Editing Malal (section)

=="Chaos Divided"==
===Malal===
[[File:Malal.jpg|300px|right|thumb|What Malal ''might'' look like...if he actually wants us to believe that he exists in the first place.]]
The character Malal was created in [[The Citadel Journal]] for second edition [[Warhammer Fantasy]] by John Wagner and Alan Grant as the patron of the [[Warriors of Chaos]] character [[Kaleb Daark]], who allied with the forces of good to fight Chaos while pursuing his own goals by confronting Khornates and Skaven using his soul-drinking magic axe called the [[Daemon_Weapon#Dreadaxe|Dreadaxe]]. He was sent by Malal to assassinate one of the [[Chaos God of Law]] Arianka to prove himself worthy, a story which continued in three chapters. In 1986 Kaleb and his mount were given stats in Journal and his miniature was advertised, and it along with the fourth chapter were never released for unknown reasons ("creative differences" is all that was ever revealed). Malal was referenced in several other Games Workshop works, with the [[Ogre Kingdoms]] character Skrag the Slaughterer originally being a worshipper of him (later retconned to [[Great Maw]] instead) who was cast out from his tribe for stealing an axe made of "starmetal" (later retconned to cooking his chief's favorite [[Gnoblar]]), escaping to a [[Chaos Dwarf]] hold to force them to forge him armor before slaughtering all of them, followed up by a skirmish scenario called "The Crude, the Mad and the Rusty" where the surviving Chaos Dwarf plus two Goblin Fanatics and a golem fight against him. The first edition of [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] states he is a rogue Chaos God who wants to destroy the Four, a Champion of Malal is killed by the protagonist in a short story found in the [[Ignorant Armies]] short story novels, and the [[Chaos Marauders]] cardgame had a card which depicted [[Beastmen]] preparing to fight other Chaos beings.

All in all, Malal was designed as an anti<s>hero</s> villain side to Chaos who is beneficial to the side of Order but is too Chaotic Evil for any being to trust, and actively drains both friend and enemy of energy to feed himself. Serving him is advancing oblivion, fighting him is to be annihilated. Any infighting on the part of Chaos resulted in Malal growing in power, essentially introducing the concept of total war to the Warp entities. Only by cooperating and shifting their attention to the mortal realm could the other Chaos Gods escape his influence, where they found his minions waiting for them. He may've been the strongest god in the setting, or at least the most dangerous, as all the other gods feared and hated him.

During the year 1987 Wagner and Grant experienced a falling out over several comics they were producing at the time including Judge Dredd and work for DC Comics as well as several works for smaller publishers. This was followed by a sudden scramble for rights earned by them during their time creating for different companies and resulted in them suing Games Workshop for total ownership of Kaleb and Malal. Games Workshop had hired them for freelance work rather than as actual employees meaning Wagner & Grant technically owned the characters they created. If Games Workshop ever used Malal again, they would either have to pay a royalty fee or enter into a lawsuit over the ownership of the character, which they surprisingly never did. Malal was only used once more, in the [[The Dying of the Light]] campaign where a Chaos sorcerer of [[Tzeentch]] named Heinrich Bors switches to Malal in order to have control over his own fate again.
[[File:Malal and Kaleb.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Malal's (only) "canon" appearance and I have to say, for something that ''technically'' doesn't exist he looks pretty good.]]
Although technically owning Malal and Kaleb, neither author has done anything with the characters, as Wagner continues to mostly write Judge Dredd while Grant now works on zombie-related stories. Despite the lengths to which /tg/ will go to bring attention to [[Pretend|evidence]] of Malal's existence in the canon, he is <strike>strictly</strike> arguably fanon for now. It's worth pointing out that Malal was "reconnected" out of Warhammer ''Fantasy,'' and that was before 40K was even a thing. He was never canon to 40K until the Sons of Malice came around (see below). That said, he still has fan popularity along with the equally oldass [[Chaos Gods of Law]], and he appeared in Hogshead Publishing material at least as late as the 1990s.

Zuvassin the Undoer and Necoho the Doubter were created by Games Workshop to replace Malal in the "The Enemy Within" adventure for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay during the "Something Rotten In Kislev" campaign.

Zuvassin and Necoho together represent the same thing that Malal did, the concept of Chaos destroying itself and Khorne, Tzeentch, Slaanesh, and Nurgle plus the Chaos Gods of Order each falling prey to the primordial nothingness they emerged from in the same way the mortals do into them.
[[File:Kaleb_Daark_CJ86.jpg|thumb|right|300px| [[Kaleb Daark]] in all his "glory." Yes, he's a brooding, basically albinistic bad-guy-who-fights-evil in the name of Chaos using a demonic sword and therefore just Elric.]]
Zuvassin and Necoho were only given a second mention, listed as Chaos Gods in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay supplement "Tome Of Salvation".

===Zuvassin===
'''Zuvassin''' is a rogue Chaos God who undoes the plans of any being, Chaos or not, including [[Tzeentch]]. He accepts all followers for all reasons and doesn't issue instructions since his followers should technically be working to subvert them, so that anything Zuvassin gets involved in becomes a complete mess where nothing can be predicted and everything goes wrong for everyone to varying degrees. This makes him the only Chaos God who truly embodies the concept of "Chaos" - or at least "Chaos-as-anarchy".

Any time you could make a list of possible outcomes for any given thing, and then draw in Zuvassin, the [[Not as Planned|"INCONCEIVABLE"]] result will occur; a coin will fall through a portal into another dimension and land on all surfaces at once, a six-sided dice will crack in half and reveal a 7 and 8 inside, and both factions in a battle will somehow end the day with more soldiers than they began with. Interestingly in the “Something Rotten in Kislev” scenario he first appeared in Zuvassin was noted to have a special magical artifact dedicated to him in the form of a furnace that if used correctly could burn away chaos mutations and turn mutants and [[Beastmen]] into normal humans…or it would simply incinerate them if they rolled badly.

What is heavily implied to be a worshipper of Zuvassin appears in the [[Warhammer: Age of Sigmar]] novel "Shadespire: The Mirrored City". A Chaos Warrior named '''Zuvass''', who describes himself as a worshipper of a "minor god" when a [[Khorne]] worshipping protagonist notes he cannot "smell" the mark of any of the Four Great Gods on him despite his obvious allegiance to Chaos, is a major character in the story. Fittingly all of his schemes ultimately seem to amount to screwing over everybody else. Including quite possibly himself, as its implied he's the future version of the protagonist after a time loop.

Zuvassin also appears in [[Total War: WARHAMMER|Total War: WARHAMMER III]], specifically in [[God-Slayer|God-Slayer's]] campaign. In one event one of Daniel's cultists can help you communicate with that Rogue Chaos God and receive his blessing, as he considers you quite useful in the disrupting the balance of Chaos.

===Necoho===
Necoho is the god of contradictions and paradoxes, and represents the "Chicken or the Egg" question where the supernatural exists and doesn't. He fights against the concept of belief and faith and as a result is the enemy of all spiritual creatures and faithful worshipers. He only ever actually appears as a simple mortal being and counts everyone and nobody to be his followers.

Necoho will one day bring about the end of the Chaos Gods when nothing left will worship them and they will cease to be. In the “Something rotten in Kislev” scenario he first appeared in the locals of a small Kislevite town started revering him in order to counterbalance Zuvassin’s more negative power. The player characters actually have to opportunity to destroy his altar…which he actually congratulates the player on. He then tells them however that since he’s still technically a Chaos god he still has to punish them by ordering them to build an altar for his inspection and it doesn’t even have to be a good one. The scenario outright says there’s a 70% chance he won’t even bother coming to check it out, a 20% chance he comes but just says “good enough” and a 10% chance he shows up but gets pissed at the shoddy quality of the altar and tries to turn the player inside out with his powers.

Surprisingly he’s still canon, the Age of Sigmar short story Auction of Blood mentions an antitheist tract called "The Revelations of Necoho, or the Light of Doubt".

===Legacy of Malal===
Both players and Eavy Metal painters alike continued to use Malal even if he had gone without a mention, and was still considered to be canon. The early days of the Warhammer forums had the discovery of Malal as something of a rite of passage for Chaos players as well. Malal paintjobs continued to show up in many [[Golden Demon]] competitions and Eavy Metal showcases alike.

===[[Be'lakor]]===
With the introduction of [[Mordheim]], a Cult of Chaos faction emerged that revolved around a character called the "Shadowlord", a being who was reputed to be a Chaos God of some kind and who had caused the ruin of the city. Many players believed him to be the return of Malal, and many early paintjobs for the Cult were in Malal's white and black skull motif. The story was later revealed to actually be a plot by Be'lakor, a mere [[Daemon Prince]] of [[Chaos Undivided]] who had wanted to escape the control of the Four and had made the ruined city his domain before realizing he had only traded one cage for a much smaller one, and slunk back to the laughter of the Four with his tail between his legs and a revisionist version of the story already in his head. In many ways Be'lakor was intended to replace Malal as the non-Four alternative to Chaos, although Games Workshop writers by this point had [[Skub|made Chaos the Mary Sue faction for so long that the concept of anything being a danger to them was laughable]]. Thus the idea of the "Chaos outsider" became just a whiny petulant part of Chaos that had managed to wreak great destruction in the mortal world while attempting, and failing, to give a black eye to his masters.

===Malice===
Malice was created for 3rd edition [[Warhammer 40000]] in the [[Chaos Space Marine]] Codex. A Chaos Space Marine Chapter in Malal's colors was shown under the name "[[Sons of Malice]]", with an axe identical to Kaleb Daark's, described as being 'created to kill other beings of Chaos.' They later got a short story in [[White Dwarf]] where a Sister of Battle discovers they were a loyalist Chapter who had apparently fallen to Chaos while still fighting for the Imperium, exalting in cannibalism & blood rituals and praising 'Malice' as the god of anarchy and fear. They then proceed to cannibalize the Sister and her group, and were exiled from the Imperium for their heresy, even as they continued fighting against the other forces of Chaos. But once again, Malice was never mentioned again, although his color scheme was repeated in subsequent works.

Though his followers show up in BFG Armada II. Following the fall of Cadia the Sons later attacked a fleet of fleeing Cadians at the battle of Faith’s Anchorage as revenge for Cadia’s part in the purging of the Sons home world. They were later chased off when a second Cadian fleet showed up backed by a [[Space Wolf]] strike cruiser.

===Canon/Archaon===
Malal/Zuvassin/Necoho/Malice have existed in a sort of limbo in canon for quite a long time. Technically they were never retconned, and "non-canon by exclusion" is a weak accusation as that would mean every character and every event must be mentioned every edition for them to remain canon. Many statements have been given saying the Chaos Gods only exist in the Four, although this was said both before and after each "Chaos God of Piss Off" was written meaning the statement has always been a false one anyway (this isn't even going into the huge clusterfuck that [[Age of Sigmar]] has made in trying to figure out who actually matters in Chaos, not counting [[Khorne|the one who gets all the new models]]).
Some people have taken on the perspective that the "Chaos God of Go Fuck Yourself" is a continually shifting being, more in flux than Tzeentch and that each incarnation is comparable to [[Doctor Who]] incarnations. In this interpretation, Malal is Zuvassin is Necoho is Malice, and there's more to come still (of course Peter Capaldi is the best one. No, Paul McGann is the best. <strike>''They're all the best. PREPARE FOR [[Skub|SKUB]]!''</strike>)

[[End Times]] and [[Age of Sigmar]] for [[Warhammer Fantasy]] both suggest that the concept of a fifth Chaos God is over with as in the leadup to the event Be'lakor snarked that the Chaos Gods of Law never existed and that only the Four exist, with everything belonging to them in the end. But his truthfulness is in doubt partially because even though he is the character who "never lies", this is only stated once in the 40k universe and that the reason he never lies is "because its boring", so as a result he's never been proven to really be a reliable narrator. It is also dubious because of the proven disconnect between [[Black Library]] and the actual army books, evidenced by massive contradictions during the event and the casual attitude of the writers, means that anything in said books must be taken with a huge grain of salt.
Regardless, during the event when every character (that Games Workshop remembered existed) played a part, no fifth Chaos God other than [[Horned Rat]] did anything which means he and his other selves may truly be non-canon.

[[Vermintide 2]]'s Chaos Wastes game mode has dialogue of Kruber mentioning he once heard that there are actually five Chaos Gods, which he heard from someone Saltzpyre "wouldn't know about". Saltzpyre shuts this down as being agreed upon by scholars at large as being nothing more than whimsy or falsehood.

In Age of Sigmar, [[Archaon]] is promoted to a Chaos God (remember that Fantasy and 40k share the same Warp which exists outside of time, so Archaon is now a Chaos God by technicality in 40k as well) representing the combined strength of the other Chaos Gods as the embodiment of [[Chaos Undivided]] (with the exception of Slaanesh's replacement in the Great Game, Horned Rat, whom he rejects) and his Black Library novel life goal is to destroy all gods and kings to let men control their own destiny and exalt in their own achievements in a spectacularly Ayn Rand way. Due to his rejection of the pretender [[Keeper of Secrets]] trying to take Slaanesh's position, Archaon himself wound up being the target of worship by former Slaaneshi who in turn are empowered by him as if Slaanesh was still around (which is not gameplay/story segregation as they still have their powers in the narrative as well) meaning that he's 1/4 of the way to his goal.
Although the actual army books state he is loyal to Chaos, the Black Library sources have his goals falling very much in line with the ideals of Malal, and in an accidental bit of extra-meta story extrapolation his contradiction in goal even fits into Necoho's sphere. Beyond that, Be'lakor (who styles himself as Archaon's creator and father) manipulated Archaon's entire early life, from a Warrior of Chaos raping his Empire mother and him becoming a devout priest of [[Sigmar]], to him losing his faith and becoming a being of pure evil who rejects both Sigmar's light and Be'lakor's blackness. This blend of light and dark fits quite well into Malal's scheme.

So it may be possible that Archaon is the latest incarnation of the Malal concept, albeit as a German rapeviking this time rather than a giant boar...thing or a fat old <strike>fedora</strike>trilby-tipper.

Archaon's endgame in Age is to somehow remove the new pantheon of Order (which includes Death and Destruction by technicality) from their Realms, which is very difficult because the "near infinite" planets that are the Realms are literally made of the old Winds of Magic (making them very chaotic and only really willing to obey the will of beings of a similar nature) with the very souls of those new gods at the cores. As a result Archaon is facing an uphill battle of trying to eliminate their armies (and all civilians, because this is Lord Edgemaster after all) then trap them and figure out a way to remove them without destroying the Realm itself all while battling against the rest of Chaos which periodically tries to backstab him despite them being his only supporters. If he achieves his goal, he will rule over all of reality (including whatever the fuck the Warp can fairly be called) as the sole being of any concept of power. It's likely that the Chaos Gods caught on to this and are using him in such a way that he will never make any gains in the grand strategic scale and thus sustain the Chaos Gods for eternity in an eternal stalemate as they amuse themselves at a greater scale than the Old World could.

===Malign===
[[Tony Ackland]] was one of the artists employed by early Games Workshop to create the illustrations for their supplements and books, and they tasked him to design the Daemons that would be the models for Malal's eventual inclusion into Warhammer Fantasy as an army. The Wagner/Grant debacle left Malal in limbo with Games Workshop having never produced a model, and as a result Ackland was technically the owner of the designs he created since, just like Wagner and Grant, he was only a freelancer who owned what he made.
 
Not knowing about the boar appearance decided on in the comics nor the white/black color scheme, Ackland's idea for Malal combined insects with a general Chaos mutant themes (as he was the artist to quite a bit of the original Chaos Mutant and [[Chaos Spawn]] images) to produce extremely surrealist combinations of man and beast in a lean and segmented nature, featuring skeletal motifs coincidentally.

He eventually released his designs to the public (seen below in the Gallery section), then created new versions which he assigned to an unknown being called "Malign" in order to have them produced by third-party companies for sale.

According to Ackland, his version of Malal was going to be very similar to Khorne in that the two were extremely violent and focused mainly on sending warriors into combat rather than any politicking. But his version of Malal was much more elite and fanatical than Khorne, describing Khorne as the Wehrmacht (German army) and Malal as the Nazi SS. Yes you read that right, Malal's troops would basically be [[Commissar|BLAMMMING]] [[Bloodletters]] for cowardice or harboring Elves.

===Malice (Pantheon Of Chaos)===
Ackland has proceeded to partner with various people including sculptor Diego Serrate Pinilla to create a new model range and eventual wargame, [[Pantheon Of Chaos]], which brings not only all of the Malal Daemons into production, but also all of Ackland's Warhammer Fantasy artwork he has ownership of.
Malal is known as Malice (because that's a public domain name), and is exactly as originally imagined.

So players who for years have wanted their very own Malal army now can have exactly that.

===Malal and the [[Tyranids|Tyranids]]===

When [[Rogue Trader]] was being devised and the creatures that would later form the [[Tyranid]] Hive Fleets with it, Malal was originally going to have (as had been conceived for WHFB) armies of insectoid and beast-like chimeras that would consume everything in their path, including themselves. This bought Malal's very special form of true-chaos to each game system as well as possibly the most horrific and alien of all 40K fauna.

After the planned narrative for the other four Chaos Gods to conspire to remove Malal from the warp in M36, all of them fearful that Malal was too powerful in the Great Game, Malal was to in fact be "killed" by being booted from the warp and into the material realm.

When Malal appeared in the material realm he moved into the void between galaxies, hidden from view to everyone, from the populations of the infinite galaxies of the universe that now surrounded him to the other Chaos gods themselves who were busy enjoying their assumed victory and continuing the great game. From this dark and empty space Malal devised a plan; he would create a new form of life, one that was capable of consuming all life in the material realm whilst feeding his own power. This life would then consume itself returning it's life-energy to the renegade god. In turn the Hive Fleets were born and Malal braved a sly smile.

Malal sent the fleets across the universe, entering galaxies and consuming all life and matter within; each galaxy consumed giving even more strength to the lost god hidden in the void.

Just before the 41st Millenium (Though the exact date varies throughout RT lore), Malal sent the Hive fleets into the Milky Way; slamming into the Eastern Fringe of the Galaxy. Since this initial conflict two other major hive fleets have also attacked and as the clock races rapidly towards the 42nd Millenium the galaxy finds itself assaulted from all sides by Malal's creatures.

If the Hive fleets succeed Malal will be boosted in his objective of re-ascending to the Immaterium as the most powerful god of the warp. Whether the renegade god will succeed is left open, but as the Hive Fleets continue to spread amongst the galaxies and worlds that make up the 40K universe, things do not look good for anyone, including the other Chaos Gods.

Sadly as Malal has gone from lore due to legal issues, so have the plans for his Tyranid organisms. They remain without a clear origin story. The last hint GW gave for Malal still being behind the tyranids was in 5th Ed when the tyranids were described as being "guided by a hidden intelligence far more powerful than even the norn-queens". Since then nothing, if anything, has really been said on the matter.