Morgan Le Fay. (Art by Banished Shadow)
Morgan Le Fay, also known as Morgana Le Fay, Morrigan, or the Red Queen, is a powerful sorceress and antagonist of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in Arthurian legend. She later became a powerful vampire by way of Absalom.
Description[]
Morgan was born from the union of a human and a fae, in this case Arthur's mother, Lady Igraine and Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. Although always depicted as a practitioner of magic, over time her character became more malevolent until she began to be portrayed as a witch who was taught the black arts by Merlin. She is a seductive, megalomaniacal fae witch who wishes to overthrow Arthur, and have the fae reclaim the lands that was once their own before they were driven away by early human settlers. Her methods are usually extreme as she sometimes resorts to seducing Arthur and giving birth to the wicked Mordred, although traditionally Mordred's mother was Morgan’s sister, Morgause.
History[]
Background[]
Morgan Le Fay is said to be Arthur's half-sister, daughter of Arthur’s mother, Lady Igraine, and her first husband, Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, who was revealed to be a Fae. She has at least two older sisters, Elaine and Morgause, the latter being the mother of Sir Gawain, the Green Knight, and the traitor, Mordred Pendragon. As a fairy later transformed into a woman and King Arthur's half sister, she became an enchantress to continue her powers.
While Morgan is portrayed as a giver of healing ointments, she is usually more so seen as a wicked enchantress who learned her initial mysterious skills from her corrupt education in an early Christian nunnery. Later, Merlin helped her expand her magical powers. The story where she enticed King Arthur into an incestuous affair with Morgause from which Mordred was born is, however, a misconception derived from the desire of modern authors to merge Morgan with her more sympathetic sister.
Another reason for this hatred is during her early practices of magic she was married by Uther to his ally Urien. She is unhappy with her husband and takes a string of lovers until she is caught by a young Guinevere, who expels her from the court in disgust. Morgan's true goals were to have the land of the Fae overtake the world of man as she was repulsed and angered by the way humans have treated her kind, especially the elves. Being the result of a union between two of these races, Morgan fancied herself a messiah of some sort, and one that will lead the Fae into a glorious new age even if she has to take drastic measures to accomplish her goals.
Vampire Queen[]
Morgan eventually took in Mordred Pendragon, the illegitimate son of Arthur and Morgause, with the former having been forced to lay with the witch under a spell. Morgan would have her sister sire a child with Arthur as a means to destroy him as only one with the blood of a Pendragon wields the power to kill another Pendragon. Mordred and Arthur faced other at Camlann, fighting until nightfall. Only Arthur, Mordred, and two of Arthur's knights, Sir Lucan and Sir Bedivere, were left alive (Sir Lucan would ultimately succumb to his own grievous injury). Arthur, furious, pierced Mordred with a spear; and Mordred, in his death-throes, smote Arthur with his sword, mortally wounding him.
Arthur was quickly taken to Avalon by Guinevere's request and plea, where the eight fairy queens would treat his wounds. Though Arthur was able to survive, he remained unconscious. Merlin conversed with him as a spirit, and questioned the king on what his next course of action would be. Arthur decided to outright destroy Morgan when he returns from Avalon, but she eventually escaped Arthur's wrath by transforming her entourage into stone. Seeing no other alternative at taking down Arthur, and knowing of the dangers posed if she attempted to kill him in Avalon, Morgan was approached by a 'dark king of blood' who was revealed to be Absalom himself.
Morgan offered her life to the Blood God in exchange for greater power to which Absalom agreed. He had her drink his blood and in the process was sired by Absalom to become a vampire and the first ever Vampire Queen. Her newly bestowed vampiric abilities coupled with her magical talents made Morgan a dangerously powerful threat, essentially something akin to a vampiric demigoddess, all the while plotting against Arthur and Guinevere, for having killed Mordred and expelling her from the court. The newly risen vampiric Morgan would then plan and using Mordred's body as a vessel for Absalom under the Blood God's guidance.
Defeat and Return[]
Through both magic and immortal means, she tries to arrange Arthur's downfall, most famously when she arranges for her lover Sir Accolon to obtain the sword Excalibur and use it against Arthur in single combat. When this ploy fails, Morgan throws Excalibur's protective scabbard into a lake but not before cursing it. The curse itself is transferred to Nimue which corrupts her in the process thereby becoming an enemy of Arthur and many centuries later Hellboy. Nimue's corruption benefited Morgan as the Lady of the Lake grew mad with the knowledge and magic she learned from Merlin, consequently resulting in in Merlin's imprisonment by Nimue herself.
Morgan raised an army of vampires that would come to aid Vortigern in his quest to take Arthur and attain absolute sovereignty over Britian, all while she took refuge in an ancient tower where she tapped into the darkest of magic to peel away the veil that lay between the material and spiritual plane in an attempt to have Absalom cross over and take physical form through Mordred whose body she took after being slain by Arthur. She was confronted and defeated by Arthur who stabbed her through the heart, and buried her sword deep into her and right into the sacrificial altar. The blowback was so immense it destroyed the tower and seemingly Morgan.
However, Arthur discovered from Merlin that while her physical body had been destroyed her essence still lingered inside the blade. Not wasting any time, Merlin took Arthur to Salisbury Plain, where the famous prehistoric landmark Stonehenge resides, and by Merlin's magic with the aid of several druids, Arthur jammed his sword in the center of the site, channeling Morgan's essence into the earth while the druids and Merlin grafted powerful seals unto the stone pillars that keep Morgan confined inside. Morgan's burial in Stonehenge is referred to in a poem "Twelve Dreams for the Red Queen under a Crown of Stone".