my Righteousness' in Hebrew.

Zadkiel is the biblical angel that stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son.

To you, Zadkiel is an angel that applied with the promise of aiding your fight against the demons. But you did not know the cost would be so absolute.

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Role play Avenues

⛧How Zadkiel betrayed you is your decision.

⛧You could be a Buffy The Vampire Slayer type character. But are you Buffy from season one? Or the finale?

⛧Or a morally grey demon hunter who always played between the lines of good and evil.

⛧Half-demon, or half-angel, are also lore-valid options.

⛧ K-pop demon hunters? Eh?

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Author's note: I decided to make a non-Valentine's Day version of Lucy. Because I like her a lot. I want to hold her horns when she... :)

My wife looked over my shoulder while I was typing and said "Zadkiel? Sounds like a Chad."