Hetzudoxiel



Many millennia ago, before he became a Demon Lord, served his master, the Demon Lord Azeoziel. Azeoziel was the Demon Lord of Divination, communicating with the dead. Due to many mortals' obsession with attempting to contact their ancestors, often for guidance, Azeoziel had a substantial number of followers thousands of years ago, in the first age of Menune, many of whom not knowing they were under the tutelage of a Demon Lord, though the influence of the Demon Lord would gradually lead the followers to become worshippers living and operating in cults devoted to Azeoziel and his kin.

Hetzudoxiel was a senior Azeozian, though his actual role is unknown as the politics of demonic circles remains a mystery. Hetzudoxiel eventually began experimenting with conjuration, attempting to imbue spirits into vessels. In Menune, Azeoziel had a cult within  the Great Expanse, a large desert area to the south of Narador, led by a rogue wizard by the name of Wethzad, with whom Hetzudoxiel communicated. Hetzudoxiel promised Wethzad power like he had never seen if he facilitated him, starting with summoning him into the mortal realm. Wethzad, under Hetzudoxiel's guidance, built a summoning portal in the cult headquarters and began the lengthy process of summoning him. When the summoning completed, Hetzudoxiel demanded Wethzad sacrifice 5 of his followers, which Wethzad agreed to. Hetzudoxiel then raised them as undead and, pleased that his experiment was successful, put them under the control of Wethzad, but did not teach the wizard the arts of reanimation himself.

Hetzudoxiel continued to experiment with undeath, creating the school of magic called Necromancy, eventually becoming much more powerful than his master, Azeoziel. Hetzudoxiel began to teach fellow Azeozians the art of necromancy and even gifted it to a small number of his human followers, starting with Wethzad. Furious that his lieutenant was seemingly usurping his authority, Azeoziel confronted Hetzudoxiel leading to a battle in which Hetzudoxiel struck down Azeoiel, refusing to show mercy to his master. As a final display of power to his Azeozian kin, Hetzudoxiel tore off Azeoziel's head, ripped off the flesh and imbued it with his own soul, immediately transforming himself to the first Lich. In an act of servitude to their new master, the Azoezians renamed themselves in his honour, becoming Hetzudoxians. Hetzudoxiel then contacted Wethzad and taught him how to become a lich making him the first mortal to achieve Lichdom, though the process takes much longer for mortals than it did for him, and the phylactery is much more volatile and fragile, needing to be under constant guard, whereas the skull of Azeoziel is near indestructible due to its power.

Since then, all Azeozian cults became devoted to Hetzudoxiel, the new cults being much more aggressive in their demeanour and behaviour, since they strive for power much more than before and indeed are much more powerful themselves. Like Azezoiel before him, Hetzudoxiel has a substantial following on Menune, with cults having existed on the majority of known continents. Recently, reports of suspicious and dangerous activity have been springing up across Menune, concerning those with the knowledge of the cults. What sinister goal could the followers of the demon lord be trying to achieve?