Archangel Forti

"To return to Heaven while the Devil and its servants are conspiring to extinguish all creation would be an act of cowardice. The walls of Purgatory are weakening. It is only a matter of time until the Devil breaks free from its cage, and at that moment, no past, present, or future... will survive. This could be our only chance to end this war once and for all. Purgatory has been lost, but we can still save the Universe. I ask you, help me exact retribution upon these beasts."

- Forti to Charlie.

"Hold on to the light, Charlotte... and never let go."

- Forti's final words as he succumbs to his self-inflicted wounds.

Archangel Forti is a major protagonist in Hazbin Hotel: Journey to the Light.

He serves as a minor protagonist in Season 1, the overarching protagonist in Season 2, a major protagonist in Season 3, and a posthumous protagonist in the ongoing Season 4.

Forti was the head archangel of Heaven, leader of the archangels, and God's top servant and champion. When Lucifer and Satan attacked Heaven and the Universe with their respective armies, Forti and his fellow archangels rose to end their onslaught and, despite losing nearly all of his fellow archangels to Satan, Forti was successful in imprisoning the Devil and its followers in Purgatory, sacrificing himself in the process by imprisoning himself with them. Afterward, Satan took revenge on Forti by trapping him in a torturous prison, and left him to suffer in the vacant dimension of Limbo.

Billions of years later, Forti contacted the Princess of Hell, Charlie Magne, and guided her and the hotel crew on a quest to free him. After the crew successfully freed Forti from Limbo, the archangel joined them on their mission to save Manco from Purgatory. After Manco was freed, Forti began his crusade to end Satan once and for all. During an attempt to help Charlie and the warrior angel Adina, Forti was poisoned by Satan and forced to kill Adina, leaving him riddled with guilt, and resulting in him sending himself into a self-exile to protect Charlie and the hotel crew. Eight years later, Forti returned in a weakened state to help the hotel crew rescue Charlie from being corrupted by Satan. After aiding the hotel crew in finally escaping Purgatory, Forti, refusing to be corrupted by Satan and used as a weapon, fatally stabbed himself with his own legendary sword, saving the Universe from decimation and leaving behind an inspiring legacy as the Archangel who saved the Universe.

Personality
As head of the archangels, Forti was stern, powerful, and lionhearted, but ultimately benevolent. He was infinitely loyal to God, Heaven, and the Universe, as he fought against Satan and its army to save the Universe from oblivion, and was incredibly selfless, willingly allowing himself to be imprisoned with Satan and the Army of Darkness if it meant the Devil could also be imprisoned in the process. Despite his serious and stoic deposition, Forti was a deeply compassionate angel who possessed a profound love for life itself and all of God's creations. He cared for his fellow angels, as demonstrated when he commanded the hotel crew to save Manco from Purgatory, and his immense guilt when Satan forced him to kill Adina. His benevolence even extends to demons, as he defended the hotel crew from being killed by Satan and the Army of Darkness while they were trapped in Purgatory, and shielded Charlie from being struck by one of Satan's poisonous spikes, which resulted in him being poisoned, and costed him his life in the long run. He also affectionately addressed Charlie by "my child", and embraced her when she was left distraught after Adina's death. Forti's entire crusade to end Satan and Lucifer was built upon the fact that he wanted to avenge his fallen archangels and all the lives lost during the War in Heaven, to ensure that no one else would have to endure the same agony he went through when he failed to protect them. And ultimately, he gave his own life to give the hotel crew a way out of Purgatory, and to ensure that Satan would not use him as a puppet to destroy the Universe.

Around Charlie and the hotel crew, Forti filled the role of a mentor and a guide. Due to being ancient, Forti possesses a large vocabulary and uses older and more formal words such as "abscond" while ordering the hotel crew to escape from Manco's prison. His preferred word choices, method of phrasing his sentences, and serious personality often led to comedic interactions with the more rowdy hotel crew, especially Angel Dust. But despite his regal manner of presenting himself, Forti did possess a far more down-to-earth attitude while dealing with more juvenile and rude characters such as Angel Dust, Husk, and Fergus. He was shown to get annoyed with Angel Dust's backhanded comment regarding his "family jewels", and openly berated Husk for suggesting that he quit his position as archangel and take a "permanent vacation". Due to being an angel, Forti was shown to have seemingly no knowledge of obscenities, as he was slightly confused when Angel Dust called Beelzebub a "fucking asshole", and uncertainly repeated Angel's words.

Despite having good intentions, Forti also possesses a notable ruthless side. As Heaven's champion and greatest protector, he is exceptionally ruthless while dealing with those who threaten Heaven, has little to no qualms with using lethal force against his enemies, and he is shown to be very vengeful; he held a bitter grudge against Satan for murdering his fellow archangels, and also held immense contempt to Lucifer starting the War in Heaven, and he swore to destroy Satan and Lucifer along with all who followed them. When in Purgatory with the hotel crew, Forti acknowledged that he could have left Purgatory at any point, being an archangel, but refused to leave until after he had destroyed Satan once and for all. He was merciless when confronting Satan and Lucifer personally, furiously wiping out droves of their underlings to get to them, and fought Lucifer with just as much ferocity during their confrontation. That said, he ultimately set his vengeance aside to help to hotel crew escape Purgatory, accepting that his fate was sealed and that he could not carry on with his revenge.

Appearance
Forti was a humanoid archangel who possessed pure white skin, shoulder-length, light blonde hair, and a beard. He had light blue eyes that often glowed an eerie yellow color whenever he utilized his supernatural powers. He was exceptionally tall standing at around 9 feet tall, far exceeding Alastor and even Angel Dust in terms of height, and had a burly and muscular build.

Forti had a halo that was wrapped around the top of his head, and wore a long, hooded, white cloak, a cream-colored tunic with golden embroidery, a golden belt around his waist with a golden clasp in the design of a lion's head, light brown gauntlets and boots, and beige-colored pants. As an archangel, he was capable of producing six massive wings from his back that he was also capable of hiding.

Powers and Abilities
As the head archangel, Forti was exponentially powerful, and was even regarded by the cherubs as the strongest of God's angels. His power was great enough for him to have been the only angel capable of battling Satan one-on-one during the War in Heaven, and ultimately defeated Satan and its army by imprisoning them within Purgatory. His power was so great that he was one of the rare entities in the Universe comparable to Lucifer, and gave the fallen archangel a substantial fight even after he was weakened as a result of being poisoned by Satan.

Natural Powers

 * Angelic Power: Forti was born with an exponential amount of angelic power, enough to render him far more powerful than demons and nearly all other angels. During his fight with Beelzebub, one of the most powerful demons in history, Forti was able to overpower and nearly kill him with little to no effort even before Adina came to his aide. He was powerful enough to defend Heaven from numerous cosmic threats in the past, including the Army of Darkness, which included entities of planetary sizes during his fight in the Manco's prison dimension. Most impressive of all, Forti could rival Lucifer, the most powerful archangel in all creation, in a fight, despite Satan's poisoning and missing an arm. The immense power of Forti was rivaled only by entities such as Lucifer and Satan, and were certainly surpassed only by God Himself.
 * Angelic Transformation: Forti possessed the ability to transform into a more traditional, eldritch angel form at will, and then effortlessly return to his standard form.
 * Cloudwalking: Forti could walk on clouds and even use them as a method of travel, treating them as if they were a solid surface.
 * Creation: As an archangel, Forti was amazingly skilled at creation magic, often using it to craft weapons for himself, as demonstrated by him forging a sword of pure light by solidifying photons during a time where he was not in possession of Excalibur.
 * Divinity: Being the head archangel, Forti was blessed with immense divine power that allowed him to permanently erase demonic beings and even other angels.
 * Energy Manipulation: Forti could project streams or bolts of white and yellow concussive energy blasts from his hands and from the edges of his wings. While buying the hotel crew time to escape from Manco's prison dimension after they rescued the young angel, Forti projected yellow energy blasts that vaporized most of Satan's army when it struck them. Upon arriving in Satan's dimension to assist the hotel crew in saving Charlie, Forti blasted Lucifer with an energy blast that sent the blind-sided fallen archangel barreling into a wall. Moments later, when his powers were amplified by the reignited Excalibur, and Satan summoned an army of colossal creatures to deal with Forti, the archangel charged his legendary blade with an immense amount of energy, and once the blade was fully charged, Forti directed the immensely powerful projectile blast at Satan's entire army, vaporizing several planet-sized creatures leading the charge, and the tremendous release of energy from the collision converted the mass of Forti's projectile attack into a column of super-heated plasma that shredded and vaporized the rest of Satan's army instantaneously. The plasma remnants of Forti's blast continued forward at lightspeed, cracking open the walls of Satan's domain, which left even Lucifer utterly bewildered at the display of power.
 * Force-Field Generation: During his battle with Lucifer, Forti conjured a yellow energy barrier to protect himself from Lucifer's energy-based attacks. However, due to his power gradually decreasing as Satan's poisoning took effect, Forti was unable to hold the barrier, resulting in it collapsing and the blast colliding with Forti, sending him barreling into a wall.
 * Flight: Forti possessed a pair of six large wings which granted him the ability to fly up to speeds well beyond the speed of light, and allowed the archangel to levitate mid-air. His landings were capable of causing large eruptions, and left behind a crater in the ground when he landed in Satan's dimension. After being freed by the hotel crew, Forti flew at Alastor (under Satan's influence) with such astonishing speeds that the Radio Demon, despite his abilities being amplified by Satan, could not keep up with him. Even when Lucifer severed his bottom left wing during their fight, Forti was still capable of flying steadily.
 * Immortality: Having existed for billions of years, Forti possessed an infinitely long lifespan, and was almost impossible to kill without divine intervention. In addition, Forti was beyond the need for food, water, oxygen, or sleep to sustain himself; he went billions of years without any of these amenities while trapped within his agonizing prison. However, Forti could still be killed by high divine entities or archangel blades, the latter of which he ultimately used to end his own life.
 * Nigh-Invulnerability: As an archangel, Forti was blessed with invulnerability to almost every form of harm. Attacks from the dark entities within the Army of Darkness did very little, if any, damage to Forti during his encounters with them, and while battling Satan, an exiled Being of Light, with his fellow archangels, Forti was one of the only archangels who managed to survive Satan's onslaught, and still possessed enough strength to keep fighting Satan despite its attacks. While fighting Satan alongside Adina, Forti was struck with the energy of his own attack when Satan converted his energy blast into a red wave of magic and sent it back in his, Adina's, and Charlie's directions, and Forti was only knocked back for a few seconds. However, the poisonous spikes conjured by Satan were capable of piercing Forti's skin due to their being conjured by Satan's divine power. During his battle with Lucifer in Purgatory, where Forti was gravely weakened as a result of Satan's poisoning slowly corrupting his mind and form, Forti retained his incredible durability by withstanding many of Lucifer's attacks, such as the King of Hell kicking Forti through a ring of fire he conjured, blasting Forti with numerous energy blasts, and cutting him across his body several times, only for Forti to barely power through each attack, although the head archangel did ultimately succumb to his injuries as he could barely stand up as the poisoning spread throughout his body. Despite Forti's nigh-invulnerability, he is still vulnerable to entities of superior power or archangel weapons, as shown during his battle with Lucifer, notably when Lucifer severed one of Forti's six wings from his body, which caused to Forti to yell in agony.
 * Regeneration: As a result of his angelic physiology, Forti possessed a powerful regenerative healing factor which enabled him to quickly regenerate from wounds, regardless of the severity. The scars that were on his body as a result of the scalding, magical chains placed on him by Satan in his prison disappeared shortly after Forti was freed, as his liberation enabled his healing factor to return. However, Forti seemingly lost his healing factor after he was poisoned by a malevolent spike created by Satan, as his body failed to combat the poison, and as a result he did not regenerate from severing his infected arm, nor did he heal from his injuries and wounds sustained during his battle with Lucifer, and he did not regenerate from his self-inflicted wound.
 * Photokinesis: As an archangel, Forti possessed an amazingly strong connection to light, and was a very proficient user of light manipulation. Shortly after his liberation, Forti used his wings to cast a holy light that exorcised Satan out of Alastor's vessel. Forti could also solidify light, as shown when he adopted a sword forged from solidified photons shortly after beginning his crusade to destroy Satan in Purgatory, although he later destroyed the sword out of shame after Satan forced him to kill Adina with it.
 * Supernatural stamina: Forti almost never seemed to grow tired, allowing him to fly and fight for extremely long periods of time, even within a spacespace. Forti's endurance was perhaps best shown in his grueling battle with Lucifer, even when weakened, missing an arm, all while simultaneously fighting Lucifer and Satan's poisoning, Forti was still able to fight Lucifer for several minutes on end, even managing to tag Lucifer several times with Excalibur, and kept fighting furiously against the King of Hell despite receiving multiple wounds in the process. However, Forti did begin to slow down at a certain point, and in the end was unable to even raise his sword, despite attempting to, as the poisoning had rendered him borderline immobile.
 * Self-Sustenance: Possessing eternal stamina, Forti was capable of surviving in the harshest of environments without food, water, air, or sleep for indefinite periods of time, as evidenced during his imprisonment in Purgatory, where he spent billions of years in never-ending agony without suffering any long-term effect once he was freed.
 * Supernatural Speed: Forti's wings allowed him to travel or dash forward at amazingly fast speeds. Upon being freed from his prison, Forti flew at Alastor with such speed that the Radio Demon (despite being enhanced by Satan) could not keep up with him. During his crusade to defeat Satan in Purgatory, Forti was capable of traveling across Purgatory at speeds far beyond the speed of light to get to his locations.
 * Supernatural Strength: Forti was the physically strongest of the archangels, even surpassing the physical strength of Lucifer, who is the most powerful archangel in all creation. Even before becoming God's most trusted and high-ranking servant, Forti displayed immeasurable feats of strength; he was the only angel, including the other archangels, who was capable of pulling Excalibur from the magical stone it was embedded it, which caused the seemingly unbreakable stone to shatter in the process. During his battle against Lucifer, Forti was able to push Lucifer, who himself possesses supernatural strength, back several times despite being weakened by Satan's poison.

Unique Powers

 * Aura: Forti possess a sacred aura that defends him from external attacks, vaporizing attacks from demonic beings, rendering Forti utterly impervious to even the most powerful of demons. When Alastor (possessed and empowered by Satan) attempted to attack Forti using shadow tentacles, the tentacles were instantly vaporized by the aura of Forti.

External Powers

 * Spatial Manipulation: Forti's divine sword, Excalibur, granted him to ability to both tear and seal potentially massive holes in reality, most often creating doors leading to alternate dimensions. During the War in Heaven, Forti used Excalibur to cut a hole in space that was large enough to drag multiple planets, Satan, and millions of its followers, into the prison dimension of Purgatory. Shortly before his demise, he used Excalibur to cut a hole in reality big enough for Baxter's spaceship to fly through, creating a portal that led back to Hell. Forti could also seal these tears in reality by mending them together with the powers of his sword, which he used to close both tears in reality. During his fight with Lucifer, Forti also used Excalibur to cut in half a miniature black hole Lucifer sent in his direction.

Abilities

 * Combat Mastery: As the leader of the archangels, Forti was one of the most powerful warriors of Heaven, and subsequently the Universe, with immense training and millennia worth of experience in swordsmanship and unarmed combat, which allowed him to fight off any and all external threats to Heaven and possibly train the other archangels in combat, effortlessly defeating hundreds of creatures of the Army of Darkness with little effort, and even giving Lucifer, the strongest archangel in all creation, a substantial fight, though Lucifer had the upper hand in their battle. In fact, Forti was one of the few archangels to survive a direct battle against Satan, whereas most of his fellow archangels, who were legendary for being elite, god-like warriors, were easily massacred by the Devil.
 * Intimidation: Forti was widely feared by those who sought to threaten Heaven for his immense angelic power and the utter ruthlessness he displayed towards external threats. Even Lucifer, during his time in Heaven, was capable of acknowledging Forti's strength and skill, as the head archangel was one of the few factors that caused the Prince of Heaven to experience a sense of reluctance while he was considering usurping God's throne. Shortly after being taken by Satan, the Devil imprisoned Forti in a torturous, magical prison and left him in the vacant dimension of Limbo, knowing the extent of the threat Forti would pose towards Satan and its army if left unchecked.
 * Multilingualism: Forti was well-versed in angelic languages as well as Earth languages such as English.
 * Swordsmanship: As his favored weapon, Forti was masterfully skilled with angelic swords, particularly his own holy sword, Excalibur, managing to slaughter droves of the Army of Darkness typically using spin attacks, and fought against Lucifer with some difficulty, a master swordsman himself.

Weapons

 * Excalibur: Excalibur was a massive, enormously powerful archangelic sword that was Forti's weapon of choice while defending Heaven or dealing with his foes. According to Heaven's scriptures, it is said that Excalibur magically appeared into existence, itself embedded into powerful stone. Following its appearance, God Himself proclaimed that whoever was capable of removing the sword would be worthy of protecting Heaven. None succeeded in removing the sword, with even the other archangels failing to remove the sword. That was until Forti successfully removed the sword from the stone, shattering the stone in the process, which earned him the position of God's champion. Excalibur was considered to be one of the most powerful weapons in the Universe, and was enchanted so that it could only be broken by Forti himself, and he would be the only one capable of wielding its powers. The blade was capable of tearing the fabric of reality, opening massive holes and portals to other dimensions capable of dragging entire planets and entities of the size of planets, and was capable of absorbing divine energy and projecting it at Forti's target. Forti could also fuse Heaven's Light into Excalibur's blade to enhance the blade's already immense power, as displayed during his final confrontation with Satan in Purgatory. Being an archangelic sword, Excalibur is capable of truly slaying demons and angels like every other holy weapon, and is also capable of severely injuring and destroying other archangels, something standard angel weapons are not capable of doing. Excalibur met its end when Forti broke the blade in half after using the sword to fatally wound himself.

Season 2
"Forti: Beelzebub is evil incarnate! Apart from Lucifer, he is the Devil's most powerful and proud minion! He will do anything in his power to veer you and many others against me! I beg of you, do not yield to his deception. Angel Dust: Ah, so he's a fuckin' asshole, right? Forti: (rather confused) Yes... A fucking asshole."

- Forti to Angel Dust and Vaggie, regarding Beelzebub.

Quotes about Forti
"All was good for a time, until a great war began against the Creator and His elect angels. An army of corrupt angels, led by the Dragon and the Devil, and so the great war ravaged the heavens. The Creator sent forth His champion, Archangel Forti, to evict the Devil and the Dragon, that old serpent, from our heavens. And so the Dragon fell along with those who followed him in exile, to walk and wander the physical plane, awaiting their final judgement. The war still rages on against the darkness. Us angels must fight on with might and valor to ensure the safety of the material universe, and the precious lives of all who inhabit it."

- A scripture in Heaven, detailing the war in Heaven.

Trivia

 * Forti's name in Latin translates to "mighty" and "strong".
 * Forti's character is based on Archangel Michael from Abrahamic religions, the archangel who serves as the leader of the heavenly hosts. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, the Book of Revelation describes Archangel Michael as leading God's angels against an army of corrupted angels led by "the dragon", identified as the Devil or Satan (or the former angel, Lucifer), who Michael defeated and threw down to the Earth.
 * Interestingly, Michael himself is confirmed to exist within the series, but is a character separate from Forti.
 * He seems to represent the Heavenly Virtue of Patience.