Azratha, the Elven Adversary

Azratha, as the spirit of entropy and death is known to the elven peoples of the mortal plane, is regarded as the giver of mortality who resided at the rim of all of the worlds of creation. The spirit notably inhabited in exception to Caelarkhe, and was thus composed of the primordial substance of dark energy which observed not a singular presence of light and soul within it. It is thought that the spirit resides within all of the liminal spaces that exist between matter and light within the mortal plane, and that Azratha is rather the quintessential shape of void as it manifests within creation. Thus, from these liminal spaces of void and black darkness comes Azratha’s chaos and destruction, and the being is thought to sever the potential grandeur of creation from experiencing the sublimity and fullness of the soul of Avaerus. The deathly being thus naturally instigates change and the deviation from Caelarkhe’s forms of the Sorya, and thereby removes the perfection of Soryi blood and Caelarkhe from fulfilling itself within the worlds of creation. Accordingly, the spirit is thought to rival the Sephareth in ability and power, thereby presenting himself as the primary contender of those godlike beings and their descendants throughout the eras of existence among the worlds of creation. It is thought, then, that the spirit is a god of his own kind, though possessing a different power than the Sephareth such that they remained perpetually at odds throughout the ages. In the context of elven theologies, it is Azratha who stands between their people and immortality, and often, Azratha is reviled as the essence and manifestation of the curse of mortality which brought about the end of the Altori Era. In bringing about this end, Azratha had been declared to be the enemy of the Sephareth, and the being’s essence thus would haunt at the nadir of the world in a state of hunger for the fruitfulness of the ruling gods of the Altori Era for all time, always threatening to consume the world if not for the practices of the elven peoples.

The god of deathly being and blight is thought to be the summation of all of that essence of the void as it manifests within creation, being a spirit who is both interwoven within the mortal plane as the inclusion of the darkness became evident, but also is alike to the Novya in that the being encompasses void and chaos. Thus, Azratha is believed to have been birthed when the Sephareth usurped and manipulated Soryi blood in the beginning eras, as when Soryi blood was emptied of its sublime contents of soul and light, all that was left was a shade of the former power and its absence. Accordingly, the god of primal void and entropy as it emerges onto the mortal plane is believed to be the vestiges of a consciousness stripped completely of the perfection of the Sorya, and it is Azratha that is the ghost of that era of primordial abundance, an era where mana and energy roamed free from the constraints and trappings of psyche as it manifested in imitation of the ideal of the Sorya. Naturally, Azratha’s greatest rival is Araray, a Sephareth who was the sole survivor of the Altori Era and who managed to expiate and purify himself from all of Azratha’s curse.

To the Arethara of Arethayn, who submit their wills to the highest echelon of their caste system, Azratha is thought to be the manifestation and consciousness of the curse which had caused the Sephareth’s deaths and brought about the closure of the Altori Era, and is thus rejected and reviled throughout Arethayn. The curse of death which Azratha had brought to the Sephareth is thought to be the same as that which had forced the mannish and mundane worlds to incarnate as mortal, Azratha claiming these worlds so that death would become common there. The essence of entropy and chaos that Azratha is a manifestation of is thought to reside within the psyches of the Arethara as they had grown to inherit the curse, though in the Elefyr, it is thought that the power is limited and subdued in order to allow these godlike beings to achieve the perfection that the Sephareth had within the Altori Era. Thus, the Arethara strive to emulate the Elefyr in order to preserve the presence of the spiritual, glowing light of the immortal plane of Avaerus, which had previously been more influential to creation.

The Neiara, who inhabited the land which they called Driayn, worshipped in their original exodus and mode of being within that their ancestor spirits, who counted themselves among the Sephareth who would not become praised by the broader Arethara. As such, these elven peoples that were as broad and varied as the many and variable Sephareth believed Azratha to be the obstacle to their own peoples’ immortality, though being forced to reside within the world that Azratha had embraced with his death and entropy. The spirit of mortality and blight was thus thought to reside within Driayn, and it was through Azratha that their hardships originated from as they inhabited a space that had been severed from the golden light of the Sorya. Accordingly, the Neiara held the culture of the broader Sephareth to be ideal, and it was Azratha that stood between this unmistakably divine mode of being and the mortality that they faced within. It is believed, then, that Azratha would cause their people to instead slip into comatose being such that, in death, they could no longer recognize themselves and manifest within the world as a spirit.

The Mirari council of sages, referred to as the Aeteri and those who compile the knowledge of the Mirara in order to allow for their people’s ascension to occur, regard Azratha as the consciousness of the very force of darkness and chaos that binds them to Aurius and their physical forms. In concordance with that belief, the Aeteri hold that physicality is frail, and furthermore that it binds the pure essence of soul and vitality within it so that their apotheosis and ascent into a holy terrain is disallowed. Accordingly, the Mirara strive to cast the curse of incarnation by Azratha from their souls so that they can become beings alike to the Sorya in that they are immortal and immutable in being, but yet may possess a consciousness that is not found in those spirits’ eternal stasis. The Aeteri are the closest of the Mirara to the fruition of this ideal, and it is found that their experimentation observes that they may incarnate into one form which can then be recalled into the original consciousness which evoked the form. Though this may be the case, Azratha is regarded by the broader Mirari people to be a being who exists in opposition to their ideals of apotheosis and spirituality, and acknowledgement of the being is thus engulfed in derision.

The Vaathara, who acknowledge the Valdaen as their divine court and lawgivers throughout their deeds in Regaayn and beyond, recognize Azratha as possessing the essence which instigates their mortality, and as they believe that from this mortality may arise an ascension into a different form, Azratha is believed to be the spirit who resides at the liminal thresholds between not only life and death, but simple transition. Thus, Azratha’s form of a skull is depicted on the entrances into tombs and other deathly places, so that it might be understood that Azratha resides and acknowledges within that space which holds a certain liminality. Furthermore, the spirit is placated through intense worship of the spirit of the night known as Moravir, who guides the souls of the Vaathara away from the comatose state which Azratha instigates so that, instead, they might know rebirth within the darkness rather than slipping into unknowing death.