Azalin Rex: The Ruthless Ruler Who Defied Death - D&D Lore

[@SupersaiyanChristian]

My D&D group just foiled a plan by Azalin. Azalin was able to escape by hijacking the body of a Vistani child, possessing it with his spirit. This violation of a seeming rule of Ravenloft, an actual escape caused turmoil within the land of Mist. The mists began to materialize on, over time, all other planes, searching for the escaped prisoner, and, in their haste, leaving people in planes not their home one. They eventually found out his plot, travelled to Darkon with assistance, broke the Soul Jar containing the infant's soil, and sent him back to Darkon to remain forever. Glad to find a video on him! Thank you!

[@MrSkills123]

This was great! Ravenloft was such a gem in the 90s, Azalin was the goat!

[@didiosthrance]

The book based on him was pretty awesome. Never liked Strahd and always wanted Azalin to trounce him.

[@DuongNguyen-uw7dr]

What's the book?

[@didiosthrance]

@@DuongNguyen-uw7dr King of the Dead - Ravenloft had a series of novels.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Ya I saw that come up across my research. I think the sourcebooks do a pretty good job with his story without diving into it. I’ve always wanted to read the Ravenloft series but can’t find the physical books. I’ve only read the one about Soth

[@didiosthrance]

@@The_NaturalOnes I had that one and only one or two others. Tales from Ravenloft and mayyybe Dance of the Dead. I just looked on Ebay...yikes! 70-100 US for King of the Dead! The few used book sites I look at, nada. I don't think I still have it, if I do it's tucked away deep in a box somewhere. Only source materials I had were the little monster codex's for 2E and the adventure book from 3.5 about Strahd. Just because it had some super cool horror stuff in it.

[@WarWeasel69]

Loved this series! Not sure if this was the correct order, but this is how i read them.. I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a vampire, ..I, Strahd: the war against Azalin, ...King of the dead and then.... Lord of the necropolis...

[@Nojoro85]

Phenomenal, I’ve been fascinated by Azalin since I first read about him in VRGR and this video just absolutely blows me away

[@mistajongilbert]

Buddy, I've literally been waiting years for someone to cover Azalin. Barely a month ago, I went looking again, now I can finally share his story with my TLDR friends 🤣

[@dominicjherr]

Great video, about a great character! I read, and absolutely loved, the old Ravenloft books. The demiplane of the Lands of Dread were a cool, dark, counterpart to the other cosmological DnD spheres. Also, just a slight correction. The mercenaries that were sent after Firan/Azalin did not attack him, by infiltrating his castle. Firan/Azalin was lured out with the promise of newly discovered magic (from a double agent), accompanied by only a small retinue of guards, and then ambushed by said mercenaries. edit: Also, just another quick note. There was no ruler of Darkon before Azalin, because the land was literally formed for him, by the Dark Powers. When Azalin left Barovia, and entered the Mists, the Dark Powers "separated" Azalin into two individual entities. One was the powerful mortal wizard, Firan, with no memories of being the lich Azalin, who wondered the mists for an indeterminate amount of time. The other was the lich Azalin (who named itself Darcalus), with no memory of it's former mortal life as Firan, who entered into the new land of Darkon, and ruled from Castle Avernus. When Firan finally exited the Mists (only entering Darkon after years of Azalin's rule, according to the memories of its inhabitants), and eventually confronted Darcalus, the two separate beings would merge into the "true" complete Azalin, replete with all memories, again. The whole setup was another cruel game orchestrated by the Dark Powers, for their amusement.

[@ihtashamafzal5678]

Great video 👍

[@KS-PNW]

This was really well done 👍👍

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Appreciate it!

[@nosferatu-369]

They need to start making new Ravenloft novels. All we have at the remaining bookstores is Dragon Lance and R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books.🥺

[@The_NaturalOnes]

100%

[@Greatfang1319]

You forgot to mention that in order to come back from the time of unparalleled darkness, he now uses the body of his dead son as his physical form since his lich essence needed a corpse to inhabit, so the dark powers played a nasty trick on him and made that one the closest. His sons ghost haunts him more frequently now because of this.

[@cody1570]

Those have to be the most badass group of mercs in the whole of forgotten realms or otherwise

[@The_NaturalOnes]

That’s exactly what I was thinking. At the time of reading I thought it must be a module or adventure, since every time a DnD story vaguely explains that a small group did some extraordinary feat it’s usually a DnD group But I think they were just extremely tough mercenaries, kind of insane

[@thedragondaddydm6182]

I think I remember reading somewhere that one of the spells he most wants is true resurrection normally the spell has a time limit of 200 or 500 years I forget which but that’s just cuz petitioners normally merge with their plane, their god, or turn into a being native to that plain by then and he wanted to learn this spell for his son whose ghost is still around so it could still work his reasoning could purely be to get ride of his remorse or perhaps he thinks that his remorse for his son is what was used to trap him so by undoing his son’s death he will be freed

[@TheJpmuzz]

great video

[@dominicjherr]

If available, the Ravenloft novels "King of the Dead", and "Lord of the Necropolis", are excellent reads. They detail Azalin's "adventures" in the Lands of Dread. In the first book, "King of the Dead", Irik is indeed brought to the Lands of Dread, with his father Firan/Azalin. At the end of that story, the Dark Powers release his spirit, to ascend, and replace it with a "fake Irik", complete with all the original's memories/behaviors, to torment Azalin. I won't ruin the whole story, since it a great story. But, at the end of "Lord of the Necropolis", Azalin is actually absorbed into the "gestalt" that makes up the Dark Powers. It's really fascinating! I also knew that after Azalin's disappearance, that Il Aluk became "Necropolis". But, I didn't know about him returning, after these events. I'll have to do some further research/reading. Thanks for renewing my interest! My favorite Ravenloft characters were Lord Soth, and Azalin, followed by Strahd in 3rd place.

[@AgentHarris-ww1sy]

Nox Arcana-Dracula's Castle

[@gringoire986]

Which sources have been used to gather these information? I know about the two ravenloft books but there is much more in this video. I’d like to read other material if existing.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

This may not be comprehensive, but the big ones were the 2 modules I mentioned: From the Shadows and Roots of Evil. As well as the core ravenloft bools, monstrous compendium, secrets of the dread realms, and the Ravenloft Gazetteers from 3E

[@KS-PNW]

Some of the 2e lore has been retconned but id also really recommend the Van Richtens guide to lichs. Even if some of the mechanics need updating there's a lot of great ideas in there for running lichs in general and in raven loft in particular

[@bhstone1]

I read all the books and "Rex" never was mentioned. Where did it come from?

[@AncientRylanor69]

urbosa aquiline_nose

[@yosakie]

Can you please cover the chained god? Tharizdun?