Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Ok so the project is being revamped. After some real thought, and a lot of exams at school (yah I know does not have much to do with this game), I think that finding a cohesive way of brining this abandoned god back into the framework will be fun. I already have lots of ideas for the daemons and I am not struggling to develop a personality that is altogether new. As I recall he was well developed in personality in Warhammer Fantasy and had a representative chaos space marine chapter in 40k. But how could he come back? Though certainly not written out completely, i need to make sure I do not violate copyright here, as he is not GW IP anymore ( though I did read somewhere that he is now but just shelved). Anyway, I will post a full sketch when I don't have more pressing things, probably in a few hours or so, in the meantime make any suggestions you like.

Ah so took the old advice and went with Malal then :p

Ah so took the old advice and went with Malal then :p

Yes I have. Not like the other idea could not be done, but cohesion was becoming very difficult to accomplish. Still working on a way to introduce him to the mythos though. I thought I would have a good sketch up a few hours after but some other more important things took much more time than I would have liked. I am thinking something along the lines of being generated but dormant from the rebellion of the horus Heresy. Seeing as Malal is all about entropy and rebellion it might be a good place to start. I also don't want to put up something that is going to get copyright problems. Seems authors are currently very touchy about that these days, but i hear the guy that invented him as a character is dead. Is that true? In any case, i am trying to figure out a way for him not to be totally against the other 4, after all I am doing this to make my own supplement to the Daemons of Chaos codex. Though I can see his daemons having anti daemon weaponry. But that is for the proposed rules board. I will write a brief sketch about his origin in the 40k universe and then proceed to write a description of his dwelling and main servants. Anyway, I digress.

Actually, Malal should be as eternal as the other gods and all about the anti-Chaos. His direct personna is how Chaos feeds upon itself because its, well, chaos.

Panzerleader I get what your saying. Eternal existance is the nature of the warp. Slaanesh might be younger in one sense than the other 3 but still is an eternal entity because time has no meaning in the warp. I am also very aware of Malal's vendetta against the other Chaos Gods. Like I mentioned he represents and embodies entropy, the tendency towards self disorganization and destruction. If chaos was not self destructive it could not be chaotic, while similarly if it was not regenerative it would not be chaotic. A kind of 4 dimensional dichotometric (no it's not a real word, but means measure of opposition) semiequilibrium with infinite inputs, coming from the null set. I think the best way to introduce him is by showing him as simply to date a minor player in the 40k galaxy, but now taking a keener interest their due to chaos activities. Though he desires to destroy the other Chaos Gods, he also desires to destroy all mortal races. So perhaps a very tense ( very very tense) temporary alliance which allows him to wreak destruction and disorder on the races of the 40k Galaxy. The codex fluff does not exclude this possibility, as the Chaos Gods will (rarely) form alliances to perform some act in the material realm. Or perhaps Malal realizing that his own strength is proportional to the strength of the other Chaos Gods, decides to strengthen them only to gain the upper hand and decimate them, which of course will fail because it will make him weak again, following the pattern of the great game. Another is that he has been dormant and his daemons have formed a temporary alliance with the other Chaos Gods in order to awaken their master by empowering the other chaos Gods, with the plan of turning on them. Whatever i decide, I will have an impact on how i develop the rest of this project.

For the warp is the dwelling of 5 great powers. Nurgle who is lord of decay, Khorne lord of violence, Tzeentch lord of change, Slaanesh lord of excess and Malal lord of Rebellion. The first four have turned their attention to a small galaxy in the material realm, because of an entity that has robbed them of the souls of powerful mortals. This entity known as the Emperor of Man thwarted their attempt to seduce that galaxy and destroy him. Though partially dead from the conflict his intelligence and presence in the warp is very potent and threatens their power. So it has come to be that they have called, out of all of their own bickering, Malal the rebel power of the warp, to their aid. Malal has no love for the others, for it is his purpose to destroy them and their followers. Even though Nurgle, Khorne, Slaanesh and Tzeentch have no love for each other, they will still ally themselves with each other to accomplish a goal. But this Malal was rogue, and a wanderer in the warp, he does not spend his strength on minions, and consumes the souls of the minions of the other gods. He is held in fear by them , but in this time (or state as there is no time in the warp) they needed aid. If the star child, the Emperor' s presence were to gain too much strength they would be destroyed. In order prevent their own destruction, they sent Tzeentch to personally negotiate with Malal, for Tzeentch knows all things and being the changer of ways, had the best chance of persuading Malal to join their cause. This was according to Tzeentch's will for he was always scheming and knew what must be done. He found Malal wandering through the wastes of the warp, eating lesser daemons and other obscure warp creatures. Upon seeing Tzeentch he leapt towards him to destroy him, but was confounded for it was illusion he leapt after. Illusion after illusion sprang up, and the ever hungry Malal continued to pursue the illusions cursing and tirelessly rending his claws about in the warp winds. Until on the last illusion, he was ensnared, Tzeentch had concocted a cage beyond mortal imagining to quell the the chaos God. Malal's tireless enthusiasm for destrution and consumption only strengthened the cage, and being an intelligent creature began to curse at Tzeentch who stood looking at him. "I shall not be long before my power will exceeds the strength of this trap" he shouted, but Tzeentch was unmoved and replied "It is not a cage I have come to deliver to you, it is a message and a persuasion". "You have obeyed your nature as all of us do, but even we can set aside our major differences for the cause of extending our power to the realm of mortals". "Our wars never cease, and your war against us has never ceased, but even you are in danger now from the star child". Malal was unmoved and thrashed about saying "That is for you four to deal with, I have no quarrel with it, and if it comes to me I will consume it also". Tzeentch considered for a moment the reply of Malal and responded according to his intricate plan "But it is your opposite, for it desires that nothing has freedom, that nothing will consume at will and that Chaos be destroyed in all of it's forms.". "Malal, brother and God, can you truly believe your power will be enough, for without us you could not be, and without your rebellious nature there would be no us". "If only for a small while, help us in launching a campaign against the followers of this star-child, have a dwelling with your equals and destroy and insight rebellion wherever there is mortality". Malal was for the first time quelled of rage against the Gods, though he hated them, he knew Tzeentch to be wise and was persuaded saying "I can now swear that until the star child is destroyed my power will go with your armies, and I will insight rebellion and self-destruction amongst the mortal races, they will follow me, and I will send out daemons the likes of which are not had amongst you four". Satisfied the deciever lifted the cage from Malal, who fought back his natural urges to attack Tzeentch and followed him to council with the other Gods. But Tzeentch has decieved Malal for the cage is still in place and a spell that binds Malal and placates him is in place. But now the four powers of Chaos have a powerful ally. Though the warp continues in warfare, each God against the other, they have reached the agreement to begin anew a campaign against mankind and all of mortality, till the star child is destroyed.

Dwelling of Malal: Since the incomprehensible alliance of Malal to the Four Great Powers, he has set up struture for the first time. The home of Malal is a desert place, constantly desolate, a wanderers home. It is a place of burning and ice, where it's few inhabitants feed on each other in never ending cycles of regeneration and suicide. It is a paradox setting for everything seems to convolute on itself. All things seen turn in on themselves. Though desolate, this place does have life. For few things can survive his area of the warp, only daemons of the God Malal himself can survive here. They are nomads throughout Malal's desert, eating each other or themselves when they have gone too long without another source of soul feeding. These daemons of Malal are few in number, but excellent in power. One is able to humble a bloodletter, and some shame the Bloodthirster, but they are few and often terminate themselves before they rise to prominence. Malal is a God of self destruction, so in his realm chaos is both destroyed and replenished every moment, the swirls of the ice sands will subdue to crystals, and the formation of a dune can erupt into fire. All things seem unstable, but subdued, as if struggling balance between utter chaos and utter order. All who would see this place would go madd for there is no logic to it.

NExt up Daemons

Ok been a while, project was not on hold just had no time. Here is the fluff for the greater daemons of Malal: The Soul Drinkers

Like Malal himself the Soul Drinkers are emissaries of chaos's tendency towards self destruction. They are beastial creatures often running on all fours, but rearing up to wield their dreaded weapons. Their most striking feature is that they are divided down the middle into black and white sides. The white side is graced by a flowing mane that sprouts from it's well muscled neck and with spectacular musculature and brilliant armor, the face being that of a dignified beast with white fangs and a piercingb blue or green eye. The other side is a contrast, being wasted, with dull armor, spikes and tentacles sprouting from the neck, the body appears to be starved and it's eye is dull and bulges from it's head. A soul drinker is the embodiment of Malal's dual nature and shares also his third eye, between the other two, that is a blood red orb and a gift of Malal to his most trusted servants. All Soul Drinkers possess this third eye, it is the means by which they derive power from Malal and from those around them. They are dubbed Soul Drinkers because of this third eye that allows them observe and consume the souls of others to replenish their own power. However they are constantly hunting for souls to consume, because their own energy and life is dependent on destruction, particularly on the feeding of other immortals, usually lesser daemons. When unleashed on the mortal realm they deliver themselves as quickly as they can in order to sate the hunger they have for the souls of others, if they do not they will feed on their own troops and allies until they have reached the enemy, and if they cannot reach the enemy will turn on their own forms and rip themselves apart trying to satisfy their thirst for souls. Many of the most elite of the renegade God's Soul Drinkers possess a dreadaxe, a living edifice of Malal's hatred of the other powers of chaos. The dreadaxe is a living weapon ususally in the shape of some mutated creature's head mounted on a rod. The weapon is so powerful it is said that it is in fact created by imprisoning the essenses of the most powerful daemons of the other chaos powers. No Bloodthrister's axe or whip will ever match it for destructive power, for it's goal is not to break armor and shatter the body, it's purpose is the shattering of minds and souls of those that feel it's bite. To be slain by a dreadaxe means to be collected and imprisoned in it, making it more potent with each life it takes. Though very few exist, other daemons fear these above all others for they have the power not only to destroy the warp presence of daemon, but also to consume and empower themselves with each daemon they kill.

The lesser daemon: Feasters of Malal
The ground troops of Malal are the feasome and genuinely insane feasters. These scythe wielding creatures are violent and ruthless. They only have one objective in life, to feed. Like the Soul Drinkers and like all other servants of Malal they have a love for rending and consuming the souls of others, and have the great propensity to direct their efforts towards daemons of other Gods or towards themselves if their is no one else to consume. Their physical manifestation is one of impressive strength. They go about walking like apes, on their knuckles. Their arms bearing large blunt talons are used to reach into a cavity found in their body that nourishes small parasite daemons . These Malalian answer to nurglings called Malal grubs are small mishappen skull headed wormlik e daemons that surround the enemies of the feasters. They act to occupy the force until the feastors themselves arrive. The blunt nosed and beastial featers then use their scythes to tear down all in their path and reclaim their grubs. The scythes of the feasters are so sharp that armor is as nothing before them and the immortal character of some opponents becomes obsolete, as with all weapons gifted by Malal they also butcher the soul.

better to come, got to retcon some stuff, going to improve the above and add the rest then off to developing rutles..

Ok I know nobody cares but I have to finish what I started. My fluff is definitely not first, second, third...fourth or even fifth rate, but here I go again.

This is little more extensive detail about Malal based on some reading I have been doing, ( just bought and read a good portion of Liber Chaotica, an excellent light read, certainly not heavy, but very informative). I would like to fill in Malal's origins to flesh out the concepts that will lead to rules about what I hope will adequately supplement the Chaos Daemons codex.

Origin of Chaos God's and Malal.

As it is known amongst the wise the Chaos Gods are eternal entities, the processes of birth and death are meaningless to them and essentially alien to their consciousness. They are as eternal as the feelings and souls that feed them, and are as malevolent as mortals have concieved them. They are vortices of emotion and abstractness, torrents of the consiousnesses of mortals, made of the same aetherical meaninglessness that occupies the immaterium, but given meaning and purpose by their mortal worshippers. But how are they eternal when intelligence has not always been? Intelligent emotion, the epitomy of the mortal soul is not an eternal thing. Certainly there was a time when such passions did not exist? If the mortal mind is not coeternal with the Chaos Gods of the warp, then how are they eternal? One may say "There is no time in the Warp", indeed that is true. Then how were the Old Ones able to travel in the immaterium unhindered? Why were they not molested by the emotion vortices of future generations of lesser and more passionate beings? The answer to this question is not obvious to those who have no understanding of the soul, or rather the eternal nature of souls.

The first misconception is that the soul is the self factor, or that is the tiny and miniscule "I am". We mortals think of it as a consiousness that exists with us that is intangible and only truly possessed by our mortal bodies. I say this is a crude notion of what a soul is. While, yes there is an immaterial component, the soul is not that immaterial component. We forget in our thoughts that there exists the material universe, when we consider notions of the soul. We wistfully believe that the soul is also our spirit, or that warp born part of our character. The soul is not a singular entity but an amalgamated entity, the physical mingled with the spiritual. It is our physical brains that contribute also to what our soul is, our blood, our natural instincts, our frailties and our logic. All these are physical parts, that contribute equally to soul as much as our emotions and aspirations. This is where the Chaos Gods came from, for they have matured along with the passionate races, they feed on souls, not on the immaterial portions alone but on everything that contributes to consiousness. Gods were not always Gods, even in the places where phases of time do not have real meaning. They had their origins when the first microbes slithered from the primal oceans of forgotten millenia. The instincts of violence fed the vortex that would become Khorne, the drive to mate fed Slaanesh, the first parasites nourished Nurgle and Tzeentch was fed by the primal cunning of amoeboid organisms. So you see yes the Chaos Gods are eternal, the material that makes them is eternal, but as concentrated consciousnesses they have not always been. However in all this, there was one whose persona has remained aloof from the other Four, and they fear this one, for this vortex of the warp is the antithesis of the others. For He (as perhaps it can be rightly called) was the residue of the others, like the funneling of periphery whirlpools that spin off from great charibdean sinks. He is however not like the residue that makes him up. A conundrum even in the warp, where he is not the some total of his parts. He has part in the powers of the other Four, but is a power unto himself, as great as the others. his origins run deep, into not only lifes beginnings but into the first events of the physical universe. for his power come from entropy, the principle of deconstruction. Whilst Nurgle appears to have ownership of this concept and Khorne certainly destroys, this persona more directly appeals to the primal tendency of matter iteself (not just lifes tendency) to deconstruct, and also to reconstruct. This itself is perplexing as how can reconstruction go hand in hand with it's opposite? I will explain.

When we destroy or dissolve one system we know it to be physical law that the entropy created must decrease the entropy of another part of that system or another system. In the universe creation is always accompanied by destruction. However this other Power's strength is derived from a more fundamental principle of deconstruction. This principle is best explained by analogy. When we dissolve salt in water, we have deconstructed the salt, techniquely the salt no longer exists, it is destroyed. What does exist is trillions of atoms mixed amongst the water, we may then recrystallize the salt at our leisure. The salt was deconstructed, but in the process a new thing was made. When something is destroyed it ultimately just means the creation of something else, a Sun gone Nova merely creates Nebula gases, a planet burned over by exterminatus merely creates a scorched world. It is this principle that feeds Him. And one can see how all aspects of the other powers contribute to it. Tzeentch is the lord of Change and this is but another aspect of change, Khorne is a God of destruction, and surely destruction and the taking of lives is part of this, Nurgle infects, and is not infection merely the destruction of flesh to grow pathogens? Slaanesh's incitements to both torture and sexual misconduct elucidate his part in things of deconstruction. Chaos is fundamentally and constanstanly inconsistent, like ever washing brine that recrystallizes and dissolves in ever moving flux of infinite complexity, both terrible and beautiful.

This personas name is Malal the Supreme Undoer. He has grown far beyond primal deconstruction, and now feeds on the mortal inclination to rebellion and selfishness. He is the friend of no-one and the despiser of all. Knowledge of his existence is only made known amongst the greatest of the mortal servants of Tzeentch. Tzeentch's mortal servants are often privy to esoteric knowledge, and this Malal is a feared secret. He is the Great Undoer. Tzeentch has few fears, for his knowledge reigns supreme, but the powers of Malal are devastating to those that scheme. As Tzeentch is the great schemer, the one who is always planning, Malal is the personification of the failed plan and the ruined conspiracy. But fear of Malal runs deep in the other three as well. Even Khorne the Blood God is cautious when faced with Malal's power, as Malal robs him of any satisfaction he might achieve in battle. Khorne craves blood, and Malal can stop bleeding and the taking of skulls by destroying these things altogether. To us this sounds like hardly a reason to fear this creature, but to a Chaos God it is a threat and an upset to their supremacy. Essentially Malal destroys Khorne's ability to be the Blood God. He does likewise to both Nurgle and Slaanesh.

In millenia past his servants amongst mortals have been few, as few worshippers of Chaos have discovered his existence or even been able to enter his service. To obtain the favor of a Chaos God like Malal requires a very strange sort of dedication. The Chaos God Malal does not seek worshippers, he sees such things as petty and useless, what he desires is assistants. Still this partnership with Malal is curious, as no assistant is his equal, yet the partnership allows for signficant freedom. Most Chaos God's are spurious and capricious when it comes to how they treat their mortal followers. They demand sacrifices, rituals and unswerving devotion. Those that violate their strange laws or question them will many times meet a fate worse than death as a spawn of Chaos. Malals few champions are more free with their relationship than the other champions are. Malal has a strange respect for his followers, and treats them as employees that are rewarded according to what they do. An excellent example is the Daemon Prince Kaleb Daark. In ages past he was a lone servant of Malal. During his time he assisted the side of Order so that he could slay the hosts of Chaos, at the time it is said that it was followers of Khorne. The details of the story are incomplete, but it is said that he spoke to Malal personally, and not through some intermediate. This was before his rise to daemonhood, and what is astounding is not that he communed with Malal, but that he did so frequently without reproach! If this was not enough some of the ancient surviving dialouge shows clear statements of criticism from servant to master! Most mortal worshippers of Chaos must vastly appease their God in order to have personal audience with one of the great Four, and any that show protest to any of these Gods will often find themselves corraled with the spawn. Kaleb Daarks whole story is shrounded in mystery, and very few details remain. What does remain states that he was paid hansomly by Malal to become a Daemon Prince, but not this only, for his was also gifted his freedom! This is extremely revealing about Malal's personality, for if he is the God of rebellion and selfishness, then why does he treat his followers with such generosity?

A clue to this comes from what it means to serve Malal. To enter his service one must swear that they will take whatever payment Malal deems fit, and second that they will destroy Chaos wherever it is found. One must also realize that Malal's followers would be much greater in number if those whose minds were conducive to his tutelage were not also prone to suicide. In these facts lies the answer. Malal does not demand exotic worship, but this does not mean he does not accept worship of a form. In order to worship Malal one must live as one who has nothing butn ones self at heart. He gifted Freedom to Kaleb because Kaleb was more useful to him as a free agent than as a thrall. Thralldom inhibits Malals power, for he is selfish as his power is derived not from his own selfishness but from the selfishness of others. What is more selfish than suicide and what is more rebellious than unbridled freedom? This is how his followers worship him, through being unrestrained, free and random. This is more diffulcult to achieve than one may realize, as true freedom to Malal is only possible when the other Chaos God's are gone. He sees them as the ultimate enslavers and hates their bonds more than anything else, but in recent times something has changed.

I do not know what has happened, but there are reports of Daemons marching with the hosts of Chaos that do not bear the mark of any of the other four Gods. They are rare, but in all reports very potent. It was my belief these were nothing more than Chaos spawn that had more excellent "gifts" than many of the others thus far seen. Until the reports began to mention a new mark, a symbol that was becoming more commonly seen in some of these uncatologued beasts, a skull divided down the middle, black on one side and white on the other. In my research this symbol has only appeared once, in the few details of the story of Kaleb Daark. Kaleb possessed a shield, a gift from Malal that was the likeness of that symbol. It seems time is short, for somehow Malal has begun to side with his ancient enemies. The orders of the Empire can barely keep the current threat from Chaos at bay, what shall we do against yet another power, especially one about which so little is known? There are rumours that the xenos threat is beginning to tax us too much, and that we have very little time before they will overwhelm us. The Chaos threat, our most ancient enemy seems to have gained a boon against us, what can be done? I am no soldier and am not educated in war, but I fail to see how we can withstand all the enemies at our doors. I fear the light of the Emperor will not shine much longer and we shall be cast into utter and outer darkness....

Single,Double,Triple,Quadrupal post wow how does he get away with it.