Zariel
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Zariel’s form is both awe-inspiring and tragic: the body of a towering female warrior clad in infernal plate, her once-radiant wings now blackened stumps that smolder with perpetual cinders. Her eyes blaze with molten gold, and her voice carries the unshakable command of one who has led armies through the most hellish of battlefields. In her grasp is Solaris Invicta, a hellforged greatsword said to be quenched in the blood of celestials she once called comrades.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
In the elder days, Zariel served as a solar in the armies of the Celestial Hebdomad, tasked with defending the upper planes from Abyssal invasion. She commanded the vanguard during the Siege of the Silver Straits, where the forces of Elysium and Heaven fought shoulder to shoulder against a massive Abyssal incursion.
Yet the patience of Heaven chafed at her. Where her peers sought to redeem, Zariel sought to eradicate. Her belief that the Abyss could only be defeated by total annihilation drew her further from her superiors’ favor.
In a fateful moment of defiance, she pursued retreating Abyssal forces through the planar gates into Avernus, determined to hunt them to extinction. There, Ashmedai himself offered her what Heaven would not. an unshackled command, endless legions, and the right to wage war without mercy.
She accepted. Her wings burned away in the Infernal Rite of Binding, and Zariel arose as Archdevil of Avernus, replacing Bel and swearing eternal loyalty to Ashmedai, though many suspect she serves out of shared ambition rather than true devotion.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Zariel rules Avernus not as a scheming courtier but as a wartime general. Her domain is an endless battlefield, blasted plains of blackened rock and rivers of molten brass, where fortresses rise and fall daily in the endless conflict with the Abyss.
Here, The Blood War is not abstract, it is perpetual reality. Demonic warbands clash with regimented infernal cohorts under Zariel’s direct command. Siege engines hurl screaming souls bound in chains; skies are streaked red with the contrails of infernal warships.
Her fortress, The Adamant Bastion, stands as the staging ground for every infernal incursion into the Abyss. The walls are carved from a single unbroken sheet of basalt, engraved with the names of every soldier who has fallen in her service, each name a contract binding their soul to her eternal army.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Ashmedai
Her patron and ultimate commander. She is fiercely loyal in public, though she works to increase her autonomy.Dispater
Distrustful allies; he sees her as reckless, she sees him as a coward.Bel
The previous ruler of Avernus, now her unwilling advisor. Their “partnership” is tense at best.
Alignment
Lawful Evil
Species
Realm
Honorary & Occupational Titles
The Hellfire General, The Scourge of the Abyss, The Broken Solar, She Who Burned Her Wings;
Children
Aligned Organization
Related Myths
Ruled Locations
Comments