A malak (聖隷 seirei?, "holy servant") is a being part of the malakhim race in Tales of Berseria. The malakhim are a tribe of spiritual beings who use the powers of nature and are used as familiars. The future of the malakhim form is that of the seraphim seen in Tales of Zestiria. An Empyrean is an extremely powerful malak. Malakhim are beings whose origin can be traced back tens of thousands of years.
Description[]
Malakhim are spiritual beings who have always existed, invisible to the human eye due to their poor spiritual powers. The ritual performed three years prior to the beginning of the story, known as the Advent, resulted in humans gaining the power to see malakhim. After that event, malakhim were somehow enslaved and used by exorcists to enact magical effects. They can exist in both human and non-human form. Likewise, they are regarded by exorcists to be without ego, mere tools, but the existence of Eizen and Bienfu, with their own strong personalities, act as counters to those assumptions.
According to Eizen, a malak's true name holds a special meaning toward themselves and is not something to be told lightly to others, except to the their vessels. When it is told to those other than vessels, true names can mean both "an unbreakable trust" and a "love confession". After Laphicet assumes dragon form and takes on the name "Maotelus", humans lose the ability to see malakhim, who, over time, become legend and are known under a different name, possibly coined by humans.
According to the malak Zui Fuu, who resides in The Heavenly Steppes, malakhim and seraphim are the same entities. Zui Fuu calls herself a former seraph and explains that malakhim are just seraphim who decided to live side by side with humans several thousand years ago to prove that humans and seraphim are able to live in co-existence. Those seraphim who are still called seraphim live in the heavenly realm behind the heavenly gate that is kept closed as long as a co-existence is not possible. Younger malakhim like Eizen are the heirs to the decision of the older malakhim and do not know that malakhim and seraphim are the same.
Trivia[]
- The word Malak is Semitic for "angel", originating in Arabic before spreading to other languages.