Mallus/Synopsis

Mallus is the main antagonist in the third season of the TV series, DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

Past
Little is known about the demon known only as Mallus. What is known, however, is that in ancient times, the five original totem-bearers (Spirit, Air, Fire, Earth and Water) of the Zambesi tribes rebelled against him. The tribe of the sixth totem (Death), however, sided with Mallus and fought against the others. Despite this, the five totem-bearers successfully imprisoned Mallus in a cage of time: an alternate dimension that exists beyond the astral plane in order to separate the real world from Mallus, thus leaving him to swear vengeance against mankind.

According to John Constantine, Mallus is also a demon of the highest order, which meant that exorcism rituals are ineffective on him. He was known to the Time Masters as an ancient evil so powerful that they dared to not even speak his name.

After the Legends broke time in order to defeat the Legion of Doom and unintentionally created anachronisms, Mallus, became aware of this and, knowing that anachronisms can weaken his imprisonment, took advantage of the situation and plotted to recruit allies to ensure that time would be broken so he can finally escape. To gain loyal followers, Mallus had the Order of the Shrouded Compass created that would worship him as a pagan god and ensure his return to their world. Due to the threat of his return, Mallus became a sworn enemy of Rip Hunter that left him obsessed with stopping the demon. However, the Time Bureau, an organization founded in protecting the timeline and dealing with aberrations and anachronisms, are in total belief of his existence.

Recruiting Acolytes
Mallus sent one of his followers, Nora Darhk, to resurrect Kuasa, whom he then sent to the year 2042 to kill rogue hacktivist Zari Tomaz and steal her brother's amulet, which was one of the six lost totems of Zambesi. However, Kuasa failed to do so thanks to the Legends and she escaped.

Mallus later ordered Nora to travel to London 1897 and resurrect Damien Darhk. During the ceremony, Rip Hunter interrupted them and demanded to Nora to speak with Mallus. Without hesitation, Nora agreed and within seconds, Mallus took possession of her body and stated to Rip that it was a pleasure to meet him. Rip then demanded to see his true form, Mallus wickedly laughed and said that he wouldn't live when he saw his true form and claimed that while Rip was mortal, he was a god. Just before Damien was resurrected, Mallus stop possessing Nora. In a few moments, Damien and Nora escaped. Later, Mallus sent Damien Darhk to save Grodd from his demise in 1967, Vietnam and therefore recruit him to their cause, which Grodd accepted.Mallus was not seen or heard from again for a while until the Legends once more crossed paths with the Darhks in the year 1000 A.D. while endeavoring to rescue a younger Martin Stein from Vikings and preventing the US from becoming 'New Valhalla'. During a pitched battle between the two sides, Damien came rushing to his daughter's aid, using his glowing orb to transport them away. As they did so, Legends leader Sara Lance grabbed on to Damien and was transported suddenly to a dark, desolate place, the very dimension in which Mallus was imprisoned. Mallus called out to her from the darkness, never revealing his face or true form. Declaring his name when asked who he was, Mallus swore that he would soon be free and that the entire world would soon be subjected to unendurable pain. Canary could only look on in stunned terror as a huge, black hand reached out towards her from out of nowhere as ghoulish laughter echoed all around, before she was yanked back into her own world by Time Bureau agent Ava Sharpe through a portal hovering nearby.

Possessing Nora Darhk in 2017
While possessing a young Nora Darhk in 2017, Mallus soon attracted the attention of the notorious warlock John Constantine who subsequently broke into the mental hospital Nora had been placed in to exorcise her. Constantine unfortunately had no idea what he was really blundering into and recklessly tried to banish Mallus from the girl with an ordinary exorcism without knowing the entity's name first; Mallus merely laughed it off and derided Constantine's efforts, citing his failure to save Astra, his own eternal damnation and his efforts to save the soul of Sara Lance. Frightened by Mallus' power, Constantine fled the hospital and went in search of Sara.Mallus didn't have to wait long before Constantine returned to the hospital with the Legends in tow to help him. Once he, Sara Lance and Leo Snart had revived the catatonic Nora inside a magical seal known as the Triangle of Solomon, Mallus soon emerged and greeted them, focusing on Sara and remarking on how he had been expecting her; that she would soon see his true form when he took her back to his world for all eternity. Wasting no time, Constantine launched into another exorcism, this using Mallus' name to amplify it. Laughing ghoulishly, Mallus once more shrugged off Constantine's exorcism without even trying and simply strode out of the Triangle, bellowing that Constantine's powers were useless against him. Telekinetically tossing the group aside, Mallus quickly scrawled a temporal displacement symbol on the ground and cast the group back in time to the 1960s version of the same hospital before withdrawing back into Nora.Determined to gain possession of Sara Lance, Mallus reached out telepathically to her in the 1960s and began haunting her, giving her hallucinations and dredging up her worst memories so as to incited enough fear and rage within her to prime her for possession. He was foiled in this regard by Constantine who coached Sara through the process of resisting possession. Meanwhile back in 2017, Mallus revealed himself to Zari and Ray in Jitters after they attempted to help Nora reenter normal life and mocked their efforts. Roaring, screaming and bellowing as the building shook with tremors all around, Mallus ignored their appeals to Nora and threw Ray against a wall when he got too close. In response, Zari moved to grab Nora by the arm which unexpectedly started to badly burn the entity. Horrified and roaring with pain, Mallus accused Zari of being 'one of the six' regarding her totem and tried to fire a swarm of glass shards at her. Unfortunately at that exact moment, Nora reasserted control over herself with the help of Sara, temporarily silencing Mallus. Fortunately however, Damien Darhk showed up to Nora, denouncing Mallus as her "savior" and persuaded her to return to the orphanage to be mentored by the demon, thus leaving Mallus still successful in recruiting her.

Gathering the Totems
Knowing that the Legends were aware of his weakness, Mallus sent Damien and Nora Darhk to find and gather the Totems they currently needed (Fire, Earth, Spirit, Air and Death). Firstly, he sent the Darhks to Detroit in 2018 to retrieve the Fire Totem (which was currently broken) before the Legends could get it. Later, he sent them to the Bahamas in 1717 to retrieve the lost Earth Totem. In the outcome of this mission, although the Darhks failed to get the Earth Totem, they did steal Amaya's Spirit Totem and kidnap Ray Palmer.

Later, however, as Damien and Nora tried to get Ray to reignite the Fire Totem, Ray escapes with it, even though Nora is able to gain full access to the Spirit Totem's powers and corrupt Amaya's connection to it. Then, for unknown reasons, Mallus briefly possesses Nora while Damien wasn't looking before leaving her with a slightly corrupted/disfigured face.

Possessing Sara Lance
After patiently waiting for the Legends to retrieve the long-lost Death Totem, Mallus, knowing of his strong influence over the totem, concluded that as a former assassin, Sara Lance would be a perfect candidate to bear its power and be swayed to join his side and fight for him as its original bearer did. To that end, he once more reached out to her in the temporal zone, and, being more cautious this time, disguised his voice as Sara's own and project harmless illusions of her during her time as The Canary. He promised Sara that with the totem's power, she can control over death itself as its new bearer. Unable to resist the demon's influence nor the pull from the totem, Sara put on the Death Totem and allowed Mallus to successfully take over her completely and transport her mind to his dimension prison.

Wielding the Death Totem, Mallus rampaged throughout the Waverider while gravely injuring Ray, and using the totem and Sara's combat skills to constantly defeating Amaya, Mick, Zari, Wally and Nate in quick succession, whilst also shrugging off Sara's attempts to reassert control of her body. John Constantine, Ava Sharpe and Gary Green appeared to assist in their fight, but this did little effect. After Mick gain total power over the Fire Totem, this drew Mallus' attention thanks to the Death Totem, and he pursued him. Reaching the labs, Mick stopped him in his tracks by using fireballs to attack Mallus, successfully knocking the demon out. Enraged, Mallus tried to revive his vessel but despite help from the younger Darhk, Sara rejected Nora's offers of power and an alliance with Mallus and expelled him from her body as well as the influence of the Death Totem.