The Four Elders

The Four Elders are four mysterious hooded individuals who are the true masterminds working behind the curtains of the Center.

Appearances

 * Shin Megami Tensei II: Minor Character

Shin Megami Tensei II
They are the Bishop's superiors, mentioned quite early in the game, but whose inhuman nature is only revealed far later, when a wrathful Zayin rebels against them (and is, in response, turned into a stone slab). When Aleph and Hiroko proceeds to rescue him, they uncover their true identities as, in fact, archangels of God all along: Michael, Raphael, and Uriel. The three of them engage in a furious battle against the heroes, but are defeated and killed by them. Later, through Gabriel, the fourth and last Elder, they discover that the archangels were commanded by God to look after the management of Tokyo Millennium, being instructed by him to wait for the savior that he would one day send to them.

However, under their control, the government of the city became so irreversibly corrupted, turned into nothing more than a tool to control and enslave humanity, that it simply could not shelter a Messiah of the true God as to lead the people. Unable to wait any longer, the archangels tried to fabricate their own Messiah, a pursuit that lead them astray from the will of God, who abandoned them in turn.