Malphea Kiurala

Malphea Kiurala is one of the 13 playable characters in Boundless, as well as the game's final boss, main antagonist, and only unlockable character. A human-yokai hybrid with a desire to better humanity as a whole, she has organized the Boundless Pankration Tournament as a means to locate people with superpowered potential to join her as the "next evolution of mankind".
==Personality==
Malphea is seen as a wise, passionate woman with a motherly personality in most media portraying her and her company, Hextermina Labs, within the world of Boundless. For the most part, this image is actually true- Malphea is a kind soul with a desire to help others and better the world at large, dedicating years of her life to helping the people of the world. However, she also has many elements tied to her view of her partial yokai heritage, which she sees as something that places her above most of humanity.
Malphea has somewhat of a mix between selfishness and pity concerning her being "blessed" with her yokai genetics, viewing herself as an individual more highly evolved than most of humanity. However, instead of acting superior or looking down upon those she sees as "lesser", she desires to find a way to bring the rest of humanity up to her level, taking pity on them and feeling guilty in moments in which she acts overly high and mighty. Coven suggests that she may suffer from some form of depression and desires social contact, but her depiction of herself as a higher being results in issues; he also suggests that the reason she has never attempted romantic connections is the same.
In contrast, the superpowered Perfect Malphea lacks many of the scientist's more admirable traits, effectively giving up her humanity and embracing her higher state. She acts far more abrasive and aggressive in this form, comparing those she sees beneath her as objects to be conquered rather than people who are pitied and worthy of help. She also lets loose her restraints in this form, aiming to kill rather than fighting out of self-defense.
In the secret Max Difficulty ending, Malphea's personality is shown in a more sympathetic light, showcasing her explaining her motives in greater detail and breaking her composure more, even crying at one point in the speech. She also acts more affectionate than normal is the player accepts her offer.
Character interactions and the fact that she is responsible for the creation of Sarin imply that Malphea has a desire to have a child, though it is unknown whether or not she can have one biologically is left ambiguous.
Malphea's in-game trading card lists her likes as "Fashion design, family, and philanthropy" and her dislikes as "Isolation, rainy weather, and germs".
==Description==
===Normal===
Malphea's normal appearance is that of a middle-aged woman with a brown skintone common to La'Nequan people, and curly blonde hair that is implied to be dyed. Her standard outfit seen in the game resembles a traditional white lab coat, buttoned up the front and flaring out in the back like a dress of sorts. Under her coat, she wears a black spandex top, large black rubber gloves, white puffed-out pants, and boots. She also wears a golden belt and a golden bracelet on her forearm, which serve as both decoration and to focus her abilities.
===Perfect===
Perfect Malphea's appearance takes on a more ethereal form, with her hair growing longer and turning red at the tips. Her face takes a far more monstrous form, with glowing eyes and mouth, large canine teeth, and a glowing rune on her forehead. Patches of her skin now have turned red, and she has grown large horns commonly seen in other yokai and yokai hybrids.
Perfect Malphea's clothes also change greatly, turning from a standard lab coat to an ornate white dress. Her upper torso is largely exposed, revealing her forearms, shoulders, and cleavage, and her golden decorative items have grown even more ornate, with the bracelet duplicating and merging with her gloves. Her boots become more form-fitting and become tipped with gold, and she gains a metallic choker resembling her bracelet.
==Abilities==
Malphea is a master biologist and geneticist, and has used this knowledge to create Hextermina Labs, a corporation dedicated to improving lives via the field of medicine and agriculture. She knows a great deal of information about genetic manipulation and cloning, leading to the creation of the Kiur-0 project as a means of studying yokai DNA. Her IQ is rumored to be around 275.
In her Perfect form, Malphea possesses pyrokinetic abilities and is able to both produce fire and control it; Mal's Notes suggest this is due to having the innate ability to control and combust oxygen. She also possesses teleportation, or at the very least, the ability to move at near-light speeds.
==Appearances==
===Boundless===
Malphea's debut appearance, in which she acts as the Arcade mode's final boss if played on higher difficulties. She arrives after the player has successfully beaten Coven in his boss fight, congratulating them on their victory and describing her motives to the player. Invariably, the player refuses on lower difficulties, angering Malphea and triggering her final boss fight.
On higher difficulties, defeating Malphea will trigger her transformation into Perfect Malphea, acting as the game's superboss. This form is more visually reminiscent of other known yokai hybrids, such as Geki, Aire, and Nyxiel, but has more monstrous features such as glowing eyes that have yet to appear in previous hybrids. Defeating this superboss unlocks Malphea as a playable character.
Interestingly, reaching the Malphea fight on maximum Arcade difficulty with no deaths triggers different, more sympathetic dialogue for the character, in which she is portrayed as more emotional and congratulatory to the player. Unique to this scene is a player option in which they can either choose to help Malphea in her work or deny her request, which results in the normal boss fight with her. Accepting her ends the Arcade run with a large amount of bonus points to make up for her fight being skipped and unlocks a strange cipher message.
==Gallery==
MalpheaFlourish.png|Malphea's promotional render
MalpheaPerfectFlourish.png|Perfect Malphea's promotional render
MalpheaAlt1.png
MalpheaAlt2.png
MalpheaAlt3.png
Malphea Kiuaria portrait.jpg|Poster by 
MalpheabyNano.png|Art by 
==Trivia==
*Malphea was inspired by traditional fighting game villains such as M. Bison from Street Fighter and Dr. Coyle from ARMS, though was intended to be more of a sympathetic figure than most villains in the genre.
*While most alternate costumes in Boundless are intended to reference another game or pop culture, Malphea's Black Ops skin does not seem to explicitly reference anything. The game's director has stated it is a reference to "something yet to be announced".
Category:Original Characters
Category:Villains
Category:Females
Category:Female Villains
Category:Boundless
Category:Pyro Enterprizes
Category:Pyro's Characters
Category:Final Bosses
Category:Scientists