Zariel's History
This is a definitive history of Zariel's past, as pieced together by dreams, memories, and snippets of conversations the party has had over time.
Definitive History of Zariel and Lulu
The Averniad
Aeons ago, when the cosmos was still young and the Great Wheel had not been fully turned from the primordial planar chaos, Zariel fought in the Legions of Heaven. She served under the command of Ashmedai, a Celestial Marshal who rode a golden, winged lion.
Ashmedai and his legions were sent to Avernus. At this time, Avernus was a paradisical plane. Elysium and the Seven Heavens both desired to add it to their realms, and so their armies clashed upon its emerald plains.
The full tale of the Averniad is beyond the scope of our discussion today. (There are some who claim the full complexities of the celestial epic cannot be told in the course of a single mortal lifetime.) The important bit comes at the end: In the Great Betrayal, Ashmedai wrenched Avernus from the grasp of both Mt. Celestia and Elysium, instead claiming it for himself and aligning it with the Eight Hells. Thus Avernus became the Ninth Hell.
Ashmedai's legions schismed between those who remained loyal to him and those who remained loyal to Mount Celestia. Ashmedai himself became Asmodeus, and his legion of fallen angels, using Avernus as a staging base, conquered Hell, wresting its crown from the brow of the dark lord Ahriman.
During the Fall of Avernus, Zariel's commander – an angel named Chazaqiel – followed Asmodeus. Zariel and a small band of angels loyal to Heaven broke away and began a long march across Avernus before finally escaping down the River Styx (which in those days followed a very different course).
Her experiences during the Fall of Avernus had tainted Zariel's mind with bitterness and anger. While recuperating within the starry groves of Lunia, Zariel met and befriended Lulu, a hollyphant who called the silvered forests of that plane home. When Zariel's soul found peace and returned to Heaven's legions, Lulu accompanied her as both friend and warmount.
The Trial of Asmodeus
Long after the events related in the Averniad, a heavenly strike force penetrated Hell and captured Asmodeus, bringing him back to Mount Celestia to answer for his crimes. (There are some who believe that Asmodeus allowed himself to be captured, knowing what would happen next.)
Asmodeus claimed rights under the Pact Primeval. Also known as the First Law and quite possibly the first legal code to ever exist, it had been a founding agreement among the first Planes of Law that had emerged out of primordial chaos (and later became the Seven Heavens and Mechanus). Other pacts, such as those between Celestia, Elysium, and Olympus, had been based upon the authority of the Pact Primeval. By the time Asmodeus made his appeal, the Pact had been supplanted by other codes, but most of those codes ultimately still derived their legal standing from the Pact itself. Therefore, Asmodeus' appeal to the Pact could not be ignored.
Thus began the Trial of Asmodeus. Primus of the modrons was appointed as a neutral arbiter and judge.
The alleged crimes of Asmodeus, spanning aeons, were limitless. Even the testimony to their effect was seemingly without end, as an angelic horde bore witness, one after another. At last Primus, having grown weary of the proceedings, called a halt to the testimony: The scope of Asmodeus' illimitable acts had been well-established and their sheer quantity was irrelevant.
Zariel, who had not yet had the opportunity to testify to the atrocities she had personally witnessed, was outraged. She violently demanded that she be allowed to speak, and when Primus ordered her to be silenced, the altercation sprawled into a brawl which completely disrupted the proceedings.
Asmodeus' defense was simple: Although his former comrades interpreted his actions as a betrayal, they had not actually violated the principle of the Law. Indeed, they had upheld the Law by preventing an alliance between Hell and the Abyss which might have swept away all other planar powers. The Blood War fought by his devils now safeguarded Law from the Chaos of the Abyss.
In the end, Asmodeus prevailed. His acts may have been Evil, but Primus ruled that they were ultimately in accord with the Law, and were thus in accord with the Pact Primeval. The law which had once been the bedrock of Heaven now became Asmodeus' holy right to test the merit of mortal souls (i.e., tempt them to evil) and claim those souls which were Hell's due. (However, as part of Primus' ruling, Asmodeus was also bound to always carry the Ruby Rod of Asmodeus, an artifact that both signified Asmodeus' divine rights, but also bound him – and, through him, the other devils of Hell – to uphold the bargains they made with mortals.)
The Pursuit of Yeenoghu
The First Visit to Idyllglen
Several centuries ago (we could perhaps say the 8th or 9th century in Dale Reckoning, during the internecine conflicts which resulted in the Fields of the Dead becoming the Fields of the Dead), Zariel became aware that the demonic lord Yeenoghu had invaded the Material Plane and was personally leading a gnoll army that was sacking settlements north of the River Chionthar.
Zariel and a band of angels journeyed to the Material Plane to put an end to Yeenoghu's depredations. They caught up with the demon lord in the village of Idyllglen.
Zariel's task force weren't the only ones hunting Yeenoghu, however. A strike team from Avernus lead by Glasya, daughter of Asmodeus, had also been tracking Yeenoghu. They arrived during the battle and helped rout the demon lord.
Yeenoghu escaped, but his army was decimated and scattered to the winds. After the battle, there was tension between the celestial and infernal hosts, but Zariel and Glasya spoke for a short while and – having briefly been strange allies in the Blood War against the Abyss – agreed to go their separate ways.
Zariel's experiences at Idyllglen refocused her. Although she had served in Heaven's armies, the conflict had always been somewhat abstract to her; or, at least, an affair of the Outer Planes where the conflict had long been relegated in most realms to a Cold War where the borders between realms had been long-settled. Now she had seen firsthand how the evils of the Abyss seeped out into the wider planes, inflicting untold horrors upon the multiverse.
Zariel began advocating for a more belligerent military policy. Some called her a warmonger, but Zariel disagreed: The war already existed, whether the angelic legions chose to fight in it or not.
Others said that it should be left to the Blood War: Let Evil annihilate itself. There was no need for Heaven to spend itself in the conflict. But this, Zariel argued, made Heaven complicit in the system that corrupted mortal souls to fight in that war; and turned a blind eye to the demonic miseries suffered by untold millions. The stalemate of the Blood War did not keep Evil in check; it perpetuated it. And it was Heaven's duty to end it.
The Second Visit to Idyllglen
Following Zariel's intercession against Yeenoghu, Idyllglen had erected a shrine honoring the angel who had saved their village. In the early 10th century DR, Idyllglen's existence was once again threatened, this time by a marauding band of ogres led by a warlord named Irontusk.
Zariel answered the prayers of the villagers, journeying to the Material Plane with Lulu to aid them.
When they arrived, they met a young woman named Yael who had managed to organize the younger villagers into a defensive militia of sorts. Yael gladly yielded command of the militia to Zariel, who taught them much of the arts of war and forged them into a band of steadfast companions. The three of them – Zariel, Lulu, and Yael – became fast friends. With each new challenge they faced, Yael would smile and say, "We just need to dream a little bigger." Soon Zariel and Lulu were saying it, too.
In a campaign that lasted for several months – during which the ranks of the militia swelled as it attracted recruits from other nearby settlements south of the Winding Water – Zariel defeated Irontusk's warbands. Yael herself killed Irontusk in the climactic battle, and the remnants of the warband fled back across the Sunset Mountains and into the Goblin Marches to the east.
Dawn of the Hellriders
Zariel returned to Mount Celestia, but the lust of battle still smoldered in her blood. Having tasted the fleeting, fast-paced passion of the mortals, she became even more frustrated with the glacial pace of change in the celestial realms. Her thoughts turned again and again to Yael and her other comrades in arms. Dream a little bigger.
One night on the silver, starlit beaches of Mercuria, Zariel and Lulu hatched their plan: They would return to the Material Plane and raise a mortal army. The army would invade the Abyss, creating a second front in the Blood War. Zariel believed that, if she could establish a flanking beachhead, other disaffected angelic warriors from Mount Celestia would rally to their cause. They didn't have to win. They just had to upset the balance of the Blood War so that it would no longer be a stalemate.
When they returned to the Material Plane, Zariel and Lulu discovered that Yael had turned their militia into a regional peacekeeping force. (The ogres had not returned, but there'd been a spot of trouble with trolls out of the Trollclaws. Mostly they secured travel between the Winding Water settlements.) Known as the Zarielites, they wore a badge with twin suns, representing Zariel and Lulu as their angelic saviors.
Yael's response when she heard Zariel's plan? Let's dream a little bigger.
Word of Zariel's return spread and recruitment swelled. Yael became an ambassador of sorts, spreading the good word of Zariel's Crusade. Lulu often accompanied her on these journeys, including arguably the most important of them all, when Yael went south to Elturel. Olanthius was impressed with Yael's courage and righteousness, and pledged his service to the Crusade. (Olanthius and Yael would later fall in love.) With Olanthius joining the cause, Zariel moved the headquarters of the Crusade south to Elturel.
Another major recruit to the Crusade was the Lord Knight of the Far Hills. Haruman had once been known as the Boy Warlord, rising from obscurity as a slave in the Goblin Marches to conquer Farkeep (the citadel which would later become known as Darkhold) at the age of thirteen. Hearing of Zariel's holy cause, he rode down to Elturel from the Sunset Mountains and pledged all of his knights to her service.
Yael, Olanthius, and Haruman became known as the Three Generals, swearing fealty to the holy cause of the Crusade — to crush the evil of the Abyss under the guidance of Zariel.
The Charge of the Hellriders
Yeenoghu's Gambit
Yeenoghu learned that Zariel was raising a huge mortal army and planned to invade the Abyss with it.
In response, Yeenoghu returned to the Material Plane at the head of a small demonic force. Once again recruiting an army of gnolls, he began razing the Winding Water settlements. Zariel responded, as Yeenoghu had known she would, by leading the Three Armies north.
The Third Visit to Idyllglen
The two forces met at Idyllglen. It seemed fated to the crusaders, but was actually according to Yeenoghu's design: He wanted to manipulate the emotional connection Yael and Zariel had to the village.
During the battle, Yeenoghu detached a portion of his force and personally led a raid towards the village. General Yael responded almost immediately, moving her army out of position in pursuit.
While Zariel, Olanthius, and Haruman sought to rearrange their own lines of battle to account for the chaos that ensued, Yeenoghu's force abruptly shifted direction. Casting off the illusions that had made them appear to be ordinary gnolls, the demons sliced their way through Yael's command.
Neither Yael nor her knights were to be underestimated, however. This was, after all, the fight they had been preparing for. She stymied Yeenoghu's counterattack.
Meanwhile, the bulk of the gnoll army – having lost their demonic commanders when Yeenoghu peeled them off – were routed by Zariel, Olanthius, and Haruman.
As the rest of the crusader army rounded on his flank, Yeenoghu abruptly abandoned pretense and led an assault directly on General Yael's position. Slicing through her troops and cutting down her banner, Yeenoghu seized Yael, opened a portal, and leapt through it.
