The stork-earl who builds towers and fills them with the instruments of war.
The Spirit
Halphas — also written Halpas or Malthus — is the thirty-eighth spirit of the Ars Goetia, a Great Earl who appears in the form of a stork and speaks with a hoarse, rough voice. He is one of the martial spirits of the catalogue, concerned wholly with the machinery of war: the raising of fortifications, the arming of soldiers, and the dispatch of men to the field of battle. Where the astronomical and scholarly spirits attend to the heavens and the herbs, Halphas is a builder of towers and a quartermaster of arms.
His stork-form is a curious emblem for so warlike an office, but the grimoires are consistent on it, and the tradition treats him as a grim and practical spirit, occupied with the logistics of conflict rather than its glory.
Office
The Goetia says that Halphas builds up towers and fills them with weapons and ammunition, and that he sends men of war to designated places. His office is the provisioning and disposition of armies — the fortification of strongholds, the stocking of arsenals, and the movement of troops toward the places where they are commanded to go. He is, in effect, a spirit of military engineering and supply.
Attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Number | 38 |
| Rank | Earl (Great Earl) |
| Legions | 26 |
| Appearance | The form of a stork; speaks with a hoarse voice |