Angel
An angel is a messenger of supernatural revelation, ranked in nine choirs and morally ambiguous, holding the power to save and to annihilate alike.
Our paraphrase of what the sources say it carries.
At a glance
- Type
- Image
- Group
- Spirit World / Mythical Beings
- Borne by
- 2 figures
- Traditions
- Biblical folklore (2)
- Same group
- Cyclops/GiantDragonFuriesMermaidSiren and 3 more
Figures that bear it
A model judged each figure against its own description, one term at a time. Is: the figure is a kind of this thing. Bears: it carries the thing or is marked by it. What a figure does is filed under motifs and powers. Open "why" for the sentence the judgement rests on.
- Azazel is Biblical folklore
why
That development casts Azazel as one of the leading Watchers, angels who descend to take human wives and father a race of giants, and credits him specifically with teaching forbidden crafts: metalworking and the making of swords, knives, shields, and armor, introducing organized violence, and the arts of cosmetics, dye, and jewelry taught to women, blamed for spreading vanity and seduction.
- Gabriel is Biblical folklore
why
He is variously the angel of death for particular peoples, the recorder, and the one who blows the trumpet that ends the age — though that last office is assigned to different angels in different sources and should not be treated as settled.