Description
Name: Gabriel
Gender: male
Race: Archangel
Age: 4 billion years
Height: 6ft 6”
Profession: Messenger, the Hand of God
Physical Attributes: fair skinned, eyes of the palest blue, short dark hair, a solid block of towering muscle, dark grey feathered wings with a span of 15ft when fully spread. Gabriel wears leather pants and vambraces, and a thick, solid metal collar around his neck. When going into battle he dons a breastplate of pure Toledo steel, and hefts a huge mace of surprising flexibility, which only he is strong enough to wield.
Distinguishing Features: Gabriel's eyes are his most beguiling feature. They can be described as blue, but no blue in the known world quite matches them completely. They are at once almost colourless, like looking at the surface of a frozen lake, and yet the deepest cerulean, seen only in Heaven itself. They are constantly changing and changeable, at once stormy, cold, emotionless and terrible. But the one constant in them is their deep abiding sadness. His face can be described as bewitching, striking, and terrifying to behold. Some find it an attractive face, while others would not wish their worst enemy to lay eyes upon it, so formidable does it appear. His appearance is altogether unworldly, not one ounce of fat lays upon his body, he is honed to perfection, a gleaming mass of muscle and sinew, with the strength of many mere mortals. His wing feathers are sharp, capable of slicing a man open, and have the ability to protect him from bullets. But they are soft to the touch, delicate in appearance, and beautiful to behold.
Personality
Personality: Ruthless in his work, greatly saddened by all he has witnessed and been responsible for, loyal to the last. He tries to do as the Lord bids without question, and it comes easily to him to do so. He has always done his best to please God, in a bid to win His affection and love, although the horrors he has seen and been a party to have closed his mind to anything decent. Where once he would stop to admire a sunrise, or stand atop a mountain just to watch the world go by, now, and for the last two thousand years, he has been nothing but a machine to do God's bidding, trying harder and harder to please Him, only to see Him favour Michael over him every time, despite Michael's rebellious streak. Gabriel is bitter, and envious, and deeply wounded by his lack of understanding as to why his Father should love Michael more, when all Gabriel ever does is to try to please Him. But he is proud, and will not allow his feelings to show, instead turning his anger and sorrow to rage against God's children on Earth, as he is forbidden to turn against his brethren. He loves his brothers deeply, but his jealousy of Michael eats away at him, and every day it is a struggle for Gabriel to stay in the Light and not turn his face away towards the Darkness.
Strengths and weaknesses: Gabriel has the strength of ten men, the protection of his wings, and a celestial ability to heal wounds. He is four billion years old, and therefore has had plenty of time to become an expert without rival with his mace in battle. He is quick despite his size, and tireless. He is loyal to his Father, and obeys command without question. He is however naïve, unwilling to make up his own mind on matters concerning humans. He would rather follow orders blindly than to worry about the rights and wrongs of that order. Perhaps though, this is less an unwillingness to think for himself, than an unswerving faith in his Father's decisions. He has no experience with the foibles of people, their loves and their hates, their fragile hearts and minds. He is merely a messenger, a deliverer of judgement.
Equipment
Weapons: Mace, knife and wings
Defences: Steel breastplate and leather vambraces
Constant: The iron collar around his throat, placed there by God's own hand to mark him as one of His own
History
History: Created from the first light of the first day of the world, Gabriel was among the first of the heavenly host to become aware, along with Michael, Uriel, Azazel, Raphael, to mention but a few. His pale eyes were the very first to behold God, and from that moment Gabriel knew Love of the purest kind. He loved his father more than any of the other angels, and would spend hours kneeling at His feet, listening in awe to the stories of creation He would tell. He was the first to be chosen for a special task when God was displeased with the way his children on Earth were behaving, and it was Gabriel who took the Lord's message to Noah, telling him to build the Ark. Over millennia Gabriel took messages of hope, warnings, and threats to Man, all without question, and this he did willingly, to serve his God. When the other angels danced and ran in the Garden of Eden, or soared high in the heavens simply for the joy of having wings, Gabriel was content to sit beside his Father and watch, always waiting for a new command. He was proud and strong, revelling in the fact that he was called by men the Left Hand of God.
He was content in his place by God's side when the Lord raised Azazel up before Him because of the angel's great beauty. He did not mind when God gave Azazel the task of protecting the Earth and all that walked upon it. But when Azazel grew envious of God, and greed overcame him, Gabriel was the first to see him looking at their Father with hate in his eyes. It was Gabriel who threw him down before God and accused him of betrayal, but it was Michael who led the fight against Azazel when he rose up against the Host, and it was Michael who finally cast him into the depths of Hell. God praised Michael and said nothing to Gabriel, though had it not been for Gabriel's astute observation Azazel might have managed to overcome the Throne, and thus were sown the first seeds of dissension in Gabriel's mighty heart. Over the years and centuries, it gradually became obvious that Michael had a mind of his own, and he was ever ready to question God's judgement, yet still their Father seemed to favour him, while all Gabriel could do was sit by and watch. He continued to do everything God asked, still loved the Lord unconditionally, as he still loved his brother, but gradually his heart began to harden to the horrors he saw in battle with the growing forces of Hell which Azazel was finding it easy to recruit. As Gabriel had to deliver harsher and harsher sentences to Man, as Man became more and more rebellious and unheeding of their God, Gabriel's heart hardened even more, and he began to transfer the blame for his discontent onto the humans. They were such weak, feeble creatures, with a finite lifespan, and pathetic hopes and dreams. They knew nothing of the wonders of Heaven, nor of the fight which continued to be fought above their heads and below their feet, in the highest heavens and the deepest depths, all so that they might live to ruin that which the Lord had so lovingly made for them to walk upon. Why had God felt the need to create them? Were His firstborn not enough for Him? Gabriel came to despise them and all that they stood for, not least because those fragile beings seemed to hold such a special place in Michael's heart. He loved them and cared for them, watched over and protected them, spent little time in Heaven, in his rightful place by God's side. Gabriel resented him all the more for this, and grew to hate those for whom Michael seemed to care more than he cared for his own Father. Yet STILL the Lord favoured his wayward son, and Gabriel grew more confused, more bereft, and more resentful. He loved his God, he loved his brother, but he was heartbroken and empty inside from the horrors he had committed in his Father's name, and from watching Michael time and time again continue to question God's word, and yet still be shown more love than he, Gabriel, when all he ever did was obey.
