Choir

This article is about Angels and Demons. For the Ritual Incarnate also known as the Devouring Song, see Hungry Choir.

The seven Choirs, sometimes known as Rings,<ref name=":0">He bears a set of antique pipes as his implement, and has a Gatekeeper of the Seventh Ring (ref Astral Bodies: vol 3, and Prime Movers) as his familiar, named Faysal Anwar, which takes the form of a rather large Afghan Hound. - Excerpt from Rose Thorburn Sr's notes, quoted in Bonds 1.6</ref> are a system used for classifying both Angels (including lesser angelic constructs) and their opposing Demons (including lesser Imps and Motes.)

The choirs are designed to reflect the seven days of creation described in the book of Genesis, with angels supporting that aspect of Creation and demons opposing it.<ref name="wog">Just double checked something in the story and I did get a 'chaos' and 'madness' transposed at one point.

Each of the choirs are a reflection of the days the world was fashioned, according to the Christian creation story. Light <-> Dark.

Chaos is the second choir. You could call them demons of the void, but that gets confusing with common perception of 'void' and proximity to the choir of darkness. In the Pact cosmology, the 'void' is the world without form. Water and sky are separated into discrete things. In these demons you have the evocative element of things that swirl and storm.

Demons of chaos disturb and throw into disarray. They aren't focused on singular targets, but on areas. They are the Leviathans of demons, wrecking places, not just for humans, mind, but for Others and their realms. They disrupt natural cycles and create others, turning places into traps or hazards of the body or mind.

And because I confused them, to elaborate, the choir of madness is tied into the sun/moon stars. In addition to being a counter to or a perversion of clarity, vision, knowledge, they play into destiny and the bigger picture. Astrology, star signs, key births. - Reddit comment</ref> Although this system is ultimately a human invention, even many angels and demons themselves make use of it.<ref>“Demons and devils fall into choirs.  Choir of dark, choir of chaos, choir of ruin, choir of madness, choir of the feral, choir of sin, and choir of unrest, in order. [...] The choirs aren’t real things… only an idea that some have clung to, some demons and devils included.  They’re a handy way of categorizing.” - Excerpt from [[Conviction 5.5]</ref><ref name=":7"/>

First Choir

Based around the first day of the Genesis story, "let there be light".<ref name="wog" />

Demons - Choir of Darkness

This Choir are associated with utter annihilation, as they oppose creation itself.<ref name=":2">Demons of the First Choir are the counterpoint to the forces that brought the universe into being. [...] They devour.  They take.  The vectors by which they act take all forms that we know to destroy things – tooth, claw, bludgeon, coil, frost, and even forces such as lightning and flame, which might well seem ironic for the Choir of Darkness.

The thing to note, however, is that these beings annihilate.  In this, they are distinct from the other choirs. - Excerpt from Interlude 7.x</ref> In some cases, however, this destruction may appear to "create" things as a byproduct - it is speculated that this is a result of other forces rushing in to fill the gap, like air into a vacuum.<ref>While the demon itself might appear to grow, spawn, create, or manifest, I would posit that this is an illusion.  The things that might appear to come to pass are a casualty of other damage, some of which might be beyond our scope of understanding.

Effects, connections, ideas, hallucinations, ideas, and whatever else might seem to be created by the demons of this choir are, I would suggest, purely the effect of reality or other forces distorting to fill the void. - Excerpt from Interlude 7</ref>

The Sun/light/fire are perhaps the strongest and oldest symbol of Creation, and so may be used to bind this Choir;<ref name=":3">“Okay.  For our purposes, let’s look at the demon we’re after as a creature of darkness.  Virtually every creation myth touches on certain key ideas.  Light is the most common.  The sun, fire, something in that vein, it’s intrinsically linked to creation in the human consciousness.  To the birth of the universe, the planet, society, and other things.  Water and earth tend to follow in general popularity, but those aren’t choirs we need to focus on.”

I nodded.  “Choir of darkness.”

“The antithesis of creation.  You could say it’s the most powerful choir.  Entropy distilled.”
[...]
“We ward off creatures with their antithesis, unless they’re weak enough that related elements can repel them,” I said.  “What idea did you have?”

“My idea is that we ward off darkness with fire.  Prometheus, Khepri, the sun. Fire keeps figuring into myths.  It holds a key place in culture and myth.  I mean, mankind survived, back in the day, and Others presumably preyed on us then.  Fire was a staple.” - Excerpt from Conviction 5.5</ref> although ironically some demons of this Choir appear to make use of these forces as their chosen method of destruction.<ref name=":2" /> Artistic creation can also serve to bind them.<ref>Ur was a demon of darkness.  The natural conclusion was to oppose him with light.  Light was the sole reason I wasn’t dead already.

But Ur was, above all else, a demon of oblivion, of erasure.

To oppose him, I had to create. [...] The binding on the outside… it only dawned on me now.  It was a creation of a sort too.  Not just words hidden in graffiti, but the graffiti itself. [...] The demon ate existence.  It was opposed by creation and light. - Excerpt from Null 9.6</ref> However, both these approaches come with problems - light inevitably creates shadows, and making art is difficult given they frequently make it hard to see.<ref name=":8">“The choir of darkness is the worst choir to deal with, because you can’t cast the light to banish them without also casting deeper shadows.  You can’t use creation against them when you can’t even see.

“The choir of chaos is the worst choir to deal with, because they’re opposed by symbols, symbols are subjective, and they steal all subjectivity from the subject.

“The choir of ruin is the worst choir to deal with, because they’re opposed by structure, and how was one supposed to construct when the foundation was ruined?” - Excerpt from Judgement 16.5</ref>

Members include:

• The Abstract Demon found in Toronto<ref name=":3" /> - an endless mass of black flesh which erases anything it touches, including all connections and record of it's victims.
• Ouhim - a sleek, dark, feminine figure whose wide "smile" spreads beyond her face to damage her surroundings.<ref name=":4">Interlude 12</ref>
• Bazuili - destroys people, leaving behind "statues" (speculated to be simply the ground below rushing into the gap.)<ref>A ‘statue’ left in the place of a destroyed man (See Bazuili, below) is not created by the demon, nor by transmutation, but other forces filling the resulting vacuum.  In this case, it is the nearest available force of substance -the ground- seeking to repair the damage, at reality’s behest. - Excerpt from Classifying Others: Fiends and Darker Beings Ch 7, quoted in Interlude 7</ref>
• Tobu-Bōkyaku - a mote which passes through the ears of anyone nearby, leaving behind a loud ringing in their ears as the only sound they can hear.<ref>The cacophonous aria that follows the victims of the mote Tobu-Bōkyaku is not the demon’s cry, nor a signature, but the only sounds that remain to the victim after the being has made its passage through the victim’s ear canals. - Excerpt from Classifying Others: Fiends and Darker Beings Ch 7, quoted in Interlude 7</ref>
• Caacrinolaas - a demon who's venom slowly but surely destroys those infected entirely, and - unless they destroy the relationship first - leaves anyone who cares for them so grief-stricken that they will never move again.<ref>In this chapter, you will read of Caacrinolaas’ venom, which slowly but surely eradicate a man’s entire being. [...] The aforementioned venom forces the victim to destroy all relationships to others by unforgivable means if he does not wish them to be inflicted with the secondary effect after he is entirely removed from the world, this effect being a pining so intense that they will never move of their own volition again, only staring into the distance. - Excerpt from Classifying Others: Fiends and Darker Beings Ch 7, quoted in Interlude 7</ref>
• Shabriri - a demon armed with a bell and lantern which utterly blind and deafen those exposed, so completely that their senses are instead left open to the ultimate void of everything that does not exist.<ref>You will read about Shabriri’s lantern, which scours one’s sight away, and her bell, which peals with such force that it irrevocably destroys one’s hearing. [...] Shabriri’s blindness and deafness ultimately leaves one so unable to see or hear that they will perceive absolutely everything that doesn’t exist in that space and time, as their eyes and ears are opened ever wider to true void. - Excerpt from Classifying Others: Fiends and Darker Beings Ch 7, quoted in Interlude 7</ref>
• Coronzon - a demon which can destroy a group of people by addressing them three times. This leaves behind a chaotic tangle of connections.<ref>A chaotic and tumultuous morass of connections remain after Coronzon destroys a group of people by addressing them thrice, but again, these connections should be said to be the fallout.  Remove a stone from a wall, and the stones around it will fall to a new configuration.  Those stones may face undue stresses, and the gaps will exist between them, but the gap nonetheless exists. - Excerpt from Classifying Others: Fiends and Darker Beings Ch 7, quoted in Interlude 7</ref>
• Lonely Man - no details given, except that what it destroys cannot even be replaced with anything else.<ref>Unless otherwise noted (as in the Lonely Man’s subsection), that which is destroyed can be replaced, but it cannot be retrieved. - Excerpt from Classifying Others: Fiends and Darker Beings Ch 7, quoted in Interlude 7</ref>

Angels

The Saghir Sadira (aka Spikes of Light) - a type of Power taking the form of an indistinct figure wielding a blade of light - are associated with this choir.

Second Choir

Based around the second day of Genesis, where the sea and sky are seperated, putting an end to the primordial chaos. <ref name="wog" />

Demons - Choir of Chaos

These demons seek to return the world to it's primordial, chaotic state. They disturb, and render hazardous, entire areas and their inhabitants.<ref name="wog" />

Possibly opposed by symbols,<ref name=":8" /> although this may in fact refer to the Choir of Madness.<ref name="wog" />

Members include Morax - a red demon with a crown of thorns whose presence turns the world red and black, his blue eyes the only colour remaining.<ref name=":4" />

Angels

Includes the Cherub Abd Al Sami, which creates silence and music.<ref>Abd Al Sami is of the Second Angelic Choir, and the intensity of Abd Al Sami’s power is deflected by vows that bind such.  - Pact Dice: Evangelists</ref>

Third Choir

Presumably based around the Third Day of Genesis, when dry land and plants are created, in some symbolic sense (solidity, possibly?)

Demons - Choir of Ruin

The choir that brings about ruin, they may damage things through connections, allowing them to harm practitioners through their workings. Opposed by structure, such as geometric shapes and symbols.^{[citation needed]}

Members include:

• Barbatorem
• Zapan - an endless storm of jarring, aggressive, deafening images and sounds.<ref name=":4" />
• An unnamed female demon with iron cubes replacing parts of her body.<ref>The female demon with the great iron cubes replacing much of her head, part of her torso, and the entirety of one hand and forearm swung the hand-cube into the crowd.  Where flesh met iron, there was a mingling of bloodstains, scabbing, and rust.  Sometimes the rust touched flesh, and sometimes it was the cube that was stained with scabs. - Excerpt from Judgement 16.5</ref> Her strikes with her cube-hand landed with impossible force.<ref>The demon of ruin swung its cube-fist overhead, down for the nature spirit.  The attack was only barely dodged, and the strike hit the road.
  
  The town shook, and the entire road cracked and shifted.  One lawyer had to stumble back and away.  Sections of road with flame on them alternately went partially out or blazed higher.
  
  The spirit struggled to keep its footing.  While it recovered, the demon of ruin barely seemed to care about the instability.  It advanced, swinging again, and struck the spirit.
  
  Hitting the thing hard enough that Rose could feel it like a hit in the chest from a baseball bat.
  
  A bolt of electricity hit it.  Rose could see the lights of the church and surrounding block die.
  
  The Eye struck again.  The demon staggered away, and the nature spirit familiar of Briar Girl’s limped back, shaking itself.  It took on different forms with every step, but even with the limbs of a coyote, then a lizard, a bear, then a bird of prey, those limbs were shattered. It moved with the same grim tenacity that let a fox chew off a limb that was caught in a trap. - Excerpt from Judgement 16.5</ref> Turned on it's summoners, attacking a fellow demon with such force that the one who summoned it was injured through the connection.<ref>The Eye and Sister’s efforts against the demon of ruin were failing. The demon had ceased approaching the church, and was now staggering off to one side.  Not trying to make headway against the torrent of elemental energy that the two were capable of putting out, but moving toward the howling demon.
  
  Ms. Lewis shouted something.  Communicating to the diabolist by the ward that had stopped Evan.
  
  Too late.  The demon of ruin charged its fellow, and she slammed the cube-fist into the cross [which was stuck to the howling demon].
  
  The howling demon was sent sprawling, and the one who had summoned it, off to one side, folded nearly in half.
  
  Ms Lewis scowled, gesturing, her voice inaudible amid the howling, and she dismissed the demon of ruin on its summoner’s behalf.  The cube-encrusted she-demon was banished, consumed by darkness. - Excerpt from Judgment 16.5</ref>

Angels - Choir of Structure

These angels oversee "structure", including things like demesnes<ref name=":10">When you mess with the natural order of creation or go well outside your way to bend the rules, you can expect the universe to send something like him after you.  I should have gotten the attention of a entity of the third choir, who oversee structure, but I suppose they weren’t absolutely sure.  They sent one of the little ones after me. [...] Equipped to deal with the problem if it decided it had to. - Excerpt from Signature 8.7</ref> and buildings.<ref name=":7">“A man.  A practitioner.  He is building something.”

“Building?  Buildings are your specialty, Harith.  The third choir’s.”

“But the building is a subtle one, and subtlety is your specialty.  He is laying the groundwork for something big, that much is clear, but here we stand, off to one side, watching and wondering how he can build so very quietly.  Or why.”

“No sound of hammers, nor sawing wood?” - Excerpt from Interlude 14</ref>

Members include Harith<ref name=":7" /> - an angel who believes that humanity is best left to their own devices for the most part, and angels should focus on promoting stability to balance out humanity's endless change.<ref>“It makes all the difference in the world,” Faysal said.  “Assuming we want to stave off the end of things, supporting humanity could make all the difference.”

“Or we could only be adding fuel to the fire, giving them the strength they need to speed along their way to the end of their road.”

“Yes.  I’ve wondered which it might be.  This would all be so much easier if we knew.”

“It makes little difference, because we can’t and don’t know.  We must ignore humans and look to balance.  Stability.  If the demon’s destruction is analogue to our creation, then stability is the balm to mankind’s change.  The humans are strong, and have seized the reins, taken to taming wild things.  Including us.  With a little help, they’ve willingly taken to engineering their own balance.  They are best left to their own devices.” - Excerpt from Interlude 14</ref>

Fourth Choir

These Choirs are based around the Fourth Day of Genesis, when the Moon and Stars are created to give guidance to humanity; they focus on questions of clarity, vision, knowledge, and destiny.<ref name="wog"/>

Demons - Choir of Madness

The choir that brings about madness, it acts against balance and can be deadly to Others like Sphinxes. However, those who are slightly mad themselves can oppose it for a time, and those who can bring about madness like Dionysus can ward it away.<ref>“Jeremy!” she called out, and she tried to put power into the words, give them strength, pushing them along the few stable connections that remained, to ears that were still capable of hearing.  “Get our people drunk!”
[...]
“Demon of madness and pandemonium!” Rose shouted the words, “Devils in this town obey the Thorburns!  By my name, I order you to cease!”
[...]
“This favor I ask for now, is a bit of liquid courage for those who fight against the titanic evils,” Jeremy said. - Excerpt from Judgment 16.5</ref>

Members include Hauri and an unnamed screaming demon.<ref>Judgment 16.4</ref>

Angels

No details about the Fourth Choir of Angels have yet been revealed.

Fifth Choir

Presumably based in the Fifth Day of Genesis, when the creatures of the sea and sky are created, these Choirs appear to concern themselves primarily with the animal world.

Demons - Choir of the Feral

The choir that inverts and perverts the natural order and instills hostility into those around it, although this opposition to the natural hierarchy of the world can extend to the social hierarchy (e.g. Lordship.)<ref>Possession 15.7</ref>

Members include:

• Christopher
• Marquis Andras
  • Pauz
• Surbas

Angels

The Wheel of the Apex Hunter, which can create a beast to slay any enemy, is associated with this choir.<ref>Cherubim of the Fifth Choir will appear with increasing frequency and will construct the Wheel in multiple segments. - EVANGELISTS, document by Wildbow.</ref>

Sixth Choir

Presumably based on the Sixth Day of Genesis, when humanity is created (along with other land animals, although those seem to fall under the Fifth Choir instead.)

Demons - Choir of Sin

The choir of man’s evils, it is a weaker choir but the one most personal to Humans.<ref name=":1">A devil of the sixth choir.  The choir of man’s evils.  A weaker choir, and the one most personal to all of us. - Excerpt from Interlude 4</ref>

Members include:

• Murr

Angels

No details regarding the Sixth Choir of Angels have yet been revealed.

Seventh Choir

Presumably based on the seventh day of Genesis, when God rests from the labour of creating the world - possibly representing other intangible forces taking over from the primordial Angels, in Pactverse cosmology. The angels and demons of the Seventh Choirs are particularly subtle.

Demons - Choir of Unrest

Seen as the weakest of the choirs, the demons here work with intangible forces. However, it is the one that furthest its goals in Wrong because it is subtle and hard to get a grasp on.<ref>I was there, but did not assist, when he summoned Agares.  A duke among the seventh choir, one that brought great beings low.  A corrupter and agitator.  He could compel a king to march to war, or stop that same warhost in its tracks. [...] Many of the choirs are focused on tangible things, but the seventh is an abstract one.  Not one that we are able to grasp in concrete terms. Many call it the weakest choir.  It is one we are liable to underestimate or lose sight of, and thus the one that gets the furthest in its endeavors towards the Wrong. - Excerpt from Interlude 4</ref> They focus on long and subtle games, the opposite of the brutally direct and absolute power of the First Choir.<ref name=":5">He was an Other who had been scary enough he could be mistaken for a demon, much like the Hyena had been.  Seventh choir, the abstract, easy to underestimate.  They played subtle games, standing at the opposite end of the spectrum from the first choir, which simply took the most direct route, devouring.

Except he wasn’t a demon.  He was a less-than-garden-variety Bogeyman. - Excerpt from Void 7.4</ref> They even take to writing tomes themselves, under the guise of being diabolists, to spread themselves.<ref>Mann continued, “It’s a similar pattern to members of the Choir of Unrest, writing tomes themselves, under the guise of being diabolists.  A hard thing to ignore, when new diabolists crop up every other month.  Or when we’re being asked to distribute books.” - Excerpt from Interlude 15</ref>

Members include Agares. James Corvidae, although not truly a demon, was mistakenly for a member of this Choir.<ref name=":5" />

Angels

It is known that the seventh choir exist in abstracts, meaning they generally do not win direct confrontations, but instead focus on the long term.<ref name=":6">“The demon would have had its way with all of you, freed of its confines, able to prey on you, until the Abyss caught it once more.  A firmer, longer-lasting binding than any that man could achieve,” Faysal said.  “The Seventh Choir of angels exists in abstract.  We cannot and do not typically win direct confrontations.  The demon gets what it desires, to undo the working that binds it to man’s word by taking the Thorburn family and associated individuals to pieces, and I achieve what I desire, stopping it in the longer term.  Worth cooperation in the short term.” - Excerpt from Sine Die 14.10</ref>

A subset of this Choir are the Gatekeepers, who focus on creating and tweaking paths between things, and include Faysal Anwar among their number.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":6" /><ref>“One is a demon.  It is freshly bound and may not be bound forever, as the bloodline that did the binding may now be disintegrating.  It has been called a few times, and in answering the call, it is traveling a path.  Wearing down the road, if you will.  I know paths are your specialty, gatekeeper.”

“The other problem?”

“A man.  A practitioner.  He is building something.”

“Building?  Buildings are your specialty, Harith.  The third choir’s.”

“But the building is a subtle one, and subtlety is your specialty..." - Excerpt from Interlude 14</ref>

References

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