In The Demonic Encyclopedia of 1888, the entry on him reads: While often written as a handsome and witty character, Althacazure often falls prey to his own lust and its consequences. His temper, which is considered the most volatile of the princes of Hell, is another one of his follies. Given his charm, he is often mistaken as a lighter demon, which is a grave mistake, for he is the most vain and unforgiving of all Hell’s generals. He is considered Lucifer’s favorite and a frequent foil of the angel Raphael.

In Modern Lore

The Dinner Guests

Althacazur was a demon who factored heavily in stage magician Philippe Angier’s occult show. Angier’s show always had whispers of demonic leanings, especially after the occultist’s hair was rumored to have transformed from black to flame red overnight. Angier was famously killed in a duel in 1898 in the Bois de Boulogne. While at a private dinner in Paris, Angier is said to have predicted the fates of all of his dinner companions—all well-known Parisian literati. The rumored fates were grim—imprisonment, poison, and suicide. In the following years, the predictions were rumored to have come true, resulting in the last living dinner guest, journalist Gerard Caron, charging Angier in the paper Le Parisian as a Satanist and challenging him to a duel. In one of the flats of the Bois de Boulogne, Angier’s pistol failed to fire and he was mortally wounded, yet lingered for days until dying. Caron, overcome with guilt, took his own life, shooting himself with Angier’s pistol—which “fired brilliantly,” according to witnesses. After his death, multiple reports claimed that Angier had impregnated several of his stage assistants and sacrificed his own newborn children to appease the demon Althacazur. This story was the inspiration for the musical The Dinner Guests.

Association with Robert Johnson

While Lucifer is often cited as meeting guitar blues legend Robert Johnson at the “crossroads” in Clarksdale, Mississippi, some have suggested that it was actually the demon Althacazur who sealed the fateful deal in the legend. The guitar legend died on August 16, 1938, in Greenwood, Mississippi.

Demon Days

Althacazur factored prominently in the sitcom Demon Days as the foil to angels Gabriel and Raphael, who are roommates living in modern-day San Francisco. He was portrayed by actor Jacob Broody for Seasons 1–2 and then Elijah Hunt for Seasons 3–5.

Chapter 10

Kerrigan Falls, Virginia

June 21, 2005

Why hadn’t she ever thought to look him up on the internet before? Hell, she’d researched enough dead musicians; the deaths of Mama Cass and Keith Moon at the age of thirty-two in the same London apartment was a favorite search. Yet it had taken Caren to remind her of his name. Althacazur.