Malus

Not to be confused with Ritualist Malus or Baron Silverlaine.

Malus / Silverlaine Thorne
Title	Captain, King Gordok
Gender	Male
Race	Human
Class	Warrior
Affiliation(s)	Hidden, Burning Legion, Dire Maul Gordunni clan
Former affiliation(s)	Order of the Seven Suns
Occupation	Captain of the Inevitable, Leader of a Hidden group, Ogre king of the Gordunni
Location	Hidden citadel
Status	Deceased
Relative(s)	Greydon (brother), Aramar (nephew)
Companion(s)	Throgg, Zathra, Reigol Valdread, Ssarbik

This article contains lore taken from Warcraft novels, novellas, or short stories.

Silverlaine Thorne (better known as Malus) was the younger brother of Greydon Thorne.

Biography

Approximately two years after the Second War, the two Thorne brothers arrived to Gadgetzan in Tanaris and visited a newly-opened bookstore owned by the goblin Charnas. Greydon and Charnas began conversing, but Silverlaine wasn't interested in that, so he left them alone.

The two brothers were members of the Order of the Seven Suns before Silverlaine betrayed the order and his brother. Wanting to own the Diamond Blade, given to Greydon by a naaru, and to prove his worth, he stole the blade and went to fight Xaraax, the order's main enemy. Instead, Xaraax convinced him to join him. When Silverlaine returned, he killed the naaru, shattering the blade and sending its shards across Azeroth.

Traveler

Malus and the Hidden worked with the Shattered Hand clan to locate Captain Greydon Thorne and his compass with whom he already had a certain history. As the Hidden were leaving, he noticed the ogre warrior Throgg and asked him to come with him. The ogre refused, so the human approached Garamok, a Shattered Hand orc and asked him about the ogre and the orc stated that they want him for carrying supplies as the ogre can't be a true Shattered Hand. Malus then offered 30 silvers to Garamok and he released Throgg from his oath. The ogre then swore loyalty to his new brother, Malus and the Hidden.

Some time after the Cataclysm, Malus and his companions with the help of the traitor Jonas Cobb attacked Greydon's ship the Wavestrider on the Veiled Sea and slaughtered most of the crew, the only survivors being the second mate Makasa Flintwill and the cabin boy Aramar Thorne, Greydon's son and new keeper of the compass.

Landing in Feralas, the Hidden tracked Aram and Makasa throughout the forest, almost getting them and the compass when they caught the boy's new friend, the murloc Murky, whom the Hidden wanted to trade for the compass. Aram, however, was captured by the ogres of the Gordunni clan and brought to Dire Maul.

Having learned of this, the Hidden entered Dire Maul and Malus challenged King Gordok to a mak'gora fight. The King refused saying that the opponent is no ogre, so Throgg challenged Gordok, and Malus offered to fight in Throgg's stead as his champion. The two entered the pit where Aram was previously fighting, but after a difficult fight, Malus took hold of the ogre's morningstar and ended the King's life. He then fought against king's former guard and even rushed to get to Aram but was held and knocked out by the wyvern One-Eye. Aram and his companions escaped. As Malus saw them taking off, he shouted to stop them and Zathra responded by firing two bolts which hit the druid Thalyss Greyoak.

He was then challenged by another, a single-eyed ogre named Kor'lok who acknowledged him as the new King Gordok. Malus thus accepted the challenge but chose Throgg to fight as his champion, and the one-handed ogre immediately killed the one-eyed ogre. Malus ordered his new ogres to leave Dire Maul and find the boy and the compass.

The Spiral Path

Aramar coincidentally met Charnas who revealed to him the existence of Silverlaine. The goblin told him that Greydon had been very proud of his brother, but that he only met Silverlaine once, so he wasn't sure what happened to him. Charnas knew that Greydon didn't mention him much, but when Charnas did ask about Silverlaine, Captain Thorne said that they hadn't seen each other recently.

While Charnas and Aram's group were traveling to Stonetalon Mountains, Charnas told Aram that on his last visit, Greydon told him that Silverlaine was somewhere in northern Kalimdor.

The Shining Blade

Under the guise of Morris Wheeler, an Alliance infantry officer serving at Northwatch Expedition Base, claiming to have known Silverlaine Thorne, sent a message to Thal'darah Overlook, inviting Aramar to meet him at the base. Unbeknownst to Aramar, it was an ambush, during which Malus killed Taryndrella and revealed his true identity, capturing Aram and taking his broken compass and the hilt of the Diamond Blade. With his new prize, he teleported to the Hidden citadel in Hellfire Peninsula and remained there with his Gordunni guards and his master Xaraaax until Makasa led an Azerothian army against the Hidden. As the battle raged, Malus came to Xaraax to his sanctuary, but the nathrezim demon lord turned on the human and attacked because he ran out of its usefulness. The demon took the hilt of the Diamond Blade from his body and proceeded to get the Hidden to the top of the citadel.

Various events unfolded, with Xaraax discarding his fel sword and picking up the reclaimed Diamond Blade. As the demon prepared to destroy the naaru and release the Darkstorm upon Azeroth, he did not expect that the broken Malus would hurry to take the dropped fel sword and stab Xaraax into his back and through his chest. Losing the Diamond Blade, Malus tossed the impaled dreadlord into the altar with the Darkstorm that swallowed the Highlord, hoping it would send him into the Twisting Nether. Malus kept the demon blade and ordered Ssarbik to summon him ogres and imps to feed the Darkstorm while they will wait for Greydon to feed it. Throgg shouted in protest, but the fel-corrupted Malus ignored him. Soon, the Gordunni in shadowy shackles were brought to Malus by a jailer. A portal, the swirling vortex of the Darkstorm, emerged and sucked them and the imps, stunning Karrga in shock. She had been holding Valdread, but now the Forsaken slipped her and kicked the Diamond Blade towards Makasa. She quickly grabbed the weapon of the Light and blocked Malus' attack. The twisted human now called reinforcements and continued fighting. As fel and Light clashed, the roof exploded, the black vortex of the Darkstorm growing quiet for a moment.

In the meantime, Aram was freed, along with his father, Greydon and joined the chaotic fray. Reigol threw a small dagger at Malus but soon redirected his target at Ssarbik. Soon, the tide turned in favor of the children, defeating most of the Hidden and the demons. The two Thorne brothers faced each other, with Malus almost gaining the upper hand over Greydon, but ultimately it was Makasa with her Diamond Harpoon, and with the assistance from Aram, that ultimately faced Malus - the defeated Malus gathered his last strength to toss his fel sword at Makasa, but Aram used his new-found druidic power to blast the blade away, giving Makasa the opening to leap and strike Malus fatally.

After the Fourth War, Zekhan learned about Malus leading the Gordunni. When the Darkspear ambassador visited Dire Maul, he confirmed that Malus no longer held the Gordok title.

Identity

Before the revelation of Silverlaine's identity, there are several hints throughout the books that Malus could be someone else:

• When Malus entered Gadgetzan, Marin Noggenfogger wondered if he had met him under a different name.
• Charnak says that the two Thornes entered his shop, almost twenty years ago.
• When Aram encountered the first vision of Malus in his dreams, he resembled Greydon.
• Greydon knew Malus and called him a traitorous dog.

Gallery

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