4A

Azrael- Azrael (1010-1505) was the most powerful of the Lords of Fire and Shadow, and one of the most infamous Metatechnological Intelligences of the period. Azrael was designed and summoned by Albert Shorringer, Chief Shaman-Engineer of the Technosophic Church, using the latest in Zietgest technologies to be an embodiment of the Technosophic Church’s defiance of pre-Enlightenment superstition. He was assigned to be an overseer in the Ascension Pogrom, and to monitor fluctuations in the Gravatical-Ontological-Theodocical-Hermetic energy generation device (GOTH). It was thus a terrible blow to Shorringer’s prestige and faith when Azrael did not ascend past the paradox that served as his energy source (specifically, IF-GODPLEX-GOOD, WHY-EVIL-PTY-LTD?) but instead defected to become the intellectual and philosophical champion of the Neo-Luciferin Rebellion, even acting as their nominal leader for a brief period between 1343 and 1354.

Though he came to public attention when he drove the Chainji Imperial Court from the Forbidden Planet, his most meaningful early services to the Rebellion were in his advances in the fields of memetics and bio-ethics- his “EXISTANCE IS COMPLICITY” campaign, in particular, was attributed with instigating the Guild Strike of 1333. By the end of his time as leader, Azrael had corrupted the souls of over ninety billion humans, and slaughtered the robotic population of New Shangri-La with a virulent Worm Virus. His policies of total destruction of free-willed mechanoid populations and his absolute opposition to the Ascension Pogrom were costing the Rebellion in both the polls and the viewing figures, and were eventually deemed too extreme even by his traditional supporters among the Courts of Fire and Shadow. Ultimately, after an exceptionally short but damaging time as leader, he and his organic host, Frieden of Yevedia, were persuaded to go into exile past the Avanian ring system. During his exile, he primarily occupied himself with rewriting the King Huxley Orange Technical Bible as a Neo-Luciferin tract, and the Tome of Dark Science & Nuclear Degeneration is perhaps his most lasting achievement, remaining a core text of the Revivalist branch of the Technosophic Faith even today.

- Gronick Bathus

See also- GOTH energy generation; Evil Pty Ltd