Azidahaka

Aeons ago, not long after the solar Iblis fell from Heaven for refusing to serve mortals, a fierce king named Zohak ruled one of the most prominent early human kingdoms. Once a powerful and chaste noble who served The AllFather as a paragon of truth, Zohak achieved his position after murdering his predecessor, Jamshid, who had become so corrupt with power that he forced his subjects to worship him as a god. Despite his greatness, Zohak knew he would not be able to defeat the god-king alone. Instead, he employed the mighty Iblis, who granted him the service of an army of cambions. Zohak gained the throne and freed his people from the tyranny of Jamshid, but at a terrible cost.
Iblis planted a seed of paranoia within his ally’s heart. Shortly after becoming king, Zohak came to believe that his subjects secretly schemed against him. Whereas the king had previously sworn himself to defend the truth, now he attempted to wrest it from the hearts of his assumed enemies by subjecting them to gruesome tortures. Unsurprisingly, these tortures brought more and more confessions, confirming Zohak’s fears and fueling more seizures of enemies and greater and more perverse means of getting the truth from them. Within two years, Zohak’s fears had manifested in the form of twin snakes growing from his shoulders. These terrible beasts kept Zohak alive through the singular means of devouring the brains of his victims. Finally beset by enemies on all sides (enemies he had created thanks to his vicious pogroms), Zohak realized he had been betrayed the moment he joined forces with Iblis. Shamed, broken, and alone, Zohak hanged himself from his castle’s highest tower. His name went down in the lore of his people as a watchword for the corrupting influence of power.
Moments after dying, Zohak emerged upon the Howling Threshold. Seeing his rebirth in the afterlife as a second chance, he took the name Azidahaka and vowed to create in The Abyss that which he could not maintain in the material world—a kingdom of subjects who honored him for his character and his dedication to truth. Eventually, he became a demon. Centuries later, he wrested a layer of The Abyss for himself (Sraosha, a term meaning “obedience,” or “discipline”) and set his plans into motion. The Abyss being The Abyss, however, he came up somewhat short of his goal.

Description

Azidahaka appears much as he did in life. A regal warrior of handsome (if worry-worn) features, the so-called Dragon of the Lie decks himself in the finest garments of royalty. Blood and ichor stain his vestments, however, revealing the means to which he must resort, to which he has always had to resort, to maintain his tenuous grasp on power and status. The only being Azidahaka truly trusts is his head torturer, the demon lord Rahu the Tormentor, who seems tailor-made for the nightmarish parody that is the Kingdom of Sraosha.
Azidahaka’s heart still burns for revenge against the traitorous liar Iblis, whom he has sworn to put to the blade in payment for his ancient betrayal.

Realm

Sraosha boasts as many traitors and schemers as his human kingdom ever did, but as Azidahaka’s current subjects are demons and the souls of the chaotic evil dead, the dangers posed by his enemies are a thousand times greater than they were on Eldarr. To protect his rulership he’s again turned to torture—indeed, the layer seems dedicated to perfecting that ancient art. Souls and demons alike hang on great metal hooks from the kingdom’s parapets. Body parts and unidentifiable fluids stain the cobblestones of great cities, and countless screams issue forth from countless chambers filled with racks, brazen bulls, iron maidens, and worse. Such perfection has brought with it the respect of mortal torturers the world over, as well as (ironically) pleas of guidance from those about to go under the torturer’s knife. Both tormentor and tormented are equally likely to pray to Azidahaka—one for the skill to extract the truth, and the other in hopes of easing inevitable pain.

Obedience

All thaumaturges devoted to Azidahaka possess a dried heart extracted from a sentient creature killed though an overzealous application of torture (usually, but not always, at the hands of the thaumaturge). By channeling divine power into the heart during a daily ritual, the thaumaturge causes it to once again beat with life and seep with diseased blood. The thaumaturge manipulates the organ with jagged stickpins and sharp needles, opening a direct link to the cursed power of his patron. After the ritual, which lasts an hour, the thaumaturge’s spells are replenished. Should the heart be lost or destroyed, a replacement must be harvested. The organ must undergo a special immersion for three hours in a preparation of spices and juices sacred to the Dragon of the Lie, costing 200 gp.

Divine Classification

Demon

Alignment

Chaotic evil

Current Location

Sraosha

Species

Demon

Realm

Sraosha

Aligned Organization

The Hordes of Hell

Ruled Locations

• Sraosha