Malyn Varen Malyn Varen is a Dunmer mage located within Azura ' s Star . He is the primary antagonist of the quest " The Black Star . " History . He was exiled from the College of Winterhold for pursuing questionable research with Soul Gems , killing a student , and many other unacceptable acts . Malyn ' s experiments were to find a way to prolong his life , and he believed that storing his soul in Azura ' s Star would prevent him from dying . The problem with this is that one of the properties of the star is that no humanoid soul could enter . According to Nelacar , the further Malyn progressed towards his goal , the more Azura cursed him . The Daedric artifact drove Malyn insane , causing him to " hear voices " that were not there , see people that were not there , and eventually , to murder one of his students . He left the college , collected a band of followers , and continued his research at Ilinalta ' s Deep , an abandoned Imperial outpost that collapsed into the lake due to earlier experiments by Malyn and his students . There , he sought to capture his own soul in the Star to achieve a state of immortality . He achieved this goal to some extent , however he must continually be ' fed ' souls from the outside world to continue his state of existence . This was the purpose of the necromancers stationed in the sunken outpost , and the appearance of so many skeletons within suggest they had been doing it for quite some time . Interactions . The Black Star . The Dragonborn finds Azura ' s Star beside Malyn ' s skeleton at Ilinalta ' s Deep , and with the help of Azura , purifies it by entering it and killing Malyn ' s soul . Alternatively , the Dragonborn may have brought the Star to Nelacar and had him perform the purification , which causes the Star to turn black and trap black souls within it , similar to a Black Soul Gem . After his final death , an unknown adversary sends two apprentice necromancers to hunt down the Dragonborn and reclaim Azura ' s Star . Battle . The staff and dagger that Malyn wield are leveled and random . Occasionally throughout the fight , he switches to casting Oakflesh . Fighting alongside him are three Dremora . Unless Area of Effect spells such as Fireball are used , the Dragonborn has to get through the Dremora before any serious damage can be inflicted on Malyn . While the Dremoras ' fire spells do a lot of damage , and make them hard to see , they are not difficult to drain and kill if they are approached enough . As long as the Dragonborn has good fire shielding and / or a lot of health potions , the battle can be fought long enough to kill them . Using a full strength Slow Time shout while he is attempting to run away after the initial conversation allows him to be easily defeated . Also , worth noting , with a high enough Sneak skill , even without the Shadow Warrior Perk , it is possible to stay crouching behind a crystal pillar , out of view of Malyn and the Dremora , and become hidden again , and backstab all four of them , by sneaking up on each of them individually . Three Daedra Hearts can be collected once the Dremora have been slain , but only if their corpses were not knocked off the edges of the crystalline floor during battle . They also carry leveled ( possibly difficulty dependent if not random ) one and two handed weaponry . Malyn can be resurrected using the Dead Thrall Conjuration spell . He will not follow the Dragonborn out of the Azura Star , but he reappears after fast - travelling .