Barry Goldman is desperate to get recognition and power. He constantly sought out the occult, but got himself into too much trouble and was saved by Jack Youngblood. He blamed Jack for his failures and wanted to find a way to steal his power and get his revenge. He has since become a high priest of Chernobog by sacrificing his sister and mother to the dark god and nearly destroyed The Pack by corrupting them with black magics. He also kidnapped Caroline Youngblood although she was rescued by Zeb Einar and his allies before he could sacrifice her in a black ritual that would have manifested Chernobog on this plain of existence in the body of Ryan Delmonte.

Unfortunately for Goldman that scheme failed. And even more damning his second attempt to bring Chernobog back to glory on this plane failed as well. With dire results. His apprentice, Troy Wilkerson, was supposed to follow the Chertoff Codex and perform the Ceremony of Innocence. The Ritual requires the severed left hand of a person who has murdered their own children and has been buried in unconsecrated ground as a Key that would unlock Chernobog from his prison.

Troy, with Goldman’s help, cut off the hand of Maxine Waters, who had been executed by the state of Washington the day before for murdering her children after stealing her body from a cemetery that they had ritually desecrated. But it turned out she was innocent of that crime and that her husband was the murderer. When the Key was created with the hand of someone who didn’t meet the requirements of the ceremony Wilkerson had no power to control the summoned spirit. The Spirit hollowed out Troy’s soul and possessed him, creating a composite being whose name is roughly translated as the Un-Man. The “Un-man” attempted to gather power by attacking mystical beings and absorbing their power becoming stronger and stronger with each bit of Mana that it absorbed. Its ultimate goal was to gather enough power to open a passage to the Beyond and release its dark masters.

It’s first “meal” was the Avatar of Chernobog, Ryan Delmont, who was inhabiting the body of Casimir Sokolov. Delmont’s spirit was devoured along with much of his power leaving Sokolov free to control his own, now shriveled, body for the first time in years. The Un-man was then opposed by Seattle’s Warden, Jack Youngblood but he was unprepared to face such a creature. The Un-man nearly destroyed Jack stealing much of his magic. Luckily for him Detective Sam Volkov and his partner were able to stop the creature from consuming the Warden entirely by taking it down in a hail of bullets.

Barry Goldman has lost the favor of the Black God, Chernobog because of his failures. He was punished and kept by the now devout Casimir Sokolov as a servant but recently escaped with the unwitting help of Charles Samuel Kress and by using the Hu Yao scroll to do so. He is desperate to regain power and will do anything to do so.

Update:

Azael’s new host is the depraved murderer and Rulebreaker, Barry Goldman. Goldman has ties to Jack Youngblood, having encountered and battled him in the past and the two despise each other. Azael taking the young warlock as his host is a thumb in the eye to demons and dark gods like Chernobog and Sebassis who Goldman has served in the past.