Nephilim - Half Human, Half Angel - All Terrifying

Monsters Tend to Avoid Them

Please enjoy a Monster of the Week Entry from the pages of our favorite cute and cuddly book of the dead, Necro:

(this entry is part fiction, part non-fiction)

Nephilim

(biblical mythology, Jewish and Christian)

Love and the Pilgrim, 1896–7, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones,

Catchphrase: “You will bend the knee or I will bend it for you.”

I’ve long been fascinated with the Nephilim, mysterious creatures that are briefly mentioned in the Bible. That is, I was fascinated with them until I finally met a few, and then I knew what it was to truly fear something. Being a powerful grimoire, I don’t fear much, but I will and always will fear the nephilim.

The nephilim were said to be a hybrid between the daughters of man and the sons of God. The sons of God or The Watchers were angels that human’s believed God sent down to Earth to guard man in the beginning. Or, another interpretation of those passages is that that these angels left heaven to be with human women. One way or another, some of the Watchers did more than watch over, and a new species was born - The complicated and terrifying, nephilim.

Now, technically, we can classify this creature as a monster but it certainly does not view itself that way. It definitely thinks it is better than monsters and better than humans. It will strike any of us down, believing that it is the superior species—the only ones worthy of this world and heaven.

Yes, my favorite pic representing the Nephilim is Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Angel of Darkness Concept Art (Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness Fankit)

In the Bible, the nephilim are referenced as mysterious beings of great size and strength, giants. Those same words could be translated as beings with great power and authority, rather that referencing size. Nephilim were said to be descendants of humans and angels or of the house of Seth and Cain or the offspring of angels and demons. Many translations indicate that “they are the fallen ones” or the “ones felled in battle.” It was implied that their kind have been destroyed in the great flood. I can testify that a few still remain, hidden in dark, sacred areas around the planet.

Fallen angels, fairies, demon hybrids, giants, or fallen warriors? Humanity has never completely agreed. We monsters have had enough experience with them to determine that they indeed are a hybrid of women and angels that were called Watchers.

Jean de Boulogne, Apennine Colossus, ca. 1580, stone, 36”. Photograph courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

I have only met two nephilim, and they were truly wicked beasties with a superiority complex, not completely undeserved. They were not as giant in stature as I expected them to be but their strength was unmatched. They were incredibly powerful and almost impossible to defeat. In appearance, they were more like fairies, but the darker type. They dwelled in isolated places of intense supernatural power and destroyed any human or monster that came too close to their territory.

Niphilim illustration used on the book Mother of Chaos by Carlos-Quevedo. Please go check out his art. Super cool angels, demons, etc.

Us monsters don’t really distinguish between regular angels and their offspring. Both have ancient power and are terrifying. Most monsters avoid angels of all kinds because they are brutal, almost entirely impossible to beat in a fight, and unfortunately, hate monsters. Some types of fallen angels (demons) can sometimes be reasoned with because they’ve been humbled a bit, but that is not true with nephilim. Nephilim believe they are divine, chosen, anointed, despite the rumors that God flooded the entire planet to destroy them. They operate with a puritanical fever to cleanse the world of things that are not divine so they are very dangerous and unhinged at most times.

In the video game Devil May Cry, the main character Dante is defined as a nephilim but he is half angel, half demon, which is not accurate but fun for a game. In the game, Dante has teamed up with his twin brother to kill a demon king that murdered their mother and banished their father. This game does capture a nephilim’s commitment to revenge and astuteness as a warrior.

Fallen was an ABC mini-series where the main character was a nephilim having to attend high school. There are also Magic: The Gathering nephilim cards but those creatures are more monster giants of the old world, than angel/human hybrids. They also show up in D&D as shown on the below card. Human’s have created many other characters that are demon/human hybrids such as Hellboy, Raven, and even, Merlin from Arthurian legend. However, their demon parents weren’t the fallen angels known as The Watchers.

Demons and fairies do share some commonality in the type of supernatural powers they have, and that they often commune with people. Both demons and some fairies like to cut deals with humans. However, a deal with a demon usually has a higher, more moral cost. Faeries are not demons and vice versa. They come from completely different mythologies. Faeries are pagan, and demons are biblical. The Christian church saw that faeries were part of strong, pagan belief systems so they slowly demonized the creatures so the lore fit cleaner into their mythology, helping to further demonize paganism and convert more to their church.

The nephilim are not demons, nor are they faeries, and they definitely are not angels or humans. They are something entirely singular with the free will of man and the power and ego of angels. The two that I met wielded an ancient power that could control and imprison others in frightful and varied ways. If they got to you, they could control your mind and body. They can drain you of every last bit of life, whether it be mortal or immortal. They control and vanquish. There is plenty of reason to fear these ancient hybrid creatures whether you be monster or human.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts or pieces of information to add about these ancient and terrifying creatures!