I’m working on a lengthier review
of the book, but to start out with I’d like to share my top 10 history lore
reveals from the “World of Malifaux” chapter of the Through the Breach Core
Rules. It should go without saying but, if you want that sweet, sweet Malifaux
lore to remain unspoiled, this would be the time to turn around and go back. See
you next week for less spoilery content.
These were answers to a number of
questions that have been in the background of Malifaux’s canon for quite a
while now. I’m a lore nerd and this stuff makes me excited, so I thought I’d
share.
1) The First Undead
Titania is the very first undead creature in Malifaux. The energy she
channeled to defeat the Tyrants killed her (probably explaining why she isn’t
an unbeatable godling at this point, since she’s not alive anymore) and she
arose as an undead creature after destroying the Tyrants’ physical forms. Her
people locked her away after seeing what she could become inside of Nythera, a
structure that echoed the Kythera gateway through which the Grave Spirit had
nearly entered the world.
2) Path of the Dragon
The tyrant known as the Dragon was on Earth since shortly after Titania’s
time. Her servants, realizing that the tyrants’ essences were still around
despite their forms being broken, had started binding them away in prisons like
the Red Cage or Plague’s prison in the Necropolis. Seeing this coming, the
Dragon split itself in half and flung itself through the aether to Earth to
escape. It landed on Mount Etna in Sicily, triggering a massive volcanic
landslide and tsunami. He later took over a Cretan shaman to travel to Tibet
and, realizing he would burn out the physical body of any but the strongest humans,
he built a monastery there that would let him train replacements (eventually
ending in the current iteration, Shenlong.) Meanwhile, the Dragon’s trip
through the Aether weakened the barriers between the worlds, probably making it
possible for the breach to be formed in the first place.
3) The Neverborn on Earth
Malifaux stuff has been on earth for a long time. Some Neverborn got into
early North America and interbred with the natives, so Native Americans in this
world are likely to have at least some amount of Neverborn blood in them. This,
apparently, has some consequences when the Burning Man arrives later and
awakens this latent heritage in them. The Amazon rainforest had a handful of
Waldgeist wander into it in 220 AD. They thrived there and slowly wiped out
most of the indigenous human tribes in the region, leading to rumors in Europe
and east Asia that the deep forests are haunted with dangerous plant life. A
valley in Mexico was the site of a portal, through which the Aztecs saw the
blasted, burned ruins of a part of old Malifaux with still burning flames,
leading to the creation of their god Huitzilopochtli in 1332 AD. The
Horomatangi, a massive creature that served the Tyrant Meridion, was dumped
near New Zealand and fed on the Maori for a while before being poisoned and
sent into a deep sleep. And, of course, we know from The Other Side’s lore that
the Abyssinians had their own breach into Malifaux for a short time and had discovered
and reported on Soulstones long before the opening of the “first” Breach by the
Council in 1780.
4) Shez’uul and the Masamune
The first of the Tyrants to escape its bindings happened a long time
before humans came to Malifaux. Shez’uul was freed by a shaman of some kind,
and promptly possessed him. This ended predictably (the shaman burned out) but
he was able to sustain himself for a time by feeding on the blood of victims,
ending in its becoming a creature of flowing blood. The Nephilim managed to
beat him by turning their own blood into black ichor that would destroy red
blood. Rather than let itself be bound again, Shez’uul hurled himself to Earth
like the Dragon had previously done, landing in Kanagawa, Japan in 1293AD. It
bound itself to a Samurai Lord and forced him to slaughter his subjects to
supply him with blood. He was only then defeated when a sword was forged by
Goro Nyudo Masamune, the Masamune Nihonto. The blade cut Shez’uul away from his
host and bound him inside. That would have been the end of the story, but it
was stolen decades later and proceeded to influence its wielders to greater
feats of violence to feed itself. Eventually it passed into the hands of
Kenshiro, the Weeping Blade, a hero of the first human entry into Malifaux. It
played a key role in stopping December from escaping through the first Breach
to earth (though it cost Kenshiro’s life to do so.) It was then thrown back
through the breach and faded into the background of history before Zoraida
directed Viktoria Chambers to recover it (not knowing about the Tyrant within,
of course.) Though the Neverborn’s to kill her with a Doppleganger and claim
the weapon failed spectacularly, Viktoria, her newly acquired “sister,” and the
Masamune were able to foil December once again at Kythera. And they’ve been slingshotting
across battlefields and murder your whole crew in one turn ever since.
5) The Council
This has been discussed before, but we learn a lot about the Council of
wizards who were in charge of the first expedition from Earth into Malifaux.
Earth’s magic was dwindling, and so a group of sorcerors, wizards, warlocks,
shamans, etc. formed a group to try and restore it, travelling to the new world
and to Abyssinia to work on the problem. Eventually, they realized there was a
world beyond ours (probably because of the East African people’s experiences,
in large part) and combined their forces to punch a hole through to it. They
gathered in Santa Fe, New Mexico for whatever reason and performed the ritual
there, causing a massive explosion that killed many of them and supercharged
the survivors. These newly empowered magic users travelled through the new
Breach and were the first humans to enter Malifaux. They spread out, gained new
Malifaux power, but became the ruling power for humans in the city.
6) The End of the First Human Settlement
The time of the first humans in Malifaux came to an end due to December’s
first attempt to escape. Some of the Archmages from the Council went into the
Ten Peaks and, because they’re dumb, broke the bindings that were keeping him
sealed away. It then took over the strongest of them, who then either
subjugated or ate those archmages that remained. He then went to Malifaux city
because he wanted to feed on the energy of the breach to complete his ascension
to godhood, using a massive blizzard to conceal his arrival. Lilith and Nekima
arrived to stop him, defeating his followers, but December would have succeeded
if Kenshiro hadn’t arrived with the Masamune Nihonto to kill his host body. The
day was saved, but the two Nephilim sisters determined that the humans had to
go. In less than a decade, multiple Tyrants were already freed, and the witch
Zoraida offered to seal the place up with magic. Zoraida sealed the portal
while the Nephilim went through the city, butchering all the humans they found.
At the last moment, Nekima hurled one final corpse back through the gate after
scratching the word “Ours” into its chest.
7) The Black Powder Wars
There are quite a few more details about the war that happened Earthside
between the time of the two breaches. In a lot of ways, it’s like World War I
broke out a century earlier than it did in our history, sparked of course by
the sudden panic in the world when the flow of soulstones dried up. All the
nations of the world signed a series of fragile treaties after the first breach
closed, and a revolution in Eastern Europe triggered a series of these
alliances to be triggered. This drew the nations into a war that would spread
across the whole world. I very much enjoy the descriptions of how many of the
nations fought in the war, including combinations of cavalry and musket lines
along with magic, Spanish use of Necromancy, revolution in South America, and
much more. There’s also a lot of information on the history of the Three
Kingdoms (who, the book now explains, are Japan, China, and Vietnam. I always
figured Korea was in there, but I was incorrect.) They stayed independent for
most of the war but were eventually drawn in to attack Russia, Eastern Europe,
and the Western US. When the dust settles, the world ends up underneath the
Guild’s bootheels despite the war not really causing national borders to end up
moving much. The Council imploded, fractionated, and ended up becoming the
Guild because they could control the Soulstones everyone was fighting over in
the first place.
8) Rise of the Union
When Book 1 starts (in M1E) all four factions are in place and ready for
action. However, the story of how the unsafe working conditions in the mines
led to the M&SU’s rise is interesting as well, particularly since it really
should have been the story of “the good guys.” After all, the original workers
in Malifaux were convicts, so the Guild really didn’t care that much for what
happened to them. When more independent workers started to come to handle the
unexpected workload, these new men and women banded together more out of a need
for mutual safety than anything else. The Guild didn’t realize the danger this
posed until they ordered a group of miners underground during a torrential
rainstorm, leading to their being trapped for days as the mines flooded. Of
those that escaped their leader was not Victor Ramos, but a man named Erick
Ulish. He then went on to rally the workers around the idea of standing
together in mutual support to demand safer working conditions and better pay.
They formed…not the M&SU, but the United Miners Union. Rather than rely on
the Guild to do the work, they used the money from membership dues to hire
engineers who did the work of improving the conditions, including Dr. Ramos
whose Hollow Marsh Pumping Station prevented another flood from happening ever
again. Given how important the engineers were to the cause, the union was
expanded to incorporate them (which is how they became the M&SU.) But,
after that, an “accident” leads to Ulish’s death and Ramos’ ascent to the
leadership. After that, of course, the organized crime part of the M&SU
grows up, the Arcanists arise from under their cover, and basically things go
really wrong really fast from there.
9) Rise of the Ten Thunders
I also enjoyed the discussion of how this faction secretly came to power
in the shadows of everything else. The Guild had been forced to close the whole
city off after the Event, meaning the people in Malifaux City needed food,
water and supplies and the people earthside needed the Soulstones that had been
cut off. The Arcanists made a good living smuggling stones home, but the
Katanaka crime family was able to grow up in the shadows of the ignored
district of the city, the Little Kingdom, and solidify their power there by
helping people the Guild had neglected. They became the Ten Thunders to
disguise their origin, bringing their people through a secret, second Breach of
which only they knew or were able to use. They grew quickly, infiltrating the
factions of Malifaux and insinuating themselves in the city. Their power
reached its zenith when they saved the city from “a Necromancer” (read:
Nicodem) who was trying to take advantage of the chaos following
Governor-General Kitchner’s failed ascension to power. He had killed off a
large number of the other Necromancers in the city, adding their undead to his
own, and attacked the Guild Enclave itself. Things looked doomed until the
Thunders agents attacked in the flank, scattering the Resurrectionist forces
and saving the city. The Ten Thunders have, however, contributed to the
instability in the city as well. Lynch’s Honeypot casino is spreading dangerous
drugs with nefarious purposes. They’ve brought the Tibetan religious leader
Shenlong with them, not knowing that he is currently possessed by the Dragon
who is all too happy to return to his home.
10) Death of the Governor General and Birth of the Burning Man
After the Event was triggered by Hamelin, the released Aetheric energy from
Cherufe’s red cage slamming into the ground gave a number of people the ability
to ascend into avatar status. Some of these we know of, given that our masters
were able to transform for several years prior to M2E’s release. The
Governer-General, however, had the same ability, though he kept it hidden. He
was hungry to push further and ascend to become a tyrant. He would have
achieved this goal, but McCabe sabotaged the ascension ritual, substituting one
of the relics with the bones of a Tyrant. When Governor-General Kitchner tried
to draw on the relics’ power, these bones gave him too much power, and the
ritual spiraled beyond his ability to control. Cherufe, sensing this, broke
away from Sonnia Criid and combined with him, melding their two essences
together to create the Burning Man. He travelled through space and time,
arriving in Earth over San Francisco (there are more details about this event
in the adventure “A Fire in the Sky.”) His arrival triggers the great 1906
earthquake, and leads to the creation of the fourth army in The Other Side, his
Cult. He wakes the Horomatangi from its sleep. He triggers the Neverborn blood
in the Native Americans to wake up, giving many of them shapeshifting
abilities. And he weakens the barriers between the worlds, triggering the
arrival of the Gibbering Horde in London. This chaos was the final straw for
many of the nations of earth, who had already started pulling away from the
Guild. While they have control of things in Malifaux, their authority earthside
is waning significantly. India, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Abyssinia, and of
course the British Empire are now breaking away, with the Guild only able to
serve as advisors and facilitators for the coming war Earthside.
I
don’t have a great way to end this post, so I hope you enjoyed some of these
lore revelations as well. Next time, we’ll probably be talking about Collodi
and tabletop crunch again.
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