Uriel - The Archangel of Protection
Added 2018-09-19 01:36:20 +0000 UTCWelcome, everyone, to the artwork for Uriel, the baddest-ass warrior lady in the whole series!
Uriel is a fascinating character. I didn't intend for her to be female at first, nor did I intend for her to become a violent psychopath who hated demons. In fact, my original design for Uriel was a calm, quiet guy who became trapped inside the mind of a demon and tamed his tormentor's heart.
I changed that idea at some point, since I realized conflict = better story. Before my rework, Barbatos was a violent psychopath who consumed a quiet, protective Archangel and began to suffer. After said rework, it became more that Barbatos committed a grave mistake when he devoured Uriel. He realized this later on, and changed his ways, becoming a peaceful demon in an attempt to settle Uriel's raging hatred and explosive temper.
I really, really love the current iteration of Uriel. She's sexy, badass, and a very deep, multi-layered character who still, after 100,000 years trapped inside a demon's body, has room to grow.
Uriel's magical abilities are quite diverse, and much more potent than some of her fellow Archangel brethren. In addition to manipulation of Holy Magic, she also controls the four elements of Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. That's right, she's basically the Avatar. Slick, right?
Uriel wields two legendary spears - Gungnir and the Gae Bolg. They aren't magical enchanted superweapons on par with, say, Excalibur, but they're extremely light and durable.
Additionally, Uriel specializes in summoning solid walls of light, which can absorb a ton of damage, so long as she has the mana to sustain them. A particularly strong opponent can break through them, but it takes a Herculean effort on their part. Uriel can create up to two Walls of Light at once, sustaining one with each hand. Unfortunately, this leaves her defenseless if someone bypasses them.
That's where her final set of abilities come in! On top of two magical spears, Holy Magic manipulation, and the four primary elements of nature, Uriel also has the power to summon four Light Constructs, which are angelic guardians that can protect her and augment her fighting capabilities.
Unit One: A 'male' pseudo-angel that wields a sword and shield of light. He primarily focuses on blocking attacks that would harm her while Uriel is otherwise occupied.
Unit Two: A 'female' poseudo-angel that can summon up to two additional walls of light, in addition to Uriel. Unit Two can also fire bolts of Holy Magic by opening a portal inside of its head, and possesses a magical bow that fires arrows at close to the speed of sound.
Unit Three: A simple cube of light that floats in the air. It only has one ability - gravity manipulation. By spinning rapidly, it can increase or decrease the gravity in a localized area, crushing weaklings flat or slowing down stronger opponents.
Unit Four: An orb of light with several oscillating discs surrounding it. The orb can fire bombardments of fire, water, stone, or air. It's essentially an artillery cannon designed for long range combat.
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Uriel is probably the strongest of all Archangels during any average combat encounter, but she has a few glaring weaknesses, not least of which is her incredible ego and brashness. Uriel is extremely overconfident, to the point that she rarely pays attention to those around her, and doesn't notice when the face of her loving brother, Michael, is used against her.
I have a feeling that Uriel is going to be a fan-favorite later in Cryopod, if her arc from Refresh 67-76 didn't do that already. There WILL be more artwork of her coming, later!
Below are various stages of the WIP art I posted in the Discord. If you want to see more, be sure and join it by clicking the link here!
I asked MWTX to follow a set of specifications for Uriel, and he came close, but made her armor a bit too sexy for her character. I'll still post it for posterity's sake because hey, who doesn't like sexy girls? He also made her hair blonde instead of white, but that was easily fixed in the final version!
Thanks for reading!
