"The sharpest sword is a word spoken in wrath."
- Buddha

Playlist

Design Notes

• Her right eye is obscured by a circular monocle with a silver crescent-moon ornamental design. It is attached to a red ball-link chain that wraps underneath her ear. Her face should never be visible behind it, though the black part of the surface reflects as if it is made of glass, and the crescent moon like metal.
• Her sclera (the "whites" of the eyes) is black, and her iris is red. Her pupil is a black vertical slit with a thin, white outline.
• Her eyelids and lips are black or dark blue.
• She has sharp teeth, and a set of large fangs on the upper jaw where the canines are.
• She has two piercings (red bands) on her left ear.
• She has very long silver hair. Some shorter pieces hang in front of her collar (both in front of and behind her ears), and the longer pieces fall in the back around her ankles.
• On the underside of her wings, her primaries and secondaries are black, and her coverts are dark red. On the top of her wings, all the feathers are black.
• Genderfluid, usually defaults to she/her/hers pronouns, but also uses they/he interchangeably. Has anatomical features that would be consistent with that of a cis woman's. Can be drawn with breasts or as if more flat-chested/wearing a chest binder, it doesn't matter.

Misc. Notes

• She's ambidextrous but favors her left hand, due to being completely blind in her right eye.
• Roughly 6'0" (182.9 cm) tall. Taller in her heels.

Favored moves: Sucker Punch, Foul Play, Punishment, Frustration, Pursuit, Astonish, Taunt, Torment, Night Slash, Wing Attack, Quash, Snatch, Payback, Spite, Steel Wing, Haze, Brave Bird.

Trivia

• Despite her callous habits, she is fiercely loyal and by far the most dedicated of The Fallen to the will of their creator and their purpose as the original demon slayers.
• Has a superiority complex over mortals. Doesn't hate them necessarily, but doesn't at all care for them either.
• With her ability to see across space and into other dimensions, she was the one who was able to eventually locate and track down the seventh, missing member of The Fallen.
• Undisputably the most powerful of all the angels in terms of both magic and hand-to-hand combat abilities.
• INTJ personality type.
• Her halo, when visible, is a silver crescent moon.
• Her monocle is purely cosmetic in terms of functionality, since she’s completely blind in her right eye. It serves as something that’s meant to look like an ornamental piece, or possibly sight correction, while hiding the fact that she can’t actually see out of that side of her face at all. (She doesn’t wear an eyepatch because that would automatically tell everyone that she is, in fact, blind in that eye.) And as best as possible, she tries to disguise this, because it could be easily focused as a weak point during battle. She has more trouble doing things like tracking a moving object, has poorer depth-perception, etc., and she doesn’t want people to know that in the middle of a fight. (She also subtly tilts her head around and is always checking her surroundings because she needs to stay hyper-aware at all times, but to anyone vigilant enough, it will probably be obvious with enough observation that she is visually impaired in some way from her movements.) Her monocle isn’t just an ornamental thing though, the more important thing about it is that it’s like her armor and her shield, and it makes her feel safe and secure having it on. (She is more lenient with this around the people she trusts, for example: Silver and her siblings, because she knows they don’t scrutinize this as a “weakness” and is thus more comfortable having her bad eye exposed, as they aren’t going to take advantage of her.)
• Astoundingly insightful and intelligent so far as military planning, fighting, and all that goes. Could be considered scholarly and well-read, but her people skills are sorely lacking. She’s generally hard to talk to and deal with, as she’s commanding, uncompromising, and stubborn. She has the tendency to dig her heels in and think her way is the best and only way, and will refuse to listen to other options or points of view. As a loner, she believes she works best by herself.
• She has several armies of undead that Iba’s created for her, which she uses like fodder and in other tactical situations to distract, divert, overwhelm (etc.) demons, and which she can use her dark magic to control even from far away. Because they aren’t living beings anymore (more just like re-animated corpses with some motor functions, which Iba has experimented turning into efficient bodies for fighting), she comfortably uses them in numbers games.
• Is still willing to "sacrifice" innocents in the interest of the greater good. In her opinion, she's one of the only people who has what it takes to really win the war, and who has the guts to make the hard decisions necessary for it.

Origin

When The Renegade was defeated and banished to a limbo-like state of non-existence, they sensed a terrible threat which had come into being as a result of their endless fight with The Architect. Unable to communicate the danger, they used the last of their strength to make the seven angels and cast them into the new universe, entities of great Power who were meant to serve as protectors of the worlds and the humans that came to inhabit them.

Astaroth was the second angel created, and was meant to destroy demons and demon gods. She at once prioritized the task above all else. As the entity of Wrath, she is the most powerful of the siblings, and posesses an ancient, dark magic capable of dismantling entire worlds with the wave of a hand, or a word. Because it can spiral out of control very quickly, she keeps a cold, calculated cap on her emotions, turning her anger into a productive weapon. Her purpose was to make war, and to win, and she has always taken her work seriously.

Not long after her creation, she met Silver at the edge of the universe. The two of them had converged after following an army of demons there, and quickly allied themselves together against a greater enemy. Though children of rival makers, they were more fascinated by the other than they were antagonistic, and began a friendship that would last them forever. Though his antics would often frustrate her, leading to a series of break-ups over time, they are never apart for too long, and have always remained best friends. She loves him deeply, though it would take her a while to finally work towards trying to understand his perspective on things.

Past

Astaroth never did warm up to the humans she was meant to protect. As she considers them weak, unpredictable, and trivial, she concentrates her efforts instead on killing demons, and has never had any qualms with collateral damage along the way. Her strategy is oriented more toward the "greatest good" for the "greatest number," and she will unabashedly annihilate entire human cities, countries, or even worlds in order to wipe out the demon presence there, rather than risk the spread of demonic influence, or waste time attempting to root them out one by one.

But she didn't feel she was efficient enough. The universe was too vast, and there were too few angels to ever adequately track down and deal with the demons. It was thus she chose to sacrifice one of her eyes through an old, dark ritual, in order to gain the power to see across space, and even into other dimensions. The ability served her well, allowing her to better organize, plan, and improve her efforts and make herself the most effective demon hunter of all. Ever since, she wears a monocle over her right eye to obscure its blindness, which she feels could be scrutinized or focused as a weak point during battle.

After Luci Fleur's "accident," she would also take over command of The Fallen in his place, while her brother, left traumatized, retreated to his Library to dedicate himself to collecting stories. While Luci remains the ceremonial "leader," it is Astaroth who in practice manages the angels now, gives the orders, calls the shots, and makes the decisions. As the tactician, she didn't at all mind this, but always, out of respect, clears everything by Luci anyway, and is content with letting him have the final word.

Present

Astaroth never falters in waging her war. Commanding, strategic, and endlessly determined, she is usually chasing demons across the universe and smiting them as efficiently as she can. Very rarely does she allow herself an intermission from these activities, as she considers any kind of pause in her productivity to be a disgraceful waste of her time. As a result, she tends to look down on anything she deems distracting, leisurely, or non-critical to her efforts. Part of this is due to the fact that she feels she is responsible for protecting and setting a strong, "positive" model for all her siblings, and that she has convinced herself she has to step up to try to fulfill both her own intended role and Luci's shoes as leader, now that he's retired from combat.

She still tends to supress the emotions and personal desires she deems "nonsensical" in the interests of doing her job as practically as she can. Likely more than anyone else, she has sacrificed her life to combating what seems like a truly endless struggle, using her fury as fuel and the force that drives her onward. Across numerous worlds, there are tales inspired her influence, about fallen angels, and she-devils, and merciless gods of war.

Only recently was she able to locate the missing, seventh angel--Beelzebub--who was unaware of his divine status or his abilities as an Old Power. More than once she has tried to convince him to quit his "dawdling" about with mortal concerns and join The Fallen officially, but he's refused and remains still with the Stargazers. Nonetheless, Astaroth tries to check in when she can, as she feels she is accountable for the wellbeing of her youngest brother, even if he has not formally allied with the other angels. She has also offered to help coach Beelzebub to bring him fully into his power and learn to utilize his magic to its full potential, which is in nature much like hers.

She has also made contact with Hildebrand, though the two of them don't get along for obvious reasons. Luci's asked her to consider making an alliance with him, as well as with other humans who have taken up arms against the demons, but Astaroth still remains unimpressed by mortals in general, and considers them to be little more than fickle and unreliable assets. There may be potential, however, in coming together over a common goal to defeat the growing Evil, as she did with Silver so, so long ago...