The son of Malva Alderton and her late husband, whom passed away when Malcolm was only two. Malva's husband was found dead in his bed chambers one morning, the bite of a snake on his left thigh. Malva herself was unharmed, and though seemingly grief stricken at the time, recovered from his untimely death rather quickly. A grim joke amongst the commoners and the castle servants was that the harpy Malva venomously bit him herself. This lead to many referring to her as Malva the Serpent, and later, the Serpent Queen.
Malcolm is much like his mother, and in some cases he is very much unlike her as well.
Though cruel, cold, and somewhat scheming, he is also quite foolish, clumsy, and wasteful. Prior to Malva's rise to power, Malcolm did little more than abuse and torment the servants and peasants, sleep around with local prostitutes, and spend his money on drink and dream dust.
After his mother's rise to Queenship, Malcolm still continues his old habits, though he conceals them better and does them less frequently. He mostly now rubs elbows and politics with Alvionish nobles and politicians, conducts half-hearted diplomacy with foreigners, and does his best to keep up appearances, though to little avail.
There's a reason that Malva's top advisors and supporters keep a close watch on him.
Even as a boy Malcolm was mean and rather odd.
If he wasn't peeping through noblewomen's windows he was playing cruel pranks on his cousin Cecilia.
Be it pelting her with rocks in the gardens, burning her favorite books, or drawing unflattering images of her in charcoal on the castle walls. Malcolm in fact never liked his uncle, which was a somewhat mutual disposition, which is why Malcolm wept not when he witnessed the King die before him.
