The Fallen Angel
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;
John Milton, Paradise Lost
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down
The Legend of the Fallen Angels
On 11 March 2022 a shining host of 689 Bitcoin Angels completed their missions on Earth and received blessing to return to Heaven. The angels left behind glittering icons of bronze, silver, and gold for those who held the strongest faith, and on 10 October 2022 they gathered at Langanes Peninsula in Iceland to begin their journey home. To the sound of cheering crowds, they arose in glory in a fantastic airborne ship to begin their Ascension.
But even in moments of greatest triumph, the serpent waits patient and concealed to trap the unwary – and this time it was Pride, the sin of Lucifer and of Adam, that corrupted the hearts of a small coterie of angels. Made arrogant by the adoration they had received on Earth, they boasted to their fellows within the soaring vessel and began planning a second rebellion in Heaven. Most of the angels were appalled by this blasphemous hubris, but some were persuaded, and five score mutineers conspired to turn on their fellows, take control of the ship, and attack the Celestial City upon arrival. At an arranged time, the rebels struck hard and fast, attempting to disarm their crewmates and take command. But the attack was not unanticipated. The loyal angels, having sensed danger and foreseen such a gambit, defended themselves with all their might. The voyage to Heaven became a war, as angel fought angel and awesome powers clashed within the confined space. Unnoticed by the angels, a red warning beacon illuminated.
On the Earth below, the Angels’ loyal followers watched the heavenward flight with joy. But their ecstasy turned to confusion and then shock, as flames broke out across the hull of the ship and its ascent halted, becoming a fiery comet plunging to the Earth. Something terrible had happened! Would the Angels be consumed in the inferno? And then: a miracle. From the falling, burning wreckage a cluster of pure, brilliant points of light, burst free and shot upwards.
For this journey had been the final test, the blazing ship a refining fire. Those angels who had remained pure were released from their earthly forms, able to soar back to Heaven at the speed of thought. But not all were set free. The spirits of those who had turned to treachery were weighed down by their pride and greed, unable to leave the burning ship. And with it, they plummeted back to Earth.
The one hundred Fallen have forever lost their chance to return to Heaven and are now destined to walk the Earth for eternity – and with their fate sealed, the corrupted angels renounced their loyalties and are Bitcoin Angels no longer. In their anger and resentment, the Fallen Angels spend their days driven by the temporal and fiat, sowing fear, uncertainty, and doubt among the people of the Earth.
Thanks to Apollo Entertainment for their work on The Fallen Angel animation.