Azazel

"Desire can be a strong thing, don't you agree? With it, in the right hands, so much can be achieved. Acquired. ... All that is needed before such things is the right amount of sacrifice oftentimes."

### Aliases

Father of Enlightenment, Morning Star, Lord of Darkness, Seraph of Death

## In the Beginning, Darkness

When primordial essences coalesced into shaping the known reality, within the darkest reaches was created a being to take command of Dark. In this, Azazel ('knowledge'), came to be.

Also known as the Father of Enlightenment. Azazel is Myvera’s primordial counterpart and is associated with death, desire, truth, trickery, and Darkness.

The actual Azazel that walked the Planes was cunning, sometimes temperamental, egotistic, but also charismatic and believed in utmost truth for all base creatures–at any price. The Lord of the Morning Star—the depiction of enlightenment within Darkness–is another moniker and mythos Azazel is tied to.

His likeness is depicted as a tall young man with long dark hair and dark purple eyes illuminated with the cosmos. He typically dons two sets of wings, except his are dark as night in contrast to Myvera’s.

### Void Made Manifest

The Seraph of Darkness can trace his primordial lineage to an ancient essence known as Eoeri. A "Pillar" of the Quat'bala which represented umbral essences. When the Quat'bala weaved themselves into creating the Celesti, Azazel was thus given control over the domain of Darkness.

At first, Darkness was a neutral requirement in the balances of this newfound existence.

## From Night, Enlightenment

### Inheriting Knowledge

Azazel is called the Father of Enlightenment because it is said he made created beings aware of both good and bad choices, as well as gifting them *all* knowledge--including those considered 'forbidden'. However, the origins of this is contested even to this day. The Celestial religion indeed confirms that Azazel is associated with 'enlightenment' and forbidden knowledge but the original story seems to be up for consistent debate.

The most common story is that when the Seraphim began to better establish their domains, Azazel found it imperative that creators bestowed the same understanding that he and other Celesti were gifted in their own creation. Because that has meant choice, and through that choice, such a wide variety in the expansion of reality. Corralling lesser beings only into certain knowledge and keeping them ignorant in the hopes of maintaining some sort of utopia or balance wouldn't work in his mind.

Thus, Azazel opened leylines to his domain, called the Underworld by base beings, and deliberately gave all beings that the Celesti created the awareness of choice and all knowledge. This in turn brought on the existence of death and through this, Returning.

### Necessary Evil in Knowledge

The Seraph is directly tied to the notion of "necessary evil"--many sermons pointing to Azazel as the personification of this and weaving lessons about it into his legacy. Azazel himself accepts this openly, and freely promotes the expansion of this. To try and stifle this, is to remain ignorant and an attempt to try and resist Darkness when it cannot be stopped.

### The Domains of Darkness & Chaos

Contrary to some beliefs, Darkness and Chaos are not one in the same. In fact, Azazel has zero command over the domain that is the Chaos Plane. He also does not have an "alliance" or "truce" with Chaos. The two Planes have a very unsteady, mistrustful acknowledgement of each other's roles in the universe. Chaos is a separate creation and entity to Darkness. The two did not form from the same Pillar--nor is it confirmed if Chaos is an essence of Quat'bala.

This mistrust was permanently solidified after the sundering of Sunael. During it, the domain of Darkness was ambushed and attacked by several invading archaeon as a cover for the prime archaeon Zodiark to murder the Seraph of Balance. Azazel purports the archaeon also wanted to take out him as well as Myvera but miscalculated Azazel's power. Regardless, he was too late to stop the sundering and through it, the huge ramifications of this act that can still be felt in present timelines.

Thus, Azazel has zero love or forgiveness for any archaeon--and especially, Zodiark.

## Psalm of the Dawn & Morning Star

One of the earliest and most known texts from Celestial worship, this psalm recounts the story of the binding between Azazel and Myvera as well as their eventual fracture.

It is said in the beginning no being dared to look directly upon the Seraph of Light until Azazel did so, and through this, somehow bound the two eternally---whether one or the other liked it or not. A 'morning star' burning bright within the twilight of dawn when others did not.

As a psalm, it is meant to be a cautionary tale of balances in extremes with Azazel being considered the personification of a "necessary evil" after he brought forbidden knowledge to lesser beings and bound himself to Myvera.

Beyond the psalm and religious texts surrounding this encounter, Azazel has had a fondness for Myvera throughout their existences. His defiance to approach the Seraph of Light directly when others dared not to being the result of this. Fondness and also an imperative to greatly help shape the known reality. Their "love story" has seen many peaks and valleys, even within the most bloodiest years of Celesti warring, and the two remained bound and respectful of each others powers.

### Binding & Legacy

The binding between Azazel and Myvera wasn't always such a large rift and the two have 'direct' creations tied to them. In this case, these creations were not 'blessed' into being and are considered children. These beings include:

* Aspect of Eden
* Aspect of Hades
* Throne of the Elements (Katan)
* Primes of the Seasons (Skade, Ceta, Rhene, Orla)

Azazel and Myvera are associated with the creation of the natural elements as well as the four seasons; this explained that these concepts both have gentleness and strength--abilities to nurture and destroy--in religious texts.

However, the two Seraph are also the originators and direct parentage to the Aspects known as Eden and Hades. Much like their parents, the two represent Light and Dark. Their powers a focused essence of these two elements distilled into dual Aspects. They are still quite different from an Ascendant, though. And the Aspects are said to be "dormant" in current timelines.

### Azazel & Sunael

There are those of the faith who believe it was by Azazel's scheming that Sunael was sundered. While not an "official" telling or sermon, some sects of the religion do purport this. It is said Azazel envied Sunael greatly, especially after discovering Sunael and Myvera also had children of their own. So, in this version of the story, the Seraph opened up a rift between Darkness and Chaos in order to beset a surprise attack on Sunael that resulted in his demise.

In actuality, Azazel was the first to arrive to the scene and most future recountings became twisted in subsequence. The Lord of Darkness never envied the other Seraph, though, the two also did not always agree on different philosophies. Azazel also treated Sunael and Myvera's children with outward respect before and after the sundering.

And between the two, Azazel had always been the better warrior. Sunael was formidable, yes, but his nature to balance--to show neutrality--also made him hesitate. The day of the sundering, Azazel's domain had been ambushed and his attention diverted in order to aid in abating Chaos Plane archaeon. This allowed for a very high ranking archaeon, Zodiark, to take on Sunael and eventually best him in a fight. The consequences of this outcome changing the entirety of the universe and its balances.

## Misc. Information

* Azazel has three known consorts throughout historical texts: Iuna, Minthe, Raevan
* Pre-Sundering Azazel is a different man compared to After Sundering (in which time was split for Celesti); with the balances off, his inclination for Darkness dominating all becoming stronger and somewhat unstable