Malus Darkblade
"Through hate, all things are possible."
- – Malus Darkblade
"If nothing else, Malus Darkblade, you can be counted upon to react to adversity with as much violence as possible."
- – Tz'arkan, Drinker of Souls, Greater Daemon of
TzeentchSlaanesh
"An encouraged person will eventually get his drive from encouragement; he becomes more dependent. A person that never really receives encouragement learns to move out of spite; he becomes more independent."
- – Criss Jami
Malus Darkblade is a right hard tough bastard who simply won't die. Putting them other fantasy characters to shame, while he may be selfish, arrogant, wicked, and basically everything you would expect from a Dark Elf, he is actually portrayed somewhat believably as well in the five novels written of him by Dan 'All hail the great one' Abnett and Mike Lee. He showed moments of comradeship and faith towards his companions, and constantly shows, and is even described as having, genuine "affection" for his giant fuckoff murderlizard, which he names "Spite," in reflection of one of his most important moral values. Despite generally being what we'd consider a nasty little sociopath, Malus isn't one-dimensional morally, he has a surprising level of complexity in his character. He definitely values getting ahead and looking out for number one in all situations, but still has something that, while not exactly honour, might pass for it in the context of druchii society.
Darkblade, incidentally, in the books at least, isn't his given or familial name, but rather it's an epithet, and a derogatory one at that, for bastard children implying that he is a faulty creation.
His Cold One (nauglir), Spite, is unusually intelligent for his breed, a necessary trait to survive as Spite was the runt of his clutch) and seems to be the one living thing that has unconditional affection for Malus: generally, the druchii have to coat themselves in nauglir venom (which has unfortunate long-term effects of killing the sense of smell, taste and touch - there is treatment to reverse this but its expensive even for the nobles) in order for their mounts not to NOM them, but Spite eventually stopped wanting to NOM Malus even though Malus smelt of daemon. Malus only had to boop him on the snoot once, and maybe actually felt bad about it, despite being the a nasty little sociopath he is. The relationship between the two is positively noblebright in comparison to just about everything else that goes down in the series.
He is one of the most popular Warhammer Fantasy characters then because he has that rarest of qualities; actual character. His refusal to give up and his hard as nails approach at slaying the fuck out of anything that gets in his way has made many fanboys hold a torch for him.
If he wasn't a pansy elf and a dark one at that, he and Gotrek would be firm drinking buddies.
The Comics
"Shut UP, daemon."
- – Malus Darkblade, all the friggin' time (a running joke in the comics, referenced often in the books, too.)
Malus comes from a series of comic stories (also written by Abnett) from the days when GW actually cared about making a good story without making it serve a purpose like releasing new models. Malus is the son of a Dark Elf noble, and his soul is stolen by the daemon Tz'arkan when Malus was questing for treasure (Tz'arkan describes himself as a servant of Tzeentch in the comic but of Slaanesh in the books, sort of; he doesn't typically act particularly Slaaneshi, except when in the presence of a Slaaneshi cult (though he does pay homage when seeing an idol of Slaanesh), but he seems pretty driven by nyehehe JUST AS PLANNED rather than lust and excess, so draw your conclusions—really, why this changed is anyone's guess and doesn't seem to make much sense other than to fit Tza'arkan into a plot which involves a secret and forbidden cult of Slaanesh trying to subvert druchii society), Malus had to find five artifacts in order to free the daemon and himself, only for the daemon to steal his soul when it was freed.
The Books
"If you see the Lord of Murder before I do, tell him I'm coming. Tell him that when I get there I'm going to kick his brass teeth straight down his throat."
- – Malus Darkblade
A series of books were written which greatly expanded upon the story and characters. Malus is still a Dark Elf noble's son, but rather than being the favorite he's the hated bastard in a family with more incest than Game of Thrones. He also has five older half-siblings;
- Bruglir (male, the first child, a renowned Corsair, in an incestuous relationship with his younger sister Yasmir, won't let anyone else have her if he's nearby and considers Urial not worth killing despite Yasmir's repeated requests.)
- Isilvar (male, the second child, a skilled merchant, slaver, hierophant of a secret, underground and very much forbidden Slaaneshi cult, who is in a incestuous triad with his younger sister Nagaira along with Malus. This is apparently nothing to write home about in their world.)
- Yasmir (female, the third child, most beautiful woman in Hag Graef, alpha bitch extraordinaire, in an incestuous relationship with her older brother Bruglir though she really sluts it up when Bruglir's away on raids or at war...which is apparently, by Druchii standards, completely acceptable; the novels state that only the man in relationships must maintain his continence as a show of strength while the female may have as many lovers as she pleases. Yasmir thus flips her shit when she finds out Bruglir is fucking around with a lady-pirate lieutenant, and he doesn't really concern himself with her extensive court of admirers back home.)
- Nagaira (female, the fourth child, a Dark Elf Sorceress, pretty thicc which makes her fat by Dark Elf standards, secret Slaanesh worshiper and in an incestuous relationship with Malus and Isilvar), and
- Urial (male, the fifth child, born deformed to the mother of the other four who died giving birth to him, was sacrificed to Khaine but a miracle ensured he survived, became a priest of Khaine since he was too handicapped to be an assassin, has incestuous lust for Yasmir but she despises him.)
Malus' father is also the second in command of Hag Graef and is named Lurhan. His mother is also revealed to be a Sorceress named Eldire who is trying to carry out a prophecy and made a deal with Lurhan to have Malus (she also secretly killed Lurhan's first wife with poison, which is why Urial was born a cripple). However, Lurhan hates Malus and has secretly conspired to have Malus killed ever since the latter reached adulthood (only fear of Eldire's retribution prevented Lurhan from having Malus outright killed.)
Prologue
There's a short story with Malus going on a rite of passage for Dark Elf nobles called a Haskeer cruise. The young noble is given command of a force and has to conduct a successful raid and return. The send-off they get, how many retainers they have and the amount of ships under their command is a reflection of their status in the family; Malus got one ship - the Manticore, one retainer and no send-off. Malus was introduced to the crew by the captain Hathan Gul, including hitting on and getting punched out by the tsundere first mate - a corsair named Lhunara. They were originally slated to go raid Bretonnia, but Malus arranged for them to raid Ulthuan because he wanted the cruise over and done with and Ulthuan was closer, despite being a far more dangerous target than Bretonnia.
Malus suspected his retainer - a down-on-his-luck noble called Silar - was hired by Lurhan to kill him. During a confrontation, Malus learned that was wrong; Silar was too brutally honest for that subterfuge and the confrontation was over his disapproval of Malus' suicidal (to Silar) plan to raid Ulthuan. Surprised by Malus' move, and seeking a better position that what Gul offered her, Lhunara approached them spilled the beans to Malus; Lurhan had actually arranged with the captain to get Malus killed by a Bretonnian Duke they had an arrangement with - they'd take the Duke's criminals as slaves, in exchange they'd leave the area under his care unmolested. Malus decided to go ahead with attacking Ulthuan and, through a combination of luck, cunning and a surprise attack was successful. He captured a village of High Elf slaves but he's forced to kill them in a ruse to trap a High Elf patrol (to Malus' chagrin, as High Elf slaves fetch a high price in Naggaroth's slave markets) and escape. They took a lot of treasure from the High Elves, but Malus gave it to crew to make them loyal to him instead of Hathan Gul; Gul himself was tortured by Malus and killed by his former crew (with Malus keeping Gul's gold false teeth).
The Daemon's Curse
Malus is now a successful nobleman. Silar and Lhunara are his retainers (and Lhunara has gone from punching Malus out for hitting on her to secretly loving him and craving his jock). Malus has a confrontation with a cousin Fuerlan, which led to Malus getting Fuerlan tortured. He also gained the service of Arleth Vann, a renegade assassin from the Temple of Khaine.
He learned of a treasure that could increase his power in a temple to the north. He negotiated with Shades and Beastmen to get there, as well as braving blizzards.
When he got to the temple he got his followers to hold the line against a tide of traitorous Beastmen while he went in alone. Ignoring symbols and statues of Chaos he entered the chamber. He took a ring for himself from the hoard, and that was the moment Tz'arkan was awakened and possessed him. The daemon announced to Malus what happened, pointing out the Dark Elf's greed. Horrified, Malus tried to commit suicide only for Tz'arkan to stop him by pointing out that would Malus his plaything for eternity. (In the Warhammer Fantasy world, exorcisms involve killing the possessed, with Luthor Huss as the sole exception.)
Malus and Tz'arkhan have a conversation about the latter's plan; he wanted to be free of the temple, and Malus had to gather five artifacts for the ritual to free the daemon or his soul would be claimed by the daemon. Malus also had a time limit of one year to accomplish this. Enraged and in despair, Malus fled the temple with Tz'arkan's laughter ringing in his ears. In unthinking rage and shame he killed his lieutenants (starting with a horrified Lhunara) and killed the remaining Beastmen. The book ended with him starting on a quest with Tz'arkan for the first artifact The Octagon of Praan, a gem that protected its wearer from hostile magic. He acquired this after the killing the Bray-Shaman. Malus also learned that Tz'arkan could give him power, enhancing his physical abilities while making him uncontrollably violent.
Bloodstorm
Malus returned to Hag Graef to plan getting the second artifact - the Idol of Kolkuth, but got captured by Lurhan's soldiers. He was gruesomely tortured by his father, who was trying to manipulate him into requesting death so Eldire couldn't blame Lurhan for Malus' death. A combination of spite and Tz'arkan's power kept Malus alive, long enough for Eldire to visit him in secret. Eldire and Nagaira worked together to free him, magically heal his wounds and inducted him into the Slaaneshi cult. Then Malus learned they didn't want him, but Tz'arkan, so he sought a way out.
Reaper of Souls
Malus sought to get the next artifact, the Dagger of Torxus. It was a powerful weapon that would take the soul of anyone it cut and bind them to that spot. Malus was stabbed with it, but due to Tz'arkhan already having his soul, it just rendered Malus unconscious.
Malus also tracked down the raiding party that took the Dagger, which turned to be led by Lurhan. He was forced to kill his father in self-defense and to get the Dagger which was a bittersweet moment for Malus; though he had wanted to kill his father for ages, he didn't want to do it under those circumstances as it would make life much harder, and Tz'arkhan was happy to troll him about that.
Warpsword
Lord of Ruin
Now in control of Malus, Tz'arkan used his powers to compel Spite and rode the Cold One into the ground to get back to the Temple in time, leaving Spite nearly dead from exhaustion. It's revealed the reason for Tz'arkan's deadline was there was a ground level volcano beneath the temple that was about to erupt and Tz'arkan wanted to get free before then. The ritual was carried out and Tz'arkan left Malus' body, but took his soul as well. Malus fought back, destroying Tz'arkhan's body but the daemon fled with Malus' soul. Malus took up the Warpsword, the only artifact not destroyed or lost in the aftermath, killed a group of Beastmen gathered outside, nursed Spite back to health and rode out to track down the daemon and get his soul back.
Aftermath
Wandering the chaos wastes as a soulless unstoppable killer, he then found out where the daemon was hiding and went on another quest to reclaim his soul. A Chaos follower knew where Tz'arkan was hiding and tried to stop Malus betraying him by tattooing the map onto his back. Undaunted, Malus flayed the map from the Chaos follower's back and fed him to Spite. Malus found Tz'arkan and reclaimed his soul, but in doing so was cursed to have the daemon trapped back inside of himself again.
End Times
Now he has returned to Naggaroth and what will this strange, legendary dark elf do? Well GW is coyly stopping us answering that question, because they won't move the damn plot along and let Malus kick Malekith's tin ass! Except where he returns to fuck his sister and try to assassinate the Witch King in the End Times. Typical Druchii fashion, that goes as well as expected.
Be careful what you wish for because, unfortunately, he'll never get the chance now. During the final invasion of Ulthuan, Tz'arkan takes over and consumes him so he dies, causing him to be ripped apart from the inside out. No Malus! Don't go, we liked you.....cue fan boys grieving.
Gallery
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The glorious bastard had a less-than-glorious mini at one point...
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Malus gets a boost in his powerlevel when fighting some furries...
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...but it hurts.
