Adeptus Ridiculous - MALCADOR THE SIGILLITE: He's Him | Warhammer 40k Lore

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://shop.orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousMalcador the Sigillite, also known as Malcador the Hero by decree of the Emperor of Mankind, was the powerful psyker and scholar who served as the Imperial Regent when the Emperor was away from Terra or otherwise engaged and also as the first Grand Master of Assassins during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy eras.By the dawn of the 31st Millennium, Malcador was over 6,700 standard years old and could remember his date of birth to the second. His title of "Sigillite", meaning "seal-bearer" in an ancient Terran language, was a measure of the esteem and trust the Emperor had in Malcador, for he was empowered to speak and act in the Emperor's stead with the Emperor's full authority wherever he went.Support the show

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Adeptus Ridiceless podcast. My name is D.K. Diamante's. His name is Bricky. And oh boy, grim dark in the morning, love it. If you also want to support the podcast monetarily, maybe heading over to Patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous, where you get access to the Discord, bloopers if they happen, all of our posters in crispy digital form, whatever the deaf is, because I've been told HD just doesn't do them enough justice.

They're so good. Patreon.com slash adeptus ridiculous. Check it out. Let's go. Bricky, how is it? Me, when watching, like, VR porn, HD just doesn't cut it, man. HD just isn't enough. Hey, what you do in your free time is your own business, all right?

That time is certainly free. Check out also down in the description. You can go out to Orchidate.com link down there, or you can go to the associated link that shows all of the great merch options for Dennis Ridiculous as well, including lots of apparel, dice, objective markers, desk mats, and so on. Good stuff all over the place and read Flight of the Eisenstein. I always used to call Einstein. Wait, I thought we were doing a faultless blade.

Oh, crap, well, read the flight one also, but also read Faultless Blade. Specifically, read Faultless Blade first. Have you started Faultless Blotless? I don't want to get too off. have you started it at all? No, but I've started Flight of the Ice. All right. Sick, sick, sick, let's go.

My bad. I'll get there. We'll get there. We'll get there. I mean, you can just make an announcement that, oh, what's that? Sorry, we're switching. If you want. Nah, no, we'll see.

Okay. Okay. I have actually been building up my Emperor's children, though. Hey. The box set came in, and unfortunately, GW is doing that horrendous thing where they only release half of the range, but the codex is out. So I'm like,

yay, I've got my tormentors and my infractors and my noise marines and my lord exultant. And you know what I don't have? I don't have my disharmonist or my flawless blades or my lucius or my fulgrim. And so I'm a little peeved about that. In time, Bricky, just be patient. I'm not patient They bought the codex out

And they don't have the stuff Is that the one that comes in that really cool box set That comes with like the coin or something I don't remember seeing a coin So probably not Okay But the other stuff, it is a cool box set I was thinking about getting it

Just because it looks like a great display piece Anyway, this is not about The Emperor's children Though I did want to mention that the kits are very nice And I enjoyed building them Except for the noise marines, they're quite a pay in the butt. Okay. But today is a very different episode involving the Emperor's children, but it does involve

the Emperor. Are you ready for your quote, D.K.? Yes, and don't worry, Shy. I literally don't remember anything else from that one post you put up, so I'm not going to get spoiled today and say Corpstarch. That's true, because it's not corpstarch. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

The Emperor and I have a debate. he said. It has been running for a long time, and I miss our discussions now that he is gone. Such a powerful intellect, blunt, but powerful. And very occasionally, even a sense of humor of a sort. Would you credit that? Hassan listened cautiously. He didn't understand what he meant when he said the emperor was gone. He was not. Surely he was not. Where would he have gone to? Hassan wanted to ask, but he kept on talking. just as if the absence of master of the mankind from the eternal seat of power were a trivial thing, hardly worth lingering over. Hmm. This seems kind of vague.

Because this is like, oh yeah, it's maybe it's about like the logistics of the emperor actually on the throne, his current state. Could be Malkador, because it's just Malkador recanting. emperor stuff hmm let's just go with a malcador because I think it's malcador telling this guy about the emperor just recanting it but that doesn't seem right either

see I can't tell if like that you like that correct because you're correct or if you like your subconscious unlocked the photograph of the corpse starch even though you didn't remember and you're like hmm old man in robe well who else would talk like that about the emperor though.

Yeah, not many people. Yeah, Malacador's kind of like the only one. But yeah, so I'm assuming we're talking about Malcador today. But yeah, I wasn't sure if it was about him or about like the emperor, the emperor on the seat. And, you know, and so I'm just, I'm just going with the easy bet of Malcador. Heads to my bets on it being about Malcador. You're correct. We can finally talk about the Malcador assault tank.

Let's go. Clearly that quote is about an assault tank, obviously. Legends, gone from the codex. No, actually, yes, today is about Malcador. Let's go. Let's go. It is about Malcador. Malcador, the Sigelite, or as opossum as title's episode,

Malcador the Gigalite. I'm sure we can do some... Because he's a gigad-chat. Yeah, I'm sure we can do some kind of gigacad meme with it. Yes, Malcador. So, yeah, we also do call. them gilf at times we do well we as an us not you but maybe you'll call later i was gonna say we go on malcador the gilfalite nope that did that worked in my head when i

first thought about it and then i said it out loud and i was like nope you should just shut up malcador the gilful light kind of works a little bit all right sorry anyway yes so it is the malcador episode and i feel like normally i preference preference episodes with like asterisks and things of that nature. But this one needs to be highly preface. Preface. Preface? Preface. Okay.

Malacador is a very weird character. The thing about Malcoador that is particularly different than the emperor is the emperor was written by like 14 different authors and so becomes horrendously inconsistent as a character. He loves his sons. He hates his sons. They're just tools. Wait, he has a little humanity in him.

He's a horrible tyrant. He cares about humanity. it's just like, it's so wishy-washy. Yeah, it depends on what the writer needs. Does the writer need a tyrant? Oh, the emperor has tyrant qualities. Does the emperor need a justifiably good leader? Oh, well, the emperor kind of has those two.

It's kind of like the power scale of the space Marines. It depends on what the author needs, right? It also is very dependent on, yes, as I as a perspective, who's the one looking at them is also a very important aspect of it all. True. You know, like Master of Mankind had a lot of custodians and stuff. And how they looked at the emperor was very different than how someone else, like the last church guy. You know, like it's a lot.

It's emperor's a hard one. Malkador is interesting because Malkador, much like the emperor, is inconsistent, but not in the same way. His personality is actually very consistent or mostly consistent throughout all of the, various books and media. Um, but he himself is so shady and, and so un, like, purposely obtuse that what we actually can confirm about Malkador is very hard. Yeah, I was going to say every picture you kind of see of Malkador, he doesn't,

he doesn't even, he doesn't even, he's not even portrayed in art as, he, he, he looks shady. like he's always got that hood he's always got a very menacing grimace on his face he always looks like sort of um you know in Disney movies there's always like a vizier or an advisor that's like oh of course I love the people

but they're very clearly evil have a snake staff and are draped in red and black and it's like you're actually evil I can tell Malcador gives those vibes so hard Malcador is a weird guy he's a very weird guy I don't know I can't utilize utilize the phrases of like good and evil in in this world because like I feel like the good

part is is not too commonly used in the world of 40k yeah notice also that I don't know if that's fan I don't know if that image of macador's fan art or not but notice how his throne has two skulls that say two and 11 aka the missing legions the missing Primarks and Legion I don't know if that's fan art or if that's official art but that's official art like holy hell man Yeesh

Also right tell me that he does not give off Jafar vibes totally does He has a little bit of a Jafar vibe yeah anyway so let's let's try to talk a little bit about Balcador to understand him so we will never

and I'll start that off with we will never understand him Malcador is incredibly confusing and mysterious purposely whereas the emperor had the issue the meta version of like issues with writing and various things like that. Malcador is purposely obtuse and extremely mysterious. I mean, the emperor is kind of as well

because knowing what he would be would kind of ruin the mystery. But this time it feels like maybe he was slightly more planned out. Okay, this is intentional mystery. Whereas, yeah, it feels like the emperor is just overwritten. There's too many cooks. in the kitchen. You kind of do that. It's the WoJack Bell curve again.

You realize that he's just a bit overwritten. But Malcudor specifically is ancient, alive during the Unification Wars, which if my timeline remembers correctly is like the 23rd millennia. Let's see if I can give this right. Unification Wars timeline, 40K. You know, when we were reading the horse heresy books, one of the things I have appreciate it. And I didn't realize it until I got the physical copies because for some

reason I really like having like in my hands physical copy is like at the beginning of it. They will actually give you a timeline of like the millennias which is really nice actually. Ah crap. Unification Wars was like was like the 29th millennium. Damn. Oh right. It was

the beginning of the age of strife I think is when was like the 23rd or 2025th I think. It doesn't matter. Point point being is that the dude is old as shit. He is. But, like, he lived during the events of the Unification Wars, but it's a consume that he is significantly older that, like, around M23 era.

And we'll get to that in a moment. But the dude is super damn old. That's the one big part about him. And there is mostly not a whole lot of actual history involving him, and most of it is misdirection. There is a part where the con is talking to Malcador. And he's talking about how his influence over the Imperium and the emperor. And he said, quote, he told me that you are Brahma al-Cador, last of the Sigillites, the cursed wanderer, the perpetual.

Horace knows what you have done, the atrocities that you and your secret order heaped upon mankind during old night. There are some legends that even you could not burn. Have no doubt, my brother will seek to unmask you before the end. He will reveal to all that the imperial truth was founded on lies from the very beginning and that the galaxy cannot therefore be justly ruled by our father or any who support it. So that's something called the last council. That's Jagatai Khan and Malcador. Unfortunately, also that is really funny.

The Wojack on the right hand side of the bell curve is in fact, looks like Mountcador. Maccador, the sigillite, yep. That's very funny. The thing to take from that information, though, is that the secret or order was responsible that he was part of was responsible for more war crimes in a very notable war crimey area which is uh you know the old night so yeah that's a pretty war crimey area also the name brahm al-cador brahm al-cador brahm al-cador yeah al-cador a little on the nose yeah but this more likely this is also malcador possibly being a little bit of a setup because like

Like, it's not that surprising considering how old his life is that this kind of ruse is intentionally made by him to kind of misdirect again. This is a very conspiracy theory episode. Well, it kind of has to be, right? Because that's just the kind of person that Malcador is. He's very secretive. He's very, I mean, just look at him. He looks literally like the personification of cloak and dagger. Yeah.

Yeah, not the Marvel character. No, but nice. But yeah, so I imagine it is very conspiracy theory heavy when we talk about Malcador, yeah. So also to go along with that, it kind of goes to the concept that in order to understand him, it's hard to know his era is past. So we're going to try to understand like him, maybe a bit more. Yeah. So obviously very early history, Malcador, according to himself,

remembers when he was born to the exact second. That is some... Those people. He's one of those people. Somewhere in the M23, 6700 years before the heresy. Unreliable narrator, naturally we have to do that kind of thing.

And so the best gift we have to understanding Malcador being almost 7,000 years old, is that the emperor is his best button. We know that he was an advisor to the emperor during the unification war, which is 29 millennium. And he believed that the emperor could be the one to bring the rest of terror to heal. We also know that the imperial palace was set up in the Himalayan mountain range, which also has a little bit of a statement to do with the whole idea of the Sigillites. So the Sigilites is a post-old knight era time of the Imperium.

the term of sigillite was assigned to Malcudor originally assumed as his significance as a seal bearer, sigillite. However, according to the lore, the sigilites were an organization on Terra prior to the unification wars. It is heavily implying that the sigilites were essentially our version of like the Illuminati, the shady underground organization that had their hands in most of the doings in the war. world. Now, this also included a couple of things, like the extent to which we don't quite know, but one of the biggest parts of it was the preservation of historical human artifacts, weapons, and technology from the events of the war. And those artifacts were kept in the Himalayan Mountains, or the Himalasian is what they've renamed it,

as a giant fortress due to the difficult terrain and very thin air. Much like their attempts at renaming it was indeed Himalasian. Oh, brother, this guy stinks! But the Imperial, so obviously with the thin air makes the techno-barbarians harder to reach it. So the Imperial Palace was built on the foundation of the Sigilite compound at the time. So Malcador served as a custodian. for these artifacts. And luckily, there are a couple of examples. So he's walking with Korax. And so Korax is like, you know, what is this kind of place? What manner of victories

are celebrating? The most important kind, said the Sigelite, joining Korax beside the shattered bowl. He pointed with a skeletal finger at the contents of the cabinet. One of the first few pieces of pottery ever made by human hand, hundreds of thousands of years old. Then, so he kind of waxes a lyrical about the importance of making the bowl, like making the wheel. Yeah. And then Corax says, all of these are technological achievements,

first steps into the new epochs of human history. Most are technological or scientific. A few cultural, said Malcador. He waved his hand towards the far into the hall, where a number of paintings, statues, carvings, tapings, And the tapestries and other works of art were stored. So some of the placards that are mentioned in this area include the navigational circuit from the first warp-capable starship, or the Titan rover and the, and I quote, Mendelian Eucharotic. Mendelian Eucharotic Genesis Formula.

Oh. Which allowed for the first ever cloned human. Huh. You know, when you mention this place, I figured there'd be a lot more doomsday weapons because it's Malkador, it's Sigelites, it's very secret Illuminati. I figured it'd be like

Farnsworth's Museum of Doomsday devices that he plans on using. I mean, certainly, I mean, as we go through it, that certainly could be the case, but also, it also includes certain things of the first set of power armor. But, like, I imagine most of the doomsday weapons are hidden down in the shadow.

keeper area in the Taron vaults. True. You don't want those just on display for your primarks to see. Yeah, I mean, everyone yet you're going to show those off to, Korax is probably the right call. Probably. But like, I would very much not

recommend showing it off to like Conrad. Alfarious. Or Angron. Or Angram. The Angron want to know what to do with it. True. He just bash it with his head. He just head butt the glass. And it would blow up. But we also have a couple other things, like the first Bible.

The Rosetta Stone, he has the Mona Lisa and sunflowers by Van Gogh. He probably had some Bob Marley posters in his dorm rooms also. But, you know, hey, don't worry about that. Totally, totally, totally. So, you know, it's always the Mona Lisa. It is always the Mona Lisa every damn time. At least they snuck in the sunflowers by Van Gogh. True.

It's not, honestly, I think I would. would have respected it more if it was just the sunflowers, not the Mona Lisa. Yeah. But obviously, him going around collecting a lot of the artifacts from that side of the world is important. And you can see it as either a noble effort to preserve the history of humanity or one could argue that it is a way to control the history of humanity. Because the idea of rewriting history is a very Malkidorian thing to do. Yes, it is.

Yes, it is. So if you go back to the history of Malcador specifically, Malcador was there during the creation of the primarks. And when they were scattered, Malcador was like, eh, try again. We shouldn't bother. And the emperor, of course, was like,

nah, no, I could sense the primarks, which was quite surprising to Malcador because he realized that the emperor might be a more attuned cyker than he assumed. But of course, Malcador was helping him oversee the management of Tara and the preliminary stages of the Great Crusade. But, of course, the emperor required the full interstellar attention for the crusades. So he left Malkador to do all of the management of Terra directly, forcing him to work a full-time job, a terrifying concept for D.K.

It is, truly. Oof. That was a posthum. That was not me. Oh, okay. I was going to say, it did send a shiver down my spine, so you're not wrong. I'm going to start using whenever any kind of joke is made. in the script to be apossism.

Apossimism. Apossism. I was going to do possumism, but it's too long. That's fair. That's fair. This, of course, made him relatively lonely, Malcolmador, that is. Naturally. He was accompanied by a couple of folks.

The first one being Lehman Russ for a bit, which he took under his wing to help acclimate Fenris into imperial culture. Also, Malcudor kind of looks like Odin at times. So, I kind of got to have that little polka. there you gotta have Odin hanging out with Thor, you know? Naturally. Malcador's other friend,

this one always gets me, Malcolmador's other friend and confidants with his time was Eil Entor, or Eentor. It was an Eldar that Malcador would confess his deepest, darkest secrets to as a confidant.

This would drive the Eldar mad and have himself to a minute. Whoa! But don't you worry, Macador kept cloning him and then he would keep on because of the horrible things Macadour would tell him. Men will literally clone an elf

to trauma dump on instead of going to therapy. That's, okay, that's wild. Like, I get being lonely, but going to the extreme length of damn, I have so much trauma, even the Eldar self-terminate. Let me clone it and do it again? Well, here's the question, right?

Does the Eldar... Off to terminate quickly because their feelings are so sensitive and the things that he mentioned are so grueling? Or is it even worse where it's so bad that an Eldar would normally not even bother with certain, like, feelings, but his ones are so insane that goes past their ability, you know? I like to believe it is so bad. Because, like, it's Malcador. he's probably got some shady bullshit. Yes. So that does appear to be a very humorous thing where he's like, God damn it.

He took for two minutes. Again, let me revive him. I need a buddy to talk to. Jesus. Get a therapist, man. So obviously, the Malcador as a person was the voice of the emperor and act as a bit of an analog in his diplomatic capacity. But this was a very important power as the heresy started to break out. out.

Of course, during the actions of the heresy, whether it's intentional or not, the heresy, that is, the emperor himself tasked Malcador to train individuals of character, skill, and determination to begin fighting the inquisitive or have an inquisitive nature, hunters who might seek the witch, the traitor, the mutant, and the Zinos. Sure. This, of course, was known as Malcador's knight's errands, and started with the accruement of Nathaniel Garrow, the Death Guard, Lacton crews of the Lunar. the Wolfs and the Sister of Silence

a Mendaria Kendall which knights errant long deep dive we've already talked about once it basically was the initial foundation of the Grey Knights Right yep yep yep so that was already clear we're already familiar with that one Yep yep yep

Um though of course on the above The heretic the mutant and the Zenos What does that sound like? Sounds like the Inquisition Damn straight it does And Malcador most definitely found out of the Inquisition for many of reasons One, the sigillites kind of sound like the Inquisition.

Old Illuminati underhand current of everything, you know. Mm-hmm. They sure do. Secondarily, Malcador's sigil, which the eye is very much the inquisitorial eye, the rosettes. I was going to say, yeah, that's the thing that's in his hand in that one picture shy posted, right? Where it's very close to the Inquisition symbol, yeah. Yeah. And obviously, Malkador being the shady asshole that he is.

It is clear, like, clearly he founded the Inquisition. We already talked a lot about this. There is also the second theory about the Inquisition's founding, which is figuring out what to do after the emperor was placed on his throne, where some members believe that it was like, it kind of started the whole Puritan and radical inquisitors. Yeah. But I think that's less, less so of a different theory and more so of just like a split off, like the Inquisition was founded.

And then after that, they kind of split up. off into their own dealings. Mm-hmm. But, you know, the first eight space marines became a foundation for the Grey Nights, and then there were four humans, which, whole Lord. Zaranchexanthus, Moriana Mujasin, Galen Sadozy, and Khaled Hassan. Sorry. Yep, that's, welcome to G-dub.

Welcome to GW naming schemes. It's either something that is a blatant rip-off or something that is just impossible to say. Also, there were two more important founding members, a Lemuel Gorman, known as Promeus, and then, of course, there was another one founding member of the Inquisition, known as a Kirill Cinderman. Hey, Cinderman, our boy, let's go. So obviously, I'm not getting too into the whole thing of the Inquisition, but what was most important is that Malcador basically made the Inquisition along with the Grey Knights and created the Shadiest organization

Ever. Yep. Americans when hearing a foreign name. Shy, listen. To be fair, these are a little different than just foreign names, right? Like Zemindak Zirdalbiden. Bluffshito. Yeah, as a space marine, is a little different than just a foreign name.

To be fair. I will say, even if they're not even as hard as some foreign names, I think the issue is that GWs and pronounced them like I normally think they pronounce them. Yeah, with, with, um, the weird pronouncese and hyphens everywhere. And um, louts and the whole deal. Yep. But regardless of the source of the story, Malcolm Dore's major influence on the Inquisition is, is very much undeniable.

Um, and he also did a few other things. Uh, now this is, I'm testing you on your knowledge a little bit. What is the council of Nike? Council of Nike is where they were like, hey, that psych or shit is communing with the warp. Don't like that. Can't do that. You should stop doing it. Magnus, please stop doing it.

I'm training you for the inevitable trivia episode we do with Poor Hammer. Hey, last time we did it, I went, I did, I went like five for six. Yeah, okay, that was the board game, though. Oh, oh, oh, oh, an actual trivia show, huh? Well, we have to figure out who's the better host. Is it me or Brad? Which co-host knows better? You know, it's probably you, but the subject that you're trying to teach also plays a large part.

Because, like, you might be an amazing teacher, but if you're talking to a brick wall, there's only so much you can do. I don't know if I'd go as far as say amazing teacher, but it would be a humorous thing to work with. Anyway, regardless, after the council of Nike, he was very clear, Malcador was very clear like, all right, this is not good. Like, yeah, we made this council, but I don't like really trust them. So he issued something called the Order of Observance, which is what added chaplains to each of the various legions, mainly just to maintain the spiritual morale of the Legion, which is a double irony because chaplains were initially. used by the word bears. And also, chaplains have eventually become a

spiritual leader and enforcer of hate, like a Leandroos, for example. Yeah. Malcador also in secret helped make the grand, or the officio assassinorum, which, I mean, that's pretty shady.

Yeah, that's really shady. Where we're just going to swoop in, take kids, and send him off to be assassins because maybe they've got the touches. Yeah, it's a little shady. It's a little shady. The officio assassinorum is arguably the shadiest organization, I would say, because even the grandmaster, I don't think he even shows his face anywhere.

It's a very weird organization of the assassin-oram. We don't dive too deep into it. I think Assassin-Norm Kingmaker is the closest we ever got to really learning more about it. Oh, wow, really? That's the only time we really learn about the Assassins in, like, depth is the Kingmaker book? I think it might be the most depth. I mean, it's a weird organization. They don't talk too much about it because they can't sell an army about them.

True, true. But anyway, so when the siege of terror broke out, of course, Malcador was struggling heavily on a physical and mental level from the sheer administration that he was having to deal with right now. And obviously, when the horse heresy came out, Malcador believed fully in a scorched earth policy. Take no prisoners, kill everyone. Yeah, I imagine he would.

It's also very, very, very heavily implied because the emperor says this, and Malcador's also said this, that they were fully expecting some kind of heresy to happen. And it would give them a lovely excuse to basically Thunder Warrior all of the space marines. Oh, I wasn't aware that Biggie and Malkador were kind of like, yeah, at some point, one of these little bastards. is going to turn on us and that's, hey, perfect reason for us to just wipe the slate clean and start over on the space Marines? It's very often

stated that like, oh, Malkador is like yeah, well, they are just blunt tools. They talk very similarly to the Thunder Warrior thing. Also, custodians, all kinds of custodians have always talking about how, God, killing

space Marines is so easy, dude. Right. was Master of Mankind, right? Where they're just like, wow, man, it's so easy for the custodians to kill space marines. It's almost like this is what we were built for. Yeah, they are particularly known for killing space marines. True, true. And so that is a big part of it.

Well, like, okay, clearly they were most, there's a, is very heavily implied that both Malcador and Biggie were prepping to murder all of the space marines in Primarchs once the crusade and humanity's reign has. had been established. In fact, yeah, I think Valador was also very open to that. But the inclusion of chaos and the speed at which the heresy began through their initial plans very much in disarray. Ah.

So it was just, it was too much, too fast, and they really couldn't go forward with the whole wipe out all the space marines and primarks thing. They weren't quite prepped, we'll say that. Mm-hmm. Okay. One of the other major shifts that is kind of interesting is that the worship of the emperor, for a while, Malcador was like, yeah, don't view Biggie as a god that defies the emperor as well. It's stupid him.

But as he started seeing chaos and chaos beings being brought together by the fuel of belief, Malcador was like, maybe we should do religious-like faith in the emperor because that would give him further strength. But he didn't really have a lot of time for that one. You know? So Malkador fully believes that the power of belief in faith is going to like jumpstart and give Biggie like a kickstart of power? After he was noticing everything happening with the chaos because he was like, oh, damn. Look at how much power chaos is getting by the fuel of belief and religious like faith. What if we did the same thing for emperor to fight against that?

Of course, the emperor was like, no way, Jose. Sure. Is him saying that what fuels? because I've heard a lot of people come up to me and be like, oh yeah, you know, Big E could be like, you know, a pseudo-chaos god of faith. Is this like one of the things that sort of spurns that like fan theory on because even Malcador is like, ooh, it works for chaos.

It could work for Big E. I don't even think it's, I don't even think it's a theory. I mean, at this point, with how much we have been, even before the end and the death books, I genuinely feel as if like there was no, there was no way we ever would have not, like, known this. The power of belief is so clearly evident in so many aspects of Warhammer, particularly when it comes to the chaos gods. And the way the sisters operate, the orcs, Sonesh. Yeah, like Sinesh was birthed that way.

So, I mean, it makes complete sense that the emperor is getting. power from belief. There's a lot of weird things he does on the throne. They probably shouldn't be able to do because of probably that emperor's, like, belief stuff. But Malcador didn't believe that Biggie was a god. He just saw it like, this is a practical approach. This is a sign that we got to do because chaos can do it,

and therefore we should try to spurn it our way. Okay. So it's more he just wants to, he just wants to juice up Biggie. He's not thinking Biggie's a god. He's just like, oh, yeah, belief will give him a jump. Okay. Yeah. It is a more important thing for him in that way.

Gotcha. Okay. But so moving from there, later on during the siege, Malcador and another perpetual named Olivia Sorika intercepted Magnus. And as a way to distract him, he convinced him to play a regicide game. Now, this is post-Prospero. Magnus is looking for the shards of his humanity, if you remember that after the Lehman Rust stuff.

Um, this is a bit of a, of a tangent here, but, but one of the important things here that is matter, what matters is that Magnus basically gets, gets laughed at and, and tricked by Malcador. And so Magnus just kills Malcador just unleashes all of his theory and just burns him to a charred black skeleton. Ooh. And, and molten bone. Yeah. Now, Magnus is genuinely stronger than Malcador, right? because the throne was made for Magnus and he's the only son that could sit on it

aside from Biggie and Malcador can only sit on that thing for what like an hour Yeah, sit on that thing I believe so probably yeah it's tough it's tough Malcador's psychic powers are really strong

he is he's no joke but it is Magnus it is Magnus but it's hard to tell because like Malcador's old and Magnus is young and red And one-eyed One-eyed and weird

Also, one of Magnus's sorcerers Shot shot the other person, Sarika, and Magnus took this very poorly and disintegrated him on an atomic level. But the main thing to take away from this part is that Malcador in this situation appears to be genuinely dead. Oh.

But Syrika is a perpetual. And as she came back to life, conveniently, Perpetuals have the ability to transfer their immortal essence into another as a means of self-sacrifice. Right, I know. And so Malcador was then revived.

Sarika died in his place, and Malcador would be haunted by this thing forever. It's very strange, but essentially the main reason why they come back to life is because they photosynthesize like mushrooms. Okay. All right, whatever.

So at this point, Malacador is an honest to God perpetual. Like, Magnus killed him. Perpetual's like, oh, no, I revived, but Malacador didn't, and then just... I'm not quite sure. I mean, he is photosynthesizing like mushrooms, as we know, because mushrooms do photosynthesize. Okay. That is what they do. It's what I've been told in biology and by the crackhead across the street.

But I... So here's the thing. I don't know because Malcador is like 6,700 years old. Maybe he always was a perpetual. Maybe that's why it haunted him because he's like, damn it, Sirica, you dummy, I could have lived. I'm no, I'm fine. Yeah, well, that's what I was going to ask too,

because I was like, isn't he living this long because we're assuming he's a perpetual? And I was like, why is she? Wasn't he? I don't. I don't know. I think Malcador is a perpetual. I think he has been a perpetual. is his thing.

So what the self-sacrifice of Sarika giving him into his body as a perpetual? I don't know. I very much don't believe that this is when it happens because this is only like, you know, a very short time before he is on the golden throne. Yeah. But it's, again, intentionally vague. Shady and, yeah. And shady and weird because Maccador is shady and weev.

Yeah. Okay. So, like one of the, for example, But there's also an interesting thing where Jagatai Khan and Mortarian are attacking each other. Mortarian impales the Khan on his scythe and the con is a baller and shoves himself closer to Mortarian to then cut his head off. But the Khan himself was taken to Malcador so that Malcador could revive him and he tried but couldn't. And though therefore the emperor was the one who ended up doing it and had to intervene because the second powers weren't strong enough. I don't understand.

There's also the question of the, is the emperor perpetual? Why is he keeping on the throne? Why don't we just kill him? Is he being escaped alive by faith as much as the psychers? I don't know. Stop asking questions. It doesn't matter.

The one thing G.W. hates more than anything, when the fan base asks questions. I mean, I'm the one asking questions right now. So obviously then there's the Golden Throne itself. There is a very, there is a little kill switch on it. The Tal is one of the seven hammers. A Vulcan kill switch which basically blows up Terra as like if I can't have it, no one can type thing. And at this point, Malcador is very much like, oh, okay, it's time.

It's very accepting. he was saying his goodbyes as he stood on the sat on the throne to Vulcan Dorn Sanguinius he basically said do not mourn he kind of looks around and he's just like I'm old I'm tired like I'm this is my final everlasting gift to mankind

is this here and that's it so it's very much just like all right I've been waiting time to go even the emperor himself just doesn't make any kind of reply he's very much overwhelmed apparently by it

but even for the emperor might be surprising because he's a dick but you know true but it is Malcador and Malcord has just been there forever and you know him doing that is kind of like whoa

easy buddy well just clone yourself another Eldar and get over it Bell the uh that was like the whole general. Malcador is like just walking into a room and there's like eight just dead Eldar there.

They all, they all for two minutes. Damn it. Bring them in. Then servers with like like bio gel bring in like three more Eldar to, to complain to. Biggie's watching the whole thing. He just walks.

He, his, his stroll, his golden stroller just rolls in. He sees eight dead elders. Like, ooh, rough day, Malkador.

Tough, tough day. You want to talk about it, Pat? He's like, please don't talk to me about it. Look what happens. Yeah. But obviously at this point, Malcador just can't quite handle the golden throne.

He's being ripped apart at an atomic level, is what it said. And so he was very aware that, like, as the emperor was being dragged back up to the throne, as his body is literally wasting away. He says, it will be agony. I can vouch for that. I have tasted but a brief moment of that attorney. and that is more than enough. May your death live forever, my friend.

There is nothing immortal about this. Oh, wow. I mean, I knew being on the Golden Throne was not happy, happy fun times, but, oh, man. Sheesh, that's grim. So, in the end of that, obviously, that is the end of Malkador. His soul is disintegrated,

along with the Golden Throne. general stuff we've already talked about, but Malacador's end, as far as we're aware, appears to be here. Like, like, it doesn't, this seems to be quite the finality in terms of Malacor's death.

Mm-hmm. Which is obviously another question. Like, isn't he a perpetual? I was about to ask, like, is, is this just a case of, like, oh, a death on the golden throne is just different to the point where it is ripping you apart at such a base level that there is just nothing to bring back even if you are a perpetual.

It's one of those questions where you kind of start to ask like, okay, well, how strong is Malkador when you get to that kind of question, right? And so in the lore, it is very much established that Malkador is one of the strongest psychers to ever live. He can beat Goku. He can beat Goku. He can unmake Goku. Listen, I don't know, man. Have you seen Ultra Instinct Goku, brother? Like, have you, you know?

I don't know. He is, he can beat Goku. Okay. He can beat Goku. Okay. Okay. Obviously, in 40K, we don't really have a good linear sense of power scaling, but we have to look at the things that Malcador basically did.

One of them was a demon prince snuck into terror to assassinate Malcador in the Knights Errant to stop the great knights from Form. and Malkador basically fired a giant burst of power out there that vaporized all of the demons in nuclear fire. So there's that. Yep, pretty strong. Malkador is tricked into going into a psychic nullifying prison

designed by the emperor to hold Magnus the Reb. And one of the knights' errands, which is actually a sleeper agent, tries to kill him. And he stabs him through the heart or tries to try to, to and is blocked by an invisible barrier. So, Malkador basically says that, like, one cannot exist beyond a certain threshold of psychic power without being changed forever by it. Look at me and look at my years.

Every molecule of my being soaked in the aura of the Imperium for so long. I fell beyond the scope of humanity long ago. So how could you hope to kill me as you would a man even after robbing me of my gifts. So he's just built different. He's just saying, hey, I'm built different. Every single ability and psychic power in Warhammer has a scale of like willpower. And so you shoved Malcador in a psychic nullification room and he just deflects a knife because

of like his body being attuned to the warp for so long. I don't know, man. That's, that's wild. That's okay, cool. Malacador is, he is, he is him. All right, cool. He's kind of him. There was the part where he was forced choking and nearly murdering Horace.

Yeah. Because Horace was trying to say the names of the dead legions. Mm-hmm. And almost basically killed him, which is why I think he can beat Goku. Fair. But, you know, maybe Horace can't beat Goku either. There was the part when Lorgar backhanded him in the face. and he flew across the place and then basically just stood up.

Okay. Yeah, he does have, he does have a record. He's, he's a strange guy. Yeah. And so there comes the better question of like, what the hell is a perpetual? Right? Because if he's a perpetual or was or is or maybe, but he's dead, but he is. What's up with that, Jerry?

What's going on out there, Kramer? Yeah, it's weird. It's weird and it's very undefined and it's very... Because, I mean, I guess technically Malcador could be just roaming around out there somewhere, right? Maybe he is a perpetual. Maybe the golden throne death wasn't his final death. Maybe he's just got his cloak on somewhere, just watching all this from a distance, waiting for the right time to reemerge.

Maybe he's got a really long Vulcan-esque respawn timer this time. It's a damn long one. case, but. Yeah. So let's do a little bit of meta. Let's do a little bit of meta, all right? So the idea of undying and reincarnating goes back to the Lost and the Damned books in 1990, aka, you know, three or five years ago.

Oh, yeah, totally. It was only five years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So back in that time, they had something called a sensei, literally a sensei. Okay. It was called a sense. They're senses. All right.

Yep. They acted as immoral descendants of the emperor from his relations with mortal women. It turns out the imiterium wasn't the only thing that I was having a great game. I was going to say, okay, cool, cool, cool. Love it, love it, love it, love it. Go on. So I don't know if I believe, canonically, the emperor fucked and maybe that has been recons. So the sense says we're supposed to be those descendants of the emperor.

However, they serve as the living anathema to the champions of the chaos gods. Perpetuals did not become a named concept in the lore until the Horacee book Legion was released in 2008. And the lore about the perpetuals has been almost directly in step with that of the Senses. So much so that the perpetuals are, apparently appear to be basically just retcon versions of Senses, but that has not been acknowledged by GW, because why would they? Of course. Well, yeah, why would you define it? Also, glad, you know, I may not love perpetuals, but thank God they change their names from,

if it is just a direct retcon, thank God they didn't just keep going with Senses. That's, I don't know, something about that just, I don't like it. I don't like it. Perpetual's, much better name. It's, I mean, it's very 1980s. Here's the cool words type thing. True, true. But, as we know, perpetuals are immortal.

And they come back to life and how they are, well, they are able to come back to life. And unless they're killed in very specific ways we are still learning about. If they are not killed in a particular way, they just reform like they were beforehand. But it tends to be very slow and apparently quite painful. One way of being killed fully is being stabbed by Fulgerite, which is created from lightning made by the emperor himself. But it would also appear that a extremely heavy dose of psychic energy can also destroy a perpetual, insert lactose intolerant people when I throw a neutron star at the meme. That would be a possism. Yeah, okay, okay, cool, cool, cool.

I didn't realize that there was a way to actually kill perpetuals. I didn't, like, I'm assuming they have died in the book. I just assumed that perpetuals were forever and there was no way to kill. kill them. I guess it makes sense that, you know, Emperor Lightning Bolt would do it, though. Yeah, I mean, more than anything, the whole kind of point is that a perpetual in its own

right is just like, it is unkillable unless you do it right. And I immediately think, like, remember in the, in the Horace Harris trilogy we just read, I can't believe I already forget his name. Not

Mallard. That's a duck. Oh. The bodyguard with the anathema sword. Oh, no. What was his name? Maggard? Maggard? Maggard, yes.

Magard. Magard. He was the one, like, obviously he has like a soul-splitting sword. And so he would like cause death to demons and things of that nature or whatever it was. So maybe, I mean, the Fulgarite is apparently, again, lightning made by the emperor himself. So also, Magnus did like, you know, my Biden blast and then like turned him into charred corpse so that's that is a direct quote from a book of course my Biden blast yeah yeah yeah of course from my from Biden himself from Magnus himself

but of course in all accounts malcador is most likely a perpetual of sorts right he before this sure Yeah, yeah. Living in excess of 6,000 years and been notably able to bounce back from things that are apparently fatal. But the extent is a bit up in the air and weird because it's Malcador. Yeah. Thumbail of the episode in his meme of Malcador doing the sigillite strike, hive line. Oh, it is him. Yes.

Yes. Perfect. Lexington. SIGILite strike. Although the more we talk about it, the concept of the perpetuals kind of reminds me of just like warp demons that like, oh yeah, you can kill them,

but they're just going to like respawn in the warp and they're probably just going to come back. Right? I mean, that is a possibility, yeah. It could have some bearings. It could be because of the warp and some bearings in the warp, you know? It would be surprising.

Sure, sure. But it just seemed like, it's like, oh, yeah, this is like the good guy version of like a warp demon. Yeah. And, I mean, it's tough because, like, he's never confirmed as a perpetual. He's given the essence of a perpetual to survive, but he's already been alive for 6,000 years, which would make you assume he's already perpetual. Oh, yeah, you got to be, yeah. Maybe he actually did die by Magnus's blast, bite and blast. but like

the the the the um uh cringe bite and blast versus the chad sigillite strike oh no oh that's there there's no way someone's not trying hard of that by the way there's just no we already got the sigillite strike but true yeah yeah um but like

maybe he did die by minus his bite and blast or maybe he was going to be reformed and then the death of the perpetual was in vain or I don't know. Yeah. And Shai's right, I guess, when you think about it, resurrection is all over 40K. Eldar come back to light before Slash. Orcs are always reviving. Now via the Great Green, there's perpetuals, there's saints, literally any chaos demons.

So I guess it's not necessary like, oh, yeah, they remind me of warp demons. It's like, well, every faction has their little resurrection units, right? Yeah. And I mean, even the Eldar posts on that still kind of do it. They, they chop off their thumb and give it to a homunculus in the dark city of Comorov. And then they regrow them from there. So the other thing kind of, though, kind of goes back to where Malcador's first ever appeared, meta-wise. So he was the first ever character shown in the 2003 Horace Heresy trading card game.

Wow. That is the first time we have seen his true appearance which was then compiled with stories and lore from the art book Visions of Death in 06. However, a single label

on a character like him or really anyone that is or isn't a perpetual is a bit tough because we don't necessarily know the full scope of what a perpetual is. Yeah, also damn,

that card looks great. Like those cards? Like, damn, what happened to this trading card game? Not to derail it too much. What, when, what? I, what are the rules? B.A. Locke, deal three damage to one enemy trader unit unless your enemy destroys one of their units. If they do rally this asset, what the fuck?

What the fuck? Yeah, whatever. I was just saying, it just looks like a really cool card with like the, the, the pill. and the artwork. The rule being that big next to him is a little weird. But it's a cool looking car. That's all I was getting at.

A classic case of card or item then lore later type of thing. Yeah, yeah. But despite being as old as he was and then killed twice, maybe. Magnus then definitely with the throne. The other part of it's kind of strange. And so it kind of leads to the last question,

which is if he's a perpetual, Why is he old? Well, I guess that's true. Unless, like, do you, like, if you become a perpetual when you're like, let's say he was 70 years old and then became a perpetual, he's just going to perpetually be like 70, right? Maybe if it goes like that. But basically, because every time we see him in artwork, he's like an old wizened man with a robe and a staff. However, despite that, as we know, people like Magnus and the Emperor can use their psychic gifts to impact how they look outwardly. I think Alferius can also do this a little bit.

And so one can just assume that Balcacuador just does that, but it's still looking like a golden god. He decides to look like an evil wizard gilf. Wouldn't you? However, there is a very interesting little part during the meeting pertaining to the siege of the Saturnite gate. The presence of the sisters of silence have Knight Commander Janitia Kroll, who is one of the strongest, if not a strongest

sister of silence out there. And so this is from her perspective. The Sidgulite listens silently. He is the second oldest person I have ever met. In this room, he looks every one of his six and a half thousand years, a tiny thing besides the two demigods. I make him uncomfortable.

My presence negates his demi-god mind as easily as I might pinch out the candle flames in front of me. He is shorn of his glamour, the psychana mask of health, wisdom, and purpose I am told he manifests to those few he meets in person. In this room, he is a fragile thing. Bird bones gathered in a tight wrapper of thin skin hunched inside a worn robe. His eagle staff, his rod of office, leans against the table as if it is too head. for him to hold. For him to show himself like this, to allow himself to be seen as easily,

or as he really is, marks how significant this meeting is. The regent of all terror has come naked among us. Boom, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Yeah, I know, I know, I know. Allowing his public mask to drop. So he is glamoring. He's got, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's in drag.

That man's transmogging. This man's transmogging. Can't believe it. God damn, this man's transmogging. But yeah, I mean, he is basically just doing exactly that. Like, he is showing off himself as his old wizened guy. And when you take away that mask, he looks like, he looks like those images of the 125-year-old grandmother in bed. Yeah.

He is just sickly and just. skin and bones just hanging on for dear life. Yeah. Pretty much. And that's a pretty big deal when it comes to, you know, how he's looking. Yeah. So obviously, with the weight of the Imperium on the shores of Malcador and it only intensified, he, you know, will be very, you could understand him like not only looking

but feeling so frail. Even in, he mentions numerous times in the siege of terror that when he walks to the throne, he laments about how he physically needs help getting up the stairs to get to the throne. So maybe not perpetual. That's the thing about Malkador is that what's really interesting about Malkador as it, because that's basically all I have. What's interesting about Malkador is that he is so shady, but he's more about like the more interesting character.

In a sense, you could almost argue he's a lot. like the emperor. And like he in his own right is is a highly powerful psycher, very mysterious, all those kinds of things. But the difference is that he himself is actually like a bit of a character. He has a persona. He has a personality. He's actually, he's actually kind of enjoyable to listen to whenever I listen to him in

an audio book. He's kind of, sometimes he's a bit goofy. Mm-hmm. He's got like a nice kind of, not jovial, but a bit more. like a funny old man vibe or is like, huh, huh, oh,

how you're right to Lehman Russ. Should the rest of us be that great? I would, these bones would snap right now. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

And then he goes, like plotting the execution of like 40,000 worlds. And then it's just like, okay, thanks, thanks, thanks, man.

Yeah, that's, that's quite the juxtaposition. I would, okay, shy posted the image of mask versus real with Emperor Palpatine and Chancellor Palpatine

I hate to be that guy but the idea that Malcadour is clearly based off of the Emperor from Star Wars I think is extremely possible yeah I think it's possible the concepts are there

granted Palpatine was you know forced lightning by Samuel L Jackson but yeah I mean one is pretending to be like, oh no, democracy. Love it. And yeah.

I mean, the other is evil space lightning tyrant, you know. Call me the whole nothing is ever real. Chud Bricky, whatever the words that is or whatever that meme is. Those are words. Yeah. I forget the name of the meme, but it's like this dude is like nothing ever happens. Call me all those things, boss baby, whatever.

But like, I look at Warhammer and it has extreme, extreme. associations with Star Wars and other sci-fi properties, which has associations with Dune. And I look at like episode five and six, you just, or, you know, like, I just look at Star Wars and I see the big, tall, extremely powerful psycher dude who is heading, heading whatever, a lot of stuff in the empire, Darth Vader. And then I see his wizened old man who's actually super secretly powerful and runs a lot of stuff in a sense to decide it's his boss, whatever. Old robed dude, the emperor,

Palpatine. Like, it just makes sense. Even their height difference. You know, I hadn't really thought about it like that, but I mean, the similarities are there, right? And I guess if you're 40K, it's kind of hard not to be like,

oh yeah, we're going to make a sci-fi setting. Hmm, what should our inspiration be? Maybe the two biggest sci-fi franchises that have ever existed. But yeah, I mean, I can't say that you're wrong with the similarities. I mean, it's really close. Yeah. And so often I find it helpful to know like where games workshop maybe got their ideas.

And because when you learn that, you can kind of gleam concepts of what they, what do they mean by this? And then you can assume, okay, well, you know, emperor like, oh, the emperor Palpatine was such like a shadowy figure. but turns out he was actually insanely powerful with his lightning and everything. That's kind of Malkadorian. So what you're saying is in a future update, there's going to be a planet full of Malkador clones that are all just waiting to come back?

Is that what you're telling me, Ricky? Malkador's coming back and there's going to be a bunch of them. Damn. We're really conspiracy theory assholes today. Yeah, we sure are. Let's go. Somehow, Malkador returns. Somehow.

Look at all these. He's been doing, he's been running it from behind the scenes the whole damn time. Crazy. Unbelievable. Where'd they get this idea of? That's so funny. Let's go. But, uh, but yeah.

I mean, that, that kind of is Malchador. Yeah. Mysterious shady asshole. Mysterious, shady guy. He's, he's deliberately obtuse. The best parts of Malcador is when you read about him. Like, his act. are interesting.

How he handles things are interesting. The idea that this dude has this, I think this is canon fan art, or Canon fan art, I think this is canon artwork of him with like the skulls of both Primark legions on his goddamn throne.

I mean, if anybody was going to have them, it would be him. He knows about it. Well, the Primarchs probably know about it too, but they're not allowed to talk about it for fear of him. He should have those, right? I also do kind of wonder, like, how much of this might be assumed in terms of a bit of a meta, like a world history type thing. Like, the emperor is the big figurehead, the main guy,

but he always has people in the background doing his really dirty work. And so, like, who is, like, the main horrible, like, propaganda background? Was it Gerbils in World War II? Yeah, I feel like he was the way. Yeah. I feel like he was the, well, he was, yeah. I feel like Gerbils was the big propaganda dude. Yeah, did a lot of not great stuff. Something, I don't know if it was hammer. I get my German high command numbers or people mixed up because one, I don't. They're all awful.

Because they're all awful. And also I don't take time out of my day to try to learn them. And also, in addition from there, I, they all start with G or something. Yeah. Um, but more than anything, yeah, I just was like, I can see that being maybe, uh, their, their, their, their, their, another inspiration. Mm-hmm. In a sense. Yeah, maybe like, like, like Himmler, maybe.

Sure. Sure. It's, it's tough, but it's, it's humorous because Malcador is so powerful and so unassuming. And his personality is not this blank, evil, annoying, tyrannical slate that is good old. the emperor. So it's a fascinating character that, Malkador. Yeah, fascinating, mysterious, and open to a lot of like interpretation and conspiracy theory. And yeah, it's a good slate to talk about.

Yeah. So anywho, that's a, you know, we're doing old sheave dirty. Oh, oh, what? What do we need to say about Mr. Sheave? Can you do the laugh, D.K.? You're good at impressions. Oh, his laughs? No.

Love that shit. That's the Malkador laugh. But yeah, weird guy. I feel like if you really want to get your information about Malkador, you are, you have to be like a real bookhead. Oh, for sure. Like, there's not too many games or like, is there? Malacodore the Sigillite mini? No, no. Well,

maybe in Horace Heresy, but I don't think so, no. Okay. Because, yeah, like, he's not really in the game. There's not a mini of him. There's not a Codex. You kind of have to read the books to learn about him, don't you? And you don't only just have to read the books. You have to read, like, the Horacee series. And that's a lot of books, man.

I was going to say, well-known light reading for the weekend. Yeah, like you need to be a A lore head Like this is the job for lore theories Mm-hmm This is the job for those gentlemen They are much better at that than I would be But the overwhelming

Top End discussion with Alcudor is Shady shithead But also pretty neat Yeah, maybe perpetual, maybe not, who knows? Probably, but also what the hell? Also, then where is he? many of many a questions many many we could go on and on any who with that all being done and said that's going to be it for for today uh take take us out country roads uh shy can you play the sound

effect before we leave of um chancellor palpatine doing like the spin move where it goes like oh