Malorin

basics: A paranoid, angry antagonist who's convinced he could solve everyone's problems, if only they would stop and listen to him for a bit!! And if they won't listen, he'll make them listen. Very much a perfectionist.

Name; Malorin
Former name; Melorin
Name meaning; Melorin was for a melody. Malorin is for malice.
Gender; male
Age; equivalent of a 50-year-old human

Playlist

• Hyrule Castle
• The Misty Town

map of Silvarum

cast of characters ;;
Malorin . our main character. the one whom the tale is about.
Vin . a mysterious voice.
Petrichor . storyteller and narrator.
Petros . child of an advisor. best friend to Malorin.


now this... this was a story that Petrichor did not want to tell. Out of all the tales he knew, and all the legends he had recounted, this was the one he always dreaded telling.
. Some stories were not meant to be told.
. And yet he had to tell them anyway.
... ... ...
It began on Moonrise's island (he says it because he'd rather not describe things more than he has to - you can see this in his face from across the campfire. His eyes are downcast, his face in shadow, barely illuminated by the flickering campfire. The usual light in his storyteller eyes - gone). It would have been, by all other standards, a fairly normal event. A new child born into a loving family. But this child was the son of the head advisor and his wife. In other words, they were important people, part of making sure Moonrise's affairs stayed in order, and therefore their son was important, too. He arrived with a great deal of pomp and fanfare for having done nothing other than being born. With his striking, russet fur and his sparkling yellow eyes, he awed everyone who came to see him. The family gathered around, called him a handsome little viscet. The friends and acquaintances came with gifts and kind wishes. Even the king of Moonrise himself came to greet this newest addition, the small, fluffy child who would soon be running around the royal court with the other children of other advisors. His mother, after some debate, named him Melorin, after the melodies of the light spring rain and the crickets just outside. (This would not be his name forever. One day it would change. But, at that time, it was Melorin's name, and it was good.)

The young viscet grew up quickly, by everyone's later musings (This happens quite often - you see a newborn child, forget the passing of time, and suddenly they are four and scampering here and there, causing chaos). Melorin, at that young but curious age, wanted to know about everything. And, luckily for him, he quickly met someone else his age who had the same amount of awestruck wonder at the world around them. His name was Petros, and he would prove to be a great friend... for the time being.

They met one day as the smaller, quieter Petros galloped around a corner and ran headfirst into an unsuspecting Melorin. The two ended up on the floor in a jumble of fur and tails and hasty apologies.
. "I'm sorry - really - just - sorry -" Petros mumbled as he hastily untangled himself from the dark-furred viscet.
. "No - no, don't worry about it!" Melorin cut him off there by putting a paw over the other's mouth. "That wasn't your fault, you had no idea I was there." Then he took back his paw and instead held it out for a paw-shake. "I'm Melorin, by the way. "
. The canine hesitated, then very slowly a smile came over his dusty face. "Petros."
. They shook paws. A friendship was born.

Over the next couple of weeks - and yes, even through the next couple of years - the two partners in crime were inseparable. Whenever anything strange occurred in the palace, most people attributed it to Petros and Melorin (this being entirely true. Most chaos was entirely their doing). Petros had always looked up to the two master pranksters of the land - Merle and Lumiere - and he wanted to be the same expert at causing hilarious mass confusion as the two ancient ghosts were. So when spiders were found in everyone's soup one night, when a hundred socks vanished for a week and showed up the next in the strangest places, or when loud fireworks could be heard just outside at midnight, everyone knew who it was. Some were worried that they would be in trouble with the king - until it was revealed that the ruler at the time was perfectly fine with all the occurring chaos. These were the golden days, and they should have lasted forever. But not everything stays the same, for better or for worse.

It was part-way into Melorin's eighth year of life that he first discovered the mysterious, shadow of a ghost called Vin. He was exploring at the time, and he'd stopped to stare at his reflection in a small pond. The moon was high in the sky (to him, night was always better) and as he looked into the water he felt, then heard, a presence behind him.
. "Greetings."
. Startled, Melorin jumped and spun around to face whomever had followed him at such a dark hour. But... there was no one else around. "Probably just imagining things," he said, mostly to convince himself.
. "Oh, I can see why you would think that. It is rather impossible for anyone to see me after all - but such is the plight of this poor ghost."
. (Now Melorin knew several ghosts, the two that first came to mind being those two legendary prankster ghosts... but they were always visible. Still, he simply assumed that some ghosts were invisible all the time). "You're a ghost then? I mean, that's pretty neat. I've always wanted to... actually meet one." The young viscet shrugged at the empty air as his curiosity finally got the best of him. "Sorry if I'm being rude, but why can't I see you?"
. The presence laughed at this, and finally said, "It is... an unfortunate part of my past. A curse, I suppose. It touches on some... less-then-kind memories - I would prefer not to talk about it." (This would later prove to be a lie, of course... but Melorin at the time was young, gullible, willing to believe anything. Whatever caused him to befriend this strange figure, it would not prove wise in the long run).
. The two talked for some time, until the moon sank below the sky and the sun started to rise up to take its place. At that time, Melorin knew he had to head home. Realizing he had not gotten the other's name, he quietly asked, and in return, he got "Vin."
. "Cool. I'm Melorin. I should probably get home before my parents find out, though."
. "And... please don't tell anyone about me. I am a secretive creature by nature, and I would hate to have to end our friendship so quickly because of something so small."
. Of course, Melorin thought as he scampered back to the palace and snuck in through a window. Of course.

When his parents woke him up the next day, they noticed he seemed pretty tired, and they questioned what he had been doing. For a brief moment the viscet considered telling them about Vin, and how wonderful the moon was last night... but as he thought about it, they would just worry about him catching a cold. And besides, he'd promised Vin to keep his presence a secret. So instead he shrugged their questions off and said, "Nothing, really. Just had a bad dream, some trouble falling asleep, but I'm all good now."

Through the following years, Melorin found himself spending as much time with Vin as with Petros - and while with Petros most of his time was spent pranking everyone else, his time with Vin was spent learning some... let's say questionable things. It started off small, of course, and Vin was incredibly kind, if a bit scary at times. Just a few small lies were said here and there to avoid letting anyone know of Vin's existence. But slowly... well, he grew used to the lies. He wasn't bothered by them any more. So the lies got bigger. The things Vin told him about became more intense, and maybe the Melorin from years ago would have recognized that this was wrong, but this Melorin had fallen for Vin's lies, he had started to lie himself... and everyone who knew him thought he was changing quite a lot. The cheerful, outgoing viscet had turned into a more quiet, calculating figure. Even Petros didn't know what to make of it, and no matter how many times he asked, he always got the same, un-helpful answer.

No one could have foreseen the consequences of all of this... not even Melorin. But he had slowly started to think of things the way that Vin did - that the only reasons to have friends was to get further in life, and that no one really was good enough. Certainly not anyone in Moonrise... certainly not his parents, or Petros. He never really extended this notion to himself, mainly because of Vin's whispered encouragements. Instead, he thought of himself as the one who would fix the problems of the world - by any means necessary.

By the time Melorin was 18, Petros had all but given up on their friendship - he felt like he hardly knew this cold and distant viscet anymore. What he really wanted to do was just have a long talk with his friend to try and understand what was going on, to try and help (but the time for that was long past, it seemed. Still, because of what happened next, he would have wished with all his heart that he had tried his hardest anyway).

Vin whispered in Melorin's ear one day (well, he whispered every day, but this time there was something different about his voice. He sounded hopeful, and excited, as if he knew what was about to happen). He whispered about the problems within Moonrise and the flaws of the world, and for what was probably the hundredth time, he asked Melorin if he was going to do something about it. But this time, the conversation went differently.
. Melorin said yes.

It was incredibly simple once Melorin got the nerve to actually do it. A few simple lies to the guards about an emergency outside the palace, one to the cook and his assistant that the king wanted to see them, and then, perhaps, a lie to himself that this was all for the best. So simple.
. The viscet took out a match, and with a flick of the open flame across the carpeted floor, he created the lie of an accidental fire. Now all there was to be done was escape to somewhere safe, sit back, and watch the chaos.



But there had always been one person who hadn't fallen for Melorin's games - his old best friend, Petros... who had known something was up as soon as he realized Melorin had been missing for a while. He found him just as he was leaving the kitchens by way of following the smoky smell in the air, and as soon as he realized what was going on, he jumped to block the exit and question his old partner-in-crime.
. It didn't end well.
. Within five minutes, Melorin had made his way past and ran for it, and Petros, though he tried very hard to catch up, had always been the slower of the two. He had no choice but to watch as the viscet vanished into the shadows. Then he scampered for his life as the fire slowly, but steadily, spread.

...

A lie had destroyed the kingdom, Petros would later reflect as he looked back on that terrifying night. So many people had been asleep and he hadn't been able to warn them all in time. The king, most of the advisors, Melorin's parents, for goodness' sake, they were all dead, and he didn't know what to do anymore.
. One thing was for certain. He was not going to let any more lies ruin what small part of Moonrise was left.

A lie had destroyed the kingdom, Melorin thought as he raced off into the darkness, Vin's whispered words spurring him on. He wasn't a fool - he knew Petros would tell everyone that he was the culprit. The only thing to do now was to hide. But he stopped and took one last look back at the flames as they rose higher, claiming the palace and the oasis around it. Everything he had ever known was gone.
. The melody that had given him his name was dead. There was only silence, and the ominous crackle of the fire.

Vin took the lead after that, and Melorin was resigned to following the restless ghost. When Vin suggested they hide in the Shadowed Lands, he agreed wholeheartedly. When Vin suggested he change his name, he was hesitant at first, but after some subtle persuasion, he eventually took on the name Malorin - after all, the melody was dead... but he supposed malice lived on.
. There were a few searching parties over the months, but they were few and far between - Malorin knew it was because they were focusing on rebuilding their own destroyed kingdom. But even if they had been searching for him more intensely... he knew he wouldn't be found unless he wanted to be.
. So Malorin stayed and listened to Vin's dangerous words, hatred in his heart, and maybe a small longing for what had once been (but it was far too late by then). And, slowly, the tale of the rogue viscet who had almost annihilated Moonrise became one of legend, and Malorin became a creature of darkness.

... ... ...

No one really knows where Malorin is these days, not even Petrichor. What details he knows he receives from the trees and the stones, from the grass and the sky. They tell him, in hushed whispers, about the viscet's plans to return one day and rule over all Silvarum.
. He chooses not to tell that part.
. He has already said enough.
. So he ends the story rather abruptly, and leaves it there, for the listener to write their own ending.