Morgriff History
Morgriff was a trueborn vampire whose father was possessed by a devil named Mog when Mog spurred Morgriff's birth with his sephiroth mother who consented to have the triplets by Byron through the powerful devil possessing him. Morgriff was born the eldest of those triplets who were separated a month after birth. His born with siblings were Serxal and Aari, whom he was later reunited with. While Serxal and Aari were sold into slavery, Morgriff was kidnapped by his nanny Delenna Calistori who raised him in the wilderness near Eagleroost Lake in Seumir as her foster child for three months, at what time she was killed by Mog. Morgriff was spared but Mog left him to fate which for Morgriff was to fend for himself as a four month old trueborn, whose rapid aging gave him the appearance and for the most part, the maturity of a four year old. Though Morgriff was not exactly raised by wolves, he was a wild thing who raised himself in the small house tucked away in the jungle and grassland surrounding Seumir's three hundred mile wide lake. He had shelter and once he had gotten over his foster mother's death, he was in fact content as a child in his little slice of paradise. He avoided people. A person had murdered his 'mother' in front of him. But he did watch people, those who lived near the lake or who passed through the area. He learned from them from the shadows of the trees, all manner of verdure and the tall grasses of the plains, and he also cloaked himself in the darkness he instinctly gathered around himself, or sank himself into that he conceal himself more completely. Even as a toddler he and the shadows were close companions. As he aged he learned to speak by listening to people and practicing the languages he picked up alone. He spoke to nature, to the animals, insects, trees and plants. He learned from nature as well, and the three main things he learned were, to beware people and other dangers, to take from the world only what you need, and... how to take on the shape of those he came to understand and feel a deep connection with. He shapeshifted into his first animal when he was five month-years old. It was a colourful White Throated Prism Bird which came often to the grounds outside his little house to visit him. He actually learned his first words AS this bird, from the little friend he flew around the rainforest with. Prism Birds could learn a vocabulary as vast as any humanoid. Holding that bird, petting it, speaking to it, eating and drinking with it, he had learned what it was to BE that bird, and willed himself into its shape. He had become one in spirit and then in body with the bird. He loved flying, singing to the other birds, hearing the songs they returned.
Morgriff was eight months old when he shifted into a lion for the first time. He had always felt the lion in himself, and once he made the shift he maintained the lion embodiment for long periods of time. He even encountered other silver maned white lions like himself and spent periods of time with them. At one point he considered remaining a lion for the rest of his life... but it was lonely and becoming part of a pride was not for him because they sensed he was different. The lions barely tolerated him.
He was eleven months old when a pack of Red Wolves attacked him and he was barely able to defeat the animals, but he survived and in doing so also became one with the wolf. One of them he'd had to kill and learned to tan its hide by asking a local hunter to show him how. This was the first time he communicated with an actual human being. He did not let the hunter do it for him but show HIM how to do it FOR himself. In time Morgriff became an excellent tanner. He was a vampire and it was the blood of animals he survived on, though he only killed them when he had to, and when he did their skins became his clothing, bedding and shelter when traveling, which he did often to explore the world around his small home and to hunt.
By the time Morgriff was fourteen months in age, he was speaking fairly well and approached his first village, Albiraath. He was strange but the people there, a mix of elves, weyr and human-sorts mostly, treated him quite kindly. He traded some of his fine leather craft and furs for food. Morgriff was happy with very little. One elf instructed him in how to protect himself from people taking advantage of him. His furs and leather were exceptional and valuable, and the elf made sure he knew it and their worth. Morgriff also carved beautiful animal figures out of wood, ivory-nuts, and soft stones. In time he made his way to the city of Serhaubren, the capital of Seumir, to trade, but he never stayed long. It was too busy and crowded for his temperament. He liked the quiet and isolation of the wilderness. Came a time when he got into some trouble. A man in the city attacked him during one of his visits and Morgriff killed the man in self defense, but the law there came after him and he ended up being captured and placed under arrest by the kingdom rangers, one ranger in particular handled his case, Traerson Denveth. Morgriff was taken back to the King's Chateau nearly seven hundred miles south-west of Serhaubren. Morgriff was three years old by this time, and for the first time, met his father... the vampire who had murdered his mother. By this time Byron was dispossessed of the devil who had compelled him to commit so many crimes... crimes which had in fact thrown his country into a state of civil unrest which soon led to war. Morgriff was found innocent of any crime and was freed, but also offered a home with his father at the chateau. There Morgriff met other trueborn offspring whom he quickly bonded with. Among them were Azturel, Fioren, Urruti, Loghaire, and his triplets Aari and Serxal.
Byron, once dispossessed of Mog, was an honorable creature who not only acknowledged Morgriff as his child, but embraced him as his son the moment he was sure of their blood ties. Without hesitation he treated Morgriff as he did any of his sons. In fact... Byron had been 'collecting' the trueborn children Mog had forced him to conceive. All of the trueborns' mothers were dead, murdered by Mog who had used Byron as his sword to kill them, with ONE exception... The mother of Morgriff, Serxal and Aari. She lived still. A few months after Byron had found Morgriff... Aari came also into his keeping, and not long after her, Serxal. The triplets were reunited under the vampire who had murdered and raped so many to build his army of offspring while possessed by the powerful formless one, and yet Byron was NOT the one who had commited those terrible crimes. Morgriff and his siblings all came to love and respect Byron. None of them doubted Byron's allegations. A devil really HAD made him 'do it'. He proved himself a good father, albeit a very busy one much as his duties and a kingdom in conflict spilled his cup over. They did what they could to help... but always in the back of everyone's minds was the question... WHY had Mog arranged their births? Was it only to corrupt Byron's reputation and tear down his kingdom? Or had Mog a USE for the trueborn he had cultivated? None of them could imagine every betraying Byron... but would they have a choice? Because of these questions few trusted the 'Mog Sleepers' as the trueborn came to be called by those who suspected they were secret weapons. Morgriff only knew that he would die before betraying his father. If he was part of some agenda by Mog he planned on NOT cooperating.
Morgriff discovered just how horrible it was to be used against his father and how many enemies Byron had and how determined they were the hard way. Slayers had possessed Morgriff with a very powerful summoned spirit named Sarmedes. Even the slayers had no idea how powerful this phantom was. Through Sarmedes whom they were able to command for a short time, the slayers used the trueborn as an assassin in an attempt to kill his father, and he had come closer to succeeding at doing just that than anyone really understood. While being controlled by Sarmedes Morgriff had been less than a second away from ripping his dearly loved father apart via the shadows... It was a rare application of umbramancy, one of the few ways the shadows could be used to actually harm someone. Shadow Quarter was a technique he had figured out on his own, just as Octavian had realized he could use the shadows to kill. It was the act of pulling someone apart by sending pieces of them instantaneously to separate locations in the shadow realm. Fortunately his father's ranger Denveth had seized Morgriff and plunged him into a warded cell before he could kill Byron. Sarmedes had controlled Morgriff then it was true, but only because he was likewise being commanded by the slayer which had summoned him.
The incident with Byron had shaken Morgriff who decided to travel overseas to the desert continent of Mhas Andorath where he hoped to return Sarmedes home; a tomb in the mountain kingdom of Peladrius. Before ever finding Peladrius however, Morgriff, who was traveling with his brothers Serxal and Fioren, and two guardians named Celiandar and Vhanna, met up with King Octavian of Esscha Endor and joined up with his party for a grand adventure which took them to the lost city of Haashqotaan. It was all related to the Maelvannor spirit Sarmedes within him, who in life had played a part in the destruction of the city via haphazard means. It felt like their destiny to travel to Haashqotaan. An ancient Tsularian hermit named Afaier had met Seth in the desert and begged the foreign king and his people to find and deliver a scepter of power to him. It was that goal which carried the party Morgriff had joined three months across the desert's dunes and salt flats to the site the hermit said they could enter the buried city.
It was during this journey across the desert that Morgriff found the elephants who came under his care. They were Mumaaqu desert mastedons who had been orphaned as calves by ivory hunters. Morgriff brought the mastadon calves with them, sinking them into the shadow realm with plenty of food and water whenever they had to leave them alone for their protection. (The Mumaaqu live at Morgriff's cottage now in a shelter he built for them out of dead fall, with a thatched roof. They graze and range in the grassland near the cottage but always come immediately to his call of 'moooooo-'MAH'-koo. The quickly growing elephants love Morgriff who they see as their mother.)
Once they entered the city buried beneath the sand they explored the ruins for three weeks that normal time would have made three days of, before finding the scepter they had set out to locate. Morgriff had thought about separating from the large and motley company he had joined but his love for adventure and exploration, and the fact that Sarmedes was so deeply connected to what had happened to Haashqotaan and its inhabitants, held him to the task until it was done. Practically all the Tsularian people who had died when the city was swallowed by the earth survived as all manner of spirits and undead, many of whom they had to fight as they made their way through the lost city.
While in Haashqotaan the party was assaulted by a massive backlash of pure chaotic energy unleashed by one of their most powerful party members Sarku. What should have killed them all caused a chaotic ascension instead, which resulted in a cosmic rebirth for anyone the blast did not destroy, ally and enemy alike. Morgriff became extremely powerful overnight. They all had. And if Sarmedes was not powerful enough, he too ascended, and more than that, Sarmedes merged with Morgriff to become a distinct embodiment within the trueborn. Morgriff could both shift into him and project him as an independant being. Sarmedes lived again, but inside of Morgriff unless he let Sarmedes out to play. But they were always connected. One. Morgriff was the kingdom Sarmedes lived in and took sustenance from. Morgriff was his home plane. Morgriff had also gained a lot in Haashqotaan in the way of treasures, wealth, valuable secrets, knowledge and experience.
Once the scepter had been found, they went to the world of the Tenjin outlanders who had also joined Seth's party not long before Morgriff and his small party had encountered them. Morgriff wished to remain on the Tenjin's world for awhile after leaving Mhas Andorath. All the while he cared for his elephants, got them accustomed to being ridden and when it was time to leave Aenguard, he did so with whistful reluctance. The Tenjin's home world was one Morgriff hoped to explore one day and he made sure the Tenjin knew it.
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