Malyarin was found in the back-woods of Tan'Shakar 34 years ago by a married couple, Zanvar and Elisten Tansern, who were on a hunting holiday with their four-year-old daughter Zerala. As they made their way through the woods Zanvar and Elisten came across what seemed to be the site of a battle of some kind - there were signs of shooting, fire, and struggle, although there was no blood and no sign of any bodies. They were about to leave when a wail from under a bush attracted their attention. Under the bush they found a baby boy, only a few months old, wrapped in a blanket with a ring on a chain around his neck.
They took the baby boy back with them to their home in the city of Benkrant where Zanvar was an historian and Elisten an engineer. Despite enquiries being made no clue as to the child's origin or what had happened out there in the woods was ever found. Zanvar and Elisten decided to adopt the boy, and after going through the formalities, did so, naming him Malyarin. They kept the chain and ring he had on him with the intention of giving them to him when he was older and able to look after them properly.
Malyarin was a precocious child, developing very quickly. From the earliest times he has occasionally had very real dreams involving his changing shape into other forms. At first these seemed to be just dreams, but when he was three he was playing with Zerala and the family dog, Pelka, when he gradually turned into a dog which was almost identical to Pelka. Zerala ran screaming for their parents who were initially disbelieving, but soon became convinced when they saw the second dog turn back into Malyarin, surprised and unhappy at the stir he'd caused. Zanvar and Elisten had Malyarin checked by a doctor, but she found nothing at all unusual about the boy. His parents tried to get Malyarin to tell them what had happened, but he couldn't say how he did it, just that he did the same things he had done in his 'special' dreams. From that time Zerala distrusted and disliked him and although Malyarin tried his best they were never close again.
News of Malyarin's strange abilities soon spread, as he couldn't resist showing off to his friends, and he became something of a focus of media interest. At first he loved all the attention, but it eventually began to grate. The dreams continued, and began to show him how to change into a very natural-seeming form, that of a puma, which seemed much easier to change into than his dog form. It all came to a head when he was five. He was mobbed by a large group of reporters. Angry and scared, wanting the reporters to go away, he changed into the new puma form to scare them off. One of the reporters panicked and shot him, dealing what seemed to be a mortal wound. As the crowd stood around in shock, a doctor arrived and to her amazement found that Malyarin had almost entirely healed. Because of this the incident passed without too much trouble, although the journalist who shot Malyarin was severely censured.
After this the news services were far more discreet, keeping an eye on him from a distance. However, after the initial sensation wore off Malyarin soon became accepted by the general populace, thanks to their generally tolerant attitudes. Over the next few years the dreams continued every so often, showing him how to change his features and also change into animals by studying them for a few days. Over the same time period Malyarin was examined by a number of doctors, including ones known for their innovative methods, to try and find the source of his strange abilities. None of them had a clue - as far as they could tell he was nothing but a perfectly normal little boy. However, in the course of their testing they found that the abilities he had dreamed seemed to be real - he really could change his facial features and change into other animals which he had studied. They also found that he also seemed to have much greater physical strength and resilience than other people. Malyarin didn't mind the tests; they gave him a lot of attention, which he liked, and taught him how to do some interesting things. The doctors were told about the dreams, but in the end they concluded that they were some obscure manifestation of his subconscious telling him how to do these things; nothing like that had been seen before, but what with all the other strange things Malyarin could do they were generally clutching at straws anyway...
Time passed. Malyarin easily became a champion at most forms of sport. He also turned his mind to learning as it was about the only area where he was not automatically better than anyone else. From his parents he picked up an interest in history and engineering. When he was twelve his parents explained to him how they had found him in the woods (although they had told him he was adopted before), and gave him the chain and ring he had had around his neck. He immediately felt that the ring was like an extension of himself, and soon found that like him it was able to change into a number of other forms, as well as somehow move around under its own power when he told it to. Although his parents were somewhat concerned by this, Malyarin quickly learnt how to fight with all the ring's weapon forms, his feeling that it was an extension of himself making its use seem to him to be just another aspect of training his own body. He soon became very skilled with it and named it Chameleon.
When he passed puberty Malyarins dreams turned somewhat darker - they began to show scenes of fighting where Malyarin turned into a clawed, winged armoured form, obviously built for combat. Malyarin didn't enjoy these dreams, but had to live with them and tried not to let them affect his life. After these dreams had been happening for some time, when he was fourteen, Malyarin was out hunting with some friends when they were set upon by a maddened, badly wounded grizzly bear. Although they tried to escape the bear was relentless and finally cornered them against a cliff. Malyarin felt himself changing into the combat form which he had dreamed and which, like the puma form, his body seemed naturally adapted to. He was able to defeat the bear and killed it cleanly, putting it out of its misery. His friends were somewhat frightened by this new form, but calmed down when he turned back to normal. He asked his friends to keep what had just happened fairly quiet, as he got quite enough attention from the media as it was, and didn't want any more. Although some of his friends were reluctant, they all agreed to go along with what he said, and the incident was kept quiet.
More time passed. Malyarin grew up. He was a champion rally driver, skier, sailor, swimmer, pilot, athlete, sportsman and marksman by the time he was sixteen, gaining a considerable public following from this. He did not suffer for want of romantic companionship of any kind, although no relationship became very close or lasted very long. In general he enjoyed life. He became a talented musician and dancer. By the time he was eighteen Malyarin had given up sport - it was too easy, although he still liked to hunt. Instead he turned his considerable energies to study. He sailed through University with the highest honours in a number of subjects; history, politics, social sciences, engineering, art and management as well as the basics of science. While he was at University Zerala, his sister, also finished her courses, married a long-time lover and settled down in Benkrant to a career in the Saviours.
Upon finishing at university, aged 24, Malyarin tried a variety of jobs, in addition to the standard menial jobs everyone had to do - engineer, artist, musician, singer, historian, dance instructor. None of them really satisfied him. Then, in an unprecedented move for one so young, Malyarin was invited to become a meritarch for the city of Benkrant. He readily accepted and at last found his niche. His wide areas of knowledge and interest in what he did soon had Malyarin elected to the High Circle at the unprecedentedly young age of 26.
Malyarin served in the High Circle for two years, doing his job conscientiously and well. Then one day six years ago reports began to come in of some kind of strange paths (which he later learned were known as Shadow Paths) being discovered which seemed to lead to another world. One of these paths was quite close to Benkrant, where his parents and sister lived. Exploratory forces of Saviours went along several of these paths to explore and make contact with anything on the other side. At first the reports were encouraging; Purity, the world on the other side, although strange, had people on it much like the people of Tan'Shakar, and their rulers, the Knights of the Silver Flame, although initially somewhat cool, seemed to become more friendly as further contacts were made.
Then the duplicity of the Knights of the Silver Flame was revealed as they led armies through into Tan'Shakar in a series of surprise attacks. Tens of thousands died and a number of cities, including Benkrant, were taken in the initial assault. Zanvar and Elisten were among the dead. Zerala and her husband were unable to make it out before the city was taken over. Malyarin didn't have time to grieve due to the immediate demands of the war. In the light of what has gone since he thinks his parents deaths may have been a blessing in disguise for them.
From the first the Tan'Shakarians were at a serious disadvantage. They had no standing army and no heavy military equipment. Although the Knights of the Silver Flame had no technology beyond the medieval level, they had organisation and numbers on their side, plus a number of strange, seemingly supernatural abilities. The Tan'Shakarians were limited to guerilla-type actions and using hastily-adapted civilian equipment. In addition they soon found that very little of their equipment worked on Purity, the Knights homeworld, so they were very limited in striking back at them. As a final blow they soon discovered that Purity has a significantly faster rate of time flow than Tan'Shakar, again giving the Knights a great strategic advantage.
Although they put up a brave fight, almost the entire adult population going to war, the Tan'Shakarians were pushed back and back. Malyarin proved to be the best tactician the High Circle had, and so was placed in charge of all operations. Although he did his best, including authorising a number of nuclear weapons strikes against the Knights, he was limited by the equipment and people under his command; they were simply outclassed. During this time Malyarin learned the forms of a variety of dangerous animals for use in combat (these were forms dangerous for their claws/teeth, poison or electrical generating abilities).
By two years ago the war had turned into a rearguard action. Malyarin's only consideration was to kill as many of the Knights as possible in the hope that overwhelming casualties would turn them back. During this time he began to dream of being able to use the abilities of animals without turning completely into them. More nuclear weapons were used. Malyarin visited the various fronts (based around the Shadow Paths) on a number of occasions to review the situation in person, and several times was involved in combat, where he proved himself individually superior to the Knights. It was during one of these combats that the abilities he had dreamed had again become real. Unfortunately he couldn't be everywhere at once, and was needed to direct the war as a whole, so was forced back to the command centres behind the lines. In the later stages of the war, as the situation became increasingly desperate, Malyarin was forced to use nuclear weapons on the cities the Knights held, including Benkrant where, as far as he knew, Zerala was still located. Although he was heartbroken, he couldn't let grief or personal feelings interfere with the job he had to do and ordered the bombings to go ahead. As with his parents he didn't have time to grieve. Unfortunately for Tan'Shakar the Knights seemed unconcerned about their own or the Tan'Shakarian's casualties, so long as they achieved victory.
About seven months ago the remnants of one of several volunteer covert reconnaissance groups which had been sent into Purity came stumbling back. They had news of the capital of the Knights, Flameholm, from where their side of the war was being directed. The High Circle knew by this time that guns and nuclear weapons did not work on Purity. Despite this Malyarin decided they must strike. A hand-picked team of volunteers, led by himself, would go through and attempt to kill the Keeper of the Flame and the entire Purity command structure. Hopefully Tan'Shakar could hold out long enough for this to do some good. Plans were prepared which would hopefully tide Tan'Shakar over in his absence.
Preparations over, Malyarin led his team into Purity after a diversionary battle freed one of the Shadow Paths for a short time. After a long and gruelling trek across the silver wildernesses of Purity they reached Flameholm. After a short period of reconnaissance the team attempted to infiltrate the main temple prior to attacking. Unfortunately the Knights detected their entrance and a battle ensued.
In the midst of combat, some of the Knights tried to subvert and twist Malyarin's mind in the same way they were doing to his comrades. Malyarin felt something new stir within him, and somehow struck back with his mind, killing a number of Knights that way, one after the other, simply by touching them. However, it soon became obvious that the battle was hopeless; there were too many Knights and more were arriving by the minute. Malyarin decided withdrawal was the best option. Unfortunately, only Malyarin's special abilities saved him; the rest of his team were killed or captured while he flew off in his combat form. He was hiding outside of Flameholm from a large searching force of the Knights of the Silver Flame, moments away from detection and a battle he had no chance of winning, when a man calling himself Dalt suddenly appeared, apparently from nowhere.
"Hello, I'm a relative of yours. No time for explanations. Quickly, if you want to live, come with me," he said. Malyarin did so, and following Dalt, suddenly found himself in another world.
"I'm here to teach you how to do what I've just done - walk between shadows," said Dalt. Malyarin was dubious about this stranger, but for the moment held his tongue. A group of armoured cavalry turned up as an escort and Dalt took them off on what turned out to be a seven-day ride through shadow.
As they went Malyarin asked him lots of questions about what was going on. Dalt told him about shadows, the basics of how to shift shadow and various things about Amber and the blood of Amber, including that Malyarin is of it. He also mentioned not to trust any relatives, himself included, though most of them were a very long way away. Dalt said the only other Amberites around here were Brand (who when Dalt knew him was insane, power-mad and very treacherous) and Eric (who when Dalt knew him was rather treacherous and had seized power prior to crowning himself King of Amber), who should both be avoided if possible.
Dalt was fairly reticent about himself, although he said that he came from a very long way away (not specifying precisely where) and doesn't know his way around the local shadows that accurately. He did ask Malyarin about his life history after saying he hadn't been observing him. Malyarin gave Dalt the edited highlights and discovered that Dalt seemed surprised to find that he was a shapechanger (he originally said that he hadn't been told Malyarin was a shapechanger, then changed this on questioning about who he was working for to 'sincere' answers along the lines of "I did serve someone else but left their service some time ago"). He also asked Malyarin whether he had seen a red jewel about the size of a hens egg on his travels. He hadn't, and told Dalt as much. Malyarin didn't trust him much, but didn't try any funny business, especially after Dalt mentioned that he could transport about a quarter of a million people through shadow using his own power...
Eventually they reached a plain, and on it was what Dalt had described as a Pattern. This Malyarin proceeded to walk. He lost sight of Dalt as he concentrated on walking the Pattern, huge sparks flying up as he did so, but when he got to the centre he found that Dalt and the cavalry had gone, though they couldn't have ridden off given the size of the plain the Pattern was on. Oh well; he transported himself from the centre of the Pattern back to the command centre in Intalgan, the capital of Tan'Shakar. Unfortunately he found it in ruins, and deserted. Sneaking out he saw that the worst had happened. While he had been away Tan'Shakar had fallen, and the Knights of the Silver Flame were in the process of destroying all of Tan'Shakars culture and history. Malyarin was appalled to discover that more than three years had passed in the approximately six subjective weeks since he had left Tan'Shakar. In desperation he tried a few attacks against the Knights on his own, but soon realised that he had no real chance. Short of a miracle there was nothing he could do.
He decided to leave Tan'Shakar in the hope of finding either a new life, or something which would help him free Tan'Shakar. He shifted off through Shadow, trying his new mental powers and Pattern abilities. He discovered that the distance Dalt took him in about a week would take him about four weeks under his own power and that he could transport about fifty people through shadow for about 6 hours under his own power. With his mental powers he discovered that he could do most of the things the Knights of the Silver Flame could do, but with a vastly reduced range (eye contact or skin-to-skin touch). Despite this his mind is still stronger than that of any of the Knights he has met so far.
Malyarin left Tan'Shakar a few months ago; since then he has been exploring, testing and practising his new abilities and recovering from his shock and grief. After spending a good part of the first three months drunk he has mostly got over the guilt he feels about the fall of Tan'Shakar; he did his best and it simply wasn't good enough. That's all there is to it. He has also been having dreams about his shapechanging abilities again, this time involving, among other things, growing new and duplicate internal organs and somehow changing the shape of his own mind. These seem somehow different and less vivid than those he had before.
So far Malyarin has found neither of the things he set out to find...