Azarath is an inter-dimensional realm that exists between the planes of known reality.
The birth home of the hero Raven, Azarath was once the home of a pacifistic society with luscious green fields and emerald skies with crimson clouds.
With its landscape dominated by a city-sized temple of white stone, the streets were paved in solid marble and the buildings were accented with columns of pure gold. However, following a successive attack by the demon Trigon, the realm was reduced to a barren ruin and its people corrupted and killed.
History[]
Over 900 years ago, the followers of the first Azar; a spiritual leader of mystical pacifists, fled the violence of Earth with her followers to establish a society of peace and prosperity in a realm between dimensions.
These men and women established the Temple of Azarath and formed a mystical society. Ages ago, they decided to purge their bodies of all evil. Using mystical incantations, they exorcised the darker passions from their souls and cast it out into the Limbo between realms. These discarded emotions did not dissipate into the ether, however, and eventually merged to form the demon Trigon.
Decades later, on Earth, a woman named Angela Roth had become impregnated with Trigon's seed as part of his plan to invade the Earthly realm. Wishing to ensure that Angela would survive until his child was born, Trigon manipulated the priests of Azarath to journey to Earth and take the woman under their protection, where they renamed her "Arella".
When Arella gave birth to her daughter, Raven, the realm became corrupted with Trigon's taint; with it's emerald skies turning black and the smell of Gossamer becoming the odor of Brimstone. The realm shook and rumbled as peace turned to fear.
The Magistrate, Juris, felt that the child's existence threatened all life on Azarath and, to safeguard his people, he snatched Raven from her nursemaid and attempted to hurl her into the realm separating Azarath from other dimensional worlds and planets. He was, however, destroyed by a watchful Trigon before he could carry out his plan.
The current Azar took it upon herself to personally raise Raven. Aware that Raven possessed the power and ability to freely control and manipulate emotions, she realized that the only way to safeguard the child was to deny her the power and ability to feel any emotion. She mentored Raven for ten years before she passed away due to old age. On her deathbed, Azar gave Arella the duty of continuing Raven's education.
Over the next several years, Raven felt her father's influence growing inside of her. When she was eighteen-years-old, she entered the Temple of Azarath and peered into the limbo between dimensions; encountering her father for the very first time. Realizing the danger that Trigon represented, Raven fled Azarath in an attempt to preserve her home and came to Earth to seek help.
Though she succeeded in reforming the Teen Titans to appose him, she had failed to prevent Trigon from piercing the veil between dimensions. Desperate, Raven returned to Azarath and pleaded with the priests to aid in the conflict, but they refused as the action would compromise their pacifistic way of life.
When Trigon followed her to Azarath, Raven halted his attack by offering to return with him to his nether-realm and accept her role as his daughter in exchange for leaving Azarath and Earth alone.
While Trigon agreed and seemingly spared both Earth and Azarath, the Teen Titans refused to let Raven sacrifice herself and implored the priests of Azarath to help them find her. Again, the priests refused to aid them and instead Raven's mother, Arella, brought the heroes to Trigon's world to combat him. As they succeeded in rescuing Raven and barring Trigon from entering the realm of Azarath, Arella took it upon herself to guard the portal to ensure that Trigon could never return.
While this barrier succeeded in halting Trigon for many years, he eventually amassed enough power to bridge the dimensions once again and invaded Azarath; scorching the realm and killing all those who resided within the Temple of Azarath. While the Teen Titans attempted to save the Azarathians, they were fiercely outnumbered and all of Azarath was reduced to a desolate plain of fire and ruin.
Years later, the disembodied spirits of Azarath took root within the body of the teen hero, Jericho. Corrupted by Trigon's evil, these souls poisoned Jericho and used him to take control of the Wildebeest Society. Jericho returned to the ruins of Azarath and erected a base of operations where he had the Wildebeests kidnap members of the disbanded Teen Titans and hook them up to a "Transference Machine" to be used as host bodies for the Souls of Azarath. The Titans were rescued by Arella, Deathstroke, Pantha and Phantasm (Danny Chase). During the conflict, Deathstroke was forced to kill Jericho, his sole remaining son, to stop the corrupted souls.
To end the conflict, the souls were purified following a sacrifice by Arella and Danny Chase. While they were guided into another plane of existence by the third Azar, the souls that remained merged with Danny Chase's costume to become the second incarnation of the Phantasm.
Some time after the Infinite Crisis, the Phantasm has seemed to have established a "New Azarath" within the barren realm that was once visited by Kid Devil and Zachary Zatara.
Members[]
Equipment[]
- Aegis of Azarath Costume Style
- Azarathian Sin Gems (Investigations)
- Azarathian Warlock's Gloves
- Ancient Azarathian Claws
- Dread Artifact of Azarath
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Azarath first appeared in New Teen Titans #3 (January, 1981)
- The first Azar taught and guided the Azarathians for more than two-hundred years. When she died, her name, title and position passed along to her daughter who led the people of Azarath for another three hundred years. Her daughter, the third woman to share the name Azar took up the responsibilities of her mother and grandmother and led Azarath into the modern era.
- The Temple of Azarath was more akin to a city than an actual temple.