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Uri Morningstar.

Son of Lucifer , King of Hell , and Lilith , Queen of Hell. Captain of the Queen’s Guard.

uri was born upon the red sea , months after lilith’s official banishment from eden. lilith’s transition to demon was not yet complete , and uri was one of the first nephilim ever created. there are other nephilim of lilith’s blood , of course , and so much time has passed that even they no longer remember who was born first.

uri is one of the oldest of lilith’s children ; of that much they are certain. he has always had an independent streak a mile wide , and lilith was happy to encourage it. she loves to see that curiosity within him , that self-sufficiency and strength. loves to know that her children are powerful onto themselves. as a child , that curiosity and strength always manifested itself as restlessness. the need to always be moving , always be doing something. he paced through hell so often that even now , creatures find his footprints in some previously undiscovered corner. he was the child that always tap-tap-tapped his foot , the one who went to bed the latest and rose the earliest.

eventually tiring of the nephilim’s boundless energy , beelzebub took it upon himself to train the child , if only to give him something to do , if only to stop that damned tapping. uri became a rather good soldier at an early age. or , early by demonic standards. he bored of that , too , though , eventually.

when his sister , hadar , suggested exploring the earth --- a world he remembered only distantly from babyhood --- uri was wholeheartedly onboard. he told of the idea to yovela , while hadar told admon and oz. despite their excitement , it still took them months to gather the courage to ask their mother. uri promised to protect his siblings , and lilith saw no harm in their excursion.

( it had been a long , long time since she was cursed to lose a hundred of her children. not one had yet been lost. she thought , foolishly , that the lord had forgotten. or perhaps , thought her too insignificant to punish. )

the power of that angel , when it came , froze his blood in his veins. he was the first to scream at everyone to run. he herded oz and yovela away , and when he turned back to see hadar and admon , hadar was gone. her body was there. rather , pieces of it. there was blood everywhere. it smelled of wolves and wildflowers. that smell he was so familiar with. his baby sister. his heart pounded as he grabbed admon’s arm.

uri could see it. clear as the day , bright as the stain of hadar’s blood on admon’s fur. there was nothing to be done for hadar , not anymore , but admon --- so excitable , so intelligent --- would be next. his eagerness to please would not save him. not in front of this heavenly beast , who thought them monsters simply for who had birthed them. because they were of lilith’s flesh. lilith had fed and cared and loved them so deeply , and they hated her --- hated them --- because she would not set fire to herself to keep another warm. uri could see it.

admon’s goat legs were too small for them to run properly. uri knew in his bones that he could stand against this angel. she was a lesser creature , not nearly so threatening as lucifer or beelzebub or the countless other fallen angels that littered hell’s halls. uri was the product of a union between heaven’s strongest angel and the woman who had bested god. he could destroy that angel , if he wanted. but only if he was willing to risk his siblings to do it.

he was not.

oz found a cave not far off from where they were attacked. so near that they could still smell hadar’s blood. admon had it caked into his legs. it decorated uri’s hair in a crown of red stars. his brother was too shocked to wash it off. oz was in ruins. she was hyperventilating , near screaming. uri was not patient as he tried to calm her , telling her to shut up or they’d be found. hadar would have been able to calm her ; the absence of her made him hollow. his yelling only made oz cry harder. yovela murmured sweet nothings until oz’s hysteria eventually tired her out.

uri refused to let his siblings out of the cave. he didn’t know how to get home without alerting more angels. didn’t want to bring a host of them into hell. could not risk the rest of his family like that. and so he mandated that they stay in the cave and , confident in his own strength alone , went hunting to keep his siblings fed.

there was nothing to be done for oz , who could not feed without finding a mortal to feed off. oz grew weaker and weaker by the day. yovela saved portions of meat and water for her , stubbornly refusing to give up , even as she knew that nothing could be done. uri knew she felt guilty as he watched her drink her fill off the freshly dead animals he brought to them.

it was months before their mother found them. uri felt her presence on the earth like a beacon. unparalleled power calling to him , calling to all of them , begging to know they lived. the ground fell from under him as he thought of what to say to her. of how to tell his mother that he had failed. that he had not protected his sister. the youngest of them , so loyal and dedicated and full of love. so much like their mother.

he knew the exact moment he would not be the one to tell her. knew it for the way the world , the universe , quaked around them. wondered if his mother would cleave it apart for spite , or if her grief had her unhinged.

the look on his mother’s face when she found them was unlike any uri had ever seen. he had seen love and rage and cruelty from her before. had watched as she ripped creatures limb from limb without so much as lifting a finger. and yet this utter emptiness in his mother’s face froze him to the core. the grief in her eyes changed him. for a brief , heart stopping moment , uri was afraid for the angel that had murdered hadar.

admon reached for lilith first , the expression on his face childlike and terrified. something among them all had changed. there was a gaping whole that only hadar could fill. there was something deeply , achingly missing from his mother.

uri decided he would never again be the reason his mother hurt. he dedicated himself to her then , to defending and protecting her. she had birthed him , raised him , saved him. and he would not fail her again. upon his return to hell , he went to his father’s rooms. he had learned all the prince of hell had to teach him. uri wanted to learn from his king. from his father.

he formed the guard , decades later. there was no need for it , really ; no one in hell was foolish enough to harm either king or queen , and no one would survive it if they did. but it was a way to prove dedication and loyalty , and spot of pride , and the king and queen of hell allowed it.

the guard eventually turned into the queen’s guard , but that is a story for another time , with direct ties to my verse with @luxreprobi.

notes:

uri is up for adoption ! please please please write him

his faceclaim is earth vangwithayakul , but that can of course be changed

though he is the son of the king and queen of hell , he is not the prince of hell. the one and only prince of hell his beelzebub. this is because the title is not a hereditary position , but rather one of power.

his sister , hadar , and his brother , admon , are written by the lovely moth , on @mothsmuses.