Malakim are a bland civ.
They have a few advantages:
1. Good leader traits. Cre/Fin is good early and Adaptive allows for some flexibility. (It would be better if the adaptive trait replaced Cre rather than Fin though)
2. Sand lions. All of their mages get Summon Sand Lion free, no promotions necessary.
3. Sun mana from Palace. They're the only civ that gets a free sun mana this way, so it makes Chalid and Aurealis summoning stronger than usual.
4. The Overcouncil. Their national hero, Teutorix, gives +1 vote in the overcouncil, giving Malakim the ability to dominate the overcouncil. However, Teutorix is at a very strange place on the tech tree for a religion-centered civilization...
Malakim can focus on the arcane line. Take Arcane or Charismatic with your adaptive trait. Use Sand Lions (the only other tier2 summon aside of spectres) and later Aurealis as your main offensive units. With an extra sun mana you can get also get Sun spells like blinding light for free easier than another civ could.
Or, go down the religious line, use Chalid + Empyrean priests and try to use overcouncil to pull other civs into your wars. This isn't really a uniquely Malakim except for the additional sun mana, though it's easier to get experienced priests with their world spell. Of course it's easier to control the overcouncil with Teutorix, but he's on a completely different tech line.
So, how balanced are they? I don't know >_> They're a fairly vanilla civ and lack the interesting mechanics of other civs. They're not the worst civ *cough* Kuriotate *cough*, but they could maybe do with something extra.
