# Malygris — Short Fiction character guide

> Malygris in Short Fiction by Clark Ashton Smith.

**Role:** major

**First appearance:** 0000-the-malay-krise

## Snapshot

A great magician who summons the phantom of his lost love and discovers that no necromancy can restore the youth and guileless heart that once beheld her.

## Who they are

Malygris is a master of all knowledge and arcane power, a sorcerer whose necromancy can call back the dead, yet he is tormented by age, despair, and the death of his evanescent hope. When he summons the shade of Nylissa, he scrutinizes her with growing cruelty, finding her lips less lovely and her form less supple, until his soul sickens with the suspicion that even memory is a dubitable mirage. His tragic flaw is the belief that magic can recover what time has taken, and his dialogue with the viper—who alone knew the one thing he did not—drives the story's meditation on the vanity of wisdom and the impotence of love.

## Relationships

### [Nylissa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/nylissa)

_psychological_

Malygris is a sorcerer who holds Nylissa under a magical thrall, using her as a pawn in his schemes.

### [Viper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/viper)

_psychological_

Malygris uses Viper as a venomous familiar and spy, controlling the creature through dark magic.

### [Viper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/viper)

_psychological_

Malygris uses Viper as a venomous familiar and spy, controlling the creature through dark magic.

### [Nylissa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/nylissa)

_psychological_

Malygris is a sorcerer who holds Nylissa under a magical thrall, using her as a pawn in his schemes.

### [Viper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/viper)

_psychological_

Malygris uses Viper as a venomous familiar and spy, controlling the creature through dark magic.

## In the story

### [The Last Incantation](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/the-last-incantation)

The aged magician, master of forbidden lore, who summons his lost love Nylissa only to confront the limits of his power and the erosion of memory.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters/malygris
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_9_se/characters