Malaugrym

Malaugryms, also known as shadowmasters, were evil shapeshifters who clashed with many of Faerûn's greatest heroes, most notably Elminster Aumar.

"But don't you agree, that prey tastes even better when spiced with the sweet tang of fear?"

- A malaugrym shortly before devouring its victim.

Description
These shapeshifters were, both physically and mentally, superior to many if not most other races. In their natural state, which they almost never revealed, they appeared as a wide spherical mass of rubbery flesh with three yellow eyes, a beaked mouth, and three tentacles, each tipped with a hooked claw. They hovered in midair with their tentacles constantly writhing.

When transformed into the shape of a humanoid or other creature, that form's eyes would have an extremely faint yellow glow. This was often the only indication that the person or creature was in fact a malaugrym.

Personality
They possessed an uncanny, malicious intelligence and a remarkable charismatic presence, despite the abhorrent appearance of their natural form. They were compulsively cruel and sadistic, preferring to capture and they eat their prey live and often hunted and killed merely for amusement.

They were highly manipulative and nearly universally motivated by a desire for power, seeking to dominate the Realms through guile and disguise. They competed with each other for the chance to wreak havoc on lawful or goodly societies. They had few&mdash;if any&mdash;allies, and regarded most others as little better than pawns or prey.

Abilities
Malaugryms were said to be perfect shapeshifters, able to freely adopt the forms of any creature, object, or person they wished, as well as to transform individual pieces or parts of their bodies at will. The only known limit to their ability was that they could not assume the forms of deities. Most had two favorite forms: a normal seeming human form in which they could freely travel among the peoples of the Material Plane, and a more monstrous form which they reserved for combat. At least some of this shapeshifting ability was illusory as a malaugrym's form never inhibited its abilities.

Combat
They were astoundingly agile, far beyond the ken of the regular human, as well as, to a lesser extent, being stronger and more hardy than one. Their remarkable durability was in part due to their tactic of constantly shapeshifting during battle, often very subtly, in order to move around or hide vulnerable sites or vital organs. Even so, their primary goal in most fights was to conceal their true nature, and in most cases they would prefer to flee rather than be forced to reveal their true forms.

Malaugryms were notoriously quick to recover from wounds, which, with time, sealed up on their own. They were furthermore impervious to all weapons save those which were magical or silver. Blows from silver weapons were particularly devastating, and left wounds the malaugrym could not heal naturally, instead requiring magical attention. Malaugryms were also resistant to magical attacks, particularly from less experienced casters, and were further immune to all poisons.

Malaugryms often had combat training as wizards, although it was not unheard of to encounter sorcerers or clerics of evil or chaotic deities. In battle, they would make use of these skills when they wished to conceal their identifies as shapeshifters. Otherwise, they would morph parts of their bodies into tentacles or pseudopods to strike at their enemies. Even outside of combat, many would constantly shift their forms in order to make themselves more difficult targets for ambushes.

Despite how formidable they were as individuals, most malaugrym preferred to avoid direct conflict until victory was assured, instead sending minions or pawns to engage their enemies and using traps or illusions to beguile their foes.

Society
The Malaugryms desired power over the Material Plane, and schemed to conquer all of Faerûn. However, individual malaugrym had their own schemes and goals which often undermined any progress toward their grander evil plans. While they sought power and food on the Material Plane, and could be found at the Castle of Shadows on the Plane of Shadow, the malaugryms were not native to either of these planes.

Malaugryms' desire for power meant that they were constantly undermining and trying to one-up each other, sometimes killing their rivals or superiors or even waging centuries-long vendettas against each other. While powerful individual malaugrym are respected and feared by their peers, they technically had no hierarchy save for the one recognized as their leader, known as the Shadowmaster. This title which passed onto whichever malaugrym was a strong enough spellcaster to claim the title from its previous owner. It was suggested that only the Shadowmaster, or perhaps those spellcasters strong enough to be a Shadowmaster, processed the power of interplanar travel necessary to reach the Material Plane. As such, malaugryms were constantly trying to gain favor with their Shadowmaster in hopes of being able to pursue their goals on the Material Plane, making the Shadowmaster the only being with the influence to convince the malaugrym to cooperate.

Although they were omnivores, Malaugryms preferred to feed on living creatures, particularly humans, and would do so by sticking their hooked tentacles down a victim's throat before using their shapeshifting abilities to crawl inside to devour it from within.

Malaugryms did not have sexes and could present as any gender, however individuals often informally adopted a single gender as part of their preference for maintaining consistent personalities across their different shapes. To reproduce, malaugryms would adopt a form necessary to mate with a human, and then steal away with the newborn to raise as a new malaugrym. While the malaugryms did age and grow old, they could not die of old age. Instead, older malaugryms were often killed by younger ones eager to usurp their power.

History
The origins of the malaugryms were unclear. Legends claimed that the malaugrym race was somehow created by or descended from the wizard Malaug, said to be the first human to enter the Plane of Shadow. Despite their affinity for the Plane of Shadow, they were not native to it, and instead had used it as their primary means of transit between their alien home dimension and the Material Plane. However, the chaos of the Spellplague severed their connection to that unknown plane, leaving the malaugryms without the ability to return to their true homes.

Most folk of the Realms never heard of the malaugryms as their existence was very secretive. The first recorded instance of malaugryms living in Faerûn was in the third century DR when a young Elminster clashed with the malaugrym Undarl.

They were next encountered in the by the Church of Vhaeraun, which discovered that they had infiltrated the leadership of the drow city of Chaulssin. This led to the founding of House Jaezred, an order of assassins dedicated to eliminating the shapeshifters.

They reappeared again in the, once again attacking Elminster, either for sport or to plunder his treasures. Elminster slew one of his attackers, and this act drew such astonishment and fury from the malaugryms that they dubbed him "the Enemy" and swore to destroy him. Realizing the threat they posed, Elminster drew Khelben Arunsun and the Harpers into the conflict, triggering would come to be known as the Harpstar Wars in the. Battles were raged across multiple planes and left both the malaugryms and the Harpers depleted. During the conflict, Elminster created a magic item called the Harp of Stars, and tricked the malaugryms into stealing it. Among its many properties, the Harp of Stars was designed to record the memories of any malaugrym who used it, thus it could reveal a great deal about the shapeshifters' plans and society. The war continued until the, and only ended when Khelben assumed control over the current Shadowmaster's mind and convinced the remaining malaugryms that continued fighting would be too costly. While the war ended, the Harp of Stars was lost or destroyed before it could be recovered and learned from. Throughout the entire Harpstar Wars, the malaugryms never revealed their true forms, and for another 150 years, scholars would believe that they were a peculiar clan of humans.

Following the Harpstar Wars, Elminster established planar wards intended to alert him if any malaugryms returned to Toril. A pair arrived in the, seeking to acquire the secret of spellfire from Shandril Shessair, although they were beaten back by Elminster along with Rathan Thentraver and Torm of the Knights of Myth Drannor. A larger group arrived following the Time of Troubles in the, seeking to eliminate Elminster, Khelben, and Laeral Silverhand and then infiltrate Faerûnian society. This group was beaten back in large part thanks to the efforts of the Rangers Three, although at least five of the shapeshifters remained active in the Realms as of the, with another 100 dwelling with the main clan at the Castle of Shadows.

Following the severing of their connection to their home plane circa the, malaugryms' numbers began steadily decreasing. By the late 15 century DR, it seemed that each malaugrym still active in Faerûn merely perused their own ends rather than attempting to work in a coordinated fashion.

Notable Malaugryms

 * Amarune
 * Arathluth
 * Bralatar
 * Emmergluth
 * Luthvaerynn
 * Orglym
 * Sarth
 * Taluth
 * Undarl
 * Yabrant

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Cloak of Shadows • All Shadows Fled • Stormlight • Crown of Fire • Hand of Fire • Elminster: The Making of a Mage
 * Elfsong • The Abduction • The Summoning • The Sorcerer
 * Video Games
 * Neverwinter Nights: Tyrants of the Moonsea
 * Neverwinter Nights: Tyrants of the Moonsea