There is a name whispered quietly and with fear even by the most depraved, the most evil, the least sane of the worshippers of Chaos. That name is Malal . . . the Renegade God of Chaos. Any man who dare look within the unholy black pages of The Great Book of Despair, that foul tome held sacred by worshippers of Chaos, would find the following words.

...And he that went before now came last, and that which was white and black and all direction was thrown against itself. Grown mightily indignant at the words of the Gods, Malal did turn his heart against them and flee into the chambers of space. . . And no man looked to Malal then, save those that serve that which they hate, who smile upon their misfortune, and who bear no love save for the damned. At such times as a warrior's heart turns to Malal, all Gods of Chaos grow fearful, and the laughter of the Outcast God fills the tomb of space . . . "

In eons past Malal was cast out from the bosom of Chaos by the other Gods, or else abandoned them of his own volition, no one is sure which. In any case, Malal's relationship to the other Gods of Chaos is a strange one. All Gods of Chaos pursue purposes that are wholly their own, yet only Malal occupies a position so resolutely parasitic upon his own unfathomable creed. To be a follower of Malal is to be a chaotic warrior bent upon shedding the blood of other chaotic creatures. As such, Malal is both feared and hated by the other Gods. Malal's worshippers, too, are loathed by other chaotics; they are outcasts beloved by neither the friends nor enemies of Chaos, dependent upon the least whim of their patron deity. Few men worship such a God; fewer still live long in his service. The bonds that tie master and servant ever drain upon the soul of the warrior, and it is a rare man that can loosen the bonds once forged.

Malal is a renegade Chaos God, who has turned against the others and is dedicated to their destruction. His followers, sometimes called the Doomed Ones, seek out and destroy the followers of other Chaos Gods wherever they may be found.

Malal is the Lost God, the Power of Chaos that represents Chaos' indiscriminate tendency toward destruction, even of itself. His dark temple is bleak and stark, compared to the edifices of the other Chaos deities. Witchfires burn at seemingly random places around his hall, and glimpses of futures that might be flicker within them. One long hall is dedicated to trophies collected. A Bloodthirster rages against the spikes driven into its limbs, nailing it to the wall. A plucked Lord of Change lies curled up in a very small cage, its bared flesh covered in welts. A Keeper of secrets floats blinded and deafened, denied any sensation whatsoever. And dozens of champions all displayed, important, cut off from their gods. Tallykeepers scurry through the darkened hall, inscribing the fate of those on display, and placing the newly arrived.

Malal loves using trickery to cause the other Chaos Gods to lash out against each other. A spell here, a broken vial there, a strip of fabric, an uprising, or a single word. These are the tools that Malal uses in his plot to undermine and destroy the Chaos Gods. Malal's powers come from the struggle of a single (relatively) powerless figure trying to fight a larger oppressor. Every slave that plots against his master, every worker that hates his boss, every peasant who looks with anger upon the places of the rich, every man who cries out to the uncaring gods about his placement in life feeds more power to Malal.

Malal is usually depicted as a towering humanoid with wolf-like and crocodilian features. His hands have six fingers apiece. Three eyes look out from his head. Hordes of teeth, Lion-like, Shark-like, Cow-like, and Rat-like, jut from his jaws.

The symbol of Malal is a skull, bisected down the middle, one half white, the other black. This can vary from very stylized, to very naturalistic or even bestial. His followers favor black and white, especially bisected patternings. The number eleven is associated with Malal.

Malal is not a god of warriors, nor of wizards, the decadent, or the desperate. He is the god that the lower classes turn to to avenge themselves on the higher classes who attempt to strangle and stop them from their true glory. He is also the god of those who have been wronged, but lack the power to correct this. His followers come from people whose hatred of Chaos becomes so strong, that they willingly bond with Chaos to fight it at it's own level. Many an overzealous official or priest has lost his soul to Chaos when he allowed his hatred to blind him to the price he was paying.

THE SHADOWLORD

"And thus the worlds where torn asunder and did join. And from the place of creation, the realm above was cast forth to the hinter. And lo, in the space between the forms, did the void above become as stone. And upon this new realm dwelt elder powers. Yet, cast forth from the void as they where, their powers where manifold diminished. Yet, such above us where the gods, as to make no matter to Manne below.

"Upon the void made real, powers grew as the form of the world below them swelled with energies, such as to nourish them into growth. And lo did they rise up, and, gathering those beneath them did make realms for themselves in the circle of darkness that hung above.

"Though at first weakened by his passage from the Great Void, our lord was not lost, and through power gained from the world below, rose up, greatest of the lords. And upon the Sphere of Great Darkness, he did stir, and became ruler of all, and all the gods upon the sphere where in his thrall, although betwixt themselves war did rage. And our lord looked beyond the sphere and did desire more. "However, the Lord of Dreaming Death stood betwixt him and the realms of Manne. And thus did our lord rise up, for he knew that the younger powers would ne'er allow him passage to the world below, and with him a full third of the powers of that realm of Shadow, and did declare war upon the void.

"And thus did they extend their powers to return home. " - from 'The Book Of The Shadow', circa 2013 IC

Shadowlord came from Morrslieb, the Chaos moon. Here dwell many such minor Chaos gods, cut off from the Realm of Chaos. Here, sometime before 2000 IC, a war occurred between the gods. Its loser was cast forth from the moon in a prison of Warpstone, eventually impacting with the city of Mordheim on [New Year's eve], 1999IC. The resulting crater burnt into the ground devastated the city, and shards of the prison scattered over the city. However, the shards where inexorably tied up to the powers of Shadowlord. Being his only link to the realm of chaos, they are bound up with his life force, hence becoming more than Warpstone. They are, in fact, Wyrdstone.

In time, a cult formed for this new god, although his powers where limited. Trapped in the crater until such time as all the Wyrdstone was gathered to him, he granted great favours to his followers, who scoured the city for the essence of their god, all the while performing vile acts to increase his power. Such tales, however, have since been told . . .

The Shadowlord's concern is power. Power over others, be this sociologically, or actual power by force and slavery. The corrupt tyrant, the sadistic torturer, and the callous slaver all give power to the Shadowlord. Every soul that cries in the night in horror or anguish fuels his might.

Shadowlord hates the other Chaos gods, their plans interfering with his. The Gods of Law are a problem only while he strives to re-make the world in his own image, whence he will join them to hold the world in perpetual agony, slavery and darkness.

(Note: The following information has been taking from the book "Something Rotten in Kislev" a book produced by Hogshed Publishing Ltd, under licence from Games Workshop Ltd, as a source book to the "Warhammer fantasy Role-Play" game)

(Note: Bolgasgrad is a city in Kislev who after the Tsar withdrew its garrison turned to worshipping Chaos gods and the dark arts of Necromancy to survive. The city lies south-west Of Praag and although no information about the city can be found in other books it would be fair to assume that the city would have been burned down by the forces of the Tsar as punishment for the cities links with Chaos)

ZUVASSIN - THE UNDOER

Zuvassin us a spoiler, constantly striving to undo the things which others have done and to soil the things which others seek to do. His brand of Chaos leads him to ensure that nothing turns out as expected, and that plans always go awry. He does not confine his sabotage to Chaos, but will quite cheerfully spoil anything for anyone; however, because he is a Chaos God who acts against Chaos, he has been classified by Human scholars as a Renegade God. He may appear to his followers in a variety of forms, often choosing the form of the thing they fear most, or a member of their own race who is hideously deformed. In any form he takes, he is always laughing.

Zuvassin's symbol is a double ended Y-shape, normally incomplete or incorrectly drawn in some way; a part may be missing, or something may have been added.

While his chief success to date have been in Bolgasgrad, Zuvassin has a handful of cults worshipping him throughout the Old World. Wherever people want things to go wrong, he is there to offer his services - and to make their plans go wrong in the process. He has even been known to take over cults which think they are worshipping other Chaos Gods, in order to revel in the confusion and misery of letting them down.

Like most of the other Chaos Gods, Zuvassin is worshipped secretly for the most part, in makeshift temples hidden in cellars or woodland clearings. The temple of the Ancient Allies in Bolgasgrad is the only Known temple in the Old World, but - as always - this does not mean that that there are others as yet undiscovered.

Zuvassin is nominally an enemy of all Chaos, including the other Renegade Gods, but he has been known to ally himself with other Gods of Chaos in order to spoil plans elsewhere; for instance, he might decide to help Khorne thwart Slaanesh (or vice-versa), if one of the Chaos Gods has a scheme which looks like it can't fail.

Zuvassin has no holy days as such, although in Bolgasgrad a regular service to him is held on Backertag.

Like most Chaos Gods, Zuvassin will never refuse anyone who is foolish enough to offer him their loyalty; even the most exhaustive of terms will not worry him, as he is confident of being able to make things go wrong if it suits him to do so.

Zuvassin imposes no strictures upon his followers, since any character who is truly imbued with his spirit would be able to make any instructions misfire.

NECOHO - THE DOUBTER

Necoho's Chaotic nature manifests itself in a contradiction which should logically make his existence impossible. He is a deity who stands against the whole idea of gods and religion. Needless to say, this means that his following is extremely small, even for an obscure Renegade Chaos God, and his name is only found in the oldest and most obscure of forbidden tomes. No doubt, this is the way Necoho likes it. As might be expected, Necoho almost never manifests himself in the physical world; if he does so he will take the form of a short plump old Human man, with a permanent expression of Ironic amusement.

Necoho has no known symbol

As far as is known, Bolgasgrad is the only place in the Old World where Necoho is worshipped.

As far as is known the Temple of the Ancient Allies in Bolgasgrad is the only one. Certainly it seems (from what little is known) that Necoho is as opposed to the idea of temples as he is to the idea of deities.

Necoho is generally opposed to all other cults of all kinds, although it is suspected that from time to time he may help one cult or hinder another if doing so would undermine the cult's credibility or status among its mortal followers.