Older than the grimoire that names him, he was worthlessness given a face.
The Spirit
Belial is the sixty-eighth spirit of the Ars Goetia and a Mighty King, but his lineage runs far deeper than the grimoire tradition. The name appears in the Hebrew scriptures as a common noun meaning worthlessness or wickedness, and by the intertestamental period it had hardened into the proper name of a spirit of lawlessness. The Ars Goetia inherits this ancient weight and makes him one of its greatest kings, said in some accounts to have been created immediately after Lucifer himself.
In the received texts he manifests in the form of two beautiful angels seated in a chariot of fire, speaking with a fair and comely voice. His beauty is deliberate and troubling, for the tradition holds that his loveliness masks a fundamentally deceitful nature, and that he must be handled with unusual care and offerings if his answers are to be trusted.
Office
The Ars Goetia holds that Belial distributes preferments and senatorships, procures the favour of friends and foes, and grants excellent familiars. He gives dignities and offices to those who seek them. But the grimoire is emphatic that he does not answer truly unless the conjurer compels him by the divine power and presents gifts and sacrifices, for he is a deceiver by nature; without such constraint he will beguile and mislead the one who summons him.
Attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Number | 68 |
| Rank | King |
| Legions | 50 (or 80 in some accounts) |
| Appearance | Two beautiful angels in a chariot of fire, speaking with a fair voice |