Fallen Angels in literature.
- The Angelwalk trilogy features three protagonists — an angel who had almost joined the rebellion against heaven, a demon who almost didn't, and an angel who had never wavered. Late in the middle book, Observer gets a chance at redemption — maybe — but doesn't take it. (Possibly subverted in that it may be predestined that he can't. Careful; thinking about it too hard has broken many brains.)
- The Nested Story of Demon: A Memoir is narrated by, and about the history of, a demon who fits this trope.
- The Dresden Files:
- The Knights of the Blackened Denarius are all powered by Fallen Angels trapped in one of 30 silver coins, believed to be the Thirty Pieces of Silver Judas was paid to betray Jesus. When first touched by the coin, whether intentional or not, a Shadow of the Fallen enters the human, and either tempts or torments the possessed into willingly taking up the coin. Anyone who holds the coins has the old-as-time Fallen acting as an adviser, they cease to age, and they get the ability to transform into a battle form that features things like super-strength and various pointy bits. The more mental fortitude and will you have the more control you have over the Fallen. Too weedy in the willpower department and they'll enslave you: stronger minds enter into a sort of partnership instead. The only way to get rid of them is to voluntarily give up the coin, which would generally happen after feeling genuine remorse. According to the author, the coins can be destroyed but doing so isn't smart. Right now the Fallen are "frozen in carbonite" and able to only interact with the world in a tiny way. If a mortal finds a means to destroy the coin then a Fallen is on Earth who can act to its hearts content. As it is by mortal choice the coin is destroyed, it isn't likely Heaven would directly smite the Fallen now.
- The Order's leader got Harry to touch one of the coins via Batman Gambit, leaving him with a shade of the Fallen Laschiel in his mind trying to sway him to the Dark Side. However, Harry not only resisted the temptation for over four years, but ended up unintentionally turning the shade (which he dubbed "Lash") into its own independent being, to the point where she pulled a Heroic Sacrifice out of love in order to protect Harry from serious brain damage.
- The main Fallen Lucifer does exist as well. He gave the Denarians superpowered Hellfire twice for a task. And, considering the role of balance of Good and Evil, when a Fallen lied to Harry and it lead to Harry committing suicide, an archangel was the one to balance the scales. Since Heaven wouldn't go beyond the level of Hell's infraction, the Prince of Darkness is a top candidate one for the Fallen who lied to Harry.
- Also, in regard to Lucifer, the author has stated that the thirty bound to the coins are the ones Lucifer feared turning on him eventually, so he put them in a position to cause both evil and disorder, and away from where he currently is.
- In Skin Game, the Archangel Uriel temporarily loans his Grace to Michael Carpenter so he can come out of retirement and help Harry. Not only is Uriel effectively mortal for the duration, but should anything happen to Michael or should he violate the sanctity of the Grace, Uriel will become a Fallen himself; this is noted to be a particular danger because Uriel is an archangel, and a powerful one at that; there is currently only one Fallen archangel, and Uriel's fall would effectively create a second Lucifer. On top of that, Laschiel (the original, not the imprint that Harry redeemed) returns with a host and a massive desire for revenge on Harry.
- Anduriel, the leader's fallen and Lucifer's captain, isn't primarily a fighter but a spymaster. Dubbed the Master of Shadows by Santa Claus, he can listen through anything that casts a shadow that is not protected by a significant power.
- There's also the naagloshi, or skinwalkers. Although they're completely distinct from the Fallen, their backstories have significant overlap; they were semi-divine messengers of the Navajo Great Spirits, sent to teach humanity the Blessing Way. But they decided not to return to the spirit world when commanded, and became cursed, demonic entities.
- The Fallen Paranormal Romance series by Lauren Kate has one of these as the heroine's love interest. His given last name in the first book is even Grigori. The rest of the cast is also fallen angels (some loyal to Lucifer and some to the Throne) — humans play only episodic roles. In Torment, there is even a whole high school for the Nephilim, that is children descended from angels or demons.
- In The Fallen, fallen angels have children with humans, producing the half and half children called Nephilim. The main character Aaron is the son of Lucifer.
- In Freckles, a marvelous black feather causes Freckles to contemplate this trope:What if the angels of God are white and those of the devil are black? But a black one has no business up there. Maybe some poor black angel is so tired of being punished it's for slipping to the gates, beating its wings trying to make the Master hear!
- Good Omens:
- Anthony J. Crowley, although he didn't so much Fall as "saunter vaguely downwards". He's definitely a sympathetic portrayal, and his opposite number is Aziraphale, an angel, who is also officially the Enemy — except instead of battling to the death, over the past 6000 years of knowing each other they've become best friends. Aziraphale and Crowley tend to lunch together, go out for drinks, and join forces against Heaven and Hell to help prevent Armageddon. Aziraphale used to be the angel of the Eastern Gate of Eden; Eden being where they met, although Crowley (originally known as "Crawly") had the form of a snake at the time. Yes, Crowley's that snake. The narration also mentions hanging with the wrong people as a reason why he fell.
- No word about the other demons, but when The Antichrist is being discussed, Crowley reminds Aziraphale that Satan used to be an angel, too — archangel, even — to prove that they can't make assumptions about the baby just based on parentage.
- Simon, the father of Jax from The Grim Reaper's Apprentice, is revealed to be this.
- In The Guardians, demons are angels who supported Lucifer's bid for power, and nosferatu are the angels who did not choose a side and were cast down to Earth as punishment.
- Aliette de Bodard's The House of Shattered Wings has numerous fallen angels, including Lucifer himself (known as Morningstar) living among mortals and various mythological creatures in a postapocalyptic alternate-1920s Paris. Fallen angels have amnesia - they must have committed some sin against God, but they don't remember what they did to fall. And worse, roving gangs prey on newly fallen angels to harvest their bones which they grind to make an addictive Fantastic Drug.
- In the book Humans, an angel is sent to Earth to destroy it. As he begins to live among humans, he decides to defy God and let humanity live. He "falls" out of God's grace and becomes a human for love.
- Gamoriel in The Kingdom's Disdain, referred to early on as such by a future Cardinal, and late confirmed in The Nature of the Beast: "I didn't simply fall! The descent became that which concieved me!"
- In I, Lucifer, the story is told from the titular Fallen Angel's perspective whilst he inhabits the body of a mortal. Lucifer even details the fall from paradise.
- Played with in Kushiel's Legacy. The gods of the d'Angeline pantheon are all former archangels of the Abrahamic God who left God's service to follow Elua, a being who arose when Jesus' blood spilled on the ground during the Crucifixion. However, they're all solidly Gods of Good. A straighter example is found in the archangel Raziel, whose curse against a jilted lover imprisons his child, the Master of the Straits, for all time. Phedre banishes him in Kushiel's Avatar by learning the Name of God; no mere angel can disobey such a command.
- From The Lightbringer Series, a gang of these called the Djinn. They're led by Abaddon, a Satanic Archetype who is almost one-for-one with the popular conception of Satan, down to having once been called the Lightbringer. The backstory imitates Revelation (author Brent Weeks is a born against Christian) saying that one-third of Orholam's angels fell in an age long ago. They are extremely powerful demigods, with a single weakness: the multiverse exists along a single, simultaneous timeline and the Djinn cannot be in two places at once. While they can whisper at mortals from outside time, choosing to physically manifest means that they cannot be anywhere else in any world at the same moments in time.
- The Grigori
from The Bible are the antagonists of the Time Quartet novel Many Waters, although the word "nephilim" refers to the angels themselves and not their children.
- Agent Franks, of all people, turns out to be one of these in Monster Hunter International. He eventually finds redemption, or at the very least, according to Archangel Michael himself (who he apparently fought during Lucifier's rebellion), he's on "parole".
- Aloisius in Der Münchner im Himmel falls twice, both with a relation to beer (justified; he is from Munich after all). First, he learns that there is no beer in Fluffy Cloud Heaven and no snuff either, only mana. The cheers he is tasked with end up strings of Bavarian expletives. Upon this, God sends him back to Munich to counsel the Bavarian government. Aloisius falls again and goes drinking beer at the Hofbräuhaus instead which he has done ever since.
- "Murder Mysteries" (also a comic book, not quite in The Sandman continuity) by Neil Gaiman features a man who meets the fallen angel Raguel, formerly Vengeance of the Lord. He recounts how he solved the first murder, and how he felt his purpose was subverted in the process so that Lucifer would witness the injustice of God.
- The Nightside series has Pretty Poison, a fallen angel who now works as a succubus. She ultimately redeems herself and earns her way back into Heaven.
- Oddly Enough: In "The Hardest, Kindest Gift", the main character is the great-grandson of a fallen angel, who was banished to Earth as punishment when she refused to take sides in the war between Lucifer and the Creator.
- An Older Than Steam example: Lucifer and all his minions are this in Milton's Paradise Lost.
- In The Poison Master by Liz Williams, the colony of Roanoke was taken by Nigh-Invulnerable insectoid aliens known as the Lords of Night. The colony is now on the planet Latent Emenation and repressed by the Unpriests, corrupt humans made overseers of the colony. It turns out the Lords of Night are actually fallen angels.
- In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero Lost, elves are fallen angels. They have scars on their backs where the wings had been. (This is an authentic piece of folklore — one explanation of The Fair Folk is they were fallen angels who didn't quite qualify for Hell.)
- If an angel acts against the Ro.Te.O equivalent of God, then they become a Fallen Angel. The main difference between a fallen angel and a normal one is the poinsettia-red wings (with the exception of Azrael who has black wings).
- Sandman Slim, where most of the fallen angels are known as Hellions, and Lucifer's reason for rebelling was just thinking he could run things better. Given the state of the Universe, even some of the non-fallen now agree (except for the part of who should end up in charge).
- The Shadowhunter Chronicles: Eight of the nine Princes of Hell were former angels who rebelled against God and as a result were cast down from Heaven, and include Lucifer and those who supported him: Asmodeus, Astaroth, Azazel, Belial, Belphegor, Mammon, and Sammael. (The remaining Prince, Leviathan, was never an angel, which may mean that he was already evil even before the fall of the angels.) Asmodeus fathered Magnus Bane, and it is noted that Magnus is able to cast witchlights (a feat commonly associated with the Shadowhunters) because his dad was an angel.
- Tolkien's Legendarium: Morgoth/Melkor is the only Fallen Vala (Archangel) and becomes J. R. R. Tolkien's version of Satan. Sauron, the Wizard Saruman, the Balrogs, and probably the Werewolves (or at least the first ones), are all Fallen Maiar (Angels). Dragons, and possibly even Ungoliant, may be Fallen Maiar as well. Originally all Úmaiar, as they're called, can take any form they please, just like good Maiar. But since evil is something of a degenerative spiritual disease in Tolkien's writing, they often end up with Shapeshifter Mode Lock, which makes it possible to "kill" them. Or, in Morgoth's case, leave them with permanent injuries.
