#michael really may not have left if these high ranking angels hadn't so fully supported him

[cherubchoirs]

They kinda look similar ngl. Whatever happened to the council?

uriel is definitely meant to look more councilor-like, given his role in heaven was far from fighting as one of god's warriors. the council met the same fate in the au, which is largely the trigger for gabriel falling all the way to treachery - he is relegated to judecca, the lowest layer of the lowest circle, which punishes those who betrayed their lords and benefactors (the inferno is. a very political text lol) none of them escaped from gabriel, and quite frankly....none of the archangels, including michael, mourn their loss as a governing entity. raphael at this point has blamed them for gabriel's fall - he is grieved for them personally, but does harbor resentment for their treatment of his brother. uriel never knew them as the rulers of heaven, falling into his coma before they took hold only to wake shortly after their slaughter when gabriel became a fallen angel. however, he believes any angel willing to fill a power vacuum so quickly has ulterior motives (as they are meant to serve), and he's heard enough from raphael to know he needn't spare them much thought now. michael sees them as heretics and actually approves of gabriel's actions (he believes gabriel's love of v1 is his true treachery, causing him to turn his back on god), viewing them as usurpers of god's throne on the same level as satan. in my mind, the council were a set of opportunistic angels that greatly encouraged michael to leave in search of god while using gabriel, a far more popular angel, to drive their cause until they had no more need of him. the archangels, after all, would have been their greatest competition with god now gone as they would be the natural choice to fill that void - but with uriel asleep, michael sent away, raphael not leader material on his own, and gabriel under their control, they solidified their grip on heaven. gabriel was always going to be gotten rid of once he out-lived his usefulness given that he was still too much of a threat even on his own...i do like to think uriel finds out much of this information from their documentation and what he simply Knows about each of the council's individual members. and finding out that they had a heavy hand in sending michael off as well as how they had planned gabriel's destruction...well, raphael is genuinely PISSED for the first time in his whole existence!!!!