The Malakim

First up, massive kudos to the FFH team for creating a desert-themed civ that isn't hugely derived from the real-world middle east.

But, what do we know about the Malakim as a people?

Before they settled down into cities, they were nomads, and keep much of their survival skills from their old lifestyle.

They worship Lugus the Sun god as standard

Their desert home has left them with darker skin than most of erebus' humans

They construct huge pillars that burn trespassers where they stand.

They cannot train assassins, but why? Is Varn disdainful of that method of waging war, or something different? And why can they train shadows?

Unusually for a good-aligned civ, they do not seem to have a specific enemy in mind in their lore. Possibly the Illians might fill that role, being similar yet opposite to the Malakim (who were once tribesmen and are now forming a powerful empire vs. the Illians, who were once a powerful empire and have been broken down into tiny tribes) both are religious devotees, both are aligned with a very different terrain type.

What else?

I think the Malakim would hate the Svartalfar. While the Malakim stand for truth and fairness, the Svartalfar will sneak behind him and stab him. The two's values are exact opposites.

Fenboy said:

They cannot train assassins, but why? Is Varn disdainful of that method of waging war, or something different? And why can they train shadows?

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Basically. As worshipers of Lugus, they value truth and openness, deceit is probably considered to be one of their greatest sins. Formerly they were also unable to train assassins, but no unit could be invisible in their lands. This is probably a hold over from before the Empyrean and the Council of Esus were added. I don't think any civ lacks the ability to build any religious unit, and Shadows are now Esus UUs. Of course, I'd probably make then unable to adopt Esus (by setting Varns weighting to -100) if it were up to me, or else allow them to train assassins again.

Unusually for a good-aligned civ, they do not seem to have a specific enemy in mind in their lore. Possibly the Illians might fill that role, being similar yet opposite to the Malakim (who were once tribesmen and are now forming a powerful empire vs. the Illians, who were once a powerful empire and have been broken down into tiny tribes) both are religious devotees, both are aligned with a very different terrain type.

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I don't think these civs are enemies. Actually, Varn and Auric Ulvin are good friends. They have been since Varn saved Auric's life and helped him escape from the Shadowed Vale. The different terrains probably just means that their empires won't cross paths very often, and won't have any lands to fight over.

Their greatest enemy would probably be the Calabim. The Calabim are hated by the Sun god, since Alexis's first victim was an Acolyte of Lugus. All the weaknesses of vampirism (like being hurt and weakened, but not killed, by direct sunlight) are a curse from Lugus. Of course, because of this curse I don't see the Vampires invading the Malakim's desert home anytime soon.

They might also not get along very well with the Dark Elves, but Varn's ancestors have been isolated from their fellow elves since before the summer and winter courts split, so he might not know about them. (I don't think they are from the same plane in Kael's D&D campaigns.)

First, I'm happy more of these threads are popping up, that was one of my hopes when I created my thread about the Balseraphs. Being new to this forum, it kind of surprises me that a game as interesting and engaging as this one doesn't spark a lot more ongoing discusion threads.

The Malakim are my favorite of the Good civs. I actually see them as the least hypocritical of the good civs. My only complaint is that it takes so long to get their hero out.

MC is so dead on correct its scary. But the Calabim and the Malakim do have occasion to fight more than you might imagine. Only a small percentage of the Calabim are vampires and they typically stay indoors during the bright times of whatever land they are in, being mostly nocturnal. They are as happy to live like desert pharoahs with cities full of slave labor as they are in their more traditional gothic climates.

Alexis and Flauros have been alive a long time, and have been ruling their lands of captive humans of differing sizes. Im sure that during some time or another Alexis was playing the part of a dark Cleopatra, tended to by powerful servants and ruling from a desert empire.

I do see the Illians as an eventual enemy of the Malakim, mostly because it seems to me a good way to tie together some loose ends. When the spirit or powers or whatever or Mulcarn came through Erebus in the Shadowed Vale, which contained a gate to Arwan's realm, Lugus noticed. Lugus because he noticed his power being used by Auric. Mulcarn's power fell on the closest accessible person(Auric Ulvin), driving him a bit batty and leading him to wander away from his companions, eventually to the sacred carverns where the Illians dwelt.
Lugus noticed this, and contacted Varn Gosam. Because of some reason, perhaps he just wasn't used to divine revelation, or Lugus was unused to communicating with mortals, it wasn't a clear message, just an image of the Sun god and a sense of urgency. If the Varn and the Malakim follow Lugus, they will be prepared to to stop the Illians resurgence.

Of course, this is just my conjectures. What happened with Varn and Alvin is a bit vague.

sounds like it makes sense, though.

Nikis-Knight said:

I do see the Illians as an eventual enemy of the Malakim, mostly because it seems to me a good way to tie together some loose ends. When the spirit or powers or whatever or Mulcarn came through Erebus in the Shadowed Vale, which contained a gate to Arwan's realm, Lugus noticed. Lugus because he noticed his power being used by Auric. Mulcarn's power fell on the closest accessible person(Auric Ulvin), driving him a bit batty and leading him to wander away from his companions, eventually to the sacred carverns where the Illians dwelt.
Lugus noticed this, and contacted Varn Gosam. Because of some reason, perhaps he just wasn't used to divine revelation, or Lugus was unused to communicating with mortals, it wasn't a clear message, just an image of the Sun god and a sense of urgency. If the Varn and the Malakim follow Lugus, they will be prepared to to stop the Illians resurgence.

Of course, this is just my conjectures. What happened with Varn and Alvin is a bit vague.

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Auric was touched from birth. What happened in the Veil was definitly a defining moment from him. As was his meeting with Talia in the Haerlond's jail, she was the first to identify his latent ability. But his real awakening came from his visit to Letum Frigus.

The once smooth marble top was broken into razor sharp fractures. These fractures cut into the boys hands and his blood drained into the breaks in the stone. He could feel his life slipping from him, his warmth stolen. There was a rustle behind him, the sound of a great weight being set carefully on the marble floor. He didn’t have to look back to know what it was, he had seen it many times before. A great dragon, even paler than the white marble, a dragon so immense his wings spread from one end of the horizon to the other. It stood over him, watched him die. When the dragon opened its mouth the boy screamed.

Auric was the only boy in the village exempted from the weapons practice. He was 16 and most of the village was sure he bore some sort of curse. He could often be found around the village, his brown hair always seeming to refuse to obey any straightening or gravity. His clothes, no matter how carefully tailored, always looked to be sized to small or to large. Dain had heard that he rarely slept, sometimes going over a week without it. But Auric’s quiet demeanor and likeable, never offensive nature changed him from would have been a village pariah to a bit of local color. And Dain was always amazed at how much he seemed to know about obscure topics, what plants will make a sore stomach go away, what the different star clusters are supposed to mean, how the lake frogs seem to grow forever when away from the lake but never get much past cat sized if they stay.

[tab]The Veil - Chapter 3

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...That's not Dain the Casawallan, is it?

Mewtarthio said:

...That's not Dain the Casawallan, is it?

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I was so confused as to who you were refering to until I re-read that entry. No, thats not the Amurite Dain, he's just a kid from Briggdarrow.

kael you got to get all this lore together and put it up somewhere for us to access it.

Kael said:

I was so confused as to who you were refering to until I re-read that entry. No, thats not the Amurite Dain, he's just a kid from Briggdarrow.

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Where's that Briggdarrow?

Obviously the town which sprung up around the location in which Brigd fired an Arrow (I joke, I can't even remember for sure if that is how you spell the name of the Ice-trapped Arch-Angel).

was she Brigid?

The once smooth marble top was broken into razor sharp fractures. These fractures cut into the boys hands and his blood drained into the breaks in the stone. He could feel his life slipping from him, his warmth stolen. There was a rustle behind him, the sound of a great weight being set carefully on the marble floor. He didn’t have to look back to know what it was, he had seen it many times before. A great dragon, even paler than the white marble, a dragon so immense his wings spread from one end of the horizon to the other. It stood over him, watched him die. When the dragon opened its mouth the boy screamed.

Auric was the only boy in the village exempted from the weapons practice. He was 16 and most of the village was sure he bore some sort of curse. He could often be found around the village, his brown hair always seeming to refuse to obey any straightening or gravity. His clothes, no matter how carefully tailored, always looked to be sized to small or to large. Dain had heard that he rarely slept, sometimes going over a week without it. But Auric’s quiet demeanor and likeable, never offensive nature changed him from would have been a village pariah to a bit of local color. And Dain was always amazed at how much he seemed to know about obscure topics, what plants will make a sore stomach go away, what the different star clusters are supposed to mean, how the lake frogs seem to grow forever when away from the lake but never get much past cat sized if they stay.

The Veil - Chapter 3

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Is the chronology right here? It appears that this was before he and the kids left home and wandered into the Shadowed Vale, but he is 16 years old here and Varn's entry specifies that he got trapped in the Vale in the 15th year of the 4th age. It seems that he would have been much better known in his home town if he had already led the children out of the Shadowed Vale. As the reincarnation of Mulcarn, I don't see how he could have been born (or even conceived) before Mulcarn died.


Wait, I just realized that the Age of Rebirth technically started when Sucellus was resurrected, not when Mulcarn was slain. Did it take a couple years for Sucellus to convince Arawn to give him the Precept of Life?

Many tribal people do not consider someone "alive" until they have passed their 5th summer. In that light, Mulcarn could have been reborn into a child who was already up to 5 years old, rather than one concieved or birthed at the moment of his death or after that. Thus his age would not have to align PERFECTLY with the fall of Mulcarn.

xienwolf said:

Many tribal people do not consider someone "alive" until they have passed their 5th summer. In that light, Mulcarn could have been reborn into a child who was already up to 5 years old, rather than one concieved or birthed at the moment of his death or after that. Thus his age would not have to align PERFECTLY with the fall of Mulcarn.

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Are you sure it fits?

Kael said:

Auric was touched from birth. What happened in the Veil was definitly a defining moment from him. As was his meeting with Talia in the Haerlond's jail, she was the first to identify his latent ability. But his real awakening came from his visit to Letum Frigus.

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It still could fit, as these tribes would quite likely not have a distinction between the birth of an individual and their "name-day" Plus, he could have been gifted/blessed on his own, which led to that particular host being selected by Mulcarn when he went out to find a host.

I thought Mulcarn possessed him in the Shadowed Vale and he was just very good at magic from birth?