LAST UPDATED: January 01, 2025
A guide for beginning with Azura, intended to help you begin your practice, but not to serve as the only information you use.
Keep in mind most of this post is UPG versus just based on the fictional canon, based on my personal experiences with this entity. It may directly contrast fictional canon and the experiences of others. I suggest, as always, at least reading over Her UESP lore page.
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azure-ahh
aka. Azurah
prns. she
domain. Moonshadow
date. Hogithum, March 21st
Azura is a mostly benevolent Daedric Prince, herald of the Dawn and Dusk. She is a Mother of the Prophets, blessing humans with divinatory power, to help them help themselves – though at times, She does it for Her own reasons.
Azura protects all of Her children very strongly, wanting to soothe all of their pains and sorrows and griefs. She encourages growth and progress, facing oneself and coming out stronger for it.
Azura is very wise, and while She does not want Her children to suffer, Azura is not at all against letting Her children learn the hard way, or letting them go through hardship that will lead the way for a better tomorrow – Leaving Her to sometimes be called “cruel, but wise”.
Within Dunmeri myth, Azura is one of the Three “Good Daedra”, being the “true way” for Dunmeri to worship and work.
She is also the one who cursed the Chimer to become Dunmer, after they chose the gods of the ALMSIVI, the Tribunal Temple.
Within Khajiiti myth, Azurah is a core part of their passage into the afterlife, and knows the names of all Khajiit that live and will ever live – and as such is often the first step Khajiit take on their spiritual path. She also has a triple aspect, in that She has three forms – Khajiit, Mer, and Human.
She’s said to be more beautiful than any spirit, save for Nirni. She has Khenarthi as Her messenger, who ferries the dead Khajiiti souls to Her for judgement.
Azura tends to lanterns lit by Khenarthi in the eyes of Jone and Jode, their stillborn brothers, when they burn low. After the rise of Riddle’Thar, she fell in prominence somewhat, and is seen as a “distant mother”.
Azura is a great Prince to start with, as She is calm, collected, and cares deeply about the happiness of followers. She is hard to slight, and is likely to forgive quickly with a proper apology.
Term – Prince • Goddess • Deity
Prefix – Lady • Queen • Ma’am • Madam • Divine • Shining • Bright
Titles – Azura of the Crimson Gate • Queen of Dawn and Dusk • the Mother Soul • Moonshadow • Mother of the Rose • Queen of the Night Sky • Twilight Queen • the Rim of all Holes • the Cosmic Severer • She Who Sits at the Precipice • Favored Daughter of Fadomai
dusk • dawn • twilight • stars • transition • change • the cycle of the days • mystery • magic • fate • prophecy • vanity • egotism • beauty • roses • knowledge • guidance • astrology • death, esp the “good” things that come of it • mourning • soothing of physical pain • bringing peace
. . . HELPS WITH . . .
the craft and power of prophecy and premonition • understanding prophetic dreams • delivering prophetic dreams • the practice of divination • the art and knowledge of astrology
🝰 commandments . . .
This part especially is bound to be different from person to person.
Know the Sun, Moons, Planets, and Stars. Learn astrology and learn it well.
You needn’t be super good at it, just knowing of how astrology works.
Pursue your own self and self-love.
Accept prophetic visions.
You can, and often will be asked to, change the prophecy. But you should never deny it.
Use your prophetic eyes to improve your life.
Know the true power of divination, and utilize it.
⛯ main tarot cards & other signs and associations . . .
II the High Priestess • IX the Hermit • XVII the Star • XVIII the Moon
IV of Cups • VII of Cups • X of Cups
Ace of Swords • VI of Swords • X of Swords
VIII of Pentacles • X of Pentacles
II of Wands • VII of Wands • X of Wands
Other Signs & Associations —
moon and star symbols • falling tears in art
veil, esp if you cover the face. all veils count
keep a dream journal of dreams you feel have meaning, or conversely, all dreams you have if you want
keep a journal in general
invite Azura to provide Her input / visions / etc during divination sessions, esp for meditative things
provide your prophetic and divinatory power to others
speak to Her when shuffling decks, esp if you’re inviting Her to the session
self care, and otherwise take care of yourself
cleanse your divination tools in Her name
dedicate a divination session to Azura
involve Her in the “awakening” of a new divination tool
vent out all of your feelings at Her shrine or in prayer to Her
wake up at dawn to greet Her and do some divination
keep track of your horoscope (I suggest cafeastrology because it actually considers a lot of stuff)
meditate to a burning candle / melting wax
travel to beautiful places
soothe your overstimulation
try and find peace in yourself
work on changing into new things gracefully
perform an emotion releasing ritual
perform self-love spells like a confidence spell
add your natal chart to your book of shadows
perform magic in line with the zodiac signs active at the time
perform rituals to welcome new zodiacal seasons
perform divination with your natal chart
newly obtained divination tools
lots of candles and wax melts
things related to the zodiac
things associated with the planet Venus
Note: Azura seems to prefers devotional acts over offerings for the most part. She does love having Her playlist played during devotionals, though.
This is all suggestions. Please build it however you can, if a physical altar is even possible.
As always, you can use offering items to build an altar.
by a window where the sun and moon rising can be seen
a moon symbol and a sun symbol
a space for a dream journal
Azura is a very understanding Daedric Prince, being much more lenient than others might be. She is caring and just, and wants the very best for all Her devout. She sees our hardships and feels empathy, sympathy, and compassion for what we endure. Even when She sends hardship our way, or when She must let us endure it to become better – She weeps for our pains and desires our soothing and happiness.
She is very gentle, and takes upon a soft guide and guardian feel – Though like with all Daedroth, She can be very cruel and harsh should She feel it is necessary.
Azura seeks to herald change and growth, providing knowledge and guidance all along the way. Unlike many others, Azura does not often use Her own hand to paint the new picture, but instead provides Her followers the tools and capabilities to create such better things.
Azura mostly appears as a Dunmer, a Dark Elf, or as a Chimer, a golden skinned elf, with long pale azure and/or pink hair (depends on the day), and bright golden eyes that shine within the darkness. She’s often dressed in elaborate, beautiful dresses, usually with earrings – The right ear a moon, the left ear a star/sun, depending on how you want to view it.
Azura has an medium pitched, strong and powerful, but sweet at the center. She hardly speaks at loud volumes, though is known to raise Her voice purely to be noticed.
Azura’s domain is known as Moonshadow, which is a very bright and colorful land, filled with pink trees, flowers, waterfalls, and contains a city of silver. It is said to hold “too much” beauty, so much that it can render mortal visitors “half-blind”.
Azura herself resides in a rose palace. She is always welcoming to mortal visitors.
According to the Khajiit people, Moonshadow is where Azurah tends the Gates of Crossing, the bridge between Nrni and the afterlife. It’s here that they are guided to the Sands Behind the Stars if worthy.
Azura is treated mostly like a teacher.
She is not often pampered, but is not against being treated that way.
To love Azura and yet hate yourself brings Her great sorrow, as She is a Goddess who deeply loves and cares for Her followers.
Working with Azura is heavily shaped by the follower in question, as Azura more just lets you do as you wish, as long as you still invite Her and work with Her, and let your emotions be at the front of worship – Be them positive, neutral, negative, and any colored blends of them.
She teaches many things in relation to divination and astrology, and guides to self-love and adoration.
She also often bestows prophetic dreams upon followers. While not all prophetic dreams might be from Azura, some very well might be, and so followers should learn how to tell when Azura’s influence is present within.
Azura isn’t easy to slight, and is likely to forgive immediately if just apologized to.
Things that slight Azura:
not much… I can’t think of any! /lh a testament to how gentle Azura is
Much like in the canon of the Elder Scrolls, Azura sometimes gives visions / prophetic signs / etc that might not necessarily bring peace to their mind. Sometimes, She simply chooses you to bear a burden, though She tries to be kind and provide for you to apologize for that.
Azura warns followers of hardships coming their way with Her prophetic gifts. She teaches divination and astrology for the sake of goodness for oneself.
Azura teaches intensely to love oneself.
There’s very few, next to none risks of working with Azura. Even if slighted and offended, She’s more likely to scold you than punish you, and if it’s bad enough, She’s most likely to just leave and return once you’ve righted your wrong.
⚜ holidays & festivals . . .
Azura’s summoning day is March 21st, which I practice as a day to honor Azura.
⛤ 01 . . .
Great, beloved Azura, Queen of Moonshadow
Herald of the Dusk and of the Dawn
With Your kindness and grace that You send down upon me,
With Your love for me and the adoration within Your heart,
Please hear my prayer on this day,
and know deeply of my love for You.
⛤ 02 . . .
Divine Azura, blesser of mortals with the gift of prophecy,
I seek to know more of my fate.
With this offering I leave at Your altar,
I humbly request your aid.
Be it with a dream, or be it with cards or a crystal, or any other tool,
I graciously accept your gift of prophecy.
⛤ 03 . . .
Azura of the Crimson Gate, Queen of Dawn and Dusk,
I leave upon You this offering, with all of my love within it.
I hope that You enjoy it well.
⛤ 04 . . .
O Lady Azura, I call upon You now.
I seek Your audience, I seek Your time.
⛤ 05 . . .
Prince Azura, Bright Moon and Star,
You who deliver prophecy and knowledge upon mortality,
I worship You, I revere You.
⚿ evoking, invoking, summoning . . .
wear gray make-up, nail polish
wear sun and moon symbology
Things in [] are for making it a summoning.
when you wish to receive a prophetic dream
when you wish to do a major divinatory session
INGREDIENTS AND OTHER TOOLS &&°
some mixed scent candle or wax melt. [two candles, one dressed with a simple sun, the other a moon OR carve the sun and moon into the wax melt]
Location – in a safe place
If using tools, prepare your divination tools, and cleanse them.
[Burn a rose petal in the candle and let the ashes sit at the bottom of the candles for the wax to melt into/onto. OR Layer rose petals around the wax melter.]
Light the candle or turn on the wax melt and call upon Azura [and ask Her to come to you as the candles burn.]
Offer upon Her an offering.
Invite Her to either provide the dream or sway your hands in a divination reading.
Snuff or blow out the candle after it is done.
Azura is often invoked just by calling for Her. You don’t need to invoke Her for small bits of divination, as She’s likely to be there and present regardless. But if you want to do something big, feel free to invoke.
Note that most of this is... generally copy/pasted and very mildly edited from UESP. Look, I can't thin it all down, I tried. Please support UESP forever!
Azurah was born from the third litter of Ahnurr and Fadomai, after the twin Moons and their Motions, and Nirni. Nirni and Azurah immediately began fighting for their mother's favor, but soon an angry Ahnurr struck Fadomai, and she fled into the Great Darkness with her children for protection. There, a dying Fadomai birthed her youngest, Lorkhaj, and bestowed gifts upon the rest. One by one the children received their gifts and departed, until only Azurah and her mother remained. Fadomai then left Azurah her greatest gift, three secrets—instructions on how to create the Khajiit.
Much of what comes after are known in pre-ri'Datta Khajiiti stories. They state that Azurah wept as her dying mother told stories of love, war, and undreamed dreams; the names of all gates and thresholds, of all the spirits, and of all the Khajiit that would ever live. Azurah wept so much that the moonlight reflecting off her tears "became one with the Lattice" as Fadomai died. Azura remained within the Great Darkness for some time, consumed by her grief.
Sometime later, Nirni needed a place to bear children. Lorkhaj tricked his siblings into creating the World to satisfy her desire, and many of Fadomai's children died in its creation. The survivors killed Lorkhaj and tore out his heart. Or so they believed, for the Great Darkness in his blood filled the hole where his heart had been. He sought out Azurah for help. Meanwhile, Azurah remained within the Great Darkness, mourning Fadomai's death. In time, the light from her tears and the Lunar Lattice dispersed the darkness, and she found herself in a "place of moonlight and shadow". Azurah then tried to return to her mother's side, but her tears had created a great sea, and beyond it stood a black gate that opened into darkness. And there stood Lorkhaj, his chest gaping, a shadowy imitation of his heart beating steadily, dripping black blood. But Azurah knew the names of all of the spirits, so she recognized the Great Darkness for what it was. Azurah was able to rip the Dark Heart—and all the Darkness—out of her brother before it could consume him. She cast it beyond the sea, into the Void, where it became the Moon Beast, the first of the dro-m'Athra, and Lorkhaj perished within Azurah's embrace. Azurah made a funeral pyre for her brother before the gate, and lit it with the Twin Lanterns of Jone and Jode. Her tears fell upon the pyre and the ashes scattered across the Lattice. As a result, it is said Azurah (and Khenarthi) can call upon the "true spirit" of Lorkhaj to appear.
The spirit Noctra was born from the black blood of Lorkhaj at the steps of the Void Gate. Boethra was able to defeat the spirit and took her to Azurah for judgment. Azurah was merciful, and allowed Noctra to live if she agreed to serve Azurah and the Lunar Lattice. But Noctra stole one of Azurah's keys and fled into the Void. So Azurah summoned the true spirit of Lorkhaj after her, and now Noctra aids the Khajiit when she is called upon.
Because of Lorkhaj, Nirni could now make children. But she was sad because the forest people, her favorites, were "torn between man and beast" and did not know their shape. So Azurah came to Nirni and tricked her into allowing the creation of the Khajiit, offering a "gift" of new people. She spoke Fadomai's First Secret, and the Moons parted for her. She took some of the forest people and made them many shapes, for every purpose, called them the Khajiit, and put them in the best forests and deserts on Nirni. Azura told them the Second Secret and made them Nirni's secret defenders, and bound them to the Lunar Lattice. And she spoke the Third Secret, and "the Moons shone down on the marshes and their light became sugar".
However, Y'ffer overheard Azurah speak the First Secret and told Nirni what Azurah had done. So Nirni made the lands of the Khajiit inhospitable, and allowed Y'ffer to change the forest people into elves—the Bosmer. And Y'ffer shouted the First Secret across the heavens so all the original spirits could cross the Lattice, but Azurah ensured that neither Ahnurr nor Lorkhaj could hear the Secret. Y'ffer was corrupted by the Namiira sometime after Lorkhaj's death, and murdered Nirni. Hircine, Azurah and Khenarthi slew him in retaliation for the deed, then built a cairn for Nirni using his bones.
Sometime before the Khajiiti people's "first memory", Azurah, knowing that the false Lorkhaj, the Moon Beast, would one day covet her children, used the Twin Lanterns to summon Lorkhaj's true spirit to be a sky-guardian. As the third moon, Lorkhaj shined his light upon the Khajiit, choosing the purest of heart to be part of the "Litter of the Hidden Moon", to learn the way of the Moonlight Blade. And from then on, on nights of the Ghost Moon, Azurah opens the Void Gate, and the Moon Beast will challenge mortals until banished. Modern Khajiit have fallen away from this belief, instead interpreting the Ghost Moon as the corpse of Lorkhaj which was flung to the moons after Convention, and forced to follow Jone and Jode forever as punishment.
It is said that Magrus serves as a reminder of Azurah's wrath. The Sun God once fought Boethra and Lorkhaj, and Boethra plucked out one of his eyes. Half-blinded, Magrus fell into the Moonshadow, where Azurah judged him too fearful to rule a sphere, and tore out his other eye (though other stories say he gave Azurah the eye willingly). Azurah took the eye and fashioned it into the Aether Prism, a stone that reflects the Varliance Gate, and opens from Dawn to Dusk.
Many years after the Alessian Slave Rebellion, tensions between the descendants of enslaved Nedes and remaining Ayleids grew. Culanwe, one of the most beloved servants of Azura, sought to broker peace between the Nedes and the Ayleids. An Ayleid messenger was mysteriously murdered during this, causing suspicions between the two forces to grow, until an outsider Nede and Ayleid discovered that a servant of Molag Bal was responsible, seeking to sabotage Azura's will. United against a common foe, the Ayleids and Nedes made peace, though Culanwe sought to stop Molag Bal's plots for good. She would later be captured at Laeloria and imprisoned in Coldharbour, tortured by Molag Bal for millennia, much to Azura's dismay.
The disaster caused by Molag Bal at Gil-Var-Delle was the catalyst that sparked the conception of the Coldharbour Compact between the 3rd and 5th of Rain's Hand, 1E 2920. It was an agreement between Tribunal god Sotha Sil and eight powerful Daedric Princes: Azura, Boethia, Hermaeus Mora, Hircine, Malacath, Mehrunes Dagon, Molag Bal, and Sheogorath. Little is known about the Compact, but it is theorized that it prevents the Princes from directly manifesting on Nirn. It is also speculated that, in order to secure the agreement of the Princes, Sotha Sil either made a credible threat to them or presented a significant offer in exchange.
In 2E 582, Azura asked the Vestige to help free the soul of one of her servants from the clutches of Molag Bal, and to free her Oracles from pocket realms of Oblivion.
Azura involved herself in the affairs of mortals once more when a plot concocted by Barbas threatened to destroy the island of Vvardenfell. She assisted the Vestige and her new champion Seryn in defeating the false Nerevarine and brother of Seryn, Chodala, and begrudgingly helped return Lord Vivec's power so that he could stave off the meteor Baar Dau's collision.
Some time around 3E 405, Azura charged an agent of the Blades with killing a monk who had offended her. The Blade was given Azura's Star for completing the task.
In 3E 427, Azura took notice of a prisoner sent from the Imperial City to Morrowind in the hopes of being a prophesied hero, the Nerevarine, the reincarnation of Azura's First Era champion, Lord Indoril Nerevar. She helped guide the prisoner into fulfilling the prophecy, becoming the Nerevarine, and freeing Morrowind from the threat of Dagoth Ur. The Nerevarine was also given Azura's Star, as a reward for helping her win a bet with Sheogorath.
In 3E 433, the Hero of Kvatch received the Star for putting down some of Azura's worshippers who had inadvertently been turned into vampires while in her service.
Faithful priests of Azura were given a vision that led them away from Vvardenfell before the eruption, and the Dunmer built the shrine of Azura in Skyrim after the Red Year as their thanks to her, so that none would forget that she watches over them all. Azura's further visions tested the faith of the priests, who gradually left the shrine afterward as they were afraid to know their own future.
By 4E 201, Azura's Star was in Skyrim, in the hands of a dying mage. He had corrupted the artifact, allowing it to trap black souls and placing his own inside it. Azura sent the Last Dragonborn to retrieve the artifact, though when found, it was broken. The Dragonborn entered the Star and destroyed the mage's soul, though whether or not this was done with Azura's help is unclear.
𝌁 other vettable information . . .
When meditating on Her presence and name, Azura brings:
visions of:
moon and star clusters
Azura has a major goal of Her followers loving themselves as much as they love Her.
Azura teaches astrology a lot. Specifically Western Astrology.
Azura also teaches a lot of magic about changing the future itself.
Azura adores any decks/tools related to astrology and/or proper divination.
