I Just Remembered The Ring Of Light Is A Thing And It Could Have Some Super Interesting Possibilities

Character File: Diavolo

Unlike the brothers, Diavolo was never sent to war. As his father is extremely protective of him, Diavolo was forbidden from going to war. He was essentially locked in the Demon Lord’s Castle. 

While Diavolo’s father viewed the eradication of the angels as the best way to protect his son, it only made Diavolo grow ill from power-sickness. Though he hid his ailment from Lucifer and the brothers to avoid worrying them, his magic was eating him from the inside out. 

This timeline’s Diavolo still strongly believes in creating a respect between the realms, but unfortunately he is completely eclipsed by his father, the sitting ruler. With the overbearing presence of his father, Diavolo’s lack of political power compared to his canon self, and his ailment weakening him, Diavolo is unable to be anywhere near as assertive about his dreams as he was in canon. He tends to be more meek, shy, and humble about his beliefs, only sharing them with those he truly trusts and only on rare occasion.

However, as the state of the Devildom grew worse and worse, and his own condition grew more and more unstable, Diavolo realized he couldn’t ignore his father’s doings forever. He was tired of hurting every second of every day, he was tired of being cooped up in the castle like a prisoner and seeing only impenetrable blackness. He was tired of wondering if his subjects were okay, of wondering whether the brothers were okay.

He began to stand up to his father, protesting his behavior and pleading with him to consider deescalating. The Demon King always refused and sent him to his room.

One day, during one of their many heated arguments over the future of the three realms, Diavolo snapped. Blinded by his immense pain and angered at the state of their people, Diavolo did the unthinkable: he attacked the Demon King. All it took was one returned blow from his father for Diavolo to realize what he had done. In shock and realizing there was no way he could defeat his father, Diavolo ceased his attack. Before he could be punished for his act of rebellion, Diavolo fled through the castle doors, out into the darkness. Diavolo never returned to the castle after that. He was completely missing. Lucifer doesn’t even know Diavolo had even gone missing, as Lucifer had been off in the human world fighting the war when the fight broke out. Left alone and cold in the darkness, Diavolo refused to give up. Having given up everything, his only option left was to pursue his dream full-force. Diavolo started by helping his citizens. By this point, most demons had fled the Devildom, but of course there were some left behind who didn’t have the means to leave. Using his magic, Diavolo was able to teleport them to the Human World.

Eventually, Diavolo learned of the situation in the Celestial Realm. Unlike the demons, the angels didn’t have a choice to immigrate to the human world, whether they had the means or not. Father had strictly forbidden any angels from leaving the Celestial Realm unless they were doing so as soldiers to join the war, as an attempt to incentivize his angels to fight for him to escape their burning wasteland. Diavolo began sneaking into the Celestial Realm and smuggling angels down to the Human World.

Before long, Diavolo had quite the force of demons and angels alike behind him, building their own makeshift shelter in the Human World. It hasn’t been found out or invaded... yet.

Okay I wanted to talk about this, not in the context of my AU for once but just because I as admin of this account am really fascinated by Michael.

I agree with both these people; I don’t view Michael as evil.

I think a lot of people who view Michael as evil just haven’t put much thought into the logistics of the Great Celestial War. Which, is understandable. The story we’re told is that he cast his own brothers out of the Celestial Realm for daring to defend their sister Lilith whose only crime was killing a human. It obviously paints in him a bad light.

…but you have to remember, you’re only hearing the brothers’ side of the story here. If you really think about the war and its implications, things become a lot more complicated, a lot less black-and-white.

The most glaring of these things I want to get out there is: If Father was willing to kill Lilith simply for saving the life of a human, what do you think he would have done to the brothers as punishment for rebelling against him? The answer is: probably not pretty. It would not have been a quick or pleasant death for any of them. And if he was willing to kill Lilith for FAR less, I’m certain he would have killed Lucifer and his brothers too. And they might not even have to wait to be taken to Father to be executed; they could have died in the heat of battle. It’s heavily implied that Lilith’s death was due to her wounds from battle rather than her fall, so obviously the battle was as nasty as the wars we know in our world.

But of course, that was only IF the brothers lost. Theoretically, if they won the war, they wouldn’t have been executed. But really, what are the chances of them winning? Yes, I understand that all of them- especially Lucifer- were EXTREMELY powerful angels. But Father is implied to be God himself. It isn’t easy to take down a god. We may not know much about Father’s specific powers, but based on what we’ve heard about him, and what we’ve heard about his Devildom equivalents, he seems to be an extremely powerful individual who would be almost impossible to take down.

Case in point, if Father was that powerful, then if he were overthrown, imagine how much that would have upset the order of the Celestial Realm and the balance of the three realms. It’s revealed in the chat “Helldown Day 1″ and in The Ring plotline of season 3 that the balance of the three world’s magic is a very fragile, and very important, thing. If the Celestial Realm suddenly lost their main source of power, it could be disastrous. Not to mention leave a massive political power vacuum, and leave the Celestial Realm open to attacks from the other two realms. We don’t really know how far Lucifer and his brothers were willing to take the rebellion, but if they were willing to take it to the extreme of incapacitating and/or killing Father, that likely would have created disastrous consequences whether Father were a good person or not.

There’s also the fact that, in general, wars have casualties. Look at the Lilith example used above; if she was mortally wounded like that, I can only imagine countless angels were wounded or killed by the brothers in the midst of battle.

These circumstances would have all surrounded Michael for the duration of war. He’s watching his twin brother Lucifer march to near certain death. He’s leading his brothers to what could very well be their execution. And he not only has to worry about the fate of Lucifer and his brothers, but also the other angels of the Celestial Realm who were likely being injured or killed by the brothers in battle. He was watching the imminent doom of the people he loved, on ALL sides.

This is why I think Michael made his decision to cast the brothers down: to stop the war. To protect them. To end the bloodshed.

The brothers were not safe in the Celestial Realm. They would have likely died in battle or died at the hands of Father after the war ended. I think Michael wanted to save them from this fate. And the only way he could think of at the time was to cast them out of the Celestial Realm’s reach, down to the Devildom. And in doing this, not only would Lucifer and his siblings have the best chance of survival, but the constant bloodshed of everyone Michael loved fighting each other to the death would cease.

Michael’s decision was far from perfect, and clearly caused IMMENSE trauma for the brothers that is completely valid and won’t go away no matter what the intentions behind it were. They have every right to be angry with him. But I don’t think Michael is a bad person. I don’t think Michael cast down the brothers as a punishment, or even out of anger. I think it came from a place of desperation. I think he did it because he thought it was the best he could do for them at the time. 

I honestly don’t like the people in the fandom who portrays Michael as a bad or evil person but I really did love how you portrayed him !!!

Thank you 🥰 I don't see Michael as evil. The man has good intentions and his actions are done through what he sees is best for either humanity or the celestial realm. He is an angel and is described in canon to be kind and compassionate.

However, just because he has good intentions, doesn't mean they'll be read as such by others. That was the case in You Called?

In a recent Devilgram, Simeon mentions that he’s a sort of “middle man” between the high-ranking angels and the lower-ranking angels.

I think that could be a really interesting thing working in his favor in this AU.

He’s a powerful authority figure, but also much closer with the lower-ranking majority and knows them much better than someone at the very top like Michael would. Meaning, those lower-ranking angels would likely be VERY willing to listen to their trusted Simeon once everything goes south.

Pssst... if you agree to do art for this AU you get early access to info...

Lore I -  The Beginnings Of Destruction

<-------(Lore I)-------«

The Armageddon AU deviates from canon on one particular yet important point: the Demon King never went into his slumber.

The Demon King is still the active ruler of Devildom, and as such Diavolo has not assumed his canon status as the de-facto ruler. This means that RAD and the Exchange Program were never created.

Without Diavolo's leadership and efforts to create an understanding between the three realms, the resentment between the Devildom and the Celestial Realm continued to fester. After millennia, this culminated into a second war between the angels and the demons. This time, each side has one clear motivation: to eradicate the other once and for all.

The Armageddon has started- an ultimate fight between good and evil.

»-------(Lore II)------->

Character File: Solomon

Solomon, along with Michael, was one of the first to realize the signs of impending doom. Solomon was able to detect the concerning increase in magic throughout the Devildom and the Celestial Realm, and the imbalance this created. With his knowledge of magic, he was able to predict from the magic he sensed that the Celestial Realm and the Devildom were in trouble. Such a disturbance in the magic balance wasn’t safe for anyone.

As such, Solomon reached out to check up on things and figure out what was going on. The first person he contacted was Michael. He and Michael had been familiar with each other since before the Great Celestial War, and had taken up a sort of work partnership over the past several centuries leading up to the Armageddon. As such, Solomon was extremely surprised when he got no response from Michael after reaching out. Now even more concerned by Michael’s silence, Solomon reached out to other angels to try to get an idea of what was going on in the Celestial Realm. They, too, gave no useful responses. The Devildom wasn’t cooperative, either. Many of the demons Solomon had pacts with perished in the early stages of the Armageddon, leaving him with few sources of intel.

Much like during the magic crisis in Season 2 of canon, Solomon worked tirelessly to get to the bottom of this and fix it. The more he researched, however, the more dire the situation seemed to get.

Eventually, Thirteen, having her own reasons to be worried about the Armageddon, reached out to Solomon for answers, only to find a very weary Solomon in a borderline panic pacing around his estate. The two frenemies agreed to team up and search for answers together.

I love how you easily come up with such complex scenarios....it's amazing 😁

I try to write something but sometimes it doesn't make sense so I give 8

Thank you!

I think the fact that I’m an original fantasy writer in my spare time really helped. I’ve had a lot of practice with worldbuilding and such. For this specific project, I also took a lot of inspiration from an existing fanwork from another fandom, the Infinite Eclipse series by Jyc Row. Specifically this song from the series.

My tip is to start off with the big picture, and figure out the details later on. I didn’t start this AU knowing every little thing already; I figured things out as I went. I thought, “what is a logical consequence of X?” and went from there, and that’s how I got around 90% of my information here. It’s like a skill tree; you start with 1 point, the basic general premise, and as you explore, different pathways start to open up. After a while, things start to fill themselves in and you’re just hitching a ride.

Planning this way also makes it easier to sort out the kinks in the plot and prevent plotholes; you have your universe’s rules set up from the get-go, and everything else is a result of them. It’s hard to break a rule when it’s your main guideline, and things tend to be a lot more consistent when they’re united under a set of guiding ideas.

Character File: Michael

Despite having not made an official appearance in canon yet, Michael has quite the role in this AU. I dare say his story in this AU is one of the most disturbing and tragic.

Michael suffers from power sickness, but his struggles don’t end there.

Michael is the most powerful Archangel and leader of the Celestial Realm’s legions, making him Father’s most powerful weapon of war. However, as we have seen thus far, the Celestial Realm isn’t satisfied with the power it has and is seeking more. As such, Michael wasn’t enough. He needed to be improved. Upgraded.

In his attempts to turn Michael into the perfect supersoldier, Father created an abomination. Michael’s form was warped into what could be compared to the most terrifying of the biblical angels. Two golden rings of eyes circled around his head, replacing the now nonexistent eyes on his completely smoothed-over face. More eyes peered out from between the feathers of his four wings, wings that were now permanently set ablaze. Smaller golden rings of eyes encircled his hands and ankles like shackles, and he has four arms instead of two. There are also disembodied eyes floating all around him, which he can move at will, using them almost like camera drones. Despite his mouth being smoothed over with skin like the rest of his face, Michael can still somehow speak, in an echoey and ethereal voice that brings chills to those who listen, a feeling that they are hearing something they shouldn’t. But no, Michael can’t eat, which as you could imagine is absolutely devastating to someone like him.

Despite his shocking appearance, Michael’s mind has remained unaltered. He is still the same person, the person who doesn’t want to fight Lucifer and his brothers. He is ashamed of what has become of him, and isolates himself from the other angels whenever he can. He is only really seen when he’s fighting in battle, and even then it’s hard to get a good look at him. He flies high in the air, keeping a distance from his fellow angels who cannot fly high anymore due to their scorched wings. He never speaks to his fellow angels anymore, having Raphael give orders in his stead as Michael himself focuses solely on fighting the opponent. When not in battle, he hides himself away in a dug-out cave underneath the camp. As the only person granted access to Michael’s hideaway, Raphael is the only soul that has heard him speak in a long time.

Due to being able to see (really well, given all the eyes he has) and the unimaginable level of power he has been imbued with, Michael is a very important soldier in the war and does fight on the front line. However, he only does so out of necessity, because he needs to protect his fellow angels and because he’s afraid of what Father will do if he doesn’t follow his orders. Michael dreads the day he encounters Lucifer in battle, and has grown to doubt Father after all he has done to him.

A Grim Excursion

(Takes place after Lore VII. Major characters: Raphael, Luke, and Solomon. ~1500 words)

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Caked earth crumbled beneath the feet of the three travelers, the soft cracking and crunching filling the silence of the dead air. Solomon put a hand above his eyes to shield them from the light as he gazed out to the horizon. There wasn't much to see. For miles across rolling hills, the earth was dried to a pale beige, covered in cracks and fissures. Heaps of ash and blackened stumps were all that remained of the tranquil forests, and the robin blue sky was now tinted a harsh, ominous yellow. "I hope Michael and Simeon are okay..." Luke uttered. The young child was clearly unsettled, his eyes seeming glued open wide. It was no doubt uncomfortable for the angel to see what had become of the Celestial Realm. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to bring a child along, but Luke was the only one with a powerful enough protective blessing to shield Solomon and Raphael from the blinding, burning light. The adult angel glanced back at Luke for a second, his dark blue eyes settling on the troubled boy. However, he didn't say anything. And he never slowed his pace. Raphael was silent, and facing forward again before long. "I'm sure they're fine." Solomon offered with a smile. "The Coalition has grown quite powerful. I'm sure they're being taken care of well." "But half the Coalition is demons." Luke pointed out, squirming and shuddering a bit at the thought. "I imagine Lucifer isn't letting them get too out of hand." Raphael stated, glancing back slightly without turning his head. Luke begrudgingly accepted this, and the three continued their trek. While the rest of the Equinox Coalition was making their plans in the Human World, Solomon, Luke and Raphael were on a mission in the Celestial Realm. Their goal? To find the Ring of Light. "According to my research, the Ring of Light might be worth a try." Solomon had said in a meeting with the other Coalition leaders. "Or, it would be." He frowned. "Unfortunately, as many of you know," the sorcerer glanced to Lucifer, "the Ring of Light was lost in the Great Celestial War." "Actually, it wasn't." Michael stepped forth from the corner of the bunker, the flame of his wings illuminating the roundtable as he grew closer. Most of the members instinctively flinched back as he did so, a fact that Michael elected not to comment on. "What do you mean, it wasn't?" Solomon asked. "Oh, right." Simeon spoke with a smile. "Michael, you have the Ring of Light, don't you?" "I do." Michael nodded as he took a step back. "Unfortunately, I left it in the Celestial Realm when I moved to the Human World for the war. It should be in my quarters in the Celestial Palace." The room's skeptical hope dissipated as Michael spoke, and each member looked to one another. A long moment of silence fell over the room. "Just how destroyed is the Celestial Realm, exactly?" Lucifer spoke up, looking at Michael. "If it's anything comparable to the Devildom, it probably isn't worth it." Satan remarked with a sigh. Lucifer shot Satan a harsh look, seeming to lean ever so slightly in towards Lord Diavolo. Lord Diavolo, like Michael, had distanced himself from the table, and he had spent most of the meeting in silent yet clearly visible discomfort from his worsening power-sickness. If Solomon's theory that the magic-neutralizing and magic-managing powers of the Ring of Light could treat power-sickness, Diavolo needed it, and quick. "Simeon..." Michael started. "Yes?" Simeon spoke, a nervous frown present on his scarred face as he turned to face Michael. "How is Luke doing?" A sigh of relief echoed through the room. "Michael, is this really the time to be asking about that?" Simeon asked, earning a subtle nod of agreement from Lucifer. "Last I checked, Luke was nearly untouched by the effects of the light." Michael pointed out. Simeon frowned deeply, his charred wings beginning to lift. "If you think I'll be alright with you sending Luke back up there alone, you are very mistaken." "No, no, let him continue." Raphael spoke, exchanging a glance with Michael. "The reason Luke was able to survive relatively unscathed was because of his nearly unprecedented protective abilities. This protection can be shared with others through blessings." Michael explained. "So, if Luke can shield others from the effects of the light using his blessing, we can potentially send a small team up to the Celestial Realm to procure the ring." Tension seemed to ease from the room as the members looked amongst each other. One question was clearly in everyone's minds: who would this team be? "We should likely keep the team as small as possible, to avoid putting too much strain on Luke." Simeon spoke, earning several nods of agreement. "I believe it goes without saying that Solomon would go, as it was his idea." Michael said. "In that case, at least one high-ranking angel should accompany him, as it is the Celestial Realm. Simeon and I need to stay here to manage and protect the Coalition, so Raphael, would you?" The gray-haired angel nodded. "Of course." And that was how the three ended up on a long journey through the Celestial Realm. Unfortunately, locating the Celestial Palace was proving difficult. The strong light created a sort of white fog that made it extremely difficult to see. With how barren their surroundings were, Luke was beginning to question whether the Celestial Palace was even still standing. Though, of course, he didn't dare say it out loud. Solomon put his hand up as a visor once more and peered into the distance. Finally, he saw the silhouette of a building. It wasn't the Celestial Palace; it wasn't tall enough, and it wasn't in the shape of the palace's spires. But it was something. It could serve as a useful landmark. "There's a building up ahead." Solomon informed the others. "Let's pick up the pace." Raphael responded, much to the short-legged Luke's chagrin. The group covered the ground rather quickly, and found themselves on the cobbled path of a small town. The buildings seemed, surprisingly, in good condition, albeit neglected. Any buildings made of wood had burned away with little trace, leaving only the fire-resistant buildings standing in opposition to the unforgiving realm. "Oh, I think I know where we are." Raphael spoke. "If we go north of here, we should be at the Celestial Palace within twenty minutes." A sigh of relief came in response. "You sound tired, Luke. Do you need me to carry you the rest of the way?" Solomon asked with a teasing smile. "Wha- no I don't! I'll be fine." "Alright," Solomon said skeptically. The light mood was quickly shattered by the sound of shifting rubble. Luke jumped back, and the two adults quickly turned their gaze to their left in the direction of the sound. "What was that?!" Luke asked. Solomon and Raphael looked to each other, nodded, and approached the sound. Solomon was the first to see. A stone roof lay across the ground, split off into pieces. It must have fallen after the wooden walls holding it up burned down. Under a rather large piece, an angel was pinned down. They were stuck from their waist down, laid across another piece of roof. They looked... barely alive. Their feathers had been scorched until only the bare skin of their wings remained, and their body was covered in burns. Whether the burns were from the oppressive heat alone or whatever fire burned the house down was uncertain. But, miraculously, they were breathing. They were breathing. Solomon could see their chest rising and falling. "They're alive!" Solomon exclaimed, voice full of wonder and surprise as he reached and pulled them out from under the rubble. He frowned deeply as the sound of ripping skin filled the air, and a muffled moan rung out. Solomon's eyes widened and he offered a weak, "sorry." As Solomon had dragged the angel out, this brought the body into the view of Luke, who was approaching after Solomon's exclamation. The boy gasped in horror as he laid his eyes on them. "Are they going to be okay?!" He demanded. They weren't. Solomon could tell when he brought the angel down and got a good look at their face. The flesh across the entire face seemed melted. Not just burnt; melted. It was nearly impossible to make out any features. Not because they didn't exist anymore, like with Michael, but because they were so swollen and distorted and fused together. This angel must have been trapped there, forced to stare up at the sun, for who knows how long. And considering they weren't able to escape to the Human World, they were likely a low-ranking angel. The low-ranking angels got it the worst. Raphael walked towards the body and knelt down. Without a word, he held onto their hand. Given how burnt it was, Solomon half expected the skin to slough off, but it didn't. There was hardly time to. Within an instant, the entire body was turned to a bright white silhouette, then vanished. Only ash was left in its place. Luke gasped. "Raphael, why did you do that?!" He screamed. Raphael still said nothing, only standing back up with a solemn look on his face. "RAPHAEL!" Luke yelled. Raphael still didn't acknowledge Luke, only turning to Solomon to say "let's keep goi-" "NO, Raphael! What did you do?! How could you just... WHY?! You just murd-" "Quiet!" Raphael snarled, face twisting into a vicious grimace as he clenched his shaking fists at his sides. Luke's eyes widened as he stumbled back. Raphael took a deep breath and once again told Solomon, "Let's keep going." The rest of the expedition was dead silent.

Lore VII - The Rise of Rebellion

<-------(Lore VI)-------«

With the Celestial Realm and the Devildom destroyed and the Human World on its way, it wasn’t long before voices began to cry out, “enough is enough.”

Even the most loyal of the angels began to doubt Father as they watched everything they stood for collapse around them, and the demons began to realize that their own king was a bigger threat than the Celestial Realm ever was. The war had become nothing more than an ego-brawl between Father and the Demon King; they didn’t care about their subjects anymore.

As more and more people realized this, rebel groups began to form in opposition to the war. Two of the most prominent were the Celestial Resistance and the Royal Alliance of Diavolo.

The Celestial Resistance, led by Simeon, was a rebel group made up primarily of angels who had defected from the Celestial Legions, though they would later gain the support of the seven brothers and others. The Celestial Resistance mostly focused on the best interests of angels, and as such the overthrow of Father was their main priority. All else, including dealing with the Demon King, came second. Many within the group believed that the fight against Father was the battle of angels and former-angels alone, being opposed to the involvement of humans and natural-born demons. Compared to the Royal Alliance of Diavolo, the Celestial Resistance had much greater fighting prowess, as most members had been archangels and seraphim. However, the group had weakness in their lack of diversity- due to the vast majority being angels, the Celestial Resistance could often come across as narrow-minded. This issue would only grow worse as the more conservative angels joined the rebellion- eventually, the Celestial Legions would entirely disband due to Michael and Raphael’s defection, giving the remaining members- most of which were still very conservative- little choice but to follow their former leaders into the rebellion. There was also infighting- Lucifer and his brothers made things complicated, plus the angels were unsure how to get along even with each other without Father unifying them. Their leader, Simeon, was very aware of these issues and tried his best to rectify them. The addition of Lucifer and his brothers to the team also helped sway the Celestial Resistance in a more inclusive direction that would eventually allow them to ally with other rebellion groups.

The Royal Alliance of Diavolo, or RAD, was a much more diverse group, with a more unanimously open-minded approach to the war. This group was made up of humans, demons, and angels alike who sought refuge in the sanctuary Lord Diavolo created in the human world. The group was primarily made up of lower-ranking angels and demons as well as humans- less powerful beings who had needed Diavolo’s aid to escape their situations. Most were refugees rather than trained fighters. However, what they lacked in strength, they made up for in passion and cohesiveness. Royal Alliance members are far more used to working together across species boundaries than the Celestial Resistance, and did so well. Despite the vast range of backgrounds, all Alliance members had a strong loyalty to each other. They built up a strong sense of brotherhood and comradery through their shared efforts to survive the war, and almost any member would lay down their life for another without hesitation. All of them are highly loyal to Diavolo, as many owe him their life. The Royal Alliance of Diavolo would later become a blueprint for society post-Armageddon, as it was the first real example of humans, demons, and angels living together harmoniously and successfully.

For a long while, these two rebel groups functioned without knowing of the other’s existence. However, when their existence came to light, the two were quick to reach out to one another and work together to determine a course of action. Eventually, the two groups merge to form the Equinox Coalition. 

The Equinox Coalition, co-led by Simeon and Diavolo, was the ultimate band of humans, demons, angels and even reapers opposed to the war. Their namesake comes from their core philosophy: There must be balance between the darkness and the light.

The Equinox Coalition would later be joined by the United Forces of Humanity, a collection of the human world’s military forces that had originally formed to resist the invasion of the Human World.

The Equinox Coalition expands its goals far beyond the fight against Father, also seeking to take down the Demon King and explore all possible avenues for a more balanced future. By the end of the Armageddon, all major Obey Me characters will have joined the Equinox Coalition.

»-------(Lore VIII)------->