Spoilers Ho!

In Azura's quest in Skyrim, you get the chance to purge Azura's Star of her influence, removing the restrictions against trapping Black Soul, and claiming it for yourself. This brings up two question for me-

The first is of the nature of Daedric Artifacts. Some seem to be created by the Prince in question, and literally part of their essence and power. Others are mortal weapons that have been claimed, often for unexplained reasons, by a specific Prince. There are even weapons that have changed hands, from once Prince to another. I guess I'm curious as to what Daedric artifacts actually are. Does changing the Star completely remove her influence?

The second is more of a hypothetical (Though I suspect there's going to be a lot of hypotheticals in the answers for these questions. We are the lore forum after all.) Consider Azura cursed the entire Dunmer race with their current appearance, and possible brought about the eventual destruction of Vvardenfel, how would she react to the Star being cleansed? I doubt it would be pretty....

Doesnt matter. The Dovahkiin could do what Vivec did a thousand times over. Assuming 1,000s of dragon souls are powerful of course.

I'll admit that I may not remember the quest perfectly, since I think I did it the day after getting Skryim, however, I definitely got the impression that the Black Star has been torn form Azura's influence forever. I think the wizard who helps you and the priestess both say something to that effect.

ALL WIZARDS ARE NOW sixUALLY IMPOTENT!

Im wondering how they will deal with it in the next game you think we will get to choose between them again

They already are. Why do you think they all lug around those big phallic staffs?
wow, my mind is really in the gutter lately.

Heck, look at good ol' Divayth Fyr. He had to clone himself in order to have any children. Then he called his children (all girls) his "wife-daughters." Nerdgasms,

When Azura get angry, its never pretty. Beside, such abomination of that of Azura's Star that turn into the Black Star still represent Azura well, ie it bad, manipulated side.

Apparently there's an inverse relationship between magical potency and, um, potency.

Further, aren't artifacts supposed to be formed of a prince's essence?

If so, then by going the Black Star route, you're effectively amputating part of Azura.

That nothing compare to when Vivec shove Muatra down Azura's throat and cause it to explore.

1. The star will go back, if you go to Azura with the star she sends you in to cleanse it. You can she needs to do it, but she then says it will first take a hundred or so years before it returns to her. Meaning that the Star is still hers even in a black state. So a hundred years from now, at the latest, she will have her star back and she can cleanse it.
If you follow the black star quest, you still cleanse it but it still remains pretty much the same thing.

2. Well she made the last guy absolutely bat [censored] insane, and send a champion to kill him. Relatively minor I suppose, at least compared to Azura her usual program. If you choose to keep the black star, I'd imagine Azura would eventually get pissed and pretty much do the same thing to you. It's still a big disappointment for me that this didn't happen in game. Would have been awesome. Or you know she would allow you to keep it and then 40 years later send an incarnate of some Azura worshipper you killed earlier on to kill you

Wasnt Umbra once a part of Clavicus Vile? And Barbas?

What if seperating a part of a Prince from itself causes a new entity to coalesce around that bit of power that is now Prince-less?
This is why I chose to cleanse the star.
I thought: Well, Umbra was really bad and Azura is a nasty one by herself alone already. I would hate to see a part of her be free to do whatever it wants, especially one that by its very nature collects mortal souls.

During the quest Azura states that eventually the Star will fade back into Oblivion no matter what happens; so, based on that, I think we could assume that it will eventually, like she says, fade back into her realm and naturally cleanse itself...

This.

Interestingly enough, this is what happened in the Trial of Vivec. Azura's star was a black soulgem containing the soul of a woman, who then broke out of the gem and helped to bind Azura. We don't know how Azura got it back after, but its not without precedent.

Pising off Azura sounds like a lot of fun.