Malyn Varen

 was a Dunmer mage in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. He was exiled from The College of Winterhold for pursing questionable research with Soul Gems. One quality of Soul Gems is that they break upon enchantment. Maylen wanted to remedy that and began experimenting with Azura's Star, a Soul Gem that never breaks. According to Nelacar, the Daedric artifact drove Maylen insane, causing him to "hear voices" that weren't there, and eventually, to murder one of his students. He left the college, collected a band of followers, and continued his research at Ilinalta's Deep, an abandoned Imperial outpost that collapse into the river. There, he sought to capture his own soul in the Star to achieve a state of immortality. The Dragonborn recovered the artifact, and with the help of Azura, purified it by entering it and killing Maylen's soul.