Malyn Varen

 was a Dunmer mage in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

History
He was exiled from The College of Winterhold for pursing questionable research with Soul Gems. Malyn's experiments were to find a way to prolong his life, and he believed that storing his soul in Azura's Star would prevent him from dying. The problem with this is that one of the properties of the star is that no black soul could enter. This caused a problem for Malyn as his soul was black, being that he was a mortal. According to Nelacar, the further Malyn progressed towards his goal, the more Azura cursed him. The Daedric artifact drove Malyn insane, causing him to "hear voices" that weren't there, see people that were not 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 collapsed into the river. There, he sought to capture his own soul in the Star to achieve a state of immortality.

Interactions
The Dragonborn finds Azura's Star beside Mayln's skeleton at Ilinalta's Deep, and with the help of Azura, purifies it by entering it and killing Malyn's soul.

Alternatively, the Dragonborn may have brought the Star to Nelacar and had him perform the purification, which causes the Star to turn black and trap black souls within it, similar to a Black Soul Gem.

After his final death, an unknown adversary sends two apprentice necromancers to hunt down the Dragonborn and reclaim Azura's Star.

Battle
During the battle against Mayln, he wields an Elven dagger and a Staff of Fireballs - (the staff Mayln wields may be randomly generated). Occasionally throughout the fight, he switches to casting Oakflesh. Fighting alongside him are several Dremora. The Dragonborn can collect several Daedric Hearts once the Dremora have been slain.

After killing him, if you quickly revive his dead body with a conjuration spell, he will travel out of the soul gem with you. If you use dead thrall, his body will come out permanently, but his skeleton will still be at his throne (unless, of course, you reanimated it before).

Quests

 * The Black Star