Gabriel

**Gabriel** is a major supporting character in the *Divine Comedy*.

Gabriel is an archangel and the third oldest of the firstborn children of God and Goddess. He is the chief of the messenger angels and essentially runs Heaven's post office.

## History

### Background

Gabriel was born as the third child after Michael and Lucifer. Like his brothers and sisters he was part of the Genesis Jam where he used a horn that later became an important symbol of office for him. He then later joined his siblings in getting the universe in proper order after its full conception from the Genesis Jam. He was a Seraphim alongside Michael, Lucifer, Raphael, and Uriel.

Much of Gabriel's 'childhood' in Heaven is not specified though he often acted as the one sibling that gives "tough love" to the likes of Lucifer and Raphael. He would also get dragged into one of Lucifer's mischievous endeavours and comically be blamed by Lucifer for something the Morningstar committed in the first place. While he would tease Lucifer over his tantrums the two had a healthy relationship. Gabriel was also somewhat privy to God's secrets mostly due to Lucifer eventually coming over to vent his frustrations about what God told him and how their Father would handle it.

Gabriel would eventually find out that he would become a messenger angel to their Father's latest creations. Although he was unsure how exactly he'd operate as a messenger angel as he's only seen bits and pieces of what their Father has planned in His story he was somewhat anxious yet excited.

### War in Heaven

During the war in Heaven, Gabriel was amongst the leading forces of the Heavenly Host against Lucifer's rebellious faction. During the war, he tried to persuade his brother from going any further into the Empyrean to confront God and pleaded for him to stop, but Lucifer didn't budge, forcing Gabriel to prepare himself to fight him. However, he was tackled by Beelzebub and fought him instead. During the battle he was joined by Zadkiel when Mammon joined the fray. After a long battle, Gabriel and Zadkiel emerged victorious over the two former angels.

### Postal Service

It wasn't until the establishment of Hell and the major shift in the fundamental nature of existence that Gabriel's work really began. Gabriel himself states that he had one of the more exhausting tasks in Heaven. He was one of the main ones in charge of the ‘bureaucracy’ in Heaven. The paperwork he oversees decides where certain souls go, records on Heaven’s departments and branches, also manages the creation of souls and so forth. He basically runs the post-office of Heaven and also checks in with the Purgatory staff in regards to a departed soul having equal vice and virtue to see if they are worthy of entering Heaven or damned to Hell.

Gabriel also discovered that being a messenger angel was not as fun as it was first revealed to him. According to him, whenever he would appear before a human that was the "chosen one" to a deliver a message from God, they would continuously scream and throw their shoes or rocks at him out of sheer fright. At one point, the prophet Daniel died from shock which forced Gabriel to bring him back to life. Gabriel reached his wits end and made an agreement with the other archangels in the Magisterium to have a choir of messenger angels working under him to deliver the messages towards "kinda important" humans while Gabriel himself would handle the "big" ones such as Mary.

In relation to Mary, Gabriel would announce her pregnancy of the coming messiah. When he was born, Gabriel took part in raising the infant Jesus surprisingly alongside Eve herself after her ascent into becoming an empress of Hell by marrying Satan. Gabriel himself states that they were able to get along but was always wary of the fact that Satan was nearby, readying himself in case the Devil tried to harm the child (truthfully he was just observing his wife). When Jesus was a young boy, Gabriel was ordered to reveal the truth to Jesus as well as his fate which created a fierce clash between him and Eve, the latter having grown attached to the boy. This was one of the more depressing moments in Gabriel's existence since he had to deliver this news to a scared little boy who begged him to make it all untrue which he could not.

## Trivia

* He is based on the archangel of the same name found in Abrahamic religions. Gabriel appears to the prophet Daniel to explain his visions. The archangel also appears in the *Book of Enoch* and other ancient Jewish writings not preserved in Hebrew. Alongside the archangel Michael, Gabriel is described as the guardian angel of Israel, defending its people against the angels of the other nations.
	+ Gabriel was also the one who announced the birth of Jesus to Mary.
* Gabriel manages Heaven's post office and out of all the angels (barring Azrael) he is said to have the busiest job in Heaven.
* His favorite animal are hedgehogs.
* It is shown that Gabriel took part in raising an infant Jesus alongside Eve.
	+ It is further revealed he was the one who had been forced to tell a young Jesus Christ that he was destined to die at the hands of Roman executioners in order for the Christian faith to take hold in the human race.
	+ This also put him at great odds with Eve who has grown attached to the boy. This indicates that part of Satan's attempts at tempting Jesus was to drive him away from his destiny at Eve's behest in order to avoid persecution.