Mazikeen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Jewish mythology, a Mazikeen is a shape-changer that customarily takes the form of a small, elf-like being.
Mazikeen is also a fictional character from Neil Gaiman's Sandman mythos.
In the comic book series Lucifer, Mazikeen is a devoted ally and lover of Lucifer Morningstar and the war leader of the Lilim, a race descended from Lilith. A fearsome warrior and a respected leader, Mazikeen is a prominent character in the Lucifer comics. She has the appearance of a beautiful human female with long bluish black hair. She is also the only character that Lucifer seems to have genuine affection for.
Mazikeen first appeared in The Sandman, where she was Lucifer's consort while he reigned in Hell. At the time, half of her face was normal, but the other half was horribly misshapen and skeletal, causing her speech to be nearly unintelligible. (Gaiman wrote Mazikeen's dialogue by trying to speak using only half of his mouth, and writing down phonetically what came out.)
When Lucifer resigned, Mazikeen left Hell and ended up following her master, becoming part of the staff at the "Lux" (Latin for light), an elite Los Angeles bar that Lucifer had opened and played piano at. To conceal her demonic nature, she covered the deformed half of her face with a white mask and rarely spoke.
In Lucifer, Mazikeen's face was turned fully human when she was resuscitated by the Basanos following the destruction of the Lux in a fire. This was because the vessel of the Basanos, Jill Presto, did not realize that Mazikeen's face was naturally deformed, and assumed that it was burned in the fire.
When Lucifer refused to assist her in restoring her face to its former state, she defected to her family, the Lilim-in-Exile. As their war leader, she led their army against Lucifer's cosmos, allying herself briefly with the Basanos. However, this was a ruse; after a desperate gamble, she bought Lucifer enough time to destroy the Basanos and regain control of his creation. Lucifer then reaccepted her into his service and made the Lilim-in-Exile the standing army of his universe.
She has been Lucifer's constant ally and the only character in the DC series to genuinely love him. Even during her defection she is shown crying alone in her war leader tent, and she is repeatedly seen as a fierce defender of Lucifer and his goals.
With a new whole face she initially desired Lucifer to remove the magic that was caused by Presto's wish. After saying that it would take considerable effort and time she relented and began wearing the half-mask that she had before. Even Lucifer remarked on how beautiful she looked saying that her new face had a "relentless symmetry". She has since alternated between wearing it usually when engaged in battle or on a mission from Lucifer such as her voyage to the mansions of silence.
Issue 72 of "Lucifer" saw a dramatic change for the character of Mazikeen. Lucifer, while making his preparations to leave Yahweh's creation forever, imparts upon her 2 gifts. First, he restores Mazikeen's face to its original form, telling her that "... this will be our marriage. Our Union." For the second gift, Lucifer transfers all of his power, and his title of "The Lightbringer" to Mazikeen. The power that Yahweh gave to Lucifer in the beginning had now been given to Mazikeen. If the full extent of Lucifer's powers were transferred, then Mazikeen is now the most powerful entity in Creation, second only to Yahweh. This angers Mazikeen greatly, however, as she sees this move as Lucifer running away from and skirking all of his responsibilities. She lashes out against Lucifer with her sword, scarring his face before she leaves him.
