Angelic Revelations

[Uri-el]

Hello, everyone! Thank you for a lovely time!

I will answer questions as requested.

[Galatea]

What was your inspiration for this character?

[Bee Haw]

What inspired you to make Malik?

What is he going to do now?

[Uri-el]

About 12 years ago I played in a little superhero game in which Birb played Gilgamesh. Like, the actual Gilgamesh walking around Philadelphia. Which was awesome. And in the follow-up to that game I tried to put together an angel as something that had a lot of pre-loaded material and expectations to pick through and trouble. That character ended up being a little different, in that they were a person (at one time) and then engineered to function as the angel of death by some guys working for Hezekiah, or so he thought. It got more complicated.

This version was a lot cleaner in that the origin was a lot murkier. The core questions are to what extent is Malik Malik and to what extent is he Uri-el, and when did that transition take place? It's a pretty common trope with secret identities, but here there's the added layer of mystery that comes from dealing with questions about the afterlife and spirituality. What made Malik interesting is that he had no idea himself, but his social anxiety meant that he was liable to feed the assumptions of others more than to try to assert one option or the other as being true.

As for what he will do now, he's effectively Virgil to Azrael's Dante, so that's going to go on for some time. The goal is to live by example, showing both the UNJE and PANTHEON that even if you feel that you're above the hoi polloi, you're still accountable to yourself first, and that all this nihilism and posturing doesn't hold a candle to positive action.

[Bee Haw]

Interesting!

Have you been imagining alternate universe versions of Malik? If so, what have you thought of?

[Dapper Dog]

Anything you wish we explored or wanted to do?

[Uri-el]

Interesting!

Have you been imagining alternate universe versions of Malik? If so, what have you thought of?

I think there's a couple other interesting binaries that could be explored there. Who would this guy be if he was dead sure that he was a true angel? Who would that guy be if he was right? What if he's wrong? What about the other way around--he's sure he's not an angel and he's wrong? And then there's lots of flavors of angel in literature. Right now Uri-el is functioning kind of like Azrael's guardian angel (although that was more inspired by Sonia in Crime and Punishment). But there's the avenging kind, angels of death, angels as messengers, angels as the thing you struggle with (Isaac), angels as musicians. Lots and lots of options.

Anything you wish we explored or wanted to do?

I wanted to get back at Brass Orchid, but I wasn't sure how to really justify it with the other, seemingly much bigger stuff going on. I think I also ought to have sent him to the campus psychologist at least once, but I was pretty wary of creating an easy resolution to his core problem. I also probably ought to have followed up with Zara after the Azrael confrontation.