D&D 5E Some ideas on Azalin and Darkon

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

It has been pointed out that Azalin, of Ravenloft, is a boring character. While Strahd is an interesting character, a fully Gothic style beast yet a D&D character at the same time, Azalin the lich is not… Azalin is just a store-bought lich, more or less.
Here are some thoughts on making him more interesting.

Azalin
It(1) has everything it asked for but little of what it wanted.
Azalin is the despotate Darkon, not merely its endless ruler.
Azalin the lich has access to the Book of Dreadful Orthodoxy, which rewrites the memories and values of Darkon’s inhabitants. The lich frequently edits the work in its obsession to control everything, rewriting things in meaningless ways. For example, a cobbler from one city has his history changed to be a cobbler from another city, just so that Azalin is the one in control, making decisions for everyone.
Azalin reinforces its rule through use of a secret police, the Kargat, to ensure behavior – public and private – actually adheres to the dogma and narrative of the Book of Dreadful Orthodoxy.
Azalin can increase its knowledge of magic and spells. It is also the single most powerful arcane magic user in Darkon.
In this manner Azalin possesses power and authority, enforcing its ethical and moral standards across the nation in thought and deed and the lich is the center of adulation by the population(2).
But….
The Book of Dreadful Orthodoxy is not absolute and anyone with access to the book can write in the book…(3)
The lich has exhausted the magical stores of knowledge in it is nation – Darkon’s people, their traditions, their libraries and so forth have nothing new to teach the lich about magic. It must reach beyond the border of its nation…
The lich cannot personally go hunting new magic beyond Darkon and sending its own people outside of the nation is dangerous. If someone leaves the nation for more than three or four days, their original memories surface and they know they have been deeply deceived by Darkon(4). Even if they return quicker than three days, they have seen too many things…
As such, most of the magic Azalin wants is just out of its reach…(5)
There is an underground resistance, opposing the lich, led by none other than the lich’s own son. The son, Irik, is apparently immune to the power of the Book of Dreadful Orthodoxy and his resistance band broke into the castle where the book was kept and altered the work, as they could not then destroy it. Azalin has to keep moving the book now – it is vulnerable in transit and too many hands are involved in keeping it – and is unable to fully track down and stop Irik and his band of freedom fighters, increasing the paranoia of Azalin and his secret police…
Azalin cannot bare to have anything changed, unless the decision is entirely the lich’s.
The lich cannot increase his magical power without trusting others to get the magic beyond its ability to continually control those people. The lich’s own son leads a rebellion against it, which the lich cannot seem to stop.
Azalin possesses power and authority, enforcing its wishes across the nation in thought and deed and the lich is the center of adulation by the population. However, it cannot increase its power without taking risks the lich cannot tolerate. It has absolute control over its nation yet everything is perpetually on the verge of collapse. Azalin is locked into an existence of absolute power and impotent power at the same time, perpetually in a state of slow burning rage at everything around itself, which the lich cannot dispose of without also destroying the power it possesses.

(1) I do not think of liches as possessing gender in anything like the conventional sense. The flesh has rotted away, stripping them of the physical characteristics of gender and in the process they have become alien in their thinking and/or insane by and normal standard, which muddles any concept of gender identification.
(2) Think North Korea and the Kim family.
(3) “Loyal” ranking members of Azalin’s junta “help” edit the work.
(4) Azalin has changed the memories and supposed values of everyone in Darkon through use of the Book of Dreadful Orthodoxy, native an immigrant.
(5) Arcane magic users in the party might be kidnapped by Kargat agents.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

Can you please indicate where it says Azalin is a 'boring character'? I dont mind you opening with that statement but please back it up.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I don't find Azalin boring. He is fairly interesting and while a horrible being has fairly interesting details

Azalin is the strongest mage in the Demiplane of Dread, but he is unable to learn new spells as part of his curse.
He desires escape from the Demiplane above pretty much all else and wants to return to his home of Oreth. His curse of not being able to learn new magic makes this much harder for him.
Azalin is ashamed of being a lich, and uses powerful illusions to make himself look like merely a creepy human.
Azalin's runs his kingdom as a tyrant purging anyone he feels is not loyal to him (Which also causes him problems). He is also impatient and very controlling.
Azalin feels a great deal of regret for killing his son. His son and heir back on Oreth aided some rebels against him. Azalin killed his son in response to this and turned himself a lich so to avoid the problem of not having a heir anymore. He regretted his choices. One of his stated reasons for being so dead-set on escaping Ravenloft is to go back to a world where reliable resurrections can be made so as to bring his son back to life to make a second go at molding him into a worthy heir.

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Ari Marmell, for one, has remarked that Azalan is dull, or at least not as compelling as Strahd. I agree.

 

[Ancalagon]

It is true that Azalin is not as interesting as Stradh or even lord Soth. However, I still think he can make for a good protagonist - a worthy challenge for the PC and one with goals and motivations beyond merely being evil.

I like your take on Azalin but I do note that it seems to run contrary to one of his key features - the inability to learn new spells.

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I like your take on Azalin but I do note that it seems to run contrary to one of his key features - the inability to learn new spells.

Thank you.

I tried to turn it around into something where Azalin was torturing himself, where the thing that keeps Azalin from learning new magic is basically Azalin. I tried to suggest that with him in the leadership role, Darkon is a lot like Airstrip One of 1984, but all his power Azalin cannot get past himself enough to get more magic and at the same time has to deal with true believers and cannot stop his rebel son. Further, part of it is Azalin will attempt to have kidnapped any PC arcane magic users, to use and exploit them.

 

[Ancalagon]

interesting - I must admit that this nuance escaped me. It would be interesting a notion that Azalin's need for control is why he can't learn new magic...

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

interesting - I must admit that this nuance escaped me. It would be interesting a notion that Azalin's need for control is why he can't learn new magic...

The best and most memorable dark lords are the ones who wrecked themselves, such as with Strahd think being a crazy stalker would turn Tatyana on and her always fleeing his advances. Likewise, Azalin should be wrecking himself and having the Dark Power be the ones to cut his ability to learn magic meant someone else was wrecking him.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The best and most memorable dark lords are the ones who wrecked themselves, such as with Strahd think being a crazy stalker would turn Tatyana on and her always fleeing his advances. Likewise, Azalin should be wrecking himself and having the Dark Power be the ones to cut his ability to learn magic meant someone else was wrecking him.

The Dark Powers are still involved the the torments. They are the ones that bring Tatyana reincarnations back.

Azalin's main goal has always been to escape so that he can fix his mistakes. By preventing Azalin from learning new magic escape is impossible for him by himself, It means he has to rely on others and that while he is the most powerful mage in the land. He will never be better and there is the fear that someone could surpass him. Azalin is too paranoid to let someone get close to him in power.

He actually ruined his chances of taking over Barovia due to his paranoia. Having purged the ranks of his army anyone he believed could be disloyal or incompetent. Strahd before Azalin could launch his huge invasion, masterminded and assassinated Azalin's officers and elites. And his army lacking leaders fell apart, because Azalin had already purged anyone that could have replaced his officers. Strahd also bet that Azalin in his paranoia would not allow anyone in the next generation to learn how to lead armies very effectively due to this paranoia.

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Yes, the DPs bring Tatyana back, but they do not magically compel Strahd to stalk her - he does that on his own.

And the DPS can prevent escape without capping magical power - no one else and no other creature deals with a level cap in the setting and they are all still stuck.