Lowercase, the Divine, and You

Because of an extended conversation that look place on the HC forum, I’m taking it upon myself to clear up a bit of game lore that some people have been getting wrong.

In Harem Collector, there are the Angels who are the subject of worship, and the Demons who are normally reviled but are also (occasionally) worshiped. These beings are widely known- the various churches spread the teachings of the Seven Angels, while the Tarnished Grimoire is a not-uncommon scholarly text defining the personalities of the Seven Demons. The Angels and Demons are somewhat oppositional- just as there is an Angel of Love and Passion so too there is a Demon of Lust and Envy- this doesn’t constitute a perfect 1:1 match. Because Angels are associated with virtue, and Demons are associated with sins that pervert specific virtues, some of them correspond with one another.

Muddying the issue somewhat is the existence of angels and demons. You see, the Angels and Demons are each served by what is called a “servitor race” of weaker beings created in their image. These servitors are frequently confused and conflated with capital-A Angels and capital-D Demons by humans who are ignorant of the difference. These servants have three properties in common: they are totally subservient to the Angel or Demon that they serve, they posses a similar appearance and powers of their master, and they are easily controlled by human magic. While they are generally more powerful than humans, it is well within a group of humans’ ability to destroy one of these lesser servants. The Servitor Archons, Guardian Fiends, Guardian Seraphs, miscellaneous Imps, and Marel the Brute are all examples of these lesser angels and demons.

So, in essence, it works like this:
The Seven Angels > lesser angels > humans < lesser demons < The Seven Demons The Angels and Demons have a few other things in common. They both are capable of granting powers to humanity, known as Prayers and Rites respectively. The different powers have slightly different properties- the two sets of beings have a preference for different elements, and while Prayers are fairly straightforward, Rites are much more powerful but come with some kind of extra cost. Angels and Demons can grant or take away their powers at will, and can also use their servants as intermediaries to do this. And now, for some heresy. Prayers and Rites are far from the only powers humans are capable of obtaining. While Evocations are poorly understood, they still undeniably exist and nobody knows precisely what power source they come from. Arcane magic is also available to anyone willing to put in the work to learn it. Some scholars theorize that these abilities are granted by their own pantheon of Seven Whatevers, but these individuals are usually shouted down because arcane magic is clearly different from divine and infernal magic. Some church scholars are surprised to note that the Angels don't seem all that interested in opposing the Demons in any way, despite what their followers say. Then they do conflict, it's often incidental- minions of the Angel of Law and Justice clashing with minions of the Demon of Cruelty and Hate, for example- but there is no specific enmity there. The only reason why demon cults are illegal in the Middle Kingdom at all is because they tend to disturb the peace, cause all sorts of trouble for the nobility and disrupt trade. Anyway, just some food for thought (and some assumptions pointed) for those interested in HC lore.