Heaven and Hell Guide
The world of Angel Sanctuary can be divided into three parts, Heaven (Shikouten, aka Supreme Heaven), Earth (Assiah) and Hell (Jahannam). Heaven and Hell each has seven levels; where Lucifer and the seven Satans live is Sheol - the pits bottom of Hell. And where Rociel, Alexiel, Adam Kadmon and God use to live is in the holy tower Etenamenki of Atziluth, the highest level of Heaven. The seven levels of heaven and hell are in a delicate balance with Earth at the center, this is more clearly shown in these two images : map 1 and map 2. The names in the second picture are more accurate. This was how the world was, at least before Lucifer's death. The land of Hell itself was Lucifer's body, therefore when Kira Sakuya (the man who had Lucifer's soul) died, Hell died with him. The seven Satans used their combined power to break free from the strings connecting the fourteen levels and literally tipped the world. Heaven the choirs of angel ~ there are nine choirs of angels, each lead by a chief angel and a second. The choirs are in the order of Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels (Regular). The chief of the Seraphims - the highest choir of angels - in this godless world in turn becomes the king of Heaven. The Archangels and Angels are rarely mentioned simply because they hold no significant part in the power structure; on the other hand, the other seven choirs' chieves are all at the top of the angel heirachy. Together they make up the high council led by the prime minister Sevotharte. The Great Seraphim is Metatron, the boy king of Heaven; the Great Cherubim use to be Jibrille, but since she was put into a coma, in her place Dubbiel is the deputy Great Cherubim. The Great Throne is Zaphkiel, though I don't know who replaced him after his death. The Dominions were rarely mentioned, though we know that the people in charge of the inhumane experiments on children, such as Anael and Laila were Dominions. Their chief is Sakakie, refer to the "seven archangels" section for more details. The Great Virtue is Raphael, the one with no virtues (how ironic). The Great Power is Michael, and he's the leading general of the Heaven army (a very violent guy). And the Great Principality is Sariel, the Principalities are in charge of the justice system such as trials, jails and executions. The actual Great Principality as I read in many Christian sites is Anael, but AS seems to have given her a different role. The first three choirs are called the upper choirs, and then there's the middle choirs and lower choirs, I do believe that their rank and power is in decreasing order although the archangels themselves are most likely equal. the four elements ~ there are four angels in Heaven entrusted at birth with the power of the four elements. They are Jibrille of Water, Raphael of Wind, Michael of Fire and Uriel of Earth. Other than Uriel, the other three are all chieves of the choirs. Raphael is the official doctor of Heaven with the power of healing, while Uriel is the angel of death. Michael seems to have the strongest attacks but Jibrille's water is probably best for defense. They are all required elements to maintain the balance of the world, so if one of them dies, the world would be thrown into chaos because their powers die with them. The only way to take away their power is through a trial and if they are sentenced to death, then their power can be removed and put into someone else. Sevotharte, the prime minister of Heaven and guardian to Metatron, tried to use this trick on Jibrille. The four elements are held with great respect for their importance to the world but with no real powers attached, it just happened that three of the four are also Archangels. seven archangels ~ there has been more confusion over this matter than anything else. Even I had went through many stages of guessing and it was only until recently that I became sure of who these seven represent. Originally, I had thought it was Sevotharte, Metatron and Zaphkiel plus the four elements, until I realized that Uriel was not an archangel. Then I began to think that it was the chieves of the first seven choirs, until I realized yet again that Sariel was not an archangel, and we have no idea who the Great Dominion is. Well, the answer presented itself after reading some miniscule font on the side of some sketches. The seven archangels are Sevotharte, Metatron, Jibrille, Zaphkiel, Raphael, Michael and Sakakie. No wonder no one knew the correct answer, because who is this Sakakie character, you ask. Sakakie is the Great Dominion as stated in the "choirs of angel" section, she is a young girl with short black hair. The reason we do not know her is because she never made it past the character sketch stage. In fact she is the only main character who did not appear in the manga. Some sketches of her will be posted in the "groundworks" section on the author page. Therefore, in short, the seven archangels are the chieves of the upper and middle choirs plus Sevotharte. names ~ there are fishy stuff going on with the names, for one, Jibrille is also referred to as Gabriel in the story, however, it seems like Gabriel is the common name that humans use for her and that in Heaven she is known as Jibrille. Also, Yuki Kaori sensei explained that the suffix -iel which is used to end the names of most angels means "the one who bears light", so in her story, Lucifer when he was still in Heaven was named Lucifiel, then changed it when he rebelled and left. In the actual Christian tradition, Lucifer's name was always the same, that part just came from Yuki sensei's imagination. An additional note on the names is the difference of spellings, I believe everyone has gone with their own preferences, but on a general note, some major deviations would be Zaphkiel -> Zafkiel, Raziel -> Rasiel, Katan -> Catan, Kamael -> Camael, Nydd Hogg -> Nidhog, Kurai -> Cry (all according to the character summaries of Lost Angel). Another thing would be that written in Katakana is the title of the great angels such as "Great Throne" or "Great Cherubim", but because Metatron is the king of heaven, his name in Japanese literally read "great seraphim chief" unlike the usual "throne chief" or "cherubim chief". Therefore the English name reads "The Great Seraphim". Adding the word THE does not make a difference in English, but it is just interesting to note. the heirachy ~ despite that the current state of Heaven is corrupt and a mess, the control of power being fought over by many factions, the original heirchy still remains. God is obviously above all and below him is a character that was created only for AS - Adam Kadmon. He's called the Serafuita or the holy hermit, both Alexiel and Rociel were born from his blood. Below him is the morning star, Lucifiel; again, in accuality Lucifer was never below anyone else other than God. Lucifiel was probably most likely the first Great Seraphim, after he rebelled Rociel took over, and after the second war of Heaven and Hell (the first being Lucifer's rebellion, and the third - our story) Rociel was sealed and Metatron took his place. Therefore in the heirchy, directly under Lucifiel are the twins Rociel and Alexiel. Adam Kadmon was said to be the six-winged angel, and the twins bears three wings each. Rociel is known as the Inorganic Angel and Alexiel is the Organic Angel. Their powers are equal and opposite, but Alexiel was stronger than Rociel when they fought because she had the cursed sword Nanatsusaya. the formation of heaven ~ I believe this needs a little clarification. The word used in AS to describe heaven in general is Shikouten, which is Japanese for Supreme Heaven. Shikouten can be divided into three basic sections, Atziluth, Briah and Yetzirah. Remember that heaven is still in seven levels, therefore, Atziluth consists of only the topmost level Araboth, Briah only consists of the second level Zebul, and Yetzirah is a general name for the remaining five levels. I child ~ the I child, I standing for improper, are children will special mutant powers and red pupil eyes. They are the illegal product of love between angels who are supposedly not allowed to have sex. All angels were originally born from god, therefore the I child are hunted down and killed, or else captured and sent through cruel experiments. Raziel is a good example of I child (son of Zaphkiel and Anael), his eyes change color when he uses his power. He has the power to read minds and control people, it's somewhat understandable why the high council wants these people dead. Earth There really is not much that I can write about Assiah because this is the place where we live, that we all know, but I just want to mention that related to Assiah is the world of Hades - where all the dead people (and angels) go. Hades is not Hell, that part needs to be made clear, it's a dimension more closely attached to Assiah. Hades is ruled by a many spirit body called Enra-ou (the Asian myth character who rules over the underworld, very much like Pluto). Its residences are mostly ghouls, the rotten spirit of angels. There is an entrance to hell at the center of Hades, guarded by Uriel, the angel of death. He is the silent judge of the fate of dead souls; in Heaven, they only knew that he has disappeared for many years now and had no idea that he was hiding here. Hell Sheol ~ If you think that Satan = Lucifer, then you are wrong. In biblical terms, Satan means "the one who opposes God". In Hell there are Seven Satans, the Japanese Kanji for their name would mean "the seven rulers", they are the seven generals controlling individual factions of Hell. Lucifer as mentioned above has merged with the land of Hell and became the earth itself, his spirit on the other hand was placed in the cursed sword Nanatsusaya which then turned into Kira Sakuya. Due to his lack of presence, Hell is really in the hands of the seven Satans, they fight amongst each other and together again the angels. They each represents a sin and all used to be a high ranked angel in Heaven (with the exception of Mammon); they were Lucifer's original followers who fell with him when he rebelled. Asmodeus, ex-Cherubim, sin of Lust. Astaroth, ex-Throne, sin of Sloth. Mammon, ex-Angel, sin of Greed (being an ex-angel he was able to become one of the seven Satans - the power of money $.$). Beelzebul, ex-Seraphim, sin of Gluttony. Barbelo, unknown, sin of Wrath. Leviathan, ex-Seraphim, sin of Envy. And Belial (aka the Mad Hatter), ex-Virtue, sin of Pride. Actually, all of their names in a certain culture represents the devil, Yuki sensei simply gave them seven different personalities. Among them, there are a few romantic entanglements too. Barbelo is Lucifer's wife, though I doubt he really loves her. She's angry at Belial who's hopelessly in love with Lucifer. Asmodeus is in turn hopelessly in love with Belial (x.x) and so he hates Lucifer very much and finds little ways of rebellion. Some of the Satans do not really appear, I don't believe i have ever seen Leviathan for example. Barbelo's status is not really unknown, but it does contain major spoilers to volume 18 of the manga. Gehenna ~ although it usually may not seem that way, Kurai's kingdom is part of hell. Gehenna is located on the plains of Anagura, the topmost level of hell; though its people are pure at heart and worships the natural spirit dragon gods rather than Lucifer. They don't seem to get along too well with the great demons; during the second war between Heaven and Hell, Anagura was attacked by angels but the demons sat back and watched. In fact, the attack was in a way caused by the demons. Lucifer ~ when he rebelled against heaven and brought his followers to a new world, they were faced with a wasteland where no life can grow. Lucifer merged his body with the earth and gave life to the land, therefore the land of hell itself is his body and flows with his blood. Soon afterwards, he had secretly returned to heaven and helped Alexiel escape Eden; as his punishment, his soul was taken and sealed in the cursed sword Nanatsusaya Mitamanotsurugi. Without his soul to control his body, his power was unleashed and began to devour hell and all its people. The Mad Hatter was in charge of the wedding sacrifice ceremony where pure virgins are sacrificed to calm the wrath of their lord. When Arakune became the 99th and last sacrifice, hell was supposedly preserved.