Senior Partners
Encyclopedia : S : SE : SEN : Senior Partners
| Senior Partners | ||||||||||||||
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 A Senior Partner incarnated as a Kleynach Demon | ||||||||||||||
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The Senior Partners are extradimensional demons in the television series Angel that have an interest in furthering evil and the apocalypse (their scheduled apocalypse that is, not other apocalypses) on Earth and perhaps other dimensions. They do not live in the Earthly realm, but affect it through a demon entity/organization known as The Wolf, the Ram and the Hart, which on Earth takes the form of a law firm called Wolfram & Hart. In Pylea, the Senior Partners acted through a Wolf, Ram and Hart composed on prophecies, laws of advising monks.
History
When the Earth was young and was under the rule of the Old Ones, there was a group of demons known as "Senior Partners". At some point, they left this dimension. Another ancient demon force known as the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart, who were once weak, became the force that implemented the Senior Partner's bidding on Earth and in other dimensions.
The Wolf, Ram and Hart took the form of a law firm known as Wolfram & Hart, which exists not only on Earth, but in other dimensions as well (at least in Pylea as well), in order to protect and promote evil. In this dimension the Senior Partners also founded the Circle of the Black Thorn, a secret society, to draw some of the most powerful and ambitious individuals with the promise of more power. To maintain contact with their many servants, the Senior Partners employ dark entities of great power to occupy the position of Conduit of the White Room. They also employ a large number of lawyers and, at times, have had liaisons Children of the Senior Partners, who are creatures with human appearance but endowed with different abilities such as immortality.
Though dwelling in another dimension, one of the Senior Partners enters this realm every 75 years to visit each branch of the firm for an event known as The Review, which fills W&H employees with dread for both their jobs and lives, and for which some are known to perform sacrifices of animals or even their own children in order to appease their masters or to invoke good fortune. The one time a Senior Partner appeared in Angel for The Review, it assumed the form of a Kleynach demon, a powerful species capable of moving between dimensions thanks to a mystical ring they wear known as the Band of Blacknill and a form preferred by many dark entities that, like the Senior Partners, can't or won't manifest in this dimension under their true forms.
When let down, the Senior Partners enforce punishments such as forcing the victims to eat their own liver or allowing lawyers to behead their superiors. In one instance they took the children of Linwood Murrow, perhaps as a sacrifice or to take them to another dimension.
With the arrival of Angel in Los Angeles, the Senior Partners take an interest in the vampire, planning on swaying him to their side for their scheduled apocalypse, as it was foretold that a vampire with a soul would play an important role in the End of Days. They order that Angel is not to be killed, as their plan was to have him turn his back on the good fight and become corrupt, but without turning back into Angelus. The plot using Darla succeeds in making Angel turn his back on his mission and become obsessed with destroying the firm and the Senior Partners, which fits the firm's plans as Angel had forsaken the very people he had been protecting thus far.
Come time for the new Review, a Senior Partner emerged assuming the form of a Kleynach demon. Angel manages to destroy the physical form of the Senior Partner (though it is uncertain whether the Senior Partner itself was killed) and uses its Band of Blacknill to try enter the dwelling of the rest of the Senior Partners; only to realise that their "home office" is exactly the same world he left to reach them: This dimension. He ultimately learns that the power of the Senior Partners lies within mankind's own capacity for evil. Angel hits rock bottom after understanding that it is futile to try to destroy the Senior Partners. Yet, after losing all hope and sleeping with Darla, he has an epiphany and returns to his mission, understanding that the evil of the Senior Partners could only be fought by protecting good one day at a time.
When Angel ends up trapped beneath the ocean's surface, the Senior Partners' plans are put in jeopardy due to Linwood's fear of the vampire. For this, the Senior Partner known as Mr. Suvarta allows Lilah Morgan to dethrone Linwood by beheading him. This would be the only time in the series where a Senior Partner would actually have a name. Their plans were further upset when, in the same timeframe, two far more powerful entities - The First Evil and the demi-goddess Jasmine - both set in motion their own apocalypses, with Jasmine's agent the Beast killing every single member of Wolfram & Hart's LA branch that it could find, as well as the Partner's Conduit.
The next chance for the Senior Partners to put Angel under their thumb comes after the death of the demi-goddess Jasmine. Angel Investigations had prevented the creation of a world without wars, hatred, disease or famine in order to safeguard mankind's free will. The Senior Partners offer them the chance to run the firm's Los Angeles branch as they see fit. Angel accepts the offer, with the condition that the firm give his son Connor a new life and erase all memories of Connor's past. In order to keep Angel under their control, the Senior Partners have a Failsafe installed and send one of their children, Eve, to act as their liaison.
Although Angel and his friends attempt to do good in their new positions, by being "a part of the system," they are doing so under the Senior Partners' terms, which is ultimately the demons' plan. Yet the return of former lawyer Lindsey MacDonald upsets the plan the demons had laid down. Eve falls in love with him, and Spike begins protecting the people of Los Angeles when Lindsey approaches him pretending to be Doyle. After Lindsey is defeated by Angel, he is imprisoned in another dimension by the Senior Partners. With Eve's betrayal, the Senior Partners send a new liaison, Marcus Hamilton, who contractually strips Eve of her privileges (such as eternal youth) and takes them for himself.
Angel's doubts about the Senior Partners' motives lead him to form a plot of his own. He pretends to have been corrupted by the firm's temptations in order to become a member of the Circle of the Black Thorn so he can attempt to destroy the Circle from within. Angel understands that the Senior Partners' power will likely be eternal due to mankind's inherent weakness and corruption, yet he refuses to serve them. Instead he and his friends successfully eliminate each member of the Circle of the Black Thorn, as well as Hamilton, bringing the Senior Partners' grand endgame to a grinding halt, if only for a brief shining moment; the Senior Partners may be immortal, but with the destruction the Circle, their link to our Dimension is severed, rendering them powerless on Earth.
In retaliation to the insurgence, the Senior Partners unleash all of Hell's legions on Los Angeles to eliminate Angel and his team.
Appearances
- Reprise: One of the Senior Partners incarnates in this dimension under the form of a Kleynach demon. This is the only time a Senior Partner, at least partially, reveals itself physicially.
See also
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| Powers | Angel Investigations | Circle of the Black Thorn | Order of Aurelius | The First Evil | The Initiative | Monsters | Old Ones | The Powers That Be | Ra-Tet | Scooby Gang | Senior Partners | Watchers' Council | Wolfram & Hart | |
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| Key Terminology | "Demon" | "Slayer" | "Vampire" | "Watcher" | "Werewolf" | "Witch" "Child of Senior Partners" | Shanshu | Sunnydale Syndrome | Tro-Clon | |
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