Board Thread:Lords of Shadow 2/@comment-9249716-20141020172605/@comment-174.58.234.183-20141102022503

I believe that his immortality is because of his Vampirism. As for his amazing power, that is attributed to the Forgotten One's power being absorbed by Gabriel. In fact, he gained the title of Prince of Darkness by defeating the Sovereign of the Dark Realm, the Forgotten One himself.

As for the God Mask itself, Marie explains that it allows its user to see through God's eyes. Only Zobek and Satan believed it would grant them untold power. If you think about the original 3 founders of the Brotherhood, the mask, to them, was the single most important artifact they possessed. I wouldn't be surprised if they used the mask originally to locate the three nexus's of spiritual energy that would allow them to become higher beings, thus creating the Lords of Shadow in the process.

The Lords of Shadow, being an amalgamation of the evil of the founders, wouldn't have known the true purpose of the mask, and thus they would come to believe that whoever wore it would gain untold power. Only their good halves would have known the true purpose of the mask.

As for the prophecy, Gabriel by defeating the Lords of Shadow became God's Holy Warrior on Earth. He didn't inherit any hidden powers from the Lords of Shadow, unless you want to count the Seraph Shoulders and Cyclone Boots. It was Gabriel's fate to defeat the Lords of Shadow, and it was his fate to become Dracula.

Dracula became a necessary evil that could and did keep Satan and Zobek in check for countless centuries. In fact, had Gabriel not gained the Forgotten One's power and became a vampire then Satan would had eventually returned. With no one with the power to stop him or keep him in check, the world as we knew it would have ended.

I hope this explanation has helped answered your question.