![[AzalinRexPathfinder-v2.webp]] # Azalin Rex _Lich-King of Darkon | [[Darkon]]_ ## Summary The ancient lich who rules [[Darkon]], a rival of [[Mordenkainen]] from long before Barovia. With [[Strahd von Zarovich]] dead, Azalin gave Barovia five days to surrender, then advanced on it with an army — but his true aim was far larger: to shatter the Amber Sarcophagi, harness the [[Dark Powers]], sacrifice [[Ireena]], collapse the Domains of Dread, and ascend to godhood. The party stopped him at the [[Amber Temple]], breaking his ritual before the [[Ba'al Verzi Dagger]] could take Ireena. He fell alongside [[Eryndlyn d'Phylund]]. %% ## Now _Concluded._ Destroyed at the [[Amber Temple]] when the party broke his ritual, his bid for godhood undone and the [[Dark Powers]] denied their new darklord. ## Appearance An elderly man with hooked, hollowed features and a heavy iron crown, draped in royal finery over a skeletal frame. His eye sockets blaze with cold fire. ## Personality Cold, brilliant, and patient across centuries. He negotiates from certainty — the ultimatum to Barovia was delivered as a formality — and treats other people as instruments toward escape and ascension. His obsession is not love but liberty: he has spent lifetimes trying to break out of a prison [[Baba Yaga]] built, and would burn the multiverse to do it. He never fully lost his fear of Strahd. ## Quote _(Delivered through his envoy [[Sir Dragan Blackspire]]:)_ _"Surrender, or [[Darkon]] will destroy you. This is nothing like backwoods Barovia."_ ## Connections **[[Mordenkainen]]** — ancient rival from Oerth; the two warred over the [[Tome of Unlife]]. **[[Eryndlyn d'Phylund]]** — ally and sorceress; fell with him. **[[Strahd von Zarovich]]** — one-time ally in Barovia, whom he betrayed. **[[Ireena]]** — his intended sacrifice. **[[Baba Yaga]]** — the witch who let his rise proceed to introduce chaos into her theater. ## Background **Firan Zal'honan.** Born a brilliant mage who lost his brother to a magical accident and never recovered. He ruled Knurl and executed his own defiant son, a cruelty that drove him to seek immortality. He became the lich-king Azal'Lan, a rival to [[Mordenkainen]] and the [[Circle of Eight]]. **Into the Mists.** In the war over the [[Tome of Unlife]], Azalin was drawn into Barovia in 542 BC. He allied with [[Strahd von Zarovich]], betrayed him when the Circle arrived, and fled to [[Darkon]], merging with an undead entity named Darcalus to become that domain's darklord. There he reunited with [[Eryndlyn d'Phylund]]. **The plan.** Obsessed with escaping the Domains of Dread, Azalin learned from [[Baba Yaga]] that the Amber Sarcophagi both imprison and amplify the [[Dark Powers]]. His scheme: shatter the Sarcophagi to release the Dark Powers, sacrifice [[Ireena]] with the [[Ba'al Verzi Dagger]] to tap the primal energies that birthed the Domains, collapse them to free the darklords, and emerge a god bent on subjugating the multiverse. **The fall.** The party disrupted the ritual at the [[Amber Temple]] in a collision of past and present, arriving through time alongside a human [[Strahd von Zarovich]] and [[Mordenkainen]]. Azalin fell, and Eryndlyn — reunited with Mordenkainen after centuries only to coldly refuse him — fell with him. ## Secret Azalin was not acting freely. [[Baba Yaga]], bored of Strahd's predictable tragedy, deliberately allowed Azalin's rise to introduce chaos into her theater. Even his ambition to escape the Domains served her appetite for a more interesting story. ## Stats **Base:** Lich (Monster Manual), heavily modified as a domain-tier boss. CR 21+. Fought at the finale as the culmination of Azalin's ritual, alongside [[Eryndlyn d'Phylund]]; his defeat broke the ritual rather than requiring his outright grind-down. %%