The Morrígan

Nemain

The Phantom Queen

The Nightmare Queen

Caitlín Mac Mathghamhna (born September 18 1982), known to the world as **The Morrígan**, is the Great Lord of Western Europe.

A powerful meta and cruel ruler, the Morrígan is respected and feared in equal parts. While rumored to have not been the original choice to head the European Dynasty, her simultaneous attack on the European Parliament cemented her reputation as a ruthless opportunist. She rules all of western Europe from an oak fortress atop a mountain in Cruagh overlooking *Baile Átha Cliath*.

A triple deity of Irish legend, the Morrígan is comprised of three individuals, known as the Morrígna, that all share common goals. memories and powers, Her command of magic is unsurpassed, more resembling a direct warping of reality than any other form of magic displayed by a mage.

## Early Life

Not always a brutal dictator, Caitlín Mac Mathghamhna was born in 1982 in a small village in southeast Ireland called Ballyhale. Like all children in Balleyhale, she attended *Scoil Phádraig* primary and *Scoil Aireagail* secondary. From an early age, she had an interest in the history of Irish literature, getting her first copy of the *The Táin* when she was thirteen. She had been accepted to Trinity College Dublin in the Early and Modern Irish program, though she never got the chance to attend a single course.

## Emerging Insanity

Life for Caitlín started to change in 1999, beginning that April. While on a holiday with her family, they stopped in County Meath and saw *Dá Chích na Morrígna*, a pair of hills said to be the breasts of the legendary goddess. While there, she thought she heard someone whispering to her despite no one being around except her family. She dismissed the incident as her imagining things until the whisper returned and began to increase in volume until one day it became intelligible. The voice in her head spoke directly to Caitlín as if they were familiar and introduced itself as Macha, one of the Morrígna.

With the emergence of the voice, Caitlín also began noticing that she had some innate magical abilities. They were weak, only amounting to basic telekinesis, but Macha was encouraging and guided the teenager on how to better wield her talent. She began to wield some degree of influence over plants and animals, able to communicate directly with nature which was all too happy to comply. After sufficiently working on controlling flora and fauna, a second voice emerged in her head referring to itself as Badb.

Badb encouraged Caitlín to try her influencing abilities on more than just wildlife, to test it out on people. Though hesitant, Caitlín gave in and began to subtly alter the minds of people around her. Her grades improved as her teachers were suddenly more lenient, her circle of friends swelled as she became the most popular girl in school and anyone that had previously shunned or teased her suddenly found themselves a social pariah as no one would speak to them. She also began to feel like she was never alone, that she was always in a group even with no one around. Whenever she'd see a reflection of herself, there would be figures just on the edges of her eyeline that vanished when focused on.

After she'd graduated secondary school, a third voice spoke to her before she could begin her term at university. Nemain, the final third of the Mórrígna, dared Caitlín to push the limits of what she could do. By now, the teenager had become addicted to the power she wielded and was more than happy to comply. Nothing seemed impossible for her, and soon she returned to County Meath where she first encountered Macha. She created a throne from the earth itself, laughing as she did. The voices in her head posed one final test for the girl: give them a physical form. It was the most difficult feat yet, and while it took a painful amount of focus and effort, she managed to divide herself into four pieces: Caitlín, Macha, Badb and Nemain. The four women, together in the mortal world for the first time, exchanged one ultimate embrace before the Morrígna returned to Caitlín's body. She sat down upon the throne cackling madly, though her own voice was not present; Caitlín Mac Mathghamhna had given way to the Morrígan.

## The Dread Lady

While the governments of the world were left reeling by the revelation of the metahuman coup, the European Parliament called an emergency session to try to figure out what to do. During this meeting, leaders argued and bickered with some going as far as to accuse each other of being collaborators and trying to attack one another. While they were so focused on the war, the building began to be overtaken by plant life. Vines and ivy gripped and constricted the building, damaging the exterior but also providing it with enough stability to remain standing. As panic set in amongst the MEPs, a crow entered the chamber and took up a spot on the dais. Everyone was too panicked to notice it until its form swirled and shifted to that of a young girl. She spoke, carrying the voice of three despite being one, decreeing that she was the Morrígan and that the reign of man over nature was finished. No one took threats from a teenager seriously, though they had little chance to. Moments after her speech, the flora around the building crushed it killing everyone inside. With her brutal display televised across the continent, the reign of the Morrígan had begun.

While the British Civil War was just beginning to kick off, the Morrígan made another public appearance in London. On the 84th anniversary of the beginning of the Easter Rising the Morrígan sank London into the ocean, sending 15 million people to their deaths as the entire area was destroyed in a matter of seconds. With the capital gone, she proclaimed that the United Kingdom was no more, and that the British Isles now belong to Greater Ireland and would be ruled directly from Dublin, now using its Irish name of *Baile Átha Cliath*.

From there, she returned to the Emerald Isle to enforce her new policy of ethnonationalism, driving out all of the Protestants and Anglo-Saxon people from what was once Northern Ireland, now reunified into one piece. She declared that anyone of Celtic ancestry was welcome into the new expanded Ireland, and that they would be under her protection. As the war raged on, she maintained and repaired Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man and the region of Cornwall, while leaving the rest of England to suffer the brunt of the damage of the war. After the war concluded, she permitted the surviving Anglos to leave the Isles forever aboard the floating city of Albion, which she had helped construct and fertilize. With her goals complete, the Phantom Queen rarely left her woodland fortress in the *Sléibhte Chill Mhantáin*, mainly only leaving to attend meetings of the Congress. To act in her stead, she authorized a number of supernatural or metahuman individuals to travel freely throughout her Dynasty and put down anyone she deemed worthy of death. These roving executioners acted with impunity on the authority of the Morrígan, and anyone who interfered with them risked bringing down the wrath of the Matriarch of Ravens herself.

## Powers and Abilities

**Magic of the Gods**: The Morrígan's control over druidic magic allows her to manipulate reality to her own desire. Her shapechanging ability is her signature trait, as she twists her body into any for she can imagine. She uses this as both a tool to observe her dynasty and to control, meaning many have come to fear the sight of a single raven. Such fear is one of her strongest assets, as she uses her dark magic to warp the minds of men to riddle them with fear or give them unrealistic confidence so they ride out to their deaths. She also has some form of divination, owing to the Morrígan's soothsaying in predicting the deaths of warriors.

**One with the Land**: One of The Morrígan's domains is over the land, and true to form the flora and fauna respond to her as if she was their mother. With a word, she can double or erase a year's harvest. Natural beauty flourishes away from human interference, as those lands are protected by the Matriarch of Ravens.

**Timeless Figure**: Likely due to her shapeshifting, the Morrígan appears as young as she did the day she first announced herself to the world. In addition to the twenty years she's been publicly known, she claims to be the mythical figure of old, meaning she would be at least from the time of the Ulster Cycle around or before 1 AD. Whether she truly is the real Morrígan or not is undetermined, as there has been little opportunity to study her closely. She's also proven to be incredibly durable, seemingly all but immune to physical harm during the resistances to her reign.

**Divide and Conquer**: The Morrígan is a triple deity, comprised of three sisters. Seemingly at will, the three can combine into one form or split apart again without effort. Each of the Morrígna has all of the capabilities of the combined form, though they are rarely seen far apart from each other. While each individual has its own personality, they never seem to disagree publicly.