Azrael Dak

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Azrael Dak is a Dwarven Werebadger. He served Lord Soth and became the political ruler of Sithicus after Soth's departure, known by the sobriquet "The Sorrow of Sithicus."

As a youth growing up in the Outlander Dwarven city of Brigalure, Azrael proved to lack talent for any of his parents' crafts. In addition, he was too lazy and disinterested to acquire skill through effort. When challenged by his father as to just "what was wrong with him", Azrael for the first time in his life turned to introspection. Inside himself, he found nothing but darkness and evil. He immediately murdered his father, then turned on the rest of his family. At last, Azrael had discovered his talent: killing. The screams of his mother drew the attention of the city's Politskarae, and Azrael was beaten down and abandoned in the dark tunnels beyond the city to die.

A voice spoke to Azrael in the darkness and offered him power in return for bringing death and sorrow to the beautiful city of Brigalure. Azrael promptly agreed with the entity, which he would come to call "The Dark", and was rewarded with the curse of lycanthropy. Now a werebadger, Azrael would hunt and kill the people of Brigalure for years. (It is not known whether "the Dark" has any connection to the Dark Powers or not; Azrael believed he continued to hear its voice in Sithicus, but later discovered that he had been manipulated by Inza Magdova Kulchevich.) Eventually, the Mists came for Azrael and deposited him in Forlorn.

It was in the Demiplane of Dread that Azrael would discover his own version of an aesthetic. He considered the terror of Forlorn to be artless. He far preferred Barovia, whose people quaked in terror of the night, but lived brightly during the day.

At one point, Barovian peasants tried to hang Azrael for his crimes. He had just dispatched his detractors when he noticed he had acquired an audience: a Vistana (Magda Ilyanova Kulchevich) and a glowering undead knight: Lord Soth. Sensing Lord Soth's power, Azrael did everything he could to ingratiate himself to him, accompanying the death knight on his adventures in Barovia and Gundarak. It was during these adventures that Azrael discovered the true reason why there was nothing inside him but darkness: an eerie entity that served as Guardian of the portal between Gundarak and Barovia informed the Dwarf that although he was alive, he possessed no soul. Azrael took this revelation in stride, and even embraced it, taking a certain glee in the knowledge that no punishment for his crimes awaited him in the afterlife, as he had no afterlife to look forward to. He continued to serve Lord Soth, even when the death knight let his wrath lead him into the Misty Border and Sithicus formed to embrace him.

As he settled into Nedragaard Keep, Soth appointed Azrael Dak as his seneschal and emissary. This did not nothing to maintain Azrael's loyalty as Lord Soth settled into despair, especially when the Dwarf discovered a a source of dark knowledge at the bottom of the Veidrava Salt Mine some thirty years later. Instructed by the whispers of the Dark and empowered with the knowledge of a foul ritual to gain control over the shadows of Sithicus, Dak conspired with Inza Magdova Kulchevich for the murder of her mother Magda Kulchevich, and also conspired with Malocchio Aderre for the fall of Lord Soth. Azrael had been betrayed, however; the ritual would have overpowered and destroyed him, allowing Inza to contain the power of the shadows, if not for the interference of Ganelon the Doomed, who had poisoned some of the ritual items, causing the Dwarf to vomit up the amassed shadows instead of being burst by them. Azrael's botched ritual unleashed the Night of Screaming Shadows. Shadows engulfed Nedregaard Keep, rent it asunder, and seemingly obliterated Lord Soth.[1]

Azrael Dak became temporal leader of Sithicus in the wake of Soth's disappearance, but he did not become Darklord as he had hoped. That title went to Inza, who merged with the darkness that Dak had formerly relied so heavily upon. Now instead of directing him, the Dark merely taunts him. Azrael worries that the Dark was somehow always Inza, and seeks her destruction[2]. The Dwarf's relations with Malocchio have similarly decayed.[3]

The title "Sorrow of Sithicus" was first bestowed upon Azrael by the enslaved stone giant Nabon, who also called him "My Sorrow." Azreal liked the epithet so much he ordered his subordinates to use it as well.[4]

References

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

Secrets of the Dread Realms
When Black Roses Bloom

Secrets of the Dread Realms - p50
When Black Roses Bloom - p60

Secrets of the Dread Realms - pp49-51
When Black Roses Bloom - pp59-61

Secrets of the Dread Realms - pp49-51
Ravenloft Third Edition - pp16,18,139-140
Domains of Dread - p50
Tales of Ravenloft:The Rigor of the Game - pp183-188
When Black Roses Bloom - p59
Heroes of Light - pp92-93

The Sorrow of Sithicus