Hellmouth (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) - Sunnydale Hellmouth - The Seal of Danzalthar

The Seal of Danzalthar

The Seal of Danzalthar is a fictional device resembling a demonic symbol, featuring an inverted pentagram and a goat's head. It is located over the Hellmouth and was discovered in the basement of the rebuilt Sunnydale High School.

The Seal is first seen in Season 7 of the series, in the episode "Conversations With Dead People". Andrew Wells is seduced by First Evil in the form of Andrew's dead friend Warren Mears into opening the Seal. The Seal can only be opened by a blood sacrifice, so Andrew murders his friend Jonathan Levinson who, because he is anemic, doesn't have enough blood to open the Seal. Jonathan's body and the Seal are found by Principal Robin Wood and buried.

The First Evil sends its minions, The Bringers, to capture Spike. They bind him over the Seal and bleed him. The Seal opens sufficiently to allow one Turok-Han (a.k.a. "Ubervamp") to slip through. The first Turok-Han is killed shortly thereafter by Buffy.

In "First Date" Lissa, a minor demon, tries to open the Seal using the blood of Xander Harris but is unsuccessful.

In the episode "Storyteller," the Seal is wreaking havoc on the Sunnydale student body, inspiring all-out warring amongst cliques, the spontaneous combustion of one student, and the invisibility of another. Five students perform a ritual over the Seal which causes it to emit white light. The students are transformed into Bringers. Buffy, stating that Andrew may be able to communicate with the Seal, takes him to it. Actually, Buffy and Willow have deduced that while blood opens the Seal, tears of remorse close it. Buffy forces Andrew to face up to his actions in murdering Jonathan and his tears fall upon the Seal, closing it and temporarily stopping its deleterious effects. By the time of "Touched," the Hellmouth has grown so powerful that Spike is able to freely enter and exit human residences without being invited, something vampires are usually unable to do, indicating that all of Sunnydale's residences now "belong" to the Hellmouth rather than to their human owners.

In the series finale, "Chosen," Buffy, Faith and several Potential Slayers cut their hands and bleed on the Seal, opening it. They enter the Hellmouth itself and engage the forces of The First Evil on its own ground. After a pitched battle, an amulet worn by Spike begins to glow. A beam of sunlight shines down into the Hellmouth, focused and amplified by the amulet. The forces of The First Evil are destroyed, the Seal and the Hellmouth are collapsed and the entire town of Sunnydale is consumed in the destruction. As of the events of "Chosen", the Sunnydale Hellmouth is permanently closed and inactive.

The Seal was referenced by Blizzard Entertainment as an epic ring in the game World of Warcraft.