Angel
"Metatron acts as the voice of God. Any documented occasion when some yahoo claims God has spoken to them, they're speaking to me. Or they're talking to themselves."
- – Dogma
Angels are spiritual beings believed to serve various deities. Although their name comes from the Greek word for "Messenger", their association with the Abrahamic religions in the real world means that the standard perception of angels is as supernatural spirit-beings allied to Good, who stand in opposition to fiends such as demons and devils. Actual use of the term "Angel" can be seen as rather taboo due to various unpleasant attitudes and views towards real-life religions, so sometimes Celestial is preferred as a less-loaded moniker.
Tzeentch would like you to know that Lords of Change are powerful winged beings in direct service to (a) God, and thus technically qualify as angels.
Khorne would also like you to know that Bloodthirsters are also powerful winged beings in service to a god, and are thus angels.
Source Material[edit]
Like most supernatural things, the Bible actually skips past the details of angels to get back to the humans doing stupid and shortsighted human things. Much of the time angels are disguised as humans so they can go about their jobs unmolested (literally, it was a pretty big danger in Sodom). When they shed their disguises, the humans are invariably freaked out of their minds and would probably flee in terror if the angels didn't tell them "Fear not."
The Book of Ezekiel describes God's palanquin being carried by four super freaky monsters — while never called "angels" they're generally assumed as such. They put shoggoths to shame, covered in human and animal heads, extra pairs of wings, bronze skin, and were on fire. Each of them was followed by a geometry-defying wheel machine covered in eyeballs (see above) that housed their souls for safe-keeping. This depiction was only ever prescribed by someone who admitted it was a vision of the future. Nonetheless in the last couple years this became ingrained and even meme'd as the "true" form of angels.
But don't fall for the meme. At multiple instances throughout different books and revisions, Angels are described as winged human-like beings. So they do in fact excel in the "Be not afraid" department. That, plus the fact that the Bible has a tendency to shrug off any fantastical detail as they would rather talk about Joe the Farmer who's been questionning God and how much punishment the big guy above is going to inflict on him if he doesn't keep on being faithful. Hell, demons don't even get a description, and some barely even get a mention. Angels really are lucky in there.
Also bear this in mind; over centuries, multiple stories and myths were omitted from the Bible in favor of preaching the good Christian word. Meaning that there is plenty of material that was just scrapped. Don't get yourself too excited however, most of these lost texts were effectively purged and most of them borrowed elements from different mythologies, if not twisted them to the point of completely altering our understanding and comprehension of the original works.
Other angels are described as "dragons." Guess what happened to them.
In Dungeons & Dragons[edit]
In Dungeons & Dragons, "Angel" could traditionally be seen as a generic term for an Outsider from the Upper Planes, although traditionally the term Celestial is preferred for that, due to the Satanic Panic of the 80's.
There are five distinct species of Celestial in D&D; the Lawful Good Archons, the Neutral Good Guardinals, the Chaotic Good Eladrin and Asura, and the Any Good Aasimon, who are literally the "conventionally angelic Celestials". For the respective rulers of those races, see the Archangel page.
In 4th edition, Celestials as a whole disappeared and were replaced with Angels. Harkening all the way back to their original Biblical portrayal, the Angels of 4th edition are an Unaligned race of Immortals; these entities rise from the Astral Sea and exist to serve all gods, good and evil, with equal loyalty and dispassionate competence. Baatezu in this edition became "Fallen Angels", cursed for betraying & murdering their god. Some angels become fascinated with mortal life and choose to forsake most of their immortality to live closer to them, becoming Devas.
In 5th edition, "angel" is the name given to the Aasimon, who no longer try to hide what they're based on.
Except for 4th edition, the most powerful angels are called solars, with planetars being ranked just below, and all other angels are called Devas.
In Pathfinder[edit]
Pathfinder's Angels are literally just AD&D's Aasimon without trying to obfuscate what they're based on.
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Balisse angel
| The inhabitants of the Planes of Planescape | |
|---|---|
| Upper Planes | Aasimon • Angel • Animal Lord • Archon • Asura • Eladrin • Guardinals • Lillend |
| Middle Planes | Formians • Githzerai • Inevitable • Marut • Modron • Rilmani • Slaadi • Kamerel |
| Lower Planes | Alu-Fiend • Baatezu • Bladeling • Cambion • Demodand • Erinyes • Hag • Hordling • Imp • Kyton • Loumara • Marilith • Obyrith • Succubus • Tanar'ri • Yugoloth |
| Transitive Planes | Astral Dreadnought • Githyanki |
| Inner Planes | Azer • Elemental • Genie • Grue • Mephit • Salamander • Sylph |
| Sigil | Dabus • Cranium Rat |
| High-ups | Archangel • Archdevil • Archfey • Archomental • Demon Prince |
Yugioh[edit]
Yugioh has Angels one of its types of monsters, though the English localization called them fairies instead even though a number of them have the word "angel" in their name. Most of them are Light attribute monsters but there are angels for the other attributes as well. Many angels are designed like modern depictions of angels, though a number like the Arcana Force archtype look much weirder.
Monstergirls[edit]
 | This article or section is about Monstergirls (or a monster that is frequently depicted as a Monstergirl), something that /tg/ widely considers to be the purest form of awesome. Expect PROMOTIONS! and /d/elight in equal measure, often with drawfaggotry or writefaggotry to match. |
Angelic monstergirls sit in a weird nebulous position between being entry-level to the fetish and being deep into the fetish. Whilst they rarely if ever look "monstrous" - most appear as just beautiful human women with odd markings, weird coloration for the skin/hair/eyes, wings, or any combination thereof - their religious connotations makes the idea of sexualizing them rather uncomfortable for some individuals. For others, that tinge of blasphemy just makes it more appealing - besides, aasimar have to come from somewhere, and saying it's all due to sinful mortal women tempting angelic men is the kind of shit that started going out of fashion in the 70s.
Angelic monstergirls are usually demure, sweet, understanding, and place far more emphasis on romance over sex. Japanese takes, however, can be much more slutty, in no small part because the fact they were never Christianized means they have no particular reverence for angels (naturally, MGE falls into the latter category). A perfect example of this is Naniel, the angel from Queen's Blade who wants to use her time in the mortal realm to build the biggest reverse harem of sexy men that she can.
Monster Girl Encyclopedia[edit]
In the Monster Girl Encyclopedia, the standard angel has a halo and golden-white-feathered wings emerging from their hips (an idea stolen from Darkstalkers). Serving as messengers of the gods, angels are becoming increasingly tainted by the demonic energies permeating their world, causing the once-virginal mamono to become increasingly open to sex as a way to spread joy and love to the mortals they wish to protect. There are several sub-variants such as:
- Valkyrie: A warrior maiden with no halo and four wings. While the standard angel's goal is to spread joy and love to mortals, the Valkyrie's primary goal is to raise men and women destined to become heroes into great champions. Corrupted Valkyries will start to think becoming a man's lover or sharing a man with a specific woman is a good way to nurture someone's potential.
- Dark: Both the standard and valkyrie angel have a dark variant that they turn into if they realize that they are having sex with men because of their own desires, their wings turning black and their skins turning into unconventional colors such as purple or blue.
- Cupid: An angel serving the goddess of love whose job is to cause men and women to be happily joined together by shooting them with arrows that either cause them to acknowledge their feelings, or feel emotionally empty and desiring companionship. It's stated that it is difficult to tell the difference between a tainted and pure one based on behavior alone.
- Houri: An angel who becomes the wife of a virtuous man. It's even stated that some of them are made from a women who died before she could express her love or women separated from their beloved by death. Like the Cupid, it's difficult to tell the difference between a tainted and pure one based on behavior alone.
- Apsara: Actually considered an elemental and not an angel by category, the Apsara is a servitor of the goddess of love who dances for mortal pleasures and can create/control a magical milk-like fluid called "amrita", which can act as an elixir of youth and beauty. A companion to the Cupid and Houri, the Apsara mostly gets a pass because of how difficult it is to tell whether they've been corrupted or not.
