To Doc, regarding time:
while I can't speak about VE, about the VI stories we talked about time extensively some moths (years?) ago.

While there is no a definite amount time in which a story happens (thankfully, as a story could need months or just hours to develop in fiction time, regardless of the time it takes to be written), most of us agreed that after a year passed for us, a year has passed also for the Vanguardians. That has been explicitated by the annual Christmas party (in the circus in 2001, at the fish factory in 2002 and 2003), by the (shown) ageing of Eddie, Axel, and Danny.

I feel that this ageing of people is important for VI, which is character oriented; for VE, more story oriented, I wouldn't care. IMO.

To I-man, regarding Azazel and John Prester:

your (very cool) John Prester interlude appeared in issue 13 "The one where stuff happens", in page three;

as for the Azazel-Grigori-Saros things, the current state of things is the following, with a recap of what went before.
A warning: this is probably the most convoluted bit of continuity ever created for the HR Universe!

Quote:

HOODS and CAPES

Nearly 40.000 years ago, a band of fugitive criminal aliens of the Annunaki race, running away from their home planet, Nibiru ended on earth after entering some sort of spatial distortion. On Earth, they built a fabled city, cannibalising the crashed ship and using humans as slaves. They were somehow responsible for the extinction of neandertal men, so that the last one became their worst enemy, organising a resistance to them. Although it has not been revealed how, that neandertal, gained immortality, and it is still alive today, with the name of Myrrdin.

Across the ages, even after the fabled city was destroyed, tow factions, sort of secret societies, were born out from the Annunakis and the human resistance: the Hoods (aliens and faithful humans descending from the slaves), versed in science and technology; and the Capes (sometimes called, enough stupidly, Futurists), humans relying on magic, descending from the ancient shamans that, guided by Myrrdin, were able to destroy the city of the Annunaki.

Up until very recently, the two secret societies directed, while fighting for supremacy, the evolution of humankind: when the hoods prevailed, humankind tended toward science (example: ancient Greece, modern times...) while when were the Capes to prevail, the human society delved more with magic (ancient Egypt, medieval time... maybe the XIX century, to a lesser degree...).
After the destruction of the Annunaki city many millennia ago, Myrrdin left the Capes, worried by the power gained by his own allies, and took a balancing role, working to never let any of the two secret societies to completely defeat the other, so that Earth would never be subjugated by Hoods or Capes. At first it was explained that Myrrdin had not an organisation, and that he was enlisting, across time, to help him, the braver heroes of the moment. That was to set a future story in which he would have enlisted the Vanguardians. Things went different, and to Myrrdin was given a sort of organisation made only by girls: four have been seen, Crasher (daughter of Myrrdin), Ameristar, Sonja( Nadia) Ljzavet (that recently left the team) and Tania. There is also a male "butler" named Mark or Marcus.

In the course of the last two years, this scheme was destroyed by the appearance of the Vanguardians. In a complex war between Hoods and Capes, that culminated in the war with the demon Naecken in Antactic, Hoods and Capes have been totally destroyed as organisation, with most of their members killed, including the aliens Annunaki.

Myrrdin has revealed that the presence of the two powerful societies is what has preserved the Earth, up to today, from being invaded by aliens races existing in our space sector.

Of the Annunaki only three survive:
the leader of the Annunaki, EN.KI (also known as Saros - homage to the Saros leader of the Siecle draco of the old Universe), with a thirst of revenge toward vanguard and especially Euro - has promised that one day he will kidnap his son);
EN.LIL, rival of EN.KI and for that imprisoned many millennia ago in the sword Ladnikia, and now " made slave" by Sonja Ljzavet. He is also known as Azazel.
The goddess NIN.LIL, that is actively looking to find EN.LIL



The last two have been reserved by Chewy for an (I hope) upcoming project, while Saros - EN.KI is free to be used.

Ladnikia was destroyed by Grimm to free Euro from the sword possession, breaking it in two halves: the tip was remade into a paper knife and given to my character as a warning and memento; the part with the hilt has been thrown in the sea La Perdtia.

If you want to "research" all the Hood-Capes stuff, the threads to look for are: "Raptor and Ameristar: Residence Evil"; "Hoods and Futurists: Crimen Caligo"; "Issue 13: The One Where Stuff Happens" (just some interludes and the epilogue); "HR #14: Obsidian Illumination II" (with the end of the Annunaki).

Regarding the Grigori, I think they have never appeared in the Vanguard Universe; the introduction of the Azazel name was precedent to the introduction of the Annunakis saga, and it could be considered just a mistake. We could say that EN.LIL, once having become the "demon" in the sword, was given by people's beliefs the name of a different, existing or legendary demon, but that there is not any true connection between the two. Obviously that means that Ladnikia had no connections to the true Azazel.

In any case, I am here to answer any possible new question.