Malien

Infobox character | name = Malien


real_name =
portrayer =
creator = Ian Irvine
species = Aachim
gender = Female
first = The Tower on the Rift "(chapter 7)"
last =
last_cause =
age = 178 (View From the Mirror) and 385 (Well of Echoes)
occupation = Matah of the Aachim of Santhenar
title = Matah Malien
family = House of Elienor
spouse = Tensor
children = Rael
relatives = Karan Fyrn
footnotes =

Malien is one of the main characters in Ian Irvine's series of books, "The Three Worlds Cycle". She appears in both "The View from the Mirror" and "The Well of Echoes" quartets. Sometimes referred to as the Matah.

Physical Appearance

In "The View from the Mirror", Malien is said to be the height of a human man and to have long red hair and a pale face (as many descended from the great Elienor do). Her eyes are a deep green and are said to have an ageless all seeing quality. Her fingers are characteristically long and graceful like most Aachim. She is said to be very attractive.

Around 207 years later, in "The Well of Echoes" quartet, Malien is an old woman but still physically and emotionally strong and healthy. Her red hair is now mostly grey but still has hints of red through it. Her pale face is now lined, though it takes nothing away from an ageless beauty.

Characteristic Differences

Malien is not only exceptional among the Aachim because of her power with the Secret Art, but because she seeks to help all of the different forms of humanity.

During the View from the Mirror, Malien made alliances with old human's to destroy Tensor and stop him from releasing Rulke from his Nightland prison.

In "The Well of Echoes", Malien helps Tiaan on several occasions. One such occasion is when the Aachim of Stassor try to capture Tiaan and deliver her to Vithis. Vithis declared Clan Vengeance on Tiaan and any person who aided her in avoiding capture. Malien was thus condemned to Clan Vengeance as well and any action of hers could no longer reflect on the Aachim.

Most Aachim are seen as being arrogant and close minded by the other human species, but Malien is said to be the kindest and most open minded of her people. Despite this she is not "completely" free of the legendary Aachim arrogance.

Malien can assume a regal and commanding exterior when need be and can easily command the control and attention of a room.

Powers and Abilities

Malien is extremely powerful with the Secret Art but once didn't use her power, because Tensor did not like that she held such strength. By the end of the View from the Mirror, she had grown out of Tensor's shadow and used her power to save Llian from a thranx, rather convincingly. Malien was also instrumental in creating the gate from Katazza to the Nightland and the gate from Shazmak to
Carcharon.

Around 207 years later Malien lives in the principal Aachim city of Tirthrax and is Matah of all her people. She is regarded as a legend, though ostracised for working to help all the human species and not just the Aachim. Her powers with the Secret Art are now regarded so highly, that she is among the greatest mancers to ever have lived.

Malien's expertise is put to the test several times and she made the key discovery in creating the flying construct.

Malien is capable of using some of the most powerful, subtle and dangerous spells of the Secret Art, but she is well known for creating bubbles which have a varying amount of uses, such as: acting as a shield, creating fire, giving great amounts of pain and paralyzing foes.

Malien with no aid, has the power to take on a brace of Scrutator's and their mancers. The Seeker Ullii also made it clear that Gilhaelith, Yggur and Malien were each stronger than Chief Scrutator Ghorr. Ullii even once stated, after Matah Malien had humiliated Nish, that Malien was very strong and hadn't even come close to using her full strength against him and that "no one could fight the Matah".

Nish once noted that Malien, Xervish Flydd and Yggur together were the match of an army. Both Yggur and Malien can use the newly discovered powers of fields, nodes and crystals but can also use older powers, from the time of the Mirror, which is a great advantage. Malien has but to use the undoubted power of her voice to use her Art.

Malien's Role

"The View from the Mirror"

Malien appears in three of the four novels in The View from the Mirror quartet. These are "The Tower on the Rift", "Dark is the Moon" and "The Way Between the Worlds".

"The Tower on the Rift"

Malien first appears in the Aachim safe-house in Thurkad. She is an obvious leadership figure among the other Aachim and Llian instantly guesses she has some kind of relation to the late, Rael. It is soon revealed that she is in fact Rael's mother and Tensor her former consort. Malien is a healer among her people. Tensor holds Llian captive and Malien disapproves of this, yet knows she must bide her time to free him.

Malien often speaks to Llian and they become friends, the only Aachim he feels safe with. She finds herself often having to use her healing abilities on him. Malien discovers that Llian possesses the Gift of Rulke and helps him to hide it as there are some among their companions who would kill him because of it. Tensor already knows that Llian has the Gift and in fact it is the very reason he holds him captive. Malien is disturbed that Llian is also able to share in an old Aachim taboo, called dream-sharng, that allows a person who lives on to communicate with one who has died that they were close with, through their dreams. Malien and Llian both share this with Rael.

The Aachim are followed by The Whelm and venture to Katazza. Here Malien recruits Llian to spy on Tensor for her, while he works on something with the Mirror of Aachan. Tensor breaks, when the other Aachim who repudiated him and are now lead by Selial, demand he give the Mirror back. Malien is the only one with the courage to stand up to him but Tensor reveals how she hid Llians secret and the Aachim lose their nerve. Tensor uses his Art to force Llian to come to him and locks himself and Llian in the Great Tower of Katazza.

The Aachim ally with Mendark, Karan, Tallia and Shand when they too arrive at Katazza. Karan begs for Maliens forgiveness, over the matter of Rael's death and together they weep for him. Malien helps Karan enter The Great Tower. Faelamor appears through the gate Tensor created, as does Yggur the next day. Each hide in Katazza biding their time.

Malien decides to end Tensor. She ventures to where he stands with a knife, but Selial and the Aachim who were meant to distract those loyal to him, lose their nerve again and Malien is taken by surprise. She is kicked hard in the chest, breaking her arm and collar bone and falls from the dias she stood on.

Karan, having seen Malien fall, ran quickly to her aid and discovered that her long-time friend was gravely injured. Like a miracle, Shand appears and tends to some of Malien's wounds. Karan on Malien's advice, runs into Katazza to help stop Tensor from letting Rulke loose from the Nightland. Shand soon follows and Malien is left below to hear the sounds of a battle against Rulke, who eventually flees.

"Dark is the Moon"

While her companions are suffering from the effects of using a large expenditure of the Secret Art, aftersickness, up in the tower of Katazza, Malien lies many stories below on a stretcher, where Shand had left her. Tallia, who had been knocked out by a stray piece of rubble, from the blast that allowed the companions entry to the Great Tower, lies with her until she awakes and decides to go up and see how the companions fared in the battle.

Shand makes his way down the tower to check on Malien, whom he finds several feet away from her stretcher. He tells her of the battle and of how Karan and Llian, attemtping to escape Rulke, had fled through the gate that had brought him there. Malien asks how the Aachim's leader, Selial, had fared and is horrified to discover that her nerve had broken and was no longer fit to lead. Malien then decides that it is upon her to take up the leadership of the Aachim.

Malien, still injured, but on the mend, then takes part in discussion on how to discover where the gate had taken Karan and Llian. Malien's guess is the Nightland and after an experiment that traces the paths taken through a gate, she is proven correct. Malien soon works with Tallia to see if it is possible to recover the gate, realising that it must remain open for Rulke to hold open the flaw in the Nightland. Tallia is nearly snared by Rulke and the company then decides that it is too dangerous to try to use the gate, that they must seal it and with it, the Nightland.

It is Malien who first realises that it is the rift, atop which Katazza Tower is built, that can provide them with the necessary power to accomplish their great task. Despite her injury, Malien herself accompanies Shand, Yggur, Mendark, Tallia, Selial and two of her hand-picked Aachim down into the rift, to attempt to seal the Nightland.