Malfean (WTO)

Malfeans are great forces of darkness and destruction, bringing suffering, evil, and terror wherever their influence touches. For the most part, however, they are a force unseen and felt only through their minions and servants. Humanity should be thankful. However, certain events during the Time of Judgment caused the Malfeans to take a more direct interest in the worlds of the living and dead.

Types of Malfeans
The Neverborn were the first Malfeans. The most basic way of describing them would be as Sparagmoi, or Spectres that have spawned from the primal force colloquially called Grandmother. This, however, does not begin to describe what they are actually capable of and what they represent. Merely through their dreams, they direct the Spectres and Oblivion to destroy and devour. Luckily for humanity, the Neverborn spend most of their time asleep in the Labyrinth, waking only once every few centuries to bring catastrophe to the world.

The Onceborn are less frequently seen, but no less dangerous. These are Malfeans who were once living, breathing humans, albeit humans who cared little for others or for anything good in the world while they were alive. When they died, they did not last as wraiths or ghosts for long, quickly becoming Spectres, perhaps eventually Nephwracks. Over time, they absorbed Oblivion and gained power from it, finally rising to the ranks of Malfean. Though they are less powerful than their cousins, the Neverborn, they are no less dangerous.

The Awakenings
In 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the explosions reverberated through not only the two cities, but the Shadowlands. The sudden death of so many, combined with the mounting deaths in World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust split open the Labyrinth, unleashing the Fifth Great Maelstrom. The Maelstrom brought something else with it, however: Gorool, a minor Malfean. Even though he was not as powerful as some of his siblings, he nonetheless decimated the armies of the dead. Finally, Charon, Emperor of the Death, picked up his blade Siklos and battled the beast. He and Gorool were pulled down into the Tempest, and neither returned.

The Malfeans were not heard from again for many years. However, events conspired to cause the Sixth Great Maelstrom to form, ironically from the artifacts of the two bombs that started the Fifth. The Sixth Great Maelstrom was the worst yet, and split the Labyrinth so powerfully and deeply that not only the Malfeans awoke, but Grandmother as well. Grandmother, attempting to feed an eons-old hunger, strengthened the Maelstrom, making it powerful enough to drain what few empires of ghosts remained, and to hurt her children as well.

The War of the Malfeans
The Malfeans were tossed about in the Maelstrom like ordinary ghosts until they finally managed to gather enough strength to stabilize themselves, reorganize, and launch counterattacks. They began building and taking over hives across the Stormwall and fighting Grandmother’s presence in the Shadowlands, Wastelands, and anywhere else they could gain a foothold. As Grandmother’s new Spectres wandered into their parts of the Labyrinth, they were destroyed.

They also allied themselves with regular ghosts and projection firms, whose high-Vitality proved to be a major threat to Grandmother. In addition, the Malfeans managed to gain control over all the once human Spectres through the hive-mind. However, Grandmother dealt their forces a major blow when she managed to kill the Malfean Mulhecturous and consume her and her Spectre forces. She was eventually capable of creating Spectre troops that were slaughtered quickly, but replaced in hours.

The only hope of the Malfeans was a certain Memory Tower that had Grandmother’s greatest secret stored in it; possibly one that could destroy, or at least satiate, her. While they could not approach it themselves, they let a group of regular ghosts not tied into the hive-mind give it a try. Whether they succeeded destroying or calming Grandmother is not known.

Known Malfeans

 * Gorool
 * Mulhecturous the Filth Goddess
 * Rabark the Inhabited
 * Sulabik the Death Maker
 * Zyras, the All-Consuming
 * Vidod the Monger