Good Dice Rolls, Bad Ideas

Sooooo, let's just start with the basics that you probably know- Zariel is a fallen angel who is currently the archduke of Avernus, the first layer of the 9 hells.

Zariel was actually a solar, which are the most powerful of the angels as far as d&d is concerned. As this tiktok puts it, "When god goes on vacation, he leaves [them] in charge and nothing changes" (which is in fact a line I'm stealing to have an npc explain to the party how fucked they are if they try to fight her on their own directly tbh). Zariel was a solar of Lathander (also called the Morninglord), who is a god of the sun (dawn specifically but I'm expanding his role to include the sun in general), rebirth, renewal, creativity, vitality, etc etc etc basically all the goody-two-shoes shit that you'd expect a god of the sun to have in his portfolio. HAAHAHA she's a SOLAR of a SUN GOD. According to Reya Mantlemorn, an npc in DiA, her name means "companion of light" (which is a nod to the Companion, the device that dragged Elturel into Hell, wow they really should've been more suspicious about the convenient ball of light that randomly appeared in the sky and wouldn't leave which the leaders of the city made all the citizens swear allegiance to). First and foremost, she is a soldier, she was created that way and it is her nature (which sounds kind of fucked up when I put it that way but I'll try to expand on this more later). She was basically a cosmic being forever tasked to fight for what is Good and Righteous.

Currently, she's an archdevil, specifically Archduke of Avernus. Archdevils do, in fact, include more than just the archdukes, and they're the most powerful in terms of infernal beings- their power is almost on par with deities. While most devils result from mortals who sold their souls, archdevils sometimes have different origins. Archdukes are just the ones who proved themselves to be the Baddest Bitches and most capable of being in charge, typically through displaying their cunning or power. Among the archdevils, and especially the ones who actually rule layers of hell, Zariel is voted Best at Kicking Your Ass Physically. The majority of other devils use deception, trickery, and cunning to get their way, and while they are definitely strong if it comes to a fight, they prefer indirect methods. Zariel typically skips all that bullshit. She can be cunning and manipulative, but her real skills lie in her martial prowess.

So, the thing about Avernus is that while it's the first layer of the hells, it's not exactly Baby Mode. I'm personally of the opinion that considering the hells to be Worse just based on what number you're on removes a lot of nuance. Avernus is the first because it's the one you go into first- there's no getting to any other layer of the 9 Hells without going through Avernus first. As a consequence of this, Avernus is the front lines of the Blood War, an ancient cosmic battle between the evil sides of Law and Chaos- Devils representing lawful evil and demons representing chaotic evil. They've basically been at a stalemate for Literal Eternity (except also not eternity because technically it did have a starting point somewhere- idk time is weird in d&d but on like a Cosmic Scale it makes sense sort of whatever it's handwaved because mortal minds aren't rly meant to make sense of it). Demons come into the Hells by way of Avernus, but almost none of them can make it any further than that; and Devils have held them there but haven't made any real progress into taking the fight to them in the Abyss. Yugoloths, essentially beings of neutral evil, sometimes hang out to fight with whoever the Hell (pun intended) they want.

Zariel's current job is to be The One In Charge of the devils' side in the Blood War- in this task, she only answers to Asmodeus and in a lot of cases she's kind of free to throw his advice aside if she sees fit. Personally, I think Asmodeus is smart enough to know that this is a fight that can never be won, but he recognizes the importance of keeping it where it is. Even though the devils can't win, the demons can't either. Not, like, in the "it'll be bad if either side wins" way, I mean it literally cannot be done.

Now, let's cover how she got from one point to the other (again, I'll say that I'm taking this both from DiA and the alexandrian remix of the setting while adding some of my own stuff):

Zariel fought in the legions of the Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia before the universe really Was Anything and the planes fully became what they are in settings that use the Great Wheel Cosmology. She was a soldier under the command of a celestial marshal named Ashmedai, who would later become Asmodeus (there are like 6 bazillion different origin stories for Asmodeus, I'm going with the one where he's also a fallen angel because Themes or whatever). Avernus was previously a paradise and eeeeeeverybody wanted it to add to their territory. This is a really complex chain of events that mortal minds can't really comprehend (wow this is becoming a running theme) and tbh it's not like. That Important. But it does make it so Zariel has a connection to Avernus from the beginning. What is important is that Ashmedai pulled a fast one and took Avernus for himself and ditched Heaven to align with the (at the time) Eight Hells. A bunch of angels followed him, but Zariel didn't. Stuff happened and Asmodeus became the leader of the Nine Hells, overthrowing whatever leader there was before him (Zargon in my mind but it doesn't really matter, there are also 6 billion versions of lore for this and it doesn’t come up in the campaign really, it’s just a cool tidbit you can throw in if you want). Zariel gave him the middle finger and refused to follow him.

(Important to note that Avernus actually remained a paradise for a long time, and Asmodeus kind of used it as a way to tempt mortals, showing that Hell was really no different from Heaven. This changed when the Blood War started, and now it basically sucks to be there because it's a war-torn wasteland, but traces of this paradise still remain in pockets of the plane.)

Ashmedai and his followers' betrayal made Zariel really bitter, so she was basically given a court-ordered chill-out time. During this time, she met a hollyphant named Lulu, who became her best friend and war mount. Eventually, she found some kind of peace, but it was really only temporary.

Time passed and eventually the forces of Heaven dragged Asmodeus out of the Nine Hells to stand trial for a) his betrayal, b) lying to mortals and beguiling them to evil for nefarious purposes, and c) generally being an asshole. They called in Primus, who's like the Head Bitch in Charge of Law, and it was basically an eternity of angels testifying that Asmodeus was an asshole. Primus eventually got bored and decided he was done with hearing testimonies, but Zariel hadn't gotten a chance to testify to what she personally witnessed and she got pissed, which started a brawl and disrupted the proceedings for a hot minute. As her former commanding officer, Asmodeus had possibly had his eye on her since the beginning, especially since she was one of the few to defy him during his initial betrayal, but this is probably what really drew his attention to her for the first time. After things settled down, Asmodeus' defense was basically that he hadn't violated any principals of the Law, and he never lied to anyone, not even once. He also said he was doing the universe a favor by using the souls he earned to keep balance between the evil sides of Law and Chaos. Primus was like "I'm a little lost but fair enough" and let him off with a warning, but he does basically have to keep a baby monitor on him for the rest of time (a ruby rod that bound him and all other devils to uphold any bargains they made with mortals).

This is important: Asmodeus never lies. At worst, he simply doesn't make plain the whole truth because he expects you to read the fine print and he and the universe at large consider it your fault if you don’t. He is just extremely good at getting to the heart of what people want and he knows how to manipulate that desire so he gets what he wants. Of course, all archdevils in general have an incomprehensible amount of skill with this, but Asmodeus like. Fuckin INVENTED that shit, he was THE first #malemanipulator.

Another eternity passed during which Zariel kept at her Divine Warrior thing, until at one point, the demon lord Yeenoghu decided to start fucking around on the material plane, having his demonic army just murder a bunch of people. (In my version of the Lore, gnolls aren't actual animals, they're a form of demon.) He'd probably done it before, but this time Zariel and a force of planetars were sent to stop him. She caught him at a village called Idyllglen, where her force beat him back into the Abyss, but they had help- from some devils, actually. A small force led by Glasya, Asmodeus' daughter, showed up, and they allied briefly to massacre Yeenoghu's army. After the immediate issue was over, things almost came to a fight between them, but Zariel and Glasya had a private conversation; no one really knows what was said between them, but they agreed to call it quits and go their separate ways.

Before, Zariel's duties as a soldier of Good had been abstract to her, but now she was convinced that something needed to be done about the Blood War. It had led to incalculable amounts of mortal suffering, and to her, that was unforgivable. She was frustrated that the tides of the war never changed and she was convinced that the Heavens could do something about it. Her superiors didn't agree with her; they told her they would let Evil annihilate itself. But she felt that Heaven was complicit by turning a blind eye to the suffering it caused mortals. Evil was not annihilating itself, it was simply continuing. She felt it was Heaven's duty to fight it, and if the other celestials wouldn't help her, it would be her duty alone.

That’s the thing about Zariel. If she believes her cause is righteous, there is damn near nothing that can convince her otherwise. This can be a good or a bad thing, there’s a lot of nuance to it. She will not be intimidated into putting it aside, it is very difficult to persuade her that her path is anything but just. It turns out, it doesn’t matter to her what angle this is approached from. She sees fighting the Blood War as her duty, and it started when she was an angel, it didn’t happen out of nowhere when she became a devil.

So, following her battle at Idyllglen, the villagers there grew to see her as their angelic champion and their guardian angel. A few centuries passed on the material plane and Idyllglen came under attack again, this time by the forces of Bel, the (at the time) Lord of Avernus. The villagers prayed to Zariel to save them, particularly a young woman named Yael, who had organized a militia of sorts. Zariel and Lulu did arrive to help, and over the next few months, the militia grew to attract the attention of surrounding settlements as they fell under threat (though they were also drawn to fight alongside Zariel because it’s hard to just ignore it when an extremely powerful warrior from the upper planes comes to ask you for backup). Eventually, Bel’s forces were beaten back and Zariel said goodbye to Yael and returned to Mount Celestia, though not for long.

This encounter with another force in the Blood War only made her more eager to truly get involved. She had seen the passion mortals had despite how fleeting their lives were, had seen their determination, and it made her even more frustrated at how apathetic Heaven was in comparison. She and Lulu hatched their plan- since the celestial forces didn’t seem to care, they would lead a mortal army into the midst of the Blood War and create a third front. They didn’t have to win, just upset the balance of the war enough to spur Heaven into action.

Zariel returned to Idyllglen soon (though, soon for her is like 20 years for mortals tbh) and told Yael of her idea. Yael was all for it, and suggested she knew ways of bolstering their forces. They grew their army over the next few years as Zariel taught her new mortal followers how to fight fiends. Their cause attracted mortals who wanted to make a difference, to deliver true decisive blows to evil; many in the area even had personal experience with the suffering the Blood War caused the material plane. It can definitely be argued that Zariel was using them to further her agenda, I can’t disagree with that, but I think her true motivation was just the desire to see something done about it and she felt this was her best option- at this point in time, what she wanted was to see her fellow celestials caring about the mortals they were meant to protect. 

Yeenoghu had this massive grudge against Zariel, and when he managed to hear of her plans, he once again attacked the material plane, essentially baiting her into going through with it. They met in combat once again at Idyllglen, at which point Zariel threw him back into the Abyss- though that wasn’t necessarily a bother to him. His job had been done. She decided it was time to mount a full assault into the front lines of the Blood War, and so, soon after, she led her army into Avernus. 

They fought for months, battling the endless onslaughts of demons and devils alike. They certainly did make a dent in the tide of the war, but it wasn’t enough. One of Zariel’s soldiers, a vampire named Jander Sunstar, eventually had enough. He’d watched his friends and subordinates die for an unwinnable war and he had barely seen any real progress. He decided they should cut their losses and leave. So, they did, deserting the army and leaving only a few forces behind. This was where they truly started to lose. 

Zariel’s remaining forces were quickly whittled down, but it took until they were in the single digits for her to give it up. She infused her sword with a spark of her goodness and had Yael and Lulu flee the battle, telling them to escape back to the material plane however they could and hide her sword so the fiends wouldn’t claim it. 

Asmodeus had been contacting Zariel ever since she arrived in Avernus, beguiling her to seek him out, promising her power. She decided to face him herself, and she fought her way through each layer of hell until she got to Nessus, whereupon Asmodeus’ forces finally proved too much for her. The Lords of the Nine all gathered to see her defeat, intrigued by who this invader was. Asmodeus gave the still-living but incredibly injured Zariel to Bel, who was given freedom to torture her in retaliation for all the havoc she caused him. His motivation for this was seeing that Zariel still had it in her to defy him, and he wanted to see if she could be broken.

Eventually, she did break. An eternity later, Asmodeus ordered Bel to bring her before him, and he gave an extensive villain monologue. The way Asmodeus tempted her isn't something that I think can be boiled down very easily. After all, we're talking about two cosmic beings who are meant to be beyond total human comprehension. They conversed throughout multiple planes of existence, and this conversation probably took what the human mind would experience as eons. In the end, it really comes down to the fact that he offered her the ability to continue her fight, but for him this time, and she took it.

Zariel was taken to become a pit fiend- these are basically the top of Hell’s hierarchy, second only to the archdevils and actual lords of the hells. Pit fiends are made from worthy greater devils, who are scorched in the Pit of Flame (the main volcano in Phlegethos, the 4th layer). In my mind, she actually emerged as an archdevil, which Asmodeus thought was pretty cool. Despite that, however, he still had her serve in the Dark Eight, a group of pit fiend warriors that had a lot of duties but mostly were the generals of the Blood War. This meant she was under the command of Bel, but she frequently defied his orders, choosing to pursue more aggressive strategies that pretty much always worked better than his original ideas. This really pissed him off and he kept throwing her into more and more trouble, hoping she’d just die or become too inconvenient for Asmodeus to keep around, but she bested every challenge.

So, there’s this thing called the Reckoning. It’s kind of complicated and a lot of the details probably aren’t super important to whatever situation you have, but essentially, it was a conspiracy orchestrated by Glasya in order to win herself more power, up to and including the possibility of her overthrowing her father and taking rulership of the Nine Hells for herself. She essentially managed to convince one half of the Lords of the Nine that the other half was planning a rebellion and vice versa. She involved Fierna, Malagard, Tiamat, and since she already had interest in Zariel, she got her on board as well. They believed they could seize considerable power for themselves if the archdukes all warred against each other.

Bel was the target of a failed assassination, which left him in a magical stupor. Everyone pointed fingers at Dispater (though in reality, Glasya was behind it, and the assassination was planned to fail). This gave Zariel and Tiamat the excuse to lay siege to Dis. The rest of the Reckoning happened around this, but Zariel spent pretty much all of it in Dis, and since this is supposed to be about her and I’ve already gone on too many tangents already, I’m not going to explore it too much. Essentially, the important bit is that Tiamat betrayed Zariel. The siege of Dis was broken and Zariel became Tiamat’s prisoner. Glasya, Fierna, and Malagard were able to frame Moloch, the Lord of Malbolge, as the mastermind. Asmodeus deposed him and installed Malagard in his place, but Glasya soon betrayed Malagard and killed her, taking her place as Archduchess of Malbolge. Meanwhile, Asmodeus demoted Belial, Fierna’s father, and installed Fierna as Archduchess of Phlegethos. (For the life of me I can’t remember if the Fierna part is actually canon in any official lore, I think I made it up???) 

Then, there was the Rift War. Essentially, a rift opened in Avernus, and a massive force of Baatorians invaded Avernus. (Baatorians are basically just baatezu, the difference really isn’t that important for most campaigns, but they were the ones who inhabited hell before Asmodeus’ time. You could get into it more if your campaign really dives into the nine hells). Asmodeus had Bel and the Dark Eight sent in to deal with it.

Bel’s a fuckin chump, though, so he blew it. Since Zariel had been imprisoned by Tiamat, he left the areas she had managed to conquer vacant and the baatorians were able to seize them. No alliance was made between the demons and the baatorians, but Bel was unable to fight both forces at once. With the situation rapidly deteriorating, Glasya took the opportunity to orchestrate Zariel’s release from Tiamat. There isn’t a solid conclusion as to how she did it.

Zariel went in and almost immediately took control of the situation. She was able to gather the scattered remnants of her legion from when she was a Dark Eight member and reclaimed the fortresses Bel had lost. She cut off the baatorian’s biggest lines of communication and sacked their most important strongholds. The baatorian’s strength was broken. This show of power attracted the other Dark Eight members to her side, who decided to answer to her to handle the situation instead of Bel. They attacked the Rift and defeated the last of the baatorian invasion; the remaining baatorians swore fealty to Asmodeus and the nine hells as a result, as it was the best course of action to avoid being wiped out entirely.

Asmodeus demoted Bel to Zariel’s position in the Dark Eight and promoted her to the position of Archduke of Avernus. She is now the absolute commander over the Blood War, answering only to Asmodeus. He is massively pleased with his decision, seeing her as far more successful and efficient than Bel ever was. I’ll clarify that “successful” doesn’t mean that she’s “winning” because, as discussed, neither side will ever win the Blood War. She’s just a lot better at keeping the demons off of Asmodeus’s turf so they’re less of a distraction to him.

That’s the basic history, now let’s get into some like. Headcanons and disorganized thoughts.

-I made a post saying this but basically, the way I like to view Zariel is that she’s like if Lucifer was the Doomslayer and also a Girlboss.

-THE most important thing to understand about Zariel is her Wrath, followed by her Pride. Both of these elements of her character can be good or bad, depending on her motivations behind them. Zariel as an angel was, like, basically created as a condensed form of the universe's anger at unrighteousness, and this is what I was talking about earlier when I said it's in her nature to be a soldier. It's what made her defy Ashmedai, it's what made her defend mortals from the forces of cosmic evil, it's what made her defy her superiors to go fight in the Blood War, and it can be argued that it's what made her Fall to continue fighting. Her pride is another factor that made her decide to fight in the Blood War, because she believed she could end it and win. This is something she still believes as Archduke of Avernus and general of the infernal armies. This doesn't mean she's, like, stupid or anything; she's arrogant. And she's meant to be. She may know on a logical level that nothing will ever change, but it literally can't stop her from trying because it's what, not just who, she is.

-A lot has been said about what alignments in d&d mean and it is literally impossible to reach a consensus. I personally have chosen to see it as good being selfless while evil is selfish, at least when it comes to mortals. At the core of Zariel's being is the will to fight. In my mind, Zariel fell because her fight in the Blood War came to be motivated by selfish reasons rather than selfless ones. She wanted to continue her fight, but she has lost sight of who and what she was fighting for.

-Asmodeus basically trusts Zariel completely. In his mind, his corruption of her destroyed her former self and bound her to him- she won't destroy him because she doesn't want to, because he gave her what she wanted. Whether this is true or just arrogance on his part is up to you if it comes up. For my campaign, it depends on whether the party wants to go the redemption route or not.

-Zariel is the jewel in Asmodeus’ crown. A fallen solar serving as his best general is one of the best prizes and “fuck you”s to the rest of the planes he could imagine. In his mind, the fact he won her over helps prove his superiority.

-Zariel really wants her sword back. Her motivation for this is nebulous, but it pretty much comes down to the fact that it holds the spark of her Goodness. She either wants it back to destroy it completely, or to redeem herself, or just to prevent it from falling into the hands of anyone who would use it against her. She’s pretty sure it never made it out of Avernus, but with all the searching she’s done, she’s never found it. 

-In DiA, if Zariel shuns redemption but gets her sword back, she destroys it and forges a new sword called the Blade of Avernus. If you think it sounds cool I can send you the stats for it if they haven’t been posted online.

-Fun fact! In DiA, she has the demon lord Kostchtchie’s hammer, Matalotok, and has imprisoned him in a ravine in Avernus. This led to him really hating her but she doesn’t really give a shit about him tbh. (And she shouldn’t considering his lore seems to indicate he’s a misogynist????? idk why that’s necessary but I guess if you’re gonna be a demon lord you can only get so scummy or whatever)

-Glasya considers Zariel to be very valuable to her, and Zariel doesn’t seem like she’s interested in becoming a threat to her for the moment, so Glasya wants to stay on her good side and keep her in power as long as possible (unless she starts encroaching on her territory). Probably a similar case with Fierna. 

-Zariel’s biggest enemies are Yeenoghu and Bel- she and Tiamat also aren’t fond of each other. The only reason Zariel never outright starts shit with Bel and Tiamat is because they’d be a distraction and upset the balance. She usually just avoids dealing with them whenever she can, but tries to keep a watchful eye so they don’t try anything. 

-She's large size category. Just a fun fact. Just saying.

-I have this idea that she never particularly emotes. Like you might get vague hints of emotion when she feels strongly about something, but she’s largely stoic to an extremely unsettling degree. I’m planning on using this to make some moments very dramatic (like in my campaign, if Lulu or Haruman or Olanthius die, she’s gonna lose her SHIT- I think it could make for a sympathetic moment).

-I also included an idea that when she walks, she makes no sound, but her feet burn into the ground and leave footprints glowing with embers. This phenomenon also happens to anything she touches- surfaces burn on touch.

-In terms of her voice, my plan is to make it kind of low and subdued, yet commanding. Even though the tone she uses should make her voice sound quiet, it booms louder than a human’s would. Not necessarily practical to act out, but I’m also adding the details that her voice echoes slightly and that behind her voice you can hear shrieking voices in infernal, like a choir in hell screaming with her, but they’re quiet so you can understand her. (As an angel, it was celestial voices.) She also has fire glowing in the back of her throat.

-Asmodeus’ body is reportedly covered in wounds that never heal. I’ve decided to extend this to all fallen angels, as these are horrific bruises and scrapes they received in their fall from grace. While most didn’t literally fall from an insane height and hit the ground hard (it’s usually like. metaphorical), they have wounds as though they did. Most of them, including Zariel, cover this up with their armor. 

-Zariel as an arch devil has never taken a war mount. She could have any number of fearsome, powerful creatures as a mount into battle but she never has. This is partly cool-factor; imagine someone walking into a full battle on horseback and absolutely dunking on their allies in terms of kill count. The other part is that she has never found one that could take Lulu’s place. It’s mostly subconscious; none of them ever measure up to what she wants and she’s not sure why.

-I personally refer to her with mostly masculine terms- Lord of Avernus instead of Lady, Archduke instead of Archduchess, devils and worshippers call her “my lord” or “sir” instead of “my lady” or “ma’am”, etc. The source material also does this sometimes, but they flip around on it. Idk, it’s just my personal preference, I think it’s fun. She’s a celestial/fiend in a fantasy story, I have zero reason to think she’d conform perfectly to the real-world western gender binary. 

-Zariel is metal as hell. I personally think at least 90% of songs used in moments with her should be metal, if you’re the kind of dm who uses music. The Doom 2016 soundtrack is your friend.

1: MTG colors as character alignment

If you take a step back and consider the colors not as basic pokemon elements ( wood, water, fire, life, death) but as embodiments of different outlooks and philosophies, the color pie system suddenly becomes a radically efficient tool for summarizing how a character or culture carries out its beliefs, with the understanding that individuals within that culture will mix in new elements or lean away from others depending on their personal predilections. A character who relies on luck and wits (Blue-Red) may be tempted towards story beats that indulge either of their color synergies, but chafe against systems that would deny a part of themselves ( Such as the rule of a Black-White Authoritarian noble or the simplicity of Green-White peasant life).

2: MTG colors as writing tools

The fun in understanding how characters in your story fit into the color wheel isn't only in assigning them a static position, its in testing to see how they evolve and grow when exposed to external stimuli. Will the Blue/Black spymaster veer towards duty to their state (white) or personal power (red), will the righteous Red/White paladin give up their honor for vengeance ( becoming only red) or achieve some level of enlightenment ( white) after suffering through a crisis of faith.

Through the colorpie, and understanding your characters, you can make narrative arcs easy, or at least pencil some interesting questions as you develop the rest of the story.

3: MTG colors as setting design

The different colors have historically been tied to different types of terrain, and while I tend not to do a 1:1 conversion for all of my settings, its very easy to see how thematic throughlines can be made between setting and environment ( yes, necromancers probably would hang out in places full of shadows and rot, but those that embody Black's aspects of ambition and manipulation probably live in settlements infused with some form of social or infestructure decay, or perhaps a dark history concealed just beneath the surface)

To that end, I like to think of small to medium settlements as possessing a dual color identity made up partially of their land and culture, while larger settlements and nations tend to be two or three colors as they are a composite of diverse groups and interests. By looking at these combinations, finding contrasts between them and synergies with outside elements, you can easily begin to set up political and social dynamics: A White/Red/Green kingdom may have contrasting demographics between a warrior nobility ( WR), a traditionalist peasantry ( WG), and nomads who live on the frontier (RG). The kingdom could be threatened by an invading lich (UB) or by an alliance of nomads and peasants who resent the warrior nobility for their conquest generations ago (BRG)

4: MTG colors as game design

Bo yourself a favor and every time you're struggling to make a dungeon, try to figure out what color identity it has. Instantly you've given yourself a massive dose of inspiration for monsters, traps, hazards, and iconography for you to mine simply by visiting the gatherer and scrolling through the visual spoiler. Generally you can do this by thinking about where it was built and by who, with further richness added by thinking about what sort of creatures from the locality have crept in during the meantime and how their color identities harmonize and contrast with the dungeons own.

Likewise, if you're trying to think of abilities/gear to give a player or npc, think about how the different colors play:

White wants to bolster their allies before clashing head on

Blue wants to be tricky until they get in position to outplay their opponent

Black wants to fight dirty until they can really twist the knife

Red wants to go recklessly and blow their opponent away before they can retaliate

Green wants to level the playing field before getting really strong and stomping their foes into the floor