Was Malcador Truly A Perpetual? - 40K Theories 

*NOTE* : This video contains spoilers for Fury of Magnus. You have been warned!

I feel like having immortality just for it to be sucked dry twice in less than a week is a kick in the balls to be honest

Guess we'll know how Jaghatai would sound like in TTSD

Malcador and the Emperor are kind of like Mom and Dad to the primarchs. You know how when you disobeyed your mother as a kid and your father comes in the room and makes you listen to your mother? It's like that. Malcador: "Do the thing." Primarch: "I don't have to listen to you!" Emperor: "[teleports into the room] I KNOW I DIDNT JUST HEAR YOU BACK-SASS YOUR MOTH-....MALCADOR!"

I have a headcanon that the reason for Malcador's longevity was because he was a blood relative of the Emperor.

Protip: the Emperor was always a psychic vampire just like he is now. While he was alive, the Emperor could get by just draining one powerful psyker at a time (which were easy to find on pre-unification Terra), though after his catastrophic failure in the Horus Heresy he now needs thousands every day. With Malcador being a perpetual and a fellow terrible person they probably struck a deal - Malcador allows the Emperor to leech him and in return is allowed free reign to do the awful things he does.

well malcador was pretty much the second strongrest psyker with out god juice in his veins. so what ever he did as a psyker might have slowly tapped him. (and how he fells is how he will look) he did die from the throne after all. maybe magnus could kill him too with his power.

Yes I am. Nobody swept my dust off the throne either. I'm still there. You think ten thousand years of sitting the golden throne sucks? Try the 'sapient dust experience' WITHOUT power armour to seal it in.

I think it most likely Jagatai doesn’t really know what Perpetuals are, so he makes no proper distinction between “life extension by biomancy” and true immortality. To somebody like Erda, she probably also assumes “real old” = “Perpetual”.

There's always the possibility of Malcador having gone through the "Rejuvnat" treatment process... For all, we know of Malcador and given his age, knowledge, and rumored past experience? He could very well be the originator of the Rejuvnat Technology. He was one of this galaxy's most educated "Humans", he lived for several Millenia, was the greatest "TechnoMage" of terra, and his order existed before Old Night. It's a high possibility and there's PLENTY of mysteries surrounding him.

Malcador is underrated

I think it's just normal Gee Dubs retcon ratfuckery. He probably was a perpetual at one point in the lore and then he wasn't when it didn't fit the developing narrative.

Part of the appeal of malcador is his sheer power level without being a superhuman. He is the most powerful normal, natural born human to ever live - period. No gene seed, no one in a billion billion rare magic destiny, no shaman mass suicide chosen one shenanigans. Malcador is all natty.

First read this as a penguin instead of perpetual

I do wish there was more stories about malcador I would love to read the malcador before he bumped into the emperor. Has he always been old or has he been young. Was a sort of caretaker for the emperor always watching but not showing his face until when needed.

I think Malcador was a 'weak' perpetual, thus why he aged but still had such a lengthy lifespan and how he was able to take blows from a primarch.

Its a shame no one is on the same page with 40k lore. Even in the same series by the same author sometimes.

Malcador is best bro

I am but a simple man: I see Malcador, I click like. As always, love your content, it's really helped me understand the lore behind the game I've always wanted to get into.

If he is a perpetual, then I doubt he's a true perpetual like Ollanius and most likely made perpetual like Grammaticus. But honestly I still subscribe to the biomancy based life extension theory. But great still a video regardless

Is Remleiz actually a super intelligent Raptor sendt to the future by memers to uphold an ancient covenant? (Love the latest vid, keep it up my friend)

Don't forget, Mal was born during the dark age of technology. For all we know, he replaced his blood with 8 pints of advanced regenerative nanites or some such techno-crap....

Malcador the Hero was a great guy, glad you talked about him again

Malcador was a genetic experiment of the sigilites.

Okay since Malcador was brought back to life by the sacrifice of Alivia Sureka pouring her life force into Malcador and dying as a process of that. It might be possible in order to hold the warp tear closed Malcador had to use his very life essence in order to fuel his psychic powers to a height needed to hold the tear closed. If i recall correctly Malcador (in the old fluff at least) used the last of his life essence to grant the emperor enough strength to give his last orders. So even if Malcador was a perpetual he is now dead having given the last of his life force away. I would suspect that in a way is also why The Emperor haven´t regenerated from his wounds and is now more or less a skeleton with a few living cells. He might just keep enough of his life force to keep those few of his cells alive and using the rest of it along with that of the 1000 unlukcy sods that gets sacrificed to him every day, to partially holding the tear closed and fueling the astronomicon keeping it lit. Which does beg the question if with the Eldar´s or maybe Necrons (though i VERY much doubt they would ever lift as much as a finger to help mankind with anything that wouldn´t benefit them) help the warp tear on Terra could somehow be closed permanently, would the Emperor be able to redirect enough of his life force to slowly regenerating his wounds.

Last time I was this early the Thunder Warriors were still alive

Was Malcador a perpetual? Yes. He was a perpetual bro. Respect for the mad lad.

Malcador bitch-slapping Horus is what made me appreciate him as the absolute G he is.

Didn't the golden throne essentially vapourise malcador when he sat upon it to help the emperor after magnus' "warning"? Maybe he and the Emperor are just chilling as like two atoms of dust that have yet to be cleaned from a crevice on the throne thinking in tandem "What the hell have they done to our Imperium"

I'm more interested about Khan "knowing" about the Imperial Truth and his thoughts about his father and Malcadore. Now, this makes me think that if Khan was still around, he and the White Scars would leave the Imperium but not joining Chaos.

Malcador is the John Stockton of Warhammer 40k. Underrated and made everyone around him better, including the Emperor

Hey, what are perpetuals anyway? Have we ever got any lore regarding their nature and origins? Are there any prominent xenos perpetuals? I think that would be a cool video 🙂

Last time I was this early the Thunder Warriors were still alive.

Broke: Malcador is immortal Woke: Malcador is Emp's once-imaginary friend turned real

16 minutes to conclude that being perpetual and being dead don't go that well together? Jokes aside, nice video......Malcador gets a lot less love than he deserves......after all he is the one who founded the Imperium in the sense of it being a functional entity.......but sadly badass old man seems less marketable than big boy in big armour

Malcador is my dad

I only played the game once but I still like the lore because it's like mythology.

What if: Mal is a creation of the Emperor, his first attempt at creating a perpetual like the cabal does. He knew he couldn't be everywhere in his grand plan and needed leaders. Essentially a non war form of a Primarch, a PrimAdministrator. We know he experimented in creating powerful beings before the Primarchs and marines, like The Angel and the thunder warriors, makes sense he would create beings not meant for the front lines. Or Emps created him as a subversion of himself like Cawl creates his mini me's, but Emps didn't create a full clone because either he didn't know how (like how he had to deal with the chaos god's to make Primarchs), or it would be a risk it would challenge him for leadership. Or Mal was created by the Cabal and he defected to the Emperor's cause, as we know Big E back in the day had a presence and way with words. Maybe even he was created to infiltrate, advise and sway Big E to the cabals cause but got turned himself. Or The dates are all wrong, and Mal is a Proto-Emporer. The Shamans sacrificed a small number of their kind to see if it would work, before sacrificing on mass to create the Emperor Or He's Alpharius

Malcador: The Anti Necron. (Or Negacron, if you will.)

Couldn't Malcador have been a perpetual, and then lost his immortality, like Gramaticus did? That would explain his long life, but also why he started aging just near the end of it.

I think prepetuals are immune to death from physical attacks , not psychic ones, therefore Malcodor was really killed by Magnuses psychic inferno, and died again by the " psychic " means of the iron throne, and the only physical substance that is known to kill a perpetual is fulgurite, which is the emperors psychic might taking physical form.

I think he could be a descendant of the Perpetuals or intended to be a perpetual at some point but this hasn't remained consistent across the lore. Anyhow, Malcador was cool. 👌

What if Mal aged because, in 40k, beliefs affects reality. With everyone believing him to be old: reality warped him to that image.

Is it definitively stated that there is only one type of "perpetual" immortality? Or might some perpetuals be able to return from the dead while others are "just" biologically immortal?

Perhaps Malcador was a perpetual, but when he was burnt to crisp by Magnus the red an extremely powerful psychic being, that was probably one of the few things that could kill a perpetual. According to one book Malcador was at least six thousand years old and perhaps he kept himself alive through rejuvenation treatments and his own psychic abilities.

I remember people going through some serious mental gymnastics trying to explain/understand if Malcador is a perpetual.

Or Malcador made some deals similar to Emps in regards to goals of the imperium and throne time was when they came due...

I love malcador

Mmmmmmm. Hasn't this been answered already, there's 2 kinds of perpetuals, the truly immortal kind that regenerate and the normal immortals that just live a long time but once they die their dead for good.

Maybe the Powers of the Warp are abel to kill a Perpetual. Or Magnus is/was a Perpetual him self. As only Perpetual can create or kill a Perpetual. Who knows.

Malcador is a perpetual in the same way far sight is he takes the lives of others to keep him alive the emp sacrificed others to keep him alive also Mal could’ve been a stranded druhkari due to his high psychic power and others sacrifice prolonged his own life

Yes! I've always thought this.

I believe that Malcador was an Alpha-level psyker who could literally will himself to stay alive

there MUST be a unification war game...

Malcador is Malice or Malal

The Emperor appears as an old man and a luminous being of golden light at the same time. Maybe Malcador could do the same.

Well, it clearly wasn't enough to be able to handle the Golden Throne as he was burned out, by the time they put the Emperor in. | 3:40 - Spiky Tits was careless there. | 4:45 - KHAN!!! (Echoes) | 9:40 - Like how Vulkan was, when he was killed over and over again by fiction's 2nd most horrific version of Batman?

I think the Emperor and Malcador knew about the civil war and 10,000 years of degradation or at least the possibility of it. I think Malcador lives and is one of the high lords of terra or someone very powerful. The Emperor could change his appearance I'm sure Malcador could too. Still serving humanity and the Emperor so that humanity wouldn't be wiped out.

What was the Emperors name before Malcador got him to take that title?

Maybe Malcador sat on the throne more often than we were told, and that drained slowly the perpetual stuff.

The Sigilites sucked the young out of people like Stargate wraiths. It’s one of the quickly glossed over horrible things they did during Old Night.

He was a hero I know that.

Have there been any instances of Imperial Possession like Chaos does? An Imperial being taken over by the "good" forces of the Warp or the Emperor himself?

What if Vulkan led the Imperium after the War of the Beast?

Malcador was and is a HERO and thats enough for me !

Malcador, what is the secret of your powers? Malcador, won't take away from this grimdark f***

Magnus killing malcador is BS, and the sacrifice made by Alivia is BS too... We know that perpetual status cannot be given in that way... It is just bad writing by GW

Pyskers of Malcador's power could give themselves any appearance they wished. So saying he 'looked' old is kinda meaningless. It also could be that Malcador's pyskic presence was 'aging' for lack of better word under the weight of Hersey. There is some really old fluff that suggests that Malcador is in fact Tubal-cain. But I think its never been expanded on or explained. It mostly reinforces that Malcador was special in some way, though it appears still being the EoM friend at the end, made him pretty unique too. In the end it can not be understated, by Malcadors own words, he and he alone was responsible for what happened to 2nd and 11th Primarch's. Vaguely stating that they symbolized more of threat to everything the EoM was trying to achieve than anyone else. Suggesting it may have been somehow worse than the Horus Hersey itself. To the point either Malcador or EoM wiped what exactly happened with them from the remaining Primarch's minds. Meaning only EoM and Malcador knew what really happened, the remaining Primach's just knew it happened and was bad. Though once during the Hersey Horus states, even with all his hate of his father the EoM, that what was done was nessary. Suggesting perhaps the Dark Gods allowed Horus to really remember what happened. Finally with only Guillman and Dorn begging their father not punish their legions for their Primarch's failures.

What if Malcador was the first "clone" or "Primarch" of the Emperor,, thus how powerful he was and how fully trusted he was by the Emperor. Heck, Malcador could also have been an Avatar of the Emperor.

Warp induced heavy damage seem to have odd effects on "perpetuality". Perhaps Malcador was a perpetual killed by Magnus' sorcery, much like the Emperor would be from the warp-infused attacks from Horus.

One has to remember that perpetuality and pysker ability is closely related. It's implied that The Emperor is so powerful psychically. He has the ability to stop his biological aging. That's not to say all perpetuals have to display conscious psychic ability. They can unconsciously apply their psychic ability to maintain perpetuality. Like Vulcan. If perpetuality is psychically linked. It can also be character/self image linked. Malcador wants others to see him as a wisened old man. Less of a threat. Making it easier for him gather information. Its intentional. Everything Malcador does is for a reason. Everything. Nothing is random.

Malcador was able to sustain and extend his life simply based upon his self-image. Given that he was likely not just extremely powerful but extremely skilled, it would not be unlikely that Malcador eventually developed skills and powers not unlike the Emperor, who used his Psychic powers to hide and even alter his identity, eventually settling upon the Massive God-man we know today. Malcador simply lived for over 6700 years because he never really thought of the passage of time on him. But the travails of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, among others, put context to the time he lived and his self image evolved, aged, as a result. This was made all possible because Malcador was quite possibly the most powerful mortal human Psyker in human history.

What if Malcador was the result of the emperor trying to make a perpetual? He loves making all sorts of things and outlives everyone, so making a friend who'll stick around sounds like something he'd do.

I love the idea of Perpetuals. They give us the reader a link to the future universe. With Olonius Pius having served with the US Army as a Tanker, there's a good chance I've met him. I love it. Maybe General Mcmasters is Pius?

My theory remains that there are beings who can kill Perpetuals. Assume the lore is settled and Malcador is a Perpetual. Assume the Emperor is as well. The lore states almost point blank that they both are. Malcador suffers a death at the hands of Magnus, the second strongest psyker ever (after the Emperor) and needed to have his Perpetual nature restored by another. He died again while in the incalculably powerful Golden Throne with no perpetual to bring him back. Now, the Emperor suffers nearly fatal wounds from Horus (who is juiced up by all four Gods). He has to cheat death with the stasis mechanisms of the Golden Throne because Horus had enough power to actually kill him. This is why the Emperor tells Dorn to modify the Throne, he can’t die and come back any longer.

Since I have a fascination with immortality, I find the warhammer 40k universe taking on the immortality subject very interesting because it shows the difference between multiple types of immortality and "almost immortality" as well life extensions. So I do kinda wonder were the line is drawn for a immortal individual in warhammer 40k universe to survive and truly killed. One of the most disturbing but interesting stories of a immortal character is primarch valkun when he was captured by his psychopathic brother Corax, his brother did everything he can to kill Valkun but his immortality was very powerful that he keep healing and self-ressurecting no matter how messed up the attempts to kill vulkan. It got to the point where Valkun purposely uses his immortality like a tool 🔧 to take on task that was seemingly suicidal and stupid.

Ya know... I stopped reading Fury of Magnus after that Malcador scene because there was quite a bit of reading left and I was like "pfft, this ain't canon". Guess I should pick that one up, again.

I think Malcador was a perpetual, but Magnus was able to kill him with his warp spaghetti powers. Similar to how the Golden throne killed him. Having your essence burned away by a powerful psyker may be one of the few ways to truly kill a perpetual. Although he could have just been extremely long lived due to his super ultra plus psychic power.

writting it before watching,probably,and the reason he hasnt show up agains is either: 1.hasnt recovered because the golden throne shenanigan injure him heavily 2.keeping the golden throne shenanigan injure his warp presence so much he died permanently 3.his soul trapped in immaterium maybe consumed by one of the 4 god or the 4 god figthing over it 4.already recovered but hiding somewhere doing something like trying to recover the emperor,finding primarch,fighting chaos from the shadow,secretly already controlling the inquisition,or maybe just chillin in a garden world

Very Interesting. Nice. I have never thought of Malcador as one of the perpetuals, but as with All 40k Lore there is enough evidence to go Either Way.

Perhaps Malcador was originally a perpetual, as seemingly outright confirmed by Erda and Jaghatai, and merely lost his perpetuality at some point before the Heresy, hence him ageing slowly but surely, but the Emperor tried his best to keep Malcador alive, both because he was one of his most powerful allies and one of his most trusted and closest friends and confidants. I think it is very difficult to read Erda or Jaghatai’s words as anything other than Malcador being a perpetual, and I’ve also just generally subscribed to/preferred the idea that everything the Emperor tried so desperately to artificially engineer in the primarchs, thunder warriors and space marines was already capable of developing naturally and that many of the flaws of the primarchs/space marines/thunder warriors were a direct result of the emperor having eliminated the biodiversity of the natural human gene pool, much like how irl biology works, and Malcador being a naturally powerful psyker and perpetual is proof of this (but that’s entirely my own opinion). I personally just find it more interesting that Malcador was a naturally manifested perpetual than simply a product of artificial processes, it kinda takes out the mystery from the character.

I think the reason Malcador couldn't regenerate from his exposure on the Golden Throne, it's because the sheer power of the golden throne siphons off immortality (e.g. the Emperor in the current millenium). Like Fulgurite, it seems like it's one of the few things that can kill Perpetuals.

I think that Malcador IS a perpetual as honestly the hints and direct statements should be more than enough evidence and when it comes to being killed by Magnus it was said that the fires burned his very soul which may have prevented regeneration. Remember Vulkan was perma dead for a second before he was revived maybe the same thing happened with Malcador. And regarding his age I believe that is the consequence he had to pay for his godlike psychic might. It shouldn’t be to unreasonable that Malcador’ psychic might was so great even his perpetual nature couldn’t completely stop the degradation of his body.

It only makes sense that he is a perpetual. His dabbling in soul-schriving trials likely serves to age his physical body on a metaphysical level. It IS possible to kill a perpetual. Malcador knows this, which is why Alivia made the deal to revive Malcador if it all goes south while trying to convince Magnus. There isn't any other vehicle for him to be preserved as he was. He is directly called a perpetual, indirectly called one, and it is indicated. To maintain that he is not after all that is obstinance.

There’s also the very off chance that, given how they retain their memories, it’s just multiple clones that Malcador could have been making or having Fabius make. It would make a certain bit of sense as to how Fabius became so good at it if that’s true

What if he could just use his psychic powers to mask his appearance? I mean, perhaps he sustain his body with such powers even. There are many possibilities. Maybe all perpetuals are warp touched.

Malcador doesn't get enough credit. Is Erda one of, if not the absolute, worse HH/40K character ever?

Does either option even let being a 'basic' perpetual matter? A demon might have died in either possibility, powerful pyskers can perma kill demons and perpetuals.

I feel that Malcador became a perpetual but the toll the Golden throne took on him is causing him to regenerate at an incredibly slow pace (I'm imaging him as a minorly reformed head in the final decree box but he and the Emperor are just watching the dumpster fire that is the 40k Imperium go)

Plot twist: Malcador was born old as shit and just used his psychic powers to make himself look younger than he was until he later just decided to say "fuck it".

Crackpot theory I have no evidence for: Malcador originally used biomancy and rejuvenant treatments to stay alive, became a true Perpetual after the events of Fury of Magnus, and in fact didn’t permanently die on the Golden Throne. It just took him a century or maybe even a millennia to regenerate after being so thoroughly obliterated. Since this took place in the throne room of the Imperial Palace, his resurrection is known only to the Adeptus Custodes and the Sisters of Silence. Malcador is now playing the long-con, taking a leaf from Big E’s book and using his psychic might to take on various disguises and identities. He nearly always takes on the identity of one of the High Lords of Terra, normally the Grand Master of the Assasinorum. Drakan Vangorich? That was actually Malcador. He even convinced everyone that they managed to kill him after the Beheading. Or maybe he was manipulating Vangorich. We may never know. Someday, Malcador may be forced to reveal himself and become Regent of the Imperium once more in service to Guilliman.

What's that part that Jaghatai is talking about? Is there anything more on the stuff that the Imperial Truth is based on? He was a Loyalist but doesn't really seem happy to have daddy rule.

Malcador was the real emperor and the Golden God avatar we see is a projection. His sacrifice on the throne, and Sanguinius's sacrafice to defeat Horus won the battle but may have lost the war.

Last time I was this early I was Ollanious Pious

While there is nothing written on it, in a fan of the concept that Malcadore and Revelation are two parts of the same being (much like christianity describes god as a trinity). It gives a different explanation to the close bond they share. It also allows him to be in two place at any given time. His supreme being half as the emperor, and his intellectual half as Malcador.

My headcanon is that ‘Perpetual’ refers to not only those who recover from mortal wounds and death as said in the video, but those also those who simply don’t die of old age, Malcador being in the second category.

Malcador the Sigillite is the Dominic Cummings of the 40k universe

Yes. Didn’t make much sense for him to get roasted by Magnus then resurrected. Why not just have Sureika die from the off?

Somehow I believe that he was a perpetual all along but the shenanigans he was involved in ground down his perpetual nature to the point where it was negated. Just like a fulgurite being able to kill a perpetual we know that there are ways of taking that gift away and not all of them have to have something to do with the emperor. Which would explain why his resurrection, much like that of Vulkan, came at the hands of an other perpetual.

I believe he was a perpetual but even that ability has it's limits.That's why he died in the golden throne in the end.And that's why i believe the Emperor cannot ressurect even though he is a perpetual himself.