The Malefactors are the principal antagonists of The Suffering and its sequel The Suffering: Ties that Bind. A race of monsters embodying the tragedies of a particular area, they exist solely to destroy life wherever they find it. During the first game, each Malefactor introduced is a personification of a particular method of capital punishment used on Carnate Island, from lethal injection to live burial. By contrast, the Malefactors of the second game represent the urban decay of Baltimore and the injustices of prison life at Eastern Baltimore Correctional.
Biology And Behavior
Malefactors are the anthropomorphic manifestations of death, violence and decay across the world. Though they appear basically humanoid in build, the incident they represent has left them hideously disfigured in a variety of ways, and few could ever mistake them for living human beings.
Though at first appearing to embody the victims of a tragedy, it's often suggested, implied or outright stated that the Malefactors are the physical reincarnations of the perpetrators, punished for their crimes by being made to relive the torment that their victims suffered: in the most obvious case, the three children who levied accusations of witchcraft for their own amusement - and ended up getting the accused burnt at the stake - are now the Infernas, a trio of perpetually-burning monstrosities. Similarly, Clem suggests that the Festers are not a reincarnation of the slaves trapped in the hold of a slave ship (for then they would be of darker skin tone) but of the slave traders who left them to die. It's not known if this is always the case, however, for in some cases no perpetrators exist and the Malefactor appears to be simply a reincarnation of a victim seeking to inflict their anger and pain upon the world.
Malefactor behavior is invariably violent: though many variants are intelligent enough to demonstrate simple problem-solving skills and a rare few even possess human intellect, they cannot be reasoned, bargained or negotiated with in any way. Malefactors will attack and kill other living beings on sight, eliminating human beings without mercy until the area has been cleansed of life. This intolerance extends even to fellow Malefactors, as the different variants will frequently fight and kill one another if no humans are visible: Slayers have been witnessed torturing Mainliners, while Festers will gladly crush Slayers into mulch.
Even the weakest Malefactors are capable of inflicting lethal force with ease: when Malefactors emerge in an area, civilians are killed en mass, and all but the very best-trained and best-equipped groups can find themselves overwhelmed - and even this is not a guarantee, for the Foundation's troops were forced to retreat in the face of devastating casualties from both the Malefactors and their "Prime Target," Torque. Only Torque has been able to consistently withstand the Malefactors, and most of the survivors of a region only manage to stay alive by temporarily allying with him.
The biological makeup of the Malefactors is something of a mystery even to the few experts that continue to research them, for precisely how such organisms can function despite their numerous deformities is difficult to determine; many are obviously supernatural in nature, but it's not known how these creatures are generated, if there are any limits to how many Malefactors can be generated in a single Cataclysm, or what they achieve by destroying all life in a given area. The violent nature of Malefactors and the near-apocalyptic circumstances in which they appear only makes research all the more difficult, as few have an opportunity to study them without risking death: on Carnate Island, only Clem was able to document the Malefactors, and most of his findings were limited to what he could safely observe without getting too close. However, Dr Killjoy and Jordan have been able to conduct extensive research on Malefactors outside of an infestation, capturing, vivisecting, autopsying and (in Killjoy's case) even modifying several of them. However, Foundation scientists can be heard mentioning that dead Malefactors decay almost too quickly for tissue samples to be examined under microscope, forcing them to make do with life test subjects (with all the hazards this entails).
Hell-Holes and Cataclysm
As told in events of the first game, how Malefactors can enter the real world appeared to be triggered by two things: One, dark and horrible history of place where they will likely manifests in real world, and other is presence of an individual with (presumably) psychological and morality issues that as horrible as the area itself like Torque with Carnate Island. It's proposed that should at least one troubled individual with psychological and morality problems entered the area with equally dark and horrible history where Malefactors will likely manifests, it will triggered an event called The Cataclysm, the violent earthquake around that area which followed by emergences of several portals called Hell-Hole. Those portals serves as gate between our world and dimension where forms of great wrongdoings given physical form as Malefactors, and as discussed before, Malefactors who emerged from those portals usually taking forms which symbolises various dark and horrible history of great wrongdoings on the place around each portals they emerged from. Indeed, Torque's presence on Carnate is presumed to be the catalyst of Cataclysm on that island, as mere minutes after he arrived in his cell in Abbott State Penitentary, an earthquake ensues with several Hell-Holes appeared and unleashed swarms of Malefactors that overrun the island. Immense emotional and mental trauma Torque has endured prior to his arrival made, combined with darkest aspect of the island, fulfilled the conditions required for Cataclysm to occured.
Interestingly, Torque's presence in an area is thought to draw in and attract Malefactors, as seen in Eastern State Penitentary and when he reached his apartment in the Ties That Bind. One of the primary factor why Torque attracts nearby Malefactors to him is because of his ability transform into the Creature. It is possible that the Creature is the only thing that can end the Cataclysm and the entire Malefactors since it can kill Malefactors that cannot be killed by conventional weapons.
Pages in category "Malefactors"
The following 17 pages are in this category, out of 17 total.
ABCF |
GIM |
NSTW |
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