Characters in Warrior Nun Areala
Encyclopedia
The characters within the Warrior Nun Areala
Warrior Nun Areala
Warrior Nun Areala is a manga-style American comic book character created by Ben Dunn and published by Antarctic Press. First appearing in Ninja High School #38 , she has since appeared in her own comic books beginning with Warrior Nun Areala Vol. 1 #1 in December 1994...

comic series are well developed. Through the serial nature of publication of these fictitious adventures several heroes have been developed. The chief among them is the Warrior Nun Areala, Sister Shannon Masters. Behind her are her fellow Christian soldiers, who like her have devoted their lives to the service of God and His Church. They are her friends and through trial and tribulation have become the family she otherwise would not have.

That is seen in Sister Shannon's foster sister joining the Warrior Nuns and her looking at her fellow Sisters as just that, sisters. Initially uncertain of herself she has developed as a character and has grown ever stronger due to her unbreakable faith and love for God and His Son Jesus Christ. She has formed strong bonds of affection with her surrogate sisters, Sasuki, Mary, and Sarah; her surrogate son, Jason; her parent figures, Father Gomez and Mother Superion; her love interest, Father Crowe. Alongside them, she has fought a wide variety of foes such as Demon Foster, Julius Salvius, and Helga.

God


God, in this fictitious series, is the Supreme Being, the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, the All-Perfect and All-Loving Father and Ruler of all Creation. Despite appearing only very rarely, He is the linchpin of the entire Warrior Nun Areala universe with His earthly representatives and servants protecting His children from the depredations of evil.

God—also called the Lord, the Almighty or Yahweh
Yahweh
Yahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...

/Jehovah
Jehovah
Jehovah is an anglicized representation of Hebrew , a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton , the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible....

--created space-time along with all reality an indefinite time ago and created out of love for those who would be His children. Ruling from Heaven on high and "working in mysterious ways," He guides Creation to the ultimate good of His "children." Indeed, His Christian worshippers refer to Him as Father. However, not all wish to accept His love and even reject Him and His goodness altogether. In the beginning, one of His creations, Lucifer
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...

 rejected God's wisdom and, thinking that he could be a superior leader than his omniscient Creator, sought to take the throne of Heaven. Lucifer's War of Heaven
War of Heaven
War in Heaven is a concept in Christian eschatology. The term occurs only once in the New Testament at . Though the term does not occur in the Hebrew Bible, parallels have been drawn from various passages regarding Fallen angels in the Book of Genesis, and the Book of Isaiah. Some also suggest...

 and rebellion against God and His goodness led to the creation of evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...

. To deliver His children whom He so loved from evil, He, as God the Father
God the Father
God the Father is a gendered title given to God in many monotheistic religions, particularly patriarchal, Abrahamic ones. In Judaism, God is called Father because he is the creator, life-giver, law-giver, and protector...

 or Yahweh
Yahweh
Yahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...

, sent Himself in the form God the Son or Jesus
Christian views of Jesus
Christian views of Jesus are based on the teachings and beliefs outlined in the Canonical gospels, New Testament letters, and the Christian creeds. These outline the key beliefs held by Christian about Jesus, including his divinity, humanity, and earthly life. Generally speaking, adhering to the...

, and even sacrificed His own life so that whoever believes in Him should not die but have eternal life. Afterwards, God made His will known through the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church that His Son
Son of God
"Son of God" is a phrase which according to most Christian denominations, Trinitarian in belief, refers to the relationship between Jesus and God, specifically as "God the Son"...

 established on Saint Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...

.

Over the millennia, God the Son's (that is to say Jesus) [Catholic] Church has proven an overall boon to civilization. Funding, engaging in, and promoting art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

, school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...

s, science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

, literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

, humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity...

, charity
Charity (practice)
The practice of charity means the voluntary giving of help to those in need who are not related to the giver.- Etymology :The word "charity" entered the English language through the Old French word "charité" which was derived from the Latin "caritas".Originally in Latin the word caritas meant...

, hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

s, serving as a mediator
Mediation
Mediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution , a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties. A third party, the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate their own settlement...

 between warring parties, keeping western civilization
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...

 alive after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church has done its best to serve God/Jesus, and quite admirably at that. However, being only human and thus more out of innate weakness rather than intentional malignancy, these churchmen more often than not fall miserably short of the ideals they strive to uphold. Out of their love for God, they nevertheless still try and do as well as mere mortals can.

However, that is not to say that, despite the Catholic Church being the "official" church, non-Catholic or even non-Christian churches are scorned. Warrior Nun Areala portrays God as acknowledging all as His children. Despite the fact the Jews mostly reject Christ as the Messiah, Jewish super-heroes are seen evidencing that the old covenant
Covenant (biblical)
A biblical covenant is an agreement found in the Bible between God and His people in which God makes specific promises and demands. It is the customary word used to translate the Hebrew word berith. It it is used in the Tanakh 286 times . All Abrahamic religions consider the Biblical covenant...

 is still in force. There was once seen an Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 medicine man
Medicine man
"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...

 calling on the Great Spirit
Great Spirit
The Great Spirit, also called Wakan Tanka among the Sioux, the Creator or the Great Maker in English, and Gitchi Manitou in Algonquian, is a conception of a supreme being prevalent among some Native American and First Nations cultures...

 to battle monsters in a story set in the 1870s. (Being that not only His Earthly worshippers—Christian, Muslim, Jew—who number in the billions know of Him, but that He also has His worshippers from other planets in the universe and worshippers from all the parallel universes in the multiverse know of him, His children are infinite in number.)

To protect all His children, was why God ultimately—though indirectly—created the Catholic Corps. The Corps is a branch of His Church and exists to combat evil in whatever form it may take, though it is usually supernatural evil directed by Satan in an attempt to destroy the Church. While there had been earlier Judeo-Christian heroes fighting men and monsters in the name of God the Corps as an institution ultimately began in 1066. That was when a Valkyrie named Auria saw her fellow pagan deities for who they were, renounced them, and chose to serve the Lord. He accepted her conversion and gave her the name, Areala. Interestingly, this shows two things.

Despite His importance and the fact that He is constantly mentioned and the series main character lovingly refers to Him as Father, He almost never makes an appearance. In that He, in His infinity, is beyond all possible human comprehension, anyone who so much as sees Him will surely die. As such, He in the handful of appearances mostly appears as a disembodied voice, though even that is still overwhelming now as in ancient times. He does not "micromanage" Creation and to allow humanity full use of the freewill He gave it does not do for humanity what it can do for itself—albeit with help from Him. Thus He rarely intervenes directly and instead mostly delegates authority, giving a person a mission and the power necessary to complete that mission. At one point Ben Dunn said that just as the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 will delegate authority, so does God.

A second thing this shows is that the lesser “gods” have mixed reactions towards Him. He tells His people point blank “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me” and repeatedly admonishes them not to worship other gods—be they dead idols, demons in disguise, or supernatural beings. He is the God of gods. His prophets ask “Who among the gods is like you, O LORD ? /Who is like you—/ majestic in holiness, /awesome in glory,/working wonders?” The fact is that God is absolute and the lesser “gods” just cannot compare. Some deities such as Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....

 and Tyr, though they did not like it, resigned themselves to their fates and accepted that even after they were dead and forgotten by the mortal world, that there would still be a God greater than themselves “One so great that He cannot be named.” Others, such as Valkyrie Helga, violently resist Him even to the point of siding with Satan and the forces of evil.

Sister Shannon Masters

Of all the Warrior Nuns, the most famous of them is their founder, the original Sister Areala who renamed herself after the angel Areala who chose her as her avatar
Incarnation
Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....

. Since then, every few decades, a new Sister Areala comes along when a sister of the order has a vision of the original Sister Areala or the angel Areala during a near-death experience. Afterwards, the angelic Areala will periodically meet with her avatar, giving her needed advice or information. The current Warrior Nun Areala, is Sister Shannon Masters.

An American, she was born in 1959 and was orphaned at the age of four where on she was left at the steps of a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...

, the Our Lady of the Virgin Mary. After showing exceptional academic and athletic abilities, she was chosen for the Silver Cross Program and was raised to be a Warrior Nun at upper New York State's Saint Thomas Academy. Growing up at the Saint Thomas
Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...

 Academy, she wrestled with feelings of self worth over how she had been orphaned. However, she over came those doubts and found a purpose for her life in her service to the Church as did her adopted sister, Sasuki Yoma of Japan. While Sister Shannon's birth parents are unknown, she was adopted early on into the Yoma family; thus her experience at the academy was more of a boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

. It was while she trained there under a young Mother Superion that she first met and befriended the future Sister Sarah, her best friend; Father David Crowe, her future love interest; and Shotgun Mary. After being trained at the academy by Mother Superion, she received final training from her at Vatican City
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...

.

Though a rookie
Rookie
Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of their sport or has little or no professional experience. The term also has the more general meaning of anyone new to a profession, training or activity Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of...

, Sister Shannon training was completed and she was sent home to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 where she patrolled two sectors from her assigned Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 on the grounds that she was assigned to an area where there had not been demonic activity since the Purge of 1985. Replacing Sisters Sanguine and Hannah, she soon saw a sustained surge in New York City's demonic activity after her arrival. (A stock situation in comic books wherein the supervillain
Supervillain
A supervillain or supervillainess is a variant of the villain character type, commonly found in comic books, action movies and science fiction in various media.They are sometimes used as foils to superheroes and other fictional heroes...

s can appear only after a hero shows up.) She soon received her calling from the first Sister Areala after she was nearly killed in a battle with minions of Satanist and arms dealer Julius Salvius. On recognizing her as the Chosen One of that generation, the original Sister Areala gave Sister Shannon her name and awakened her latent power. It was made official when the Areala confirmed her as her avatar after a battle against the avatar of mad valkyrie Helga.

Now, Sister Shannon Masters patrols the region and in addition to being the Warrior Nun Areala, she is acknowledged as one of the best and bravest of the order. The other sisters look up to her and she tries to be an effective role model. However, while she is very devoted she initially lacked much combat experience and shows it with the cybernetic arm that replaces her original left arm she lost while combatting Salvius' attempts to free Lucifer
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...

. When out of combat, Sister Shannon trains, instructs future Warrior Nuns, and (before he left) looked after her ward
Ward (law)
In law, a ward is someone placed under the protection of a legal guardian. A court may take responsibility for the legal protection of an individual, usually either a child or incapacitated person, in which case the ward is known as a ward of the court, or a ward of the state, in the United States,...

/"son" Jason, or pray.

Father Terrance Gomez

Father Terrance Gomez is the middle aged Pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....

 of Saint Thomas Church (later said to be St. Ilumine) in Manhattan where Sister Shannon is stationed Her mentor, friend, and confidante, he trains her and presumably others in the Danger Room
Danger Room
The Danger Room is a fictional training facility built for the X-Men of Marvel Comics as part of the various incarnations of the X-Mansion.-Early designs:...

 like training facility beneath the church. To that end, he will also use his training skills in assessing children for the Silver Cross. Though rarely an active combatant, he is in touch with the Catholic Corps' Defense Units due to his experience in the Corps itself before he had to drop out. He is also quite able to take care of himself when monsters attack or try to infiltrate his parish
Parish (Catholic Church)
In the Roman Catholic Church, a parish is the lowest ecclesiastical geographical subdivision: from ecclesiastical province to diocese to deanery to parish.-Requirements:A parish needs two things under common law to become a parish...

; the church is equipped with a small armory and demon detection devices. (However, the devices can only detect demons; non-demonic supernatural creatures are not detected.) Skilled with gadgets, he often repairs Sister Shannon cybernetic arm or upgrades it.

He is also a lifetime comic book collector of mostly Antarctic Press
Antarctic Press
Antarctic Press is a San Antonio-based comic book publishing company which publishes "American Manga" style comic books.Founded by Ben Dunn in 1984, Antarctic Press has produced over 850 titles with a total circulation of over 5 million...

 Comics. He goes to comic book conventions even at his age; he allegedly gets autographs for parishioners. In his youth he was a Catholic US Army Chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...

 in the 863rd Corps in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 and befriended the Antarctic Press superhero Tomorrow Man--and collected Tomorrow Man's comic books. He was also instrumental in rebuilding the Vietnam veteran's broken self confidence and giving him back his powers after losing them in the war.

Interestingly, he is one of the few characters in the series who, despite his occasional superheroics, "does his job" as a priest and holds mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...

. He has been seen holding mass and distributing the Eucharist
Eucharist (Catholic Church)
"At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood."...

 to the faithful. As a secular or diocesan
Secular clergy
The term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or members of a religious order.-Catholic Church:In the Catholic Church, the secular clergy are ministers, such as deacons and priests, who do not belong to a religious order...

 priest, he works in a church and from comments about "the parishioners" it can be seen that he works in religious instruction, Catholic ritual, and charity for the betterment of his Manhattan neighborhood. He has served there since perhaps 1985.

He has since died.

Father David Crowe

Father David Crowe is a member of the Order of Magic Priests, the church's elite band of demon hunting spell casters. Initially trained at New York's St. Thomas Academy, as was Sister Shannon the two of them have had feelings for one another since childhood. However, due to the vows they both swore as part of their duty they have never consummated their relationship. Even so, Sister Shannon is quite open in admitting her feelings—she calls him David—and even though Father Crowe tries to downplay his love, he is quite protective of her. Also, while he will not disobey orders from the Vatican, he has been known to "reinterpret" them from time to time in order to render assistance to Shannon. He will often work with Sister Shannon and often wears his trademark sunglasses.

He was raised by devout Catholic parents until they were murdered. Though the storyline was cancelled before it could be completed, the script for the unreleased third issue, (available at barrylyga.com) states that they were killed by Magic Priest Father Doloroso for having uncovered his criminal acts. Doloroso, consumed by guilt and unwilling to confront himself, used his powers to erase his memories of the event as well as those of young Crowe. Doloroso, now unaware that he killed Crowe's parents, took pity on the boy and raised him out of the goodness of his heart. Though Doloroso's memories have returned and he has gone mad both from guilt and from having repeatedly erased his bad memories. Crowe has forgiven his mentor and occasionally visits him in his padded madhouse cell. After being raised by Doloroso, young Crowe was trained by the legendary Father Goth at the Saint Thomas Academy and later at the Saint Dymphna academy in Rome. As a man Father David Crowe is one of the more powerful and influential Magic Priests. He showed promise even as a boy at head of his class when he flew on his first try and took young Shannon flying over the academy. Now, as a man, he can fly from Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 to New York City, though that tires him. He has stood up to foes such as the Hammer, a Jewish mystic of the Kabbalah
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...

 with decades more experience, and hordes of demons. He often works with the hulking Father Stone or more rarely Father Fang.

In other, less martial areas, he will write articles for and appear in the fictional magazines, Jesuit Monthly and Modern Catholic. Unlike Father Gomez, Father Crowe is a religious priest
Roman Catholic religious order
Catholic religious orders are, historically, a category of Catholic religious institutes.Subcategories are canons regular ; monastics ; mendicants Catholic religious orders are, historically, a category of Catholic religious institutes.Subcategories are canons regular (canons and canonesses regular...

 or a priest who is part of a specific religious order, the fictional order of Magic Priests, and is thus not tied down to any one parish but goes where needed. When Jason was shown to be a potential Magic Priest, Father David took the boy under his wing. Yet while he is one of the best Magic Priests, or perhaps because of it, he is a reactionary in who can be ordained and taught to use their powers. Though men and women trained by the Silver Cross to serve in the Catholic Corps are equally gifted with miraculous powers, only men receive full training. Despite seeing young miracle working Catholic girls, he has taken a conservative stance, saying that they should not be trained in priestly powers. He is consistently portrayed as very stern and quiet.

In his first appearance in Ninja High School, Father Crowe was simply called Magic Priest. There he saved a young witchling named Mimi Masters and her mother, Shanna, from an abusive stepfather, a mechanic named Stanley who was in fact a demon. Shanna referred to Crowe as her daughter’s biological father. It is not certain is this is cannon relative to Areala. Later, in a series not written by Ben Dunn he was called Father Sebastian Crowe. Sebastian may be a middle name.

Jason

Jason was Sister Shannon Master's foster son. He was brought to Saint Thomas Church by Shotgun Mary who found being prepared for use as a human sacrifice
Human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...

 by devil worshippers. An amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...

c, Jason has no memory of his life before this. He was taken to St. Thomas Church where Father Terrance Gomez took the boy in. Afterwards, with the two of them living in the Church rectory
Rectory
A rectory is the residence, or former residence, of a rector, most often a Christian cleric, but in some cases an academic rector or other person with that title...

, Sister Shannon raised the boy as her own. There, he would help in the rectory as Father Gomez' assistant often reading the man's comics books. He would occasionally serve as his surrogate mother's child sidekick
Sidekick
A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...

. He enjoys action figures and roleplays Sister Shannon's adventures with them. He has a friend in Roberts, a trenchcoat wearing man who occasionally passes by St. Thomas Church.

However, Sister Shannon admitted to herself that it was not a very normal childhood she was giving Jason, not with his being raised by a sword swinging Warrior Nun. Aside from that, she would teach him right from wrong, buy him ice cream, blushingly teach him about the "birds and the bees," or take him to comic book conventions. It was at one comic book convention that he was revealed to be touched by God with superhuman powers. With that, a very enthusiastic Jason was taken in by Father David Crowe to be trained as a Magic Priest. He trained with the other Silver Cross children under Sister Madeline and has since grown strong. Yet when Sister Shannon saw the boy she had taken and raised leave her, she could not help but cry.

As for Jason himself, he is shown as being happy in Silver Cross under the tutelage of Sister Madeline.

Shotgun Mary

Mary Delacroix or "Shotgun Mary" is the series anti-heroine answer to the wholesome Sister Shannon. An "orphan of Christ" like her fellows, Mary Delacroix was initially raised by the nun Sister Justine or "Ju-Ju" as she called her as a child. She was a mother to the child and did her best to inculcate her charge with love for God and reverence for life. Perhaps a Warrior Nun herself, Sister Justine was a skilled gunwoman, particularly with a shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...

, a skill that she has passed on to her surrogate daughter. Soon enough she left her surrogate mother and went to train at the same orphanage/academy as were Sisters Sarah and Shannon Masters and Father David Crowe. She is said to have enjoyed playing softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

 on convent grounds.

Rebellious even as a girl who smuggled cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...

s onto orphanage grounds, Shotgun Mary was a Warrior Nun before she left the order. She left firstly to protest the preferential treatment of the Magic Priests who, aside from being better funded, received full training in the supernatural powers that both they and the Warrior Nuns have. She feels that if her fellow Warrior Nuns sisters had been fully and properly trained in their powers, that her many of them would still be alive. Secondly, she left due to her being a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 attracted to a fellow Warrior Nun. At the moment, Shotgun Mary is a vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....

 who fights human criminals as freely as she does monsters, though she has been known to work within the law. Gruff and hard-edged, she wears sunglasses
Sunglasses
Sunglasses or sun glasses are a form of protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damaging or discomforting the eyes. They can sometimes also function as a visual aid, as variously termed spectacles or glasses exist, featuring lenses that...

 and leather jacket
Leather jacket
A leather jacket is a type of clothing—a jacket-length coat—usually worn on top of other apparel, and made from the tanned hide of various animals. The leather material is typically dyed black, or various shades of brown, but a wide range of colors is possible...

s, swears
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...

, smokes
Tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...

, rides a motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...

, and has—according to some artists--tattoos among them the words "Ju-Ju" in honor of her surrogate mother. She specialized in Satanic cults.

She inherits her surrogate mother's taste for shotguns, hence her name. Using firearm
Firearm
A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...

s to get her point across, she mostly uses Pump-action
Pump-action
A pump-action rifle or shotgun is one in which the handgrip can be pumped back and forth in order to eject a spent round of ammunition and to chamber a fresh one. It is much faster than a bolt-action and somewhat faster than a lever-action, as it does not require the trigger hand to be removed from...

 weapons. When fighting monsters, it is known if she may only use silver bullet
Silver bullet
In folklore, the silver bullet is supposed to be the only kind of bullet for firearms that is effective against a werewolf, witch, or other monsters...

s and the like but common ammunition seems to be enough. At other times she will use blessed ammunition such as a mix of Holy Ash
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter...

 and Incense so as to avoid the risk of killing civilians. She is also a skilled hand-to-hand combatant due to her training as a Warrior Nun, though having left, she has forfeited the supernatural powers they possess. She currently serves with the Redeemers, a group of vigilante demon hunters who operate outside of the auspices of the Vatican or any other organization and made up of herself Tomorrow Man, Lillith the Demon Princess and others.

She still holds to her faith in God and in God's goodness—she claims that her first word as a baby was "Jesus" though she may have been joking. Disillusioned however, that faith is frail and it shows in her pessimistic attitude. Judging from her name, which means "of the cross," she may be French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

. Sister Shannon does not remember her from their childhood days at the academy but despite their differences she gets along well enough with her cafeteria catholic rival.

Lillith the Demon Princess

Lillith the Demon Princess represents the kinder, gentler side of Hell. From her we learn that there are many competing demon factions and not all obey the Devil. Confirming that Satan cannot stand against Satan lest his kingdom fall, there have been various fratricidal civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....

s in which even "the accursed devils" fight Satan out of their own self interest. In fact, when Julius Salvius planned to free the Devil from his dungeon in the lowest pits of Hell, Lillith's leader Orcus
Orcus (mythology)
Orcus was a god of the underworld, punisher of broken oaths in Italic and Roman mythology. As with Hades, the name of the god was also used for the underworld itself. In the later tradition, he was conflated with Dis Pater, who was the Roman equivalent of Pluto.Orcus was portrayed in paintings in...

 sent her to Earth—or the Prime Material Plane as demons call it—to keep this from happening. The logic was that if the Satan were to be freed, then he would rally the damned
Damnation
Damnation is the concept of everlasting divine punishment and/or disgrace, especially the punishment for sin as threatened by God . A damned being "in damnation" is said to be either in Hell, or living in a state wherein they are divorced from Heaven and/or in a state of disgrace from God's favor...

 by charisma or force and lead them all in a fight against God, a fight that Orcus knows cannot be won. After that battle, she was temporarily powerless and trapped on Earth without her wings before returning to the underworld.

Unlike her fellow demons, Lillith has a remarkably human body, though she was born a demon. Also unlike her fellow demons, she carries no special grudge against the God who cast them out of Heaven or against His Church on Earth. This is because she was never physically created by the Hand of God as an angel as were the first demons/fallen angel
Fallen angel
Fallen angel is a concept developed in Jewish mythology from interpretation of the Book of Enoch. The actual term fallen angel is not found in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. Christians adopted the concept of fallen angels mainly based on their interpretations of the Book of...

s. She was born after the Fall and this has no memory of the War against Heaven and in fact is a creation of Hell's submission to Heaven. Fought before the creation of Man, The War lasted for eons—long enough to establish bloodlines and a civilization at least—and among the combatants were the angel Azara and the demoness Hexa, or witch in German. They fought and Azara proved victorious but chose to spare Hexa and gave her his hand. Touched by this mercy, she responded with love and they conceived a child together. This ended when Orcus' son, Utak, angered by Hexa's seeming defection back to Heaven, killed Azara. Unsure of what else to do, she, after avenging her lover's death, returned to Hell where she raised her daughter as a member of the infernal aristocracy.

Daughter of her mother and father, Lillith proved a warrior and earned an officer's commission
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...

 in Orcus's army by gladiatorial combat. As for Orcus, however, he sought to expand his own domains and hopes to overthrow Satan and make himself king of hell. To that end, he bonded Hexa and her daughter Lillith to his service, reducing them from independent rulers in their own rights, to imprisoning the mother and making the daughter his pawn. The mother sacrificed herself, offered to be punished in her daughter's place in a Christ like death of atonement when her daughter was accused of murder. (Lillith's mother is not dead, however, but is instead imprisoned in the "Netherworld
Underworld
The Underworld is a region which is thought to be under the surface of the earth in some religions and in mythologies. It could be a place where the souls of the recently departed go, and in some traditions it is identified with Hell or the realm of death...

," seemingly one of Hell's gulags. In the two thousand years since that day, Lillith has looked for a way to free her mother and avenge herself against Orcus whom she long suspected of wrong doing against her. She is seemingly unaware of her angelic heritage.) In the end, Orcus ultimately betrayed Lillith and left her penniless and in order to claim her lands as his own to increase his own holdings to further his bid for power.

Aside from opposing Satan, and later Orcus when his treachery was discovered, Lillith seems to care for innocent life though the damned are another matter. She will also occasionally work with Sister Shannon against common enemies, regardless of Sister Shannon's paranoia. To that end, she not only dreams of receiving full amnesty from Heaven but considered working as its double agent even going so far as to try to apply at a church. (She was nearly killed by the explosion caused when she touched the church however.) Regardless, she seems to on familiar terms with various demons, mentioning Moloch
Moloch
Moloch — also rendered as Molech, Molekh, Molok, Molek, Molock, or Moloc — is the name of an ancient Semitic god...

 and Pazuzu
Pazuzu
In Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, Pazuzu was the king of the demons of the wind, and son of the god Hanbi. He also represented the southwestern wind, the bearer of storms and drought.- Iconography :...

 and looks on the infernal regions as her home. After some time of indecision after she turned down an offer from Gabriel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...

 to return to Heaven and some wanderings on Earth, she ultimately returned to her infernal home. On declaring her independence from Orcus and becoming a ruler in her own right, she has set up her own kingdom. Her personal minions remain loyal to her and she has taken no steps whatsoever against heaven pursueing instead a policy of coexistence. She has repeatedly sided with Areala and the Catholic Church since then as she has deemed nessesccary.

It is unknown whether she has met her namesake, the original Lilith
Lilith
Lilith is a character in Jewish mythology, found earliest in the Babylonian Talmud, who is generally thought to be related to a class of female demons Līlīṯu in Mesopotamian texts. However, Lowell K. Handy notes, "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadian and Babylonian view...

 who is said to exist, and some identified as her mother. However, it is known that she hates the lesser forms of divination
Divination
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...

. From to time to time, her abused henchman
Henchman
Henchman referred originally to one who attended on a horse for his employer, that is, a horse groom. Hence, like constable and marshal, also originally stable staff, henchman became the title of a subordinate official in a royal court or noble household...

 have humiliated her by teleporting through things such as a fortune tellers' crystal ball
Crystal ball
A crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball believed by some people to aid in the performance of clairvoyance. It is sometimes known as a shew stone...

s and Parker Brothers
Parker Brothers
Parker Brothers is a toy and game manufacturer and brand. Since 1883, the company has published more than 1,800 games; among their best known products are Monopoly, Cluedo , Sorry, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, and Probe...

 Ouji boards when she requests transport to the "Prime Material Plane" or Earth. She wears a cape which she can turn into bat wings for the sake of flight, can heal injuries quickly, and can turn her fingernails into long talons. She also has a whip
Whip
A whip is a tool traditionally used by humans to exert control over animals or other people, through pain compliance or fear of pain, although in some activities whips can be used without use of pain, such as an additional pressure aid in dressage...

 and henchmen at her disposal but will lose much of her strength if she loses her wings.

If her earliest appearances in Ninja High School are considered canonical, she also has a stepbrother or a half brother named Stanley. Stanley has a history with witch Mimi Masters—Sister Shannon’s possible Sister—and Magic Priest Crowe who may or may not be David Crowe. Lillith is somewhat similar to the Udon portrayal to Morrigan Aensland
Morrigan Aensland
is a video game character from the Darkstalkers series of fighting games developed by Capcom. She is voiced by Yayoi Jinguji in many of her video game appearances, except in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds where she was voiced by Rie Tanaka....

, succubus
Succubus
In folklore traced back to medieval legend, a succubus is a female demon appearing in dreams who takes the form of a human woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual intercourse. The male counterpart is the incubus...

 of Darkstalkers
Darkstalkers (series)
Darkstalkers, known in Japan and Asia as , is a series of 2D fighting games produced by Capcom during the mid-1990s for the CPS II arcade hardware...

fame.

Areala(s)

The Warrior Nuns Areala go back to the year 1066 when an Auria, a Valkyrie, renounced Odin and proclaimed her loyalty to God. God accepted her conversion, giving her a new name Areala and the mission to battle evil and to defend the innocent. Since then, the line has continued to the modern day

Areala, Angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...

 of War
Heavenly host
Heavenly host refers to an army of good angels mentioned in the Bible. It is led either by the Archangel Michael, Jesus, or by God himself. Most descriptions of angels in the Bible describe them in military terms, such as encampment , command structure , and combat...

The ultimate founder of the Warrior Nuns. Mostly, she works with her avatars and fights evil through them, chiefly her original avatar and friend, Saint Areala who confirms or rejects her patron's current choice of vessel. She does so by guiding, empowering, and advising them. She highly approves of her current vessel, Sister Shannon. Though not specifically stated, it can be assumed that when not working through her avatar, Areala relaxes in Heaven with her parents and perhaps the original Sister Areala and the Warrior Nuns.
Fictional character biography

She was born in what is now Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

 during its Christianization
Christianization of Scandinavia
The Christianization of Scandinavia took place between the 8th and the 12th century. The realms of Scandinavia proper, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, established their own Archdioceses, responsible directly to the Pope, in 1104, 1154 and 1164, respectively...

 in the mid-11th century. Her father, Jalmir, was part of the Lost Hand of Tyr, a band of monster slayers dedicated to fighting the werewolf
Werewolf
A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...

 worshippers of Fenris. It was during one such battle that Jalmir met his future wife Dahlia. Though he was a Norse pagan and she was a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

, they married and had a daughter, Auria, whom Jalmir taught swordcraft and whom Dahlia taught Christianity. Growing up between two faiths, she asked her father what would happen to the gods after Ragnarök; quoting one of the last lines of the Völuspá
Völuspá
Völuspá is the first and best known poem of the Poetic Edda. It tells the story of the creation of the world and its coming end related by a völva addressing Odin...

, he replied that "some say a new God will come. One so great that He cannot be named." Auria asked then asked him if this was the God her mother worshipped but he replied that he did not know. (Dahlia was confident of it.)

Later, the grown Auria fought alongside her father against one of Fenris's werewolves wherein she was injured. Impressed by her fighting prowess, Valkyries took her to Asgard
Asgard
In Norse religion, Asgard is one of the Nine Worlds and is the country or capital city of the Norse Gods surrounded by an incomplete wall attributed to a Hrimthurs riding the stallion Svadilfari, according to Gylfaginning. Valhalla is located within Asgard...

 to serve in their ranks. Auria accepted and trained there though, as per her mother's teachings, she evangelized by example Christ's teachings of compassion to the pagan gods. Convinced that nothing should distract him from preparing for Ragnarök, not even Tyr, her lover and her father's chief god, would listen. She rose through the ranks and was made a Valkyrie, though she gained an enemy, and rival for Tyr's affections, in her trainer and captain, Helga.

As time passed, Auria grew disillusioned with her role as a soul reaver, especially with how only those who died by violence and had "lived only for battle" could enter Valhalla
Valhalla
In Norse mythology, Valhalla is a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the god Odin. Chosen by Odin, half of those that die in combat travel to Valhalla upon death, led by valkyries, while the other half go to the goddess Freyja's field Fólkvangr...

 as Odin's Einheriar, even if they were wicked, while all those who died peaceful deaths, even if they were good, would go to Hel
Hel (realm)
In Norse mythology, Hel, the location, shares a name with Hel, a female figure associated with the location. In late Icelandic sources, varying descriptions of Hel are given and various figures are described as being buried with items that will facilitate their journey to Hel after their death...

. After she was sent to acquire the soul of her own father (and mother) who had been murdered due to Loki's machinations, Auria she renounced Odin ultimately saying that would "not stay and serve a god of death! A god who would allow those with no honor to be his most prized warriors!" Auria then renounced her father's gods and completely converted to Christianity. At that, Yahweh, God Almighty—in her words "the only true God"--accepted her conversion and gave the former Valkyrie the Christian name Areala. Just before his and his wife's death, Jalmir renounced his pagan ways and also converted to Christianity; he died soon after but he and his wife were taken up to Heaven by flights of angels, bidding their daughter goodbye.

Thereafter, Areala waged a one woman war on Asgard, routing Helga and her Valkyries right and left to keep any more souls from falling to Odin's grasp. Tyr was sent to stop her and, with her newfound power, was only able to kill her through treachery. Reunited with her family, her mother urged her to continue her battle through others; that was when she found her avatar. Seeing Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

 as being the true church of Christ, the avatar was a Roman Catholic nun whom she would name Sister Areala. Soon after, with the defection of their worshippers to another god heralding their doom, the Norse gods faced Ragnarök. Odin then called Areala whose body he had kept preserved; admitting that even the most evil warriors were among his Einheriar, he explained that he had not done so to reward bad behavior. Rather, it was because he wanted every warrior he could to stem the greater evil of Ragnarök. Seeing that she was needed, Areala the Angel of War fought alongside the Norse gods at the battle in order to contain it. She did so when she bid Tyr goodbye and singlehandedly slew Surtr
Surtr
In Norse mythology, Surtr or Surt is an eldjötunn. Surtr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson...

 the fire giant.

With the Norse gods having destroyed themselves and their entire cosmos having ceased to exist, Areala formally began her service to the God prophesied to come after Ragnarok, "the God so great that He cannot be named." She gave her name and power to her avatar, Sister Areala, thus beginning a line that endures to this day.
Abilities

Empowered by God, Areala the Angel of War is shown to have vast superhuman strength, stamina, and resistance to injury. She was also trained in martial arts and swordplay by her warrior father, a Valkyrie captain, and a war god, and has defeated all the aforesaid in battle. As part of her Valkyrie power she is also a rider of winged horses, can render herself invisible to living mortals, and see what kind of lives mortals lived. However, it is unknown if she can still collect souls. Regardless it is known that she can fly and can go back and forth from Heaven to Earth at will. Since she is pure spirit she cannot be killed. Having drunk Mímir
Mímir
Mímir or Mim is a figure in Norse mythology renowned for his knowledge and wisdom who is beheaded during the Æsir-Vanir War...

's water, she, while not omniscient, has far reaching knowledge of past, present, and future events. She can also summon weapons when she does direct battle.

Saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

 Areala

Sister Areala, or more accurately the original Sister Areala, was the first Warrior Nun, founder of the Warrior Nuns, a saint, Areala's first Avatar, and, though dead, is still a major player in the battle between good and evil. Saint Areala and Areala Angel of War are seen as almost one person and are used interchangeably.

She—birth name unknown—was first seen in Norway in the year 1066 fleeing a convent under attack by Viking raiders. While trying to hide from the attackers who would kill and/or rape her they both beheld what she thought was an angel and what they thought was a Valkyrie. This was Areala, once Valkyrie and now Angel, who declared this nun to be her avatar and "the instrument of our Lord's vengeance." She touched the nun who was suddenly filled with superhuman power and great ferocity; she then turned and struck down the Vikings.

The confused nun then later spoke with the angelic Areala who told her her life story and formally chose her to carry her name and power saying "You are to be the first to carry on my work. Through you and with you, we shall battle the forces of evil and protect the innocent." Now filled with understanding, the nun accepted her new name, Sister Areala, and formally accepted her responsibility. Her first task was burying the survivors of the attack and bringing the Vikings to justice. She came to suspect that the previously tolerant men had been tipped off concerning the monastery's wealth and sought out the traveling monk
Christian monasticism
Christian monasticism is a practice which began to develop early in the history of the Christian Church, modeled upon scriptural examples and ideals, including those in the Old Testament, but not mandated as an institution in the scriptures. It has come to be regulated by religious rules Christian...

 who betrayed them.

Seven years—or more—later, she went on to officially found the Order of the Cruciform Sword, or Warrior Nuns, under Pope Gregory VII with their vows of vigilance, chastity, and faith (though the exact words of the vow differs in some comic books). With sword in hand and wearing chainmail
Chainmail
Mail is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh.-History:Mail was a highly successful type of armour and was used by nearly every metalworking culture....

 beneath her habit, she saved many lives and fought many monsters, such as a golem
Golem
In Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being, created entirely from inanimate matter. The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing....

 created by Helga the Valkyrie and one of the surviving Vikings who tried to kill her, Frost Giant
Frost Giant
Frost Giant is the second album from The Dead Science, released in 2005 on Absolutely Kosher Records. It was recorded in ten days at Bear Creek Studios in December 2004...

s, the possibly the goddess Hel
Hel (being)
In Norse mythology, Hel is a being who presides over a realm of the same name, where she receives a portion of the dead. Hel is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson...

. Later after her death she came to venerated as a saint and is the object of veneration
Veneration
Veneration , or veneration of saints, is a special act of honoring a saint: an angel, or a dead person who has been identified by a church committee as singular in the traditions of the religion. It is practiced by the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic, and Eastern Catholic Churches...

.

Thus, though long since dead, Sister Areala is still active, serving her Warrior Nuns, the Roman Catholic Church to this day, and above all God Almighty. (She has a paternal (maternal?) view of women in her order as "her" Warrior Nuns.) She welcomes dead Warrior Nuns into Heaven and presumably makes them comfortable as reward for a job well done. Not only that but when Areala, the Angel of War, chooses a new avatar, Sister Areala will wait for the person to have a near death experience
Near death experience
A near-death experience refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the experience of absolute dissolution;...

. She will then consult with her fellow Sisters Areala (see below) who are already in Heaven before deciding whether or not to confirm the angelic Areala's choice. If the choice is right, she will awaken the sister's latent power and send her back to Earth to serve as her patron's new avatar through whom both Areala the Saint and Areala the Angel may serve the Lord. (Though not specifically mentioned, it can be assumed that if the person is not a worthy avatar for her patron, Sister Areala will not send her back to Earth but allow her to remain in Heaven for having tried her best regardless.)

In her voyages to Heaven, Sister Areala has met her patron's current avatar, Sister Shannon, several times and has given her advice as the situation dictates. Since her death, she has been canonized by the fictionalized church with the God Armor as her chief relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...

. She is also the patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...

 of the Warrior Nuns and from time to time, she or her ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

/soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...

 will appear in the living world. The most recent case being when she appeared to Pope John Paul I
Pope John Paul I
John Paul I , born Albino Luciani, , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as Sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes...

 who, in the context of the fictional universe, died by conspiracy
Pope John Paul I conspiracy theories
Pope John Paul I died alone in September 1978 only a month after his election to the Papacy. The suddenness of the death, and the Vatican's difficulties with the ceremonial and legal death procedures have resulted in several conspiracy theories.-Rationale:Discrepancies in the Vatican's account of...

. Though unable to save her pontiff's life, she promised that her Warrior Nuns would avenge him.

Sisters Areala through the ages

Over the centuries, Areala the Angel of War and Saint Areala have chosen many avatars to carry on their mission and they all took the title of Sister Areala. Saint Areala was the Angel's first avatar and is known only by that name. Yet while she was the first to serve their angelic patron, there have been many other over the centuries. Their ranks have included--
  • Sister Vannehild of Norway
    Norway
    Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

     in 1124.

  • Sister Mary of Aquilonious in 1209. She claims to be a Crusader
    Crusades
    The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

     and to have fought Muslims; while that broad outlines of this are true the date and the exact circumstances are disputed.

  • Sister Dora of Germany
    Germany
    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

     in 1536. She is seen to be well educated woman, familiar with the authors and literary works of her times such as Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
    Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
    Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was an Italian Renaissance philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the famous Oration on the Dignity of...

    's Oration on the Dignity of Man.

  • A swordswoman in what seems to be the Three Musketeers
    The Three Musketeers
    The Three Musketeers is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, first serialized in March–July 1844. Set in the 17th century, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard...

    ' France
    France
    The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

    , circa 1620s.

  • Sister Hildegard in 1696. Perhaps German, she was regarded as finest Warrior Nun in all Christian Europe until a corrupt bishop accused of her of a crime that she did not commit. She has since been exonerated. She was also a closet
    Closeted
    Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...

     lesbian
    Lesbian
    Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

     who saw her romantic attraction to a fellow warrior nun as the nails in the cross that she had to bear.

  • Sister Trinity, a cowgirl in the Wild West, circa 1872. The daughter of an American Cavalry officer who served in the American Civil War
    American Civil War
    The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

    , she was a supporter of Indian tribes
    Native Americans in the United States
    Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

    .

  • Sister Alicia of the United States from about 1936 to 1945. See article below.


Being the Areala is not easy. That the ghost of the original Sister Areala, let alone Areala Valkyrie turned angel, chooses avatars to empower is doubted by some and has never been officially acknowledged by the church. With how "Areala" serves as both a name and a title, a woman chosen by Angel/Saint Areala may herself be called Areala, retaining the title in heaven.

Razor

While Razor is not an Areala character per se—she is a London Night, Avatar Press creation--, she has crossed-over several times and Sister Shannon takes Razor's existence for granted. Even fiercer than Shotgun Mary who limits herself to only killing monsters, Razor is a Punisher
Punisher
The Punisher is a fictional character, an anti-hero appearing in comic books based in the . Created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita, Sr., and Ross Andru, the character made its first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 .The Punisher is a vigilante who employs murder,...

-like badgirl
Bad girl art
Bad girl art is a superheroines art form genre coined after the analogy of good girl art which also includes strong female characters in comic books...

 vigilante who freely kills humans, from the chief villain of the group to the lowest paper-pusher. (She has even excused her actions on the account that "I'm just a badgirl.") She specializes in terror tactics and will remorselessly eviscerate or decapitate her foes. Razor is a known killer and is seemingly frowned on by the rest of society though she has on her side certain police officers. She is armed with Katara (कटार) or pata
Pata (weapon)
The pata, patta, dand patta or dandpatta is an Indian sword with a gauntlet integrated as a handguard. Traditionally, Maratha warriors were trained to fight with dual patas by bearing one in each hand. Alternatively, a single pata was used in addition to a belt, javelin, or axe in the other hand...

 like weapons and is a good fighter, even proving a match for Sister Shannon—though Sister Shannon may have been holding back for fear of killing her.

Ironically despite her methods, she is good friends with Sister Shannon, whom she calls "penguin." Feeling somewhat guilty when she is around Shannon, she respects her for her skills and more importantly because she never lost her principles.

Tomorrow Man

A Superman pastiche, Tomorrow Man is the patriotic all-American, world's greatest hero archetype. Invulnerable, super-strong, and able to fly, Tomorrow Man received his powers to serve the American cause in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

. It was there that he met young Father Gomez who at the time was a chaplain. Tomorrow Man became quite famous, licensing his name and image to a line of comic books. However, he grew disillusioned and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumaticstress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,...

 after learning he was indirectly responsible for the destruction of a villaige he thought had been evacuated of its civilian population. Consumed by guilt for the deaths he accidentally caused, he lost his powers and became a stereotypical homeless, bitter Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...

. Reduced to begging
Begging
Begging is to entreat earnestly, implore, or supplicate. It often occurs for the purpose of securing a material benefit, generally for a gift, donation or charitable donation...

, he eventually wandered to Father Gomez' church. Father Gomez ultimately helped to restore his old friend's dignity and gave him back his powers once again. Now back on his feet thanks to Gomez, Tomorrow Man is now a New York super-hero and leads the Redeemers, a band of monster hunter superheroes funded by the fictional Deltacorp's fictional CEO Max Delta.

Outside of his appearances in Areala, Tomorrow Man has appeared in his own Antarctic Press comic books such as Last Rites and is also the father of Tomorrow Girl, a young superheroine from Ninja High School
Ninja High School
Ninja High School is a comic book series created, written, and illustrated by Ben Dunn, and currently published by Antarctic Press. It was at first published by Eternity Comics...


Samantha Elliot

Samantha Eliot was originally a human secretary working for "Mr. Kailanx," a demon mad scientist, he worked in the vein of Dr. Mengele engaging in human (and demon) experimentation under the aegeis of Deltacorp' subsidiary Deltronix. This included recovering the regrown wings villain Julius Salvius (see below) had severed from Lillith the Demon Princess. When Samantha Elliot realized who he was, she stole the wings and attached them to herself and tried to escape (the laboratory having teleported to Hell) she turned into a demon-human hybrid. She met with and befriended Tomorrow Man and others who had gone to Hell by accident. She and her allies managed to escape and Samantha Elliot now serves with them as one of the Redeemers.

Fused with Lillith's first wings, Elliot takes on many of Lillith's characteristics, including clothes and weapons. She, however, keeps the same personality and can revert to human form.

Gabriel(s)

Gabriel is the name of two beings in the Areala universe. The first Gabriel is the actual angel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...

 who has made a few appearances, mostly in his traditional form as a messenger. The second is the fictional Vatican's sentient supercomputer named for him. The second Gabriel is extremely powerful and is capable of tracking demonic movements anywhere on Earth immediately alerting the Vatican--"he" is also capable of tracking demonci movement in Hell itself.

Serina Alexandria Hollander

First born of her father, Serina Alexandria Hollander was sixteen when she witnessed a botched bank robbery
Bank robbery
Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...

 that claimed the lives of her brother and father—like in the movies she says. During her senior year of college, she was approached by “Jack” who told her that her father death had been a contracted hit
Contract killing
Contract killing is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may...

 with the bank robbery serving as a mere ruse. She was also told that the Order of the Sehkmet had been watching her from birth and that if she came with him she would learn the truth behind what happened. She joined and was reprogrammed to be a killer. A smart alec and a berserker, she is considered a loose cannon but is generally reliable. She has a younger fraternal twin sister named Antari who works for Sobek, the Sekhmet's chief enemy.

Ota Yoma

While Sister Shannon's birth parents are not mentioned, she is part of a Japanese family that was headed by an old Shinto priest or Onmyōji named Ota Yoma. (A possible pun with how youma is the Japanese equivalent of monster and how he fought oni, Japanese demons.) He was seen to live at and oversee the Ise Shrine
Ise Shrine
is a Shinto shrine dedicated to goddess Amaterasu-ōmikami, located in the city of Ise in Mie prefecture, Japan. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is in fact a shrine complex composed of a large number of Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and ....

, one of Shinto
Shinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

's most important places.

In his youth he served as a captain in World War II's Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...

 as a psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...

 soldier. Early in Warrior Nun Areala, Yoma tells Shannon that during the war he met and fell in love with a Warrior Nun, Sister Alicia (a.k.a. The Crimson Nun). He confessed to Shannon that he and Sister Alicia stayed together at his house, disregarding their duties, and Sister Alicia her vow of chastity, until the atomic bombing of Hiroshima wherein Captain Yoma left to battle the oni that had been awakened by the first blast. Ota also related that Sister Alicia then left as well, never to see him again until 1948 when she left their young daughter, Sakura, in his care. However, it was later revealed that at least part of Ota's story is untrue. It is not revealed why Yoma told Shannon this fabricated story or who the real mother of Yoma's daughter was. He has since died in battle against the oni, Lord Akuma.

Sister Sasuki Yoma

Sasuki Yoma is Sister Shannon's adopted sister and a Warrior Nun in her own right. She is jokingly called "Ninja Nun." She is Sakura Yoma's daughter and Ota Yoma's granddaughter—though it is unknown who her true biological grandmother was. She grew up in Japan at Hokkaidō
Hokkaido
, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...

's Ise Grand Shrine alongside her sister where both were likely raised in Shinto before both converted to Catholicism early on ultimately becoming Warrior Nuns, much to their grandfather's dismay. It was at age eleven that Shannon left Japan to train at the Academy. It is assumed that she began her own training at the same time. Shannon and Sasuki are very close though they live worlds apart, one in Japan and the other in the United States. Despite being alone in her beliefs, Sister Sasuki is a devoted Kirishitan
Kirishitan
, from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used as a historiographic term for Roman Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Christian missionaries were known as bateren or iruman...

 who sees Christianity as the only way of revitalizing Japan's spiritual soul.

At the moment it is known that Sister Sasuki patrols the city of Sapporo. Despite a few false starts, she, with a bumbling but well-meaning priest at her side named Father Marlowe, has since forged a working relationship with the Japanese police and has worked with indigenous Japanese kami
Kami
is the Japanese word for the spirits, natural forces, or essence in the Shinto faith. Although the word is sometimes translated as "god" or "deity", some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term...

 against mutual enemies, such as Oni, even going on rescue missions to save kidnapped—and modernized sailor fuku clad--kitsune
Kitsune
is the Japanese word for fox. Foxes are a common subject of Japanese folklore; in English, kitsune refers to them in this context. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume...

 girls. Like her sister, Sasuki is a skilled martial artist and athlete but her style incorporates ninjitsu--for example, her veil comes with mask to hide most of her face and she wears the Taijitu
Taijitu
Taijitu is a term which refers to a Chinese symbol for the concept of yin and yang...

 or Ying Yang symbol. Also her crucifix may hold a Buddha. Armed with katana
Katana
A Japanese sword, or , is one of the traditional bladed weapons of Japan. There are several types of Japanese swords, according to size, field of application and method of manufacture.-Description:...

 and Neko-te
Neko-te
and were two of the many deployed by the ninja of Japan. The main ryu of ninjutsu that deployed such weapons were of the Togakure-ryū.-Tekagi-shuko:...

, she is very adept at espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

 and at pseudocide
Pseudocide
A faked death occurs when an individual leaves evidence to suggest that he or she is dead in order to mislead others. This may be done for a variety of reasons, such as to fraudulently collect insurance money or avoid capture by law enforcement for some other crime.People who fake their own deaths...

. She works primarily in Japan but goes where needed. She once fought demons in Europe.

Sister Alicia/Crimson Nun

A native of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, she was the Warrior Nun Areala active during World War II. There she was known as the Crimson Nun, famous to this day as the arch-foe of Nazi super-villains. Her career began prior to her birth when her father, a World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 American soldier or Doughboy
Doughboy
Doughboy is an informal term for an American soldier, especially members of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. The term dates back to the Mexican–American War of 1846–48....

, was reportedly killed in the Battle of Belleau Wood
Battle of Belleau Wood
The Battle of Belleau Wood occurred during the German 1918 Spring Offensive in World War I, near the Marne River in France. The battle was fought between the U.S...

. This led to Sister Alicia with a sincere hatred of all things German and negatively impacted her family life with her mother being unable to cope. Alicia then raised herself and proved to be a stubborn, unyielding girl who went around picking fights with boys. She was also a fan of the Lone Ranger radio series hearing it throughout the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

; she would eagerly play out the roles with toys and shout "Hiyo Silver, away!" After her mother's death, she grew up at various Catholic orphanages where her martial prowess came to be noted by the nuns who raised her.

She was soon inducted into the Warrior Nun order and ultimately brought before Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...

 who, rightly so, saw the world filled with Fascists and Communists that would plunge the world into war
Causes of World War II
The main causes of World War II were nationalistic tensions, unresolved issues, and resentments resulting from the World War I and the interwar period in Europe, plus the effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s....

. Knowing that he would have to take the fight to a new level, he commissioned her as the Crimson Nun, a woman with a license to kill
Licence to kill (concept)
Licence to kill is a literary device used in espionage fiction. It refers to the official sanction by a government or government agency to a particular operative or employee to initiate the use of lethal force in the delivery of their objectives...

. Restricted to killing monsters, most Warrior Nuns and other members of the Corps are forbidden from killing human beings even in defense of their own lives
Self-defense (theory)
The right of self-defense is the right for civilians acting on their own behalf to engage in violence for the sake of defending one's own life or the lives of others, including the use of deadly force.- Theory :The...

; thus due to the controversial nature of her missions, they were mostly conducted in secret. However, while she was indeed willing and able to use lethal force against Nazis, agents of Imperial Japan, Chinese warlords
Warlord era
The Chinese Warlord Era was the period in the history of the Republic of China, from 1916 to 1928, when the country was divided among military cliques, a division that continued until the fall of the Nationalist government in the mainland China regions of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia,...

 living up to the Fu Manchu
Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century...

 stereotype, and the Catholic killing
Red Terror (Spain)
The Red Terror in Spain is the name given by historians to various acts committed "by sections of nearly all the leftist groups" such as the killing of tens of thousands of people , as well as attacks on landowners, industrialists, and politicians, and the...

 Spanish Republicans
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....

 during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

, she took no pleasure in it and would remorsefully ask God's forgiveness, going to confession
Confession
This article is for the religious practice of confessing one's sins.Confession is the acknowledgment of sin or wrongs...

 for penance
Sacrament of Penance (Catholic Church)
In the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is the method by which individual men and women may be freed from sins committed after receiving the sacrament of Baptism...

 after each mission.

However, her true mission was revealed in 1936 by the original Sister Areala. Sister Areala told her that Satan's influence on Earth would soon be greater than it ever was before and that she, Alicia, was the one to turn the tide. When she met the original Sister Areala and other Arealas in that near-death experience, the original Sister Areala offered her superhuman powers. She declined though she nevertheless had Sister Mary of Aquilonius as a guide. Thus charged, she and her partner, Odysseus Clifton, fought Nazi mystics and Nazi supervillains primarily to prevent their releasing or reviving demons though they also safeguarded relics from them. Throughout the war her chief weapons were twin 1911 Colt semi-automatic pistols named Pax Christi, or peace of Christ. Her chief foe through the war was Catholic priest turned renegade apostate, Mordecai Black.

She was long thought to be Ota Yoma's lover and mother of his children; for that, she was seen as a disgrace to the order. While her surviving partner Clifton vehemently denies Yoma's story, she was still embraced by his family. Sasuki and Shannon both knew and loved the now dead Sister Alicia as their grandmother though they wondered at how their grandfather allowed her to keep her faith. Also, while Sister Alicia is dead, she has met her adopted granddaughter in heaven during Sister Shannon's first near-death experience. While it can be safely assumed that she does love Shannon, she urged the original Sister Areala to send her back to Earth on the grounds that she could still do much for the Lord. Her granddaughter has also researched her World War II exploits.

Sister Sarah

A fellow Warrior Nun, Sister Sarah is Sister Shannon's "girlfriend" and have known each other since childhood at the academy. They grew up together and received final training together in Vatican City under Mother Superion. However, while Shannon took the path of a foot soldier, Sarah took to the air and became a part of the Silver Cross's air force, the Black Angels Corps. She, however, will also serve as a ground fighter, often alongside her best friend. She, like Sister Shannon, is an admirer of Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...

. Sister Sarah is also one of the few African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s in the series.

Eleanore Angelli

Possibly of Italian descent, Eleanore Angelli took over Sister Areala's New York protectorate
Protectorate
In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...

 while she was missing in action
Missing in action
Missing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...

. She was much younger and inexperienced than Sister Shannon who by then had become the heroine of the order. Angelli was also more impulsive and emotional than Shannon ever was. Regardless she was very brave and an excellent fighter, proving her mettle against foes such as Julius Salvius and the Seven Deadly Sins.

Angelli was very close to Father Gomez who alone knew the true origin took a paternal interest in her. Her mother died giving childbirth and the pain of it drove her father, "John Doe," mad. She was placed in church custody and raised up to her true calling. She was ultimately killed; her father, still possessing some connection to her despite having been separated from her since her birth, escaped from the psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...

 in which he had been interned for decades and died in a failed attempt to save his daughter. Both Eleanore and her father—now made whole—were last seen united in Heaven.

Cardinal Stark

Cardinal Shoc's superior, he leads the Catholic Corps with him and Mother Superion in a triumvirate. While unselfish, he is seen to be stubborn and self righteous, not to mention biased against the Warrior Nuns whom he refers to as girls. He is derided by Shoc as a "bureaucrat
Bureaucrat
A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can comprise the administration of any organization of any size, though the term usually connotes someone within an institution of a government or corporation...

" that has not faced the Lord's enemies as he has and as "Cardinal Stingy" by Sister Shannon for constantly lowering Warrior Nun budgets. He is also German and grew up in Germany during Hitler's rise to power
Hitler's rise to power
Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in Germany in September 1919 when Hitler joined the political party that was known as the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei . This political party was formed and developed during the post-World War I era...

. A hyper conservative, he is very defensive about the Church's role during that time period.

Even so, he shows another rarely seen side of his personality when dealing with the Magic Priests. Having been one himself he is sympathetic to them and cares for them.

Cardinal Shoc

While he co-leads with Mother Superion and he has his own superiors to answer to such as Cardinal Stark, Cardinal Shoc is one of the highest ranking leaders in the Church's Defense Units. The Warrior Nuns are his direct responsibility and he will defend them from Vatican bureaucrats who would wish to close the Warrior Nuns down, risking his reputation if needed. To that end, he is on good terms with his right hand woman, Mother Superion. Extremely devoted to his cause and demanding of the Units under his responsibility, he has little patience for those with no combat experience. He is very grim and bears various scars on his face. He also wrote the procedure book, literally.

Mother Superion

She, like all Mother Superions before her, is the supreme Abbess/Mother Superior of the Order of the Cruciform Sword and handles the day to day work. She, along with her partner Cardinal Shoc and her superior, Cardinal Stark, leads the Catholic Corps in a triumvirate.

Originally Sister Katherine, she was just another Warrior Nun and worked primarily as the girl's teacher/drill instructor at the Saint Thomas Academy. It was there that she first met a teenage Sister Shannon and saw great promise in her. That changed when she angered the then-Mother Superion and found herself reassigned to the border of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 with a squad of United States Marines in 1991's First Gulf War. There, Sister Katherine confronted a monster in a cave at the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

/Syrian border. She won with the aid of the ghosts of Templar Knights who, due to their ignominious dissolution and excommunication at the hands of King Philip IV of France
Philip IV of France
Philip the Fair was, as Philip IV, King of France from 1285 until his death. He was the husband of Joan I of Navarre, by virtue of which he was, as Philip I, King of Navarre and Count of Champagne from 1284 to 1305.-Youth:A member of the House of Capet, Philip was born at the Palace of...

 and Pope Clement V
Pope Clement V
Pope Clement V, born Raymond Bertrand de Got was Pope from 1305 to his death...

, had been languishing in Purgatory
Purgatory
Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...

 for hundreds of years. Touched by the ghosts, she could "see as spirits see;" she was left physically blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

 but was able to see the aura
Aura (paranormal)
In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object . The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. Sometimes, however, it is said that all living things and all objects...

s of all things as well as people's souls and how much time they have to live.

Her physical eyes are solid, featureless blue and so she always wears goggles to cover them. (Before she wore sunglasses.)

She was almost driven mad by her experience—and allegedly drove others to insanity with what she said—and had to have her memories repressed
Repressed memory
Repressed memory is a hypothetical concept used to describe a significant memory, usually of a traumatic nature, that has become unavailable for recall; also called motivated forgetting in which a subject blocks out painful or traumatic times in one's life...

 just to function. Upon her recovery, she declared her previous identity dead and she was given the title of Mother Superion and now as the current Mother Superion now leads a new generation of Warrior Nuns in combat with the forces of Hell, including Shannon Masters.

She is very stoic and quiet; despite difficulty in showing emotion, she sincerely does care for her pupils. She has known Sister Shannon since Shannon was a child and trained herself. She in fact was responsible for her assignment to New York City despite the reservations of Catholic Corps members over her relative inexperience. Mother Superion stated that that was because she saw in Sister Shannon tremendous potential even to the point of being the next Areala. She has proven a good administrator though from time to time she will lead assaults on evil forces herself with blazing flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...

s in each hand.

She also personally designed the current Warrior Nun uniforms, based on her own, to replace the older, less modest uniforms that had been in use since the 1970s.

Father Goth

Perhaps the Vatican's most powerful Magic Priest, Father Goth is a force to be reckoned with. In his younger days, he was a children's teacher at the Saint Thomas Academy where he taught the boys campus, just as young Mother Superion (then Sister Katherine) taught the girls. He would wear a cassock
Cassock
The cassock, an item of clerical clothing, is an ankle-length robe worn by clerics of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Church, Lutheran Church and some ministers and ordained officers of Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Ankle-length garment is the meaning of the...

 and a slouch hat
Slouch hat
A slouch hat is a wide-brimmed felt or cloth hat with a chinstrap, most commonly worn as part of a military uniform. It is a survivor of the felt hats worn by certain 18th century armies. Since then, the slouch hat has been worn by military personnel from many nations including Australia, Britain,...

. Among his students was the future Father David Crowe. He ultimately left teaching to become an active duty Magic Priest but never lost his touch. When Jason was shown to have superhuman powers, he sheltered the boy and recommended him for Silver Cross.

Grim and taciturn, he grew grimmer (and got scars and cybernetic eye) when he returned after being thought dead when, in the "Masada
Masada
Masada is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South District of Israel, on top of an isolated rock plateau, or horst, on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada is best known for the violence that occurred there in the first century CE...

 Incident" of 1989, he disappeared fighting a "type 7 demon in the vortex." He returned to Earth to battle the same demon, Gorath. He and his fellow warrior won and he showed that, despite his grim attitude, he will smile now and again after having "saved the day."

In addition to flight, mind control, and other standard powers, he can cross dimensions, and wields a crozier called the Staff of Enoch
Enoch (ancestor of Noah)
Enoch is a figure in the Generations of Adam. Enoch is described as Adam's greatx4 grandson , the son of Jared, the father of Methuselah, and the great-grandfather of Noah...

. He uses it as a Quarterstaff
Quarterstaff
A quarterstaff , also short staff or simply staff is a traditional European pole weapon and a technique of stick fighting, especially as in use in England during the Early Modern period....

 or a
Bo
-People:*Bo , name origin, plus people with the name*Bo , name origin, plus people with the surname**Bo , Chinese family names*Bo people , extinct minority population in Southern China famous for hanging coffins...

 and can also use it to fire energy bolts. It is capable of various other effects and is dangerous to those not fit to touch it. Idolized by his fellow clerics and other religious
Consecrated life (Catholic Church)
In the Roman Catholic Church, the term "consecrated life" denotes a stable form of Christian living by those faithful who feel called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way recognized by the Church...

, he is never seen without his jet black Greatcoat
Greatcoat
A greatcoat, also known as a watchcoat, is a large overcoat typically made of wool designed for warmth and protection against the weather. Its collar and cuffs can be turned out to protect the face and hands from cold and rain, and the short cape around the shoulders provides extra warmth and...

 mixing metal studs and leather straps with his clerical clothing
Clerical clothing
Clerical clothing is non-liturgical clothing worn exclusively by clergy. It is distinct from vestments in that it is not reserved specifically for services. Practices vary: clerical clothing is sometimes worn under vestments, and sometimes as the everyday clothing or street wear of a priest,...

, and his trademark slouch hat.

The Twelve Magic Priests

Founded one-hundred forty six years after the Warrior Nuns in about 1212, the Magic Priests are the second most famous of the Defensive Units and are the Catholic Corps preferred Unit. There are thirty six Magic Priests in the world with twelve of them on active duty, doubtless in imitation of the Twelve Apostles.

These Twelve are--
  • Father Goth—As noted as above, perhaps the Vatican's most powerful Magic Priest, Father Goth is a force to be reckoned with. In his younger days, he was a children's teacher at the Saint Thomas Academy where he taught the boys campus, just as young Mother Superion (then Sister Katherine) taught the girls. Among his students was the future Father Crowe. He would wear a cassock
    Cassock
    The cassock, an item of clerical clothing, is an ankle-length robe worn by clerics of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Church, Lutheran Church and some ministers and ordained officers of Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Ankle-length garment is the meaning of the...

     and a slouch hat
    Slouch hat
    A slouch hat is a wide-brimmed felt or cloth hat with a chinstrap, most commonly worn as part of a military uniform. It is a survivor of the felt hats worn by certain 18th century armies. Since then, the slouch hat has been worn by military personnel from many nations including Australia, Britain,...

    . Grim and taciturn, he ultimately left teaching to become an active duty Magic Priest; he is regarded as one of the best. Nationality unknown.

  • Father David Crowe—As noted above, Crowe is the Magic Priest most often seen. He is one of the best and is seen to have romantic feelings for Sister Shannon. He is American.

  • Father Erasmus Stone—The man most often paired with Father Crowe, the two are friends. He is a large man with a mohawk
    Mohawk hairstyle
    The mohawk is a hairstyle in which, in the most common variety, both sides of the head are shaven, leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair...

     and a cybernetic eye. He often hides his emotions behind a gruff exterior. Nationality unknown.

  • Father Fang—He has worked with Father Crowe. He is also an eccentric in that for unknown reasons, Father Fang's speech seems limited to phrases from the King James Bible, whether in casual conversation or the middle of a blazing combat situation. Nationality unknown but presumably Anglosphere
    Anglosphere
    Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...

    .

  • Father Mark McKane—An American and one of Crowe's friends. He frequently wears a stole.

  • Father Lopez—He is an older man with gray hair, presumably Hispanic.

  • Father MacLeod—A Scotsman?

  • Father Webb—Nationality unknown.

  • Father Paine—A large hulking man with a cybernetic eye and various implants. He is seen to where a black body suit, or unitard
    Unitard
    A unitard is a skin-tight one-piece garment with long legs and sometimes long sleeves. It differs from a leotard in that a leotard does not have long legs. The garment can be considered to be a combination of a leotard and tights...

     in contrast to the uniforms of fellow clerics.

  • Father Kubiczek—A Pole?

  • Father Duvalier—A Frenchman?

Sister Frenzy

She is a European nun—seemingly non combat or "vocational"--who was nearly killed when a demon exploded her church. She was rescued by the famous Kotnick, a demon hunter and "nun collector." (He has a catchphrase, "Pax Vobiscum," latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 for "peace be with you.") However, her face was ruined and she has since worn a mask beneath her veil. He then became a surrogate father to her and trained her to be a Warrior Nun dubbed Frenzy. She is strong weightlifter, a skilled knife fight
Knife fight
A knife fight is a violent physical confrontation between two or more combatants in which one or more participants is armed with a knife...

er, and a sniper
Sniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....

, though in combatting demons she uses bullets made of frozen holy water
Holy water
Holy water is water that, in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Oriental Orthodoxy, and some other churches, has been sanctified by a priest for the purpose of baptism, the blessing of persons, places, and objects; or as a means of repelling evil.The use for baptism and...

.

Sister Helen

Wearing glasses, she is one of Sister Shannon's students. Like her teacher, she is assigned to St. Thomas Church but is somewhat overeager, going after enemies she could not expect to defeat. She is also not quite serious, playing with Sister Shannon's Sword of Antoich—and injuring herself in the process. For that she is disciplined.

Sister Christine

Sister Christine was assigned to St. Thomas Church on Mother Superion's orders while Sister Shannon's went to Japan. She stayed on afterwards for a short time before leaving. She is older and very skilled but she is can be quite unorthodox, dressing in chic
Chic (style)
Chic , meaning 'stylish' or 'smart', is an element of fashion.-Etymology:Chic is a French word, established in English since at least the 1870s...

 fashion when off duty, disdaining her veil, and approaching combat with a sense of cheerful informality. She gave Jason his action figures. She is critical of Magic Priest's preferential treatment. She is also a good fighter, but impulsive and somewhat hidebound. (She does not believe in the legend of the original Sister Areala.)

Sister Madeline

Active since at least 1971, Sister Madeline is an older Warrior Nun who has seen better days. Either due to injuries or to compensate for her age, she has both an eyepatch and cybernetic arms that can turn into minigun
Minigun
The Minigun is a 7.62 mm, multi-barrel heavy machine gun with a high rate of fire , employing Gatling-style rotating barrels with an external power source...

s. She is nicknamed "Mad Lynn" for her fierce fighting style. At the moment she cares for the Silver Cross orphans and trains them for their future duties as soldiers of Christ. She is quite stern—more so that Sister Shannon ever was in raising Jason, or Mother Superion was in raising Sister Shannon—but does so thinking to discipline her charges. It seemingly proved useful when they and their drill sergeant proved a team to be reckoned with when they fought Madeline's old foe Dr. Frederick Ottoman. However, while she suffers the children come to her and as much as she might care for children in the abstract, she has a hard time conveying actual affection.

Children of Silver Cross

Tracing its origins back to 1212 when participants of the failed Children's Crusade were rescued from slavery, one of them being given a silver cross, Silver Cross trains future Magic Priests and Warrior Nuns. The Silver Cross program has survived into modern times with the current crop of future Magic Priests and Warrior Nuns cared for by Sister Madeline. They are mostly preadolescents. While some children are from Catholic countries such as France and Brazil, other come from traditionally anti-Catholic countries such as England, or even from Egypt which would imply belonging Eastern Catholicism such as the Coptic Catholic Church
Coptic Catholic Church
The Coptic Catholic Church is an Alexandrian Rite particular Church in full communion with the Pope of Rome. Historically, Coptic Catholics represent a schism from the Coptic Orthodox Church, leaving that church in order to come into full communion with the Bishop of Rome.The current Coptic...

.

They include -
  • David "Mark" Montoya - Very brash, the young Brazil
    Brazil
    Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

    ian has the power to control the velocity of moving objects.
  • David Young - The youngest student, ten years old, and hailing from England
    England
    England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

    , he specializes in electrical manipulation.
  • Allison Powers - She is a skilled staff expert and hails from France
    France
    The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

    .
  • John Blessing - A stereotypical "ugly American", he has the power of controlling inertia
    Inertia
    Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. It is proportional to an object's mass. The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental principles of classical physics which are used to...

    . He mostly manifests this as a form of super-strength
  • Diana Saladin - Haling from Egypt
    Egypt
    Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

    , Diana is a skilled swordswoman and hopes to become a Warrior Nun. She is also a great admirer of Sister Shannon and will pray the rosary, for her success in battle. For her part, Sister Shannon has taken the girl under her wing.
  • Jessica Keller - Though blind
    Blindness
    Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

    , Jessica Keller wielded a vast assortment of telepathic, and telekinetic powers and was ironically the most powerful of the Silver Cross children. Silent, passive, and pious, she was the most mature of her fellow students and was their unofficial leader. Sister Madeline saw her abilities and thought to break with tradition by recommending her for the Magic Priest program; this request was denied. Though she has since died in combat, she was last seen in Heaven with blindness replaced by sight and being shown about by Stephen of Burgess.
  • Jason - An amnesiac with no memory of his past, he was rasied by Sister Shannon until he found himself with extraordinary power upon which he joined Silver Cross. He enjoys his position but tries to stay in touch with Sister Shannon. He was not one of the original Silver Cross children. For more information please see his article above.

The Papacy

As might be expected, the papacy plays a role in the Warrior Nun Areala. With how the papacy goes back for centuries, flashbacks often mention popes of past times and places. Often mentioned and sometimes seen, occupants of the fictional papacy are ofteh fictionalized versions of the real ones. Three popes thus far have starred as major characters.

Pope John Paul I

John Paul I was a minor character, principally appearing in flashbacks to the time of his pontificate; there, he was quite differently from how he was in real life. While the real John Paul I has been called "an intellectual lightweight" he is portrayed in the comic book as a strong, decisive man dedicated to rooting out a conspiracy of Freemasons within the Vatican. They kill him by conspiracy
Pope John Paul I conspiracy theories
Pope John Paul I died alone in September 1978 only a month after his election to the Papacy. The suddenness of the death, and the Vatican's difficulties with the ceremonial and legal death procedures have resulted in several conspiracy theories.-Rationale:Discrepancies in the Vatican's account of...

 though the killers are ultimately apprehended and his death avenged.

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II was a minor character in the series before his death. He would be referenced periodically by various people as "the Pope" and documents displaying his Papal coat of arms
Papal coat of arms
For at least 800 years, each Pope has had his own personal coat of arms that serves as a symbol of his papacy. The first Pope whose arms are known with certainty is Pope Innocent IV . Earlier popes were only attributed arms in the 17th century....

--see here--do show that Sister Shannon's early adventures indeed happened during his pontificate. She even met him once at the climax of Warrior Nun Areala/Scorpio Rose #4 though with his death, she now presumably serves under Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...

.

Pope Ignatus

In one story-arc, Warrior Nun Areala Vol 3. #11-12, we see a single immortal pontiff, "Pope Ignatus." A vain and somewhat self-centered individual, Ignatus is literally a child and has remained physically a child through all the millennia he has reigned as the Church's immortal pope since the beginning of the institution. He is, in fact, thought by the world at large to in fact be the history's only Pope. Ignatus encourages this thought though at one point he tells Cardinal Stark the story of how "a man from Galilee
Galilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...

," founded the Church on a wandering Holy Man whom He dubbed Pius. The Galilean charged Pius with going away to build a palace to house God's Earthly representative. Pius, the first Pope, did so and after finding Ignatus raised the boy as his son and raised him to the task. Ignatus has led the Church to this day.

Though later stories confirm that at least some aspects of the storyarc are true such as the Vatican suffering a great attack, Ignatus existence directly contradicts many earlier stories which feature or mention many real world Popes to the point that those stories are rendered untenable. Also, Ignatus' very existence was implicitly retconned since then.

Satan

Satan is the source of all evil. Also known as Lucifer, the Devil, the Evil One, the Father of Lies, the Father of Misery, the Source of All our Woes, the Sower of Discord, the King of Hell, the Arch-Fiend, the Enemy, he is the chief villain and behind-the-scenes mastermind of all evil in the Warrior Nun Areala universe.

He, as Lucifer, was created by God to be one of the finest of angels but he was filled with pride, and ultimately rebelled against his Creator. Thinking that he could rule better than his Omniscient Creator, he led other angels in revolt but they were cast out from Heaven. Since then, Lucifer, now "Satan" or "Enemy [of God]" has waged a ceaseless war against God, part of that war being leading His children on the path of damnation. Seeking nothing short of the destruction of all goodness and the enslavement of all creation, his war potentially stretches across the universe.

Standing in his way has been the Christian faith. Prior to Christ's sacrifice and resurrection and the subsequent spreading of the Good News, Satan had been free to deal with the gentiles with how God's favor was on just one Chosen People. Afterwards, he was in a quandary with how the Christian faith was leading billions of souls to the worship of God and the Salvation He freely offered. The Church soon became a bulwark against Satan's schemes spreading this faith and providing defense against physical assault in the figure of the Areala—whom God Himself had named and sanctioned—and her Warrior Nuns and the Magic Priests. The Vatican has since become the first line of defense for Earth and the primary means by which Heaven wages a proxy war
Proxy war
A proxy war or proxy warfare is a war that results when opposing powers use third parties as substitutes for fighting each other directly. While powers have sometimes used governments as proxies, violent non-state actors, mercenaries, or other third parties are more often employed...

 against Hell.

At the moment, he is confined in the fiery blazes of Hell ruling over the demons and the damned, though he can project his image and voice outward. Satan's Earth bound minions, be they human devil worshippers or demons themselves, have tried to free their dark lord from his imprisonment though all have failed. As such, he tends to work through human channels using deceit and treachery to beguile humans and let them do the "dirty work." The most significant example of these was Germany's National Socialists, or Nazis.

It is worth noting that there is a great variety of demons and not all obey Satan; indeed, most do not. Even in the Bible there are reports of demons so terrified of Satan that they begged Jesus to not exorcise them and send them to Hell, and of Jesus warning His followers to not take pleasure in forcing demons to submit to them. An important breakaway sect is led by Orcus
Orcus (mythology)
Orcus was a god of the underworld, punisher of broken oaths in Italic and Roman mythology. As with Hades, the name of the god was also used for the underworld itself. In the later tradition, he was conflated with Dis Pater, who was the Roman equivalent of Pluto.Orcus was portrayed in paintings in...

; he and his followers do not submit to Satan. Realizing from experience that fighting God is futile and suicidal, Orcus prefers a policy of coexistence. He and his followers, most notably Lillith, have been known to protect innocent life.

The Beast

The Beast, or Anti-Christ, has appeared as a villain in the series. His first appearance was as a naked man named Az Rabah wandering the deserts of Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

 wherein he amerged from the sea and spoke in quasi-Koranic verse saying he was sent by one who need only say "Be, and it is
Be, and it is
"Be, and it is" is a phrase that occurs several times in the Qur’ān. It refers to creation by Allah. In Arabic the imperative verb be is spelled with the letters kāf and nūn.-Verse numbers:...

". His right hand man was named Hafidh Aziz; Aziz is presumably the False Prophet. In a not very subtle jab, it shows an almost medieval view of Islam with the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

 Muslim world
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...

 as the Anti-Christ's base of operations and Muslim armies flocking to serve him. He is not portrayed as Islam's arch-deceiver the Dajjal
Dajjal
al-Masih ad-Dajjal , is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology. He is to appear pretending to be Masih at a time in the future, before Yawm al-Qiyamah , directly comparable to the figures of the Antichrist and Armilus in Christian and Jewish eschatology, respectively.-Name: is a common Arabic word ...

 who rejects Islam and will try to lead people away from it. Rather Az Rabah goes to Mecca (something said to be impossible for the Dajjal) and gives anti-western speeches at the Kaaba
Kaaba
The Kaaba is a cuboid-shaped building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam. The Qur'an states that the Kaaba was constructed by Abraham, or Ibraheem, in Arabic, and his son Ishmael, or Ismaeel, as said in Arabic, after he had settled in Arabia. The building has a mosque...

 where he is hailed as the prophesied redeemer of Islam, or Mahdi, who will lead people towards Islam. Hafidh Aziz—whose first name is a variant of Hafiz or someone who has memorized the Koran—the False Prophet then leads the people in virtual worship of him. Fueled by Radical Islam, nearly all the Arab World
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...

 joined the Mahdi/Anti-Christ's coalition of nations in a bid for world domination.

As the Beast, Rabah claims to wield the powers of "the greatest of all the angels," that is to say Satan, and claims to be a Nephilim
Nephilim
The Nephilim are the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" in Genesis 6:4, or giants who inhabit Canaan in Numbers 13:33. A similar word with different vowel-sounds is used in Ezekiel 32:27 to refer to dead Philistine warriors....

, or hybrid of woman and Grigori
Grigori
The Watchers is a term found in the Old Testament Book of Daniel, and later sources, which is connected to angels...

 a kind of fallen angel. Seeming to prove that he wields a vast assortment of abilities and easily overpowered a company of Magic Priests sent against him. Sister Shannon managed to defeat him, thus postponing his inevitable rise to power and inevitable casting into the Lake of Fire
Lake of Fire
A lake of fire appears, in both ancient Egyptian and Christian religion, as a place of after-death punishment of the wicked. The phrase is used in four verses of the Book of Revelation. The image was also used by the Early Christian Hippolytus of Rome in about the year 200 and has continued to be...

. While he was ultimately beaten and his Muslim armies dispersed, the Anti-Christ has since taken residence in the United States as an evil American politician named Senator White.

The Nazis

National Socialism, or Nazism for short, was a German political movement begun in 1919 and that quickly became identified with Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

, a German corporal originally sent to spy on the organization be German intelligence but who ultimately became its leader. Hitler and his "Nazis" quickly rose to power; this was due in part to Hitler's promises of revenge against the Allies
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...

 for the Versailles Treaty which humiliated a defeated Germany in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, his scapegoating of Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

, Gypsies, Slavs, and other Untermensch
Untermensch
Untermensch is a term that became infamous when the Nazi racial ideology used it to describe "inferior people", especially "the masses from the East," that is Jews, Gypsies, Poles along with other Slavic people like the Russians, Serbs, Belarussians and Ukrainians...

 for said defeat, by providing jobs for unemployed Germans amidst the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, and appealing to German racial pride. In the decades since its fall Nazism has come to be seen as synonymous with evil; it is fact that, in real life, Nazism did have some occult undercurrents though this was of overall minor importance.

However, the fictional Nazis of Warrior Nun Areala, like fictional Nazis elsewhere, are portrayed as sadistic, robotic monsters. Also, like other popular culture portrayals of the man, the fictionalized Hitler is shown as an evil genius who is not only Satan's right hand but who seeks world domination
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...

. However, in that that Hitler was used according to Nazism's role as pop culture stock villains and not as a deliberate character (like Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

’s Hate-Monger
Hate-Monger
The Hate-Monger is the name of different characters from Marvel Comics.-Publication history:The original character first appeared in Fantastic Four vol...

), portryals vary according to the writer. He might be portrayed as out-of control, hyperagressive sociopath who leads attacks from the front
Front (military)
A military front or battlefront is a contested armed frontier between opposing forces. This can be a local or tactical front, or it can range to a theater...

. He might be portrayed as a superstitious coward undeserving of his reputation. He might be portrayed as a cold, pitiless monster who holds everyone and everything around him in contempt. He (as seen after being briefly resurrected) might be portrayed as an egotistical bufoon who boasts of being a greater villain than Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

, Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...

 or anyone else. Regardless of the man's myriad interpretations, Satan saw in Hitler a man after his own heart and invested his full power and support in the Nazi cause. In the mid 1930s, the original Sister Areala and her fellow Arealas watched this from Heaven and were worried that through Hitler, Satan's influence on Earth would be greater than it ever had been previous.

The apostate-Catholic, anti-Christian, and pagan Hitler rose to infamy as the most evil man that ever lived as he and his followers wrought on the Earth its darkest hour. They practiced black magic
Black magic
Black magic is the type of magic that draws on assumed malevolent powers or is used with the intention to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences. As a term, "black magic" is normally used by those that do not approve of its...

, recruited fallen angels such Azazel
Azazel
Azazel or Azazael or Azâzêl is a term used three times in the Hebrew scriptures, and later in Hebrew mythology as the enigmatic name of a character....

, and sought to claim various Christian relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...

s to pervert their powers to their unholy cause. However, while the fictional Hitler is portrayed as willing to deal with the supernatural, he would delegate most of his responsibilities in this to Nazi mystic Reichsführer-SS
Reichsführer-SS
was a special SS rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945. Reichsführer-SS was a title from 1925 to 1933 and, after 1934, the highest rank of the German Schutzstaffel .-Definition:...

 Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...

. The Nazis were also aided by villains like Morgan Le Fay
Morgan le Fay
Morgan le Fay , alternatively known as Morgane, Morgaine, Morgana and other variants, is a powerful sorceress in the Arthurian legend. Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fay or magician...

, King Arthur's sister survived into modern day who allied with them in hopes of destroying her brother's kingdom, England, and Mordecai Black, former Catholic priest gone renegade who hoped to destroy the Church. Professing white supremacy
White supremacy
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...

 and genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...

, the Nazis served Satan well as they wrought forth death, suffering, and Hell on Earth. In fact, terms of raw results, regardless of the final outcome, the Nazis were the most successful pawns Satan ever had. Even now, Satan has not forgotten their service; footsoldiers of his current right hand, Julian Salvius would wear the brown shirt uniforms of Nazi Stormtroopers complete with Nazi armband
Brassard
A brassard or armlet is an armband or piece of cloth or other material worn around the upper arm, used as an item of military uniform to which rank badges may be attached instead of being stitched into the actual clothing...

 though with a pentagram used in place of the Swastika.

However, like in real life, the Nazis ultimately destroyed themselves with how Hitler was a man too close to Satan's heart. Too stubborn and megalomaniacal to ever admit defeat or that he was wrong, Hitler marched himself and Germany towards mutual annihilation by all the combined forces of the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

. Though officially neutral as in the real world, the Vatican was also a major player sending its Catholic Corps forces to face down the Nazis supernatural threats. It presumably also condemned the Nazis and saved what lives it could from the Nazi genocide as it did in the real world. It ended with their leaders imprisoned, their cities in ruins, their country torn in two, and their Führer
Führer
Führer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also...

 dead by suicide on Walpurgis Night
Walpurgis Night
Walpurgis Night is a traditional spring festival on 30 April or 1 May in large parts of Central and Northern Europe. It is often celebrated with dancing and with bonfires. It is exactly six months from All Hallows' Eve.-Name:...

. Unwilling to admit defeat, some Nazis chose to escape and they or their descendants have since waged terrorist/guerrilla campaigns becoming Neo-Nazis that still pose a threat to the peace and stability of the world. A good example is Colonol Ottoman taking his Wunderwaffen to Imperial Japan in January 1945. On seeing that Hitler's cause was doomed, Ottoman hid his wonder-weapons away so that they could be used at a later date by those wishing to continue the cause. The one to do so was his grandson, Frederick Ottoman.

The current world spanning Fourth Reich
Fourth Reich
The Fourth Reich is a term used to describe a theoretical future successor of the Third Reich.-Neo-Nazism:In terms of neo-Nazism, the Fourth Reich is envisioned as featuring Aryan supremacy, anti-Semitism, Lebensraum, aggressive militarism and totalitarianism...

 is Ottoman's Teutonic Knights and hides behind the front of the Ottoman Corporation

Dr. Frederick Ottoman and the Teutonic Knights

Evil genius/mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...

 and Nazi mystic Dr. Frederick Ottoman is the leader of the Teutonic Knights a Neo-Nazi group that seeks to establish a Fourth Reich.

Ottoman's Nazi roots run deep. His grandfather was a devoted Nazi and a Colonel in either the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

 or perhaps even the SS who on seeing the Third Reich was doomed, died towards the end of the war in an attempt to lay down the groundwork for a fourth Reich. It has been stated by creator Ben Dunn that the Ottoman family is not necessarily German and that is seen with Frederick Ottoman's father—and presumably the Colonel's son—Selim Ottoman was a subject of the German
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

 allied Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

, hence the family name, and his mother was Anna Lumsden a German woman. Both died in the Dresden bombing
Bombing of Dresden in World War II
The Bombing of Dresden was a military bombing by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force and as part of the Allied forces between 13 February and 15 February 1945 in the Second World War...

. Ottoman later served fanatically as a twelve year old child soldier in the Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...

 in the last days of the war. He met Hitler and fought the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 in the Battle of Berlin
Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin, designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, was the final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II....

 where he lost his right eye. He survived and has since grown up—and still looking some thirty years old or less (similar to another Nazi villain, The Major in the vampire Manga series Hellsing
Hellsing
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano. It first premiered in Young King Ours in 1997 and ended in September 2008. The individual chapters are collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Shōnen Gahosha. As of March 2009 all chapters have been released in 10 volumes in...

who also despite being over 80 years old appears to be much younger) to once again try to enslave the Earth for the Master Race.

Seeing humanity as fundamentally corrupt, Ottoman's ultimate goal is to destroy the village/world in order to save it. He dreams of creating a New World Order
New World Order (conspiracy)
In conspiracy theory, the term New World Order or NWO refers to the emergence of a totalitarian one-world government.The common theme in conspiracy theories about a New World Order is that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an...

 in which Christianity will be abolished and worship of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 who in Ottoman's mind is the true Messiah will be law. That is because, like Hitler, he believes that Christianity must be destroyed and a new civilization must be built on the ashes of the old in which the swastika will be the "true" sign of the cross. (He has somehow even managed to steal fragments of Hitler's skull
Death of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on Monday, 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin. His wife Eva , committed suicide with him by ingesting cyanide...

 from Russian archives for use in worship.) Indeed, while he enjoys being the villain, Ottoman sincerely believes that he fighting for a greater good and imagines himself a cultured, civilized man with good taste in music. Like the first Nazis, he does not understand why any reasonable person would oppose him. Why is he not just trying to foil the Jewish-Communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...

 conspiracy
Jewish Bolshevism
Jewish Bolshevism, Judeo-Bolshevism, and known as Żydokomuna in Poland, is an antisemitic stereotype based on the claim that Jews have been the driving force behind or are disproportionately involved in the modern Communist movement, or sometimes more specifically Russian Bolshevism.The expression...

?

This is quite the opposite of how demons pursue their goals of genocide and hate against all that lives for the sake of pleasure and to spite God whose children they harm. Seeing in them a common enemy he has even fought against them. Thus, despite Satanic involvement in Nazism in Warrior Nun Areala, he is wary of demons who wish to destroy the Earth whilst he "merely" wishes to enslave it.

Due to his wealth from his Ottoman Corporation serving as a front for these goals, he has the money to fund his plans. He has various bases around the world such as in South America where he engaged in Mengele
Josef Mengele
Josef Rudolf Mengele , also known as the Angel of Death was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. He earned doctorates in anthropology from Munich University and in medicine from Frankfurt University...

 like experiments on children to find a "God gene," or a way to naturalistically understand the Magic Priests' faith based powers. He has Nazi agents around the world infiltrating various governments and his chief base is somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...

 with a fleet of Nazi UFOs. At his side are various Nazi friendly Muslim Anti-Semites. He is known and is tracked by world governments; in one assault on his South American base in the 1970s, Sister Madeline teamed up with the Israeli Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....

 against him.

Ottoman was seen to have a knowledge of the occult and was a genius in bioengineering, so much so that oni such as Lord Akuma, being magical beings and having limited understanding of science, sought his aid. However, Akuma betrayed and seemingly killed him. His body was then respectfully taken away by one of his Karl furry
Furry fandom
Furry fandom is a fandom for fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics. Examples of anthropomorphic attributes include exhibiting human intelligence and facial expressions, the ability to speak, walk on two legs, and wear clothes...

 dog-men creations. (These things may or may not be reference to the Werwolf
Werwolf
Werwolf was the name given to a Nazi plan, which began development in 1944, to create a commando force which would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany itself. Werwolf remained entirely ineffectual as a combat force, however, and in practical terms, its value as...

 plan for a post war Nazi resistance movement.) He later returned and attempted to subvert the children of Silver Cross and launch the "Hate Wave" and other plans since then.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The Four Horsemen make appearances, following popular interpretations as being War
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...

, Famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...

, Pestilence
Infectious disease
Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...

 and Death
Death (personification)
The concept of death as a sentient entity has existed in many societies since the beginning of history. In English, Death is often given the name Grim Reaper and, from the 15th century onwards, came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood...

. They are literal horsemen
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...

 and have the powers their names imply. They are led by Death. They appear as extremely mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...

 working for various masters. As part of this, they will often dress according to the time and place.

Beelzebub

Beelzebub, the "prince of demons," makes a few appearances, chiefly in a "flashforward
Flashforward
A flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future...

" at least two centuries into the future as the victorious emperor of a "hell planet" having crushed all human opposition. He is shown having successfully evaded detection by the (future) Vatican's space forces.

Orcus

Likely the true Orcus of Roman myth, he is a demon warlord and Lillith's former employer. He is one of the less evil demons and opposes Satan for fear that Satan would re-start active war against Heaven. Having fought in the War of Heaven, he knows the futility of fighting God. In fact, when Julius Salvius sought to free Satan, Orcus sent Lillith to prevent that from happening. This goodwill ended soon after when he betrayed her in order to take Lillith's lands and power in the hopes of perhaps even being able to challenge Satan for the infernal throne. He may also have framed Lillith for murder out of the knowledge that her mother, Hexa, would ask to be punished in her place. The price of that was that Lillith would have to serve him. It is known that his son Utak killed Lillith's angelic father.

Also, if his earliest appearances in Dunn's Ninja High School are considered canonical relative to his appearances in Areala, he also owns Hell's portion of the McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...

 franchise
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....

. Like McDonald's elsewhere—such as India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 serving beefless Maharaja Macs, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

's cheeseless kosher BigMacs, or the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

' McSpaghetti—Hell's McDonalds feature culture specific food
McDonald's products (international)
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving more than 58 million customers daily in 119 countries...

 such as McTorment shakes. Orcus is known for using his position as owner of Hell's portion of the franchise to demote failed minions to work flipping burgers at "McJobs."

Asmodeus

Asmodeus makes a few appearances. His chief appearance was in a flashback to 1939 when he appeared to the Jewish anti-hero Hammer to lure him away from his duties so that Hammer would not be there to prevent the Holocaust. He succeeded; although Hammer did ultimately win the fight against him, when he returned to the human world years later, it was late 1945 outside of Auschwitz.

Helga/Nebelhexa

Helga was the Captain of the Valkyrie, Odin's woman warriors. She trained Auria, the future Areala, to be a Valkyrie and enjoyed "hazing
Hazing
Hazing is a term used to describe various ritual and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group....

" her pupil. However, after Auria bested her in combat, even before gaining a Valkyrie's strength, she nursed a grudge against her. This grew after Auria fell in love with Tyr, whom Helga wanted for herself. It climaxed when Auria/Areala renounced Odin and Areala humiliated Helga in battle before her warriors, leaving her a scarred and bloodied face. She swore revenge and has tried to keep that vow. Even as Areala has her avatar, so does Helga, the Nebelhexa or Nebelhexe, though unlike Areala she will choose men as well as women.

In the 18th century, Helga formed the Sorority of Evil, a group of devil worshiping witches. Today, they operate behind the front of a big business, Black Metal Multi Media and are led by Nebelhexa. Over the centuries, Warrior Nuns Areala and the Nebelhexas have done battle as cowgirls in the Wild West, swordsmen in the Three Musketeer's France, as a Christian knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

 and a quasi-Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 jihadist
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...

 in the Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

, and presumably many others. The first was one of the Vikings that tried to rape the original Sister Areala. She turned the lone survivor into an evil wizard who transferred his soul into a golem with the sole task of killing Arealas and it went about doing it sometimes successfully, sometimes not for over a thousand years until it was permanently destroyed by Sister Shannon.

Helga, the sole forgotten survivor of Ragnarök, has thus vicariously clashed with her old enemy time and again but she has lost time and again because, in Areala's words "... NONE may withstand the power of God!" That is seen with how Helga once killed a Nebelhexa by overloading her with power in hopes of killing (the original) Areala's Sister Shannon. She died after Shannon said "My power comes from the Almighty! And His is a power you cannot equal!"

In German, Nebelhexe means "fog witch."

Demon Foster

Unlike his rival, Lillith, Demon Foster is a loyal follower of Satan and sworn enemy of God. He first appeared in the service of Julius Salvius and led Salvius troops in an attempt to destroy the Vatican and later New York City. While thought killed by Lillith, he later returned as the Red Mask/Masque, a double agent who on the surface worked for Nazi Frederick Ottoman. Seeking to forge alliances with Japan's Oni, he and Mr Kailanx worked with Lord Akuma of the Teutonic Knights and of a possible alliance to use and then dispose of the still human Frederick Ottoman. While Foster and Akuma did unite and they did manage to betray Ottoman and use his technology in an attempt at world destruction, that too failed with the Onis' power broken. Though again thought dead, he survived that encounter and was upgraded into a monstrous cyborg by Satan's Mengele, Mr. Kailanx a human looking mad scientist demon.

While primarily hailing from the fallen angels who defied the Lord, Foster is seen to be friendly towards the monsters and evil spirits of other belief systems and hopes for the unity of all demons.

Demon Foster is shown to have a variety of powers at his disposal, among them the power to grow spider legs from his body for use as weapons.

Mr. Kailanx

Mr. Kailanx is Satan's Mengele, a human looking mad scientist demon. Allied with Demon Foster, he has worked with him on various ventures, first in aiding his ventures as Red Mask and later in repairing him after his presumed death. Kailanx masquerades as an innocuous gray-haired old man wearing suit
Suit (clothing)
In clothing, a suit is a set of garments made from the same cloth, consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits are the most common style of Western suit, originating in the United Kingdom as country wear...

 and bow tie
Bow tie
The bow tie is a type of men's necktie. It consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the collar in a symmetrical manner such that the two opposite ends form loops. Ready-tied bow ties are available, in which the distinctive bow is sewn into shape and the band around the neck incorporates a clip....

. He will infiltrate human organizations to gain technology he otherwise would not have, most notably Delta Corps which was riddled by demon moles from the very first issue of the very first series. A sadist, his Hell laboratory is analogous to Imperial Japan's Unit 731
Unit 731
was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese...

 or the Nazi labs
Nazi human experimentation
Nazi human experimentation was a series of medical experiments on large numbers of prisoners by the Nazi German regime in its concentration camps mainly in the early 1940s, during World War II and the Holocaust. Prisoners were coerced into participating: they did not willingly volunteer and there...

 with the exception that the damned cannot be put out of their misery and suffer indefinitely. He will also strike out on his own, hatching his own plots. He is also seen to jealously guard his lab, sometimes abandoning his latest plot to protect his lab.

Julian Salvius

Also called Julius Salvius or Salvius Julianus, he was Sister Shannon's first foe. From his name, and from his remarks about being a Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

 and of having been "cursed by the Christians" he seems to be Julian the Apostate
Julian the Apostate
Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....

 survived into modern times. In addition to being the last pagan Roman Emperor in an Empire that had already converted to Christianity, the real Julian renounced the faith into which he had been batized (the faith his uncle Emperor Constantine
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...

 had legalized
Edict of Milan
The Edict of Milan was a letter signed by emperors Constantine I and Licinius that proclaimed religious toleration in the Roman Empire...

 and embraced
Constantine I and Christianity
During the reign of the Emperor Constantine the Great, Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Constantine, also known as Constantine I, had a significant religious experience following his victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312...

) and tried to revive paganism. If Julius Salvius is in fact is Julian the Apostate, it is not said where he was from his "death" in 363 to the modern day. However, has evidently clashed with the Church for some time as senior members of the Catholic Corps will use him like a boogeyman to keep younger members of the Catholic Corps in line.

In modern times, he led a double life was a wealthy industrialist/arms dealer and a Satanist. Furthering the Nazi demon connection, he would have "brown shirts" in his employ though the swastika was replaced with a pentagram. More than just a pagan and an anti-Christian, he is now an evil wizard and servant of the Devil who sought to free the Devil from the pits of Hell and destroy the Catholic Church to take revenge against the Christians who cursed him. His plan was thwarted and he was thought killed. He was in fact imprisoned in the Vatican and later managed to escape seeking revenge against Sister Shannon and the rest of the Catholic Church.

The Hammer

The Hammer is an embittered Jewish anti-hero who opposes Catholicism.

Today a citizen of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 and a grandfather, his true name is Zev Schlieffer and he was born in the town of Oświęcim
Oswiecim
Oświęcim is a town in the Lesser Poland province of southern Poland, situated west of Kraków, near the confluence of the rivers Vistula and Soła.- History :...

 to a Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

. He was empowered by his father in the Kabbalah
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...

 for the purpose of preventing the Holocaust which he foresaw. Young Hammer, however, ignored his father and, prior to World War II, he left to battle the demon Asmodeus
Asmodai
Asmodeus or Asmodai is a king of demons mostly known from the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit, in which he is the primary antagonist. The demon is also mentioned in some Talmudic legends, for instance, in the story of the construction of the Temple of Solomon. He was supposed by some Renaissance...

 regardless of his father's warnings. He returned to the human world and his home of Oświęcim just after World War II finding himself in front of Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

. Auschwitz is German for Oświęcim.

Despite having forsworn his duty and being responsible for the genocide (and the death of his father who died in transit to Dachau in 1942) he could have prevented, he scapegoats the Catholic Church. He sees the entire hierarchy as guilty for involvement in the ratlines, the smuggling of war criminals out of Germany by two priests. In seeking access to the Vatican Secret Archives
Vatican Secret Archives
The Vatican Secret Archives , located in Vatican City, is the central repository for all of the acts promulgated by the Holy See. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, having primal incumbency until death, owns the archives until the next appointed Papal successor...

 for material on the subject, he was prepared to kill anyone—and he hospitalized several—to do so though he promised to "mourn" his victims. He was stopped by Cardinal Stark who talked him out of it.

Aside from that, he has been seen defending Israel from attack and has brought ex-Nazis
Ex-Nazis
The list of notable people who were at some point members of the Nazi Party, before it was declared illegal and disbanded upon the victory of the Allies. After 1945 many former party members had to go through a process of denazification and some were indicted and convicted at the Nuremberg Trials,...

 to justice as a Nazi hunter
Nazi hunter
A Nazi-hunter is a private individual who tracks down and gathers information on alleged former Nazis, SS members and Nazi collaborators involved in the Holocaust, typically for use at trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity...

. He must have the staff given him by his father to use his powers. He is also anti-American. He sees the United States as weak and materialist.

The Holy Man

The Holy Man is perhaps a slight spoof on real life atheists in that he does not believe because he does not want to believe. This is seen with how angels and demons are in plain sight for the world to see, one letter to the editor of Warrior Nun Areala stated that people would have no choice but to believe.

The Holy Man, however claims to not just be an atheist but an "anti-theist" in that he sees all religion as a fraud and that it must be destroyed for humans to evolve. And he plans to destroy it by any means necessary such as by murdering people of faith and destroying any house of worship. A manic and seemingly insane Joker
Joker (comics)
The Joker is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain published by DC Comics. He is the archenemy of Batman, having been directly responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, including the paralysis of Barbara Gordon and the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin...

 like character, his madness seems to stem from the fact that he refuses to accept God's existence but can not logically do so with the supernatural right in front of him. This extends to his stalking Sister Shannon and wanting to kill her for being living proof of what he refuses to believe in.

This leads to near-madness. His schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...

 and self contradictory attitude is seen in that he claims not to have a soul thereby acknowledging that souls exist, and thereby God the maker of souls. He then adds that not having a soul is what makes him realise that religion is false. He sees his belief in the non-existence of God as a license for immoral behavior on the logic that if there is no God dictating morality, then there are no moral absolutes, no fear of damnation, no reason to be good, only a concern for self because if there is no God there can be no morality as humans are then nothing made by nothing from nothing and for nothing and are no more intrinsically important than any other form of dead matter and that attempts to believe otherwise are mere self delusions since despite such attempts at philosophy and ethics for its own sake there is in the end still nothing more than an empty godless world. Thus, in Holy Man's view, human beings should accept that they are a freak accident arising from said indifferent universe and that their lives are unworthy of life.

He was created by Barry Lyga as part of an attempt to make a serious Areala, one that viewed the subject matter from an intellectual point of view and not mere tongue in cheek gimmickery. In fact, it had been Lyga's hope to make Holy Man the primary villain of his Areala series had it progressed beyond six issues. (Holy Man's last appearance in fact ended with a sinister hidden camera at the Saint Thomas Church recording Sister Shannon's actions.) The fact that Lyga mentioned attaks on synagogues and mosques perhaps means that had the story continued, the view of various religions in the world of Areala would have continued. Unfortunately for Lyga, the audience for the book liked the more tongue-in-cheek approach of other Areala authors and he left; thus, despite occasional glimpses like him being used as a holographic training program, Holy Man has never been seen again.

It may be asked if he has no god, from where does the atheist Holy Man have his power. Though Lyga never managed to address that it can be assumed that in the larger context of the Areala universe, it is due to the "God-gene," a genetic mutation that allows humans to tap into supernatural powers, perhaps with or without the individual invoking his or her god. It was somehing first hypothezised by the anti-Christian Nazi Frederick Ottoman perhaps out of his refusal to accept God. It was later expounded on by Anti-Christ Az Rabah as a remnant of angels taking human wives and imparting power in their children. Lending credence to this, Holy Swords have little effect on Holy Man.

Mordecai Black

Mordecai Black is an apostate Catholic and evil atheist that has since rejected the Church. When asked by others how he can explain the supernatural and the existence of angels and demons, he often dodges the question.

Having turned away from the faith in the 1930s his stories mostly appear in flashbacks. Black had originally been one of the Magic Priests until he came to believe that there was no God and with that decided to destroy the Church. His first act as an atheist was to sabotage a Magic Priest gathering and kill them all with a bomb. This would later prove a boon to the Nazis with how the generation of Magic Priests that could have and would have faced them down was killed. He later aided Hitler in trying to enlist the fallen angel Azazal to his aid. However, touching Azazal's tomb somehow broke Black's mind and spirit. He has since lived as a lonely, miserable hermit at the foot of the tomb into the modern day. He expresses some remorse for his actions however and has vowed to guard the tomb.

Lord Akuma

A Japanese Oni who sought world domination, Akuma was freed from underneath his prison under Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...

 when it was destroyed in 1945
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

. He worked for years undermining Japan's spirituality until he teamed with Dr. Frederick Ottoman for the purpose of creating an army of monsters. After Ottoman served his purposes, he was (seemingly) killed and Akuma took his technologies for himself and stole necessary relics from the Ise Shrine
Ise Shrine
is a Shinto shrine dedicated to goddess Amaterasu-ōmikami, located in the city of Ise in Mie prefecture, Japan. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is in fact a shrine complex composed of a large number of Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and ....

. He was on the verge of freeing his fellow oni from their prisons beneath Japan when he was defeated by Sister Shannon's grandfather, the onmiyoji Ota Yoma.

His followers have since scattered across Japan.

Masons

In real life, the real Masons are—allegedly—merely a fraternal organization with, no more noteworthy than any other club. However, due to its perceived secretive nature, Freemasonry has long been a subject of conspiracy theories in which Freemasonry is portrayed as bent on world domination or as being secretly in control of world politics. Not only that, but there has traditionally been religious opposition to it from the Catholic Church on grounds that Catholic Theism
Theism
Theism, in the broadest sense, is the belief that at least one deity exists.In a more specific sense, theism refers to a doctrine concerning the nature of a monotheistic God and God's relationship to the universe....

 is incompatible with Masonic Deism
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...

.

The fictional Masons seen in Warrior Nun Areala embody the worst traits of all these things. The fictional Masons are led by the immortal and undead Sixtus VI who proclaimed himself anti-pope in 1696 in opposition to Innocent XII and are part of millennia long Illuminati
Illuminati
The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...

/New World Order
New World Order (conspiracy)
In conspiracy theory, the term New World Order or NWO refers to the emergence of a totalitarian one-world government.The common theme in conspiracy theories about a New World Order is that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an...

 out to gain world domination
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...

.

They have various moles
Mole (espionage)
A mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government. In some usage, a mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector becomes a spy only after gaining access...

 in world governments and in the hierarchy of the Church. They get recruits by promising eternal earthly life, albeit as a putrifying corpses. (Concerning that they admit that there are some drawbacks.) The Masons also have various demons at their command and engage in the worship of gods or monsters called the Primordials. Being that they seem to exist outside of time, the Cthulhu
Cthulhu
Cthulhu is a fictional character that first appeared in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. The character was created by writer H. P...

 like Primordials wield enormous power. It is not known what the Primordials are, possibly GAOTU, or when Masonry began; it is known that they have existed for centuries, perhaps even millennia and will exist for centuries at least to come.

The Masons ultimate centuries-long goal was to destroy the Catholic Church from the inside and gradually replace it with the worship of their own gods. To that end Sixtus VI took human form and infiltrated the Apostolic Palace
Apostolic Palace
The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, which is located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Sacred Palace, the Papal Palace and the Palace of the Vatican...

 as part of Pope John Paul II's Papal Household. The Masons plot has since been foiled.
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