Sword of Zariel

As the sword of an angel, the Sword of Zariel confers great power upon its user, but it can also alter the personality of any mortal that uses it to better align them with the swords' intent.   Those bonded to the sword:

• Gain an intuitive knowledge of the Celestial language
• Gain resistance to necrotic and radiant damage
• Find themselves otherworldly charismatic
• Sprout beatiful feathered wings and the ability to fly. If the user already has wings, they are replaced with these ones
• Gain truesight as their eyes become pools of silver
• May gain a new personality favoring the protection of good or the destruction of evil
• Can use the sword to shed a holy light
• Can communicate with the sword by reading its emotions
• Gain the ability to better discern lies

  This list is not exhaustive, and individuals bonded to the sword may gain further abilities from it.

The Sword of Zariel was the angelic weapon given to Zariel upon her joining the legions of the Seaven Heavens. It was wielded by Zariel throughout the Averniad and the milennia after.   During the Charge of the Hellriders in 921, Zariel, losing and fearing her own moral weakness, embued within her sword a spark of her own celestial essence and entrusted the sword to her closest friends and allies, Yael and Lulu, to take and hide.   For the next year, Lulu and Yael attempted to escape Avernus, carrying the sword with them all the while, but they were unable to escape. In 921, surrounded by demons on all sides, Yael prayed to the gods for salvation, and Lathander answered. Yael plunged the sword into the ground, and used her own life as fuel for Lathander to construct an alabaster citadel to protect the holy weapon. However, the defiled landscape of Avernus rejected this holy intrusion, forming around the citadel like a cyst.   For the centuries after the citadel was formed and then swallowed by the landscape, the sword remained entombed within, proteceted by the spirit of Yael that was bound to the area. Zariel, now an archdevil and then later the archduke of Avernus, also begun looking the sword, desiring its powers and perhaps looking to destroy the last remnants of her pre-fallen nature.   During the Damnation of Elturel at the end of the 15th century CR, the Lost Star Detectives, which included Lulu, began searching for the Sword of Zariel, believing that it held the key to redeeming Zariel and breaking the pact keeping Elturel in Avernus. Upon finding the sword in 1498, the Detectives were confronted by Yael and the sentient piece of Zariel inside of it. Arcus Miursa and Dzarya were both found unworthy of wielding the sword, the former because of his disdain for celestials and the latter for believing she needed the sword to become a better person. However, Alesine Zadava, who had also formed a celestial warlock pact with Lulu, was accepted by the sword, taking part of Zariel's angelic nature into herself.   The sword was wielded by Alesine for a brief time before the Battle of Elturel, where it was given to Zariel, allowing the archduke to mentally relive the moment she chose to fall, and with the encouragement of the Lost Star Detectives, Zariel made a different choice. Zariel then wielded the sword to defend Elturel from the forces of the Abyss and her own Blood Legion before Elturel was teleported back to the Material Plane.   Zariel, feeling herself unworthy to hold the power of an angel, gave her angelic powers to Alesine upon Lulu's suggestion, becoming a wandering immortal. Alesine also kept Zariel's Sword, using it to help others and fight evil as an angel. However, Alesine intends to one day give the sword to someone deserving, that could use its power of redemption and strength to help others and find themselves the way the sword aided her.

As a formerly lost celestial weapon that played a crucial role in ending the Damnation of Elturel, the Sword of Zariel is mythical in its status. However, Alesine Zadava has taken great pains to ensure its effects and abilities are not overly exaggerated in order to prevent history from being obscured. Her actions contribute to keeping the sword's name as the Sword of Zariel, instead of attaching her own name to it.