Malal
From Lexicanum
Malal is the renegade 5th Chaos God.
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General information
Malal was exiled from the rest of the Chaos Gods, but whether this was a self-imposed exile is not clear. Regardless of the reason, Malal lives only to destroy the other Gods and their followers in the name of revenge. Also known as "The Outcast God", "The Lost God" and "The Renegade God", Malal represents Chaos' indiscriminate tendency toward destruction, even of itself. The nature of Malal's powers are parasitic, as the Renegade God grows in power when the others do. The God's sacred number is 11 (internet rumour, no official fluff supports this), while his symbol is a skull bisected down the middle, one half white, one half black. Malal is the god that the lower classes turn to avenge themselves on the higher classes who attempt to strangle and stop them from their true glory. He is also the god of those who have been wronged, but lack the power to correct this. His followers come from people whose hatred of Chaos becomes so strong, that they willingly bond with Chaos to fight it at its own level.
Malal is described as being both wolf-like and crocodilian in appearance, yet still holding a humanoid form. Said to have 6 fingers on each hand, and 3 eyes on his head, Malal is also said to have sets of teeth that resemble Lions, Sharks, Cows, and Rats.
Development
The concept of the 5th Chaos God "Malal" was created by comic artists Wagner and Grant along with the creation of Malal's champion for the Warhammer Fantasy world, Kaleb Daark, in the Citadel Miniatures Journals for Spring 1986 and 1987. In the comics, Kaleb Daark would destroy the followers of the other 4 Chaos Gods (Nurgle, Tzeentch, Khorne, and Slaanesh) with his daemon axe, Dreadaxe, the head of which resembled a shark, and which had a handle of bone. The animate axe, a gift from Malal, experienced hunger and would feed on the souls of the victims of its edge. The Battle cry of Kaleb Daark was "Dreadaxe thirsts for you!".
Use of Malal in further Games Workshop productions was halted, as Games Workshop did not own the intellectual property to the concept of Malal, the comic's authors did.
The memory of Malal did not die with the ability for Games Workshop to use it. The idea of Malal is championed by veterans of the Warhammer scene primarily through the internet via BBS (bulletin Board Systems) and stories (such as "Divine Judgment"). Malal continues to survive, occasionally becoming the choice deity of veteran players playing Chaos. Because of Games Workshops inability to legally use the God in their Games' storyline, Malal is surrounded by a cloud of unanswerable questions that may very well be the cause of his continued existence.
The term "Doomed Ones" also go along with Malal, in the comics they were the chosen human champions of Malal. They would eventually become undead apparitions serving Malal when all their physical energy was spent.
There has been some unofficial/internet reference that describes them as; "the daemonic entities of Malal and are described as bipedal lizarddaemons that stand almost a head taller than a human and had soulblades which were forged from the soul of burning hatred taken from a Witchhunter that died fighting a Daemon."
Malal in Warhammer 40,000
In Games Workshop's Chaos Space Marine Codex, a number of reference were made that many feel to be an attempt by Games Workshop to legally bring back the idea of Malal, or to remind players that perhaps the company has not forgotten about the Outcast God. The two widely recognized references were the appearance of a daemon weapon you could give to your leaders called a "Dreadaxe", explained further in the caption that it was used to kill other daemonic entities.
The other reference was to a picture towards the back of the codex, showing other possible painting schemes for the models. One of the examples was a group entitled the "Sons of Malice". what caught many people's attention was that the colors used were the bisecting black/white design of Malal's symbol, and how Malice was just a short jump to Malal. More on the Sons of Malice was in Games Workshop monthly publication White Dwarf, specifically White Dwarf 302. In it the Sons of Malice were supposedly prone to fighting in complete silence, and were excommunicated for a set of disgusting rituals that were reported close to cannibalism. This article did nothing to stem the questions about the connection between Malal and the Sons of Malice. At the very end of a passage, it was mentioned that the Sons of Malice also fight against other followers of Chaos frequently; also whoever the ritual was done in the name of in the story was never revealed.
In Warhammer Fantasy some speculate that Be'Lakor, the Dark Master, the first Daemon Prince of Chaos, who was introduced in the Storm of Chaos campaign is Games Workshop's attempt to bring back the idea of Malal to the Fantasy game.
Malal is not the only version of an additional Chaos God, at least in the fantasy world of Warhammer. In The Enemy Within campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Something Rotten in Kislev, Zuvassin the Great Undoer and Necoho the Doubter were introduced as two renegade Chaos deities - but not specifically as number five and six. Games Workshop wrote more than once that there are more than four Chaos Gods and that a continuity of power existed from mundane daemons to greater ones up to the God status. Numbering of Chaos Gods has yet to be agreed upon by scholars.
Sources
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This article is based on the article Malal from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and stands under the GNU license for free documentation. In the Wikipedia there is a list of authors available. |
