Malvar is a powerful lycanthropic servant of Phaethos associated with predatory transformation, pursuit, and the belief that identity is proven by surviving change imposed through struggle. Some traditions call him the Red Hunter. His own form is mutable, shifting between a humanoid hunter and more bestial shapes rather than remaining fixed to a single body.
Malvar represents a much harsher interpretation of Phaethos’s principles than the god’s portfolio requires. Where Phaethos encompasses variation, possibility, experimentation, and self-determination, Malvar exalts the moment when one living thing forces another to change or die. Hunting, lycanthropic transformation, adaptation under pressure, and the deliberate rejection of a stable shape all fall naturally within his particular philosophy.
This difference is important. Malvar is a servant of Phaethos, not a complete expression of Phaethos’s will. His followers can therefore pursue practices that other servants of the same god regard as cruel, simplistic, or destructive.
In 8723 SE, a group devoted to Malvar attacked the Pool of Eternal Spring, a sanctuary associated with Lurae, a unicorn servant of Amundala. The cult included lycanthropes and used unnatural red lightning to force a predatory transformation upon Lurae. The Mistborn disrupted the rite and saved the unicorn, although Mist died during the fighting.
The confrontation is remembered as a particularly clear example of the tension between Amundala’s concern for continuity and Phaethos’s concern for transformation being expressed through their servants rather than direct conflict between the gods themselves.