Persephone Morgana

**Persephone Morgana** is a recurring character in Venturian Battle.

## Background

Persephone Morgana is the only daughter of Clay Morgana and his unnamed wife. Persephone's household was infiltrated by IETO upon learning that the occupants were of the Nazan faith. While Clay killed enough attackers to get them to retreat, Persephone was abducted in the ensuing chaos.

Persephone was brought to an IETO-controlled penitentiary and forced into a reeducation program to convert her to the Iumistic religion. After a brutal confrontation with Filibus, a graduate of the program, Persephone was kept in solitary for a day and warned that she'd be executed if she broke another rule.

Not long after, Persephone befriended two fellow members of the program, Chadd and Ian. Persephone and her new allies planned to break out of the penitentiary before their reeducation was complete, but were caught by Filibus and his gang. This resulted in yet another fight where Filibus threatened Persephone's life, upon which he was bludgeoned by the warden, who brought the trio to his office.

The trio was scolded by the warden, who nonetheless attempted a compromise; if Persephone agreed to become the warden's sex slave, he'd spare her life and free Chadd and Ian. The negotiation ultimately failed and ended with Ian violently stabbings the warden to death. Persephone and the others ran from the warden's office and tried to flee the penitentiary, eventually reaching their escape route. While Persephone and Ian fled with their lives, Chadd was shot and killed in front of them.

After hiding in the badlands for some time, Persephone and Ian were found by The Absconders' Railroad, an independent force dedicated to sheltering escapees from IETO's prisons.

## Appearance

Persephone is a somewhat short girl with fairly light but tan, freckled skin, golden blonde hair, and large blue eyes. Persephone has a mark just below her left eye and a scar below her right, the latter of which is from an unknown confrontation. Before her abduction, Persephone's hair was fairly long, but the back and sides were completely shaved after she was taken by IETO. Persephone was initially upset about having her hair cut short but she has lightened up and keeps it in an unkempt bob. Perhaps unusually, Persephone has a small, circular protrusion on the lobe of her ear. While Persephone is tanner than Robyn and Lena, her skin bruises and swells intensely, notably after she gets a giant black eye from her fight with Filibus. Persephone sometimes wears a lavender-and-purple hoodie, symbolic of her being a lesbian. Throughout her reeducation, however, Persephone wore an orangish jumpsuit that was stained with muck from her fight with Filibus.

When she tries to seem intelligent, Persephone sometimes puts on her mother's, or, as of recently, Robyn's glasses. Ironically enough, Persephone also has vision issues and claims she is unable to see clearly if something is closer to her eye than the tip of her middle finger when placing her hand under or on her nose. Persephone has even worse issues with long, thin objects, which give off the impression of splitting into halves if she isn't at least a foot and a half away from them; Persephone also mentions everything other than what her eyes focus on appearing heavily blurred. However, Persephone doesn't wear glasses because her last professional eye test was in sixth grade (which she effectively passed) and she is also insecure about how she'd look with them. Persephone also claims to see grayish shapes that move around whenever she looks, possibly a form of ocular damage.

## Beliefs

Persephone Morgana is strongly and openly LGBTQIA+ and an ally but is also pro-police, implying that she is centrist. Morgana has stated that she supports the police for "a great reason" and not for political reasons, refraining from displaying her support in the form of flags or other public imagery. Morgana believes in the Nazan religion, like the rest of her family.

## Behind the Scenes

Unlike many Venturian Battle characters, who are derivatives of Trigger's previous ideas and/or based on existing characters, Persephone's character and appearance were mostly built around one scene; Persephone reuniting with her father. Trigger felt that Persephone having shorter hair and visible injuries would convey a loss of vulnerability or at least femininity. Persephone wasn't conceived as a lesbian at first, and Trigger felt that Lena, her girlfriend, and Robyn were sufficient enough to represent the LGBTQ+ community. However, Trigger was able to use this for another key moment, which is Clay finding out that his daughter isn't straight. Trigger felt the shock and discomfort of a family member lying about their sexuality in a dream, which previously inspired Rhett Druidus and the Divine Treasure. Clay was then molded from a practically nonexistent character with an interesting voice to a homophobe who has to confront his biases upon learning that he's hurting his daughter.

Persephone and Alicia Schmirnoff are inspired by the same person, with Persephone's haircut and noise sensitivity being lifted from her real-life basis. Persephone was given blonde hair to help differentiate her from the other girls in the show, who tend to have either dark brown or ginger hair.

## Trivia

* While she was born to white parents, Persephone refuses to identify as white, claiming that she is a different race because of her olive skin. It is possible that Persephone is transracial.