Lucifer (Dante's Inferno)

Lucifer is the fallen angel that rules over Hell and the main antagonist of the videogame Dante’s Inferno.

Banishment to the Inferno
Lucifer was once God’s most favored angel, the "Morning Star, the brightest in the sky" as he called himself, and lived in Heaven, having no superior other than the Lord himself. But his great beauty and power sowed a belief that he was a perfect being and he became enraged when God’s favorite creation became man. Lucifer gathered an army and attempted to take control of Heaven, but was defeated and lost the lord’s favor. As punishment, he and his minions were cast into Hell, where Lucifer seized control, becoming ruler of the damned.

Taking Beatrice
While Dante Alighieri was fighting in the Crusades, Lucifer and Beatrice made a bet. If Dante kept his vow not to sleep with any woman while he was gone, Beatrice would see his safe return from the war. If not, her soul would belong to Lucifer. The lord of the damned won the bet and when Beatrice was killed, he took her soul to Hell with him. Dante chased after them, determined to save Beatrice from the Inferno while Lucifer constantly taunted him and forced him to undergo flashbacks of his sins to try and break his spirit. As Dante traveled through the Circle of Anger, he was forced to watch as Lucifer had Beatrice undergo the final ritual to become his bride.

Final Battle with Dante
After freeing Beatrice from Hell, Dante descended into the Circle of Treachery where he encountered Lucifer in a giant three-faced form trapped in a lake of ice formed from his own frozen tears named Cocytus. Dante succeeded in greatly injuring the demon, but he only split his stomach open to let out his true form, a corrupted version of his old self with torn wings, large horns, and goat legs. Lucifer revealed that Beatrice had never been the one he sought to use to free himself from Hell, she had simply been bait to draw in Dante. Others had tried to free him before, including Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, and Lancelot, but they had not been impure enough to get through his outer body. However Dante had been perfect for the job since he had the strength to fight his way through Hell and a soul black enough to free Lucifer. The lord of the damned then began battling Dante on Cocytus, but the demon was overpowered by him. However Lucifer revealed that despite the crusader's defeat of Death, he was still dead and could not leave Hell because of his sins. But Dante called on the souls that he had absolved on his journey and asked that they do the same for him. The souls poured forth and drove Lucifer back into his imprisoning body, then bound his arms in ice. They then gave Dante passage to Purgatory, but when he arrived there, he tore off the tapestry on his chest, which formed into a snake and Lucifer’s laugh was heard, implying that he did manage to escape from the Inferno.

Personality
Lucifer is highly cunning and intelligent and convinces his followers to do his bidding by making faustian bargains with them. He often makes his foes undergo harsh challenges and trials before they can face him. Lucifer is a proud and calculating demon that takes great delight in punishing the damned. But despite being the lord of evil, he has a sense of justice and honor to him and never does anything to the innocent unless he has the right. However the impure find terrible punishment at the hands of Lucifer for their sins. In the animated movie, he stated that he introduced sin into the world, but mankind on its own was responsible for spreading it like a plague.

Powers and Abilities
Lucifer is extremely powerful and possesses great demonic power along with enormous strength and immortality. In his first form, he can slam his fists into the ground to generate shockwaves, use his wings to create enormous gusts of icy wind, generate powerful storms, and use various ice based attacks. In this form, Lucifer’s stomach serves as his weakpoint. In his true form, he is even more powerful, wielding a flaming sword in combat and is able to unleash shockwaves, generate fire attacks, teleport, and fly. Lucifer also has the power to appear in a humanoid form made of black smoke, one that he appears in most often.

Trivia

 * In the Divine Comedy, Lucifer was placed in the deepest part of the ninth circle of Hell, frozen up to his waist. He was depicted with three heads, which gnawed upon the three greatest traitors of history, Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot.


 * In the video game, Lucifer was voiced by John Vickery and in the animated movie, he was voiced by Steven Blum, who also voiced Ares in God of War, a game that had many similarities to Dante’s Inferno. His Japanese voice actor was Banjo Ginga.


 * As Dante transverses the Circles of Hell, he needs to break links in walls to abseil on walls and get to the next circle. Each time he does so, Lucifer’s laugh is heard, indicating these are the chains holding him in place. This is further supported by Lucifer praising Dante for breaking the chains of Judecca before their final battle.


 * Lucifer seemed to have a slouch in his step in his true form, but it is unknown if this is an injury or because of his lower body being that of a goat.


 * His true form resembles Baphomet, an idol allegedly worshipped by the accused Templar Knights, who was depicted as a winged, goat-legged demon with an inverted pentagram as his symbol. The inverted pentagram, a known symbol of Satanism, is seen engraved with flames in Lake Cocytus.


 * During the second part of his battle with Dante, Lucifer said to “remember the rebellion” that he lead against God.


 * On his right arm is an amulet resembling a serpent.


 * Lucifer is known for making deals with people, such as Beatrice. He also made one with Cleopatra, that she and Marc Antony could be together forever and attempted to make one with Dante, that they would work together and rule all three kingdoms of the afterlife. In the animated movie, he made one with Alighiero that if he killed Dante, he would receive 1000 years free of torment and endless gold.


 * Lucifer has an aged appearance in his true form, suggesting that demons can age and grow old, though at a rate different from humans, but this may have simply been a result of shape shifting.


 * Lucifer seems to have the element of fire represent him, which would make it easy to escape since he was imprisoned in a frozen lake. It is possible that his first form simply gave him different powers that he gained by adapting to his prison and limited him from using fire.


 * Lucifer’s true form bears a resemblance to the fallen angels seen in the Inferno so it is likely that goat legged demon forms are common amongst those who fell from Heaven’s grace.


 * Despite the fact that his wings are gone, torn off to be nothing more than stumps, Lucifer is able to fly with ease, but this ability may come from some type of inherent power.