# Malal/Malice is BACK! SPOILERS!



## Death Shroud

Just bought and am reading the new Black Library short stories collection "Heroes of the Space Marines" and as usual with these collections the stories are hit and miss. One story which has filled me with a great deal of joy is the story "The Labyrinth" by Richard Ford.
The story concerns the Sons of Malice renegade chapter (long associated with Malal by those of us old enough to remember him). It tells the tale of a once-a-century trial where the Sons' travel to a space hulk named "The Labyrinth" which is sacred to them. When there any Son may put himself forward for a trial where they must enter the labyrinth, those that survive are initiated into the chapter's mysterious elite the "Doomed Ones" (the name of Malal's followers in WFB back in the day).

Previously in the background it hasn't been specifically said that the Sons of Malice worship Malal, just many huge, obvious facts that would suggest so. That was until now, there's a slight name change (to avoid the rumoured ownership of Malal's name wrangles perhaps) to "Malice". 

I quote:
"Now, only one deity was offered reverence in this cold empty vessel: the exalted Malice, the Renegade God, the Outcast, Malice the Lost, Hierarch of Anarchy and Terror. And he would soon recieve nourishment aplenty when the feeding began."

and the last part of the story, again a direct quote:
"In the great hall all was silent.
The Sons had watched as the light consumed the body of their brother Invictus, along with the ten other heroes of the Labyrinth, their limbs immolated, their torsos eviscerated, their heads contorting and twisting, writhing within a pool of black light.
And now what stood before them was the revenant they had worshipped for millennia. The eidolon that would stand at their vanguard as they retook what was rightfully theirs.
He could only be summoned by sacrifice - only by giving unto Him their best and most praiseworthy warriors could he walk among them.
And here He stood, gazing with eyes of fire - the Renegade God, the Outcast, the Lost, Hierarch of Anarchy and Terror...
...Malice."

Commence geekgasm.

[edited spelling mistakes]


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## vacantghost

HOLY HELL - geekasm


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## CamTheApostle

Ah yes, the 5th of the four gods of chaos. :biggrin: Don't question Chaos math.


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## lostprophet

ohhh Malal how we have missed you


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## omnissiah

ow this is unexpected but... hoorah!


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## Katie Drake

This is all kinds of awesome.  I hope they'll make even more mention of Malal in coming publications. I wonder if he'll get a passing mention in the up and coming Legions Codex?


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## CamTheApostle

Katie Drake said:


> This is all kinds of awesome.  I hope they'll make even more mention of Malal in coming publications. I wonder if he'll get a passing mention in the up and coming Legions Codex?


Hahahahahaha.... You think they are going to give us a Legions Codex? You poor, foolish child.


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## Zondarian

If he is coming back I am definitely going to love GW. I loved him and still do. +rep to you sir, even if it turns out to be false hope.


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## Mellow

So, I'm just wondering why Malal/Malice was 'removed' in the first place. I researched a bit about it, but all I know is that there's something about ownership problems. Anyone care to enlighten me?


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## Zondarian

The creator of the Renegade God Malal was fired/ left, but the copyright for Malal was in his name. Therefore when he left GW could no longer use Malal because they did not own the rights to the creation. Hope that answers the question Mellow.


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## tastytaste

Well that is super cool. Time to get to work on a new themed army.


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## Mellow

Thanks a lot, Zondarian. That explains a lot of things.

So, can anyone explain to me a bit about the lore behind Malal/Malice? Since I'm relatively a newcomer on WH stuff, I don't really know much about older characters like this guy.


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## Katie Drake

Mellow said:


> So, can anyone explain to me a bit about the lore behind Malal/Malice? Since I'm relatively a newcomer on WH stuff, I don't really know much about older characters like this guy.


Well, from what I understand, when Malal's creator left GW, GW had to write Malal out of the story, so they had the other four Chaos Gods gang up on him and cast him out of the Warp or something. Since then, Malal has been hunting the followers of the other Gods seeking revenge. Since Malal is the God of Renegades, he welcomes outcasts like renegade Space Marines (like the Sons of Malice Chapter) and the like. Malal's whole deal is empowering those that have been done wrong and giving them the ability to overthrow their masters.

Malal is also the only Chaos God that is able/willing to manifest himself in the physical universe. He has fought alongside his followers on multiple occasions.


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## killmaimburn

Yeah, the legion codex is a doomed hope...but malal is BACK! Finally! *geekgasm* I wonder if they will give him any fluff or models in any supplements or possibly the (years away) chaos space marine codex which they will (hopefully) do right.


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## Zondarian

I reckon legion codexes could happen. But I am still not convinced that they would make rules and models for Malal.


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## TheKingElessar

I see him/it (what do you call a Chaos God:laugh staying fluff only, or possibly a collector's piece at most.


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## Col. Schafer

Screw GW, convert him and make your own rules! :victory:


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## Mellow

Malal sounds badass. Though, if he really does fight with his followers, is it in a weakened state or he just has a limited time/space to go in? Since if he really did fight, he'd be quite a bit....you know.


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## Death Shroud

I think a legion codex for Malice is probably a forelorn hope for now. I hope Richard Ford has a full novel based on the Sons of Malice in his head, that would be a good start. The rights issue about Malal would be between GW and Alan Grant who wrote the comics with him in (I don't know how true the rights issue rumours are).

I might have to buy another copy of Heroes of the Space Marines as mine was destroyed before I could finish the final stories (freak tea-spillage disaster).

As for Malal/Malice's area of chaosness, I'd call his defining emotions Self-loathing and bitterness. His followers tended to be solitary beings who hated chaos and used the power Malal gave them to destroy other chaos followers. I never read more than a couple of pages of the comic he was in (Kaleb Daark?) but his follower seemed to pretty much despise him, I think Malal/Malice gets off on that.
Would make him an Ideal candidate for the Relictors chapter if they finally turn to chaos.

If I remember the first edition warhammer fantasy roleplay rulebook (ask your parents kids!) he had six fingers on each hand (I wonder how much of that was the influence of Brendan McCarthy the comic book artist who did the art for Kaleb Daark, his used to draw the Krool in 2000ad with six fingers....sorry I digress) and his greater daemons were called "Six-eyed Slayers".


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## Death Shroud

Here's a painted Kaleb Daark model on coolminiornot










And another of an old citadel miniature of him










I have lifted the following directly from a site called "Malal Lives!" that I have just found (I would suggest having a look at the site as it has done a good job of collecting all the Malal related info in one place): http://www.freewebs.com/malal-lives/thelostgod.htm

"...and he that went before now came last, and that which was white and black and all direction was thrown against itself. Grown mightily indignant at the words of the Gods, Malal did turn his heart against them and flee into the chambers of space . . . And no man looked to Malal then, save those that serve that which they hate, who smile upon their misfortune, and who bear no love save for the damned. At such times as a warrior's heart turns to Malal, all Gods of Chaos grow fearful, and the laughter of the Outcast God fills the tomb of space . . . "

In eons past Malal was cast out from the bosom of Chaos by the other Gods, or else abandoned them of his own volition, no one is sure which. In any case, Malal's relationship to the other Gods of Chaos is a strange one.
All Gods of Chaos pursue purposes that are wholly their own, yet only Malal occupies a position so resolutely parasitic upon his own unfathomable creed.

To be a follower of Malal is to be a chaotic warrior bent upon shedding the blood of other chaotic creatures. As such, Malal is both feared and hated by the other Gods.
Malal's worshippers, too, are loathed by other chaotics; they are outcasts beloved by neither the friends nor enemies of Chaos, dependent upon the least whim of their patron deity.
Few men worship such a God; fewer still live long in his service. The bonds that tie master and servant ever drain upon the soul of the warrior, and it is a rare man that can loosen the bonds once forged.

Malal is a renegade Chaos God, who has turned against the others and is dedicated to their destruction. His followers, sometimes called the Doomed Ones, seek out and destroy the followers of other Chaos Gods wherever they may be found.
Malal is the Lost God, the Power of Chaos that represents Chaos' indiscriminate tendency toward destruction, even of itself. His dark temple is bleak and stark, compared to the edifices of the other Chaos deities.
Witchfires burn at seemingly random places around his hall, and glimpses of futures that might be flicker within them. One long hall is dedicated to trophies collected. A Bloodthirster rages against the spikes driven into its limbs, nailing it to the wall. A plucked Lord of Change lies curled up in a very small cage, its bared flesh covered in welts. A Keeper of secrets floats blinded and deafened denied any sensation whatsoever. And dozens of champions all displayed, important, cut off from their gods. Tally keepers scurry through the darkened hall, inscribing the fate of those on display, and placing the newly arrived.


Malal loves using trickery to cause the other Chaos Gods to lash out against each other. A spell here, a broken vial there, a strip of fabric, an uprising, or a single word. These are the tools that Malal uses in his plot to undermine and destroy the Chaos Gods.

Malal's powers come from the struggle of a single (relatively) powerless figure trying to fight a larger oppressor. Every slave that plots against his master, every worker that hates his boss, every peasant who looks with anger upon the places of the rich, every man who cries out to the uncaring gods about his placement in life feeds more power to Malal.

Malal is usually depicted as a towering humanoid with wolf like and crocodilian features. His hands have six fingers apiece. Three eyes look out from his head. Hordes of teeth, Lion-like, Shark-like, Cow-like, and Rat-like, jut from his jaws.

Symbol:
The symbol of Malal is a skull, bisected down the middle, one half white, and the other black. This can vary from very stylised, to very naturalistic or even bestial. His followers favour black and white, especially bisected patterning.

Number:
The number eleven is associated with Malal.

Worship:
Malal is not a god of warriors, nor of wizards, the decadent, or the desperate. He 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 it's own level. Many an overzealous official or priest has lost his soul to Chaos when he allowed his hatred to blind him to the price he was paying.

Friends & Enemies:
Followers of Malal generally loners; the very burning hatred of Chaos that possesses all followers of Malal makes them hate all followers of Chaos powers, even other followers of Malal! Rarely, a leader comes along who can knit together a band of Malalites for the mutual need. At these times, the mortal followers of the other Chaos gods know fear, for a lone champion of Malal is to be feared, a group of them acting together is truly horrific!

Toward other mortal organizations, followers of Malal are more neutral, but definitely not benign. Malal is a Chaos God after all! However, the feeling is not necessarily reciprocal. Consequently, followers of Malal usually act alone and in secret. However, they have no problem tipping the authorities off to the location or existence of rival Chaos groups.

Many tips to the Arbites, Inquisition, Witch Hunters, and Royalty have come from a whisper in the dark, a mysterious note, or a fortunate accident. Malal's followers try to not interfere with these organizations, either. "The enemy of my enemy..." as the old saying goes.
Many of these types of organizations know of Malal, as well. For the most part, they don't trust followers of Malal, but they are content to let the monsters eat the monsters, and hopefully wipe each other out in the process.

Cult Requirements & Tenets:
Malal requires only one thing from his followers. Complete dedication- above all other things- to the destruction of the forces of Chaos. Many times after a Chaos horde has rampaged through an area, the survivors, blinded by hatred and grief, pledge themselves to Malal. Malal is much more active in his (relatively) small following then the other Chaos gods. Consequently, many of his champions have held audiences with him personally. He is even known to have manifested and intervened for particularly important tasks and minions. Malal's followers are few, but very powerful!


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## omnissiah

hmmm... makes me think, does malal has daemons? anyway thank you deathshroud +rep for you!


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## JB Mallus

This is indeed good news! I learn something new every day from Heresy!


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## Katie Drake

omnissiah said:


> hmmm... makes me think, does malal has daemons? anyway thank you deathshroud +rep for you!


Malal doesn't have any Daemons that anybody knows about, at least not in the standard sense that you'd expect from looking at the other Chaos Gods. He does have his followers make pretty extensive use of Daemon weapons though, and those Daemon weapons always excel at destroying other Daemonic entities.


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## NurglingStomper

Whooo Malal is back! *tears up*
I can finally use my marines dedicated to Malal without everyone staring at me strangley.


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## Unknown Primarch

just a minor thought but could malal be the one that the soul drinkers chaplain is weeving a plot with. seeing as they are renegades that are fighting chaos then it could fit in nicely with their fluff and seeing as sarpedon is gone it could be a nice direction the the chapter to go down in terms of new fiction!


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## Vrykolas2k

I was wondering why they didn't have Malal before now...


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## BlackApostleVilhelm

".....and the one that was cast out shall rise again, terrible to behold. Khorne will quake, Nurgle's plagues rendered useless, Tzeentch's plots severed and Slaanesh cut from all stimuli......a new name he will forge himself, from pure chaos will he be formed and all followers of chaos will tremble at his might......it has been written..." 
*-Book of Lorgar, Of the Outcast's Return*


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## Death Shroud

BlackApostleVilhelm said:


> ".....and the one that was cast out shall rise again, terrible to behold. Khorne will quake, Nurgle's plagues rendered useless, Tzeentch's plots severed and Slaanesh cut from all stimuli......a new name he will forge himself, from pure chaos will he be formed and all followers of chaos will tremble at his might......it has been written..."
> *-Book of Lorgar, Of the Outcast's Return*


Excellent quote. What's the source?


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## BlackApostleVilhelm

you can find quotes from the book of lorgar all over the internet if you look hard enough. i have quite a collection at the moment saved in word and i found this among them. i had remembered reading it a while back on a website but cant remember where exactly, its been a while since i have found any new quotes and this was one of my first ones.


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## Death Shroud

BlackApostleVilhelm said:


> you can find quotes from the book of lorgar all over the internet if you look hard enough. i have quite a collection at the moment saved in word and i found this among them. i had remembered reading it a while back on a website but cant remember where exactly, its been a while since i have found any new quotes and this was one of my first ones.


The line "A new name he will forge for himself", a Malal to Malice reference if ever I saw one.:goodpost:


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## BloodAngelsfan

So much for Tzeentch as my favorite Chaos God. After reading this thread I want to start a CSM army just to have Malal worshippers!


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## Da Red Paintjob Grot

Death Shroud said:


> Here's a painted Kaleb Daark model on coolminiornot
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> And another of an old citadel miniature of him


I have both of those!


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## MyI)arkness

A heresy of heresy! Two times more chaotic;DDDDD


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## Angels Of Flame

the renegades of the angels of flame chapter stand ready to pledge themselves to the patron of hate and renegades.


(that is if gw follow this up, i was considering malal as a god for a while but dismissed it as hes like the squats.)


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## Mabrothrax

I've got to say I'm thrilled at the news of this story being pubished, can't wait for my copy of Heroes to arrive.

Incidentally, I'm the author of the previously mentioned 'malal lives!' site 

Time to dust off and reinforce my Sons of Malice at last!


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## Khorothis

I'd love some official fluff from GW, so I could tell if Malal/Malice poses a serious threat to my beloved Thousand Sons. 

However, I doubt that GW would seriously put this guy into the WH40K universe, or even WHFB. The Chaos Gods are already at each other's throaths, theres no need for a Chaos God who specializes in anti-Chaos warfare. I can see scores of emos loving Malal, for he is accepted by no one, yet still fight against the bad guys. I'm not against a fifth Chaos God, its just that it doesn't make too much sense to make him anti-Chaos only. Make him a god of discord and rebellion, against everything, not only Chaos. 

On the other hand the "good guys" could use some help, mainly the humans, since being stuck with a corpse Emperor is just as bad as worshipping a god whose half asleep. There was that idea with the Sensei, why not put that in instead? [...] The bracketed text is a rant about how unfair it is that the bad guys are far better detailed than the good guys, and how the good guys are actually suckers stuck worshipping a corpse. Imagine I did rant.


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## Zooey72

I have a theory in 40k that Mal could be the emperor ascending to Godhood. Mals only really distinct trait is that he wants to destroy all the other Chaos Gods. 10,000 years of worship could be sufficient for the emperor to be reborn as Mal. You could even make the argument that the emp. did not want to become a god, but the TRILLIONS of people worshiping him could make it happen reguardless.


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## Zooey72

omnissiah said:


> hmmm... makes me think, does malal has daemons? anyway thank you deathshroud +rep for you!



In my scenerio you could say any psychers or that thing the sisters of battle conjure up would be Mal's (the emps) daemons.


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## Zondarian

Zooey that idea is very much flatlined by the fact that Malal was supposedly the oldest of the gods. He has been around for longest than the Emperor has.


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## Death Shroud

Zooey72 said:


> I have a theory in 40k that Mal could be the emperor ascending to Godhood. Mals only really distinct trait is that he wants to destroy all the other Chaos Gods. 10,000 years of worship could be sufficient for the emperor to be reborn as Mal. You could even make the argument that the emp. did not want to become a god, but the TRILLIONS of people worshiping him could make it happen reguardless.


You're reasoning about the Emperor's soul gaining power in power and ascending to godhood is correct but that Godhood ISN'T Malal/Malice. He is becoming the Starchild and there has already been GW authored background on this (back in "Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned) in the early 90's. Although I haven't seen background to any "Daemons" of the Starchild (though perhaps the angelic being seen by larkin in one of the Gaunts Ghosts books might be some manifestation) he does have his own champions, the "Sensei"


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## Mabrothrax

Zondarian said:


> Zooey that idea is very much flatlined by the fact that Malal was supposedly the oldest of the gods. He has been around for longest than the Emperor has.


Sorry, but that's pants. Malal has never had any genuine link to or presence in the 40k universe.

It is ironic and somewhat amusing that the revived interest in Malal over the past few years is due to the Sons of Maice and the occasional tip-of-the-hat.


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