Muruta Azrael, also spelled Murta Azrael, is a thirty-year-old Natural human who serves as the primary human antagonist in the anime Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. He is the fanatical leader of Blue Cosmos, a secret society and terrorist organization dedicated to the extermination of all Coordinators, genetically enhanced humans. Azrael also holds the positions of president of a major weapons manufacturing conglomerate and director of the Defense Industry Association, giving him immense political and financial influence over the Earth Alliance leadership. His deep-seated hatred for Coordinators stems from a childhood incident in which he was beaten up by a group of them. Beneath a calm and pleasant exterior, Azrael is cold, cruel, and utterly ruthless, believing that a pure blue world can only exist without Coordinators. He is willing to sacrifice anyone, including allied personnel, to achieve his goals, as demonstrated when he orchestrates the Cyclops System trap at the JOSH-A base in Alaska, intentionally leaving Eurasian Federation troops to die in order to weaken ZAFT and consolidate Atlantic Federation dominance. Azrael convinces the Earth Alliance to attack the neutral Orb Union, personally accompanying the invasion force to oversee the operation and observe prototype mobile suits such as the GAT-X131 Calamity, GAT-X252 Forbidden, and GAT-X370 Raider. After the battle, he obtains data on the N-Jammer Canceler from Flay Allster, which he uses to persuade Alliance commanders to launch nuclear weapons against the PLANTs in an attempted genocide. In the final phase of the war, Azrael takes command of the battleship Dominion. When Captain Natarle Badgiruel objects to his orders, he shoots her and seizes control. In a last desperate act, he attempts to destroy the Archangel with the Lohengrin cannon, only for Mu La Flaga to intercept the shot in the Strike Gundam. The Archangel then destroys the Dominion, killing both Azrael and Badgiruel. His key relationships include his manipulation of Natarle Badgiruel, his use of genetically altered Extended pilots as weapons, his alliance of convenience with the mysterious Rau Le Creuset, and his antagonistic stance toward Kira Yamato and the crew of the Archangel. Over the course of the story, Azrael grows increasingly unhinged and desperate as his genocidal ambitions are repeatedly thwarted, culminating in his violent death. His notable abilities lie not in personal combat but in political manipulation, propaganda, industrial and financial leverage, and the strategic deployment of advanced military hardware. He represents the extreme end of Natural supremacist ideology and serves as a driving force behind the conflict's escalation into total war.