FINALLY i've completed a drawing of this man LOL... time to info dump oc lore so i dont forget it
quick oc lore context
when you die, you go to sheol / purgatory. if you kill a spirit and eat their soul (contained in the eyes), you gain power and more eyeballs. each spirit has a power contained in them, related to their cause of death. upon eating your first soul, you turn from a spirit into a demon. the more eyes a demon has, the more powerful they are. abaddon is the currently most powerful demon and rial is his half-human son.
backstory (canon compliant)
rial's mother is selected to be the carrier of abaddon's newest weapon. being a poor woman in the regency era, she leaves rial on a church's doorstep when he is born. the priest and lead nun, sister angela, raise him alongside many other orphans surrendered to the church. however, the priest and other children ostracize rial because of his eye and hair color (alongside his race, being mixed in the 1800s, however purple hair is more disturbing than someone mixed existing).
cathers, abaddon's right hand demon, keeps careful observation of rial as he ages. a half-human and half-spirit child has never been carried to term before, so his growth is documented thoroughly. he seems to age like a normal human. on rial's 16th birthday, cathers possesses the priest's body and sets fire to the church. angela dies trying to save rial, who suffers severe burns on the right side of his body. as the priest, cathers confronts rial and tells him/calls him various nasty things before disappearing. cathers's goal is not to kill rial (entirely), but instead to turn him away from the church which raised him. if rial does not believe in human goodness, then he is likely to join abaddon in ruling sheol and becoming a ruthless dictator. in this fire, his "human side" dies. this gives his spirit fire power !
rial flees the burning church, taking angela's pocket watch with him. his wounds are severe and cover most of his body, but unbeknownst to him, his "demon side" is able to keep him stable and alive. while living on the streets, he sees stella and gunter making a grocery run for stella's theatre workers. seizing the opportunity, he steals gunter's scarf to keep him warm.
canon divergence
gunter is not able to catch rial and get his scarf back. as a result, stella does not invite rial to join the theatre, gunter and rial do not form a romance, and rial does not die as a result of gunter's demon protection charm.
AU
rial continues to live on the streets, eventually getting a job as a chimney cleaner. he sells angela's watch and eventually forgets her. years pass and rial continues to grow a hatred for humanity. he keeps his head shaved and hides his burn scars (again, covering most of the right half of his body) with thick clothes. gunter's scarf covers his neck, and he covers his blind eye with an eyepatch. however, he is still ostracized because of these things he cannot change.
on a routine day, rial passes by gunter again on the street. gunter recognizes him- well, not him, but his scarf. infuriated, he grabs rial and throws him to the ground, intending to shoot him. however, when the bullet enters rial's body, it does not hurt him and he is able to flee again. rial's "demon side" protects him once again, stronger this time. gunter, having run away from his family of demon hunters, recognizes rial as a demon. for the past six years, he had not hunted a demon, but his instincts did not leave. gunter's repressed anger about a demon killing his twin sister (tl;dr lore: his "sister" klaus is actually ftm trans and made a deal with said demon to escape their family) emerges and he throws himself into hunting rial down. rial, now somewhat aware of his demonic abilities, starts to harness his fire power.
gunter and rial eventually have a showdown deep in the night, where gunter is able to "kill" rial. however, because of complicated lore reasons that i don't feel like making make sense, rial is still "human" somewhat and therefore turns into a spirit and descends to sheol, rather than dying as a demon.
the meeting (canon compliant)
instead of emerging from the lowest layer of sheol like a regular spirit, rial awakens in abaddon's castle, flanked by cathers. his father offers him a deal: work for him, and live a life of luxury. if rial refuses, he will be stripped of his soul's powers and thrown to the depths of sheol to live in torture.
canon divergence
rial accepts abaddon's offer. as a result, he is able to harness and train his powers. abaddon provides rial with spirits to devour, growing his powers immensely. he becomes a saucis (demon with five eyes, second-most powerful after simulacra (abaddon themself)).
AU (cont.)
gunter, having excised his pent-up anger by killing rial, returns to stella's theatre and eventually dies in a construction accident at the age of 24. he awakens in the lower layers of sheol and is soon brought to winona's organization, the Sacred Millenium. The SM's purpose is to take down abaddon and bring a comfortable afterlife to all spirits. while working for SM, gunter is introduced to mara and instantly recognizes him as the demon he thought killed his twin. however, when a familiar face emerges from behind mara, he realizes that his twin (now a different gender LOL), had actually planned this all along. his hair-trigger instinct which caused him to kill mara in canon has been quelled by killing rial.
klaus and gunter reform a broken relationship by discussing their family's sordid history and the expectations placed upon each of them by their parents. they all become good friends. life is well.
in the upper echelon, rial begins to form a plot to overthrow his own father and gain the throne of sheol for himself. in doing this, he can destroy any emerging spirit, absorb their power, and put an end to human existence, eventually. he trains alongside zaroth and leol, his adoptive brothers (raised by abaddon as humans in order to become weapons like rial), who eventually agree to work with him under the assumption that they will be spared from rial's wrath (incorrect). however, a secret between three people is bound to get out, and eventually cathers hears of their plan.
cathers, devoted entirely to abaddon, wishes to shut down this problem on his own in order to gain admiration from abaddon. he turns to the only person he knows has the power (and ability to shut the hell up about a plan) to do so- mara. mara and cathers have a long backstory (same in canon as it is here) which basically all leads to: they hate each other. however, cathers knows that mara knows the inner workings of abaddon's power structure and how to manipulate it. mara brings this to SM- they must defeat rial in order to stop his plan. abaddon sucks too, but rial would be much worse.
mara has an uncountable amount of spirits stored from his time working with abaddon that he covertly hid away underneath SM headquarters. klaus sacrifices himself and ingests them, turning into a simulacra. his sanity and stability is waning, however his support system is able to keep him together. SM proceeds to the abaddon's castle and breaks in. klaus accidentally kills abbadon and cathers while busting through a wall. RIP in peace, lads. klaus and rial have an epic showdown where klaus strips rial of his power, but just before killing him, gunter stops him.
gunter insists that we don't know what happens after a demon dies (this knowledge is known in canon, but only by abaddon. abaddon is now dead), and that it could possibly give rial more power than he could gain in sheol. klaus is subdued by mara and gunter takes passed-out rial and imprisons him. rial, stripped of his power and 99.9% of his soul, has almost no memories and is extremely weak. he clings to gunter, as gunter is his assigned caretaker (winona and klaus both want him dead, mara doesn't want to go against his boyfriend).
thousands of years pass in sheol. idk if years exist in sheol, but y'know... time passes. rial forms new memories, though small, and depends heavily on gunter. SM runs a reformed sheol a council of leaders, caring for spirits in sheol. as time passes, those in heaven realize that souls from sheol (purgatory) are no longer coming to them for divine judgement. a representative descends to sheol to find it thriving with life and equality, and is surprised. those who would have been considered "unsavable" had their spirits come to heaven were living in harmony with their neighbors. eventually, a new method of sending souls to heaven was put in place in agreement with SM- if a spirit lives 100 years in sheol peacefully, they are to be "retired" and sent to heaven, reforming them for reincarnation. if a spirit lives for 1000 years in sheol while causing disrupt, they are to be sent to heaven and put into "eternal sleep".
rial, however, is a big question. his state now has no memory or recollection of his past self, and it has not for thousands of years. he is harmless as is. gunter pleads for him to be reincarnated, hoping that if he were to be given a better chance in life, he would be a good person. everyone else disagrees vehemently. heaven's librarian, arachin, has access to all realities, universes, and possible endings of time. she is consulted, and decides to taken unborn rial's soul from a damaged universe (spilled coffee on the book containing the timeline, oops), putting it inside of this universe's rial. if he can live peacefully now, they decide, he will be accepted back into society.
rial is nursed back to health by gunter, but is still ostracized by the rest of SM (just like the church he grew up in, though he does not remember). gunter protects him from his and insists to rial that he can be good despite his background (just like angela). rial slowly grows enamored with gunter, shunning the rest of the world. gunter concedes and the two start a relationship. life is good. stuff ends here i guess my boys are in love again all is well
not sure about this ending because i might just be back on my hnk kick and need to actually consider the moral implications of having this happen... gotta think about it but i want happy ending
quick oc lore context
when you die, you go to sheol / purgatory. if you kill a spirit and eat their soul (contained in the eyes), you gain power and more eyeballs. each spirit has a power contained in them, related to their cause of death. upon eating your first soul, you turn from a spirit into a demon. the more eyes a demon has, the more powerful they are. abaddon is the currently most powerful demon and rial is his half-human son.
backstory (canon compliant)
rial's mother is selected to be the carrier of abaddon's newest weapon. being a poor woman in the regency era, she leaves rial on a church's doorstep when he is born. the priest and lead nun, sister angela, raise him alongside many other orphans surrendered to the church. however, the priest and other children ostracize rial because of his eye and hair color (alongside his race, being mixed in the 1800s, however purple hair is more disturbing than someone mixed existing).
cathers, abaddon's right hand demon, keeps careful observation of rial as he ages. a half-human and half-spirit child has never been carried to term before, so his growth is documented thoroughly. he seems to age like a normal human. on rial's 16th birthday, cathers possesses the priest's body and sets fire to the church. angela dies trying to save rial, who suffers severe burns on the right side of his body. as the priest, cathers confronts rial and tells him/calls him various nasty things before disappearing. cathers's goal is not to kill rial (entirely), but instead to turn him away from the church which raised him. if rial does not believe in human goodness, then he is likely to join abaddon in ruling sheol and becoming a ruthless dictator. in this fire, his "human side" dies. this gives his spirit fire power !
rial flees the burning church, taking angela's pocket watch with him. his wounds are severe and cover most of his body, but unbeknownst to him, his "demon side" is able to keep him stable and alive. while living on the streets, he sees stella and gunter making a grocery run for stella's theatre workers. seizing the opportunity, he steals gunter's scarf to keep him warm.
canon divergence
gunter is not able to catch rial and get his scarf back. as a result, stella does not invite rial to join the theatre, gunter and rial do not form a romance, and rial does not die as a result of gunter's demon protection charm.
AU
rial continues to live on the streets, eventually getting a job as a chimney cleaner. he sells angela's watch and eventually forgets her. years pass and rial continues to grow a hatred for humanity. he keeps his head shaved and hides his burn scars (again, covering most of the right half of his body) with thick clothes. gunter's scarf covers his neck, and he covers his blind eye with an eyepatch. however, he is still ostracized because of these things he cannot change.
on a routine day, rial passes by gunter again on the street. gunter recognizes him- well, not him, but his scarf. infuriated, he grabs rial and throws him to the ground, intending to shoot him. however, when the bullet enters rial's body, it does not hurt him and he is able to flee again. rial's "demon side" protects him once again, stronger this time. gunter, having run away from his family of demon hunters, recognizes rial as a demon. for the past six years, he had not hunted a demon, but his instincts did not leave. gunter's repressed anger about a demon killing his twin sister (tl;dr lore: his "sister" klaus is actually ftm trans and made a deal with said demon to escape their family) emerges and he throws himself into hunting rial down. rial, now somewhat aware of his demonic abilities, starts to harness his fire power.
gunter and rial eventually have a showdown deep in the night, where gunter is able to "kill" rial. however, because of complicated lore reasons that i don't feel like making make sense, rial is still "human" somewhat and therefore turns into a spirit and descends to sheol, rather than dying as a demon.
the meeting (canon compliant)
instead of emerging from the lowest layer of sheol like a regular spirit, rial awakens in abaddon's castle, flanked by cathers. his father offers him a deal: work for him, and live a life of luxury. if rial refuses, he will be stripped of his soul's powers and thrown to the depths of sheol to live in torture.
canon divergence
rial accepts abaddon's offer. as a result, he is able to harness and train his powers. abaddon provides rial with spirits to devour, growing his powers immensely. he becomes a saucis (demon with five eyes, second-most powerful after simulacra (abaddon themself)).
AU (cont.)
gunter, having excised his pent-up anger by killing rial, returns to stella's theatre and eventually dies in a construction accident at the age of 24. he awakens in the lower layers of sheol and is soon brought to winona's organization, the Sacred Millenium. The SM's purpose is to take down abaddon and bring a comfortable afterlife to all spirits. while working for SM, gunter is introduced to mara and instantly recognizes him as the demon he thought killed his twin. however, when a familiar face emerges from behind mara, he realizes that his twin (now a different gender LOL), had actually planned this all along. his hair-trigger instinct which caused him to kill mara in canon has been quelled by killing rial.
klaus and gunter reform a broken relationship by discussing their family's sordid history and the expectations placed upon each of them by their parents. they all become good friends. life is well.
in the upper echelon, rial begins to form a plot to overthrow his own father and gain the throne of sheol for himself. in doing this, he can destroy any emerging spirit, absorb their power, and put an end to human existence, eventually. he trains alongside zaroth and leol, his adoptive brothers (raised by abaddon as humans in order to become weapons like rial), who eventually agree to work with him under the assumption that they will be spared from rial's wrath (incorrect). however, a secret between three people is bound to get out, and eventually cathers hears of their plan.
cathers, devoted entirely to abaddon, wishes to shut down this problem on his own in order to gain admiration from abaddon. he turns to the only person he knows has the power (and ability to shut the hell up about a plan) to do so- mara. mara and cathers have a long backstory (same in canon as it is here) which basically all leads to: they hate each other. however, cathers knows that mara knows the inner workings of abaddon's power structure and how to manipulate it. mara brings this to SM- they must defeat rial in order to stop his plan. abaddon sucks too, but rial would be much worse.
mara has an uncountable amount of spirits stored from his time working with abaddon that he covertly hid away underneath SM headquarters. klaus sacrifices himself and ingests them, turning into a simulacra. his sanity and stability is waning, however his support system is able to keep him together. SM proceeds to the abaddon's castle and breaks in. klaus accidentally kills abbadon and cathers while busting through a wall. RIP in peace, lads. klaus and rial have an epic showdown where klaus strips rial of his power, but just before killing him, gunter stops him.
gunter insists that we don't know what happens after a demon dies (this knowledge is known in canon, but only by abaddon. abaddon is now dead), and that it could possibly give rial more power than he could gain in sheol. klaus is subdued by mara and gunter takes passed-out rial and imprisons him. rial, stripped of his power and 99.9% of his soul, has almost no memories and is extremely weak. he clings to gunter, as gunter is his assigned caretaker (winona and klaus both want him dead, mara doesn't want to go against his boyfriend).
thousands of years pass in sheol. idk if years exist in sheol, but y'know... time passes. rial forms new memories, though small, and depends heavily on gunter. SM runs a reformed sheol a council of leaders, caring for spirits in sheol. as time passes, those in heaven realize that souls from sheol (purgatory) are no longer coming to them for divine judgement. a representative descends to sheol to find it thriving with life and equality, and is surprised. those who would have been considered "unsavable" had their spirits come to heaven were living in harmony with their neighbors. eventually, a new method of sending souls to heaven was put in place in agreement with SM- if a spirit lives 100 years in sheol peacefully, they are to be "retired" and sent to heaven, reforming them for reincarnation. if a spirit lives for 1000 years in sheol while causing disrupt, they are to be sent to heaven and put into "eternal sleep".
rial, however, is a big question. his state now has no memory or recollection of his past self, and it has not for thousands of years. he is harmless as is. gunter pleads for him to be reincarnated, hoping that if he were to be given a better chance in life, he would be a good person. everyone else disagrees vehemently. heaven's librarian, arachin, has access to all realities, universes, and possible endings of time. she is consulted, and decides to taken unborn rial's soul from a damaged universe (spilled coffee on the book containing the timeline, oops), putting it inside of this universe's rial. if he can live peacefully now, they decide, he will be accepted back into society.
rial is nursed back to health by gunter, but is still ostracized by the rest of SM (just like the church he grew up in, though he does not remember). gunter protects him from his and insists to rial that he can be good despite his background (just like angela). rial slowly grows enamored with gunter, shunning the rest of the world. gunter concedes and the two start a relationship. life is good. stuff ends here i guess my boys are in love again all is well
not sure about this ending because i might just be back on my hnk kick and need to actually consider the moral implications of having this happen... gotta think about it but i want happy ending
