Aziraphale was one of the first angels created. He still remembers when heaven was an idealistic place, full of love and happiness and big white fluffy clouds. He also remembers the day it all went wrong, when his love was cast out, forced out of Heaven. Zira knew Deminian had little, if anything, to do with the the attempt to overthrow their Lord, and he appealed his Lord of behalf of his Love.

Initially, he was stationed as a guard at the Eastern Gate of Edan, which the serpent eventually breached, and tempted Eve in the Garden. Aziraphale was confronted, and he had no reasonable or acceptable answer for the Lord as to how the snake got past his gate post. In the end, he was sent to Earth to live among man. He was not fully removed from Heaven, but he was instructed to stay on earth.

He grew to enjoy his time on earth, and a renewed relationship with his former love, now known as the demon Crowley, or Anthony J Crowley. The two assumed opposing roles in the world, with Zira seeking to guide Man toward the Heavens, while Crowley endeavored to tempt Man toward Hell. At the end of the day, the effect was that they balanced each other out, more or less (and they kept each other balanced, but that's story all on its own, to be told another time).

Zira has been living on Earth for thousands of years. He has not been back to Heaven since the beginning. His Lord has spoken to him less and less over the years. He has owned a book shop in London for many years, and if he's honest, the shop is merely a place to keep his books. He has no intention of selling anything, and will often sabotage a customer's attempts to buy a book (stopping just short of physical violence) simply because he can't part with a single book. He will do this by any means necessary, which often means the use of magic.

He has lived in London most of his time on earth, at least since London was founded. He's had a book shop all along, though he has had to change location a time or three, over the years, to keep people from getting suspicious about why he hasn't aged. He changes his appearance every few years, which helps. He is currently in possession of a tall, lanky sort of body with bright eyes and a tendency toward bed-hair.

Some eleven years ago, after Crowley botched things with the birth of the antichrist by taking the child upon himself to raise, Aziraphale stepped in to help Crowley raise the boy, called Adam. Zira took on the role of educator, often reading to Adam, and later tutoring him in academics. Asurvival was a near thing in those early years as he failed to respect Aziraphale's books and Zira very nearly murdered him more than once, but he did survive, and the three of them (angel, demon, and antichrist) made a very unlikely but very close knit family.