IN> Hellsworn Ghosts

[Jonathan Lang]

William Keith wrote:
> > What happens if a Hellsworn anchors himself as a ghost when he dies?
> > Will his infernal Force always act as the anchor-point, guaranteeing
> > that it will still be around when he lets go, or can it be one of the
> > Forces that can "get lost"?
>
> Once the Infernal Force is added to the mix, *all* the human's Forces
> are tainted.  You'll notice, for example, that though Superiors can do
> Force-surgery, the discussion under redemption for Hellsworn does not
> include actually removing that Infernal Force; that's because there's
> no longer any difference between it and the others.  The Hellsworn is
> guaranteed to be drawn to Hellgate when he dies, and only the
> intervention of the Angels of Final Justice can save him.

I disagree.  CPG p.61, 4th paragraph:

"To be saved, _all_ attunements or Forces granted by a Demon Prince
must be stripped away ... This strips the human of an actual _and
potential_ Force."

7th and 8th paragraphs:

"On occasion, a Hellsworn soul has truly repented of his sins ... but
died still possessing infernal Forces or attunements ... These souls
go to Hell; but they're among the rare, lucky few who get picked out
... by the Angels of Final Judgement."

It's clear from this that a Hellsworn _can_ get out of his mess
through a combination of repentance and removal of the gifts granted
by Hell.  The text claims that only an Archangel is capable of
removing Forces or attunements; the latter is definitely true, the
former less so.  It _is_ true that only a Superior would be capable of
picking out one particular Force and removing just it; but I _could_
see the possibility of the Force that was granted by Hell being lost
in celestial combat.  There would be a one-in-three chance each time a
Force is lost that it would be of the proper type; and not even that
is a guarantee if the human has more than one Force of that type.
Chances are very high that a human who undergoes this kind of purging
is going to end up a vegetable, a Remnant, or dead before the
Hellsworn Force is obliterated.

And the bit about losing a potential Force as well as an actual one
implies that you're at least partially right: the Hellsworn stain
_does_ extend beyond the Force itself - but not so far as to taint
everything else.  It appears to be contained within the "slot" of
potentiality that the Force is put into.  And I can't think of any
reliable method available to non-Superiors for stripping a human of
potential Forces.

> It should generally be assumed for mechanics purposes that Forces
> within a given being or object cannot be distinguished from each other;
> their statistical characteristics -- such as number of Ethereal Forces,
> or whether one of the Forces came from a celestial bearing a Choir
> Attunement -- are characteristics of the set as a whole.

I would say that this is usually true.  However, Mirror Ghosts are
explicitly an exception to this; and I'd wager that Superiors are
another.

-- 
Jonathan "Dataweaver" Lang