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Heaven
Unity, peace and harmony reigned until Lucifer rebelled. The Great War tore Heaven apart -- all part of His plan -- but a scar remained. The angels watched over God's favourite creation, but watching man also meant watching their fallen brethren steal mortal soul after mortal soul. Eventually, the Lord himself saw that merely watching over the flock was no longer enough.

"Help them," God said, and Michael obeyed.

There are angels wandering earth and they all answer to the Archangel Michael. They are soldiers, God's warriors who have fought against Lucifer's rebels before and have come to fight them again. They are here to guard and protect your soul and sometimes they may appear before you. However, think and think very carefully if that is what you really want and if you will pass their judgment. For they are not here to fight for you alone. No, they are here to fight for the greater good of mankind. So ask yourself and answer: is your faith strong enough?

Angels and members of the heavenly host are not human, but curiosity and the desire to help save souls has driven them to walk amongst humanity. Some are less tied to Heaven's strictures than others, further down to earth so to speak but angels have a great deal of power and the ability to reach out and change lives. Heaven is aligned good and if planning on altering that in a Heaven character, you will need a good explanation as to why.

Hell
"Bow to man," God told him, and Lucifer said, "no."

For that he, the first and brightest among God's angels, was cast out of Heaven -- banished, disgraced and never to return. The Morningstar gazed heavenward with one third of the Heavenly Host behind him. "Let me show you, Father, what man is really made of. All is not good."

And so it began, the age-old struggle for man's most prized possession: his soul.

Hell built by Lucifer is a bastion of defiance, mirroring Heaven's structure and hierarchy, eternally mocking it from down below while it steals soul after soul, provided it is freely given. The creatures under Hell's rule roam earth to teach, tempt, seduce and beguile the Lord's most favoured creation. A whisper here, a promise there, a gentle nudge, then another and another -- they can give you the means to make your wildest dreams come true and ask so little in return. But more, Hell is now ruled not by the Morningstar -- once-master who left a post he'd never wanted -- but by the three Lords of Hell: the First, Second, and Third of the Fallen. Crueler and more vicious than Lucifer by far, they toy with God's creations as though they were playthings made especially for demon-kind. Though the Three Lords are known to broker deals with mankind, few and far between are those mad enough to try such a thing.

Hell and its denizens are those most likely to want mischief: chaos is all as much as stealing souls and this category encompasses anything that the Pit could have spat out. Demons have their own method of magic and their own abilities, and are far more likely to use cheats and trickery and faustian deals to get their own way. Hell is aligned bad and as with Heaven, you would need a reason for any character to lean toward neutral.

Angels & Demons
Gates is set against a backdrop of Heaven and Hell warring over the souls of humanity living on earth. Demons and angels are major players -- they’re forces on both sides who are actively engaging with those individuals, and it is generally expected that as characters, they are going to be actively instigating a lot of interaction, and have the desire to win mortals to their particular ‘side’.

Commonalities. The basic principles: Neither Heaven nor Hell is going to have a real and utter grasp on what humanity is, other than the remote -- mortals are the equivalent to ants under a magnifying glass when you factor in distance, power and capabilities, and this is probably the best basic relationship guidance that can be given. Both the Host and those from Below must be active instigators -- more so Hell than Heaven, as Heaven is subtler about how it gets what it wants (and frowns upon direct interaction or revealing what, exactly, an angel is to a mortal). If taking up a demon, you are saying for the record, that you are happy to toss out plot, run with ideas and spend time torturing victims.

The things we emphasize: gender is a fluid concept; demons and angels are not human, thus they are not typically gendered. They may take human form, but that form is not natural for them. Humanity is always going to present a phenomenal acting challenge -- unless they’ve settled in on Earth, and then they have to face ongoing humiliation for now being lesser than they once were.

Names are extremely important to them: they are not going to give out their actual names easily, as this allows them to be summoned and gives others power over them.

We encourage and suggest making up demons and angels rather than sticking to any specific list or prototype -- all major players from theology are off the table anyway, which means a lot of nebulous names. A lot of the demonology out there provides frankly silly descriptors and names, so feel free to make as much up as you want and borrow liberally from all kinds of cultures. Whilst we’re based in a Christian-Judeo structure at Gates, we would love to see beings from other mythologies... provided that they are not gods (you need an amazing explanation to app a god), and that you at least skim the “supernatural beings” section of the Hellblazer wiki. Canon is not the Bible, but giving a quick read-through is very much appreciated.

Hierarchies to both: for Hell, command is Below. Those that are topside are missing out for one reason or another, and the usual reasons are either banishment*, recruiting souls and being sadistically terrible to all and sundry to yank souls down into the Below, or having been summoned. However, demons do not have to be topside-based. There are metaphorical day-passes, just as a demon can be topside for scheming purposes before heading back down “home”. (*Banishment ought be less often -- Hell is not a very forgiving place.)

Angels. Subtlety is key: remember all those Bible lessons and trite sayings about being a candle in the darkness, rather than a giant torch? Angels are going to nudge pieces into play rather than use a sledgehammer on the board; they are rarely, if ever, going to identify themselves as what they are, as this is to slant the board in ways they should not. Whilst friendlier, the angels from Hellblazer have no problem sacrificing for the greater good and regarding humans at a distance. They are, for all intents and purposes, God’s automatons.

Demons. Subtlety is not key -- demons are going to instigate, whether as part of wide-spread campaigns, or personal vendettas. Think driving people insane, think rioting, think whispers and poison in the ear alongside grand-scale wars. We have seen a demonic campaign in-game trying to isolate one character from all others to drive them mad -- demons are the big, giant serial killers of Gates, and whether it is a spree or something carefully calculated, the majority are going to be plotting.

Lower-level demons are going to be more easily summoned and banished -- higher levels, you are going to need to exercise significantly more control over in order to stay safe. Remember, Constantine’s misuse of a demonic name got a child killed and trapped in Hell, a whole mess of people murdered, and drove the man temporarily mad.

Demons do not have to reside topside to be in play. We actively encourage demons going back and forth from Hell to earth in game-play.

Immortals & Inhumans
Not of above nor of below, there are those who have walked earth in one form or another for so long they have forgotten whence they came and why they are there. The immortals have existed alongside Humanity peaceably, the tide of years laps at their feet rather than swelling over them and they stand apart from anything like religion and its offerings with bemusement. Some have taken stances, choosing good or bad for their own and lending their own peculiarities to the cause and the battle. Others simply drift on, for they have lived so long in this world they do not think it likely it will end.

Immortals encompass anything else that isn't Heaven or Hell and as far as imagination can supply. You will need to explain what you're applying if you pick up an Immortal and game-canon will build up around this category as Immortals appear in game. They have no alignment laid down by the game and are free to pick and choose.

The Market
It began with simple trade. A little market, stalls selling demon bones and angel blood and all manner of nasties traded from across the seas and collected by merchants who brought them to one place for the best price and the best kind of protection. And then that was sold by those wily enough to realize such merchants needed protecting. There were those who specialized in the protecting -- in ways of trapping down demons to do one's bidding or casting places to make them safe and magics a little less savory to protect the market of magic-making that wasn't savory at all.

It grew and it spread and the merchants became the protectors and the protectors the merchants, until anything sold to do with magic happens under the Market's watch and the Market's aegis, white or black and everything in between. You don't set up shop to sell hoodoo bits and ritual bobs and not look to the Market and its Merchants to see if you can slide under their radar. There are those who are permanent, those who set out their shingle and pay their rents and in the months the Market isn't about, make a tidy profit.

The Market is always moving: that week of stalls and hedonism and wickedness and the best and freshest of magic supplies cannot be endured by any law-maker for longer but the Market is never caught. It moves from place to place, never advertised except in whispers the month before, and rarely the same place twice. It rolls on, from city to city and it's always the best place to find what you need when you don't know you need it. The Merchants, however, the families who founded the Markets -- they spread wide and they spread their roots deep and the desire for money ran raw in their veins, winding itself around the desire for magic. The Merchants are a mafia all of their own with a touch of cruelty that is all Market and nothing mundane. A business with a Midas touch, where magic lingers a little too long? A small shop that keeps on ticking over, even when sales are low? You'll find the Merchants' influence there -- but they demand a cut and their pockets swell for they are not benevolent, even if they do offer a sort of protection from the wicked things that snap in the dark.

Merchants are neutral, interested in neither side but money instead (and a little chaos, if chaos is good for business) They might have abilities tied to what they're selling and their family histories and would definitely be aware of what's going on. Conversely, a Market-goer will have purchased their magic and so they are as likely to be black, white or shades of gray as you or I. More information on the Market, including its schedule.

The Occult
Books. Candles. Rituals. Blood. There are some kinds of knowledge that Libraries try desperately to keep hidden and contained and just keeps spilling out and on. The kind of knowledge that once looked at, cannot be forgotten. Words that summon things and laid down, complicated rituals for finding things out. There were those who knew them back when it was common, who kept their knowledge and kept on passing it in defiance of Library, until the darkest of the secrets were forgotten and the Library's grasp was not quite so tight. The Occult is a veil that can be pushed aside to access magic and those who do have lost something along the way, pursuing power through dust and books and ink. The Occult extends to the turn of tarot cards in a back-alley mysteries shop, a prediction a little too accurate, to calling up the denizens of hell and forcing them to do a bidding. Practitioners of the art vary wildly in background, but they were all lured to one thing. Magic, trained through the channels of well-trod ways.

Occult practitioners are angled neither way, concerned more with the pursuit of knowledge, magic and power than anything else, much like Merchants. However, they can be drawn in to factions or interests based on their individual personalities.

The Natural
It was a cruel trick and it was centuries back, so far it has been almost forgotten except by those whose act it was. It was another curve in the ongoing cycle of war, a cunning way of tipping Fate's scales by adding more players to the board. God's greatest creation taken and ...meddled with. The demons imbued a handful with magic, wound it into their blood and wove it around their bones until demon magic sang and whispered from each one and what were once ordinary mundanes had powers and abilities that could not be explained. The handful were scattered, different countries, different civilizations, a net cast wide to catch up souls for Hell. They passed amongst other mundanes, had children and the magic passed on through blood and bone, traded down centuries. There was no pattern, nor rhyme and reason, sometimes there was no magic for generations and all at once a great deal. It did not tug souls toward the Pit but woke them up, imbued them with abilities that made them more likely to involve themselves in the other-world and was an abomination to God's handiwork that was satisfaction enough for demon-desires. Now, no one knows from where these gifts came, nor why but there are those from whose hands you can find wonders, who can do strange things that affect those around them. They are known as Naturals, those whose gifts come without a price, but it was never theirs to pay.

Naturals are aligned neutral at the start of the game, individual personalities will affect whether they choose an alignment and actively contribute to the developing battle or whether they try and remain out of touch with it.

The Mundane
Life ain't easy at the best of times in London: too many drifters in doorways, too many blank-faced, blank-eyed people on the tubes and buses who don't want to know, and certainly don't want to get acquainted with any problems you might have. Nobody told humanity they were pawns on a chessboard, nobody told them that there's another world within theirs -- they're not looking and they don't notice and they certainly don't see. But there are mundanes all over the world who are somehow aware, who know of the existence of something bigger, something else out there, the kind of magic that isn't tinsel and trickery. Some humans know, caught in the crossfire of Heaven and Hell's little games or made aware by circumstances beyond their control. They're surviving with the knowledge of this existence -- but for how long?

Mundanes will start out in game play either already knowing of magic's existence for whatever reason, or will acquire that knowledge shortly after beginning. They have no abilities or magic prowess. Ordinary human here.

The origins of magic are up for some debate; Heaven and Hell claim they created it, sundry immortals insist it was them, and men in the business trade innumerable theories on how it came into being, where it stems from. Ultimately, the argument comes down to this: It doesn't matter. Magic, in all its realness, just is. A force behind the veil, expansive and seemingly all-powerful, magic is a wild thing; boundless, mindless, as simple to get caught up in as riptide. It is not sentient, means no harm nor takes joy. It does not obey the laws of physics -- science and absolutes mean little to the flexible fluidity of magic.

Regardless of whether you are angel, demon, or anything which falls between, magic is out there and accessible. One need only the knowledge and proper tools to tap that wellspring of possibility, but for those who do there is always a cost. While immortals or subjects of Heaven and Hell may be more well-suited to accessing such power, channeling magic can be much like sticking a fork into an electrical outlet fueled by a nuclear power plant. It takes effort and strength of will to resist the push back -- to avoid, for all intents and purposes, burning oneself to a crisp. Give a little, get a little. Give a lot, etc.; it's quid pro quo, and while it may not be living, it most certainly knows how to ask or take in return for its own offerings.

The world's magic is not some benevolently fey and kindly thing, more a teeming high-voltage sea. Wise magicians will buffer themselves against this by using tools or rituals. (Wise magicians will also know better than to buy cheap knock-off tools or initiate faulty rituals, but wisdom's not as hot a commodity as impatience or greed.) Those born with readily accessible abilities may have an easier time than, say, the Occultist who attempts to perform a spell, and yet there is always, always a cost. Because at the end of the day, even magic nods to TANSTAAFL; there is no something for nothing, not in this world.

Certain types of magic require a stripped-down scenario where the practitioner's body is the main "battery", but even then options abound. In cases where more is needed and books or blood is not enough, there is always sacrifice -- of life, livelihood, secrets, sex, the list is potentially endless. And of course, there's always brokering a favour. More than a number of preternatural creatures are willing to help complete a spell for the right price. Just be wary, for whether it's magic, magician or facilitator thereof, scratch beneath the surface and you'll realize things are neither simple nor clean. Magic does so like to see a body get their hands dirty.

Examples of typical magic:

• Angels: God’s Host are made up from divine spirit stuff and powered by holy fire. Their abilities, when presented, are uniquely pure but just as oftentimes merciless, bordering on brutal. An angel is more likely to give Hell a good smiting than use illusion on mankind.
• Demons: And then you have the flip side; as fond as Hell is of a good show, their way tends to be more insidious. The Morningstar may be mighty, but all talk of pride aside, Lucifer is not God. He does not personally empower the demonic hordes, nor do the Three Lords of Hell, so demonic magic tends to be more self-made (if not stolen) and ritual-driven. It’s also much more likely to affect John Q. Public, for the name of the game is soul acquisition.
• Immortals: Immortals walk an odd road; they’re just as likely to have been born with their magic than to have obtained it by other means. There’s little industry standard when you lump preternaturals together -- an elemental will differ greatly from a man cursed with immortality.
• Naturals: All that work, effort and frustration for an Occult-minded body is nothing compared to the sheer simplicity of a Natural at work. Natural magic comes as easily as it does breathing (handily so) and it's quite obvious as to why. For whatever form of magic that has manifested, it is a part of a Natural as any other bodily function. It's limited to one form, however. Naturals can find other ways of pursuing magic but after all that ease, it's going to feel unsettling and difficult, like swimming when you're used to walking on dry land.
• Occultists: The Occult is like learning to speak another language when you're in your twenties: it's hard. Magic isn't an instant tap-in, but a process of routines, rituals and proscribed words that produce predicted reactions. You can do a lot with Occult magic, it's true -- summon a demon or banish one, turn copper into gold or cast a protection on a piece of land, but you need ingredients, book-learning and and a modicum of talent to get anything real done. It's also a process: it takes years to learn the basics of Occult work, so anything much in this line is frustrating but they get to feel smug -- magic in this vein is hard-acquired.
• Market-goers: Think of magic as a shop filled with things in jars: the ability to move objects without touching them in one jar, to have really good luck in another -- market-goers have purchased their magic, picked it out at a Market and paid either good money (or something worse) for the privileges bestowed. Often, it's connected to an object -- an amulet perhaps, required wearing for being able to do what you would, but the more pricier end of things might be no-strings-attached magic, or so they'll have you believe. Market goers don't find magic as easy to come by as Naturals (obviously) but depending on how long you've had your gifts at your disposal, they've likely settled in.