Malice

Note: This article discusses some material that was once considered canon but now is not.

The Mark of Malice

Title(s)
Hierarch of Anarchy and Terror
The Outcast God
The Lost God
The Renegade God
Portfolio
Anarchy
Destruction
Parasitism
Vengeance
Sacred Number
11
Sacred Colours
Black and White
Greater Daemon
Unknown
Lesser Daemon(s)
Unknown
Traitor Legion
Sons of Malice
Rival God
All other Chaos Gods

Malice is a renegade Chaos God, called the "Hierarch of Anarchy and Terror," who
originally appeared in early editions of the fictional universes
of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 under the name Malal.
Also known as "The Outcast God," "The Lost God" and "The Renegade God," Malice is the
embodiment of Chaos' indiscriminate and anarchic tendency toward destruction, even of
itself and its own agents.
The nature of Malice's powers is parasitic, as the Renegade God grows in power only when
the other Ruinous Powers do. Malice's sacred number is 11 and his favoured colours are black
and white.
The Renegade God
There is a name whispered quietly and with fear even by the most depraved, the most evil,
and the least sane of the worshippers of Chaos. That name is Malice, the Renegade God of
Chaos. In eons past Malice was cast out from the bosom of Chaos by the other Chaos Gods,
or else abandoned them of his own volition -- no one is sure which.

In any case, Malice's relationship to the other gods of Chaos is a strange one. All Chaos Gods
pursue purposes that are wholly their own, yet only Malice occupies a position so antithetical
to the success of his own unfathomable creed. To be a follower of Malice is to be a Chaos
warrior bent upon shedding the blood of other Chaos creatures.

As such, Malice is both feared and hated by the other Chaos Gods. Malice's worshippers,
sometimes called the "Doomed Ones," are loathed by other servants of Chaos; they are
outcasts beloved by neither the friends nor enemies of Chaos, dependent upon the least
whim of their patron deity. Few 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 or woman that can loosen the bonds of Malice once forged.

Game History
"...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..."
— From The Great Book of Despair

An alternate Mark of Malice

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 World in the Citadel
Miniatures Compendium and Journals.
In the comic strip Kaleb Daark's mission allied him temporarily with the forces of Law. 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 mark, a half-black, half-white skull. His armour was all-black with white
details, and his steed was a black Daemonic horse known as a Chaos Steed.

Kaleb himself appeared pale, as the contact with Malal supposedly drained him of life energy.
His battle cry was "Dreadaxe thirsts for you!"
There were three installments completed of The Quest of Kaleb Daark comic with the fourth
remaining unprinted:
 Part 1 : "The Quest of Kaleb Daark" - The Third Citadel Compendium 1985
 Part 2 : "The God-Slayer!" - The Citadel Journal Spring 1986
 Part 3 : "Evil of the Warpstone!" - The Citadel Journal Spring 1987
 Part 4 : "God Amok!" - Unprinted
In the Spring 1986 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 Chaos
Steed in games. This issue also saw the first advertisements for the miniature figure set
including a mounted and standing Kaleb Daark.
The Spring 1987 Journal featured the miniature figure sets of the two Chaos Brothers, Jaek
and Helwud, Kaleb's main adversaries in Part 3 of the comic. Part 4 "God Amok!" was also
advertised in this issue, but it never saw print. It is uncertain how much of this fourth
installment was actually completed. Allegedly the comic was canceled because of "creative
differences" between the creators and Games Workshop.
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 armor and then slaughtering them all in the name of Malal. White
Dwarf 83 (UK) (1983) featured a Warhammer Fantasy Battle 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 edition 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 Chaos 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 was published. Malal is not referred to or
mentioned at all in these products. 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 absence of Malal was in the Warhammer Fantasy
Roleplay supplement The Dying of the Light published by Hogshead Publishing in 1995. This
book featured a Chaos Sorcerer of Malal named Heinrich Bors who has struck a deal with
Malal to escape from the Chaos God Tzeentch.
Retcon as Malice
"We shall deny Nurgle their flesh to fester and rot.
We shall deny Khorne their blood and skulls.
We shall deny Tzeentch their destinies and fates.
We shall deny Slaanesh their pleasure and pain.
Death to the Dark Gods!
For the Renegade God!
Let the galaxy burn!"
— A Dirge of Malal
As the further use of Malal was restricted by Games Workshop due to copyright concerns,
the authors of the Something Rotten in Kislev adventure for the Warhammer Fantasy
Roleplay 1st Edition 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 the
Renegade God. The idea of Malal was continued in the 1990s by veterans of
the Warhammer roleplaying 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
Battles and Warhammer 40,000, the occasional Malal-themed army still surfaced.
The Shadowlord of Mordheim, Be'lakor, in Warhammer has been seen by some fans as a
revival of the idea of the renegade/outcast Chaos God originally represented by Malal. Note,
however, that Be'lakor is only a Daemon Prince, whereas Malal was a true Chaos God.
One of the strongest direct references to the Renegade God from Games Workshop was
made in the Warhammer 40,000 supplement Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition
2002). The first is the appearance of a Daemonic weapon called a "Dreadaxe," which is
described as preferring to kill other Daemonic entities. The other reference was in a picture
displaying the other possible painting schemes for the models.
One of the examples was a Chaos Space Marine of a Renegade Chapter entitled the "Sons of
Malice." The colours used for this Chapter were the bisecting black/white design of Malal's
original mark, and the word "Malice" is not too dissimilar from "Malal"; in essence, Malal has
been returned to the Warhammer 40,000 universe as the Renegade Chaos God Malice, the
Hierarch of Anarchy and Terror. 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 that they fought in complete silence. The ultimate patron deity of the ritual was never
revealed, though it can be surmised that it was Malice. 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.
More information on the Sons of Malice came in Games Workshop's monthly
publication White Dwarf 303 (issue 302 in the U.S.).
The most recent work to make use of the Sons of Malice, the novel Cadia Stands by Justin D.
Hill, no longer makes any reference to the Warp entity Malice being worshipped or serving as
the divine patron among the Sons of Malice.
Trivia
The word malice comes from the Latin word malitia, which means "bad, ill-will and spite."

The word "Malal" also means "Malice" in several East Indian languages.

Sources
 Cadia Stands (Novel) by Justin D. Hill, Part 4, Chs. 2-8
 Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex), pg. 76
 The Citadel Journal, Spring 1986 (1st Edition), "The Quest of Kaleb Daark," pp. 43-50
 The Citadel Journal, Spring 1987 (1st Edition), "The Quest of Kaleb Daark," pp. 40-47
 The Third Citadel Compendium (1st Edition)
 Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition Core Rulebook, pg. 210
 White Dwarf 79 (UK), "Ogres"
 White Dwarf 83 (UK), "The Crude, the Mad and the Rusty - A Warhammer Battlegame"
by Aly Morrison, Jes Goodwin & Graeme Davis, pp. 30, 35
 White Dwarf 303 (UK), "Index Astartes: Rogue Sons - Renegade Space Marine
Chapters," pp. 71, 72-73
 Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition: The Dying of the Light (RPG)
 "The Laughter of Dark Gods," Ignorant Armies (Warhammer Anthology)
 Heroes of the Space Marines (Anthology), "The Labyrinth" (Short Story) by Richard
Ford
  Realm of Chaos 80's Blogspot - "The Malignancy of Malal: Solving the mystery of the
'Fifth Chaos God'" (19 Jan 2013) Interview with former GW Illustrator Tom Ackland
 Realm of Chaos 80's Blogspot - "The Malignancy of Malal: Malal's Daemonic Pantheon
Restored?" (21 Jan 2013) Interview with former GW Illustrator Tom Ackland
 Realm of Chaos 80's Blogspot - "The Grand Master Returns: A Second Interview" (25
Jan 2013) Interview with former GW Illustrator Tony Ackland
Gallery

Malal, the Outcast God, as illustrated in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition.

A Greater Daemon of Malal, as originally illustrated in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition .

A Lesser Daemon of Malal, as originally illustrated in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition.
A Chaos Steed of Malal, as originally illustrated in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition.

A Beast of Malal, as originally illustrated in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition.