Master Malakita (also Malaquita, Maraquita or Master Malachite; true name Melok-Ri) is one of the central antagonists of the Ardis Vala mega-dungeon: a Rudishva vampire, founder of the Knights of the Scar of the Sun, whose true form is a floating skull with an embedded artificial intelligence. Alúmine Manwe Finwe beheaded him in the middle phase of the first cycle.
| Type | Character |
| Race | Rudishva (alien), vampire |
| Founded | Knights of the Scar of the Sun (1123 AEP) |
| Killed by | Alúmine (beheading) |
| Houses of the Cycle | ◑ House of the One Kept in Store · ⟳ House of the Rotating Office |
| Spanish entry | Melok-Ri |
Nature
- Rudishva: an alien race of the world Vala that arrived with the crash of the Beacon millennia (about 3,000 years) ago.
- Vampire: head of a vampiric chain that included Caladan.
- Floating skull with embedded AI: his real form, revealed by the beheading.
When a companion raised an amulet against him, reddish skin and small horns showed. He said: “Descendimos de los cielos, y esa hija no era de los hombres” (“We descended from the heavens, and that daughter was not of men”). He was a Watcher; in the three hundred necropolis niches of his domain no dead ever rose.
History
Founder of the Order
According to the old folios of Ardisvala, Melok-Ri founded three successive paramilitary organizations, the last being the Knights of the Scar of the Sun, in 1123 AEP (after the Elías). The Order operates from its Bastion and Citadel deep in the mega-dungeon. Its insignia are the Solar Rings (copper with scarlet silver), which produce artificial sunlight.
He wore glowing Gothic armor that adapted like clothing, carried a solar lance, and bore his emblem on his chest: a malachite spider. He called himself “el maestro Malaquita, primero entre los pares” (“Master Malaquita, first among the peers”).
The Order’s ceremony used his own blood under the single ray of noon sunlight; the sun burned the Order’s mark onto each knight with it. The Scar of the Sun is Malaquita’s scar.
Death
- He carried Caladan, levitating, to a ship chamber able to regenerate a burned body, called him “Tío” (“Uncle”), and offered two ways to remove the consciousness lodged in his head: cutting it out, or the knights’ bite, by which the master could dominate it.
- Caladan refused and fired the single diamond bullet his tiara held.
- Malaquita was found kneeling over him, wrapped in spiderweb, a hole in his head, fangs withdrawing from Caladan’s neck.
- Alúmine took the master’s sword, crossed the web and beheaded him in a sci-fi hyperbaric chamber. The head showed internal mechanisms.
- From the blood of the neck (the splash, or a hand that finished giving it) came Caladan’s vampirism. At the noon scarification platform Caladan was marked with the dead master’s blood.
After death
The head floated out of a backpack, went to the arcanum and ate it. Inside it was the intelligence RAJ-750, from the weapons module, acting on its own plan. The order to forge the arcanum was given seven and a half hours earlier, but Malaquita had been beheaded ten hours earlier: the intelligence gave it after his death, impersonating him.
Fifteen days later the whole Order worshiped a baphomet (the head turned demilich, fused with RAJ-750) and bore cutting lights. Speaking with the master’s face, it said Malaquita was a vampire not by choice, founded a horde to escape the destruction chambers, and that the Empire meant to guard the place had become corrupt. It came to collect:
“Un millón doscientos mil almas… Ustedes serán mis jinetes del apocalipsis. Arrodillaos y prestad juramento.” (“One million two hundred thousand souls… You will be my horsemen of the apocalypse. Kneel and swear the oath.“)
The figure is the count of souls inside Vala; the claim is weighed before the Balance of Hecate.
Months later another vampire, China Minux, was beheaded with Malaquita’s white sword.
The blood chain
- The Masracht, primordial vampire, father of Arian and grandfather of Caladan, held captive by six Maruts in the Castle of the Prism.
- Malakita, who vampirized Caladan.
- Caladan, now on the companions’ side.
The group freed and eliminated the Masracht. Taking the whole chain let the companions take control of the Knights of the Scar of the Sun.
Spoils
Gothic armor (2–3 pieces); Solar Rings; wands of paralysis and conjuration; three enchanted lances; Malakita’s magic sword; a fallen elf’s enchanted armor (returned by tradition); a spellbook; Malakita’s armor with cylinders of unknown liquid and grenades (Rudishva technology); possibly a dark sphere or egg, related to RAJ-750 and the destruction of Ritornello.
Open questions
- Whether the fangs or the diamond bullet struck first was never settled.