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Mazaleth, awakened after his first health bar is depleted.
Mazaleth, or The Awakened One, if going by the boss's government name, is a major overarching antagonist of the roguelike indie card game Slay The Spire, serving as one of the final bosses the player can encounter at the end of The Beyond. He is a malevolent god who controls a cult within the spire known formally as The Nest, and was ultimately responsible for the creation of the Cultists and the Chosen that the player would face during normal enemy encounters within Exordium, The City, and eventually, The Beyond. He is also one of the two enemies in the game who is capable of reviving himself after death, the other being the Darkness, a common enemy encountered in The Beyond.
Appearance[]
The Awakened One has two forms ; his Unawakened Form, and his Awakened Form. In his Unawakened Form, he resembles a crouching dark blue humanoid crow creature with humanoid limbs and the Ritual Dagger event item stuck on his chest, implying that the Awakened One was once a Chosen before transforming into the Awakened One as part of a ritual. This also implies that not only is the Awakened One capable of possessing multiple vessels, but also implies the existence of multiple Awakened Ones, seeing how the creation process of a vessel for the Awakened One involves the stabbing of a Chosen with the Ritual Dagger, an event item given to the player during the Nest event by an unnamed cult leader which can be triggered by sacrificing 6 HP during the event.
In his Awakened Form, his eyes flash massive light blue glints and crystals start forming around his body, and the Awakened One now crouches on a more upright position.
Biography[]
Exordium[]
The Awakened One's presence is referenced twice throughout the entirety of the Exordium act, which is the first act the player goes through with every run of Slay the Spire, regardless of character choice. The first reference to the Awakened One's influence can be seen with Cultists occasionally being found roaming around Exordium during normal enemy encounters (or event encounters if the player does not possess the Juzu Bracelet). Another instance hinting at the Awakened One's existence can be found during the Wing Statue event, where praying to the statue would allow the player to remove any card from their deck barring the Curse of The Bell.
The City[]
The Awakened One's presence is referenced the most throughout the City, which could hint that the City is the domain in which the power of the Awakened One is at his strongest. The first hint regarding the Awakened One's presence throughout the City can be found in normal enemy encounters, where a City-exclusive enemy known as Chosen is possible to appear during normal enemy combat, which bears 95 HP and despite there being multiple Chosen, only one Chosen can appear in normal enemy encounters. Another hint to the Awakened One's existence can be found with Cultists returning as a basic enemy during The City which are usually paired up with a Chosen or with two other Cultists.
Another hint to the Awakened One's presence can be found during the Nest event, where the player stumbles upon the headquarters of the Awakened One's cult and is given the option of either robbing the cult's donation box or follow along with the crowd and stab themselves with the Ritual Dagger. Triggering the former will grant the player 99 Gold, whereas the latter would add the Ritual Dagger as a colorless card to the deck, at the cost of 6 HP.
The Beyond[]
The Awakened One is one of the three boss enemies that the player can fight in The Beyond, and always starts the battle with the unique buff Unawakened and is accompanied by two Cultists. When the Awakened One's health bar is depleted the first time, the Awakened One's initial intent is interrupted by his Rebirth ability, which recover all of his depleted health and cleanses all debuffs inflicted on the Awakened One during phase 1, as well as providing the Awakened One with a new set of attacks to work with. Once the Awakened One is defeated, the player makes their way to The Ending, where the Corrupt Heart lies.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Mass Manipulation : While the methods aren't exactly explained, the Awakened One is capable of converting denizens from all three sections of the spire into being a member of the Nest, to the point where some victims potent enough in the eyes of the Awakened One are selected as potential vessels, and are given the rank of Chosen. This can be seen with the Chosen sprite having blue feathers grow out of their body, as opposed to the Cultists who appear to be only wearing clothes that try to mimic the appearance of the Awakened One. This isn't limited to just converting people into his cult however, as if the player chooses to pray to the Wing Statue in Exordium to remove a card, the Awakened One is shown to be capable of manipulating others for their own benefits as well, including the ones destined to stop him.
- Regeneration and Self-Revival : If the player manages to eliminate the Awakened One's first health bar of 300 HP, the Awakened One will revive itself and regenerate its depleted HP, and unlike the Darkness, the Awakened One does not require the assistance of the two Cultists accompanying him in order to revive itself.
- Superhuman Strength : The Awakened One is capable of inflicting severe amounts of damage through physical means in both of his phases, with his Slash attack dealing 20 damage in phase 1, and his Tackle attack dealing a total of 30 damage in phase 2.
- Strength Generation : For every Power card that the player uses, the Awakened One gains one Strength, strengthening damage from his attacks for the rest of the boss fight unless the player has a Strength reducing debuff card that can be used against him.
- Final Form : Once the Awakened One enters Phase 2, his eyes start to glint radiantly in light blue, and crystals start forming from his body, or more specifically from the limbs. The Awakened One also removes all debuffs inflicted onto him in phase 1 during this form, and swaps out his moveset in phase 1 in favor of a new, magic-focused and much more brutal movepool compared to the two moves he had in his first form.
- Dark Magic : The Awakened One is capable of unleashing some potent dark magic, which makes up a majority of his arsenal. The Awakened One's magic attacks are also some of the strongest attacks that the boss itself has to offer, with Dark Echo and Soul Strike being some of his most powerful attacks.
- Magic Vomit : An attack that the Awakened One is capable of using is Sludge, which apart from dealing a hefty 18 damage normally also shuffles Void into the draw pile, an unplayable status card that can remove 1 energy from the player's mana.
- Mass Possession : The creation process behind an Awakened One implies that more than one Awakened One can manifest within the spire, so long as a Chosen selected by the Nest is willing to stab themselves with the Ritual Dagger in order to allow the spirit of the Awakened One to be able to possess them.
Trivia[]
- The Awakened One is confirmed to be the god that the Cultists and the Chosen worship, which makes it related to the Cultists, the Chosen, as well as various events involving the cult of The Nest.
- The Awakened One is confirmed to be the face of the crow god in the relic Bird-faced Urn's flavor text.
- This also implies that the Awakened One is the only boss that has an alternate name, that being Mazaleth.
- The dagger stuck on the Awakened One's chest is the Ritual Dagger card which can be obtained by sacrificing 6 HP in the Nest event.
- The Awakened One presumed to be the end result of a lucky Chosen stabbed with the Ritual Dagger as part of a ritual in the Nest implies that numerous Awakened Ones can exist within the spire, and that the vessel fought in act 3 could be one of many ritually sacrificed Chosen.
- Just like the rest of the Act 3 bosses, if the player either defeats the Awakened One in their first successful run or was unable to obtain all 3 of the Key Shards before facing the Awakened One, the player's run ends with their character being put to eternal sleep when facing the Corrupt Heart, triggering a bad ending.
- The Cultists accompanying the Awakened One in his boss fight are not considered Minions by the game, yet despite this, the Cultists still run away once the Awakened One has been defeated and killing them with cards that have the Fatal keyword will still activate the effects of the card.