Malus

"Puny mortal! You should feel honored to be graced by the great temptation demon, Malus!"

## Character Info

### Nickname(s)

Noodle

The great temptation demon, **Malus**, is a supporting character in Temptation's Ballad. He is one of four demons of the crown who has been tasked with consuming the negative emotions of humanity for purposes yet unknown.

## Appearance

Malus is one of the few non-anthropomorphic characters that can speak in Temptation's Ballad in his weakened form, assuming the guise of a ball python. He has dark gray skin with reddish brown stripes, ruby red eyes, and small demon horns which poke out of his head. In this form, he is not large enough to be intimidating, and is often presumed by others to be a pet or familiar.

## Personality

Malus is a self-aggrandizing demon who revels in reminding others of his true status as **The Great Temptation Demon**. He has quite the ego and is rather full of himself, placing himself above mortals and looking upon them with what could most accurately be described as fascinated curiosity. While he doesn't necessarily scorn or express disdain towards mortal beast-kin, it is evident that he sees them as inferior, or as a people to be conquered.

Regrettably, his competency doesn't quite live up to his posturing. He is often easily swayed and distracted by things that piques his interest. In particular, he is a big glutton and is particularly intrigued by all elements of the Material Plane. Despite his supposed title as a temptation demon, it is ironically he who can be easily tempted into doing favors and lending his assistance to others with the promise of food or further exploration into the Material Plane.

Additionally, due in part to his lack of power and his inoffensive form, Malus doesn't seem all that skilled at his own job of tempting people, not being particularly savvy at bargaining and not appearing as powerful and imposing as one might expect from a great demon.

## Background

**Significant plot details follow** - peruse at your own risk, lest your game experience be ruined.

Malus originates from the Infernal Plane. He himself does not have much memory of his purpose in the Material Plane, being too enraptured with finally being able to go there to pay attention to his siblings' briefing of their objectives. However, he does remember that the deal that they had made with their summoner was to make contact with mortals and collect their negative emotions, which fuels their Infernal powers.

## Abilities

Although Malus generally tends to be characterized as rather incompetent and inconsequential, he does boast a notable degree of magic power, due to being a demon. His demon nature also provides him with immortality, though he is still capable of experiencing pain. He is, to some degree, capable of influencing people's thoughts and manipulating them, especially if they are not in a healthy mental/emotional state. Furthermore, as a demon, he is capable of making pacts with mortals, to grant them their wishes in exchange for the mortal offering them infernal power.

Malus is passively able to detect magical power, and in particular, detests the smell of celestial magic, as most other demons do.

In his first appearence, he originally manifests in the form of a gem, and by scrunching himself up, he can shapeshift between his ruby and snake forms.

It is unnamed as a spell, but Malus is capable of linking his soul to another person, causing any sensations that the target experiences to be felt through Malus, and vice versa. This ability also seems to enable telepathic communication between himself and the target.

### Spells/Cantrips

* **Detect Thoughts** - Malus uses this to peer into Cole's childhood traumas, causing Cole to relive the experience in his dreams as a side-effect.
* **Ghostly Gaze** - Malus uses Ghostly Gaze on Grank at the request of Cole to find out if he has been affected by any magic recently. Among other... *interesting* discoveries, he learns via this spell that Grank was under the influence of the [Suggestion] spell, which may been the cause of his decision to entrust the eventually stolen obsidian crown with Artemi.

## Relationships

### Collodi Bonebreaker

Malus appears to Cole the morning after Cole returns home with the stolen ruby, immediately trying to convince him to form a pact with him. Most of Malus's efforts fail, as Cole does not seem to take him very seriously, finding him to be more of a pest than anything else. However, due to the soul-link spell that Malus cast on Cole, Cole has no choice but to keep Malus on his person at all times, where Malus has many opportunities to continue exploring the Material Plane, as well as try to further convince Cole (and his other party members) to form pacts with him. As the story progresses, Malus can be seen becoming rather attached to and possessive of Cole, claiming him as his host and his only.

## Trivia

* The name Malus is a play on words and is meant to be pronounced the same way as "Malice".
* He really likes Cheesy Bread