Christopher Morgan

Yul, he from beyond the horizon

Ulagan-Baghatur, the worldly hero

"Ghoster"

"Conman"

(Several other fake aliases, nicknames, and personas)

United States of America

French Third Republic

**Christopher Morgan** (born 8 March 1899) is a relatively unknown Metahuman of American nationality, and possibly one of the oldest "naturally occurring" Metahumans in the world. He is an extremely mysterious and, at times, a practically nonexistent figure, often going by many fake names and adopting several personalities to meet his own ends. Currently, he is in the covert employment of the Great Yuan, having been recruited by the late Mengyan Emperor some years after the global Metahuman coup. Under the adopted Mongol name **Khünbish Yul Ulagan-Baghatur**, he operates almost independently, taking orders from none but the Mingzhi Empress herself.

## Appearance

Chris holds the appearance of a middle-aged man roughly somewhere between his late fourties and early fifties, and seeming far too fit and spry than his physical age may suggest. Though often covered by uniforms or stylish, old-world clothes, much of his body is a mess of old healed-over scars, ranging from minor lacerations to deep gouge wounds and unsightly burns. His light hazel eyes appear almost faded - akin to those of a corpse - and his sharp facial features are frozen in a distant, seemingly otherworldly gaze. Some minor features, most notably his dark hair and beard, take on a seemingly "withered" appearance, almost like that of a ghost.

## Personality

On the surface, Chris often comes off as disturbingly laid-back and carefree for someone in his line of work. He is abrasive, often sarcastic, and definitely not above dark and dry humor even when the time is inappropriate, though snippets of honest, elderly wisdom occasionally slip through the cracks.

But beneath the many elaborate, well-structured facades, Chris is much more dangerous than some of his outward impressions suggest. Deep down, he is bitter, vengeful, and holds a murderous streak about him that borders on the psychotic. In the face of danger, he is sadistic to a fault, seeming unaffected by or deriving pleasure from displays of brutality that many would see as utterly barbaric. At the same time, he is extremely patient and ominously perceptive of others. These traits, coupled with the experience of age, make him wildly unpredictable both on and off the battlefield, and a fine pawn for those that control him.

The reasons behind this twisted mindset are difficult to pinpoint. While it is certainly possible it comes from genuine mental illness from his wartime experience, the several decades of ceaseless misery and trauma at the hands of a world that viewed him as no more a monster has invariably led to Chris viewing himself as just that. He has grown to accept this as fact, willingly devolving himself into the angry, sinful man he is.

## Biography

Born in 1899 in the then Arizona Territory of the United States, Chris lived a relatively average life of the time, attending school, making friends, and surviving in the rough and unforgiving land of the old American southwest. At age 18, he enlisted in the US Army, and was eventually shipped across the Atlantic to fight on the Western Front in the First World War. He fought on the front lines during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive against the German Empire, where he supposedly perished during an artillery barrage. To this day, "Christopher Morgan" is officially a dead man, and his name is even etched upon one of the many graves at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France.

In reality, however, the man is still very much alive. In a strange twist of fate, the broken man that was torn to shreds by artillery fire instead awoke to find that, miraculously, his body was still in one piece. Though this sudden manifestation of his abilities saved him from certain death, it did not stop the man from being officially declared KIA by the American Expeditionary Forces, and the world as a whole And following a listless journey bouncing between military hospitals and shelters for displaced refugees in France, desperately trying to understand the nature of his "condition," locate his comrades, or even remember what had even happened to him, he found only one diagnosis: shell shock. As the mere concept of supernatural powers and "Metahumans" was long from becoming a known phenomenon, and following stints of brutal and ineffective treatments, doctors declared him clinically insane, and many would view him as little more than a freak of nature and, in more extreme cases, assault him as a demon. This would inevitably result in the man succumbing to despondence and mental illness, and his unique "abilities" would lead to him escaping even the most tightly-guarded of containment cells. This activity would continue for months until, in an act that left his caretakers utterly baffled, he somehow broke silently out of his bed restraints in the dead of night, and fled unseen into the wilderness.

And unlike the previous attempts, French authorities never again succeeded in apprehending the mysterious, inhuman American that now ventured aimlessly into Europe. Over the next several years, police in both southern France and northern Italy often received reports of a dangerous man wandering the countryside, stealing money and other possessions indiscriminately before seemingly disappearing almost out of thin air, never to be seen again.

"A rambling, deranged husk of a man," they would say. "Spouting nonsensical outbursts about his comrades in arms..."

It was in the late 1920s, however, when the alleged madman eventually found himself now in the Balkans. And it was here that, in an unexpected display of kindness, he found refuge with a wandering band of Romani; an entire family, roaming across the borders of interwar-period Serbia and Romania. It gave him a semblance of pause in his swindling and thieving ways - a sort of family and companionship he hadn't known since his younger years. But even as he used these many years to turn inward, gathering his thoughts and achieving a vague understanding of his "condition," the world around him was changing.

With the dawn of the 1930s, new regimes had risen to tip the balance of power in continental Europe. And in time, the seemingly endless ambition of Adolf Hitler the war machine of Nazi Germany came along to topple the many new states drawn up in the Great War. The Balkans were no exception, easily falling victim to the Axis powers. And the Romani, like many other ethnic groups beneath the Axis and their oppressive regimes, soon found themselves on a desperate fight for survival against their Nazi occupiers. But in their frantic retreat south towards Bulgaria, Morgan and this newly-found "family" were captured, separated, and whisked towards the recently-established state of Croatia. Now separated, the American soon found himself thrown into Jasenovac, a concentration camp that quickly began to fill up with Serbs, Jews, Muslims, and the fellow Romani he once considered his own people. Most would be sentenced to forced labour or outright exterminated. But upon his captors' discovery of Morgan's "unique physical traits," he just as quickly found himself spirited away into Germany proper, into the hands of Nazi scientists.

Even decades later, the man never chooses to speak of the twisted, indescribable atrocities he witnessed firsthand, and the scars remain even to this day as painful reminders of the mundanes' thoughts of what he was: a tool. A monster. A weapon. Ever destined to be subservient to mankind's cruel whims.

Hearkening back to his days of listless wandering after the Great War, Morgan eventually escaped Nazi captivity in a much similar way as he had many times before, slipping unseen and unheard from his cell amidst the chaos that followed the Soviets' push into Germany. Yet again with little purpose in life, he fled into Eastern Europe, turning back to his old, sinful ways.

This was at the same relative time that more of these supernatural humans - now coined as 'Metahumans' - began to spring up all around the world. But rather than monsters, many were viewed as heroes, using their powers in service of their homeland and of the people. He debated joining them, and perhaps finding a purpose or a cure for this dreaded "curse" upon his physical form. But he knew mankind all too well. Given enough time, even they would become what the Nazis had envisioned for them: tools.

Instead, Morgan would spend the next several decades wandering into the lands of the Soviet Union. He cheated, swindled, and conned his way eastward, embarking on a listless, aimless journey wherever fate took him. For an entire era he wandered, earning many names and wearing many faces in his seemingly thrill-seeking adventures across the Eurasian plains. To many of the superstitious souls within the post-war Soviet Union and the ethnic peoples of Central Asia, this enigmatic creature would come to be viewed as a sort of boogeyman--a godless abomination, coercing and manipulating the defenseless and gullible into doing whatever he wanted. With no basic needs of his own save for the insatiable boredom brought on by his own pseudo-immortality, he would steal and kill seemingly for sport, going so far as spending years of his time simply building his next victim's trust. And just as his abilities made him untraceable in old-world Europe, so too was he able to effortlessly evade the ire of whatever authorities or even Metahuman opertatives the Soviet Union sent his way. In time, some began to suspect that it was not even a man that perpetrated these crimes, but an anomalous phenomenon. An "evil spirit," possessing and corrupting the minds of men into committing unspeakable atrocities.

But it was at the turn of the century that he bore witness to something most surprising. Around the time he had reached the steppes of Kazakhstan and Xinjiang, Morgan had heard the news of the Metahumans' frighteningly efficient global takeover. Perhaps it was due to his own detachment from world events as a whole that he hadn't concerned himself with the affairs of the wider world, but seemingly overnight, his own kind had wrested control of the humans that sought to control them. And not even a year after this takeover, the mysterious, roving conman would cross paths with a man that would finally give him the purpose he so desired.

The man's name at the time was Dorji - a powerful Metahuman who had, since their global coup, solidified his control over both Mongolia and northern China. This self-proclaimed "Khan" was a warlord, whose power was matched only by his ambition to unify all of China beneath his own banner. With their shared views of Metahuman supremacy, the two quickly became close friends. And as the Khan warred his way across China, squashing minor Metahuman warlords in the northern provinces, the conman toiled behind the scenes, doing whatever dirty work that the Mongols' benevolent, soon-to-be Emperor needed done. At other times, he served as the Emperor's closest bodyguard and enforcer, thwarting assassination attempts and being a deadly blade where the Yuan's enemies least expected. His skill and ruthless efficiency earned him many epithets and titles from his peers over the years. Khuyag, the Warder. Khünbish, the Inhuman. Yul, he from beyond the horizon. Ulagan-Baghatur, a worldly hero.

Even today, after the Mengyan Emperor's fall - which ushered in a new era for the Great Yuan - the goals, motives, or the mere existence of this undying man from the West are all unknown to many, even within the Mongols' inner circle. And to those that do, he is known to answer to none but the Empress and those of the Dynasty itself. Maybe it is blind loyalty, to the late Emperor that gave him the sense of purpose he so craved. Or perhaps it was a deep-seated, personal pact, made with the man who to him was not just a benevolent lord, but a trusted friend.

Or perhaps it was yet another aimless facade.

Another petty distraction from his curse...

## Powers & Skills

### ***Supernatural Abilities***

While having the outward appearance and feel of a normal human, Chris's body is comprised entirely of an amalgam that can take either the liquid-like form of either a black, viscous sludge, or a dark cloud of gaseous smoke. His body is capable of dispersing either partly or completely into this amalgam at will, and can remain that way indefinitely before reverting itself back into that of a human. This makes him effectively intangible so long as the room or container in question is not air-tight. Even in his human form, he has no organs, bones, nor blood to damage by conventional (and most unconventional) means, rendering him nigh indestructible to most if not all physical harm. Rather than shield himself, he instead absorbs most incoming blows and projectiles entirely, his body quickly repairing any "damage" it sustains by either pulling itself back together, or regenerating new "flesh" seemingly out of thin air. His state of matter is also completely within his control, and does not heed to physical phenomena such as extreme temperatures. And as he lacks any semblance of human bodily systems, he does not grow hungry, get tired, breathe, nor feel any outward sensations at all, including most attacks on what one would consider his "mind." Technically speaking, Chris is not even a living and breathing organism so much as an anomalous, functionally immortal entity

When in either his liquid or gaseous form, Chris is capable of infiltrating the body of another creature or person, typically done so by entrance via an open orifice such as the nose. Though the initial act of entering the body can be seen and felt by a conscious host, once the body in question is thoroughly "infested," Chris can lie dormant in the host body for hours, days, or even years at a time without the host even realizing it. The act of exiting a host is even more violent than entering one, inducing a number of effects ranging from dizziness to extreme nausea depending on the person. After these effects pass though, the host is left no worse for wear.

After successfully "infesting" another creature or person, Chris can seize complete control over his host's body, effectively taking over all motor functions and the nervous system in its entirety. In this state, he can mimic human mannerisms and his host's speech, as well as "feel" whatever external stimuli the body is subjected to. This process, however, is less like mind control and more along the lines of glorified puppeteering. He is unable to delve into the thoughts of those he is "possessing," nor is he able to pry information out of his host's mind. While anyone can freely embrace this influence, Metahuman targets are capable of resisting it completely.