Raziel

In Jewish mystical accounts summarized in the provided sources, Raziel is a high angel who stands close to God's throne and records divine speech. He is traditionally said to have given a compendium of secret knowledge, the Sefer Raziel (Sefer Raziel HaMalakh), to Adam and Eve after the Fall; that book is then involved in later transmission narratives (it is said to have been taken from Adam and cast into the sea by other angels and subsequently retrieved for humanity, and it is later associated with figures such as Enoch/Metatron, Noah, and Solomon). A related text, Sefer ha-Razim, is also attributed in some accounts to knowledge given to Noah. These narratives place Raziel as an intermediary who reveals and sometimes safeguards divine wisdom across mythic time.

Traditional source summaries do not supply a single consistent visual description; instead Raziel is described by rank and title — e.g., attendant 'close by God's throne', glossed as a cherub or associated with the Ophanim, called chief of the Erelim, and named a 'ruling prince of the 2nd Heaven' under the alternate name Gallitsur — descriptions that imply high angelic status rather than a fixed humanlike appearance. Modern popular-culture usages are distinct and narrative-specific: for example, in the Legacy of Kain game series 'Raziel' is depicted fictionally as a wraith-like revenant who wields spectral and physical blades (a portrayal of the name as a character rather than the traditional angel).

According to the mystical literature summarized in the provided source, Raziel hears and writes down what is said at God's throne, acts as a transmitter of hidden/divine knowledge (credited with giving the Sefer Raziel to Adam and with transmitting lore to other antediluvian and patriarchal figures), and is described as protecting ministering angels from certain cosmic 'living creatures' that uphold the universe. The Sefer Raziel is described as a book of secret knowledge and magic attributed to him. Modern fictional instantiations repurpose these motifs: for instance, the Legacy of Kain character named Raziel interacts with souls and weapons and in that fiction experiences alterations in perception when spectral and physical manifestations intersect (a narrative device, not a traditional attribute).