another Chaos God

Malal is a renegade Chaos god in early editions of the fictional universes of Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000

Also known as "The Outcast God", "The Lost God" and "The Renegade God", Malal represents Chaos's indiscriminate tendency toward destruction, even of itself. The nature of Malal's powers is parasitic, as the Renegade God grows in power when the others do.
Contents
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* 1 Appearance
* 2 Origins and Comics
* 3 The Mark of Malal
* 4 Continued Existence
* 5 Fan Creations
* 6 References

[edit] Appearance

In the Warhammer storyline, both for Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000, since they at this time shared the same universe, Malal was at some point cast out or separated from the rest of the Chaos Gods. Whether this was a self-imposed exile or not is not clear. Malal was perhaps the first of the Chaos Gods and seems to exist only to destroy the other gods and their followers. The Outcast God is both feared and loathed by the other Chaos Gods.

Malal is described as being both lupine and crocodilian in appearance, yet still having a humanoid form. Depicted to have six fingers on each hand, five horns and three eyes on his head, Malal is also shown to have sets of teeth that resemble a mix of lions', shark, horse and rat. Malal's symbol is a skull bisected down the middle, one half white, the other half black.

The term "Doomed Ones" also goes along with Malal, in the comics and WFRP they were the chosen human champions/followers of Malal. Dedicated to seeking out and destroying the followers of the other Chaos Gods, they would eventually become undead apparitions serving Malal when all their physical energy was spent. Malal is a harsh and demanding god and does not have many followers, few live long in its service. Those who do, however, supposedly become very powerful.

[edit] Origins and Comics

The concept of the Chaos god "Malal" was created by comics writers John Wagner and Alan Grant along with Malal's champion, Kaleb Daark, for the Warhammer Fantasy world in the Citadel Miniatures Compendium and Journals. In the comic strip adventure Kaleb Daark's mission allied him temporarily with the forces of good. He fights at the siege of Praag and confronts the followers of the Chaos God Khorne, and also finds himself at odds with the Skaven. Less mutated than other followers of Chaos, he is equipped with his soul-drinking daemon axe "Dreadaxe" with its pterodactyl-like head on a shaft of bone. His shield was shaped in the form of Malal's skull symbol, his armour was all-black with white details and his steed was a black mutant horse. Kaleb himself appeared pale, as the contact with Malal supposedly drained him of energy. His battle cry was "Dreadaxe thirsts for you!".

There were three installments completed of "The Quest of Kaleb Daark" comic:

* Part 1 : "The Quest of Kaleb Daark" - The Third Citadel Compendium 1985
* Part 2 : "The God-Slayer!" - The Citadel Journal Spring 86
* Part 3 : "Evil of the Warpstone!" - The Citadel Journal Spring 87
* Part 4 : "God Amok!" - Unprinted

In the Spring 86 Journal there was also one additional page of Warhammer Fantasy Battle rules (and a small bit of Malal background) for including Kaleb Daark and his steed in games. This issue also saw the first advertisements for the miniature figure set including a foot and mounted Kaleb Daark. The Spring 87 Journal featured the miniature figure sets of the two Chaos Brothers, Jaek and Helwud, Kaleb's main adversaries in part 3. Part 4 "God Amok!" was also advertised in this issue, but it never saw print. It is uncertain how much of this 4th installment that was actually completed. Allegedly the comic was cancelled because of "creative differences" between the creators and Games Workshop.

[edit] The Mark of Malal

With the introduction of Malal in the comics, it was inevitable that the deity would find its way into the Games Workshop Chaos mythos and thereby into other products.

* The renegade ogre Skrag the Slaughterer was introduced as a follower of Malal. A short background story told his story as being cast out from his tribe for stealing a "starmetal" axe, with Malal subsequently guiding Skrag to a Chaos Dwarf hold, forcing them to forge him an armour and then slaughtering them all in the name of Malal. White Dwarf: UK Edition (83) featured a WFB mini-scenario "The Crude, the Mad and the Rusty", pitting the lone Chaos Dwarf survivor of this massacre, aided by two goblin fanatics and a mechanical warrior, against Skrag. Skrag has since been recast as a devout follower of the Ogre god known as "The Great Maw".

* In the first editions of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay in 1986, Malal has a short paragraph along with Khorne and Nurgle and is mentioned as a renegade Chaos God dedicated to the destruction of the other Chaos Gods.

* In the short story "The Laughter of Dark Gods" in the Warhammer anthology "Ignorant Armies", there is also a reference to an unnamed albino Malal Champion and his warband roaming the Chaos wastes. This champion is slain by the novel's main character.

* The card game "Chaos Marauders" published in 1987 featured the "Claws of Malal" card. The unit represented in the game by this card was a warband of beastmen eager to fight, preferably against followers of the other Chaos Gods.

Use of Malal in further Games Workshop productions ceased around 1988, the same year the first of the two "Realm of Chaos" background books were published. Malal is not referred to or mentioned at all in these. There was also an uncertainty as to who actually owned the rights to the concept of Malal - the comic's authors or Games Workshop.

The one notable exception to this is in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay supplement The Dying of the Light by Hogshead Publishing in 1995. This book features a sorcerer of Malal named Heinrich Bors who has struck a deal with Malal to escape from the Chaos God Tzeentch.

[edit] Continued Existence

As the further use of Malal was restricted, the authors of the "Something Rotten in Kislev" supplement for The Enemy Within- campaign introduced "Zuvassin - the Great Undoer" and later "Necoho - the Doubter", as two renegade Chaos deities, replacing the role originally intended for Malal in this campaign.

However, the memory of Malal did not die with the ability of Games Workshop to use it. The idea of Malal was continued on in the 1990s by veterans of the Warhammer Role Playing scene primarily through the internet via BBS (bulletin board system) and stories (such as "Divine Judgment") so Malal continued to survive, occasionally becoming the choice deity of veteran players playing Chaos. Also in Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000, the occasional Malal themed army still surfaced.

One of the strongest indirect references to the Renegade God from Games Workshop was made in the Warhammer 40,000 supplement Codex: Chaos Space Marines 2002. The first is the appearance of a daemon weapon called a "Dreadaxe", which is described as preferring to kill other daemonic entities. The other reference was in a picture showing other possible painting schemes for the models. One of the examples was a marine of a renegade chapter entitled the "Sons of Malice". The colors used for this chapter were the bisecting black/white design of Malal's symbol, and the word "Malice" is not too dissimilar from "Malal". More information on the Sons of Malice came in Games Workshop monthly publication White Dwarf issue 303 (issue 302 in the U.S.). The article mentioned that the Sons of Malice were exiled from the Imperium for a set of disgusting rituals that were reported to include cannibalism and were reported to be fighting in complete silence. The patron deity of the ritual was never revealed. And at the end of the article it was specifically mentioned that the Sons of Malice were noted to fight with ferocity against other followers of Chaos.

The Shadowlord of Mordheim, Be'lakor, has by some been seen as a revival of the idea of the renegade/outcast Chaos power originally represented by Malal. Note however that Be'lakor is only a daemon, whereas Malal was a Chaos God.





More fluff

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.

Necoho, often known as The Doubter or The Apostate God is one of the renegade Chaos Gods. Necoho's warp-spawned existence owes itself to a paradox which should, by mortal logic, make his very subsistence impossible. He is a deity who represents the struggle against the entire notion of gods and religion. Needless to say, this means that his following is extremely small, especially for an obscure renegade Chaos God, and his name is only found in the oldest and most obscure of forbidden tomes, or uttered by the most embittered agnostics. No doubt, this is the way Necoho likes it. As might be expected, Necoho almost never manifests himself in the physical world; however, if he does so it is in the form of a short, plump old human man, with a permanent expression of ironic amusement etched upon his face.

Necoho has no known icon, livery, or any other symbol denoting his scattered followers. His worship - if it can be called thus - is relegated to tiny scatterings on remote, often feral or black powder worlds; even then there is little outward sign to alert the presence of the cult. Certainly it seems, from what little is known, that Necoho and his followers are as opposed to the idea of temples as they are to the idea of deities.

Necoho is generally opposed to all other cults of all kinds, be they Imperial, Eldar, Chaos, or even Orkish, although it is suspected that from time to time he may help one cult or hinder another if doing so would undermine the credibility or status of its deity or leaders among the creed’s mortal followers.

Necoho thrives on agnosticism and atheism; and, in direct contrast with his brethren, grows in power as the number of his followers diminishes. His ultimate goal is to be the sole deity in existence, thus sating his burning hatred for all other gods and faiths. To achieve this, he knows he must eventually eliminate all sentient life within the universe - but until such extreme measures can be taken, he is satisfied to merely spread disbelief and scepticism of his fellow gods, weakening both their strength in the immaterium and the sway they hold in the material world.

Necoho was created by Games Workshop for use in their Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game, and was featured in the "Something Rotten In Kislev" book, published in 1988 as part of the "The Enemy Within" campaign, along with Zuvassin the Great Undoer.

Zuvassin is one of the renegade Chaos gods, along with Malal and Necoho. He is a meddler, constantly striving to undo the things which others have done and to soil the efforts of others. His brand of Chaos leads him to ensure that nothing turns out as expected, and that all plans will go awry. He does not confine his sabotage to Chaos, but will quite readily spoil anything for anyone; however, because he is a Chaos God who acts against the purest essence of Chaos, he has been classified by human scholars as a ‘renegade’ god. He appears frequently to his followers, donning in a variety of guises, often choosing to take the form of the thing which they fear most, or that of a member of their own race who is horribly disfigured or deformed. No matter what form he takes, he is always laughing.

The symbol of Zuvassin is a double ended Y-shape, which is usually incomplete or otherwise incorrectly drawn in some way; some part may be missing from, or something may have been added to it.

Wherever and whenever there are people who want things to go awry, Zuvassin will be there to offer his patronage - and to make their own plans go wrong in the process. He has been known to usurp cults which think they are worshipping another of the Chaos Gods, revelling in the confusion and misery of letting them down or massacring them. Zuvassin, living up to his title, can undo everything, even removing the taint of Chaos from an individual by removing their mutations.

Zuvassin is an enemy of all of Chaos, even including the other Renegade Gods, but it has been known for him to ally himself with another of the Gods of Chaos in order to thwart another's plans; for example, he might decide to aid the forces of Khorne in conflict with those of Slaanesh, (or vice-versa), if one of the Chaos Gods has a scheme which looks like it can't fail.

Like most Chaos Gods, Zuvassin will never refuse anyone who is foolish enough to offer him their loyalty; even the most exhaustive of terms will not worry him, as he is confident of being able to make things go wrong if it suits him to do so. Zuvassin imposes no restrictions upon his followers, since any character who is truly imbued with his spirit would be able to make any instructions misfire.

PRAISE TO MALAL!