Azuth

Azuth was the Faerûnian lesser deity of arcane magic whose concerns included the perpetuation of the magical arts as a craft. He was a servant of Mystra and worshiped by all manner of arcane spellcasters, earning particular veneration from wizards.

"There was once a wizard who wanted power beyond all mortal reach. Such stories always end poorly. But luckily for the wizard, the Lady of the Mysteries took a shine to him and became his queen. She granted him powers—such powers—until he was no longer a mere wizard but a god in truth. A god dedicated to his lady and all who wore her crown."

- Azuth telling his story.

Description
Azuth's avatar was usually tall, and he was generally depicted as a white-haired, bearded, vigorous old man garbed in gray, silk robes (and never wearing a hat).

He could, however, shapechange at will and often appeared as a tall pyramid shape with no apparent eyes or mouths covered in glittering, pulsing lights. Despite this lack of sensory features or apparent means of mobility, he was perfectly capable of sight, speech, spellcasting, and gliding through the air.

Personality
Azuth was a somewhat paternal deity, sober yet not humorless or mean-spirited (although when he was upset his wrath was terrible). Indeed, when he was in good humor, he enjoyed giving small gifts to those who beseeched him, such as edible delicacies, unusually colored flowers, or even elegant magical fabrics. However, his was a sardonic humor with an appreciation for wordplay and subtlety, and he had so perfected the art of straight-faced delivery that it was often unclear whether or not he was joking.

Even other deities found Azuth crotchety, not understanding the crafty god's sense of dry wit. Besides that, he was also misunderstood for his unending devotion to the accumulation of magical knowledge, concerning himself with the preservation and advancement of the magical arts.

Possessions
Azuth wielded the Old Staff, an ancient, divine artifact taking the form of a long, wooden, iron-shod staff about one and a half times taller than himself. It was inscribed with all manner of sigils and runes and topped with a large gemstone known as the Spirit Stone or Donjon of Facets atop it, varyingly noted as being a cabochon-cut topaz or a blue sapphire. The Old Staff had a host of arcane powers, including but by no means limited to: acting as a staff of striking, staff of power, and staff of the magi, reflecting all spells cast at it or Azuth on the same plane, increasing magical resistance (useless for Azuth himself but beneficial for those without a certain level of resistance already), and imprisoning targets in the Spirit Stone.

Divine Realm
Azuth's divine realm, located on Buxenus, the second layer of Arcadia in the Great Wheel cosmology, was also called Azuth.

Relationships
Azuth was served by the deities Velsharoon and Savras, the latter with which he maintained a complex relationship, having kept the Lord of Divination as prisoner for many years. He also call Deneir, Oghma, and Leira as allies of his, and had a close relationship with Anastra Syluné Silverhand.

In life, and beyond, Azuth maintained a dynamic relationship with his divine superior Mystra; having served as her Chosen, her subordinate, and her lover. Azuth was subservient to both Mystra and later Midnight, having sat as an adviser for and acted as a favored student of the goddess of magic. On one occasion, he was asked by the goddess to subtly manipulate the wizard Flamsterd.

While his relationship with the first Mystra was one of deep mutual affection, he took a more paternal stance with her later incarnation, guiding her through a difficult time of acclimatization to her role. Although he was one of Mystra's lovers, he was in love with one of her Chosen, Alvaerele Tasundrym, having protected her from danger.

Worshipers
The clergy of Azuth were collectively known as the Magistrati and included wizards, monks, and clerics within their ranks. They preferred to maintain their temples within large cities, align themselves with powerful magical guilds, and act as a sort of magical administration to facilitate communication between spellcasters and enforce the Magebond.

Among the highest order of Azuth's followers were a group of arcane paragons known as the Favored. These heralds of magical development furthered the channeling of the Weave by formulating arcane processes, a process viewed as the apex of magical science among the faithful.

The church of Azuth were widely viewed as archaic in their tradition, pedantic in their debates, and oblivious to the real-world problems within the Realms. They often possessed a moral neutrality that garnered an unfavorable opinion by the average layperson.

Orders

 * Loomwarden: A stern sect of the church of Azuth that was distrusting of sorcerers and the more chaotic nature of Mystra's power. They were particularly influential in cities like Halarahh and Bezantur.


 * Spellsavants: This tolerant order of mages urged for cooperation between all practitioners of the arcane and idealized the cumulative efforts of humanity as a whole to push the boundaries of magical knowledge.

History
Records of Azuth's life as a mortal were virtually non-existent and Azuth himself did not deign to answer questions regarding the topic; therefore, most of what was known of Azuth's life was legend.

As a mortal man, Azuth was hungry for power, and in his search for it he studied several lost empires in the hope of finding forgotten magical secrets. Eventually his dedication lead to him being granted the title of Magister, the first of his kind, recognized by Mystra as her most promising mortal pupil. At some point, Azuth believed himself no longer worthy of being called Magister, and so Mystra turned him instead to one of her Chosen.

Ascension
During or shortly after the Dawn Cataclysm, in his bid for divinity, Azuth sought to steal a portion of the demigod Savras' power in a gambit that ultimately failed. This led to a protracted series of battles between Azuth and Savras, culminating in a duel that shattered a mountain and created a deep lake. Azuth was successful and managed to imprison the deity Savras within a staff he had created, the Scepter of Savras. And thus, with the help of Mystra who had now become his lover, Azuth finally ascended to divine status.

Azuth lost the staff, but Syluné Silverhand found it and returned it to him, whereupon Azuth began to feel guilty for imprisoning Savras and, after the Time of Troubles, freed him from his imprisonment in exchange for a pledge of fealty.

Spellplague
"He forgot what it was to be human. What it was to not wear the god's mantle. He forgot what it was to crave power. And so he was not there when her rivals came for his queen. Down, down, the wizard fell, from heights of the heavens to the depths of the Hells, the fabric of the very planes tearing as he passed. And perhaps, then, it was a fitting punishment, for the wizard who forgot what it was to want, that he landed broken at the feet of one who was nothing but want incarnate. He remembers now, too late, what it means, the perils and the potentials."

- Azuth ending his tale.

The destruction of Dweomerheart sent the dying Azuth into Asmodeus's domain of Nessus. Although many people believed the archdevil killed Azuth and consumed his divine essence to attain godhood, in fact Asmodeus fused with Azuth, and both gods coexisted since then in the same body. Most of the time Asmodeus overpowered Azuth, using his divine powers while the God of Wizards was in a dormant state. But in a rare few occasions Azuth was able to gain dominion of their shared body, and many denizens of the Nine Hells believed Asmodeus had become mad due to his strange behavior.

The Second Sundering
In 1486 DR, Azuth had regained most of his strength and was able to choose Ilstan Nyaril as his Chosen. Asmodeus and Azuth began to struggle for dominion over their shared body and the hierarchy of the Nine Hells was jeopardized because of that. Ilstan and Farideh, one of the Chosen of Asmodeus, devised a plan to separate both gods and avoid a potential devil invasion to all the multiverse. They contacted the god Enlil through his Chosen, Kepeshkmolik Dumuzi, and Asmodeus agreed to release Azuth from his body and to resurrect the Untherite god Nanna-Sin as a non-god immortal and in exchange Enlil allowed Asmodeus to consume Nanna-Sin's divine spark to become a god unto himself. In a ritual performed in Djerad Thymar amid the First Tymanther-Unther War, on Hammer 10 of 1487 DR, Ilstan sacrificed his life to allow Azuth become an individual god once more.

After the Second Sundering ended, Azuth returned to the Faerûnian pantheon.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * The Temptation of Elminster &bull; The Devil You Know

Connections
Azuth