Invocation of Azura                                             Sigillah Parate                                                                                                                                                    )	    (    	        Invocation of  Azura             For three hundred years, I have been a priestess of Azura, the Daedric Prince of Moonshadow, Mother of the Rose, and Queen of the Night Sky. Every Hogithum, which we celebrate on the 21st of First Seed, we summon her for guidance and to give up beautiful things to her majesty. She is a cruel but wise mistress. We do not invoke her on any Hogithum troubled by thunder storms, for those nights belong to the Mad One, Sheogorath, even if they do coincide with Hogithum. Azura understands our caution.       We may summon her on other dates also, and she quite often responds. The only days we are forbidden to invoke her are those prescribed to one of the other  fifteen Princes: the 1st and the 13th of Morning Star, the 2nd and the 16th of Suns Dawn, the 5th of First Seed, the 9th of Rains Hand, the 9th of Second Seed, the 5th of Mid Year, the 10th of Suns Height, the 3rd of Hearth Fire, the 8th and the 13th of Frost Fall, the 2nd and 20th of Suns Dusk, and the 20th of Evening Star. I know who is summoned on the 3rd of Hearth Fire, the 2nd of Suns Dusk, and the 20th of Evening Star, but I am not certain of the others. It is enough that Azura has forbidden those dates.       Azura's invocation is a very personal one. I have been the priestess of three other Daedric Princes, but Azura values the quality of her worshippers, the truth behind our adoration of her, and the          When I was a Dark Elven maiden of sixteen, I joined my grandmother's coven, worshippers of Molag Bal, the Schemer Prince. Blackmail, extortion, and bribery are as much the weapons of the Witches of Molag Bal as magic is. The Invocation of Molag Bal is held on the 20th of Evening Star, except in stormy weather. This ceremony is seldom missed, but Molag Bal often appears to his cultists in mortal guise on other dates. When my grandmother died in an attempt to poison the heir of Firewatch, I reexamined my faith in the cult.       My brother was a warlock of the cult of Boethiah, and from what he told me, the Dark Warrior was closer to my spirit than the treacherous Molag Bal. Boethiah is a warrior Prince who acts more avertly than any other Daedra. After years of skulking and scheming, it felt good to perform acts for my mistress which had immediate consequences. Besides, I liked that Boethiah is a Daedra of the Dark Elves. Our cult would summon her on the day we called the Gauntlet, the 2nd of Suns Dusk. Bloody competitions would be held in her honor, and the duels and battles would continue until nine cultists were killed at the hands of other cultists. Boethiah cared little for her cultists -- she only cared about our blood. I do think I saw her smile when I accidentally slew my brother in a spar. My horror, I think, greatly pleased her.       I left the cult soon after that. Boethiah was too impersonal for me, too cold. I wanted a master of greater depth than she. For the next eighteen years of my life, I worshipped no one: I read and researched. It was in an old and profane tome I came upon the name of Nocturnal. Nocturnal the Night Mistress, Nocturnal the Unfathomable. As the book prescribed, I called to her on her holy day, the 3rd of Hearth Fire. At last, I had found the personal mistress I had so long desired. I strove to understand her labyrinthine philosophy, the source of her mysterious pain. Everything about her was dark and shrouded, even the way she spoke and the acts she required of me.       It took years for me to understand the simple fact that I could never understand Nocturnal. Her mystery was as essential to her as savagery was to Boethiah or treachery was to Molag Bal. To understand Nocturnal is to negate her, to pull back the curtains in her realm of darkness. As much as I loved her, I recognized the futility of unravelling her enigmas. I turned instead to her sister, Azura.       Azura is the only Daedra Prince I have ever worshipped who seems to care about her cultists. Molag Bal wanted my mind, Boethiah wanted my arms, and Nocturnal -- perhaps my curiousity. Azura wants all of that, and our love. Not our abject slavering, but our honest and genuine love in all its forms. It is important to her that our emotions are engaged. And our love must also be directed inward. If we love her and hate ourselves, she feels our pain.       I will have no other mistress.  