Malum, formerly known as Soma, and Calumnus are the rare twin half brothers (they have different fathers). They were born into the Moon Cult, specifically to the previous Moon Prince. There is a cyclical prophecy that tells of a cataclysm that destroys the moon, called the Eclipse. Sometimes it’s a random event. Sometimes it’s a person. When the moon is destroyed, a single Moon Prince born in the family will come in and summon a new Moon.
On the flip side, there speaks of a story of twin moons, where both moons would be locked into a battle until one sets. The one that sets will reappear one day to destroy its twin and take its place.
Soma and Calumnus were very close when they were children. Both were groomed from the very beginning to be raised as the Moon Prince, however there would only be one. Calumnus got the better end of the deal once it was found that Soma did not have the Moon Prince’s genetics, merely being some unknown Ancient that was lost to history. What was initially their father’s plan to pit them against each other turned into Calumnus being the favored son.
Calumnus was very strong and powerful, but he did not have much in the way of smarts, unlike Soma. Soma had started to become a threat to Calumnus as he was very aware that Soma had far more technical knowledge than he did. Cal felt he was owed the position of Moon Prince, and started to bully Soma in order to break him down.
Cal pushed to see how far he could get away with it (and he went VERY far). This led to a lot of fights between the two, Cal getting the other hand (and Soma getting in trouble). This culminated in Soma challenging Cal to the title, and losing.
Soma was going to be sacrificed once Cal was declared the winner, but the great Apep had picked up on Soma’s struggles and Soma was runic burnt as a result.
Soma disappeared, reappeared and then, not wanting to deal with that shit again, was banished form the Main Regions. Soma threw away his old name, renaming himself to Malum, and exploring the galaxies (and later other dimensions.)
Eventually Malum will have to come back to either finish one or both prophecies, and the amount of rage and hate against his brother even centuries later will be incalculable.
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There you go, this probably helps explain some of what is going on here. I had a lot of fun with this piece, despite some of the issues with it, I’m very proud of this one.
