New 'Dungeons & Dragons' Adventure Could Involve This Popular Character

Dungeons & Dragons is announcing their new adventure this week, and it seems to involve a popular character that ties into the eternal Blood War. Next week, Dungeons & Dragons will announce their next storyline at D&D Live 2019: The Descent. A piece of promo art for the event, drawn by Saga artist Fiona Staples, shows a blindfolded angel with her sword drawn, hovering above several outstretched devilish hands. Many fans suspected that the angel was Zariel, a fallen angel that now rules the first level of the Nine Hells. This suspicion was confirmed when a fan pointed out that an image of the angel on D&D's ticketing site for the event was labelled with Zariel's name.

So - who is Zariel? At one point in time, Zariel was an angel tasked with monitoring the Blood War, an eternal conflict between devils and demons that plays out mostly on the upper levels of the Nine Hells. Frustrated by the angels not intervening in the conflict, Zariel joined the fray by leading an army of mortal allies and followers into battle. Afterwards, Zariel became an archdevil and is now in charge of the plane where most of the Blood War takes place on. Zariel's full stats were revealed in last year's Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, which also has a chapter dedicated to the Blood War.

Zariel's involvement sheds some new light on the naming of this year's D&D Live event. While the presence of angels and demons teased a Planescape or Blood War theme, "the Descent" could also refer to Zariel's travel to the Underworld as well as her eventual corruption from a force for good to a force of evil.

D&D will officially reveal its next storyline on Friday, May 17th at D&D Live, which will also be streamed on D&D's Twitch channel. Following the announcement, D&D will host a series of four interconnected games featuring celebrities like Joe Manganiello, Matthew Lillard, and Deborah Ann Woll that shows off some of the story elements and themes of the upcoming storyline.

Are you excited about Zariel's involvement in this year's D&D storyline? Let us know in the comments, or find me on Twitter at @CHofferCBus to chat all things D&D!