the faults of malorin

Malorin sometimes wondered why he was so content being the bad guy. Why was he willing to make up plan after plan, just to be struck down by a fool team of rag-tag heroes? Why had Vin, that voice in his head, gone silent after the first few plots failed? Was he just not good enough? Many days the viscet would remember where he came from, what he used to be, and frowns. That life is too far gone. So what if all Silvarum despises him, calls him the darkness of their land? One day he'll be the one back in control. See if they're still laughing then.

In the meantime, hiding out in the gaps between time, he has a lot of time to plot, to plan, and to think. So think he does, of everything he could have done better, and all his past flaws he refuses to acknowledge as a problem.

Pride

The people tell his stories. He knows, he hears them echoing throughout time, even to his lonesome hiding places. They weave tall tales even more dramatic than Malorin himself could dream up - complex imaginings about him burning down the stars, of him secretly being all the three rulers of the kingdoms in disguise. In there are even some things he knows he's actually done. People love to be frightened by the re-telling of how Malorin brought the Moonrise kingdom to its knees and destroyed the capital city, or by how he took over a small town in Sunglow for a day and was so very nearly victorious. He takes every story as his own, claims them all to be true, no matter how much truth they might actually have to them. After all, why pass up a reason to make himself look more impressive?

Malorin lives on lies. He sees an opportunity to raise his own ego? Well, you bet he's going to take it. Even better if, with that, he can drag someone down. The viscet lives to be the best, the most fearsome, in the room, at all times, and he doesn't care what he has to do to gain that reputation. Let the world try to tear him down - he will bring it down with him, and laugh as the world burns.

Greed

Malorin has no deep instinctual want for gold, but he understands the value of it, in simpler terms. All those beneath him can be so easily tempted by the quiet jungle of coins, the promise of a bribe. Malorin seeks to amass wealth for the way it can be used to manipulate others.

He understands, even more, the power of treasure beyond pure coin. He has seen the endless magical artifacts  scattered across the land, he has even experienced the power of some of them. The purest form of time travel is his because of one such artifact, after all. That simple silver pocket watch, so unassuming, but full of so much power - how incredible it was! Malorin can't help but want whatever other magical items are out there.

Lust

Lust can mean 'want, yes? In that case, Malorin wants an awful lot of things. He wants respect, he wants to rule all Silvarum, he wants to prove everyone that calls him a monster right. Malorin wants many things, and perhaps one day he will find them.

Envy

He looks to the people out in the world, happy, not a care in the world, and feels a twinge of regret that he can't have the same.

Then he frowns and turns the thought away. Happiness is not something for Malorin to have.

Gluttony

For this? Malorin is quite the opposite. Food is so easily forgotten, after all, in the heat of the moment. He has things to plan, endless ideas that he has to think over. Always, his thoughts are spinning, twirling, running through a million things he could do next. Sometimes a strategist just forgets about the things that aren't as important. Sometimes he just has better things to do. Food is an afterthought, something that helps him continue on. And perhaps if, one day, he becomes a ghost, he won't have to eat ever again.

Sloth

Why travel somewhere on foot when he could hop through time and space at a mere thought? Why take the slow path, if he is not made for it? Malorin is the prince of the whole continent, after all. He is owed some small comfort. (And there will be more once he rules it all.)

Wrath

If there is one constant to Malorin's life, it is his anger. He is angry at the world, for putting him in the role of the bad guy. He is angry at Vin for abandoning him so long ago. He is angry at the fools who stop his plans, over and over and over. He is angry at everything and everyone, and angry at himself most of all. Why hasn't he done more, why can't he just not sleep to work on his scheme some more, why does he have to falter and fail and be imperfect?

Malorin loathes the world for all its done to him. But he also loathes himself for what he's done to the world. It's an endless cycle, a vicious thing that he doesn't think will ever end.

He tosses his head up to the sky and laughs at the irony of it all.