Malshash

## Appearances

The Shadow of What Was Lost

**Malshash** is an Augur from the past who summons Davian to his own time through Jha'vett in Deilannis. He trains Davian to use his Augur abilities and teaches him about his role in the fight against the Venerate.

## Description

### Appearance

Malshash has stolen the Ath's power of shapeshifting, and must use it every day in order to retain it. Because of this, his appearance changes daily to one of several different men.

### Personality

Malshash is an effective mentor, patient and encouraging to Davian during his training. While he is unafraid to push Davian to his limits, he remains sympathetic and aware of the young man's well-being. He answer's Davian's various questions with efficacy, though restrains himself as to not overwhelm the young man's mind.

Given the importance and delicacy of his task and history, Malshash has a tendency to shroud his actions in secrecy. This conflicts with Davian's curious nature, and Malshash proves himself to be significantly more harsh and irate when the boundaries of his own privacy are not respected.

## History

### Early Life

*For more information about Malshash's earlier lives, see Tal'kamar Deshrel and Aarkein Devaed.*
Thousands of years ago, Malshash was born as Tal'kamar Deshrel. An orphaned boy, he was charitably adopted into a palace named Caer Lyordas, where he fell deeply in love with the heiress, Elliavia. On the night of their wedding, his wife-to-be was brutally murdered and, in an attempt to resurrect her, he drained the Essence of everyone present — inadvertently killing them and inviting Nethgalla to inhabit his wife's old body and gain her memories.

Horrified at what he'd done, he demanded to be executed, only to discover that he was immortal. As he wandered aimlessly through his life, haunted by guilt, he was approached by Shammaeloth (in the guise of El), who set him on a path towards joining the Venerate. The being told him that everything is pre-determined, and asked him to fight for him to free the world from this fate. Skeptical, he doubted its words for many years before eventually relenting.

Once he began working for the being, his loyalty was unmatched — even among his companions. He waged wars against kingdoms, led assassinations of opposing monarchs and even destroyed the entire Darecian and Shalis civilizations under the name Aarkein Devaed. Though his devotion was solid, internally he knew that his actions were wrong and it caused him to suffer immense guilt and self-loathing.

### A Change of Heart

After tracking the last remaining Darecians to Deilannis and accidentally damaging the Jha'vett, Devaed witnessed their brutal transformation into the Lyth. Feeling responsible for the incident, he saved nearly a third of them by opening a Gate into Res Kartha and throwing the survivors through. He then tried to operate the massive device, but the damage caused it to explosively malfunction.

After running for safety, he saw a stranger emerge from the Jha'vett. The man, who had travelled back in time through the rift, called himself Davian and he roundly criticized Devaed for his atrocities and failure to take responsibility for his actions. Not heeding Devaed's warnings, the stranger continued his verbal assault until the immortal beheaded him with Licanius in a fit of rage, and mounted his head on the Door of Iladriel as punishment. He also pocketed the silver ring that belonged to Davian as a trophy.

Despite his original rage and reticence, the message imparted by Davian shook Tal to his core. Insistent on disproving the stranger's words, he shared his memory of the incident with all of his companions in search of an explanation. None were forthcoming, however, and the doubts permanently lodged themselves in his mind.

His faith in his master waned, and he attempted to use the Mirrors below Tol Athian to revive it. Instead, he saw the truth laid bare, and finally accepted that his master had lied to him from the start. Preparing for revenge, he began to formulate a plan alongside other members of the Venerate who had lost faith. One of his first actions was to re-establish contact with Davian to learn more about the enigmatic figure and the role he would play in this plan.

### Preparations

At some point after this, he stole the Ath's shapeshifting ability and retreated to the abandoned city of Deilannis to further continue his planning. He began to call himself Malshash, and used the shapeshifting skill to transform into a new person each day — in this case, everyone he had killed at his wedding thousands of years ago. For protection, he summoned a being from the Darklands to guard him and named it Orkoth. Finally ready to confront the stranger, he prepared to summon Davian through the rift once more.

## Activities in *The Shadow of What Was Lost*

### Summoning Davian

Figuring that the silver ring must have been of great importance to the man, Malshash uses it to forcibly draw Davian through the rift. It works as intended, drawing the Augur back in time by almost 90 years and anchoring him in Malshash's current age. However, this version of Davian is slightly younger than the one he met previously.

Incredulous at his success, he informs Davian that he is the first person to ever survive passing through the rift. He elaborates that the Darecians created the Jha'vett with the intention of preventing the destruction of the Shining Lands, but never succeeded in using it, and wonders what consequences Davian's journey will hold for the future.

He tells the young Augur that they have met before, and speculates that Davian left him the ring to ensure this reunion, but does not reveal how their last encounter ended. He answers some of Davian's questions, educating him about the history of Deilannis, and safely clears his presence with Orkoth to ensure the Darklander will not attack him. Instructing Davian to eat and rest to regain his strength, he tells the young man to prepare for some difficult training.

### Augur Training

With the knowledge that Davian will only be able to stay for a few weeks, Malshash uses his Control abilities to bind the young Augur with a de facto concentration Vessel. He does not inform Davian, choosing instead to let him focus entirely on learning at a maximal pace without distraction.

Malshash splits Davian's training into two components. The first addresses theoretical knowledge, which he imparts onto Davian by telling him about kan. When he is occasionally required to leave for other business (likely maintaining his cover), he tells Davian to use the Adviser in Deilannis' library to find what he needs.

By directly studying the young Augur, Malshash comes to realize that Davian died at some point in his life, but stays alive by drawing Essence from his surroundings — this is how he survived the rift. He also tells Davian that, as an Augur, he does not possess a Reserve, finally enabling the young man to use Essence from the environment by manipulating it with kan.

The second component addresses practical training of Augur abilities. He teaches Davian a number of techniques, including how to Read others, how to protect himself from being Read, and how to slow time through concentration. He also shows Davian that people can prevent the telltale black smoke from appearing when they lie to him, but tells him that their deception will still be revealed if he feels a slight pain in his temple.

Despite his pupil's enthusiasm for more knowledge, there are abilities he refuses to teach him. He believes that attempting to try Foresight so close the the Jha'vett would be dangerous. Additionally, he refuses to teach Davian shapeshifting, because he knows that in order to transform into someone else, an Augur must kill them first. When Davian tries and succeeds in Malshash's absence, he is disturbed by the revelation that his pupil must have killed someone at such a young age.

Things sour further during a regular training session when Davian, manages to forcefully pry open a locked part of Malshash's memories. The incident does not hurt Malshash, but a horrifying moment from his past — his wedding day — is revealed. Through the memory Davian learns about Malshash's origins and the fact that Augurs can only shapeshift into people who are already dead — by recognizing that the people his tutor shapeshifts into were all present at the ceremony. Furious, Malshash walks off, telling Davian that he will leave that very day.

### Davian's Departure

While Malshash is upset about revealing these things to Davian, he is more ashamed of his own actions and does not begrudge the young Augur to any significant degree. He confesses that he gave up his Foresight because Augurs can see both into the future and into the past, and he has no desire to relive those painful memories. He does not tell Davian that he (and all the Venerate) gave up this ability in service of Shammaeloth, but he does reveal that he has been using kan to help Davian learn at a very fast rate.

The next day, Malshash prepares to send his pupil back to his proper time, confident that the knowledge he passed on will eventually turn him into a powerful Augur and force for good. He binds his own portal box to the young Augur and instructs Davian to return his version of it to Caeden in his own time. Before Davian goes, Malshash leaves him with a message for his future self.

Davian doesn't understand the meaning, but the message is a deep apology for his killing him a, promise that his sacrifice was not in vain, and an assurance that he has changed as a person because of it. Before Davian can ask any further questions, Malshash destroys the silver ring, breaking the link that keeps Davian anchored outside of his own time.

### Final Preparations

*For more information on Malshash's later life, see Caeden.*
Possessing a new understanding of the man who changed his mind, Malshash returned to living under his true name, Tal'kamar, and began to form a plan to ensure Davian was protected long enough to carry out his next journey through the rift. He did so while he continued to work against the Venerate and plot out how he intended to eventually defeat them.

At some point, his treachery was revealed and he escapes to Zvaelar without the Venerate knowing. Entirely through coincidence, Davian ended up in the same location, and the pair were reunited as tutor and pupil. This time, the immortal worked to turn Davian into the most powerful Augur in history and, with his help, was able to escape the extra-dimensional prison along with his new companions Niha and Raeleth.

Separated once more from Davian but even more confident in his success, he continued to work on his plan and eventually set it into motion not long after he escaped. Confident that he could trust his pupil, he indirectly gave a younger Davian a set of instructions that would lead right to him. Then, he used the Waters of Renewal to wipe his own memory and assumed the new identity of Caeden, a farm boy from Desriel.

Davian eventually rescued and joined Caeden as planned, and played a crucial role in helping carry out his plan to defeat the Venerate, though the pair did not truly realize the depth of their connection until the immortal regained his memories and the Augur experienced them firsthand.