Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Morgana's possibly lost archetype - Mistress of the Dark Arts

Falrein·7/15/2019, 1:13:11 PM·4 votes·3,896 views

Hi everyone! Today I’d like to talk about something that’s been bothering me with Morgana’s update. While I really liked Kayle and Morgana’s update, I feel like Morgana has lost one of her original archetypes, that of the Witch.

Warning – I know “Witch” is a wide and generic word, but you’ll hopefully get what I mean during this thread. Also, this is all my personal views on the matter, feel free to disagree!

Morgana was originally a Mistress of the Dark Arts, she’d learnt dark magic in order to better fight her sister Kayle, whom she saw as an enemy. Currently, Morgana was born with powers coming from her Aspect mother Mihira. However, she resents these gifts due to her backstory, unlike Kayle who embraced these celestial gifts to better follow their mother’s path.

However, one problem remains – Morgana doesn’t feel like a witch anymore. I know her old lore was close to non-existent, but that was still a very interesting part of her that made her unique and interesting.

######Context

A bit of context – This discussion started when we talked about Kayle and Morgana’s reunion when the time comes. It’s not farfetched to assume they will clash once more. However, the scale isn’t just tipping in Kayle’s favour, it massively does.

On the one hand, you have Kayle, who’s accepted her gifts, wielding both halves of their mother’s sword, and who’s been training with Targon this whole time. On the other hand, you have Morgana, who… Rejects her gifts, and that’s pretty much it.

We’ve had this discussion countless times before, but I’ve just realized how much I miss this part of her. Anyway, so basically, the point I’m trying to make is that Morgana seems helpless if you compare her to Kayle. She bound her wings, resented her gifts, while Kayle has fully embraced those and even trained with Celestial Targon itself.

And then, good friends Taco and Tafaha pointed out that Morgana probably learnt some magic while she was in Demacia’s wildlands. Magic isn’t just Celestial, we know of Elemental magic as well as Spirit magic. And I mean, that’s true, she may have rejected her celestial part of her, but maybe she dabbled in Elemental and Spirit magics, learning and creating complex spells, maybe even adding a bit of her own celestial heritage in it. However, there’s no information she did so whatsoever.

But I think that this could actually save her Witch archetype, make her more unique and interesting, as well as giving her something that won’t make her appear so helpless.

Now, I know basing this off “you want her to be powerful just for a fight, it’s stupid” is stupid, but it’s not. That’s was prompted this thread, yes, but it’s more about having Morgana be unique. Right now, she lacks this little bit that will make her more interesting.

Her current resentment of her gifts makes for a good storytelling potential, having her reconcile with her Celestial side, etc. But it leaves her in a spot where she seems useless in-between. Kayle has always been a judicator kind of archetype, and she retained it after her update. But it feels like Morgana didn’t retain hers.

As I said earlier, and as my friends pointed out, this could easily be fixed. And who knows, maybe, internally, Riot has already agreed that she’s learnt her own share of “earthly” magics. That way, they can keep that rejection of Celestial powers inside of her, while both retaining her original archetype as well as… not being powerless when comes the time to fight. It’d be very interesting to see that she’s mastered complex spells and magics with her celestial, naturally magic heritage.

So yeah, that’s it. This thread isn’t exactly meant to be complex and elaborate, I just wanted to throw a piece of my mind here. Thanks to both Taco and Tafaha, who both gave me the motivation and realization to write this thread. I’d be relieved to know that they’re right. Fun fact, I hesitated to go and ask Scathelocke on Twitter, but I’ve already annoyed him quite a lot and didn’t want to overdo it.

So yeah, tell me what you think, I’ll leave a poll below about whether or not you think Morgana should have learnt some “earthly” magics during the last millennia!

6 Comments

Pale Mask7/15/2019, 1:22:23 PM3 votes

I don't for a moment doubt that Morgana has been studying alternatives to celestial magic; a clash with Kayle is an inevitability that she should be prepared to handle.

Given how she's treated as a forest-dwelling witch and is a figure out of pagan myth, I'd say she should be most well-versed in spiritual practices. It's just that her brand of magic is shaped by her personality and thus manifests as dark and frightening. They thought her magic evil, indeed; it isn't, but it has that goth flavor to contrast Kayle and her holier-than-thou attitude.

TheMan2927/15/2019, 4:56:31 PM2 votes

I honestly think Morgana made her own spells along the way. I really like the idea that those chains for her ult is a wholly unique spell only she can do and was made with her ideals on what justice is in mind

also considering she is said to be the one to fight kayle, it makes sense to gauge her the power necessary

AbiwonKenabi7/15/2019, 2:38:47 PM1 votes

"Should have", I think she DID. As Pale Mask said, she's treated as a forest-dwelling witch of legends. Her color story is a tale told to the young to teach them a lesson, but unlike the people of Runeterra, we know that the story is most likely true. She used her magic in the story, described here:

The Veiled One opened her palm and chained the Cleric to her with dark fire. The bindings glimmered with immaterial violet light, but the Cleric could not break them as he struggled.

This is likely describing her new found magic, or else her Celestial magic has been colored by her own perception or other Earthly influences. I don't think Morgana is going to be a pushover against Kayle. I think both Kayle and Morgana are some of the few Champions who have most of their abilities from the game translated into the lore in some way.

Here's another quote from that story:

They entered a cavern illuminated by candles. Water dripped from the ceiling, and strange potions lined the walls. It stank of gravesoil and moss. Dozens of raven-black feathers littered the floor.

That sounds like the traditional "witch" you are looking for. She may have an odd backstory for a witch, but I still think Morgana can very much fill the type of witch niche you seem to be looking for.