Enigmundia: Angels, Angels, Angels!

I've been reviewing the Wikipedia entry for the Christian angelic hierarchy, trying to come up with an Enigmundian take on them.

I started with the lowest (?) of the three spheres and the angel groups listed there. Those three groups are angels, archangels, and principalities/princedoms/rulers.

Angels

The "angel group" are normally depicted as these human-looking folks with wings, though apparently it's never really mentioned that they (meaning this particular type of angel) have them in the Bible. Seraphim and Cherubim (angelic types found in the first sphere), on the other hand, are cited as having them. So we may be able to get away with not having any. However, it may be that wings are necessary -- but size and number of wings may denote how powerful they are.

Ha, just had an image of Prince Namor as one such type of angel with teeny-tiny wings on his ankles. Say, didn't Mercury, messenger of the gods, have winged boots and a winged hat/helmet? If we go with the idea that some of the pagan gods actually came to hide out on Enigmundia during the War in the Heavens, then a Mercury analogy could work. Anyway, to end this digression:wings are definitely in, but we'll work on the number and size.

The role they play is that of messenger (hi Mercury), so we can play with that a bit as well.

We'll call this group the melekhim -- twisting the Hebrew term somewhat.

Archangels

The article seems to differentiate "archangels" and "Arch-Angels". While archangels belong in the third sphere, Arch-Angels seem to refer to the big seven Arch-Angels who hang around the throne of God. Since we're talking about the "archangel" group, let's see what we've got:

1. Not much, since most of the talk is about the "Arch-Angels" who are theorized to be at the top of all the choirs of angels;
2. that these are chief angels, so are in charge of groups of messengers of God.

I suppose we can assume that they're in charge of different "angel groups" somehow. Like if an angel was like a guardian angel, the archangel in charge of the angel would be responsible for a family line or something like that.

We'll call this group the ramelekhim, again twisting the Hebrew name.

Principalities/Rulers/Princedoms

This week, this group jumped out as most interesting to me. The Wikipedia entry goes:

Their duty also is said to be to carry out the orders given to them by the Dominions and bequeath blessings to the material world. Their task is to oversee groups of people. They are the educators and guardians of the realm of earth. Like beings related to the world of the germinal ideas, they are said to inspire living things to many things such as art or science.

This seems to suggest that these folks act around intellectual movements and organizations (non-national). They are also granters of inspiration, and would perhaps be set over mages, inventors, and or groups composed of these types of people.

“(Mercury), for to you beyond all other
gods it is dearest to be man’s companion..."
- Homer, The Illiad

And once again I think of Mercury/Hermes, the Hermetic Order of Mages, and the hat and staff that he is depicted as having -- could they be equivalent to the crown and the scepter that these types of angels are supposed to have as well?

Evil versions of this angelic group would likely be behind sharing forbidden knowledge, like smaller versions of Prometheus, granting burning bits of innocence-destroying knowledge to the mortals of Enigmundia.

Could some of them be behind my parallel of Mystara's nation of Chaotic mages: Alphatia? Might some of them be hiding as brilliant mortal mages among the wizards of Glantri (Principalites of Glantri, haha)?

We'll see where this goes next time.

What do we call this group of angels? Didn't really see a Hebrew name there. Stick with Principalites?

Checking here, it's sar. So let's call them sehr.