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[spazyak]

I like to think of Malal like Schrodinger's god. ...wrong phrase, actually. A monad god? Kinda. He only exists in times when chaos forces cooperate with each other. The greater the scale of cooperation, the more potent Malal's manifestation is, since he embodies the disunity of the chaos gods. When they cast that aside to go do something, it manifests in the form of Malal. So he's at his most powerful when Chaos is ascendant, yet his only goal is to destroy that unity and thus himself because that's what he embodies.

So he's thd literal god of status qou, the reasion chaos can never win, and gw incarnate.

[nenjin]

(I editted away the Malal bit but I'll respond.)

Meh. Sorry. The Four speak to fundamental parts of the Human experience. That's why they're cool. That we can see ourselves in them is why they're so effective. That there is a point of real pride and value in each philosophy is meaningful. Malal has always struck me as post-revisionist crap. It's there to serve the "Chaos Undivided" urge but I've always thought that was unnecessary. The Eight-Pointed Star didn't need a mascot. When I started playing Fantasy as a kid with Chaos, I liked Khorne but I was happy to paint all the Marks on my troops. Undivided to me was never really a concept that needed thinking through, when you went to the table you were representing Chaos Undivided, when they all had their shit together. The person at the head of that freight train was always your Chaos Lord or Chaos Sorcerer. They were the titular head of everything going on. I always felt like Malal was getting in the way of that. "What, now I have to kowtow to some new asshole? I left the Empire because of crap like this...."

In 40k, it's even more WAHT? to me.

Plus:

I don't see Malal as shoehorned, he absolutely fits in with the others as inherent to the nature of 40k. His extreme inhuman side is that of futility, in both Chaos and everything, where as his moderate aspect is that of justice. Nothing can ever truly be accomplished in the galaxy, Malal is the living testament to this.

All hail the Prince of Emos, fifth wheel of the Pantheon.

So he's thd literal god of status qou, the reasion chaos can never win, and gw incarnate.

When you put it like this though, I approve.

[Grim Portent]

Malal/Malice works best in his original depiction imo, the god of outcasts who revel in their banishment and seek to destroy what rejected them. Lord of the spurned and the rejected, of betrayers and the betrayed.

The Sons of Malice marines in 40k always embodied this rather well to me, a chapter falsely accused of heresy, making them betrayed, choosing to go renegade, making them betrayers, choosing to reject the rest of Chaos making them betrayers once more and then choosing to attack the Imperium to try and reclaim their home world during a Black Crusade, a reaffirmation of their betrayal of the Imperium while also fighting any Chaos forces they encounter during the Crusade. Taking pride in being separate from the rest of the Galaxy, consumed by hate and spite, driven by the desire to take vengeance on everyone for wrongs inflicted by a few.

Personality wise I always felt he seemed like a mix of Slaanesh and Khorne really.

[Rolepgeek]

Malal is the embodiment of that little voice in your head that you never listen to that asks 'what would happen if I opened this door right now?' when you're on the freeway. The part that goes 'what if I just choked my dog to death?'

It doesn't come often, but then, neither does addiction or bloodlust or reveling in plague or true conspiracies. Those happen significantly more, in fact. Thus why Malal is only half-existent.

[nenjin]

Malal is the embodiment of that little voice in your head that you never listen to that asks 'what would happen if I opened this door right now?' when you're on the freeway. The part that goes 'what if I just choked my dog to death?'

Which is more or less the MO of generic 40k Chaos influence. And to be fair, possibilities and deceit are generally Tzeentch's domain.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's more like:

What could I get out of using their grief if I choked my dog to death?

What would it feel like to see the light leave little doggy's eyes? Would I be sad or satisfied?

Fucking mutt, I'll show you who's boss around here!

Alive, dead, doesn't matter. You'll grow billions more, and billions from those, coming around again.

What if...?

[nenjin]

It's more like:

What could I get out of using their grief if I choked my dog to death?

What would it feel like to see the light leave little doggy's eyes? Would I be sad or satisfied?

Fucking mutt, I'll show you who's boss around here!

Alive, dead, doesn't matter. You'll grow billions more, and billions from those, coming around again.

What if...?

I'll see your passionate writefaggotry, and raise you a cheap, easy meme.

[Tack]

I always heard of Malal referred to obliquely as 'the embodiment of the self-destructive nature of chaos'.

Tack, would you mind spoilering large images please? My phone aggressively flips me the bird every time I try to scroll past it.

Done... Eight hours later <.<

[misko27]

Why can't you see the obvious and understand the that Four God System is broken and doesn't accurately represent all Chaos worshippers opinions? Why do they have to shove themselves into these arbitrary categories? Why do you hate the little man and the free thinker, especially given the Big Four claim to represent Freedom?

Put another way:
Who died and gave you the right to decide which Chaos gods are cool and which aren't? Malal defies your commandment to make things make sense. To do so is to oppose Chaos! To demand logic and reason is to declare yourself a traitor! The Four Gods: brooding, gorging, scheming, lying! They are unworthy of the title of Chaos! Usurpers! I speak of a TRUE Chaos. One that takes Chaos to it's natural conclusion: Destruction! Death! Letting the Galaxy Burn! The only one to decide that there is nothing in this pathetic, corrupt galaxy worth living for.

Ask yourself: what is the Chaos god of Hate? Of denying your basic humanity? Do you claim instead that such a thing does not deserve a god? Ignorance worthy of the foolish followers of Tzeentch, those who claim knowledge in the face of the unknowable! Is not the fundamental article of the Imperium of Man: Denial of Chaos? All emotions manifest in the warp child. All of them. Any fool philosopher knows this much. But you claim the Emperor is not a god then? Then where does this hatred go? Where does this Madness lead? Denial of Chaos must manifest in Chaos too! Denial of yourself, and what makes you human, leaving only a husk bereft of pity or feeling. Chaos claims it is hated for its Freedom; By that token, is not Malal the only TRUE Chaos? When you are hated ALL, then you are truly free. Malal does not promise a false Utopia. It does not promise reason, or passion, or wisdom. In fact, to serve Malal is to accept the inevitability of your own death. Embrace it! Don't pretend that honor, or schemes, or pleasure, or life, have any real meaning. Malal isn't about schemes or fighting or rage, it's about tearing down Creation just to see if you can! Sure that will kill you; why not? It's not Chaos Divided, it's Chaos Unadorned. Without the lies the False Gods tell you to make you feel better about yourself. To trick you into thinking that something matter! But they are lies! Empty lies made to you to increase their own power!

Abandon everything. No Ego. No Passion. No Hope. Embrace Hate! Embrace Contradiction! Embrace annihilation!

Such is the Decree of Malal! For the Renegade God!

[Urist McScoopbeard]

agh, jesus, guys relax on the text. Shit burns eyes worse than staring at chaos runes all day.

[Tack]

Not in darkling don't.

[Egan_BW]

Malal is a fucking nerd, actually I'm not sure how he's different from tzeentch in that regard. A coward too. Not every warp manifestation can be as strong as khorne tho. I mean, who could be stronger? Nobody, that's who. You nerds.

[Neonivek]

I like to think of Malal like Schrodinger's god. ...wrong phrase, actually. A monad god? Kinda. He only exists in times when chaos forces cooperate with each other. The greater the scale of cooperation, the more potent Malal's manifestation is, since he embodies the disunity of the chaos gods. When they cast that aside to go do something, it manifests in the form of Malal. So he's at his most powerful when Chaos is ascendant, yet his only goal is to destroy that unity and thus himself because that's what he embodies.

So he's thd literal god of status qou, the reasion chaos can never win, and gw incarnate.

Whether or not Chaos is winning HIGHLY depends on whether or not you buy into Chaos propaganda or not.

But frankly from a storytelling perspective... They have held the "Chaos believes they are winning!" over the heads of the readers for so long that it has loooong since come off as disingenuous.

The Chaos gods might as well be renamed the "Gods of losing", even their victories feel hallow at this point.

Which is half-intentional.

---

Anyhow from what I am getting is that Chaos actually used to make sort of perfect sense but have been slowly flanderized into cartoon characters?

Which given that is SORT OF what happened to the Ork... I can believe it.

Happened with the Tyranids too but in their case it worked.

[Grim Portent]

Chaos actually used to make less sense than it does now. It was an eclectic and inconsistently written mish-mash of random crap basically all of which was insane in one way or another. Daemons and humans and aliens living together in weird nonsensical societies based on the sort of stuff that the gods were meant to dislike, such as a Khorneate world upon which the warlords indulged in non-violent politics and bickering rather than actually going out and fighting the way that Khorneates are supposed to.

Now Chaos is basically a loose assemblage of warlords of various kinds. Some are akin to Ghengis Khan and his Mongols, raiding their way across the void taking what they can carry, others are like Rome, forming large empires that possess a semblence of law based on might makes right and punish those who disrupt the goals of the warlord in charge or threaten the industries needed to fuel their conquests, others are theocracies ruled by councils of priest lords who mandate all production goes towards maintaining the group as a whole so they can build edifices to glorify chaos in the hopes of drawing the gods attention to the rulers.

The gods are similar, but they've barely changed with the exception of Khorne, for the most part it's just that the focus on them has shifted towards the parts of them that encourage conflict with other factions. Nurgle is still a fertility god at his core, Slaanesh is still the god of inspiration and perfectionism, Tzeentch still supports those who seek change for good reasons. Khorne's more or less lost his 'don't hurt the weak or I will punish you' thing, which was a rather stupid sentiment for a god of bloodshed and hate, so now it's 'I won't reward you for killing the weak, but feel free to do it anyway.'

[sprinkled chariot]

How does rogue trader license work? I did stumble upon piece of lore telling, that lots of people are hunting for some superpredators on some forgotten death world outside of imperial space, because one rogue trader got suddenly eaten whole by one of those superpredators, and his license might be with him.
Does taking license from some rogue trader after blamming him makes person, who looted license rogue trader?

Does imperium have some sort of legal pirates with piracy license license to go outside of imperial space and rob xenos and heretics? ( except rogue traders, who do more of this stuff then of trading)