The Celestial War
| “ | And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but it did not prevail, neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. | „ |
| ~ Revelation 12:7-9. |
The War in Heaven was the grand conflict between the rebel angels under Lucifer and the loyal angels under Michael. It is widely regarded by many as the first war in creation.
It began after Lucifer was led to believe that, from being told by God of His plans for everything in the long run, everyone and everything would be under the power of predestination and would not have free will of their own, buy rather by God's decree. This caused Lucifer to see God as a tyrant and declared that he should be the new leader of Heaven, rebelling in the process.
History
Background
When God created man, he ordered all the angels to bow down before them. They did so, all except one, Archangel Helel, which would go on to become Lucifer. Since Lucifer is said to be the most majestic of all angelic beings, he was prideful. In all the universe there was not another like him in beauty and power.
Throughout the eons, Lucifer had come to see the corruption that lurks within the cogs of his father's grand plans for the universe and its inhabitants. Being close with God lead to being entrusted with the grand schemes of creation. Whenever these plans would be shared, Lucifer would always spot something that he would disagree with and argue with his father only to be silenced and admonished each time. The more Lucifer argued with God the further he began to stray from the light and grow rebellious.
Lucifer's Rebellion
After God told Lucifer of His plans for His latest creations, that being mankind, Lucifer's paranoia grew to where he believed that God allowing them equal share of the Heavens and the Earth, in the form of the Garden of Eden, with Him was nothing but a farce and they would be under his father's puppet strings like his own siblings. Moreover, it was not just Lucifer that rebelled but also Samael who acted as God's Heavenly judge and chief of the Divine Council, and thus he saw how corrupt and easily frail the humans would be in the foreseeable future, judging them as unworthy of being the perfect creations, much less fashioned in the image of God. Samael was cast from the holy mountain in the process.
Lucifer argues with God
Lucifer, in the meantime, saw that there would be no freedom or true desire under God's rule and as a result proclaimed that God is now flawed himself, and does not deserve to be the rightful ruler of creation, thus declaring that he should take the throne for himself. Even before humanity, Lucifer had always harbored some desire of taking the Throne of Heaven for himself and becoming Lord of the Universe, but he had concealed his feelings like any good angel and continued to serve God's will, despite his thoughts.
He also managed to persuade one-third of all the other angels to swear allegiance to him and rebel against God and the Heavenly Host. At some point during that time, Lucifer also managed to persuade Lilith into siding with him as well. In fact, Lucifer is the reason why Lilith was so adamant in being subservient to Adam in the first place as he convinced her that since Lilith had been created from clay the same as Adam she is equal to him and therefore should not be under him. This resulted in Lilith's expulsion from the Garden of Eden as a result. While this counted as the first strike against God the latter's strike against Lucifer was more severe. Right before the war, Lucifer discovered from Michael that his own brother was destined to kill him and the Morningstar was enraged by the fact that something like this was kept from him that he snapped and declared war against God and Heaven.
The War in Heaven
Lucifer, alongside Beelzebub acting as his second-in-command, lead the rebel armies into Heaven to destroy the Heavenly Host whom would dare oppose them and to storm God's throne room. However, the Archangel Michael and his own army of Angels, made a counter attack and warred with Lucifer and his army. The war seemed endless, with Heaven being stained by the ichor of angels, as the celestial beings fell from the sky with their wings torn, along others who fell from Heaven after rebelling against their lord.
Lucifer and Michael preparing to fight.
While the other angels fought each other, Lucifer was able to enter Empyrean as he was planning to face God on his own. Lucifer then found himself in confrontation with Gabriel himself. Gabriel pleaded for Lucifer to stop this rebellion as billions of angels in both sides had perished but realized that it was futile as Lucifer was not going to stop his crusade. Gabriel charged Lucifer only for Beelzebub to quickly step in and engage the archangel in Lucifer's stead. Lucifer stated that his fight was not with Gabriel and instead with their Father and left his brother to fend off the Lord of the Flies.
Lucifer vs Michael
When Lucifer finally confronted his father, God asked him what truly was the point in this war. Lucifer replied that God was going senile, and to preserve His seat of authority and power, He would subjugate all beings under fate as they would have no free will of their own. There will be no advancement if they were to have no control over their own lives. God made the argument that He would only guide them and that they were free to choose what paths they take of their own volition.
However, Lucifer saw only the calamities that would be wrought under God's method of ruling, all while He simply sat back on His throne and not raise His hand. A capricious observer of His creations following His grand plan. Before he could strike, Michael finally arrived in time and struck Lucifer back from their father, forcing him out of the Empyrean. The great Archangel began a long, arduous, and terrible battle against Lucifer which is said to have nearly ravaged all of Heaven from the sheer force of their power alone.
During the climax of the fight, Michael struck Lucifer with a savage blow that left a scar across his face and chest, making the Morning Star back down briefly. Michael, in a final attempt, pleaded for his brother to stop this madness. But Lucifer, in unyielding rage, only responded by assuming his corrupted Ascension Form and rush back towards Michael who responded in kind with his own Ascension Form. All the while, during the chaos that was ensuing within Paradise, Gabriel became triumphant in his battle against Beelzebub but looked in shock to see Michael and Lucifer's battle escalating to unbelievable levels.
The Arbiter
Michael defeats Satan and Lucifer and terribly wounds the latter.
Lucifer was not the only one to rebel as Satan, then as God's arbiter Samael, acted as Lucifer's trump card and last resort should things not turn to his favor. During the battle, Lucifer called in Samael who took the form of a Great Red Dragon in order to overpower Michael. However, as the fight raged on and Michael was slowly being overwhelmed, God took the essences of all the angels that fell in His name and molded them into one being to stop both Lucifer and Samael, and the result became the Archangel Merkabah who along with Michael fought Samael and Lucifer respectively.
While it was long and difficult fight, to the point where they were pushed to their absolute limit and threatened to ravage the very cosmos, they were finally able to defeat Lucifer and Samael. Michael, at the behest of God, cast Lucifer down into the Abyss along with the other angels whom joined his rebellion, becoming fallen angels. Samael himself was thrown with greater force than the others and the collision of his corrupted celestial form created a pit so deep that God's own light cannot reach it.
Descent of the Fallen
Their descent to the underworld alongside his one third of angelic army was likened unto those of an endless barrage of falling stars that shifted what was originally the waters of chaos into becoming Hell around Lucifer and his fallen cohorts.
Michael's angels banishing the rebel angels
Lucifer was the first awaken from his comatose state upon impact, and was able to rally his fallen brethren from their sullen and defeated predicaments. He declares that this defeat would not spark the end, for it is only the beginning of a glorious crusade against the tyranny of Heaven and God. They would not make their place of banishment a prison, but a kingdom of which to rule and one that God's light cannot claim sovereignty over, phrasing his famous line, "Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven."
Before they could establish a ruling kingdom in this Hell, Lucifer fought off and destroyed the original inhabitants of the abyssal realm, driving some of them out. They then created a colossal city known as Pandemonium, which became the capital of Hell, a seat of power for Lucifer and Satan and a place where they can discuss strategies, plans, and concerns. In Pandemonium, Satan employs his rhetorical skill to organize his followers; he is aided by Mammon and Beelzebub. Belial and Moloch are also present along with Belphegor and Asmodeus whom soon came together as the Seven Kings of the Inferno with Lucifer, Satan, and Beelzebub at the head as the Satanic Triumvirate.
Fall of Man
However, Lucifer was not done in both attacking his Father and humanity but also to prove a point. As Lucifer and Satan prepared to leave Hell, they came across Sin and Death who was born from Satan's head when his own thoughts went against the will of God and the Death from Sin from her union with Satan. Sin states that she cannot allow Satan to leave through the Gate by God's orders but Satan responds by informing her that she is not a creation of God and therefore should not be obedient to Him. Contemplating on this, Sin relents and allows them to leave. As they made their way back to Paradise, Satan and Lucifer came across Lilith sitting by the Red Sea, accompanied by Tanin'iver, and was in despair over the fact that God would have His angels kill 100 of her children every day for not returning to Adam. Knowing this, Lucifer had Lilith join the two fallen archangels on their quest to strike back at God and to pay back her debt to Lucifer for freeing her from Adam's presence.
The four saw the angel Gadreel guarding the gates of Eden. Lucifer then conjured several stars, threw them across Gadreel's line of view and had them to dash around him like hyperactive fireflies, briefly disorienting the angel. Following this, Lilith commanded Tanin'iver to lunge towards Gadreel and subdue the angel by the throat. This gave Satan and Lilith the opportunity to sneak into the Garden of Eden undetected prompting Lucifer to leave and return to Hell, though Tanin'iver was wounded from a brief scuffle between him and Gadreel who drove the beast away. Inside the Garden, Lilith, in the form of an owl, would whisper words of power, doubt, independance, and self-reflection into Eve's eat as an owl, coaxing her enough for Satan, who assumed the form of a Serpent, to deceive Eve into eating the Forbidden Fruit, promising her that if she and her consort devour the fruit they would rule with equal authority like God. Moreover, should they eat the fruit, they will rule without being under God's strings, becoming their own independent rulers. Adam and Eve's resultant of eating the fruit led to them being kicked out of the Garden and signaling Lucifer's victory.
Having succeeded, the fallen angels cheered for their success. The fallen angels, which became demons, were then summoned by the Morning Star, and forsaking his original name, Helel, he called himself Lucifer. Satan, however, remained chained in the depths of the Ninth Circle although he was still a governing body as he held authority in Wrath. Together, they took to creating the government of Hell known as the Stygian Council. As centuries passed, hierarchies were formed in Hell most notably the Seven Kings among others such as Dukes, Kings, and Earls.
Participants
God's Faction
- Michael - Commander of Heaven's forces
- Gabriel - Second-in-Command of Heaven's forces
- Raphael
- Uriel
- Sandalphon
- Azrael
- Ariel
- Abdiel
- Barachiel
- Phanuel
- Cassiel
- Camael
- Merkabah
- Jophiel
- Raguel
- Remiel
- Anael
- Zaphkiel
- Zadkiel
- Barachiel
- Raziel
- Seraphim
- 2/3 of all angels