Malata
| Malata | |
|---|---|
| Abilities | Surgebinder (Division/Abrasion) |
| Residence | Urithiru |
| Homeworld | Roshar |
“ Someone should have warned me how fun this would be. I’d have tried way harder to land the job. ”
Malata is a middle-aged woman from Jah Keved. She is a Releaser bonded to an Ashspren named Spark.
Appearance and Personality
Malata is a Veden light-eyed woman of middle-age, with short, black, boyish hair, who is described to wear a skirt and blouse, with the top buttons undone, described as specifically a Southern style. She also wears gloves on both hands.[2]
Malata behaves in a very confident way even in the presence of royalty. She does not seem to care about the ethics of the Diagram's actions, or that her spren wants to punish Malata's own species. Rather, she seems to only be concerned about enjoying her work.[1] Whether or not this matches the attitude of ancient Releasers is currently unknown, although the Diagram indicates that Dustbringers (another name for Releasers) are the most likely Order of Knights Radiant to accept the group's cause.[3]
History
At some point after creating the Diagram, King Taravangian formed and managed a project to have Diagram members attempt to bond a spren.[1] Malata was supposedly a part of this project, although she claims to have approached Taravangian only because Spark, her spren, suggested that they go to Urithiru, implying that she was already bonded prior to joining Taravangian's team.[4] She arrives to Urithiru with Taravangian and unsettles both Dalinar Kholin and Shallan Davar.[2][4]
Having access to a Radiant Shardblade, Malata was often given the responsibility of activating Oathgates for members of Dalinar's coalition. Upon deciding that Dalinar's secrets must be used against him, the Diagram had Malata spy on Dalinar using Spark.[3] Through this they learned about Dalinar's visions where he talked to Odium. They used this among other secrets to undermine the coalition's trust in Dalinar.[5]
Later on, while the Battle of Thaylen Field was taking place, Malata opened Jah Keved's Oathgate on orders from the Diagram to allow a strike force of Odium's army into Urithiru, where they battled with Alethi soldiers. An agent of the Diagram disguised as a Bridge Four member also went to Urithiru and stole Jezrien's Honorblade from Eth, killing him and injuring Rock and Bisig in the process. This was part of Taravangian's plan to appeal to Odium so that he would spare part of humanity.[6][1]
Abilities
As a Releaser, Malata has access to the Surges of Division and Abrasion, although so far she has only demonstrated Division, the Surge of decay. Using Division, she can cause objects to degrade, burn, or turn to dust just by touching them with her bare hand. She has shown enough ability in this that she could quickly make an intricate engraving on wood via controlled burning.[1]
She has also progressed enough in her Oaths to turn Spark into a Shardblade[2], which she has been using to control Oathgates.