As of 12/8/97
Malatest was the youngest son of a
baron, or so they told him, anyway. As he grew, however, his siblings
shunned him. He gradually realized that he was different. They were
human, but he was - something else. Where did he come from?
As the baron's youngest son, he was offered to the sorcerers as
fealty. However, they refused him. No sorcerer had been anything but one of the pure for
thousands of years, and Malatest was
. . . impure.
The Baron was at a loss to explain this boy - by the age of
five, Malatest was confined to a tower of the keep, behind locked doors, an
embarassment to the all-too-human world.
Then came a Godsend. The Order of the Eye offered him a place. The
Baron quickly accepted. Any chance to get rid of his anomalous
offspring.
It was many weeks travel. And when Malatest finally reached the
Order (a stumpy tower on a hill), it was raining.
The only comfort in the years ahead was to be surrounded by those
of his own kind, both teachers and students. Not human... but not one of the elven races
either. But the endless droning of the teachers wore thin. The food
was always the same, and always his heart hungered for what was just over
the horizon. The whole Order was a preparation for some political
mission, some branch of the State; its students mere puppets for a
higher purpose.
After ten years, when he was fifteen, Malatest ran away. Again, it was many weeks travel, this time with a caravan. And he
survived there, with the skills he had been taught - as a beggar, and a
thief.
Eventually, Malatest found a companion - Aron, an old librarian.
Aron took the boy in, fed him, clothed him, and allowed him the expanse
of his library at night. The boy read with the appetite of a wolf.
But the more he read, the sadder he became. He knew now the Gods he
served were good, but also they were not all-powerful.
And he hated them for that. They were not strong enough to make him
human, and not strong enough to protect Aron when he died.
So Malatest hates the Gods he serves. But he has no choice. He
worships them with his cynical wit, and the grog is his only sacrament.
Delve into Malatest's Spell Book.
Go back to the Heroes Page.
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