Doctor Maladus

Doctor Maladus, also known as "The Guardian Angel", is the fifth of the Empire's ranking system. He first appears in Katkin's story, as a diplomat to Castillion. He makes an appearance during the first chapter alongside his fellow Harbingers, where he is revealed to be working with the sages and researchers of Harpeia's University of Alchemy in developing a way to forcefully create humans into gods.
Maladus holds little regard for the gods or Enlightened, and his primary ambition is to prove that ordinary humans can be modified to become equals with the gods. There is nobody and nothing that Maladus will not use to achieve his objective: Besides using Empire personnel, he has also hired elite Aurelian mercenaries, persuaded the sages at the University, and even convinced Skye Hart. In his quest to further bolster humanity's combat abilities, he has researched the orb Skye had brought back from her trip in Misbah along with researching the Corruption and the Decay.
Since his youth, Maladus had an obsession with creating "enhanced humans" that could surpass even the gods. It is presumably this ambition which got him chased out of his hometown and accused of being a "monster" and a "madman" after he was admitted into the University of Alchemy. While at the University, he gained an interest in "capturing dreams" and capturing the creatures who could control dreams. He was later expelled, something he considered a loss despite the rejection he faced from his peers and teachers, as he needed "an environment conducive to research."
After his expulsion, Maladus was approached by Skye Hart, who invited him to become part of the Empire with the promise of resources for his research. He agreed, and was given the title of Guardian Angel — which he found humorously ironic.
Under Maladus' guidance, the Empire performed research related to the Decay, a disease only found in Harpeia. Ara was given to them for treatment and underwent painful and traumatic experiments with gods' remains, which was effective in suppressing Decay's effects but left her traumatized and afflicted with other symptoms.
Category:Characters
Category:Deceased Characters