Forum:Malcolm Merlyn

"You may not think of me as your father, Thea. But you'll always be my daughter."

- Malcolm Merlyn to his daughter, Thea Queen, before his sacrifice

Malcolm Merlyn is the member of the Shadowkeepers and the main antagonist of Destiny 2: Paradox.

Overview
Malcolm Merlyn (born Arthur King; October 13, unknown year - May 17, 2017) was the husband of the late Rebecca Merlyn and the father of Saracon, the late Tommy Merlyn, and Thea Queen. He was a formerly wealthy and successful businessman, the founder and CEO of Merlyn Global Group, and a prominent figure in Starling City. Fueled by the death of his wife during a mugging in the crime-infested area of "the Glades", Malcolm traveled to Nanda Parbat and was trained by the League of Assassins, taking the name Al Sa-her (Arabic: الساحر; for The Magician). After he left the group and returned to his city, Malcolm secretly plotted "the Undertaking", arranging for Robert Queen's death by sabotaging the Queen's Gambit when his friend tried to stop it. When the Hood began to intervene in his plans, he donned his League uniform and became the Dark Archer, managing to defeat the Hood twice in combat. He eventually succeeded in the Undertaking, though only partially, but was believed to be dead when Oliver struck an arrow through his heart.

Malcolm eventually revealed himself to be alive to Moira Queen upon discovering he was Thea's biological father and sought redemption with her. Instead, Moira revealed to the League of Assassins that Malcolm was, in fact, alive, forcing him to go on the run. However, he managed to take in Thea after Moira's death, turning his daughter into a capable warrior. In a gambit to erase his blood debt, Malcolm drugged Thea into killing Sara Lance/Ta-er al-Sahfer, coercing Oliver to fight "Ra's al Ghul" in his place. He subsequently became an uneasy ally of Team Arrow, despite their constant qualms. After Oliver defeated "Ra's al Ghul", he gave the Demon's Head ring to Malcolm, making him the new Ra's al Ghul (Arabic: رأس الغول‎; for Demon's Head). However, Nyssa al Ghul soon took power and disbanded the League with Oliver's help, and this power struggle cost Malcolm his left hand. In his anger for Oliver, he joined forces with Damien Darhk and aided him in "Genesis". However, when Damien began descending into insanity upon the crumbling of his plans, wanting to destroy the world without of the existence of a safe haven, Malcolm defected from H.I.V.E. and joined forces with Team Arrow again.

Malcolm aided time-traveler Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash and Damien Darhk in a quest to locate the Spear of Destiny, in exchange for Malcolm changing his past and gaining a better life in the process, including the revival of Tommy and Rebecca. The Legion of Doom altered reality but the Legends managed to undo their work and Malcolm was placed back in his bitter life of squalor.

A year after these events, Malcolm learned Thea had been kidnapped by Adrian Chase and reached out to Oliver, whom he helped to recover his family and friends from Lian Yu. Malcolm took Thea's place on an island land mine and sacrificed himself by setting it off to take out Digger Harkness.

A year and a half after his death, Malcolm was briefly resurrected by John Deegan when the latter altered reality a second time. During this period, Malcolm was a police officer.

Early Life
Arthur King was born on October 13 to Jasper King, a wealthy collector. He lived in London at least once.

As a member of The Hidden
While serving in the Air Force Academy, 19-year-old Arthur allowed himself to be recruited by "modern-day crusade" The Hidden after an artifact collection he owned had been robbed by one of their agents in London. Half of an ancient Ashkiri tribe book describing an ancient temple in the Hindu Kush mountains had been stolen, so Malcolm joined the Hidden, knowing they had an interest in and were searching for the said temple, which he was also interested in. He developed a romance with the agent who stole from him, Ashkiri tribe descendant Lourdes, despite her being betrothed to another man. Arthur and Lourdes then went to the Hindu Kush mountains with the Hidden on the mission to locate the temple and seal it in order to prevent local tribal wars unearthing it and the secrets within. This was Arthur's first mission with the Hidden and would turn out to be his only one. One night, at the Hidden base camp in the mountains, their leader Ibadan noticed Arthur making love to Lourdes (presumably impregnating her with their future son Saracon) and decided to test his strength by sending him and more experienced fellow Hidden agent Darius to find a fabled stone marker that was said reveal the location of the ancient temple. However, only five miles from the camp, they were forced to duck behind their Jeep to protect themselves from a haboob, the worst kind of sandstorm. While the sandstorm passed, they noticed men of the League of Assassins approaching by horseback in the distance.[5] However, the assassins were forced to stop by the intensifying storm, and Darius told Arthur to be ready to do anything for their cause. Darius took a sheet from their vehicle to cover them, and the jeep was blown away by the strong storm winds afterward. Soon, the storm passed and the League horsemen charged towards Darius and Arthur, but Lourdes had been earlier sent by Ibadan to help them and she arrived just in time to take down the assassins. The following day, the trio set out to search for the stone marker. They had no luck until, just as the sun was setting, Arthur climbed up higher in the mountains and realized that the topography below him was the marker they were looking for. From this and their knowledge of the Ashkiri beliefs, they deduced where the temple was located, and they returned to the Hidden base camp at the edge of the mountains to inform Ibadan of this discovery. Arthur was the one who informed Ibadan of the League tracing them and the location of the temple. When Lourdes expressed hesitation in continuing the mission as it might lead the League to the location of the temple, Arthur insisted on proceeding with their plan, pretending to care to keep the temple's secrets from the warring tribes and the League while really just seeking the treasures of the temple for himself. With Ibadan and Darius agreeing with Arthur, the decision to continue was made and Darius and Lourdes were dismissed. However, Arthur stayed with Ibadan to ask him about what he knew of the temple and its contents, acting as if he had never heard of the Ashkiri before he joined the Hidden. Ibadan showed Arthur an Ashkiri bestiary, since they worshipped animals, and he explained their belief that everything began with two snow leopard twins, the god of darkness and the goddess of light. Hunting humans killed the latter one, he explained, so darkness began to overtake the light around the world, however, the corpse of the leopard goddess gave birth to a new light goddess to balance the dark and light, and the world was fixed. From Arthur's reaction to this, Ibadan realized he already knew about it, was lying, his membership of the Hidden was a ruse to rob the treasures of the temple, and that therefore Arthur must have a personal airplane somewhere nearby to escape at a moment's notice with what he would steal from the temple. However, they were interrupted by a sudden explosion that destroyed most of the Hidden camp. Arthur was injured but he went straight to check on Lourdes, who had also survived but had been knocked out. After she came to, the two of them found Ibadan, who had a twisted leg. Arthur helped fix it, telling Ibadan that even though pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. The three of them realized that the disappeared Darius was a traitor, a double agent for the League of Assassins and he caused the explosion. Without any way to contact the Hidden Headquarters for backup, they decided to go to the temple and attempt to reach it before the League, since they have inevitably been informed of the temple's location by Darius and they plan on taking advantage of what is in the temple, with the injured Ibadan hiding his realization of Arthur's true motives. When Ibadan asked for Lourdes to look for his box containing everything they had on the Ashkiri, Arthur found it first and snuck it into his jacket, but Lourdes noticed although she had faith in Arthur's decision to hide it from Ibadan. The three of them used a truck that survived the explosion to set out in an attempt to reach the temple before the League.

The following morning, Lourdes and Arthur left the truck with Ibadan, who insisted on staying behind as his wound would only slow them down. They located the temple's entrance before the League, causing a small earthquake to split the ground in several locations nearby, including Ra's al Ghul's camp, inadvertently delaying the assassins from catching up with them at the temple. Arthur had known about the way to open the temple from his prior knowledge, and that it required two people to open, so he had Lourdes help him open the temple while acting as if it was a lucky guess. Suddenly, the earthquakes became the footsteps and roars of the guardian spirits of the temple, two large, growling snow leopards, like the ones in the Ashkiri myth, and crackling with mystical energy. Lourdes and Arthur were chased by the two leopard spirits and they escaped into the temple. Inside, Arthur deduced from the cinnabar within that the area was, in reality, an ancient, dormant volcano, but it didn't matter because they were destroying the temple. As they thought they had lost the spirits deeper in the tunnels of the temple, Lourdes began to doubt their mission and wondered if it was all a big mistake, to which Arthur replied that he was aware that it was a mistake. Before he could explain himself, the spirits phased through the walls and continued to chase them. As they ran closer to the heart of the temple, Lourdes cried that Ibadan had told her there was only one way in and out of there so they would be trapped, but Arthur revealed that he was sure there was another exit. He also revealed that Ibadan didn't want them to be aware of that and that he had planned on them dying with the temple's destruction. The two of them evaded the leopards and found themselves finally in the heart of the temple, finding themselves in a majestic chamber with statues, ancient artifacts, an altar in the center containing two powerful, mystical relics that were said to be the hearts of the twin leopard gods of the myth, and a Lazarus Pit, the treasures that Arthur was truly after. However, Lourdes suddenly pinned him down and demanded he explain himself and how he knew so much about the temple already, and he revealed the truth about how she had only stolen half of the Ashkiri text from his collection, and he had merely been using his new membership in the Hidden to get to the temple. Arthur also revealed that he had inherited his collection from his father, Jasper King, and that the temple had been the Holy Grail to his King Arthur. Thus, he truly did believe that the Hidden had been a modern-day crusade, but his crusade for the treasure of the temple. After explaining everything to Lourdes, Arthur got to work, taking a sample of the Lazarus Pit by filling his bottle with its waters, while claiming that his love for Lourdes was one thing he didn't lie about. Then, Arthur went and picked up a particular ancient artifact blade which was the key to unlocking the powerful relics in the altar, but just then the two leopard spirits burst in. Realizing he had no time to continue plundering the temple, Arthur headed for the secret second exit while informing Lourdes that he actually brought her there to sacrifice to the leopard spirits so he could make his escape. Heartbroken and shocked, Lourdes did nothing but plead for her life as the spirits pounced and mauled her while Arthur ignored her and jumped down a waterfall that led to a river outside of the temple. Unaware that Ra's al Ghul had saved Lourdes by sacrificing Darius and taken Lourdes as his concubine before the temple finally came down, sealing the two powerful relics for good, Arthur found himself held at gunpoint by Ibadan. The leader of the Hidden explained that the League of Assassins was everywhere and they had to leave as soon as possible, revealing all that he had deduced about Arthur when they talked about the mission earlier and when he displayed knowledge of the temple he had not been told by the Hidden. Ibadan also revealed he had pretended to be a double agent for the League to be aware of their progress during the mission, telling Arthur that trust is overrated and his injury barely bothered him because as he had said earlier, pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. Arthur and Ibadan made it to Arthur's plane, but just then, men from the League of Assassins found them and fired a volley of arrows. Arthur used Ibadan as a human shield and then jumped into the plane, escaping and leaving the arrow-ridden Ibadan at the mercy of the League.

Once aboard his private jet, King expressed satisfaction over what he had managed to take from the temple. He circled back over the destroyed temple once to enjoy one final look at it and then flew to Corto Maltese. On the way, Arthur made a call ahead to Corto Maltese, where he had a facility being built, and spoke about how he did manage to get a Lazarus Pit sample that they would need to be stored until the facility was complete. After making the call, he analyzed the blade that had been the key to unlocking the two mystical heart relics but had not been used, and he decided to keep it, simply to add to his collection.

After his visit to Corto Maltese, during which he entrusted the Lazarus Pit sample, which he referred to as his entire future, to his scientists, he traveled around South America "for a while". Around this time he came up with what he decided he would live as in the future: Malcolm Merlyn, to disassociate with his past life, as he started anew with his facility and his new company, Merlyn Global Group. He decided on Starling City to be the center of his new venture, and he had his men prepare his plane to go there in an hour. In the meantime, "Malcolm Merlyn" rode out to a second ancient Ashkiri temple he located on the coast of Corto Maltese.

=List of appearances=
 * Destiny 2: Shadowkeep
 * Paradox
 * Season of the Black Swordsman
 * Season of Eternity

=References=