…as a direct result of these pressures, the following decade saw a sea-change in relations between the various groups of entities occupying the shared reality-space of Earth and Law [363]. However, while a significant shift in alliances was entirely predictable, the current academic consensus [364, 365] is that the present spirit of cooperation was not an inevitable product of the events of the Fall of Aether, but rather that of the tireless work of a handful of individuals.

Alex Crow: Sword and Shield

Perhaps the most unifying figure in what later became known as the Symbiotic Movement was Alex Crow, already an activist of many years' standing at the time of the Omen [366]. Previously the co-leader of a Beaconsfield-based witching group known as the Brotherhood of the Earth, he had once devoted himself to the fight against demonic activity on Earth. In this, he worked together with his co-leader, the spirit of Beaconsfield, unusual among Gaians in their willingness to cooperate with angels [367]. When the Brotherhood of the Earth merged into the Bodyguards of Gaia, the two continued their work as “Boggies”.

Crow experienced a change in his attitude towards demons upon witnessing the fall of the angel Kerubiel, and later attempted to defend this Celestial when the Seraph Mastema ordered the Hallowed Chamber to execute their former friend [366]. Crow would famously go on to fight in Kerubiel's army against Mastema in defence of Earth, striking the killing blow against him with the use of the Aetheric sword which would later become such an important symbol of the Symbiotic Movement.

The shield was gifted to him by the Gaian of the Amazon Rainforest, for use in a duel against the Gaian of the North Sea, at the time a member of the extremist anti-Celestial organisation known as Terra. It is typical of Crow's attitude towards his enemies that he did not attempt to kill North Sea, instead working towards unity and understanding, a move that made an ally of his former foe [366]. Later, when confronting the Gaian of Whakaari, the last of Terra's leaders, he spared its life in exchange for assurances that it would return to its domain and cease its persecution of Celestials on Earth. This act marked the end of significant Gaian opposition to Aetheric entities, following as it did the defeat of Terra by an army led by Crow himself [368].

In the years to come, the Sword and Shield became Alex Crow's most recognisable emblem, a symbol of unity between Celestials, Gaians and humans. As one of the leaders of the Hallowed Chamber and an officer on the Committee of the Bodyguards of Gaia, he presided over a number of reforms within both factions. Through his influence, the two groups became something akin to sister organisations, supporting one another in the defence of Earth from a variety of magical threats [295]. While Parsons [369] dismisses Crow as little more than a figurehead for the emergent Symbiotic Movement, multiple sources [79, 295, 368] testify to the active role he took in protecting Earth, right up until the end of his days. It is scarcely surprising to hear no less a personage than Dorothy Stern eulogise him as a “Unifier of Worlds” [369] in her speech on the 50th Anniversary of the Fall of Aether….

— Extract from A Short History of Magical Politics