Angels are winged beings who manifest physically in the world as messengers, guides, guardians and executioners: they intervene in battle, heal, give orders, guard relics, and also kill. «Vienen cuando se los llama y se los pide, vienen a comandar» (“They come when called and asked; they come to command”).
| Type | Creature |
| Spanish entry | Ángel |
Recorded appearances
All are winged; none is like another.
- The black angel: “a kind of black angel… with raven feathers,” in the shape of “a beautiful woman,” flitting at great speed; seen “sweeping over the water… and it had black wings.”
- The envoy of God: a figure “with a sash, great wings… an intense green. Emerald.”
- The Hooded Angel: wings, hood, black and white, and a mace. Very calm and silent, it “comes close and nods from behind its hood.” It appears through phenomena of light and darkness, with a visible aura that can be seen crossing a door.
- The angel fallen on the submarine: arrives by impact, with broken ribs, a broken wing and a scratched arm — the only angel with recorded bodily harm. Even wounded, it delivers a message.
- The angel of the pillar: “a light of fire over one of the Pillars,” with a sword of fire.
- The Wingless Angel, defined by its lack, proper inhabitant of the place of judgment of the chapel; its absence from the chapel was noted as grave.
- One recorded only in gesture: “where an angel closes its wings and weeps.”
Role
The bond opens by invocation and continues at a distance (“he kept sending him messages”); no one owns an angel. Recorded works:
- Guiding: “the only one we have, the guide.”
- Halting violence and forgiving: “it was the one that stopped the sword, but also the one that forgave him.”
- Healing: “the angel tried to heal it” — an attempt, not a guarantee.
- Guarding: posted “like a beacon” over the relics of a complex.
- Fighting: able to behead powerful creatures.
- Killing: the black angel carried Sarpaoli upward by the hand, “kisses him on the forehead and lets him go from above.”
Angels address mortals familiarly: one called a companion about to die “friend” (“how can an angel call you friend?”). Their names are speculation even in-world: “it might well be some Michael of the Sun. A Gabriel. Or a Michael who fights dragons. A messenger… one of the watchers.”
An appearance is an event, read as a sign (“otherwise the angel that appeared a while ago would not have appeared”) and as validation of the mission. The angel is the only divine instance guiding the guardians. The order is not stable: the angel who guarded wrath “definitely succumbed to wrath.”
Attributes
Wings, hood and weapon (mace or sword of fire). Degraded cases are defined by loss of these: the Wingless Angel, the broken-winged one. Angels are posted where something sacred must be guarded: relics, a pillar, a chapel of judgment. White and black coexist in the Hooded Angel; pure black belongs to the one who kills. Opposite the whole order stands the Angel of Death, “this evil being,” associated in one record with “the black.”
Dealings with mortals
- Sarpaoli was killed by the raven-feathered angel.
- Lirio carries a book given by the Angel, together with a belt: a mace of the True Cross on one side, a holy avenger on the other.
- The submarine was struck by a fallen, wounded angel.
Open questions
- How many distinct angels there are; whether the Angel of Death is the raven-feathered one who killed Sarpaoli (hinted, not established).
- Whether the angel of wrath was its jailer or its sentinel; the phrase is corrupt.
- The rite of invocation: who may call them, with what words, at what cost.
- The contents of Lirio’s book; why the Wingless Angel lost its wings.
- What brought down the angel on the submarine.
- Whom the voice that said “it was what the angel told me” guides, and whether it is the same angel for several.