Glistening Devil

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Astaroth, also known as The Shining Demon, is an antagonist in the first, second and third books, *Demon Road, Demon Road: Desolation and Demon Road: American Monsters*. He is the most well-known Demon among humans and is the most likely to give you an audience.

## Background

Not much is known about him. He was originally one of the two Shining Demons, along with his older brother Naberius, who he later has locked in a cell beneath the town known as Desolation Hill in a sketchy deal with Mayor Jesper. He gains power by feeding off souls, which is why the majority of his deals involve murder.

He lives in the land of the Blood-dimmed King, or Hell, in an enormous, maze-like castle filled with tapestries and other artwork depicting gruesome deaths and inhumanities. He enjoys human suffering, although he cares nothing for their lives, and has a way with twisting words, although he also informs Amber that he would never break a deal.

He also keeps an "ungendered thing" called Fool as a manservant. He holds no affection towards him whatsoever, (although Fool refers to him respectfully as "Master" and when Amber offers to take him away from Astaroth, appears confused and asks why he would want to leave here, calling it his "home.") even going so far as to drive glass shards through his eyes when Amber tricks Fool into thinking Edgar Spurrier is Gregory Buxton. Still, he allows Fool to keep Edgar Spurrier as a pet treated with utmost brutality, which leads Fool to "owe" Amber for giving him Bigmouth, Edgar's new name.

## Appearance

He is very tall and shines like the sun in god form. However, in his regular form he has translucent skin dotted with tattoos and has black eyes.

## Personality

Astaroth is characterised as sly, tricksy, and ruthless. As might be expected of a demon, he takes pleasure in the pain of others and views the death of others, even those who've worked for him for centuries (such as his previous representative) as nothing more than a hindrance. Astaroth is also very arrogant and has something of a god complex, although he isn't particularly proud and not easily offended.

He completely lacks empathy and doesn't appear to have the capacity for guilt or love, although he desires power. He does work with his "brother" up until three centuries before canon, but when Naberius attempts to go behind his back to get him imprisoned, Astaroth double-crosses him and imprisons him without remorse.

Astaroth, however, does feel curiosity to some degree- enough to repeatedly indulge Amber's behaviour. He is also a self-professed "man of his word", which basically references his inability to lie or break a promise. This trait is unexplained, although Milo hints that it is one shared by all demons. To get around this handicap, Astaroth has developed a habit of twisting his words and speaking in half-truths, which he is very good at.

## Abilities

Astaroth is occasionally referred to as a Prince of Hell, which, along with the use of the "Blood-dimmed King" hints towards some kind of hierarchy in his realm. He is powerful enough to perform miracles, such as physically removing the cancer from a child's body. He also commands the service of powerful beings like his Hounds.

Those who he has made a deal with typically take the form of a red-skinned, black-horned demon with inhuman speed and strength, unnatural beauty, unusually fast healing, and the ability to produce tough black scales to protect themselves. The more powerful they are, the larger and more spectacular their horns. There are exceptions to this rule, in the cases of people like Elias Mauk, who come to Astaroth with specific deals in mind. Though he's no pushover. Astaroth can burn people through touch and has demonstrated incredible strength, being able to go toe to toe with Bill and Betty while they were empowered with the blood of Naberius. He was even strong enough tear off Bills head with seemingly little effort. Astaroth can shift into "something huge and monstrous and blinding", this is implied to be his true form.