A Deva native to the Upper Realms, Anzethiel was a low-ranking Angel tasked with ridding corrupted lands of their evil. In the year 623 of the Barovian Calendar, he was sent to Barovia to restore the defiled Abbey of Saint Markovia to its former glory, as it was 300 years prior. When in the valley, Anzethiel donned the form of a pious Human healer, helping those with both mental and physical afflictions.
Calling himself "The Abbot", he sought to investigate the cause of the demiplane's corruption, and found that it was kept separate from the Umbral Realms by the Dark Power Vampyr. He began restoring the Abbey when a stranger named Vasili von Holtz visited its ruins. It did not take long for The Abbot to recognize that Vasili was Strahd von Zarovich in disguise, and a figure of extremely powerful evil. The two engaged in an epic battle, but though the deva was strong, the Vampire Lord was stronger, with powers over death and the land itself.
After defeating The Abbot, Strahd was able to win the angel over to his side with magical charm. He promised to explain everything by taking The Abbot to the Amber Temple, where other Dark Powers lay trapped in amber. The Abbot was able to lift himself from Strahd's charm in the Amber Temple, but he was too late. Vampyr's dark forces within his broken sarcophagus struck his body, corrupted his mind, and warped his sense of reality. Though he did not lose his strong sense of justice or sympathy, he had a fractured view of the world, and his memory grew hazy. He returned to the church set on rebuilding it, as he realized that Strahd was too powerful a force to fight alone.
While rebuilding the abbey's walls, he met Iaseka Belview, a local Krezkite whos family was suffering from a variety of physical maladies. The priest felt sorry for her plight, and she pressed him, having heard rumors of his powerful magic. Iaseka demanded that The Abbot get rid of her family's "imperfections"; she not only wished to completely alter her physiology, she wanted her offspring to have the abilities of Beasts, as Lycanthropes did.
The Abbot eventually capitulated in sympathy to her demands, and began experimenting on her, as well as her offspring, using methods that he had learned in the Amber Temple. He eventually turned Iaseka into the first successful Mongrelfolk, and at her request, continued to work on generations of Belviews, changing the types of humanoids and beasts he mixed their flesh with. He felt pity and remorse to the Belviews, realizing that they were living painful and horrible lives, but felt that with enough effort, he would be able to achieve the perfect form that Iaseka sought for her family. This work kept him busy for nearly a century, as his addled brain forgot the reason he was in Barovia.
Finally, when his assistant Cyrus Belview escaped the Abbey, The Abbot realized that he had forgotten his promise to rid the valley of Strahd von Zarovich. From records in the Amber Temple, he had managed to remember that Strahd had made his pact while killing his brother Sergei over a woman named Tatyana Federovna. He sought to recreate Tatyana, believing that if the Count married his true love, he would break free of the valley's evil and Vampyr's curse. Through his foggy, memory-addled brain, continued to remember the name "Vasili" as important to Strahd, but could not remember the direct association.
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