Stolas | Human in Hell (Before mastermind)

Stolas is a Goetic Prince of Hell, and one of the main protagonists in Helluva Boss. He is the father of Octavia and the husband of Stella, who he is currently in the midst of divorce proceedings with.

He is also a target of Striker, an assailant hired by Stolas' wife to kill him.

Stolas is an anthropomorphic owl demon. He is tall and slender, with a white, heart-shaped facial disk and small black beak, resembling that of an owl. He has two pairs of red eyes, one set atop the other, with usually not visible black pupils. He has gray-blue feathers, which gradients to dark gray-blue on his head and long, plume-like tail. A lighter gray-blue puff of fur is on his chest. He also has a gray streak on his hair.

His limbs are long, thin, and black, and his feet are tipped with bird-like claws.

Although he frequently changes clothes, Stolas is often seen wearing a deep red tunic with six linked golden buttons down the breast, and beige breeches. He accessorizes with a feathery tophat that features a regal gold crown encircling it, as well as a long burgundy cape, tattered at the hemline, with a plush ermine-look fur collar, and long black gloves with white feathered trims at the elbows. And as a anthropomorphic owl, he has cloaca instead of cock and balls.

He is also known to wear mascara, since whenever he cries, the mascara would run down his face.

Stolas now has a permanent white scar on his left shoulder from Striker's torture.

Stolas' human disguise is much shorter than his regular form, while still relatively rather tall compared to other humans. He only has one set of eyes, which have white sclera with red irises, and a pair of pupils which he normally lacks in his regular form. He lacks any type of plumage so he instead has gray hair atop his head.

His outfit changes drastically, now wearing a deep red vest with coat-tails reminiscent of his tail feathers, over a gray long-sleeve, high-collar shirt with a light gray puff tie. His pants are dark gray and he now has black shoes.

Much of Stolas' past remains shrouded in mystery, however, it is known that he is one of several children of the Goetia King, Paimon.

When he turned old enough, Stolas was informed that his duties in Hell would involve studying the skies of Earth, the stars, and various prophecies engaged with them; he was then given a book, granting him access to the living world to study and raise an army of followers. While Stolas was excited about learning his new duties, he was less than pleased about hearing he was betrothed to an avian demon named Stella. After his father and servant took him to a circus to calm him, Stolas saw a pair of imp clowns, Fizzarolli and Blitzo, and was mesmerized by the latter. After Paimon paid Blitzo's father, Cash, to have the imp spend time with Stolas for his birthday, the two spent the day enjoying each other's company before Blitzo returned to the circus and disappeared for over two decades.

Stolas eventually followed his engagement and married Stella. Together, they had a daughter named Octavia, whom Stolas was close with and had a good father-daughter bond. Through their marriage, Stolas would tolerate Stella's abuse towards him in order to provide his daughter with a normal life. He and Stella used to bring Octavia to Loo Loo Land, during which the family was somewhat happy.

At some point, Stolas became a host of the Harvest Moon Festival annually held in the Wrath Ring.

One night, when a young Octavia began yelling out for her parents, Stolas is forced to go check on her alone. Stolas sings to Octavia a lullaby to calm her worries about him disappearing from her life caused by her nightmare. At another time when Octavia was young, Stolas told her about Azathoth's Tears and promised to take her to see them one day.

As the years went by, Stolas' family life and marriage started to fall apart, despite his sincere efforts to make things work for the sake of his daughter. His relationship with Octavia became more distant as he and Stella began to argue more often.

One day during a party hosted by Stella, Stolas learned that an imp had been trying to break into his mansion. Seeing it was Blitzo, Stolas took him away and assumed his old friend had come back for sexual purposes, and due to several miscommunications, Stolas eventually found himself blindfolded and tied down to his bed. The next morning, after a night of sex, Stolas was awoken by Stella screaming about Blitzo, where then Stolas then screams back that "that was the sound of a fucking divorce", rips a banner and laughs triumphantly.

Even though Blitzo abandoned him and took the grimoire, Stolas immensely enjoyed the experience and began to lust after the imp, who now trades a night of pleasure with Stolas for the grimoire to be used to travel to the human world when needed.

Stolas gives the immediate impression of someone regal and ostentatious, as would be expected for a royal of his station. He dresses in clothing befitting his role, and his mansion is decadent, containing many large, elaborately framed portraits of himself and his small family.

Underneath these dignified trappings, however, Stolas is shown to be a flamboyant, dramatic, eccentric, and often giddy person. Someone who does not take his royal reputation as seriously as the people around him expect him to, and is prone to act quickly on his easily excitable emotions.

He is also shown to be very intelligent, even as a child, due to being a bibliophile and having incredible knowledge of many things including the laws of Hell.

Stolas can also often get caught up in pursuing his own present interests and fails to pay attention to the more pressing issues around him, including the feelings and needs of others. He has even dismissed their wishes under the belief that, as long as he was happy, everybody else was as well, even when he was told otherwise. He also has trouble expressing his emotions when facing bigger dilemmas such as having a hard time explaining to Octavia that his marriage was never good or standing up to Stella before his affair and having trouble talking to Blitzo about his true feelings toward him. Stolas can be prone to tears when he is under a lot of emotional distress.

Although these tendencies can make him appear selfish and even airheaded to some people in his life, he isn't oblivious to correction or regret and this is something he makes an effort to improve on, specifically in regards to his beloved daughter, Octavia.

Stolas is also shown to be very lonely, seemingly isolated and cloistered in his position. In "The Circus", when he was a child, he told a young Blitzo that he never had anybody to share his books with, further supporting this notion. Although he is married, it is clear that he and his wife are not on affectionate terms, and that their marriage is implied to have been somewhat cold for a long while. Stolas can also be socially awkward when he's in a huge crowd of people, and often stand alone in a corner as seen in "Apology Tour".

Stolas has, perhaps surprisingly, an equally romantic and explicit side, something he looks to indulge in with Blitzo, an imp, considered "lower-class" among his peers, whom he is currently engaged in a complicated extramarital affair with. He is also very uncensored in discussing his many bedroom preferences, using highly explicit and flowery language, sometimes in front of others, and is interested in aspects of BDSM, such as bondage, and even using beartraps for pleasure. After "The Full Moon", Vivziepop explained that Stolas is so in his own head and own feelings that he doesn't register the reality of the situation in the episode and of Blitzo's anger at being dismissed by him.

Stolas is invested in Hell's soap operas as comfort shows, enjoys the process of getting ready for rendezvous, and swoons over idealized ideas of amorous romance.

As with many demons, and the denizens of Hell in general, Stolas has a somewhat questionable moral compass and is implied to interfere with the affairs of humans for his own benefit. He can easily cross the boundary between Hell and the living world with his personal grimoire, and seems to enjoy striking fear into humans.

Despite this, he is also gentle and nurturing to those he cares for, showing open devotion to his daughter, concern towards Blitzo and his coworkers, as well as attentiveness to his large and lavish garden of carnivorous Hell-plants. Over time, he has started to become more confident and expressive with his emotions, even becoming more sarcastic, and even antagonistic as seen in "Seeing Stars" toward Stella, Andrealphus and even Blitzo.

Stolas is also shown to be very brave in very dangerous situations. In "Western Energy", he was able to not give into the pain of Striker's tortures, and vowed to destroy him if he ever went after Octavia.

As demonic royalty, and as mentioned by Blitzo in "Apology Tour", Stolas is biologically immortal, being able to live for a long period of time and only able to be killed by angelic weaponry.

Stolas can transform into a huge, monstrous demon form, with jet-black feathers, large wings, jagged teeth, and two sets of glowing red eyes.

Stolas can take on a convincing human appearance to disguise himself in the living world.

Like most owls, Stolas can turn his head 180 degrees with little to no effort and without any signs of discomfort or pain.

Stolas can turn his targets into stone with a simple glare if he wants to activate that ability.

Stolas can use telekinesis, both passively and aggressively.

Stolas can possess humans on Earth by spiritually entering them. The possession causes the host to spasm and they gain red eyes, sharp teeth, and Stolas' eye stripes. Furthermore, when they stand on his seal, they can serve as a medium to summon Stolas' physical form to Earth.

Stolas can temporarily animate the corpses of deceased humans.

Stolas has the ability of Electrokinesis.

Stolas is able to create portals to seemingly anywhere without using his grimoire.

Stolas is shown to have a high tolerance to pain.

Stolas can create a projection from his grimoire, to see any person or imp, from either Hell or Earth.

Stolas can teleport him and others with him to any place without a portal.

Stolas can snap his fingers to generate purple flames.

Stolas can manipulate cosmic energy, for example to block weapons.

Stolas has an average strength, being able to kick and punch to the point of bleeding, and he can carry an ice statue with no struggle.

Stolas is shown to be very adept at singing, comforting his daughter with ballad-style lullabies.

He is good at gardening. This comes naturally with his love of plants. He has an extravagant collection of Hell-flora, which he lovingly tends to.

Stolas is good at drawing and at fast reading, the latter because of his extra pair of eyes.