Shemyaza (AoC Universe)

Shemyaza (also referred as Shem) is a character exclusive to the Aeon of the Champion story series.

A Scholari angel by birth and favoured student of the archangel of Wisdom, Malzeda, he rose to prominence as the first High Watcher of the High Heavens, supervising the process of re-ordering of Middle-Earth after the first Sin War. He was central in the organisation of the Earth Watchers for the next 30,000 years, making a strong name for himself among the heavenly dominions as a devout spiritual leader. He was strongly connected to the power of the Holy Light, carrying out his duties fearlessly and expediently.

The influence of his advisors weakened Shemyaza's faith in the Light, and he slowly but surely began backsliding. With his assertive personality now lost to the past, Yeqon's influence took over the Earth Watchers unit to the point where he, Asbeel, Penemue, Gader'el and Kasadye successfully convinced the other angels to become mortal. Coaxing Shemyaza to forsake his calling, he led himself - and one third of the watchers - through the Fleshing, turning them mortal.

Re-ordering of Middle-Earth
Following the defeat of the Princes of Hell in the Sin War, the Aegis Council voted 5-0 to continue their intervention on the embattled planet, to continue their front against the demonic forces of darkness led by their faithless brother. As part of the re-ordering process, the archangels imbued the dragonflights with power over aspects of the realm - life, the Jade District and its Wild Gods, magic, earth and time. In addition this, they also chose some of their in-house talent to help them reduce the influence of demonic taint. There was no unified solution at this point, so Duterius called for special meeting of the Aegis Council to decide their next course of action.

As it were, Malzeda had a suggestion. The Scholari archangels had been brainstorming concepts for watch towers for several years. They would be stationed in a ring around the planet, like an orbit, so they could constantly keep watch over its state. Though it was healing, the influence of demonic magic was still causing chaos within its internal structure. The watch towers would give the Aesir an extra eye into the planet, allowing them to act quickly and decisively in the case of demonic resurgence. This would reduce response time and see a quick rollback of any threat. The Council agreed to the motion, and Malzeda presented Shemyaza - his most esteemed student - for the role of leader of the Watchers. He had already proven his aptitude by mastering the esoteric, labyrinthian texts of the Holy Pages, which recorded the Creation and Formation of the universe during Antiquity, and his constitution of knowledge expanded as the years passed. Unique to him was his soundness of judgement; he had organised effective debating societies within the scholari of his own initiative, and even created the Seers class for the interpretations of signs and wonders. Very soon, he was interpreting the visions of members of the Aesir themselves, though one vision - that of an angel turning their back on the council and embracing the necrotic magic of Pandemonium - he kept to himself. In 60,000 BGY he was consecrated as the new High Watcher.

Entrenchment
As the Ordering was well-and-truly underway, Shemyaza's faith turned to overconfidence. Looking out among Yggdrassil, he could see no problems thus far. The re-ordering process had gone along very smoothly, as reported by the Zodiacs, and it seemed as if the work of the Watchers was pretty much done. This isolated him from process at the lower ranks of the Watchers unit, where his associate Yeqon was plumbing forgotten ways to increase his power. He claimed that he was doing so in order to help the angelic cause, and Shem was gullible enough to believe him due to his own growing complacency. Though he did not know of the magics Yeqon wielded, nor the weird and wacky utterings he murmured under his breath, he did not challenge these contraventions of holy scripture - after all, he could mean no harm. Such was the extent of Shemyaza's confidence in victory that he began to deputise excessively, giving Yeqon more and more responsibilities and control over the watchers while giving himself freedom to explore the rest of the world tree.

The spirits Yeqon consulted were not ordinary dark magic. They weren't even benevolent. Yeqon, you see, had noted Shemyaza's complacency, and intended to exploit it for his own gain. In ways yet unknown today, he brought demonic taint form the imprisoned Asmodeus to the Seventh Orbit, and disseminated it among the Watchers, putting doubt and fear into the mind of Shemyaza such that he would eventually start deferring to him as leader of the Watchers, allowing him to lead the angels in the direction he chose rather than that of the Aesir.

Fall from grace
Yeqon's control over the Earth Watchers was truly cemented. So great was the extent of Shemyaza's doubt of his own abilities that his Councillor was controlling the entire unit for him, deputising with Asbeel where necessary. The High Watcher saw the beauty of Middle-Earth, with its fauna diverse beyond belief and flora blossoming to full potential. It weighed on his heart that he was not able to experience these for himself, for his first duties were that of protection, and besides this he was too powerful of form to phyiscally manifest in the realm anyway. For this, Shemyaza began to envy the mortals. He became jealous of their lifestyles, nearly shedding tears at the sight of fleshly beings takings long walks throughout the green. Yeqon used these feelings to prod his master closer and closer over the edge and filling his head with doubt and half-truths. The Aesir, he claimed, were restricting his freedom and wasting his talent by forcing him to carry out their dirty work, while they ruled over expansive realms such as the Silver City and its dominions. If he could only muster the courage, he too could rule, as a true Lord should - for as Lord of the Watchers, he was a Lord in name only.

Shemyaza was unable to resist these temptations. He had, after all, already been betrayed. The ritual that he had partaken in had resulted in his conscience being co-opted by Asmodeus, who now twisted his thoughts until they aligned with his own hellish frequencies. Via Yeqon and Asbeel, he had poisoned the entire Earth Watcher chain of command, who then disseminated sinfulness among the rank-and-file watchers to their cause. The result was that 200 of the Watchers were now under demonic sway, and they internally pressured the Anointed One to act. Though their logic was flawed and the path they advocated nefarious, by this point Shemyaza was losing his grip on sanity and succumbed to their demands, incompetently forgetting that they only constituted a third of the entire taskforce. When this came to his mind, Asbeel told him that he had nothing to worry about, as if they rose up to claim their freedom the others would naturally do the same. Shemyaza still had lingering qualms about the process, particularly the nature in which he would be fleshed out and the powers that would act upon his body, though Asbeel brushed these grave concerns aside with a trademark "it will be fine"-style comment.

The Fleshing and Terris Aurum
Main article: Terris Aurum

In 32,000 BGY, 200 of the 600 Earth Watchers entered the Fleshing to become mortal; Shemyaza was among the first. It was nothing like Asbeel had suggested. In fact, it was the complete opposite. Rather than gracefully being relieved of his angelic state and having his divine essence coalesce into flesh, the High Watcher felt like he was being dragged through the Burning Hells. His wings were singed off completely, like wax in a furnace, while his halo was reduced to a mere murmur of light. In an instant, he and the other rebellious watchers were cast down onto the mortal world, and began to frolic in their newfound freedoms. The sensation of experiencing the beauty of the mortal world for the first time erased any sense of pain previously felt during the Fleshing, though Shemyaza quickly lost his temper with Yeqon after realising that he was now injury-prone as an ex-immortal being. The Grand Watcher quickly distracted his master by pointing to the fact that they were indeed less powerful than they had been before, but were still gods among men as it were - and thus, he suggested that Shemyaza take Middle-Earth as his own and rule over it as its King. Agreeing to this proposal, Shemyaza pooled his might raised the island of Terris Aurum out of the ground as a golden plate of solid rock, and instantly set the other Scholari to work on turning it into a kingdom.

Under Shem's command, the Silver City was rebuilt as the New Silver City, retaining the defining charateristics of the old city and its landmarks, in addition to a new stronghold known as the Grigori Citadel, where his throneroom was located. Shemyaza would telepathically control the kingdom from this seat of power. While he initially grew comfortable in his new role as king of Terris Aurum, the kingdom's expansion eventually became too much for the now-mortal Watcher. Yeqon once again spoke to him, convincing him to set up a High Council which would advise him on how to rule the land, taking some of the responsibility off of his back. Shem agreed, only thinking about his freedom in the process, and thus Yeqon, Asbeel, Kasadye and Penemue became the King's Councillors. As they took over the running of the island nation, he was free to pursue his desires, for now that he was a fleshly being, carnal pleasures and wants soon became almost like necessities.

Depressive streak
The angel was mistaken in his belief that freedom was necessarily all good. Although he was fascinated at seeing the re-ordering take place right before his very eyes, rather than passively observing via a watch tower in the Seventh Orbit, it was the essence of the Light that gave him sustenance. Without it, his soul lost its protection from the elements, and darkness swept over his psyche. For reasons esoteric to the other fallen angels, Shemyaza slipped into a deep and mysterious depression. His behaviour was unexplainable anyone, including Asbeel. There was no question, however, that it was worsening. To resolve the situation, he decided upon taking a female from the lower realms as his mate, where at least, he could start his own family. It would take his mind off of depression, and also provide him with some much needed mortal company.

That said, mortals and supermortals often struggle to integrate, and Shemyaza's attempts at relationships with lesser women failed miserably. All ended in divorce or separation - some even being polyamorous in his desperation - and worse, their yields were monstrous. Now threatening his very domain, Shem was forced to return to Terris Aurum to deal with the Nephilim threat posed by his bastard son, Anak the Aggressor, who threatened to destroy his father for supposedly abandoning their mother. The nephilim were giant aberrations of the flesh, and being mortal, Shemyaza knew he could no longer rely on his angelic powers to push them back. He was thus forced to turn to 'lesser beings' for assistance, finding salvation in the Great Eastern Sea where some of the other fallen watchers came into contact with a mystical race of sea creatures now known as Merfolk. Their leader - a strong-willed lady by the name of Tyrina - agreed to help the watchers in exchange for assistance with defeating their enemy - servants of Leviathan known as the nickars. After securing the New Silver City from Anak's horde, Shemyaza sent Kabaiel to assist the aquagenarians in their battle with the nickars. First, he helped them secure the Great Eastern sea as their own domain, where the Kingdom of Atlantis - complete with anti-demon imprints - was established. Thereafter, Tyrina and Shemyaza officially declared war on the nickars. Their newfound power saw the sea-demons driven out of the water altogether, though their leader - Hydroduke Shaz'tig - was still alive and was sending assassins to Tyrina's stronghold. After capturing the assassins and having them reveal their leader's location, the warmaids assisted by Kabaiel's workers destroyed him.

The Second Sin War
Main article: Second Sin War

Despite victories against both Anak and Shaz'tig, Shemyaza's depression grew worse and worse. By day, demonic spirits tormented him, putting a terrible strain on his soul. By night, the same spirit harassed him in his sleep, giving him terrific nightmares. Coincidentally, Yeqon once again appeared to him, speaking of a lady of extreme beauty who was roaming the land and has even been spotted passing under Terris Aurum. Her radiance exceeded that of all mortal women, including the birds Shemyaza had dated, and she was otherwordly according to hearsay. Shemyaza was initially unwilling to commit, but after having the woman appear to him in a dream, he decided that this would be his big break. He would track down the damsel, find her and take her back to his kingdom to make her his wife. Believing he had found a cure to his everlasting depressed state, Shemyaza abandoned his throne in 28,000 BGY, to hunt for this mysterious potential partner.

Little did he know that in the background, Yeqon was already preparing for the woman's return. Taking control of Terris Aurum, he had turned it into a crucible of demon worship and conjuring. As soon as Shem disappeared, he contacted Lilith to let her know that the plan had snapped deliciously into action. A meeting between the two was arranged for Felpine, the site of Asmodeus' prison complex. When Shemyaza did eventually meet Lilith, he was enthralled by her and confessed his willingness to do anything in order to win her favour, thus sealing his own fate and that of the watchers. Lilith turned Shemyaza into her thrall - her Champion - and for the next 100 years, used him as part of her scheme to free Asmodeus from prison. Twisting his once-noble soul into something sinister and unlike him, Shemyaza now hunted down the Earthen, killing them and laying siege to their research facilities. He led bands of fallen watchers to the countryside, setting up demonic shrines and altars to the Princes of Hell. Any angels who questioned his behaviour were ruthlessly culled. This practice was enabled by the Councillors, who encouraged their former king to sin and give himself over to the Burning Hells.

In 27,890 BGY, Shemyaza and Lilith were both visited by a peculiar-looking fellow by the name of Bezaliel. He introduced himself as the Second High Watcher, appointed after Shemyaza's betrayal. He confessed to having spied on Shemyaza and the other fallen angels in order to monitor their mental health states, and had even gotten more of the watchers to flesh out in order to collect research on his activities. It was at this point that Kabaiel - one of Shem's most trusted servants - was exposed as an agent. Though Shem was infuriated by the espionage, Lilith forbade him to act, sensing that Bezaliel would be useful in some way or another. Allowing him to continue his revelations, Bezaliel warned that he too had been removed from his rank by the Aesir, replaced by the stalwart Araqiel - who, using Bezaliel's intelligence, had learned of Shemyaza's efforts to undo the Ordering and was preparing for a Sin War-style assault on Middle-Earth.

Realising that his plan now hanged in the balance, Shemyaza offered himself as a bulwark against the incoming angelic retribution. Lilith was happy to use him as a human shield. Thus, the Second Sin War commenced, with Shem now fighting against his own people on the side of the demons.

Relations

 * Malzeda - relations between the two were once cordial, but are no longer so. Malzeda in fact renounced Shemyaza when hearing of his betrayal, which amounted to a tacit disowning of the renegade angel. Likewise, Shem saw Malzeda as old-fashioned and backwards.
 * Duterius - once Duterius' personal secretary, Shemyaza's act of going through the Fleshing severed the bond between them forever.
 * Lilith - though he geniunely loved her, unlike the mortals he dated, and wanted to be her life partner, she had no reciprocal interest in him. She merely used him as a front for her plot to free her own master, Asmodeus.
 * Yeqon - the best example of misplaced trust in the entire saga. Yeqon and Shemyaza grew up as childhood friends, and remained on good terms right up until the Second Sin War. However, following the infusion of Asmodeus' influence into Yeqon, the watcher never worked in the interest of his friend, always seeking a way of enhancing his standing in the eyes of his demonic masters at the expense of Shemyaza.
 * Tyrina - the two rarely communicated after Shaz'tig's death, but were on good terms with one another, and even occasionally had their people trade goods. Tyrina was deeply saddened by Shemyaza's later downfall during the Second Sin War, and with a heavy heart, ordered her merfolk against her former ally having seen his true intentions.

Trivia

 * Anak's rebellion against Shemyaza is similar to the Biblical betrayal of David by Absalom, in which the son turned against the father - just like in the nephilim's case.
 * Shemyaza being seduced and subdued by Lilith is a reference to Delilah seducing and subduing Samson in the Bible.
 * Delilah is also a succubus in the Aeon of the Champion story series, who acts upon Bezaliel. Like Lilith, she succeds in corrupting his heart and turning him into a demon slave.