Ariel is an Atlantean exiled from Atlantis for leaving a story unfinished, and ambassador of the Deep Ones by appointment of the Cakravartin. He is later identified as the solar Ariel, son of Tel.
History
Young, with long straight blond hair, he shares his name with the air spirit of the Bard’s The Tempest but is no spirit. On a night of special cups in Atlantis each guest had to tell a story; Ariel drank his whole cup and did not finish his, and the assembly voted his exile.
The Cakravartin named him ambassador so that “those who stay here can tell the stories you owed”. He became the group’s voice on the outer planes — “the feathers of the arrow” — and fought on the zodiacal platforms throughout the gesta.
- A knight in ancient armor, he charged mounted against the blue dragon and opened its belly, and fought with an edgeless sword to subdue without killing.
- He argued with Erzebeth over her shotgun blast at the priest: “if you repeat evil acts, you become evil.”
- He refused to raise his sword against Marshal Orlando.
- When Arriano killed Stormy from behind, Ariel turned him into a rabbit and had him devoured by the group’s magic bag. From that loot he kept the red cloak of the six-fingered hand, wearable only by one who already bears the mark.
In Baton Rouge the Atlanteans asked him to command the ship, with Matt, to Alexandria on the Mississippi, seeking a sage who knew how the platform game continues. He left promising to return.
End of Antiterra
- Son of Tel, the last Lady of Pain, and of the angel Ariel; Sacred Guardian of Sigil.
- The possessed Helter carved «No vayan a Venecia» (“Do not go to Venice”) into his back.
- After the matricide of the Hall of Speakers, Tel’s head was tied to his arm.
- He beheaded Barbatos in Avernus, fulfilling the pact with Lucifer (Refuge in exchange for Barbatos), an event separate from the Stone of the Apocalypse.
Relationships
Ariel and Ludovico, the anarchist gnome/dwarf alchemist-baker, are distinct characters, though some accounts alternate the names; one scene shows both active separately.