Fallen Angel / Tabletop Games

• Demon: The Descent: Demons had a mission, and they decided to ignore at least part of it, and in so doing were disconnected from the God-Machine. Although the portrayal of the God-Machine casts the robots in a lot better light than is normally the case. These robots refer to themselves as Angels, before the fall.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Asmodeus, Dispater, and Mephistopheles are said to have once been angels, but fell prey to He Who Fights Monsters after battling the demonic hordes of the Abyss in the multiverse's early history, and were banished to the Nine Hells of Baator so not to pollute the Upper Planes with their presence. Some of the other archdukes of Hell fell later, such as Baalzebul, notable for being a fallen archon, while Moloch supposedly fell with Asmodeus and the other "first generation" Baatezu, but was later exiled from Hell as well.
    • One account, much-suppressed in-universe, states that Asmodeus' fall from grace was quite literal, and after being cast out from the heavens, he crashed into Baator and broke it into its current configuration of nine layers. In the lowest layer of Nessus, at the bottom of a spiraling tunnel hundreds of miles long called the Serpent's Coil, Asmodeus' titanic true form is said to reside, still bleeding from the wounds he sustained from that terrible fall - the "Asmodeus" that others interact with is thought to be an avatar or projection of some kind.
  • In the Nentir Vale setting, which is also the generic setting for the 4th edition of the game, this trope is used thrice over:
    • In the World Axis cosmology, angels themselves are considered "Unaligned"; they exist to serve all of the gods, and an evil angel is thusly still an angel in anybody's eyes. A "Fallen Angel" is an angel who survived the destruction of their patron god, an act that drives the angel quite, quite mad—seeking revenge for the death of their patron becomes their all-consuming obsession, and they will work alongside any other creature in pursuit of that goal. Fallen Angels are sometimes used as mercenaries by the gods, but they're essentially wild cards in the multiverse. Lore and mechanics for World Axis Fallen Angels appears in the "Book of Vile Darkness" sourcebook for 4th edition.
    • Devils in the World Axis are a variant of the in-universe Fallen Angels. Both are the twisted forms of angels whose patron god died... the very important distinction between the two species is that devils descend from angels who betrayed and murdered their god in an act of rebellion, which resulted in them being warped into deformed monsters by that god's dying curse. The angelic heritage of devilkind in the World Axis is mostly obscure, but it's well-established that succubi descend from fallen Angels of Love—and they can potentially turn back into those angels if they redeem themselves.
    • Devas, in comparison, are a rare non-evil version of this trope. They are angels who fell in love with the mortal world during the Dawn War at the beginning of creation, and wished to remain in it rather than return to the Astral Sea, the realm of the gods and angels. So they willingly turned their back on their former angelic status and were transformed into something new, something more mortal-like. They didn't lose all of their divine power, but it mostly manifests as them possessing Resurrective Immortality. They're actually a playable race, and replace the traditional Aasimar^note humans with distant angelic ancestry in the setting^note there is actually an option to technically play aasimar in 4th edition, but it consists of taking a non-deva race and a feat to represent having a deva biological ancestor.
  • Zariel, central character in the 5th Edition adventure Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, was an Archangel of Celestia sent to watch over the Blood War. But she grew frustrated with the Celestial Host for sitting by and only watching as demons preyed upon the Material Plane, and so gathered an army of mortals and marched on Avernus. Her army was quickly crushed, but Asmodeus took her unconscious body from the battlefield and promoted Zariel to Archduchess of the First Hell, placing her at the front lines of the Blood War on the very layer she invaded. She takes her new role seriously, but is rumored to be plotting for revenge against Asmodeus... not that this is unusual for Hellish politics.
  • Erinyes, as explained in the 3.5th Edition sourcebook Tyrants of the Nine Hells, are distinct from "lesser" Baatezu for being born, not created from tortured mortal soul shells. Instead they are descended from fallen angels, and thus appear (in their default form) as beautiful but intimidating female humanoids with black feathered wings, making them the subject of jealousy, lust and idolization by other devils. They can play the part of Succubi and Incubi to tempt mortals to sell their souls, with a particular flair for leading followers of good religions astray, but Erinyes are quite capable in combat as well - in 5th Edition their Challenge Rating is 12, compared to a standard Succubus/Incubus' CR of 4.
  • Eberron in particular has a unusual take on fallen angels. Since the gods of Eberron are distant if they objectively exist at all, even the angels of the plane of Syrania operate on faith. However, sometimes an angel loses faith, decides that angels are the closest things to gods that actually exist, and subsequently gets kicked out the nearest manifest zone for his heresy. These flight-proof "radiant idols" then typically go on to found cults around themselves. Note that radiant idols also corrupt their Reincarnation mechanic, so the other angels can't just kill them and hope the next version is sane again.
  • The fan expansion The Gates of Hell elaborates on the idea further. Asmodeus is one of the three ultimate entities of order who broke apart during a debate about whether to make the universe Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral or Lawful Evil. Most devils are either reshaped human souls, or Nessian Pit Fiends made by Asmodeus personally (the original demigod devils who rose from his blood were too independent and had been all but totally destroyed). Fallen Angels had arrived much later (mainly in at least two waves, though later or earlier arrivals on an individual basis are present), and are mainly found in the higher ranks, with the ones who are Lords of the Nine being there thanks to Klingon Promotion.
  • Another third-party setting, Grim Hollow has a version of this as one of its PC races: after a series of disastrous events ended with the entire pantheon of Etharis dead or missing, many of their angels were De-Powered by the loss of their creators, causing them to fall to the material plane and rendering them functionally human. Many of the Downcast, as they're called, are more than a little bitter about it, but unlike most examples of the trope, they don't even have a god left to direct their anger at.
• GURPS Monster Hunters presents outcast angels as an option for the Inhuman "class" alongside demons, vampires, and their Half-Human Hybrids, as well as various flavors of Our Werebeasts Are Different.
• Infernum: Demonkind are descended from the First Fallen's mating with spawn. Newly Fallen angels in the present day tend to die very quickly; the survivors usually become worse than demons.
• In Nomine: Demons originated as the rebel angels who were thrown out of Heaven after their failed uprising, although most of them these days began life as minor infernal spirits and were never angels. Also, angels can fall and become demons by violating their angelic nature. (Except for Malakim.) One of the Alternate Character Interpretations suggested in the sourcebook is that the only reason the Malakim can't fall is that they're all Knight Templars who have already fallen and are deluding themselves about their nature.
• Nobilis: The Devils. In the first two editions, they were closer to the classic take on the trope, championing power, corruption and suffering. In third edition, the Angels' sense of justice demands the wicked be punished; some disagreed, for they loved everything, including the wicked and corrupt, and were cast out, becoming Devils.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Horus, the God Emperor's favorite son, sided with the Chaos gods against his father, taking half of his siblings and their Space Marine legions into Chaos with him.
  • The Fallen are Dark Angels Space Marines who turned to Chaos during the Horus Heresy and who are now hunted relentlessly by their loyalist brethren. Notably they are led by a rare good (maybe) example in Cypher, who is rumoured to be seeking redemption for the Fallen and salvation for humanity.
• Shadow of the Demon Lord: The Fey were the ones to create the afterlives of Heaven and Hell as a means to induce amnesia to immortal souls before the souls reincarnate. Devils are an Always Chaotic Evil race within the Fey and they feed upon the corruption of evil souls which they extract through horrific torture. Since the Devils would die without corruption, they go into the mortal realm of Urth and actively promote evil. Angels are merely a subset of the Devils and their purpose is to tempt the overly pious into acts of intolerance and self-righteousness, through agents of the Devils they manage to convince the religious institutions of the mortal races that the Angels are servants of the gods. The Angels have a glamour that makes them appear as the beautiful humans with white wings stereotype, when their actual forms are far more disgusting.

---