Application for Empatheias

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Livia.
Contact: You can either PM me at this account or send a PM to me on Plurk. I'm TheBookGirl over there.
Age: 19.
Current Characters: None!~


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Raphael
Age: His exact age is never given, but since Raphael is an archangel, it’s probably safe to assume that he’s thousands of years old, if not more.
Canon: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
Canon Point: Post-game, when Enoch is destroying the Tower.

Background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Shaddai:_Ascension_of_the_Metatron

http://commofenoch.livejournal.com/2434.html

Personality: Before one properly examines Raphael, they first have to understand that the empathy Humans have is quite different from the one Angels have. There are two forms of empathy-emotional empathy, which is the ability to respond with appropriate emotion to another's mental state, and cognitive empathy, which is the capacity to understand another person’s perspective or mental state. If a person gets sad at a picture of a crying baby, they’ll become sad and worried too. That’s an example of emotional empathy, and all Angels have this, including Raphael. What most Angels lack is cognitive empathy, the ability to understand someone else’s worldview and walk in their shoes for a few minutes. Why? Because Humans are born with as blank slates, and Angels are not. They are created with all the information they need and are hard-wired to be loyal to God. If an Angel was to kill a man’s wife because God told him to, he wouldn’t quite understand the man’s suffering. God said that this had to be done, so why is the man sad? It was part of God’s will.

Plus, Angels live in Heaven, where there’s no disease, so they don’t die of natural causes like Humans do. Angels, technically, don’t need to eat food, so while they understand that other humans have to, they’re not quite knowledgeable about it. A growling stomach would get some curious looks from an Angel who knew nothing about how humans express and deal with hunger. Since they’re in Heaven and Angels, they know that each soul is being sorted properly-unless the Darkness gets involved, which hardly ever happens-so they have no reason to worry about the souls of the dead, and nor do they have to really worry about their souls or each other’s souls, since it takes a lot to kill them. Death is unheard of normally in Heaven.

They don’t normally have any free will. Their main decisions come from God, and since they’re hardwired to obey him and think that he’s right, they do, unless they’ve really undergone some character development and decided not to. However, thankfully, the level of empathy, just like Humans, varies from Angel to Angel, due to their experiences, functions, and their own personalities. Raphael, for example, who is supposed to be merciful, calm, and heal those who God wants healed, would possess a higher sense of empathy. If God ordered Raphael to kill a man’s wife, he would be able to feel some sorrow on the man’s part and apologize for it, even though..he would say it was still God’s will. God, again, is the big thing here.

Since these three parts are so important to Raphael and the level of empathy he has, let’s take a look at them one by one, starting with his functions. Unlike most Human names, the names of Angel’s means something, and Raphael is no exception-his means ‘God heals’, and that’s what he does, along with being, as the game manual states, the Angel of knowledge.

This isn’t to say that any of the other Angels aren’t clever, but while Michael just tends to talk with Enoch normally, and while Gabriel’s constant advice is near-useless, since both the player-and probably Enoch-have figured out what to do before she gives the advice telling us exactly what we figured out, Raphael’s advice is actually pretty useful, telling Enoch what to do with strange devices that are switches, giving him battle advice-that is probably really useful to him and not the player, since..we are familiar with the conventions of a game and he is not-and telling him about the people he senses, like the strange girl Nanna and the odd person that comes from Enoch’s future and saves his hide, Methuselah. While he’s definitely not the first to go to battle, he is very useful to have on the sidelines.

As for his own personality, Lucifel says in the Flowers for Lucifel interview that he is the most optimistic of the Archangels, and Enoch says that he gets a sense of peace from him. Michael, in-game, says that he’s kind. Now, these are all true, but Raphael’s optimism is a bit strange compared to the Human version of it. A soldier fighting in a war probably wouldn’t be able to stomach killing innocent civilians, even if he had to. It would be completely understandable if he became depressed. There are limits to our optimism and hope, after all. However, Raphael doesn’t see that normally. In the game, Enoch faces doubt upon doubt, and not just because of his immortality or the fact that he’ll be fighting friends. However, Raphael is blind to what Enoch is feeling, since for him, it’s for God, and the Grigori’s Tower needs to be stopped for humanity. It’s a terrible thing long-term, but to the humans living there, the short term benefits are great. So, he keeps telling Enoch to keep moving and keeps giving him optimistic encouragement when he’s about to die in battle.

To a conflicted person like Enoch, such words, while sounding nice, wouldn’t really help him overcome his own doubts and problems. He’s kind, peaceful, and optimistic, but with none of the solid cognitive empathy to really help Enoch, his friend, with his struggles. However, while no other character mentions it, Raphael is also a little curious and is not afraid to ask questions, which isn’t surprising, considering he’s the Angel of knowledge. While he doesn’t ask why, he does ask if the people are celebrating the Grigori, and he says it in such a way that it’s clear that he doesn’t know why they would be. To him, the Grigori’s plans are harmful to everyone, and yet, here people are celebrating their ‘gods’. It’s hinted very heavily in-game that he just doesn’t get why.

Now, this leads into the third, final, and most important part of what makes up Raphael’s empathy and his personality in general-his experiences, which, in this case, involves Raphael’s experiences during this canon and how they changed him. While searching for Grigori’s Tower for about three hundred years did allow him to learn some things about human interaction-even if he couldn’t fully understand it sometimes-and human society, it wasn’t until Enoch was well into the Tower and jumped into the Darkness-this canon’s equivalent of Hell-to save a little girl that he really began to change. When Enoch jumped down and Armaros went through the Darkness to save him, Raphael did not talk much to Armaros while he was searching. Granted, the Darkness is not really a place where you feel like talking, but Gabriel still manages to dispense her usual advice, and Michael manages to keep on musing to himself, even though he’s feeling worried.

The only times Raphael speaks in that level is when he tells Armaros what to do with the red sphere you see that moves a part of the level for you-and there he sounds rather melancholy-and when you’re about to drop down to see Enoch, where Raphael hopes that his friend is safe. It’s very likely that Raphael is experiencing worry, an emotion that he probably had never had to deal with before. There was never a situation in his canon where he would have seriously worried about a close friend until now. The first time you feel worried about someone, it does leave you a bit short of words, and this could be the reason why Raphael is so quiet during this level.

When we see that Enoch has become corrupted by the Vileness, Raphael doesn’t say anything to Armaros during the fight, and nor does he try to help Enoch dispel his doubts later on. Michael is the one that does most of the talking during this time, and ultimately, it’s because of Ishtar that he manages to free himself and fight once more, even finishing his fight with Armaros. Now, why would Raphael, a friend of Enoch’s and an ally of his, remain silent during this time? I imagine that he was just amazed that he didn’t realize just how much his friend was suffering. During this time, Michael says that he didn’t realize either and tries to be more supportive of Enoch. It’s very likely that Raphael went through something similar, even though he had no idea what words to say to help his friend. Why was Enoch in so much pain? He was a scribe of Heaven, doing work that he knew was right and for God, so why? And why didn’t he notice that his friend was hurting, even though he was the Angel of healing? Here, Raphael failed both himself and his friend, which does affect him later on.

While he does start talking again near the end of the game, probably to try and start making up for his failings, he doesn’t talk much even after this period. It’s likely that he was trying to think up a solution to all these questions and problems and managed to come up with one-that he would try to be more attentive. That he would try to ask more questions, try to understand more about what Enoch was feeling and why, and to try and understand more about the human mindset in general. While this all shows that Raphael has a tendency to go silent whenever he encounters something a bit too much for him that he has to mentally work though, it will also affect his experiences later on. He will try to be better, to both live up to the role God has given him, and to help his friends and allies.

In the end, this means that Raphael is an Archangel of Healing that will gather knowledge, be optimistic and kind to others, usually leave the fighting to others, and will try to do better when he makes mistakes. He will try to understand more about people so that, not only will he gain more knowledge, but he’ll be able to help his friends and those around him.


Abilities: Raphael, as his name states, is able to heal all illnesses and sicknesses provided that it’s part of his orders from God. If you remove him from God, he’ll probably start trying to heal everyone he can because he isn’t quite sure as to who God wants to die yet. Obviously, he also has a wealth of medical knowledge and can use it effectively. While he isn't the first person to get into a fight, if he is cornered and has to, he can be very skilled with the Gale, one of God's weapons. This is what the Gale looks like and how one can use it in battle. He is also able to turn into a swan and has a spiritual body where normal people can’t see him or touch him unless he wants them to. He also doesn't have to eat, drink, or sleep, though he can if he wants to.

His is also able to purify Vileness, a corrupting force of the Darkness, and can sense where it is and when people are contaminated with it. The Vileness may translate to corrupting forces in other canons, so it probable that he would be able to sense, for example, if Riku from Kingdom Hearts was corrupted by the Darkness. He is also able to sense souls and where they are, since he's able to say that he can sense the presence of a little girl following Enoch. Since he's an Angel, he also has a connection to God. Also, since he is an Angel, he does have wings he can fly with. He doesn't always bring them out, but he can do so.

Other: Other than the fact that his pendant will be a green circle, nothing else.


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
First Person Sample:http://dear-mun.dreamwidth.org/5828049.html

Third Person Sample: Like his brother and many other Angels, Michael was interested in the world Humans lived in, and since he wanted to visit, his brother agreed to take him and the rest of the Archangels along with him during one of his outings. It was summertime, and since they had to try and hide what they were, they all had to endure the heat as they wandered around the shopping center, which was close to a library and a small neighborhood. While Raphael had been on Earth before when it was hot, he had been a spiritual swan during that time and hadn’t had to cope with it. However, he managed to bear with it while they walked to the place Lucifel wanted to visit today-a convenience store-since the air inside the building would obviously be cooler, since it was protected by the sun’s rays.

While Raphael was right, he hadn’t expected the air to be so cool, and while Uriel looked a little uncomfortable, Gabriel and Michael were smiling along with him at this new discovery.

“Why is the air cold, Lucifel?” Gabriel asked. While it was obvious that it was because of something Humans had created, it still wasn’t obvious to her what that something was.

“It’s because of the AC.” As he spoke, Lucifel walked into one of the aisles, and Michael followed him. However, the other three broke off on their own, Uriel wandering into a small toy section, Gabriel going into a makeup section, and Raphael wandered over to where a few drinks were being kept in a glass cabinet. It looked interesting, but why keep them in glass? Curious, Raphael opened up the door and smiled again when some cold air hit him in the face. So it was to keep them cold for when people wanted to drink them. That was a rather clever idea!

As he pulled a plastic bottle with Coke on it out, the Archangel sensed a little boy running towards him and turned around in time to see him trip on an undone shoelace and fall to the ground. Since he didn’t put out his hands, the boy hit his face and sat up crying with a big scrape on his face. He wasn’t supposed to reveal his identity, but..Raphael felt bad for the boy. So, he quickly knelt down across from him, touched his face, and used his powers, which enveloped the area in green light for a moment. When it died down, it revealed that the area was completely healed, like the boy had never tripped at all. The boy, stunned, stopped wiping his eyes and looked up at Raphael, confused and a little terrified.

“What did you do? Who are you?”

“I healed you, and I’m Raphael.” As he spoke, Raphael smiled at the boy and quickly got up. He wasn’t quite sure why the boy seemed worried now, but it was good that he wasn’t injured. Before the boy could speak up again, Lucifel walked over to where they were, having gotten a call from God about what was going on, and looking like he hadn’t enjoyed getting that information.

“C’mon, we’re all ready to go. Give that to me if you want to buy it.” Quietly, Raphael handed over his drink and gave the boy one last smile before he followed Lucifel to the checkout counter where the other Angels were waiting. He would probably get a lecture later on, and he wouldn’t deny that he deserved it. But..it had been nice to help that child.


Questions: None!