Gadreel

**Gadreel** was a major character in the *Divine Comedy*.

He was a mentioned character in volume one and two, has a minor appearance in volume three and becomes a secondary major antagonist alongside Dumah in volume four.

He was one of the original guardsman for the Garden of Eden. But after being distracted by Lucifer, consequently letting Satan and Lilith in, he was stripped of his position and became an outcast in Heaven. Gadreel pleaded for a second chance which was given to him by being a Watcher only to butcher that chance as well and be imprisoned in Sheol. He became a broken and miserable shell of his former self and would be recruited by a freed Azazel to help him in his crusade to take down Heaven for what they did to them.

## History

### Background

Gadreel was an angel that originally guarded the Garden of Eden before Uriel from hostile forces, until Lucifer managed to trick Gadreel into letting Satan and Lilith in. Gadreel was stationed by the Northern gate and was unaware of Lucifer, Satan, and Lilith's presence. Lucifer took the form of a lost cherub and was asking Gadreel for directions to get to some "blue backwater planet" that he hadn't had the chance to see and where to take the eastern gate. This gave Satan and Lilith the opportunity to sneak into the Garden of Eden undetected by Gadreel and the rest of the angels.

Lucifer states that he spent almost half an hour with Gadreel, spinning him in circles in regards to which nebula was by the lane of star clusters and so forth, until Gadreel heard the alarms go off and was shocked to discover that two intruders infiltrated the Garden, rupturing its stability, and triggering a series of events that caused the Fall of Man. As punishment for his failure, Gadreel was kicked out from the Garden of Eden with Uriel taking Gadreel's place as watchman.

Due to his failure for preventing anyone from entering the Garden of Eden, and being tricked by Lucifer, Gadreel was shamed and scolded by Heaven becoming, in his words, the "butt of Heaven's joke" where the angels would always quip at Gadreel's expense in regards to doing something incompenantly such as, "Can't be as bad as Gadreel."

### Fall from Grace

In attempt to rectify his mistakes, even though he himself knew it would be impossible to be redeemed for such failure, Gadreel pleaded with God to give him a new position as recompense for his previously failed duty. God accepted and moved Gadreel to the Watchers, tasked with observing and guiding mankind alongside 200 other Watcher angels. It is revealed that Gadreel would often take leaves of absence to meet up with the giantess Leto who would then go on to birth his two children Artemis and Apollo.

Unfortunately, Gadreel would also come to fail in his watchman duties as he was among the Watchers that joined the others in heading down to Earth to teach men forbidden knowledge and marry their women. Gadreel had no choice in the matter either as the Watchers all took an oath that bound them together, meaning that if one of them commits a sin then they all have to follow which in this case was Azazel who convinced Samyaza to give it a try. Being one of the corrupt Watchers, Gadreel taught man warfare after Azazel taught them how to make weapons. Though Gadreel at the time did not perceive it as being wrong as he was mainly convinced by Azazel that this would give him some relief and escape from all the jabs and side glances shot at him by the angels.

Because of his actions with man, Gadreel, like the rest of the Watchers, was confronted by the archangels and as punishment, they imprisoned him and the Watchers in the most desolate and barren realm beneath Hell, with Gadreel being bound to a dead tree. Over the centuries, Gadreel would be tortured by Metatron himself on a daily basis, eventually making him yearn for death as Metatron's torment rendered Gadreel's bound existence anything but "living" and becoming a broken shell of an angel. After Azazel was freed and appointed as prince of Hell he would discreetly visit Gadreel in an attempt to convince him to "set things right" one more time with the promise of breaking him out one day.

## Trivia

* Gadreel is listed as one of the chiefs in the fallen Grigori of angels. This is depicted in the second section of the *Book of Enoch*; "Parables". He is said to have been responsible for teaching man warfare. This contradicts the first section of Enoch, which claims that Azazel was responsible for doing this.
* His theme song would be "Cut the Cord" by Shinedown.