Post by Heron on Jul 27, 2018 16:05:41 GMT
Appearance
Technically the Lord of Lies can appear as anything, but he generally prefers to maintain a mostly human appearance, although he sometimes adds wings or horns or a long, thin tail for effect. His true form is large and monstrous, and everything mortals might imagine a Duke of Hell ought to look like. Cloven hooves attached to digitigrade legs and talons tipping each finger, flesh crimson and eyes burning with the fires of Hell. Belial doesn't take this form very often, for obvious reasons.
His usual appearance is of a tall, pale humanoid with sharp cheekbones and, sometimes, pointed ears. He wears brown hair long, generally tied into a ponytail. His eye color tends to change by whim, although they shine hellfire-orange in his moments of raw honesty -- which are coming more and more often, the longer he remains away from his throne in Hell. He generally also has horns and claws.
He also has a ring of silvery scrollwork inked around his left wrist, no matter what form he takes. Although also decorative, it is primarily the makings of a tracking spell Belial uses to maintain awareness of the angel Raferties, which should enable him to find the angel if anything bad happens to either of them.
Personality
Belial is not Hell's hangman. He is, however, the friendly neighborhood rope dispenser.
He'll give you the power you want. It's really up to you to hang yourself.
And that's really the point of free will. Free will, good intentions, they're the path to Hell and damnation, and if you're the one doing the hanging, well, that just leaves Belial more time to tidy up his living space. Though he's definitely capable of violence, and good at it, violence is messy. Violence is chaotic.
Belial hates messy and chaotic.
His Hell was a dimensional crossroads. On one side, there was the mortal world full of the humans Belial's ilk would tempt and lead astray, and on the other side, there was the Blood War. The war between Hell and the Abyss -- between devils and demons. This is no war between good and evil. When you assume everyone is evil, it becomes about Order and Chaos.
Not that Belial is a firm believer in "good" and "evil". He believes that everyone else believes in them, but there is no...legal, definitive quantification of what is "good" and what is "evil". Every time Person A comes up with a definitive qualification, there will always be a Person B who steps in with a, "Yeah, but..." Morality is too shifting, too messy, too prone to being bogged down in endless mires of what-if.
Order and Chaos, however, are easily quantified and qualified, and it is Order that runs in Belial's blood.
He's a quiet sort, softly-spoken and usually fairly eloquent. He keeps himself and his surroundings as neat and as organized as he can (under the circumstances). He's even usually fairly polite, courtly manners long ingrained within him.
Usually polite. Sometimes, however, he decides to amuse himself by making other people squirm with discomfort. His sadism is, thankfully, somewhat limited, especially here and now in his "retirement" and "perpetual mid-life crisis"; he will challenge your beliefs, challenge your intellect, and perhaps flirt.
Belial's temper is a slow, plodding thing, like a sleeping dragon. Under due provocation, however, it becomes an avalanche of hellfire and a peculiar bent of viciousness. He's learned his best tricks from the mortals who have sold their souls to Hell. This includes torture, if it's warranted.
But torture is so messy. He'd really just rather the clean amusement of clever wordplay.
As for power and authority, well. He's had that for the vast majority of his existence and it has long grown very, very boring. Much as he hates chaos, it's a bit of a refreshing change for him to give up command and start somewhere new where he's nobody special.
Powers and Abilities
Shapeshifting -- Belial can (usually) easily shift his form to whatever he wants to look like. His human form is one example of this power, from which he can easily summon bits and parts of his true body, such as wings or claws or horns. It is also not his -only- human form, merely his preferred one. He can also transform into various animal forms at will...when the Illogical Field allows.
Dark-Sight -- Belial can see with perfect clarity in any lighting, and this includes absolute darkness. Except, of course, on occasions when the Illogical Field decides he shouldn't be able to see.
Dark Shroud -- Not only can Belial see in total darkness...he can summon it, within a limited area, of course. He can conjure a cloud of pure and total darkness centered on himself, which covers a fifteen yard radius if uninterrupted by solid objects like walls.
Hellfire -- He may be cut off from Hell, but its fires still burn within Belial and he can externalize that fire when he needs to, though doing so is incredibly taxing, particularly if his pyrokinetic display is large or intense. At full strength, Hellfire can burn through nearly anything, including metals and stone. This is, of course, presupposing the Illogical Field won't interfere.
Suggestion -- The path to Hell is paved with cobblestones of free will and good intentions, but that doesn't necessarily include original ideas. Belial can pitch his voice in such a way that inattentive mortals find...tempting. Ideas he explains in this voice sound much more reasonable than they perhaps ought, and unwary folks might find themselves trusting Belial when they really shouldn't.
The Grand Lie -- Belial can immerse his mind and that of another into an illusory scenario that seems real. The scene looks, feels, tastes, smells, and sounds absolutely real, even though the physical bodies experience no change and hours of illusory time can pass between just a few physical heartbeats. It's incredibly taxing, but it's an excellent mode of communication, filtering the other's ideas through Belial's own perceptions, creating a private world and allowing for conversations both spy-proof and graphically illustrated.
For the Price of a Kiss -- One of Belial's greatest powers is actually not his own power, it's yours. He is an archdevil, which is to say that he's also a power broker. What do you want from him? He can most likely make it happen. Some negotiations, seal it with a kiss (or, alternatively, three miles of fine print in a contract, but most people just opt for the kiss), and it's yours. The price, well. That depends on what you do with the power he's given you. That's the point of free will, after all. Wisdom is just a suggestion.
Immunity -- Extremes of temperature both natural and magical origin do little to Belial, and he isn't much bothered by things like lightning strikes either. He isn't -completely- immune to elemental damage, but it takes a whole lot of power before he starts to get fussed.
Vulnerability -- Even an Archduke of Hell isn't immune to everything, and Belial despises the touch of cold iron. It's painful and it tears through his impressive defenses like no other material in any dimension he's ever traveled or heard of.
Belial's defenses also don't account for particularly powerful acids.
Technically the Lord of Lies can appear as anything, but he generally prefers to maintain a mostly human appearance, although he sometimes adds wings or horns or a long, thin tail for effect. His true form is large and monstrous, and everything mortals might imagine a Duke of Hell ought to look like. Cloven hooves attached to digitigrade legs and talons tipping each finger, flesh crimson and eyes burning with the fires of Hell. Belial doesn't take this form very often, for obvious reasons.
His usual appearance is of a tall, pale humanoid with sharp cheekbones and, sometimes, pointed ears. He wears brown hair long, generally tied into a ponytail. His eye color tends to change by whim, although they shine hellfire-orange in his moments of raw honesty -- which are coming more and more often, the longer he remains away from his throne in Hell. He generally also has horns and claws.
He also has a ring of silvery scrollwork inked around his left wrist, no matter what form he takes. Although also decorative, it is primarily the makings of a tracking spell Belial uses to maintain awareness of the angel Raferties, which should enable him to find the angel if anything bad happens to either of them.
Personality
Belial is not Hell's hangman. He is, however, the friendly neighborhood rope dispenser.
He'll give you the power you want. It's really up to you to hang yourself.
And that's really the point of free will. Free will, good intentions, they're the path to Hell and damnation, and if you're the one doing the hanging, well, that just leaves Belial more time to tidy up his living space. Though he's definitely capable of violence, and good at it, violence is messy. Violence is chaotic.
Belial hates messy and chaotic.
His Hell was a dimensional crossroads. On one side, there was the mortal world full of the humans Belial's ilk would tempt and lead astray, and on the other side, there was the Blood War. The war between Hell and the Abyss -- between devils and demons. This is no war between good and evil. When you assume everyone is evil, it becomes about Order and Chaos.
Not that Belial is a firm believer in "good" and "evil". He believes that everyone else believes in them, but there is no...legal, definitive quantification of what is "good" and what is "evil". Every time Person A comes up with a definitive qualification, there will always be a Person B who steps in with a, "Yeah, but..." Morality is too shifting, too messy, too prone to being bogged down in endless mires of what-if.
Order and Chaos, however, are easily quantified and qualified, and it is Order that runs in Belial's blood.
He's a quiet sort, softly-spoken and usually fairly eloquent. He keeps himself and his surroundings as neat and as organized as he can (under the circumstances). He's even usually fairly polite, courtly manners long ingrained within him.
Usually polite. Sometimes, however, he decides to amuse himself by making other people squirm with discomfort. His sadism is, thankfully, somewhat limited, especially here and now in his "retirement" and "perpetual mid-life crisis"; he will challenge your beliefs, challenge your intellect, and perhaps flirt.
Belial's temper is a slow, plodding thing, like a sleeping dragon. Under due provocation, however, it becomes an avalanche of hellfire and a peculiar bent of viciousness. He's learned his best tricks from the mortals who have sold their souls to Hell. This includes torture, if it's warranted.
But torture is so messy. He'd really just rather the clean amusement of clever wordplay.
As for power and authority, well. He's had that for the vast majority of his existence and it has long grown very, very boring. Much as he hates chaos, it's a bit of a refreshing change for him to give up command and start somewhere new where he's nobody special.
Powers and Abilities
Shapeshifting -- Belial can (usually) easily shift his form to whatever he wants to look like. His human form is one example of this power, from which he can easily summon bits and parts of his true body, such as wings or claws or horns. It is also not his -only- human form, merely his preferred one. He can also transform into various animal forms at will...when the Illogical Field allows.
Dark-Sight -- Belial can see with perfect clarity in any lighting, and this includes absolute darkness. Except, of course, on occasions when the Illogical Field decides he shouldn't be able to see.
Dark Shroud -- Not only can Belial see in total darkness...he can summon it, within a limited area, of course. He can conjure a cloud of pure and total darkness centered on himself, which covers a fifteen yard radius if uninterrupted by solid objects like walls.
Hellfire -- He may be cut off from Hell, but its fires still burn within Belial and he can externalize that fire when he needs to, though doing so is incredibly taxing, particularly if his pyrokinetic display is large or intense. At full strength, Hellfire can burn through nearly anything, including metals and stone. This is, of course, presupposing the Illogical Field won't interfere.
Suggestion -- The path to Hell is paved with cobblestones of free will and good intentions, but that doesn't necessarily include original ideas. Belial can pitch his voice in such a way that inattentive mortals find...tempting. Ideas he explains in this voice sound much more reasonable than they perhaps ought, and unwary folks might find themselves trusting Belial when they really shouldn't.
The Grand Lie -- Belial can immerse his mind and that of another into an illusory scenario that seems real. The scene looks, feels, tastes, smells, and sounds absolutely real, even though the physical bodies experience no change and hours of illusory time can pass between just a few physical heartbeats. It's incredibly taxing, but it's an excellent mode of communication, filtering the other's ideas through Belial's own perceptions, creating a private world and allowing for conversations both spy-proof and graphically illustrated.
For the Price of a Kiss -- One of Belial's greatest powers is actually not his own power, it's yours. He is an archdevil, which is to say that he's also a power broker. What do you want from him? He can most likely make it happen. Some negotiations, seal it with a kiss (or, alternatively, three miles of fine print in a contract, but most people just opt for the kiss), and it's yours. The price, well. That depends on what you do with the power he's given you. That's the point of free will, after all. Wisdom is just a suggestion.
Immunity -- Extremes of temperature both natural and magical origin do little to Belial, and he isn't much bothered by things like lightning strikes either. He isn't -completely- immune to elemental damage, but it takes a whole lot of power before he starts to get fussed.
Vulnerability -- Even an Archduke of Hell isn't immune to everything, and Belial despises the touch of cold iron. It's painful and it tears through his impressive defenses like no other material in any dimension he's ever traveled or heard of.
Belial's defenses also don't account for particularly powerful acids.
