Jasmine's History
Ancient times
When the primeval forces that eventually became considered good and evil took shape, the malevolent grew in power and the era of demons began. The primeval forces for good became The Powers That Be, who left this world and made themselves content to watch from an alternate reality, only directing the remaining forces for good on Earth and not taking an active part in the war against evil.
However, one power was a renegade who decided to take matters into her own hands and impose peace on Earth via mind control. First, she conquered a dimension filled with a race of insectoid demons as a "rehearsal" before going to Earth. This former power, known to these demons as "the Blessed Devourer," tinkered with the demons' evolution and society, but eventually abandoned them and later spoke of them as a "mistake." In the following centuries, many lost their faith in her while others fanatically awaited for her return. Like in the case of mankind, Jasmine assumed a shape similar to that of her zealots.
[/h]Second Life[/h]
After Angel won for the dying human Darla a second chance at life through passing a series of trials, he learned that Darla could not use the second chance because she was already on her second life, having been resurrected as a human by Wolfram & Hart as part of a scheme to turn Angel into his evil persona Angelus. And so it appeared that the battle to win the life was for nothing. However, that second life continued to be Darla's in some fashion as the former Power used it to create Connor as result of Angel and Darla having sex (who had been made into a vampire again by Drusilla at Wolfram & Hart's behest).
Following the birth of Connor, the ex-Power had Skip maneuver Cordelia into becoming part demon. After Connor later returned from Quor'toth, Skip "helped" Cordelia into ascending in the realm of The Powers. Once there, Cordelia found herself consumed with boredom. Cordelia eventually elected to give up her goddess state and return to Earth in her previous part-demon form, but the ex-Power used this interdimensional trip to "piggy-back" into this dimension by possessing Cordelia. However, the Powers had in place a safeguard for this type of travel.
Back on Earth
Upon arrival back on Earth, Cordelia found herself with a severe case of amnesia that locked out her experiences as Cordelia. Undaunted — and unaware of the ex-Power's presence —, the Angel Investigations team immediately sets about restoring their friend's memory using a memory restoration spell. Eventually, the team was able to restore her memory, but in so doing, they unlocked Jasmine's personality instead of Cordelia's.
The ex-Power was able to take over Cordelia and manipulate all of Cordelia's friends, who did not know that she was possessed. Following her return to Earth, the ex-Power worked to keep Angel Investigations off-balance and distracted so they would not notice or prevent her birth into her own new body via Cordelia. First, she summoned the Beast — her seemingly unstoppable servant — and slaughtered the Svear, a family of priestesses who banished him from the Earth dimension 214 years before, then she had him completely obliterate all manifestations of Wolfram & Hart in Los Angeles. She also created a rain of fire and blocked out the Sun all over Los Angeles, by killing the five Ra-Tet totems and using their respective talismans to cast a spell that would eventually cover the entire Earth in darkness.
With the champions distracted by the Beast blotting out the sun, the possessed Cordelia seduced Connor, whose primary purpose had been to be the father of her new body, her use of Cordelia as a host being simply a transitional state until she could become independent. Then, having cast a powerful spell to erase all references to the Beast in memory and literature in this reality, she convinced the team to release Angelus, the only one who has memories of the Beast, since Angelus met the Beast many years ago, his memory remaining intact despite the dimension-wide erasure as he did not technically exist when the spell was cast. Following that, she stole the Muo-Ping — a sacred glass jar that contained Angel's soul —, faked a replacement way of re-ensouling Angel, and cast a spell that confused Lorne's empathetic abilities, so Angelus would be freed from his cage by tricking everyone into thinking that he was Angel.
She also murdered Lilah Morgan, manipulated Connor — who had advocated simply staking Angelus over re-ensouling him — into trying to do so, and magically battled Willow Rosenberg to prevent Angelus from being re-ensouled and turned back into Angel, but she got distracted during the battle and Willow successfully turned Angelus back into Angel. Despite this failure, by the end of the crisis, her goal had been achieved and Cordelia had been impregnated with the fast-gestating fetus.
Secret Revealed
The possessed Cordelia finally blew her cover during Lorne's attempt to regain his powers. During a secret ritual where Lorne was expected to be alone, "Cordelia" arrived with a large knife to kill him. It was really a trap set by the Angel team who had all realized that Cordelia was possessed, but she was saved by Connor. With his further assistance — including the kidnapping of a virgin for sacrifice —, Cordelia was able to give birth to Jasmine.
Upon being born, Jasmine drained the life-force out of Cordelia, leaving her in a comatose state, one from which she would never wake up. At the birth, a glowing, tentacled form emerged, its light filling the room. But it quickly assumed the shape of a beautiful young woman. When Angel and Connor saw her for the first time, they both fell to their knees, having quickly fallen under her thrall.
Jasmine appeared before the rest of Angel's crew, turning them into her followers and announcing that, despite the great evil done in her name, her plan was to bring world peace and the elimination of evil, starting in Los Angeles. However, Jasmine's peace came at a high price. One drawback was that Jasmine needed to devour a certain number of humans to maintain her force, with that number growing as her power and influence grew.
Peace on Earth
Jasmine's mind control virtually eliminated free will from the world, with everyone unable to do much of anything except praise and serve Jasmine all day, until Fred saw Jasmine's true form — that of a decaying, maggot-infested dead vessel. Terrified, she visited John Stoler, a man who had tried to kill Jasmine on her first outing with the crew and was severely beaten by Angel. He had been committed to the psych ward for his ravings about Jasmine's terrible face and his own face had been rotted by Jasmine's touch. Fred then spent several days on the run from Jasmine and her followers, trying to discover the source of her cure.
Eventually, Fred realized why she had been able to throw off Jasmine's mind control — Jasmine's blood, to which Stoller had also been exposed. Earlier, Fred's devotion to Jasmine had led her to scrub Jasmine's bloodstained clothing so hard that her own fingers bled. She then cured Angel by shooting Jasmine through the shoulder, the bloodstained bullet striking Angel and thus exposing him to the same treatment. Although, the act caused Jasmine to learn of the curative effects of her blood and to guard against it.
Angel and Fred were nevertheless able to free the rest of the Team Angel by exposing them to blood from the comatose Cordelia, which had the same properties as Jasmine's blood due to her time as Jasmine's "mother." They "infected" Lorne, Wesley, and Gunn with it. Although, their attempts to "infect" Connor failed as he was apparently never fully under her thrall in the first place; he willingly went along with her plans due to his warped psyche.
Jasmine accused them of being dissidents bent on spreading hatred, and directed her followers to kill them. As her powers had grown, she became capable of projecting her will and voice through each of her followers. She began to refer to those under her control as the Body Jasmine, as they were veritable extensions of her own body.
While Fred, Wesley, Lorne, and Gunn fought against Jasmine's forces under Connor's command, Angel was able to undo her control over the world by revealing her true name. This second and more powerful weakness of Jasmine's was hidden in the demon dimension that she had formerly ruled, which was revealed to Wesley when one of the zealots there travels to Earth in the hope of reminding Jasmine of his world's existence, encountering the team as they retreated to the sewers to hide. As the other world's atmosphere was poisonous to humans, Angel — who, as a vampire, didn't need to breathe — traveled to the other dimension via a mystic globe that he took from the demon from Jasmine's first world.
In this world, Angel fought and decapitated the Keeper of the Name, the only being who knew Jasmine's name. The being's mouth had been sewn closed, and when Angel brought the head back to L.A, he opened the mouth, which caused the name, trapped in his mouth, to be released with the dead priest's last breath. This shattered Jasmine's mind control and removed her power during the worldwide news broadcast, in which she intended to extend her influence over the globe.
When her name was revealed, her appearance was also altered; though she retained a human appearance, she was rotting and covered with boils. Her followers ran horrified as the sensation of inner peace and bliss they experienced as part of Jasmine's collective was obliterated. Many caused riots and chaos, while others even contemplated suicide. When she left, her former subjects were filled with loneliness and despair. They missed the all-encompassing love Jasmine had brought with her mind control. With her name revealed, Jasmine's mind control powers were destroyed, though she kept her superhuman strength and could easily withstand electricity. Her unique psychic link with Connor also remained, as their connection was of a different nature. Through this link, Connor tracked down Jasmine.
Exposed
With her agenda ruined by Angel, Jasmine initially found herself lost and purposeless, until Angel tried to reach out to her. Jasmine was upset with Angel and tried to impart to him that there was no absolute good, no absolute evil — everything was a gray area. Angel tried to sway her to his point of view, to recruit her to his side, but Jasmine preferred to slaughter humanity herself before giving free will a chance, as she had seen for millennia what this precious free will would bring about. Jasmine said that without her help, the world was doomed to drown in its own blood; Angel protested that it should be humanity's choice to bring about a perfect world, rather than having it forced on them.
This discussion quickly broke out into a massive fight between the two, during which Jasmine easily outmatched her "grandfather" before Connor appeared. Though initially appearing to side with Jasmine, Connor immediately turned on her and put his fist through her head, killing her instantly, later admitting to Angel that he had known all along that Jasmine's utopia was a lie and that he had gone along with her plans simply because he didn't know what else to do.
Legacy
After Jasmine's destruction, the Angel Investigations team was offered control over the newly-reopened Wolfram & Hart by the then undead Lilah Morgan, the Senior Partners being impressed that they ended world peace despite Jasmine's ethically questionable methods; in reality, however, the Senior Partners wanted to win Angel over to their side and keep him distracted while their "scheduled" apocalypse was underway. Angel only accepted the deal after Connor, mentally and emotionally torn apart by the knowledge that he only existed to bring Jasmine into the world, attempted to kill Cordelia, himself, and a shop full of innocents with explosives. In accordance with Angel's agreement, the Senior Partners altered reality so that Connor would have a normal human life and family with no memory of the Team Angel and vice versa.
Cordelia remained in her coma for almost a year. The Powers That Be acknowledged that they "owed [her] one," and gave her one full day to put a misguided and disillusioned Angel back on track, which included a final, comprehensive vision from the Powers. Satisfied that Angel would keep fighting the good fight, Cordelia passed away. Despite Jasmine's manipulations, Cordelia's record of service to the Powers was still genuine and after her death, Cordelia was once again made a higher being, this time legitimately and permanently by the Powers themselves.
