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in the beginning...

God created the Heavens and the Earth. The angels were with Him even back then. He delegated various tasks to them back in those days. Gabriel in particular was in charge of messaging. When the big boss Himself didn't deign to send messages to mortals, it was Gabriel that got the job done. "Be not afraid" and all that. Most notably God couldn't even be bothered to tell the woman He impregnated that He had done so, and Gabriel had to be the one to deliver the awkward news. Gabriel was there since the beginning. Gabriel watched everything be created, then watched as Lucifer and other angels revolted against God and got banished, then as yet other angels fell in love with humans and sired or birthed Nephalem. Gabriel watched them be destroyed by the Flood, watched all Ten Plagues play out, etcetera etcetera. All that time, Gabriel stood by God's side and delivered messages precisely as He asked.

post abandonment

When God declared that He was giving up on Earth and His flock it came as a shock to everyone, angels and demons alike. Earth had been God's favorite play place, to the point where He had done what He chastised past angels for doing and sired a child with a human for some grandiose display of love and goodwill. Everyone thought He was fighting hard to reclaim Earth from the demons that ran wild, that the Rapture would happen sooner or later and the demons would be left in an empty play pen. Instead, however, He packed up and left. He didn't even take His loyal angels with Him, and nobody knows where He went. He simply... moved on. He was tired of playing. This left Gabriel jobless and bored. A lot of angels had descended to Earth to play around in the absence of God, and the demons were having a blast playing the games they always had now that they no longer had a hard and fast time limit to stop. With nowhere left to go, Gabriel descended to Earth as well and wandered around. After trying on many identities Gabriel found that she preferred a feminine human form, but she was too attached to her old name to give it up. She shortened it to "Riel" to sound more feminine. She met the humans that flourished in the absence of God, who had picked up the magic He had suppressed for so long and used it to create things for themselves. This was Gabriel's first encounter with Dungeons and their Dungeon Masters.

gabriel's dungeon deep-cleaning service

Since Dungeons were almost entirely manmade (with the exception of Hell, which had been made by the big man Himself before He fucked off), they were small and limited. They could bend space a little bit, but they were still finite. They simply rearranged themselves whenever presented with new challengers. This meant, of course, that Dungeons had to be maintained. This was no easy task. Dungeons are sprawling structures with many rooms and floors, and since rearranging was in their nature it was difficult to tell whether a room had already been cleaned or not. Additionally, God leaving and letting the wells of magic run freely had resulted in organisms evolving to feed on that magic. Most notable are the slimes, which were giant amoeboid creatures that simply gorged themselves on magic energy. In short, even for a magically-powered Dungeon Master the task of cleaning was arduous and dangerous. Riel decided to extend a helping hand to these Dungeon Masters and established her cleaning service. For years she worked all by herself to clean the sprawling megacomplexes with more confidentiality than even the average doctor, but the number of contracts was starting to get out of hand. Since she had amassed a bit of wealth from her services she held a fair amount of power in the community she lived in. She reached out to the prison and asked for a volunteer to help her with her work, stating that she would favor a death-row prison. Her idea was that she could redeem that person, and since they were slated to die it wouldn't matter that Riel resurrected them repeatedly to help her with her work. Naturally, however, death-row prisoners were not considered safe to leave in the hands of someone outside the prison. They didn't know she was an angel, after all. As a result, Riel got Pawn instead. Oh well, he works just fine!

personality

Gabriel is a chipper and upbeat individual. She loves her job, loves all of mankind, loves her demonic and angelic cousins, and loves her chosen form. Sometimes when she gets serious she falls back into her "Be not afraid" type speaking patterns, but usually she speaks casually and fits in perfectly with her modern companions. She can be a bit absentminded at times, but she always executes her work with perfect surgical precision. She's highly attuned to the emotions of those around her and is excellent at providing support and comfort. She liberally uses her healing abilities on Pawn, but otherwise she tries to keep the fact she's a bonafide angel under wraps for as long as possible. She is uncomfortable with overly reverent behavior towards her, but she doesn't mind a little flattery now and then. She cares deeply about her mortal associates and worries heavily about Pawn, but she never openly expresses this unless Pawn is being particularly reckless.

relationships

pawn ❤❤❤❤♡

Riel cares deeply about Pawn. She can see his true nature and knows thatm despite all that has happened to him and all he has done, Pawn is a good person that genuinely wants to atone. She also respects his dedication to his tasks, though she does wish that he would take better care of himself or at the very least be more careful. As Pawn grows stronger she begins to respect him as an equal and worries about him less.

tab ❤❤❤❤♡

Tab and Riel have a close working relationship. In exchange for giving Tab discounts on cleaning fees, Riel has Tab cater the dungeons she works on. She makes extensive use of this service after Pawn joins, but she is known to enjoy food herself as well.

keepsake ❤❤❤❤♡

Keepsake and Riel are close friends. Keepsake respects Riel's power and values her work, and Riel enjoys spending time with Keepsake and appreciates his frequent gifts. Riel pities Keepsake's existence as a magic based entity, as he's basically a lesser angel and is cursed to live forever.

seaquester ❤❤♡♡♡

Riel is not particularly close to SeaQuester and sees it as an average client. She is not averse to speaking with it, however.

beelzebub "bubbly" ❤❤❤❤❤

Riel and Bubbly are cousins on good terms. Riel is one of the only angels that goes out of her way to visit Bubbly, and Bubbly greatly appreciates Riel chipping in to help clean Hell once in a while. Though Riel isn't into the whole debauchery thing like most demons she doesn't judge Bubbly for her lifestyle.

relevant world lore

angels

Angels were once God's closest companions in Heaven, helping Him with his Work and acting as His army. When God abandoned Earth He left the angels behind. As pure magical beings the angels couldn't die and thus had to live with the fact God was gone. He's been gone for quite a long time, though nobody is sure exactly when He left except for the angels and demons. Angels have left Heaven barren in favor of living among mortals. Gabriel was one of the last to leave.

dungeons

Dungeons are extradimensional spaces made by humans using magic. Angels and demons cannot make Dungeons, nor can summoned familiars. It is purely a human construct. These Dungeons can be anywhere from ten to a hundred or more floors, but most are on the smaller side due to the immense amount of magic required to create a dungeon. Once a Dungeon is created, however, it is self-sustaining. Creatures within Dungeons feed on the magical energy similar to how plants feed on sunlight or chemotropes feed on heavy metals, but since magic is extremely concentrated energy they tend to grow much faster, larger, and stronger than other organisms.

magic

Magic is simply another form of energy. When harnessed by a being with consciousness it can be used to create or destroy. Since it depends on the mind and intent of the caster it is more powerful in the hands of creative people and can do essentially anything. It's extremely difficult to harness, however, even now that God has stopped drinking all of it up for His own Work. It takes most humans their entire lives to cast even basic spells, much less produce Dungeons.

links

artfight: has high qual reference image, plus you can attack her!

trivia

• Riel is the archangel Gabriel from the Bible. Join the club, amirite?
• Riel has accidentally eaten a slime before. She claims it tasted like lime jelly.
• Riel does not consider herself to be transgender since angels don't really have a gender to transition from. She doesn't consider herself nonbinary either as the gender binary is a solely human construct.
• Riel is aromantic and completely disinterested in the idea of a romantic relationship.
• Although Riel is an angel, she is not a moral purist. She is happy to be friends with murderers and doesn't lecture people on their sins. That wasn't her job, after all.
• Riel's true form is based on Matthew 28:3.
• Riel and Bubbly's mechanics in-game are inspired by Clauneck from Cult of the Lamb.
• I based Riel's human form off of a specific painting, which I can no longer find on Ecosia because of all the AI art. Just know that I picked red hair over blonde on purpose.
• Riel makes most of Pawn's uniforms herself.
• Riel doesn't have much of an online presence, but she is on a fanfic website and she has an ancient social media account that she used to attempt to tell humans that God had abandoned them like the messenger she is. Unfortunately most people just treated her like she was crazy and she stopped using the account.
• Riel knows various science facts thanks to SeaQuester.

gallery images

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