Lore:Invocation of Azura (Daggerfall)

For three hundred years, I have been a priestess of Azura,
the Daedric Prince of  , Mother of the Rose, and
Queen of the Night Sky. Every Hogithum, which we celebrate on
the 21st of First Seed, we summon her for guidance and to
give up beautiful things to her majesty. She is a cruel but
wise mistress. We do not invoke her on any Hogithum troubled
by thunder storms, for those nights belong to the Mad One,
Sheogorath, even if they do coincide with Hogithum. Azura
understands our caution.

We may summon her on other dates also, and she quite often
responds. The only days we are forbidden to invoke her are
those prescribed to one of the other  fifteen Princes: the 1st
and the 13th of Morning Star, the 2nd and the 16th of Suns
Dawn, the 5th of First Seed, the 9th of Rains Hand, the 9th of
Second Seed, the 5th of Mid Year, the 10th of Suns Height, the
3rd of Hearth Fire, the 8th and the 13th of Frost Fall, the
2nd and 20th of Suns Dusk, and the 20th of Evening Star. I
know who is summoned on the 3rd of Hearth Fire, the 2nd of
Suns Dusk, and the 20th of Evening Star, but I am not certain
of the others. It is enough that Azura has forbidden those
dates.

Azura's invocation is a very personal one. I have been
the priestess of three other Daedric Princes, but Azura
values the quality of her worshippers, the truth behind our
adoration of her, and the ...

When I was a Dark Elven maiden of sixteen, I joined my
grandmother's coven, worshippers of Molag Bal, the Schemer
Prince. Blackmail, extortion, and bribery are as much the
weapons of the Witches of Molag Bal as magic is. The
Invocation of Molag Bal is held on the 20th of Evening Star,
except in stormy weather. This ceremony is seldom missed,
but Molag Bal often appears to his cultists in mortal guise
on other dates. When my grandmother died in an attempt to
poison the heir of Firewatch, I reexamined my faith in the
cult.

My brother was a warlock of the cult of Boethiah, and from
what he told me, the Dark Warrior was closer to my spirit
than the treacherous Molag Bal. Boethiah is a warrior Prince
who acts more   than any other Daedra. After years of
skulking and scheming, it felt good to perform acts for my
mistress which had immediate consequences. Besides, I liked
that Boethiah is a Daedra of the Dark Elves. Our cult would
summon her on the day we called the Gauntlet, the 2nd of
Suns Dusk. Bloody competitions would be held in her honor,
and the duels and battles would continue until nine
cultists were killed at the hands of other cultists. Boethiah
cared little for her cultists -- she only cared about our
blood. I do think I saw her smile when I accidentally slew my
brother in a spar. My horror, I think, greatly pleased her.

I left the cult soon after that. Boethiah was too
impersonal for me, too cold. I wanted a master of greater
depth than she. For the next eighteen years of my life, I
worshipped no one: I read and researched. It was in an old
and profane tome I came upon the name of Nocturnal.
Nocturnal the Night Mistress, Nocturnal the Unfathomable.
As the book prescribed, I called to her on her holy day, the
3rd of Hearth Fire. At last, I had found the personal
mistress I had so long desired. I strove to understand her labyrinthine philosophy, the source of her mysterious
pain. Everything about her was dark and shrouded, even the way
she spoke and the acts she required of me.

It took years for me to understand the simple fact that I
could never understand Nocturnal. Her mystery was as
essential to her as savagery was to Boethiah or treachery was
to Molag Bal. To understand Nocturnal is to negate her, to
pull back the curtains in her realm of darkness. As much as I
loved her, I recognized the futility of unravelling her
enigmas. I turned instead to her sister, Azura.

Azura is the only Daedra Prince I have ever worshipped who
seems to care about her cultists. Molag Bal wanted my mind,
Boethiah wanted my arms, and Nocturnal -- perhaps my
 . Azura wants all of that, and our love. Not our
abject slavering, but our honest and genuine love in all
its forms. It is important to her that our emotions are
engaged. And our love must also be directed inward. If we
love her and hate ourselves, she feels our pain.

I will have no other mistress.