A Practical Guide to Evil

[Lord Raziere]

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Exactly. And that is essentially the apocalypse as far as the current Story goes, which is why it's part of her defining goal and why the Bard opposes her. The universe exists the way it does so Above and Below can settle their eons-long grudge match/chess game using mortals as disposable playing pieces, introducing more ambiguity will ruin the crux of 'whose philosophy is superior' and possible render it meaningless. Bard is the referee enforcing tournament-standard play. Neshamah drags out the clock between his moves as long as he can, towards a yet-unknown goal. Catherine wants to transform the chess board into Chinese Checkers. Hierarch wants to flip the table over.

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Well. if thats true....then Catherine can hardly be the one to blame now can she? she is the one who made the offer, but its the Ophanim who would know better about this sort of thing. She doesn't know the consequences but the all-seeing, all-knowing Choir most definitely knows the rules of the game by now and the consequences of an action that would break them like that. they're the ones that are infinitely more powerful and knowledgeable, so the fault rests on them.

so either the Ophanim were so willingly short-sighted and so taken by their love for a single mortal man, that they'd throw away everything and cause some kind of vauge narrative apocalypse upon the world and cause more suffering which they are supposed to stop- highly freaking unlikely given that the entire deal of angels is the Greater Good in general- Oooooor....

they foresaw this and know that moving aside like doesn't cause a narrative apocalypse, just a narrative shift. I fail to see how people stop being the pawns of one side or the other just because the demons and the angels can access both heroes and villains now. that just means more people to persuade and more flexible ways to use them as pawns to prove which philosophy is right.

as for the other players here...hm. Neshamah and Bard are opposed so I doubt his goals are anything in keeping with status quo, he probably wants to do his own table flip. but Bard is kind of weird: she knows this suffering will never end if she keeps this going forever, so why does she do it? she doesn't seem to like it, yet she keeps going and going and is seemingly more vital and powerful than any other Named shown, at least story-wise. she is this Intercessor which acts as referee for both even though she is supposedly a hero? so she is neutral but not? what?
and why would she WANT to keep doing this? you don't keep doing this for thousands of years without a purpose to drive you even after you become completely cynical and drinking yourself to death repeatedly.
so by what your implying, that the Bard thinks she is preventing even greater suffering, possibly the end of everything, by making sure the game keeps getting played the way its "meant" to by making sure the same thing keeps happening over and over again, keeping the world going and living but not resolving the bet ever, because she keeps making counterbalances that stop one side or the other from gaining too much of a lead to truly start winning and resolve the bet, because once the bet is done, you put away the pieces of the playing board and that means the end of the world for everyone. or a restart of the game.

and that Catherine just made a move that invalidates the entire game?

maybe. but then again this isn't Arcadia. the defining attribute the mortal world has that the Fae don't, is the human element, actual choice and things that matter beyond stories and tropes. there is a possibility that doing this sort of thing is less catastrophic than it would be in Arcadia, due to the human element. how many heroes are going to accept a demons deal even if they can be made now? not much I'd bet. just because something can happen now, doesn't mean its likely. remember, narrativium defaults to an equilibrium, not a chain reaction. I'd say that we'll get a single hero who makes a deal with a demon for a selfish reason to contrast Catherine as an antagonist. one demonic-deal hero for one angel-deal villain, thats how this world works.