Update: more written for Spheres, Elements, and Archons

I'm getting more work done on A Silence in Heaven, having put a respectable number of words into the various Spheres, the Elements they're composed of, and the Archons that angels serve. Here's a brief listing of what's in the document now (albeit without any mechanical stuff for right now, because that's in no way finalized).

As mentioned before, the five Spheres of an angel's composite soul are its Crown, Eyes, Sword, Trumpet, and Wings. These are analogous to the attributes in other RPGs, reflecting the essential things that characters are expected to do, and which have numerical ratings reflecting their strengths.

Elements available as of right now are Adamant, Flame, Glory, Gold, Hosts, Light, Lightning, Shadow, the Most High, Thunders, and Wrath. To refresh your memories, angels have an Element combined with each of their Spheres, so a given angel might look like this:

• Crown of Flame +3
• Eyes of Glory +2
• Sword of Adamant +0
• Trumpet of Gold +4
• Wings of the Most High +1

Each of these comes with an innate gift and a manifest gift; angels always receive the benefit of their innate gifts, but must "don" a Sphere to gain the manifest gift. That is, your Sword of Adamant actually appears in your hand, or you sprout your Wings of the Most High to call upon those powers.

Archons that angels may serve are:

• Azrael, Archon of Death
• Gabriel, Archon of Justice
• Israfil, Archon of Music
• Michael, Archon of Kindness
• Raphael, Archon of Healing
• Samael, Archon of Destruction
• Sandalphon, Archon of Unity
• Sariel, Archon of Protection
• Uriel, Archon of Repentance
• Zadkiel, Archon of Mercy
• Zophiel, Archon of Guardianship

There are politics in Heaven in the absence of the Creator; for instance, Sandalphon leads the "loyalist" angels who want to maintain the status quo in hopes that the Creator will return to the Throne of Heaven, while Azrael wishes to declare the Creator officially dead and install a new Creator from among the Archons. Tensions between Gabriel and Zadkiel over their conflicting missions are growing, and the long-friendly rivalry between Sariel and Zophiel is starting to get heated (Zophiel wishes to "guard" the Throne of Heaven from "usurpers", while Sariel sees the damage this spiritual in-fighting is doing to mortals and wishes to bring it to an end).

Angels may serve the Name of one or more Archons, doing deeds to advance their causes and give them Immanence; this is rewarded with miracles that angels can call upon.

(There's also Metatron, the dormant Archon who has not moved or spoken since the Creator disappeared; angels may decide they formerly served Metatron, but it no longer grants any miracles or gains Immanence. There are also a few examples of Fallen Elements and Names in the text which are not quite developed; they're not intended for player use but rather to guide the creation of antagonists, but I may explore mechanics for Falling and Redemption if time permits.)

Thoughts so far?