Anarazel the Daring Darkness is a demon lord and ruler of the Emessu Tunnels, the 79th layer of the Abyss.
Anarazel is the Abyssal patron of adventurers.[1]
Publication history[]
Anarazel first appeared in a list of Abyssal rulers in AD&D's Monster Manual II (1e) (1983), p.35. The name later appeared in the list of demon lords in the D&D 3rd edition sourcebook Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss (2006), p.155-157
Creative origins[]
The name Anarazel appears in Pierce Penniless's Supplication to the Devil (1592), by Elizabethan satirist Thomas Nashe:[2]
- "The vnder-earth spirits are such as lurk in dens & little cauernes of the earth, and hollow crevises of mountaines, that they may dyue into the bowels of the earth at their pleasures; these dig metals and watch treasures, which they continually transport from place to place, that non should haue vse of them: the raise windes that vomit flames, & shake the foundation of buildins; the daunce in rounds in pleasant lawnds, and greene medowes, with noises of musick and minstralsy, and vanish away when any comes nere them: they will take vpon them any similitude but that of a woman, and terrifie men in the likeness of ded mens ghosts in the night time; and of this quality and condition the nigromancers hold Gaziel, Fegor, and Anarazel, southerne spirits, to be."
It is perhaps for this description of Anarazel's habit of lurking underground and hiding treasure that his D&D incarnation is patron of adventurers.
The suffix -el, a Biblical Hebrew word meaning "god", is often used in the names of angels or fallen angels.
References[]
- ↑ Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss (2006), p.155-157.
- ↑ Pierce Penniless's Supplication to the Devil (1592).