Azuth being weakened or reincarnated to escape Hell would make much more sense and a better story than Gale just being a random archmage who fell from Mystra's favor and became level 1 again. Hell is clearly a player in BG3 already so that would tie in. Gale being Azuth would be similar to Solas in DA:I but it would be a cool story. Having read Azuth's story now makes Gale's story seem like a lazy copy anyway.
The wiki says Azuth was already separated from Asmodeus and is now a god again though. Maybe they retconned that or took it further. Would be really cool if they could make it work.
In on of Astarian's dialogues he says something that sparked my theory on him which is highlighted in another thread. " Somebody has changed the rules. " He says it subtly and you would miss it if you weren't really paying attention. This could reference not just Astarian but ALL the companions.
