Morgan le Fay

As one of the most powerful sorceresses in Earth’s history, Morgan le Fay shows no mercy to those who stand in her way of Britain’s throne, including her own family. She learns magic from the legendary sorcerer Merlin, becomes Queen of Gorre and leads the Darkholders, all to conquer the world.

Half-Human, Half-Faerie

Morgan le Fay is half-faerie, an ancient magical race originating from Otherworld who access Earth via Britain and Ireland. They are closely related to the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim, one of the Nine Worlds of Asgardian Cosmology. Morgan is said to be the daughter of Gorlois, Duke of Tintagel, and his wife Igraine, but at least one of her parents must have been part faerie. 

Britain’s King, Uther Pendragon, wars for many years against Gorlois and becomes greatly attracted to Morgan’s mother, Igraine. The sorcerer Merlin, knowing that a great ruler was destined to be the son of Uther and Igraine, agrees to unite Uther with her in return for the care of their firstborn child. Merlin uses his magics to grant Uther Gorlois’ appearance, and in this form Uther travels to Tintagel and seduces Igraine; earlier that same night, the real Gorlois was killed in battle. 

Uther soon marries Igraine, who gives birth to Arthur. Though Morgan is raised in a nunnery along with her sisters, Merlin trains her in sorcery, becoming his lover in exchange. Morgan’s sister Morgause has an affair with Arthur, resulting in the bastard son Mordred. Morgan initially served as beloved priestess to Gaea, helping bring about bountiful harvests, and healed ill followers. It is believed that Morgan empowers the Green Knight, who becomes Gaea’s powerful agent. As Morgan feels faith in Gaea unraveling, she becomes angry with Merlin as he turns away from Gaea. One Samhain (Summer’s end), Morgan fights fiercely to prevent Merlin from entering Avalon’s altar of sacred trees. She drags burning rock from within the Earth to assault him, and he tears shooting stars from the sky hurling them down at her. Their battle lasted for six days, burning down a thousand acres of sacred forest. Morgan later tutors Nimue, AKA Vivienne, in sorcery.

Most Powerful Sorceress in Earth’s History

Morgan is one of the most powerful sorceresses in Earth’s history, thanks to extensive training and her faerie heritage. Her abilities include flight, shape-changing (typically into other people or animals, real and mythical), mind control, astral projection, healing, illusion casting, energy projection, forming shields, manipulating her environment, removing spirits from their bodies and controlling them, and transportation across time, space and dimensions. In astral form, her spells and blasts can affect physical beings and objects. While her spirit is trapped on the astral plane, she creates a giant body composed of rock-like material derived from the plane itself.

Morgan can cast various spells invoking magical entities (such as the Earth goddess Gaea or the angel of death, Azrael). Her faerie heritage amplifies her powers, allowing her to access both Celtic and Asgardian magic, but it also renders her vulnerable to “cold iron” or steel, even in her astral form. Otherwise, Morgan is virtually immortal, having survived physical death and destruction of her astral form.

Morgan often augments her power with magic items, such as the Darkhold, the Ebon Rose, the Ebony Blade, the Evil Eye, the sword Excalibur, Norn Stones, Tapestry and the Twilight Sword. There may be an upper limit to how much energy Morgan can control as when she tapped into the latter two’s energies to restructure reality, she did so through Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch. 

Empowered by Gaea, the Ebon Rose enables the manipulation of vegetation, with even simple vines being sufficiently strong to bind mystic beings of immense power. Tapestry is a sentient cloth surrounding a mirror through which Morgan can view distant events or summon beings to her. 

Morgan creates a false Excalibur through which she channels her own Knight’s spirit to possess, transform and control another. She also creates a monstrous form patterned after the legendary “Wicker Man,” imprisoning others within it and drawing power from their life energy.

Forever Foes

Morgan seeks to rule Britain over her half-brother King Arthur and opposes him at every turn— despite Arthur giving her a castle of her own, Castle le Fay in the Valley of the Wailing Mists on the Northern Irish Coast, and allowing Morgan and Mordred, his illegitimate son, to remain within Camelot. Sewing discord, Morgan reveals the love affair between Arthur’s wife Queen Guinevere and his Knight of the Round Table Lancelot which leads Britain into civil war. During this time, Morgan aids Mordred’s armies with her magic until the end of Arthur’s reign.

The sorcerer Merlin teaches Morgan sorcery in exchange for being his lover, though when Merlin turns away from their Earth Goddess Gaea and allies himself with Arthur, Morgan’s anger towards him grows. Morgan empowers the Green Knight to be an agent of Gaea, but some of the Green Knight’s Pendragons bond to Merlin, Arthur and several Knights of the Round Table further distancing her relationship with Merlin, who later often binds her and her magic until it leads to his undoing.

Magnus is one of Morgan’s occult assistants that help her bind the Darkhold scrolls into one book. He becomes her lover until he sees the evil within her, and betrays her by stealing the Darkhold. She slays him, though his spirit survives on the astral plane where he defeats her many times over, sometimes teaming up with Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, and the Avengers.

Jessica Drew, AKA Spider-Woman, is a powerful heroine that is known to defeat Morgan’s minions. Even when Morgan separates Spider-Woman’s spirit from her body leaving her on the astral plane, she does not anticipate that Magnus would sacrifice his life to save hers.

Dark Allies

Morgan repeatedly plots with her nephew and ally Mordred against Arthur, Merlin, Sir Percy of Scandia, AKA Black Knight, the legendary Knights of the Round Table and the rest of the forces of Camelot, Arthur’s castle and the surrounding village. 

Morgan and Mordred’s relationship often seems more than familial, and some texts portray Morgan as Mordred’s mother or wife. 

After Morgan’s Green Knight’s bannermen side with Merlin and Arthur, Morgan in turn affiliates with their enemies, the Bane: malevolent spirits associated with Bodb Derg, AKA Red Lord.

Victor von Doom, AKA Doctor Doom, time travels to the 6th Century, he allies with Morgan to save his mother’s lost soul in exchange for him to lead her army against Arthur. He often travels back and forth between his time and hers and she teaches him the dark arts, while they share a romantic dalliance. They also have a daughter together, Caroline le Fay.

Morgan leads the 6th Century cult of the Darkholders who worship the Elder God Chthon. She gathers occult students to assist her in assembling Chthon’s magical scrolls into a bound book called the Darkhold. Though Chthon when summoned is too powerful and Morgan imprisons him and Merlin adds his power as well, sensing the God’s evil.

The Sorceress’ Sordid Past

Morgan became a queen by marrying King Uriens of Gorre, though she secretly kept many lovers. Seeking to rule Britain herself, Morgan was opposed by Arthur, who had succeeded Uther as Britain’s King and whom she already hated for being the product of Uther’s illicit affair with Igraine. Morgan also resented Arthur’s promotion of Christianity over her own Celtic goddess-worship. She replaced Arthur’s enchanted sword, Excalibur, and scabbard with hell-spawned replicas she conjured. After she had struck a small chip from Excalibur, keeping it for herself, she gave the real Excalibur and its scabbard to her lover, Sir Accolon, whom she tricked into battling and nearly killing Arthur. The Lady of the Lake (Niamh/Nimue, not to be confused with Vivienne), who had first given Arthur Excalibur, magically disarmed Accolon, and Arthur reclaimed his sword, shattered the replica and defeated Accolon. Enraged by Arthur’s survival, and by her own son Ewain thwarting her subsequent attempt to murder Uriens, Morgan again stole the scabbard and hurled it into a lake, robbing Arthur of its magical protection from injury. She subsequently restored the Excalibur replica.

Gathering occult students to assist her, Morgan assembled the magical scrolls created by the Elder God Chthon, binding them together as the Darkhold. One of her students, Magnus, became her lover until he saw the evil within her. Leading her Darkholders to Europe, Morgan summoned Chthon himself, but the demon proved too powerful to control, and she imprisoned him within what would become Mt. Wundagore. Rebelling, Magnus stole the Darkhold and placed it within a tower on the Isle of Wight, protecting it with spells warding off beings of evil intent. Morgan slew Magnus for his betrayal, though his spirit survived. Having sensed Chthon’s evil, Merlin had added his power to help imprison him, then led the Black Knight to oppose Morgan’s further schemes; during this time, an imposter, Merlin Demonspawn, acted as Merlin in Camelot.

Morgan later visited Camelot, pledging a brief truce. Arthur and Morgan learned of the romance between the mighty knight Lancelot and Arthur’s queen, Guinevere; Arthur loved them both, Lancelot being his best friend, so he endured their indiscretion and forgave them, though it broke his heart. Morgan, however, was furious, as Lancelot had spurned Morgan’s previous efforts to romance him, and only her pledge of peace stopped her from striking Lancelot down on the spot. Morgan subsequently spread word of the illicit affair until Arthur could no longer deny the relationship between his champion and his queen. Bound by his own laws, Arthur ordered Lancelot’s beheading and Guinevere’s burning at the stake. Lancelot rescued Guinevere and fled Camelot, slaying fellow knights and friends in the process and forever shattering the fellowship of the Round Table. As Britain descended into civil war, Mordred openly gathered armies to lead against Arthur, aided by Morgan’s magic.

In the final year of Arthur’s reign, Mordred and Morgan sent an army against Arthur. After a tremendous battle, the Black Knight, aided by Merlin’s spells, led Arthur’s forces to victory. Merlin and the Black Knight led their army to Castle le Fay, hoping to force the she-witch to tell the King the truth about Mordred’s treachery. Forewarned of this, Morgan laid a trap to kill any who entered her castle; but Merlin detected this and instead imprisoned Morgan in Castle le Fey, holding her there with a powerful spell. Merlin then had Sir Tristan and two other knights, all garbed in iron, physically bind Morgan in iron chains, preventing her spirit or magic from escaping the castle, but these additional restraints were undone by the Black Knight to foil a plot by Kang the Conqueror. Morgan’s former pupil Nimue (Vivienne) later seduced Merlin and slowly stole his powers while he slept. Morgan had provided Nimue a spell that would make Merlin hers forever, but the spell imprisoned both Nimue and Merlin in a crystal cave under an oak tree.

A time-traveling Doctor Doom allied with Morgan, who agreed to help save his mother’s lost soul if he would lead her army—victims of Excalibur reanimated by the fragment of the sword that Morgan held—against Camelot; but the similarly time-traveling Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, forced Morgan to abandon her army and flee extra-dimensionally, after which Doom and Iron Man returned to their own time.

Morgan took refuge in Hell as the guest of the demon-lord Mephisto in exchange for the Excalibur shard. Returning to the 6th century, Doctor Doom traded Iron Man to Mephisto in exchange for the Excalibur shard. Doom also gained possession of Morgan, though keeping her contained within a mystic prison. Via threat of sending her back to Hell to become Mephisto’s plaything rather than his guest, Doom coerced Morgan into performing a spell that magically merged the shard with his armor, granting him great power. Though he had promised to return Morgan to Hell as a guest again, Doom—remembering her previously abandoning him in their last alliance—instead returned Morgan to her castle, where she was again mystically trapped, unable to leave without her body dying. Despite these conflicts and betrayals, Doom and Morgan had each been impressed with the other’s power, will and charisma. 

When a strange energy reading emanated from upstate New York, the Avengers checked it out and found Morgan had moved her kingdom of Avalon to its location, and attracted people to it with a video game called World of Slaycraft: Place of Pillage. Using the game, she lured people there to what looked like a Renaissance fair, and then pitted champions against the Avengers to find a hero to make Avalon unstoppable. Seeing the Avengers in action though, she fled but not before she let them know that they had made a powerful enemy that day.

At some point Doom began regularly traveling back to Morgan’s castle in the 6th century, romancing her while she taught him the dark arts. After Doom was captured by the heroic Avengers in his own time period, Morgan was disappointed when his visits ceased, and she soon sought vengeance on him in his time period, bringing her into conflict with Norman Osborn’s Avengers. Facing the Sentry, it tore her head off but she reappeared though was killed again by Hawkeye (Bullseye), but she escaped death again. Doom and Iron Patriot traveled back in time to kill her there where Doom spelled her into her own cauldron—though she was sent to 1,000,000 BC where she led a cavemen tribe against a T-Rex.

Morgan decided that if she regained the Darkhold, she could use its powerful magic to break Merlin’s spells binding her. Realizing the book would someday be transported out of its tower, she plotted to claim it from the future. Numerous times she projected her astral form from her unaging body into various future periods in attempts to recover the Darkhold. She always failed, usually due to the efforts of Magnus, whose magic enabled him to survive on the astral plane in spirit form and to possess the bodies of living people on Earth. 

When modern era criminal Jason “Slapper” Struthers stole Morgan’s false Excalibur from a museum, she sent the spirit of her unidentified loyal Knight forward in time, transforming Struthers into the villain Excaliber. She sent him to force Magnus to reveal the Darkhold’s location, but the heroine Spider-Woman defeated Excaliber. Recognizing Chthon’s power in Drew (who had grown up on Mt. Wundagore), Morgan plotted repeatedly to claim the heroine, hoping to drain her energies and break the spell. Magnus ultimately led Spider-Woman’s spirit back to the 6th century, where she knocked Morgan through a window, and Merlin’s spell caused her body to crumble to dust. Morgan’s spirit survived on the astral plane as well, and she cast a spell preventing Drew’s spirit from reentering her body. 

When Arthur and Mordred slew each other, Morgan transported Mordred’s spirit to the astral plane, too. At some point Morgan trapped a portion of the spirits of Arthur and his Knights beneath a castle in Gwillyn Dale, Wales, where they would be freed centuries later to help the Spaceknight Rom defeat an outpost of the alien Dire Wraiths. Morgan is said to have helped the Lady of the Lake and the Sisters of Glastonbury Tor transport the dying Arthur to Avalon (part of the extradimensional Otherworld), though her motives and the timing of such activity are unclear.

Recovering her power over the centuries, Morgan transported her castle to the Netherworld, though its cornerstone remained and was eventually built into London Bridge. She tried to usurp Spider-Woman’s body in the modern era, but she was foiled by the Avengers, Doctor Strange, Shroud, and Magnus, who sacrificed himself restoring Drew’s spirit to her body. 

Morgan next possessed Lissa, sister of Jack Russell, AKA Werewolf By Night, but Iron Man and the Werewolf drove her out. She subsequently used Mordred as her masculine familiar in a plot to restore her castle to Earth, which would resurrect them both and transform the planet into a dark reflection of Camelot. Despite the assistance of the Celtic Fomor, they were banished by the Dane Whitman, AKA Black Knight, Doctor Strange, Brian Braddock, AKA Captain Britain, and Brunnhilde, AKA Valkyrie.

Next, believing that the undersea Atlantis was formerly the isle of Avalon, Morgan reincarnated within oceanographer Vivian Morgan and prepared to bring the island to the surface. Aided by a mysterious Priest of the Moon and by a new group of Darkholders, Morgan invoked the power of several goddesses and, using the near sacrifice of the Inhuman Triton with the ancient Atlantean Sword of Kamuu, she successfully raised Atlantis, killing 80 percent of the water-breathing Atlanteans in the process. Though further empowered by the Ebony Blade, Morgan lost her new home when the Inhuman city Attilan was transported atop it.

Morgan later wielded the Asgardian Norn Stones, sending a number of Asgardian monsters rampaging across the Earth. She captured the Scarlet Witch, using her to tap into the power of the Twilight Sword and transform the entire planet into a facsimile of the 6th century, with Morgan as ruler and the Avengers as her Queen’s Vengeance royal guard. Despite her virtual omnipotence, Morgan was foiled when the Scarlet Witch resurrected Simon Williams, AKA Wonder Man, and channeled the Avengers’ power into him; he tore the Twilight Sword from her grasp, restoring reality to its previous state in the “mainstream” reality of Earth-616. Morgan’s transformed reality persists on Earth-398. Sometime after this Morgan met with British agent and paranormal expert Alistaire Stuart; for some imagined slight or her own amusement, she cursed him with a mutable form.

Morgan later used her loyal Knight to manipulate the Wrecking Crew so that the Avengers would use Thor’s magical arrows to stop them. Morgan overpowered Captain Britain, intending to slay him with those magic arrows. Having mystically reversed Braddock’s connection to Britain, his death by this means would destroy all of Britain; however, Captain Britain had foreseen Morgan’s plot and had passed on his mantle to a successor, Kelsey Leigh. Assisted by the Avengers, Leigh used her new Sword of Might to disperse Morgan’s essence, though Morgan re-formed soon after and later sensed the release of the magician-killing Hellphyr from the Tome of Zhered-Na.

Incognito, Morgan opened an occult store, the Queen & Castle, where she granted an anti-love potion to attorney Augustus Pugliese, AKA Pug. Unaware of Morgan’s true identity, Pugliese unwittingly became indentured to her upon consuming the potion, while Morgan plotted to use him against Jennifer Walters, AKA She-Hulk, Iron Man and the spider-powered Anya Corazon, AKA Araña.

In her castle in Avalon, Morgan was sought out by sorcerer Ian McNee who intrigued her sufficiently that she granted him access to the magic of the Ebon Rose, one of the mystic Cornerstones of Creation, empowered by Gaea. Knowing that Ian’s quest would pit him against Chthon, Morgan promised that if he survived they would make love. She provided him with minor enchantments that facilitated the next step in his quest, acquiring the Serpent Crown, empowered by another powerful and malevolent Elder God, Set. As Ian’s quest neared its end, Morgan warned Ian that his quest to obtain the Cornerstones might not be as pure as he thought. She subsequently lent her power to aid Ian in using the Cornerstones to free the spirit of Egyptian sorcerer Heka-Nut. After Chthon revealed himself to be the mastermind behind the quest, Morgan used the Ebon Rose’s power against Chthon to protect Ian, who eventually used the Cornerstones to banish Chthon.