Azazel

**Azazel** is a major antagonist in the *Divine Comedy* series. He serves as the main antagonist of volume four with Dumah and Gadreel being the secondary antagonists.

He is a prince of Hell who specializes in weapon making and selling said weapons to the highest bidder. He is also the entrepreneur behind the black market sales of Exterminator weapons which has drastically changed the playing field in the eternal war between Heaven and Hell. in truth, however, he is arming both himself and his followers for the impending attack on Heaven.

Azazel would grow into becoming a major antagonist towards Heaven and after learning of the revelation that a human was the one who betrayed him in the first place he would become a threat to both Heaven, Earth, and by extension Hell.

## History

### Background

Azazel was once a member of the Watchers, or Grigori, who were a choir of angels that were tasked by God to watch over the Earth with Azazel one of the chiefs. Azazel was skilled in weaponry and was the one who introduced weapons such as swords, glaives, or knives to humanity. He was the former best friend of Zadkiel who was the one to encourage him in joining the Watchers.

According to Gadreel, Azazel was incompetent in his job of observing humanity or even other trivial tasks assigned to him by Heaven as he kept either slacking off or doing other activities of his own accord; they usually involved crafting swords and other weapons. In addition, unlike most angels, Azazel was really fond of mortals and spent most of his time in their company. However, the more he spent time with humanity, the more he began to realize that he would fall in love with a mortal human.

Azazel was the one who managed to convince his partner Samyaza and the other Watchers to not just walk among humanity but also help them up in their development and advancement in their society. In addition, he would also have them indulge themselves in emotions and thoughts attributed to humans. When they followed his lead, Azazel would continue to teach mortals the art of weapon smithing as well as fighting.

### Fall from Grace

Azazel's actions resulted in catastrophic consequences. The Nephilim, the children of angel and human, would grow rapidly and their deteriorating minds made them rampage across the Earth. This forced Heaven to intervene and began a merciless and thorough cleansing of the chaos all while Azazel's own child was dying from the erratic surges of divine and mortal essence. Unbeknownst to Azazel, his crimes were revealed to Heaven by his own human lover, and was confronted by the archangel Raphael. Azazel tried to negotiate with the archangels in that he would be punished for his crimes alone and spare his siblings as well as heal his daughter. Raphael accepted the bargain, promising that they won't be harmed on the condition that Azazel surrenders to which he did.

As Raphael led Azazel to the desert where the Watchers would be judged, Azazel discovered that the archangels would not keep their word causing an enraged Azazel to attack Raphael for lying to him though Raphael claims that he had no idea that the archangels would not keep their word as he had not even spoke to them about it yet; it is revealed that the archangels were actually listening to the conversation via Raphael's halo. Raphael defeated and subdued Azazel. Azazel was forced to watch as Zadkiel himself kills his daughter in front of him. Raphael then received orders from Heaven to bind Azazel's hands and feet, before opening a fissure in the desert which leads to Dudael and tosses him inside, again binding him against a set of jagged pointy rocks. Azazel developed a fierce hatred towards Raphael and Zadkiel ever since. His daughter and Samyaza's death would also haunt him forever after.

### Later Exploits

At some point, Azazel would eventually be freed by Seth. Azazel wandered the desert for a while until he came upon Agrat, a sister of Lilith and high queen of Hell. The two immediately recognized one another with Agrat acknowledging him as the one who introduced weapons to humanity, something which she wanted to thank him for ever since. As a show of gratitude, Agrat freed him of his bonds and put in a good word for him to the monarchs of Hell. They would grow to become great friends afterwards.

At an unknown point in time, Azazel had conceived two children with a siren and unknown giantess, who bore him Baphomet and Eris respectively. But one of Azazel's most significant moments in the past was him convincing Dumah, an angel of death, to resign from his duties. This was during a time where God would vent His wrath via fire rain and plagues. Azazel, who still held fondness for humanity, felt pity and sympathy to the Egyptians from what Heaven was unleashing on them. After the ninth plague, Azazel invited Dumah for a post-slaughter drink. During the ensuing binge, Azazel convinced a drunken Dumah to give up his mantle, mainly because Azazel pitied the humans and saw God's decision to kill the first born of Egypt as immoral. Heaven banished Dumah and commenced regardless in the initiation of the tenth plague. This cemented Azazel's hatred for Heaven as a whole and secretly bid his time to strike back at Heaven and destroy it.

### Prince of Hell

In Hell, Azazel would work under Mulciber for a while until he was appointed as a prince of Hell and began his own separate underground business on making and selling weapons as well as the occasional beauty products with Dumah as his partner. Azazel would later be joined by two sinners by the name of Carmilla and Colt who helped expand his operations with their own experiences in firearms and how to use them. It eventually culminated in Azazel creating his own crime family or gang known as Scapegoats with Carmilla as his lieutenant and Colt as his captain.

He reunited with Baphomet and saw that they made a name for themselves in Hell as an infamous punk rocker. He would also either join or be dragged by Agrat to engage in some warfare and combat though often times they would make wagers on which side of an army would win with the weapons and battle gear they carry.

## Trivia

* In the Bible, the name Azazel appears in association with the scapegoat rite; the name represents a desolate place where a scapegoat bearing the sins of the Jews during Yom Kippur was sent. During the end of the Second Temple period, his association as a fallen angel responsible for introducing humans to forbidden knowledge emerged due to interpretation exemplified in the *Book of Enoch*.
* His theme songs would be "Be Prepared" by Elton John and Tim Rice and "E for Extinction" by Thousand Foot Krutch.
* Azazel states that as he was wandering the desert he would feed on a bunch of goats that villagers would send out into the wilderness. These goats are very likely scapegoats; a goat that is filled with the sins and impurities of a community and is cast out to carry them away.
* Azazel and Naamah used to date though it is indicated that they had a turbulent relationship. In addition, because of this relationship, Azazel is the reason as to why Naamah harbored disdain towards the idea of marriage.