They end up in his office again, which looks exactly the same as last time except there is no squirming mass of naked halfbreeds on the floor. Decorously, Balthazar immediately removes his hand from John's shoulder and goes to the liquor cabinet. He chooses a crystal decanter and pours them both generous glasses. Though he plans to imbibe as well, there's simply no way his constitution will allow him to get drunk at the same rate as Constantine, particularly since he's charging up John's with a hellish distillation and not his own.

Because he's like that, you know.

Anonymous comments turned on.

Balthazar is a half-demon who can sense some things about other people, so if you would, please tell me:

1. What are you: human, non-human (prior to transformation upon arriving at the City), celestial/infernal? Anything else he might sense (example: Spike from Buffy would have a soul despite being a vampire)?
2. Are you a psychic/telepath or a magic user?

IF YES TO #2... this LOVELY ICON is a representation of Balthazar's true face, which lies literally right beneath his human skin and can be seen by telepaths, magic users, celestial/infernal beings, or psychics: either if they look hard enough, or without any effort at all, you decide!

The portal leads to the large-windowed open office Balthazar frequents for business purposes; it's sparsely decorated, with a wide mahogany desk, a leather chair, a leather couch, and a liquor cabinet. It's exactly the kind of snootily decorated, meticulously elegant place one might expect out of him. Needless to say, no real work gets done here, and that isn't about to change.

Balthazar closes the portal behind them, another mildly ominous sign, and pulls John to him mock-tenderly. He maintains a hold on John's arms, however, so there isn't any contact between their bodies — and his strength is definitely demonically enhanced now, something that this John might be able to match, but unnerving all the same.

"Are you going to do everything I tell you, John?"

He'd been rich, once— not just in money, not just in human investments, but in artifacts and relics, stored magic and unfilled promises. He had hidden his wealth away in many places. Caches of power, in case he ever needed them.

Of course, Rosacarnis had gotten to most of them, torn down the warded walls and let the bottom-feeders scavenge to their satisfaction. But she hadn't found them all, nor did she wish to expend the effort in doing so. Tactical arrogance demands you treat your fallen enemy as exactly as important as they are, which is to say, in Balthazar's case, not at all.

So when he shoulders the statue of St. Jude aside (his stupid weak human joints creak with the effort), he is entirely unsurprised to see that the trap door is still sealed with a runed inscription. He kneels and activates the key sequence, pushing the door open with a grunt. The drop down hurts his ankles, like circumstances conspire to remind him incessantly of his mortality; he heaves a put upon sigh and stalks down the cool, narrow corridor until it widens in to a cavern. The shelves glow softly with his spoils.

"Saul, Saul, Saul. Whatever shall we do with you?"

He's hungry. Saul would be perfect... but he's out of favors. There's no one left to ask. All he has now is a special vault of items he once was unable to touch. Now, it's his weak human flesh that allows him to grasp this simple nail without burning away. He'd spent over seventy years hunting for this relic, at the behest of his "father". The bridle of Constantine.

He thinks he'll take that as a sign.

Balthazar is a halfbreed demon fresh from Hell, just full of all sorts of icky infernal energy. He is a thrice-disgraced son of Nergal ("made", not born) and a general of Mammon. His powers are based primarily on deception and illusion, but he is infamous for making all sorts of deals that hinge on exchange of goods, information, or services. He is immune to fire (exceptions can be made) and vulnerable to any and all holy items/magic, which are capable of destroying his human shell and "exorcising" his demonic form back to Hell. Stronger and faster than a normal human, the twisted and disgusting visage of his demonic form lies directly beneath his human skin, and may be visible to those with second sight or equivalent.

Dripping blood (animal or human) on one of his business cards will summon him, unless he chooses not to answer.

He is generally able to determine a character's nature (i.e. human, vampire, fairy, etc.) upon meeting them, and depending on how defended their minds are, skim surface thoughts and emotions for information. He is not a telepath, however, and cannot discern actual thoughts or memories without more elaborate means and player permission. How his powers affect a character are completely negotiable. Please feel free to contact me and discuss any problems you have. exprophet (at) gmail dot com

- Nexus Wiki
- Detailed Information

Little paper boats makes their way here and there, occasionally plucked up by innocent bystanders but perhaps finding people who will recognize the implications of its contents. Unlike the previous incarnations, the sail bears a sooty inscription: burn me. If the instruction is followed, the flame that ensues swells and persists, large enough that the image it contains is clear.

There Balthazar sits on a broad, shiny executive's desk, attired as always in his pinstripes and abhorrent tie, drink in one hand and leatherbound portfolio balanced in the other.

( ''Help me, Obi-Wan, you're my only hope.'' )

With that his image flickers and fades out.



OOC: all items mentioned are meant to be handy plot coupons, there's no obligation to acknowledge them.

When the demon Rosacarnis took one day of John's life in return for his memories, she made it stretch into forty years: long enough for her to take different guises of women John had loved over his life, and to bear and raise three children. Children who not only had his genes, but his number, too. Saul, Maria, and Adam were born to destroy John's life. They started with everybody who had ever had anything to do with Constantine... and moved on to friends and family, with disastrous consequences.

With his sister dead and her soul trapped in Hell, John has no alternative but to follow Nergal down, down, down, into a place where every demon has a damned good reason to keep him there.

John in Hell.

A rake at the gate of hell.

Nergal's torment.

Accosted by his demonic double.

From the newer Books of Magick series with Timothy Hunter, Zatanna, and Constantine. I lol'd. SO. Hard. Constantine/Chas, it's canonical! Seriously! XD

Balthazar: *fucking sprains something laughing*
Constantine: *dumps him in a baptismal font*

No, but ... as much as I desperately want to love the newer series, I have to say, Books of Magick is on some fucking crack that not even I can adore. And yet there are interestng things that I want so badly to work out better. But. No. Alas. Poor Tim. And if Balthazar were actually a part of the comics, Tim probably would've wasted him too. ♥

Just thought I'd share this, because it makes me laugh uncontrollably every time: the comic of the movie inspired by the comic, the main character of which was inspired by a musician, Balthazar's last page. Just. EVERYTHING. The horrible dialogue, the sketchy art. I LOL'd. The hand, people, the hand.

Angela: Dude. Overkill.
Keanustine: Whatever. *examines chin* Still not king.
Balthazar: I have turned into a cat. HSSS. When animals attack you need fire.

Okay, the panel where Balthazar is apparently talking to himself makes me laugh too. Not to mention the sincerely flaming bit where Balthazar um, licks Constantine. DUDE. That moment in the movie was awesome. Don't change a good thing. You can see an actual expression on Keanu Reeves' face! It is like ">:|"!! While Gavin Rossdale is supremely slimy, inches away from his disgusted face! It's a tense moment and all cause you think Constantine's gonna deck him like he so richly deserves, but NUH. Pacing, my friends, pacing. Obviously the comic sucks donkey balls and I shouldn't even bother whining about it, but ... but that's what I do best. Anyway, oh, whatever, that also makes me laugh because Constantine is like ">:|!!!! *SHOVE*" and Balthazar is all "fhdjfdshfkljdsh *falls over*"

It's likely that he's made a permanent enemy of the son of Satan, and that, frankly, does nothing for Balthazar's status in Hell. Nothing, that is, that hadn't already been done with the Gabriel debacle. He's just as likely to be flocked by sycophants as he is attacked by Mammon's supporters whenever he returns home: and so, it's preferrable that he does not return home as much as possible. It wasn't of his own skill or power that he's attained this position, but paradoxically, this only makes it a weightier consideration. He was in the right place at the right time, and does that not make it the will of those Above and Below?

Balthazar personally wishes they'd all fuck off.

Before the tertium quid nonsense gets out.

A third something; 1. Something that cannot be classified into either of two groups considered exhaustive; an intermediate thing or factor. 2. A third person or thing of indeterminate character.

He's made it a point to kill anyone who so much as breathes the words, but he knows that if Lucifer truly thought he had any aspirations to this bullshit, nothing could save him.

And therein lies the problem. He doesn't have any aspirations to this. That won't stop him from taking it up, however. He absolutely cannot outrun both Heaven and Hell, but if he could, he would never even consider this. He's thousands of years old and can raise wasps from flesh; he can be beaten into a bloody pulp by the pale imitation of a human trickster. He can orchestrate a complex distraction scheme designed to torment the key player in a celestial-infernal plot to destroy the world, and he can be trapped in a pocket Hell universe with three shrill "witches" and a demon who looks like a pro-wrestler. He doesn't want anything more than to be left alone, do his job, and amuse himself in the Nexus, because he's done with being kicked around and beat up by the same people who hired him and tormented by his overseers, and that's exactly why he's afraid this simply will not stop.

Ah, well. Nil sine numine.

( everybody falls in small degrees; that's gravity )

"Imagine that life on earth exists in a state of détente, a balance between the forces of good and evil scrupulously maintained through the ages. Humans choose their own paths in this realm and, in doing so, seal their fates for the realm beyond; some bound for heaven and some for hell.

"As part of this divine wager for all the souls in the world, both God and the devil are restricted from direct contact with the human race and its free will but are allowed a measure of influence through intermediaries. Neither fully angels nor demons, these earthbound influence peddlers are best described as half-breeds."

Mene mene tekel upharsin.

And I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant and son and grandchild, saith the Lord.

Ego hoc mando tibi.

Hello, children, let's try this newfangled thing called logic.

Of course, logic tells me it's idiotic to be even bothering to type this up, but! It's 4 AM, this is what 4 AM is for.

Balthazar may not have done anything that technically violated the Balance, but he was sort of, you know ... TRYING TO BRING ABOUT HELL ON EARTH. I'm pretty sure that merits being deported. And Lucifer can't have been happy with him either -- serving Mammon in an act of treachery, as well as cooperating with an angel? Ooh, it's the rack for him.

That can lead one to suspect he'd more or less been forced to participate, precisely because he's such an unknown useless shmuck, and bonus: a shmuck who's happened to piss off Constantine Keanustine before. He ran interference the entire time and had little or nothing to do with the actual plot, aside from maybe causing Isabelle to commit suicide. And even if they had to twist his arm a bit, he did do a spectacular job of distracting Keanustine from Gabriel.

But he doesn't think on his feet very well, and he's a shitty fighter. He practically deported himself. Technically, John didn't even actually deport him, that was Gabriel (or, uh, the scavenger dude) being a douche.

In conclusion ROCKS FALL EVERYBODY DIES.

Thank you to whoever bought me 2 months paid time :D
You enable me to abuse icons like this for usage on Balthazar. *noogies him*

Transporting Walter to Hell entails none of the difficulties he had with Sands, and so he chooses their destination carefully.

Amidst the wreckage of a cathedral, Mammon, the son of Satan, holds court upon the upturned altar. In the pews, demons of the lower hierarchies are rending and devouring numerous humans who mostly seem to be held in some kind of smoking pit beneath the church floor. Although the landscape is by turns dreary or flaming, all colored in fire, blood, and decay, the inside of the sanctuary retains some normal faded color. It serves as contrast to the blood and viscera that gets spattered on.

They are outside the cathedral, looking through the blown-in doors. Two demons, who are missing the tops of their heads and lack any brain, hiss and skulk off, more likely because of Walter than Balthazar.

"Imagine that life on earth exists in a state of détente, a balance between the forces of good and evil scrupulously maintained through the ages. Humans choose their own paths in this realm and, in doing so, seal their fates for the realm beyond; some bound for heaven and some for hell.

"As part of this divine wager for all the souls in the world, both God and the devil are restricted from direct contact with the human race and its free will but are allowed a measure of influence through intermediaries. Neither fully angels nor demons, these earthbound influence peddlers are best described as halfbreeds."


"Why this is hell, nor am I out of it.
Think'st thou that I, who saw the face of God,
And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells
In being deprived of everlasting bliss?"

In taking a character from Constantine, there are huge plot holes to be dealt with. Since the Nexus has a lot of comic book characters, it only makes sense to try and reconcile certain parts of the movie with Hellblazer canon — this will make it more palatable and hopefully tighten up a lot of issues of ambiguity in regards to power.

Halfbreed
The movie implies that this term is somewhat misleading, and given how John uses it against Gabriel and Balthazar, it actually seems to be something of an insult. In Hellblazer, a demon called Rosacarnis had three half-demon children with John as revenge for her father, Nergal.

Balthazar can more accurately said to be a demon wearing a human body than a demon-human hybrid. It's the human aspect that allows him to roam the earth, while "real" demons cannot. If John can enter Hell using a pan of water and a cat, it only makes sense that Balthazar can move between Hell and earth at will; however, when the human body is destroyed, the demon is then deported with no means of return. Long association (in Balthazar's case, a couple thousand years) with a human body means that he is significantly different from and weaker than a true demon.

Nergal and Demonic Hierarchy
Though his personal history with John seems extensive (in the movie's promotional comic, John blames Balthazar specifically for a girl's suicide), there's little elaboration on how it all started. If we assume an event similar to Newcastle also happened for John, it's easy to fit Nergal into moviecanon. So Balthazar's demonic aspect comes from his "father", Nergal. Balthazar doesn't have a full array of demonic powers. The human part that allows him access to earth also makes him weaker. Those that he has, though, are fueled, so to speak, by Nergal's essence. Balthazar doesn't have a "true" name, again because of the human aspect, so he can't be summoned up and controlled like a normal demon; however, using his father's name will suffice.

Because he works for Mammon and uses his symbol, he is also bound by Mammon's name, meaning it will also partially control him. Using Nergal's name would be much more effective due to their closer relationship.

Halfbreeds are at the bottom of the demonic food chain in terms of raw power. As far as their social status goes, they may be considered something like nouveau riche by other devils. While they have great influence over earthly matters, they are also in a sense representatives only: diplomats, ambassadors, stand-ins. A halfbreed who amasses wealth and power such as Balthazar may be dealing with requests couched in the form of orders from all manner of infernal authority (as they are technically his superiors), but will listen first to Mammon or Nergal unless it's otherwise advantageous. Infernal politics are complex, but his loyalties are supposed to be toward his father and his patron respectively. Obviously, a direct order given by Lucifer would supercede even those ...

... so it's best to avoid receiving a direct order, as Balthazar did when he began working to bring Mammon onto the earthly plane. As a half-demon, he was uniquely situated to act discretely on Mammon's behalf, and as the son of Lucifer, Mammon's social standing shielded Balthazar's activities from close scrutiny. Cooperating with an angel — Gabriel, at that — against Satan was an incredibly dangerous move. It is possible that he was simply following orders, but as several times he seemed quite assiduous regarding risky aspects of the job, it seems reasonable to assume he had some personal investment in the scheme. He was punished severely once Gabriel deported him, but that actually helped; after all, half-demons are too weak to conspire against Hell, so eventually they let him go back to work.

Powers and Abilities
Balthazar demonstrates the following abilities during the movie:

• Moving unseen/cloaked. He watches Constantine on the stairs, but when John looks up, he's gone. Later, while murdering Father Hennessy, he moves through the store unnoticed by anyone. Granted, when there's someone dying noisily on the floor, all attention tends to focus there, but the cinematography and the fact that only the half-angel makes eye contact with him implies something about his state of visibility/presence. Finally, before Beeman dies, the pin machines start acting oddly with no one around. As the actual murder isn't shown (though Balthazar's presence is confirmed by the presence of one of his coins), it's unclear whether he revealed himself or not. This ability works with the idea of halfbreeds as whispering voices of influence as well with the idea that he can move between worlds at will ("the world behind the world"). Gabriel also has this ability, presumably in a more powerful form; it's probable the incantation John uses to reveal him would work on Balthazar.
• Mind skimming. In the comics, John uses this ability to pick up names, thoughts, and feelings that are on the foremost of a person's mind. Balthazar can do the same. It gives him a loose idea of who a person is, and what's happened to them recently. In the movie, he tells John that "word on the street is, you're on your way down". This is either true (demonic memo from Lucifer? Very good contacts at the hospital? ConstantineStalkers.com?), he can tell just by looking at John, or he skimmed it.
• Illusions. Balthazar kills Father Hennessy by exploiting the other man's drinking problem. When Hennessy is frightened and runs to a liquor store, Balthazar makes it seem as if every bottle he opens is empty. In reality, they were full, resulting in Hennessy drinking himself to death. This kind of manipulation won't work on someone with second sight or the equivalent unless they're incredibly stupid/very panicky/have an obvious weakness like Hennessy.
• I COVER YOU IN BEES. ... I have no idea why this is one of his powers. Okay, the guy's name is Beeman. That ... doesn't mean you have to ... you know what, forget it, although I should note that this power is more accurately described as "fill you with bees". Or, it's a reference to Beelzebub (בעל זבוב, Ba'al-zvuv, "god of the fly", "host of the fly" or literally "Lord of Flies"), which is ... not bees, OR Balthazar, but shut up.
• Enhanced strength. When John attacks him in the boardroom, Balthazar holds him off the ground, apparently effortlessly. Nothing special. It may surprise people who expect him to be a gormless yuppie instead of Patrick Bates.
• Immunity to fire. It'll trash his clothes, but it won't hurt him. If there's any such thing as holy fire (as is perhaps figuratively described in the new testament) we can assume that will hurt and sting as well.