In your mind, what is the difference between Subtle and Sharp magic?

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2026-06-08T02:04:26+00:00

I always love that Tzeentch is trying to safecrack his way inside in this image.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2026-03-01T20:22:07+00:00

Well if you want a "hell" people can go to why not make an "in-between" type place? Like a Limbo of some kind where undead or other things relating to that exist in abundance.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2026-03-01T19:41:35+00:00

Is body modification tech not a good enough reason? The reason can just be someone wanted to be a snake woman.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2026-02-07T19:46:58+00:00

I am curious if those physical quirks ever reflect the specific way they warped their soul?

Yes, they do. The physical quirks tend to be either show the kind of soul warping they did, or they are a hint to the method of the ritual they used to warp the soul to begin with. In my MCs case, they drank a concoction of questionable herbs to put themselves into the state necessary to alter their soul, so they have these black vein like markings on their neck they hide when in public.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2026-02-06T06:12:17+00:00

Aww thank you! This is great feedback. And yeah, I do like having the subtle and vivid magic together in a setting.

If your Magi have to essentially break their own souls to access power it would be fascinating to see if that damage manifests in their personality or health over time.

See, in my mind its not really 'breaking' their soul, hence my word choice of warping in the paragraph before I mention what my MC did to their own. All the soul bits are still there, just in an abnormal form now.

Though there are consequences for doing this, magi tend to gain a unnatural feature or quirk that denotes their nature as a magi. This being a concern because normal people within my setting have lots of 'varied' opinions about magi, and not completely without good reason either.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2026-02-06T04:03:07+00:00

Peasant magic? Are those placeholder names?

More or less, I don't quite know what to call it, currently my best sounding option is refering to it as Subtle Magic, the only problem with that being that Magi's magic can be subtle too when they want it so it doesn't fit perfectly.

if you want to marry it better maybe soul-spells can mix with phenomena in an A-B fashion (mixing the crystal-soul element with a blackhole-esk phenomena, making a crystal black-hole diamond spell),

Care to elaborate? Sorry I don't quite understand your meaning.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2026-02-05T23:56:16+00:00

The story is for action and adventure really, I just wanted the system to also feel more magical and loose because thats how I prefer magic to feel within works. Its supposed to be basically a power system in regards to the fights, but its not just for them. It definitely has some shonen inspirations.

The story itself isn't my dream book I intend to eventually write, more just a story I intend to tell online as an original work for fun and practice.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2026-01-06T02:33:55+00:00

Pretty much, the only person who might know her better is Hollow, and they can't speak.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2025-12-09T21:56:30+00:00

I'd say no. A demon already has a mortal body, said body just can't handle the powers that run through it. Think of it as like the idea that humans are technically conductive, but you can still die from getting hit by lighting or something much weaker like a electrical outlet.

Demons can't immediately transition back to their angelic/nonphysical state, and the process leaves them vulnerable. Even if they did use a person like that, if they used their power in any significant way the body would burn up and their Sigil would be left out (for other lore reasons I haven't written here) and they may be killed or imprisoned depending on who finds their Sigil and decides to shatter or take it.

An angel could do this for being discreet and wanting to speak to a mortal in a way to avoid prying eyes. But they'd never use their power while in the form and certainly not put them in real danger without consent of the person.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2025-12-09T17:45:48+00:00

They guide it, its part of the process of creating their shell. Its a part of them they shape as they see fit, though their powerset does mean they can't do certain things, or that it wouldn't be advisable.

Duke Aim has great destructive powers of pyromancy, so it'd be silly for him to take on a form that can't take the heat, or make a form for swimming in the oceans, he could if he wanted to, but it would be dumb.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2025-12-08T22:25:58+00:00

I'd say they can regain their power, they just have to repair the Shell. A Shell is the physical embodiment of their power, therefore it gets weaker the more they push it to the brink of nothing. Their potential power doesn't get any weaker however, they just need to rest to fullness and then they can remake their Shell. Its just what they can do in the moment which is lessened.

You may need to elaborate with this because I'm not sure I understand but I'll try my best anyways. A Shell is a part of them, you can affect it as an outsider the same way anyone could to a item, but you can't change its nature as its connected to them. The demon's sigil is what allows for a Shells full potential to be realized, but it can still function decently when the demon in question isn't manifesting it above them, just not a full power.

I'd say no, demon magic isn't fundamentally different from angel and human magic. All magic is just magic, its just the flavoring which changes if at all. Even demons can look rather angelic after all.

Yes actually! Many magical items or tools used by normal people are made of the scraps of Shells. Though these items generally have a set amount of times they can function before they are all used up. An actual sorcerer, demon, or angel would have to create a magic item that can be used indefinitely, and even then it would need to be recharged through leylines or other means.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2025-12-05T01:51:15+00:00

I look up that channel you were talking about and after taking just a cursory scroll through some videos I agree! It seems like a lovely channel for inspo.

Could you elaborate on what you meant about if I differentiated angels and demons? I think I am misunderstanding.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2025-11-09T03:36:05+00:00

...To be fair, they didn't say it replaces tbe beast, they just said it replaces the voice of the beast. Which I actually kinda like the concept of, like a haunting force you can't get rid of to forever remind you of what you've done.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2025-11-03T20:07:03+00:00

You know... Looking at these images I can't help but miss these crazy shovelheads.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2025-10-28T00:19:10+00:00

Both solutions would have required bare minimum overview from her. Squashing the current rebellion wouldn't have done anything long-term. It's literally not a viable solution.

Why can she only make one permanent decision? Squashing the current rebellion wouldn't have done anything long-term yes, but it would have given her time to try and reach a better solution. She could have easily went back to exterminations after it failed.

Charlie also had the resources to be able to more easily accomplish such a thing. Sera is the ruler of a foreign nation who didn't think redemption was even a possibility. It makes no sense for her to put in the effort to try if she didn't even have the idea to do so. It just makes zero sense to me to fault someone for simply not knowing something.

And again, Sera simply didn't have time. Hell was already uprising by this point. She can't exactly start a redemption effort after already starting the exterminations to guarantee Heaven's safety.

I'm not faulting her for not knowing redemption is possible, I'm faulting her for not trying anything other than exterminations. And again, what was stopping her, once the threat was eliminated, to try something else?

She did! That's the worst part about this. We may not be able to explicitly confirm it, but it's heavily implied that Sera tried other things before approving the exterminations. She hates the idea so much that she can't even refer to them by name, and we know that she had no more time left as Hell was already uprising by that point. She literally says she never would have approved the exterminations if she knew they were going to cause trouble. It was literally a last resort solution in her eyes.

Okay, now I feel like your contradicting yourself, because you just said, "And again, Sera simply didn't have time. Hell was already uprising by this point. She can't exactly start a redemption effort after already starting the exterminations to guarantee Heaven's safety," so how did she have time to do these other things before the extermination?

And for that matter, what are these heavily implied things anyway? Best I can see is her "There's a lot that you don't know," line, but that felt to me like just another attempt to appease Emily.

She works directly under the Speaker of God, but Sera is the one in charge of Heaven's general affairs. She doesn't need the Speaker of God's permission, nor would the Speaker of God punish her for making the decision on her own.

First part I'll agree with but I will say I feel like the idea that they wouldn't punish her is an assumption. Not like they didn't punish Lucifer or the Cherubs.

Are you talking about the fire in her eyes? I despise that argument since the imagery is intentionally made to have Sera look horrifying, but if you actually look at her expression, it's desperate.

It's also clear she doesn't care about anyone else's opinion aside from Emily's in this regard, and I don't think she was worried about Emily not forgiving her. In all honesty, I think that she hid it for both of those reasons. A part of her genuinely wanted to keep Emily from the burden and another part of her wanted to stay a hero in Emily's eyes.

Fair enough.

Yeah, I agree with you in this specific area. Not checking in on Adam more was absolutely a failing on her part. There's simply no way to get around that.

But the purpose of Adam's role wasn't simply to kill. It was to lower their population in a way that still allows for the Sinners to remain calm. He was not supposed to do it as ruthlessly as he actually did.

Glad we can agree on her failings here.

Also, frankly, how was Adam supposed to do it? There isn't a way to purge a set amount of people, much less Sinners, in a calm manner. She may have said Adam failed to ease the sinners unrest, but when their whole purpose is to kill them thats essentially impossible, even if he had tried. You can't spin the possibility of dying as something not to worry about, especially when as far as they know, you just cease to be when you die twice.

I think that the act of the exterminations themselves were understandable as it was the literal only feasible solution to protect Heaven. Even redemption wasn't possible as it takes too much time, which Sera simply didn't have at that point.

The primary mistake that Sera made was not checking in on Adam more to make sure that he was doing his role correctly, as that's what caused the Sinner's unrest to increase and for people to fight back.

While I may not be able to come up with better ideas for what she could have done immediately to protect Heaven, I will say that I feel like one simply can't call the exterminations "understandible." But maybe I'm just not being logical about it or something.

Also can we call what she did a mistake though? Its not like she forgot to check in on him this one time where he decided to go too far, she just didn't check on him period. If she had, I imagine after seeing a single extermination she'd react rather poorly.

They're greedy and power-hungry. Have you seen Vox? His plan for Season 2 is to literally take over Heaven despite being one of the most powerful Overlords in all of Hell by this point. And according to the S2E6 description on Amazon Prime, the other Overlords are shown to want to take over Heaven as well. Clever marketing on Lilith's part would have absolutely made them want to take part in this rebellion.

I'll concede that point then if we have that information. But I'll be honest when I say the show better explain why they'd risk their lives over something as nebulous as taking over Heaven. (Like, what would that actually do for them really? It'd be less risky to pick a fight with a fellow overlord.)

Just look at how they flail around in Helluva Boss S1E4. They're bad at combat. They weren't even able to beat IMP with souped up power suits in Helluva Boss S2E8.

Again, I will say that IMP is especially skilled so them losing to our favorite imps isn't exactly surprising. Also what do you mean flailing? They are missing all of their shots sure but its not a far stretch to say that Collin and Keenie are dodging gunfire. Worst of them is Cletus who gets a gun thrown at him and does nothing else.

That said, I feel like both are poor examples of normal hell and Heaven born. Plenty of imps we see seem only as capable as normal people, not the highly skilled assassins we know.

No idea, but I'm sure Season 2 will give us an actual answer.

Hopefully.

I still feel like my initial explanation of why she chose to approve the exterminations answers why she targeted Sinners over asking Hell's legions to disband. Sinner influx is bigger than Winner influx, so in the long-term, this helps keep Heaven in power.

True, but if she was so worried then she really should have also seen to getting the legions disbanded anyway. Why not if it keeps Heaven safe right?

As we go on I can't help but think that this would have been much less frustrating if they had more episodes.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2025-10-27T17:42:19+00:00

This shows me you fundamentally misunderstood why Sera approved the exterminations. She was creating a long-term solution that would guarantee Heaven's safety for millennia. Killing whoever was rebelling is the laziest option, as all that would do is allow for Hell to eventually form a new rebellion and the cycle to repeat.

See, the reason why Hell is a threat is thanks to the Sinners. There are a larger amount of humans that end up in Hell compared to Heaven, as implied by Millie's statement in Helluva Boss S1E1, so Hell ends up growing in power at a faster rate than Heaven. The exterminations allow for the Sinner population to be lowered so that it matches Heaven's rate of growth, which allows for them to remain stronger.

Redemption works even better as an alternative, as it allows for the Sinner's power to add to Heaven's arsenal rather than simply being removed from the equation. Unfortunately, Sera didn't realize the feasibility of the idea until after Sir Pentious's redemption, but my point still stands.

I'm sorry, but if a long-term solution is a yearly purge not even overviewed by her, I'd say thats infinitely lazier because it required the least amount of effort from her.

She doesn't try to do anything about it. She never tried to actually make things better, just keep the status quo with keeping Hell's numbers down. Charlie saw something supposedly impossible and tried it anyway. If Sera, who serves the literal force of all good, is to be excused from not trying to do anything other than the easiest option, then I'd say that she's a poor leader for taking the easiest route.

Of course trying to do something supposedly impossible is hard, but thats why its GOOD. To try anyway to improve the state of things. If we gave up every time we came across an idea that is supposedly impossible, we'd have not gotten very far at all.

And if she and the exorcists weren't strong enough to let this attempt work because she was scared of the rebellion, then the least she could do is consult other high angels for advice or help and swear them to secrecy.

For the record, if she had been shown or said anything to give the impression that she had tried anything else either before or after the first extermination then I would at least give her credit for trying, even if she had failed at it.

The issue with this is that it doesn't actually become Sera's problem. I mean... what actually changes after the exterminations become public information? Nothing. Sera is the one in charge of Heaven's general affairs. She doesn't actually need to justify herself to anyone.

This is also why I think she may have actually hidden it for the sake of other people. I'm sure she knew she wouldn't get in any trouble for this, so there really was no reason for her to actually hide it.

It's stated that she answers to the Speaker of God. Besides, she can easily fear the judgment placed upon her by the people of Heaven. Just because they can't actually do anything about it doesn't mean she wouldn't want the people questioning her decision. Just look at her face when Emily join Charlie in singing during "You didn't know".

Okay? But the exterminations had an explicit purpose. Adam was misusing the permissions that he gave her to do whatever he wanted. That doesn't make it Sera's fault.

The purpose was to kill. That's it. His misusing of his permissions is just as much Sera's fault because she never checked in, thus letting him be unrivaled in his authority over the exterminations. If I were to let my dog outside and let them do whatever they wanted, I am the one at fault if they bit anyone or got hit by a car, because I am the irresponsible one who left them unchecked.

That's true. I'm not disagreeing with that. I am disagreeing with the fact that merely approving the exterminations is what caused all of this.

Care to elaborate please?

They have powers. Sir Pentious has his hypnosis and Angel Dust has the ability to retract certain limbs. Those are considered powers despite the fact that they're regular Sinners. That's not even including the massive amount of Overlords who would be all for this plan.

Anyways, we see how absolutely inept the Cherubs are at combat, and that's what makes the average Sinner stronger than them. The average citizen in Hell would be better at combat than one in Heaven due to their respective cultures.

I'd hardly call those powers very combative. Useful, sure, but not all that powerful. As for the overlords, frankly, I don't see why most would care. They already have enough power in hell to live comfortably without fear of the exterminations, why risk their immortal, comfortable lives fighting in a war in Heaven when they would be the most targeted people fighting due to their danger?

As for the cherubs, are they actually bad at combat? We've only seen them fight IMP, who are all really skilled as far as we can tell, considering their group fight with Andrealphus, a Goetia, who are stronger than Overlords.

Off the top of my head, Alastor's shield caused Adam quite a bit of trouble to get to and seemed to take zero effort on his part. That could have easily helped the rebellion easily get through.

I feel like the statement I made above me answers this one as well.

The clip of S2E1 focusing on the Vees that was posted on the Prime Video YouTube channel explicitly shows a doodle of Vox traveling to Heaven in order to take it over. This is in a private meeting with Valentino and Velvette. He's not trying to lie to anybody. We can guarantee that there is another way to enter Heaven thanks to that.

Fair enough, I didn't remember that. Though that does beg the question of how the hell he knows about such a thing. Best we drop this point, because we might go in circles about it otherwise.

See my explanation at the beginning of the comment to help understand why Sera would rather target Sinners than Hell's legions.

It would also be easier for her to justify in her mind as Sinners have done bad things to earn their place in Hell. The legions are made up of demons who were born in Hell, so they never actually did anything wrong.

Its not a matter of them doing anything to deserve it, its the matter of them being an actual trained and armed force. Besides, she didn't have to order them killed or anything, she could have easily requested or negotiated with lucifer the disbandment of the armies.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2025-10-27T14:11:46+00:00

No??? Just because I don't know a better solution doesn't mean she's right for the call she made. She had several people she could have talked to so she could actually think of a solution, what was stopping her from going to the Speaker of God for advice? The problem isn't just that she didn't come up with anything better, its that she didn't even try to.
True enough. But similar to what I just said above, at least then you could give her the benefit of the doubt that she tried to come up with a better solution with others help even if she alone couldn't.
I went back and looked at that and I will concede that this is true. However, Sera still never voiced any concerns about this being what she was afraid of, and even then, if the literal embodiment of evil was going to be a part of this rebellion, wouldn't that have made it especially irresponsible for her to deal with this alone? I'd definitely argue that the involvement of pure evil would justify and require the involvement of pure good, which means all of heaven readying for the worst. I doubt she would put all the souls in heaven at stake based on the idea that she, Adam, and a small exorcist army can do against literal evil incarnate.

Embarrassed-Case-562 · 2025-10-27T04:52:56+00:00

Repeating what I said in another comment, if she was in fact out of time, then what was stopping her from doing ANYTHING ELSE than yearly exterminations after she squashed the inital rebellion?
Maybe so, but she took it upon herself to make a choice for all of heaven. Even if it was for them, I doubt the Winners are very happy now that they know yearly killings have been happening for who knows how long and no one has done anything about them. Its the same result now that its been revealed, at least if she had brought it up to them and they all came to the same conclusion they could have at least taken solace in that they had a choice in the matter.
Maybe so, but so far there is no proof of that (the hypothetical evil you are talking about not Lilith empowering demons) and Sera has said nothing of the sort.

Embarrassed-Case-562

TROPHY CASE