Overarching Story

Story (Brief)

  The Nazis sweep into Belgium and quickly occupy a small vulnerable village. With the status quo up in the air, each inhabitant and invader are faced with daily choices that can result in life, death, faith, or damnation. Several pivotal characters are put on conflicting trajectories with the fate and soul of all hanging in the balance. Sensing a volatile situation with great potential for evil or salvation to triumph, the almighty turns His attention to the small town and deploys a single Guardian angel to carry out his will.

Story (detailed)

  In 1940 the small Belgian town Chièvres, population 10,000, along with the adjacent Chièvres Air Base airfield is captured by the invading German Wehrmacht during the Battle of Belgium. Shortly after occupation, the small airbase is taken over by the Luftwaffe and becomes a major hub in the battle for France. As is the case in all wars, but perhaps even more prominently in this one, the local population suffers, and faces daily challenges with the occupying force that can spell their financial ruin, molestation, or even death on short notice. However, not all occupying soldiers are abjectly evil, either, and face moral dilemmas and temptations toward growing evil when they find themselves possessed of unfamiliar power and religious fascist zeal.   While the war for control of the airspace and France takes place above, and a smaller war for personal survival rages below, a different kind of war entirely happens all around, the war for souls. With the status quo upended and the gloves of civilization fully removed, humanity’s capacity for great evil is unleashed, and alongside it an opportunity for unshakable faith and courage in the darkest of times. Into this fertile and volatile battlefield, God deploys a single guardian angel, Melphus, whose task it is to do what he can, for who he can, as long as he can. Melphus’ mission begins with a single charge, Anne, a 13-year-old orphan girl who must be saved at all costs. Her Nephesh, while unlit, is a towering tree of untapped beauty, a fragile but precious prize that the Almighty is unwilling to let slip away. Melphus must keep her alive by intervening with events that would cause the untimely destruction of her physical body or the catastrophic obliteration of her soul’s last flicker.   As the story unfolds, Melphus is confronted by a cast of other characters who may be able to be saved, and whose actions have a significant effect on Anne and the other citizens of the town. The town’s fearful Burgomaster, a Christian German soldier, the evil Nazi Commandant, a family who is forced to house the Germans, a Jew in hiding, who Anne knows about, a local pilot, who may be able to fly people to safety, ETC., all become entangled in an interwoven plot where the variable actions of each effect all. With limited time and resources, Melphus must choose how much time and effort to spend on Anne as opposed to working to save the other pivotal characters. Ignoring all of them will surely spell doom for each, but neglecting to protect Anne will mean failure of his mission.   News of incredible evil and death filters in from all sides, and the darkness in the small town grows as hope and humanity both fade. Fallen feed on the fearful and greedy alike, and attack Melphus whenever they can, wanting him gone so they can have their way with the hapless humans. But Melphus must stay the course and execute his orders, even at the risk of being overpowered and banished from Earth. Will Melphus succeed in keeping Anne alive? If he does, what evil will grow unabated around him? Will he try to do too much, taking on multiple Fallen at once in a doomed effort to save everyone and in so doing save no one? If he fails, will he be given another chance?  

Notes

    Main mission “for I am a jealous God.” God wants all people, but he also very much wants specific people, and is willing to change his mind, expend additional effort, and make great sacrifices to achieve his objectives. In heaven, the last will be first, and in Chièvres Anne represents the last.
  REF (The total area is 46.91 km² which gives a population density of 132 inhabitants per km². Chièvres Air Base is located in the municipality.) This area is keeping with Megascans maps available in Unreal 4.
    REF (Mayoral Collaboration under Nazi Occupation in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, 1938-46)