The Dark Lord Malchène

Table of Contents

One figure that unmistakably marked the history of Nélannie and was essential in defining the direction its future would take was undeniably the Dark Lord Malchène...

Alina Lange

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The Dark Lord

Who

A legendary Dark Lord & the last one to get any measure of real success against the Light.
He's always held as an example by all Dark mages, & since then all Dark Lords have to put up with being compared to him.

Character

Powerful, Temperamental, even sometimes reckless, but always very charismatic.
He easily got people to love him & managed to unit all of Dark society & make them rise up against their oppressor.

Accomplishments

He humiliated & beat back the Light, seized confiscated "Dark" artefacts & illegal ingredients, & captured Esteille.
But more than everything, he showed the Dark that we could unite & fight back

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What happened in Esteille

His death

We know that after he had managed to seize Esteille, he & his followers were surrounded by the Light army. Unfortunately, there were no survivors to tell the exact tale.
What we do know is that a ritual ran out of control & nearly destroyed the whole city & all of its inhabitants. As it was, the Dark Lord, all of his followers & many inhabitants did died.

Light theory

The Light says that he attempted to do a big human sacrifice ritual, with the power gathered to go into the orichalcum deposits below the city.
That orichalcum was already powering enormous wards surrounding and protecting the city, transforming it into a big artefact. However, the Light thinks that the orichalcum was running out of natural magic & had to be replenished artificially.

Dark theory

Part of Dark society agrees with this and embraces their evil side.
The more reasonable part argues that the incident was due to a sabotage of the orichalcum by the Light before they evacuated the city. The Light mages are just refusing to take responsibility for the consequences of their act and all the deaths. After all, Dark mages are always a convenient scape goat...

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Another thing that is known for sure is the consequences of all of this.
The near destruction of Esteille was the perfect excuse for the Light to redouble their repression on the Dark and to impose a ton more limitations on rituals—although they didn't manage to totally ban them at that time.
In addition, the Dark Lord's acts and ultimate defeats unfortunately made a lot of political positions a lot more difficult to publicly defend.
Nevertheless, all of the Dark society still love and mourn him deeply. We even have a special festival to remember him—not on the day of Esteille's near destruction since there's already a nation-wide official mourning for the civilian deaths—but on the day of his seizing of Esteille. Then, we remember what we were able to accomplish when united. We remember the wild hopes he has ignited in us and that even his death didn't manage to completely smother.

Alina Lange

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Related Articles

Light vs Dark

Factions Light vs Dark politics and Dark Lords · Light Lords · Dark Society · Light Society Dark Players Dark Lord (Lord Enélien Cenlys) · Previous Dark Lord (Lord Malchène) · Dark secretary (Louis Nayer) · Dark lieutenants (Lady Sandeux, Lord Royenne) · Dark soldiers (Master Sérénius de Coroy, Mistress Alina Lange) · Dark civilians (Alina's family, Christopher Ashenfaures - Alina's fiancé, Miss Royenne, The lost Snowflake kitten) Light Players Light Lord (Lord Justinien de Labruyère) · Light lieutenants (Master Jean Lannoie, Lord Mérein) · Light soldiers (Ritual Hunters) Locations Old Esteille neighbourhood · The Dark Lord's Lair · The Mouth of Garna Events The last war · A new Dark Lord has arrived · The Dark Lord's recruitment campaign · Demilitarised campaign · Letter from the Dark Lord · History of runaway rituals Culture Religious stakes (The ancient religion, Calendar & celebrations) · Controversial Magic (Rituals, Astral rituals, Runaway ritual magic, Plants contaminated with runaway ritual magic, Exposure to runaway ritual magic, Nail tattoos) · Bird Symbols (Terror Birds, Ridiculous chicken)