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Character Information
General
Canon Source: Supernatural
Canon Format: TV Show
Character's Name: Raphael
Character's Age: Younger than Michael and Lucifer, older than Gabriel. Older than most of Creation.
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. n/a
What form will your character's NV take? A pocket moleskine-style notebook with a green cover stamped with a design on front - Raphael's name in Enochian and a fish, which when opened contains a smartphone interface on one page and a 'screen' on the other which mimics a stained glass window with a depiction of Raphael opposite.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:
Permissions' Post can be found here
Superhuman Strength/Durability - Angels are far stronger than almost anything else supernatural (save those older in Creation than them) and are more durable - able to take harder hits without harm. As with most things with angels, the older are always stronger than the younger.
Telekinesis/terrakinesis - Angels are able to move around objects (and effect the ground/air around them).
Angelic Flight - Angels can fly - appearing in the blink of an eye, often with a sound of wings and occasionally electrical surges. They are also able to transport others with them. While lesser angels need to touch, the archangels do not.
Telepathy - Angels are able to read a person's mind/past by looking into their eyes.
Invisibility/intangibility - Angels are able to shield others from perceiving them so that they are able to observe others.
Body manipulation - Angels can heal, not only their Vessels, but others of any injury, even death. Conversely, they are able to cause harm as well. Raphael, due to being the Archangel of Healing is better at healing - and causing harm - than his brothers.
Immortality - Archangel Blades, Death himself, God, his two elder brothers, the Leviathans, Holy Fire, and likely Eve are the only things which can kill him. He does not need to eat or sleep and will not fall ill. It takes extreme quantities of drugs to affect them - it takes an entire liquor store to get an angel drunk.
Supernatural Perception - Angels are able to sense supernatural things, of all sorts, including things which are invisible. Eve and God are able to conceal their presence from him; it is likely Death can as well. Michael and Lucifer can also conceal their presence from those younger than them.
Dream Walking - Angels can visit people via dream and guide their dreams as a way of communicating.
"Angel Radio" - A way of communication between angels. Angels with their Grace removed can also hear it, though they cannot use it.
Memory Manipulation - Angels are able to alter, ease, or plant memories.
Time Travel/Parallel Worlds - Angels are able to slip forward or backward in time or into parallel times/worlds, and take a small number of people with them. It's very draining and without being connected to Heaven extremely dangerous. Raphael wouldn't do this outside his home world.
Prophet Knowledge - All the names of the prophets are seared into an angel's memory. Raphael watched over Chuck and protected him (along with Michael - they later sent Zachariah to do so 'in person').
Holy Light/True Form/Voice - An angel's true form/voice is very powerful. It can shatter glass, shake buildings, rupture things, burn out the eyes of humans (or even kill them). If an angel releases a blast of holy light it will kill anything supernatural it touches or destroy a building - humans must shield their eyes or else they will also be harmed.
Angelic Possession - Angels need to possess a human in order to interact with them. Angels have Vessels - people of a certain bloodline they can possess. They also need to obtain a person's permission. Once a person serves as a Vessel they are like a direct line to the angel - can be used to summon the angel. Archangels, due to their power, will damage a person serving as their Vessel - Raphael's Chosen Vessel is left unable to walk, talk, or care for himself after only a short period of time. Michael tells Dean he'll be gentler to John and Dean than Raphael, and leave them unharmed.
Superhuman Intelligence - Angels are vastly intelligent, due to being as old as they are and their nature. They will be able to know a person's name before they speak to them.
Electrokinesis - Raphael, like the other three archangels, has an element he has dominion over (Michael = fire, Lucifer = ice, Gabriel = water). Raphael's is electricity. His wings, when manifested, appears as arcs of lightning from his back. He also knocked out the power to the entire Eastern Seaboard.
Weather manipulation - Raphael is able to create fierce storms with heavy, strong winds, and lightning.
Power over other angels - Raphael is able to harm or destroy lessor angels or shield other beings from harm by a lesser angel.
Alteration of voice/physical presence - Angels have been shown to be able to mimic others perfectly. Archangels as well have been shown able shapeshift to appear as a different person.
Creation - Archangels have been shown as being able to create things from nothing, ranging from inanimate objects to people.
Angels are not without their weakness however:
Holy Oil/Holy Fire - Found only in a temple in Jerusalem, this oil can trap an angel if it's poured into a circle and the angel lured inside and then the oil lit. While the oil burns the angel cannot pass though it or it will kill them - touching it results in injury and great pain. It can also be used to banish an angel if used in a Molotov Cocktail. It is unknown but implied that once lit, unless snuffed by an outside source, Holy Oil will burn indefinitely.
Banishing Sigils - A sigil combination which must be drawn in human blood, it banishes all angels in the area. But it only works for a moment, once the sigil is completed. However it takes the angel banished time to make their way back.
Angelic Exorcism - An ancient exorcism used to pull an angel from its Vessel. It's not well known.
Enochian Sigils - Sigils can be used to ward a place or person from angels.
Archangel's Blade - Only an archangel's blade or Death's Scythe can kill an archangel (a few other beings are capable without a weapon, such as the Leviathans). An angel's blade can harm but will not kill Raphael.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? n/a
Weapons: Archangel Blade
Character History:
On Screen History
Revisions:
Raphael was the third archangel Created. Michael stated he raised his brothers, and Raphael is no exception to this. There was a span of time where it was just Father-God, Michael, Lucifer, and Raphael before Gabriel was Created. There was also a time when it was just the Four and God before the other angels were Created. Lucifer states Gabriel learned all his tricks from Lucifer - raising their siblings included teaching them, loving them. In the beginning the archangels, at least, experienced joy, laughter, love, jealousy, anger, hurt, betrayal - a full range of emotion.
As the Earth was Created and life brought forth, growing in number and evolving, the angels would occasionally visit. They were warned, and in turn warned the younger ones, to be careful of the life there so as to not harm the growing life.
Eventually humans were made. God stated they were His most perfect Creation and that the angels were to love them about Him. While Lucifer Rebelled, Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel (along with most of the Host) honored what was asked of him.
Over time, both God and Gabriel left, leaving Michael and Raphael to run Heaven and the universe alone. As time passed, Michael and Raphael stop giving out orders to the angels left to watch over Earth and the people. And Raphael himself started to change. From his view point of history, Lucifer's pride and jealousy caused him to fall, Gabriel's hurt over the infighting caused him to leave. He began to see emotion as the problem and started to lock down his own - and expecting it of the other angels, as Castiel and Anna both explain to Dean.
Eventually between being left in Heaven with Michael and starting the Apocalypse, Raphael hardened himself to the brainwashing forced on the lower angels - that is, a being who once had emotions, now frozen into nothing but obedience. By the time he makes an appearance, Castiel describes him as "Fierce. Absolute. Archangels are Heaven's more terrifying Weapons." And Raphael has become that, when faced with Lilith being near Chuck his reaction is to smite, when Castiel interferes with the Breaking of the last Seal, he smites him. When he's faced with Dean and Castiel in 'Free to be You and Me' he threatens to take Dean to Michael and obtain consent under torture - a radical spin from the archangel who God had ordered to love humans.
However Michael and Raphael are not utterly dependent on orders as the younger angels are - they do make choices, although they are nascent and misguided ones. They worked to bring forth the Apocalypse which meant engineering John and Mary's marriage and the births of the boys, they allow Seals to fall, and perhaps most importantly, allow Dean to be taken, dragged to Hell despite his being Michael's True Vessel. When Raphael first speaks, he states, "We're tired." This weariness has eclipsed the whole of his experience, swallowed the sum of who he is, save perhaps duty and loneliness. Most of what he now knows is isolation, stillness, conviction and the type of soul-crushing, numbing exhaustion de vivre that would crush the pagan gods from being and drive other beings to their knees, desperate for relief. When Raphael says he is tired, he means it, completely. And that is what the Apocalypse was - a way to end it.
Point in Canon: after 5x22 - Swan Song
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history:n/a
Character Personality:
Raphael is described as a 'traditionally minded angel' by Castiel – which is both true and not.
Traditionally minded angels are those who serve Heaven – mostly, in the course of Supernatural, this means backing the Apocalypse and pressuring Dean and Sam to act as Michael's and Lucifer’s Vessels. They do not believe in (or understand) free will and are often cold or flat emotionally.
However "traditionally minded angel" would point to Raphael serving God.
And he doesn't.
Raphael, at least for most of his appearances, is as someone who wants to follow The Plan. He comes off as very 'by the book' - that is, follow The Plan, the devout get into Heaven regardless of what else they do (his defense of Ken Lay's admittance to Heaven), etc. The Rules are The Rules. However several lines (yes taken after his canon point but not by long):
Point to something a little more complicated than Castiel’s basic read. Raphael puts himself as equal to God and Heaven - that's extremely close to Blasphemy. He also echoes what Gabriel says "No one makes us do anything" with "It's what I want". Given what he says about the angels - they were built to follow, not for freedom - it does hint that the Archangels are different, at least a little. Until Castiel, Balthazar says, they had either The Plan or Falling. Uriel - Rebelled and sided with Lucifer. Anna removed her Grace and Fell. Others stayed loyal. That was all the angels could do, Rebel, Fall, or Serve. However, Lucifer Rebelled in a way none had before. Gabriel left. Michael and Raphael chose to serve The Plan. And Raphael does serve The Plan, even when it is derailed by Team Free Will.
It's one of the largest differences between Michael and Raphael. Michael serves God, serves Father. Raphael serves The Plan and follows Michael. Raphael has very little faith in God, at this point. He believes God is dead, and states to Dean and Castiel "We're tired. We just want it to be over. We just want...paradise." That is not the attitude of someone with faith - it's quite the opposite. Raphael has no faith God will return, and looking over the world, how things have run, despairs at how it is continuing, at how his Father could allow it to continue. He can't reconcile a loving Father who protected his Children with a God who allows such suffering - and so concludes God must be dead. And while he has been away, he left the Archangels to run Heaven, run Creation, without the knowledge or orders to know how to (indeed, as Raphael would find out later – there where important things they did not know). If God is dead, then it is time for the End. And he welcomes that End, courts it even. Because he is tired, he's worn out, and the End means rest, means a return to Paradise, as God is clearly not returning.
And he is angry, certainly, at God. "Who ran off and disappeared. Who left no instructions and a world to run." This left a great hardship on the remaining archangels who ran Heaven and lead their garrisons of their younger brothers and sisters. They carry the burden of having been the only angels who have met God, have seen their Father, and they are the only ones who know He is gone. Eventually Joshua and Zachariah are also informed of God's absence but it isn't until after the Apocalypse that God's absence becomes known to the general population of the Host. And yet to be angry at God is Rebellion, which is a line that Raphael isn't willing to cross. He’s found the line, and if he steps once more, he’ll certainly be over it, but he does not cross it.
Yet, for all his near blasphemy, he still has some loyalty, some respect for his Father. When Dean is flippant, he warns him to be mindful. Raphael won't accept a human - and likely not a younger angel - being disrespectful to or about his Father. He still serves Heaven and the world his Father created, as best he sees how, which also includes taking care of his family – even that means enforcing a rigid and seemingly unforgiving regime.
Caring for his family also extends to loyalty towards his siblings, even if it’s a twisted loyalty at this point. He does not want a civil war in Heaven, because that would rip the Host apart, resulting in many brothers and sisters dying. He’s been through that once, he does not want that again.
And yet – he tells Castiel ‘It is a testament to my unending mercy that I do not smite you here and now,’ something which seems to bear out. He doesn’t harm Dean, despite being able to. This is unlikely due to Dean’s status as Michael’s Vessel – Zachariah certainly hurt him. He leaves his Vessel catatonic, although given how Raphael views the world this could be seen as mercy as well. He also offers Castiel a chance to return to Heaven and he doesn’t smite Balthazar despite chances to. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of being harsh or even worse and he’s willing to be ruthless, brutal even, to accomplish that. For example, the harsh punishments they regularly give out to disobedient angels, such as Anna and Castiel, are feared by the rest of the Host. However if pushed, say for control over Heaven, he will respond with force. He smote Castiel for interfering with his and Michael’s plan. He was willing to kill Castiel and all who stood with him to keep peace in Heaven.
And being merciful also requires patience - which is not to say Raphael can't be short tempered, he can be. But he is patient. Dean and Sam where designed to be Michael and Lucifer's Vessels and setting up those bloodlines and sending Cupids after them took forethought and planning. Mary could have been killed in a hunt, John could have been killed in the war - and yet they weren't. Michael speaks of how every "decision" made lead Dean and Sam to being Vessels, to saying yes. This is something that has been worked at for a long time - longer than the boys' lifetime, longer than parents'. To an angel, who predate the Earth this is a short period of time. But it still requires patience in planning even if there isn't patience extended to humanity. Raphael displays that himself as well as a strong stubborn streak.
Raphael is utterly committed to his plan of action. The process to get to the current plan may have been slow and long reaching, but once he's committed, he's fully irrecoverably committed. At the end of Swan Song, Chuck disappears and it's said that his writings will become a new Gospel. Both of these things point to the aversion of the Apocalypse as being "The Plan" - and yet, Raphael does not see it. At all. Despite the set backs - and they are simply set backs - he is determined to get everything back on track. To finish what was started. In some ways Raphael fits the idea of the extremist, devoted to what everyone can rationally see as a lost cause, unable to find another course.
And yet, later in the series, his attention is focused on winning the war, even Castiel knows that if Raphael where to solidify power, he's still committed to The Plan, even if his methods have changed slightly. Because stubborn doesn't mean unable to change, it simply means he's very slow to change - even more so when dealing with someone who has existed as long as Raphael.
Like most of the other angels, Raphael reads on the surface as having very little emotion. He does emote, but it's with subtleness that is easily overlooked. It's all movements of his jaw and the muscles around his eyes. When he speaks of God being dead, he is upset. When he speaks to Castiel in Heaven, he's firm, resolved. However he is very in control, suppressing and controlling emotion so that it is not expressed, leading to a very flat appearance, even while fighting.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game:n/a
Character Plans: Bond with his brothers, stalk his prophet, learn how to be Raphael again.
Revisions:
Being in Siren's Port and outside his world, Raphael will face having to learn then entire spectrum of life experience - especially with Gabriel alive. This will include (re)learning what feelings are and how to shot them - and making friends (or at least learning what having friends looks like).
But he wouldn't do this right away. He will be following 'his' people - those from his world (with OOC mun permission) for a while, before moving on to others, watching people, learning from them, exploring the island. For Raphael sitting on his hands instead of going nuclear will be the most difficult part - but he'll continue to treat requests from Michael as orders for a long time and, as such, he won't upset the truce Michael has made.
Appearance/PB: Demore Barnes
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[Audio]
[In the background, machines beep and chime. To those who would recognize the sounds, they are they machines standard in an ICU ward. It records for several moments, enough time for it to be an accidental dial, though Raphael simply hasn’t spoken yet. When he does, his voice is quiet, mindful of the others in the room.]
This is a place of seconds chances I was told. A place to learn what we were denied in our home worlds, relearn what we have forgotten, or live out a life denied.
[He quiet again, but very sharp ears may pick up a soft sound of a mummer and the creak of hospital bed.]
How many have found this true? In a place such as this, showcasing all that is wrong in the world, how many have found something else?
Third Person Sample
Sirens sound, marking another nightfall. How many had Raphael seen since his Creation? He knew, he remembered them all. But how many like these past thirty? Each night was both better and worse. During the day he could almost ignore the inherent wrongness of this place, focused as he was on other things.
Other things like Gabriel and the strange life he had here. Worse than when he had been running around with the Pagan gods. But this, this was simply something that wasn't allowed. It never had been. Even when the angels had been interacting with humans, had been breeding the accused Nephilim with them, marriage had never been allowed. And yet. Gabriel was here. Running a...club. Married. Living like he was one of them. Up until the moment Lucifer had plunged his little brother's Archangel Blade into his Grace, Raphael had always believed Gabriel would return. Seeing him tangle with the Winchesters, first with the repeating Tuesdays and then he had trapped them in the warehouse; he had begun to believe Gabriel was on his way to coming back home. Returning to Heaven. Even when Lucifer killed him, he had been able to find some peace in that. But this...this was not the little brother he had known.
And Michael...he didn't understand. At all. Michael was living with Lucifer. He remembered how they had been once, and yes there were echoes to that. But this was something he couldn't understand. Lucifer had rejected them. Rebelled.
"There is no need to fight here Brother," Michael had said. Perhaps not. But without a Heaven to run, without Michael to work beside as they had since God had abandoned them...
Yes he had been watching the Prophet. This was not the same Prophet he had last seen.
Castiel, his latest problem child, living with a demon.
He didn't know what to make of his brothers. But trying to puzzle it out gave him something to do, during the day. He could watch, and often did.
Raphael knew he wasn't fooling Michael. Or Lucifer, even if he avoided his Fallen brother unless he was with the Eldest. He was aware they knew he lurked, watched. Gabriel, at least, he was able to shield himself from. As he was with Castiel. The Prophet. The Winchesters. All of them. But there was only so much he was able to watch, before he was bored, and then he moved on to others. And others he did watch. Due to his nature, which fields he had once been given to watch over he found himself drifting through the halls of schools, daycares, and hospitals. And there was much he saw.
Cruelty. Nothing new, nothing unspeakable, there was little which was new to Raphael. But this island was cruel. More cruel than Sodom and Gomorrah, especially when it came to how they treated strangers, visitors. Yes, he watched the Newcomers too. Watched them struggle and fall, watched them commit violence again each others and try to pick others up. He'd watched the natives. He'd watched the slave auctions. He'd watched the sex shops and farms. Watched from afar SERO's goings on. And he'd heard cries for help.
So many cries.
Worse at nighttime. When the decay rolled through the city and monsters walked the streets. He'd watched the wealthy, safe inside their armored homes. He'd watched the middle class families and the poor. Money didn't make much difference in what he saw. Families which doted on and spoiled children and those where in his younger years his being would scream to smite. Young family cooing over an infant, others where the child was left forgotten and unattended, screaming it's self into exhaustion. Watched daredevil youths race Darkness creatures and each other for the thrill. Watched others flee in the night, constant movements to stay alive.
And in nothing, nothing at all, did he see anything new. Did he see anything more than a continuation of what he saw at home. Suffering, decay, pain. A world spiraling down. A waste of what could have been.
Each night as he fought to stay calm, to not shatter the lights or strike the ground in agitation, he saw more and more proof of why he and Michael had decided to start the Apocalypse. So many ruined, destroyed lives.
And none of it was enough to distract him from the claustrophobic press of the Pull. During the day, when the Darkness was contained it was easier to ignore. But after nightfall, the decay added to the weight of the Pull and he could not ignore it.
He wanted to batter himself against it until he broke free, but he knew if it was that simple, then his elder brothers would have done so. Instead he was constantly trying to find a place where it didn't press and failing.
In some ways, it was almost worse than being trapped in Holy Fire. He could get himself out of that, eventually, if he Created a storm which raged enough. This, this was being trapped and having no way out.
So after Sirens sounded each night, he had taken to wandering from place to place.
Tonight, he heard a cry in the night. One he found it difficult ignore in such a closed place. He found many of them difficult to not respond to. But this, this wasn't like the others. Other cries in the dark, others calling for God. This was something rang in his Grace so hard it hurt. No, this was someone invoking Raphael. The purity of it, the hope, the faith, it pulled him almost as hard as a summoning. So he'd gone, to take a look.
He'd landed, invisible, inside of one the hospitals. Inside a room, dark but cluttered with machinery - he took great care not to upset any of it. A tiny child sat on a bed, curled up like a forgotten ragdoll. The boy glowed softly in the darkened room, a pale blue glow that made the tracks of his tears stand out more. Beside his small form lay another child, older than his brother, acid burns covering most of his body. The child would soon die. He looked over the child, curious as to what happened.
A Darkness breach, a family lost. Parents dead and this older brother had climbed onto his little brother, protecting him. Shielded him from harm.
It had been millennia since he had reached out to people. And the last had been the man who was his Vessel. Raphael moved without thought, his hand raised slightly. The child covered in bandages inhaled has the pain vanished, as the burns healed, and he sent both children to a sound sleep, watching over them until morning.
General
Canon Source: Supernatural
Canon Format: TV Show
Character's Name: Raphael
Character's Age: Younger than Michael and Lucifer, older than Gabriel. Older than most of Creation.
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. n/a
What form will your character's NV take? A pocket moleskine-style notebook with a green cover stamped with a design on front - Raphael's name in Enochian and a fish, which when opened contains a smartphone interface on one page and a 'screen' on the other which mimics a stained glass window with a depiction of Raphael opposite.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:
Permissions' Post can be found here
Superhuman Strength/Durability - Angels are far stronger than almost anything else supernatural (save those older in Creation than them) and are more durable - able to take harder hits without harm. As with most things with angels, the older are always stronger than the younger.
Telekinesis/terrakinesis - Angels are able to move around objects (and effect the ground/air around them).
Angelic Flight - Angels can fly - appearing in the blink of an eye, often with a sound of wings and occasionally electrical surges. They are also able to transport others with them. While lesser angels need to touch, the archangels do not.
Telepathy - Angels are able to read a person's mind/past by looking into their eyes.
Invisibility/intangibility - Angels are able to shield others from perceiving them so that they are able to observe others.
Body manipulation - Angels can heal, not only their Vessels, but others of any injury, even death. Conversely, they are able to cause harm as well. Raphael, due to being the Archangel of Healing is better at healing - and causing harm - than his brothers.
Immortality - Archangel Blades, Death himself, God, his two elder brothers, the Leviathans, Holy Fire, and likely Eve are the only things which can kill him. He does not need to eat or sleep and will not fall ill. It takes extreme quantities of drugs to affect them - it takes an entire liquor store to get an angel drunk.
Supernatural Perception - Angels are able to sense supernatural things, of all sorts, including things which are invisible. Eve and God are able to conceal their presence from him; it is likely Death can as well. Michael and Lucifer can also conceal their presence from those younger than them.
Dream Walking - Angels can visit people via dream and guide their dreams as a way of communicating.
"Angel Radio" - A way of communication between angels. Angels with their Grace removed can also hear it, though they cannot use it.
Memory Manipulation - Angels are able to alter, ease, or plant memories.
Time Travel/Parallel Worlds - Angels are able to slip forward or backward in time or into parallel times/worlds, and take a small number of people with them. It's very draining and without being connected to Heaven extremely dangerous. Raphael wouldn't do this outside his home world.
Prophet Knowledge - All the names of the prophets are seared into an angel's memory. Raphael watched over Chuck and protected him (along with Michael - they later sent Zachariah to do so 'in person').
Holy Light/True Form/Voice - An angel's true form/voice is very powerful. It can shatter glass, shake buildings, rupture things, burn out the eyes of humans (or even kill them). If an angel releases a blast of holy light it will kill anything supernatural it touches or destroy a building - humans must shield their eyes or else they will also be harmed.
Angelic Possession - Angels need to possess a human in order to interact with them. Angels have Vessels - people of a certain bloodline they can possess. They also need to obtain a person's permission. Once a person serves as a Vessel they are like a direct line to the angel - can be used to summon the angel. Archangels, due to their power, will damage a person serving as their Vessel - Raphael's Chosen Vessel is left unable to walk, talk, or care for himself after only a short period of time. Michael tells Dean he'll be gentler to John and Dean than Raphael, and leave them unharmed.
Superhuman Intelligence - Angels are vastly intelligent, due to being as old as they are and their nature. They will be able to know a person's name before they speak to them.
Electrokinesis - Raphael, like the other three archangels, has an element he has dominion over (Michael = fire, Lucifer = ice, Gabriel = water). Raphael's is electricity. His wings, when manifested, appears as arcs of lightning from his back. He also knocked out the power to the entire Eastern Seaboard.
Weather manipulation - Raphael is able to create fierce storms with heavy, strong winds, and lightning.
Power over other angels - Raphael is able to harm or destroy lessor angels or shield other beings from harm by a lesser angel.
Alteration of voice/physical presence - Angels have been shown to be able to mimic others perfectly. Archangels as well have been shown able shapeshift to appear as a different person.
Creation - Archangels have been shown as being able to create things from nothing, ranging from inanimate objects to people.
Angels are not without their weakness however:
Holy Oil/Holy Fire - Found only in a temple in Jerusalem, this oil can trap an angel if it's poured into a circle and the angel lured inside and then the oil lit. While the oil burns the angel cannot pass though it or it will kill them - touching it results in injury and great pain. It can also be used to banish an angel if used in a Molotov Cocktail. It is unknown but implied that once lit, unless snuffed by an outside source, Holy Oil will burn indefinitely.
Banishing Sigils - A sigil combination which must be drawn in human blood, it banishes all angels in the area. But it only works for a moment, once the sigil is completed. However it takes the angel banished time to make their way back.
Angelic Exorcism - An ancient exorcism used to pull an angel from its Vessel. It's not well known.
Enochian Sigils - Sigils can be used to ward a place or person from angels.
Archangel's Blade - Only an archangel's blade or Death's Scythe can kill an archangel (a few other beings are capable without a weapon, such as the Leviathans). An angel's blade can harm but will not kill Raphael.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? n/a
Weapons: Archangel Blade
Character History:
On Screen History
Raphael was the third archangel Created. Michael stated he raised his brothers, and Raphael is no exception to this. There was a span of time where it was just Father-God, Michael, Lucifer, and Raphael before Gabriel was Created. There was also a time when it was just the Four and God before the other angels were Created. Lucifer states Gabriel learned all his tricks from Lucifer - raising their siblings included teaching them, loving them. In the beginning the archangels, at least, experienced joy, laughter, love, jealousy, anger, hurt, betrayal - a full range of emotion.
As the Earth was Created and life brought forth, growing in number and evolving, the angels would occasionally visit. They were warned, and in turn warned the younger ones, to be careful of the life there so as to not harm the growing life.
Eventually humans were made. God stated they were His most perfect Creation and that the angels were to love them about Him. While Lucifer Rebelled, Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel (along with most of the Host) honored what was asked of him.
Over time, both God and Gabriel left, leaving Michael and Raphael to run Heaven and the universe alone. As time passed, Michael and Raphael stop giving out orders to the angels left to watch over Earth and the people. And Raphael himself started to change. From his view point of history, Lucifer's pride and jealousy caused him to fall, Gabriel's hurt over the infighting caused him to leave. He began to see emotion as the problem and started to lock down his own - and expecting it of the other angels, as Castiel and Anna both explain to Dean.
Eventually between being left in Heaven with Michael and starting the Apocalypse, Raphael hardened himself to the brainwashing forced on the lower angels - that is, a being who once had emotions, now frozen into nothing but obedience. By the time he makes an appearance, Castiel describes him as "Fierce. Absolute. Archangels are Heaven's more terrifying Weapons." And Raphael has become that, when faced with Lilith being near Chuck his reaction is to smite, when Castiel interferes with the Breaking of the last Seal, he smites him. When he's faced with Dean and Castiel in 'Free to be You and Me' he threatens to take Dean to Michael and obtain consent under torture - a radical spin from the archangel who God had ordered to love humans.
However Michael and Raphael are not utterly dependent on orders as the younger angels are - they do make choices, although they are nascent and misguided ones. They worked to bring forth the Apocalypse which meant engineering John and Mary's marriage and the births of the boys, they allow Seals to fall, and perhaps most importantly, allow Dean to be taken, dragged to Hell despite his being Michael's True Vessel. When Raphael first speaks, he states, "We're tired." This weariness has eclipsed the whole of his experience, swallowed the sum of who he is, save perhaps duty and loneliness. Most of what he now knows is isolation, stillness, conviction and the type of soul-crushing, numbing exhaustion de vivre that would crush the pagan gods from being and drive other beings to their knees, desperate for relief. When Raphael says he is tired, he means it, completely. And that is what the Apocalypse was - a way to end it.
Point in Canon: after 5x22 - Swan Song
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history:n/a
Character Personality:
Raphael is described as a 'traditionally minded angel' by Castiel – which is both true and not.
Traditionally minded angels are those who serve Heaven – mostly, in the course of Supernatural, this means backing the Apocalypse and pressuring Dean and Sam to act as Michael's and Lucifer’s Vessels. They do not believe in (or understand) free will and are often cold or flat emotionally.
However "traditionally minded angel" would point to Raphael serving God.
And he doesn't.
Raphael, at least for most of his appearances, is as someone who wants to follow The Plan. He comes off as very 'by the book' - that is, follow The Plan, the devout get into Heaven regardless of what else they do (his defense of Ken Lay's admittance to Heaven), etc. The Rules are The Rules. However several lines (yes taken after his canon point but not by long):
Me, Castiel. Allegiance to me.
You rebelled - against God, heaven, and me.
RAPHAEL Of course it does. It's God's will.
CASTIEL How can you say that?!
RAPHAEL Because it's what I want.
Point to something a little more complicated than Castiel’s basic read. Raphael puts himself as equal to God and Heaven - that's extremely close to Blasphemy. He also echoes what Gabriel says "No one makes us do anything" with "It's what I want". Given what he says about the angels - they were built to follow, not for freedom - it does hint that the Archangels are different, at least a little. Until Castiel, Balthazar says, they had either The Plan or Falling. Uriel - Rebelled and sided with Lucifer. Anna removed her Grace and Fell. Others stayed loyal. That was all the angels could do, Rebel, Fall, or Serve. However, Lucifer Rebelled in a way none had before. Gabriel left. Michael and Raphael chose to serve The Plan. And Raphael does serve The Plan, even when it is derailed by Team Free Will.
It's one of the largest differences between Michael and Raphael. Michael serves God, serves Father. Raphael serves The Plan and follows Michael. Raphael has very little faith in God, at this point. He believes God is dead, and states to Dean and Castiel "We're tired. We just want it to be over. We just want...paradise." That is not the attitude of someone with faith - it's quite the opposite. Raphael has no faith God will return, and looking over the world, how things have run, despairs at how it is continuing, at how his Father could allow it to continue. He can't reconcile a loving Father who protected his Children with a God who allows such suffering - and so concludes God must be dead. And while he has been away, he left the Archangels to run Heaven, run Creation, without the knowledge or orders to know how to (indeed, as Raphael would find out later – there where important things they did not know). If God is dead, then it is time for the End. And he welcomes that End, courts it even. Because he is tired, he's worn out, and the End means rest, means a return to Paradise, as God is clearly not returning.
And he is angry, certainly, at God. "Who ran off and disappeared. Who left no instructions and a world to run." This left a great hardship on the remaining archangels who ran Heaven and lead their garrisons of their younger brothers and sisters. They carry the burden of having been the only angels who have met God, have seen their Father, and they are the only ones who know He is gone. Eventually Joshua and Zachariah are also informed of God's absence but it isn't until after the Apocalypse that God's absence becomes known to the general population of the Host. And yet to be angry at God is Rebellion, which is a line that Raphael isn't willing to cross. He’s found the line, and if he steps once more, he’ll certainly be over it, but he does not cross it.
Yet, for all his near blasphemy, he still has some loyalty, some respect for his Father. When Dean is flippant, he warns him to be mindful. Raphael won't accept a human - and likely not a younger angel - being disrespectful to or about his Father. He still serves Heaven and the world his Father created, as best he sees how, which also includes taking care of his family – even that means enforcing a rigid and seemingly unforgiving regime.
Caring for his family also extends to loyalty towards his siblings, even if it’s a twisted loyalty at this point. He does not want a civil war in Heaven, because that would rip the Host apart, resulting in many brothers and sisters dying. He’s been through that once, he does not want that again.
And yet – he tells Castiel ‘It is a testament to my unending mercy that I do not smite you here and now,’ something which seems to bear out. He doesn’t harm Dean, despite being able to. This is unlikely due to Dean’s status as Michael’s Vessel – Zachariah certainly hurt him. He leaves his Vessel catatonic, although given how Raphael views the world this could be seen as mercy as well. He also offers Castiel a chance to return to Heaven and he doesn’t smite Balthazar despite chances to. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of being harsh or even worse and he’s willing to be ruthless, brutal even, to accomplish that. For example, the harsh punishments they regularly give out to disobedient angels, such as Anna and Castiel, are feared by the rest of the Host. However if pushed, say for control over Heaven, he will respond with force. He smote Castiel for interfering with his and Michael’s plan. He was willing to kill Castiel and all who stood with him to keep peace in Heaven.
And being merciful also requires patience - which is not to say Raphael can't be short tempered, he can be. But he is patient. Dean and Sam where designed to be Michael and Lucifer's Vessels and setting up those bloodlines and sending Cupids after them took forethought and planning. Mary could have been killed in a hunt, John could have been killed in the war - and yet they weren't. Michael speaks of how every "decision" made lead Dean and Sam to being Vessels, to saying yes. This is something that has been worked at for a long time - longer than the boys' lifetime, longer than parents'. To an angel, who predate the Earth this is a short period of time. But it still requires patience in planning even if there isn't patience extended to humanity. Raphael displays that himself as well as a strong stubborn streak.
Raphael is utterly committed to his plan of action. The process to get to the current plan may have been slow and long reaching, but once he's committed, he's fully irrecoverably committed. At the end of Swan Song, Chuck disappears and it's said that his writings will become a new Gospel. Both of these things point to the aversion of the Apocalypse as being "The Plan" - and yet, Raphael does not see it. At all. Despite the set backs - and they are simply set backs - he is determined to get everything back on track. To finish what was started. In some ways Raphael fits the idea of the extremist, devoted to what everyone can rationally see as a lost cause, unable to find another course.
And yet, later in the series, his attention is focused on winning the war, even Castiel knows that if Raphael where to solidify power, he's still committed to The Plan, even if his methods have changed slightly. Because stubborn doesn't mean unable to change, it simply means he's very slow to change - even more so when dealing with someone who has existed as long as Raphael.
Like most of the other angels, Raphael reads on the surface as having very little emotion. He does emote, but it's with subtleness that is easily overlooked. It's all movements of his jaw and the muscles around his eyes. When he speaks of God being dead, he is upset. When he speaks to Castiel in Heaven, he's firm, resolved. However he is very in control, suppressing and controlling emotion so that it is not expressed, leading to a very flat appearance, even while fighting.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game:n/a
Character Plans: Bond with his brothers, stalk his prophet, learn how to be Raphael again.
Being in Siren's Port and outside his world, Raphael will face having to learn then entire spectrum of life experience - especially with Gabriel alive. This will include (re)learning what feelings are and how to shot them - and making friends (or at least learning what having friends looks like).
But he wouldn't do this right away. He will be following 'his' people - those from his world (with OOC mun permission) for a while, before moving on to others, watching people, learning from them, exploring the island. For Raphael sitting on his hands instead of going nuclear will be the most difficult part - but he'll continue to treat requests from Michael as orders for a long time and, as such, he won't upset the truce Michael has made.
Appearance/PB: Demore Barnes
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[Audio]
[In the background, machines beep and chime. To those who would recognize the sounds, they are they machines standard in an ICU ward. It records for several moments, enough time for it to be an accidental dial, though Raphael simply hasn’t spoken yet. When he does, his voice is quiet, mindful of the others in the room.]
This is a place of seconds chances I was told. A place to learn what we were denied in our home worlds, relearn what we have forgotten, or live out a life denied.
[He quiet again, but very sharp ears may pick up a soft sound of a mummer and the creak of hospital bed.]
How many have found this true? In a place such as this, showcasing all that is wrong in the world, how many have found something else?
Third Person Sample
Sirens sound, marking another nightfall. How many had Raphael seen since his Creation? He knew, he remembered them all. But how many like these past thirty? Each night was both better and worse. During the day he could almost ignore the inherent wrongness of this place, focused as he was on other things.
Other things like Gabriel and the strange life he had here. Worse than when he had been running around with the Pagan gods. But this, this was simply something that wasn't allowed. It never had been. Even when the angels had been interacting with humans, had been breeding the accused Nephilim with them, marriage had never been allowed. And yet. Gabriel was here. Running a...club. Married. Living like he was one of them. Up until the moment Lucifer had plunged his little brother's Archangel Blade into his Grace, Raphael had always believed Gabriel would return. Seeing him tangle with the Winchesters, first with the repeating Tuesdays and then he had trapped them in the warehouse; he had begun to believe Gabriel was on his way to coming back home. Returning to Heaven. Even when Lucifer killed him, he had been able to find some peace in that. But this...this was not the little brother he had known.
And Michael...he didn't understand. At all. Michael was living with Lucifer. He remembered how they had been once, and yes there were echoes to that. But this was something he couldn't understand. Lucifer had rejected them. Rebelled.
"There is no need to fight here Brother," Michael had said. Perhaps not. But without a Heaven to run, without Michael to work beside as they had since God had abandoned them...
Yes he had been watching the Prophet. This was not the same Prophet he had last seen.
Castiel, his latest problem child, living with a demon.
He didn't know what to make of his brothers. But trying to puzzle it out gave him something to do, during the day. He could watch, and often did.
Raphael knew he wasn't fooling Michael. Or Lucifer, even if he avoided his Fallen brother unless he was with the Eldest. He was aware they knew he lurked, watched. Gabriel, at least, he was able to shield himself from. As he was with Castiel. The Prophet. The Winchesters. All of them. But there was only so much he was able to watch, before he was bored, and then he moved on to others. And others he did watch. Due to his nature, which fields he had once been given to watch over he found himself drifting through the halls of schools, daycares, and hospitals. And there was much he saw.
Cruelty. Nothing new, nothing unspeakable, there was little which was new to Raphael. But this island was cruel. More cruel than Sodom and Gomorrah, especially when it came to how they treated strangers, visitors. Yes, he watched the Newcomers too. Watched them struggle and fall, watched them commit violence again each others and try to pick others up. He'd watched the natives. He'd watched the slave auctions. He'd watched the sex shops and farms. Watched from afar SERO's goings on. And he'd heard cries for help.
So many cries.
Worse at nighttime. When the decay rolled through the city and monsters walked the streets. He'd watched the wealthy, safe inside their armored homes. He'd watched the middle class families and the poor. Money didn't make much difference in what he saw. Families which doted on and spoiled children and those where in his younger years his being would scream to smite. Young family cooing over an infant, others where the child was left forgotten and unattended, screaming it's self into exhaustion. Watched daredevil youths race Darkness creatures and each other for the thrill. Watched others flee in the night, constant movements to stay alive.
And in nothing, nothing at all, did he see anything new. Did he see anything more than a continuation of what he saw at home. Suffering, decay, pain. A world spiraling down. A waste of what could have been.
Each night as he fought to stay calm, to not shatter the lights or strike the ground in agitation, he saw more and more proof of why he and Michael had decided to start the Apocalypse. So many ruined, destroyed lives.
And none of it was enough to distract him from the claustrophobic press of the Pull. During the day, when the Darkness was contained it was easier to ignore. But after nightfall, the decay added to the weight of the Pull and he could not ignore it.
He wanted to batter himself against it until he broke free, but he knew if it was that simple, then his elder brothers would have done so. Instead he was constantly trying to find a place where it didn't press and failing.
In some ways, it was almost worse than being trapped in Holy Fire. He could get himself out of that, eventually, if he Created a storm which raged enough. This, this was being trapped and having no way out.
So after Sirens sounded each night, he had taken to wandering from place to place.
Tonight, he heard a cry in the night. One he found it difficult ignore in such a closed place. He found many of them difficult to not respond to. But this, this wasn't like the others. Other cries in the dark, others calling for God. This was something rang in his Grace so hard it hurt. No, this was someone invoking Raphael. The purity of it, the hope, the faith, it pulled him almost as hard as a summoning. So he'd gone, to take a look.
He'd landed, invisible, inside of one the hospitals. Inside a room, dark but cluttered with machinery - he took great care not to upset any of it. A tiny child sat on a bed, curled up like a forgotten ragdoll. The boy glowed softly in the darkened room, a pale blue glow that made the tracks of his tears stand out more. Beside his small form lay another child, older than his brother, acid burns covering most of his body. The child would soon die. He looked over the child, curious as to what happened.
A Darkness breach, a family lost. Parents dead and this older brother had climbed onto his little brother, protecting him. Shielded him from harm.
It had been millennia since he had reached out to people. And the last had been the man who was his Vessel. Raphael moved without thought, his hand raised slightly. The child covered in bandages inhaled has the pain vanished, as the burns healed, and he sent both children to a sound sleep, watching over them until morning.
