MORGAU VASILEY
Introduction to Morgau Vasiley
[NOTES ABOUT MORGAU]
2016
"NOTES ABOUT MORGAU 25th Oct2016
Mogau Nanuaat Madura Vasiley is the character I always saw as the lynch-pin of both of the follow on AOD games. Her back history is interwoven with many of the central characters in AOD and she is pivotal to what happens as Karel reforms the Cabal and sets out to re-establish the return of the Nephilim Race in The Lost Dominion and Dreams of Resurrection.
Morgau was mentioned once in some preparatory notes back in the early days of AOD but I never had the opportunity to develop or share what my thinking was for her. Now, I can.
Her part of the unwritten story leading up AOD in Paris and Prague is essential even though she doesn’t appear. Her involvement with Lara and Kurtis comes later and, I think, promises truly epic scope for exciting tales to come.
Using Morgau’s back story, as well as that of Lara & Kurtis I now have chance to lay out some over arcing concepts. It always intrigued me why Lara Croft may have become the kick ass heroine she is. I wanted to examine the mega-myth of what could bring all these extraordinary human beings together. And now I have the chance to re-examine the notes I made at the time and expand on them with ideas that have occurred since.
Some of this material is introduced in the 20 Years of TR book but there is so much more.
And I have to say it will be a huge relief to finally put it into the public domain and let go of it once and for all. How did the Chirugai come into Kurtis’ hands? How was Konstantin Heistuurm murdered? Has Lara suspected that there is more in her past than even she remembers? What was Kurtis/Vance Renner up to after his stint in the Legion? Was there only ever a single Chirugai? What grotesque secrets does the much underused Rouzic keep in his grisly Hall of Trophies? When the lifelines of so many unique individuals are interwoven throughout a story that spans centuries does anyone really know what is happening – or is everything merely chance? Does Janice work as an Agency recruiting officer and have a past even her clients are unaware of? What is the true significance of the names on the Knights’ pedestals in AOD? What is the Assassin’s story? What is a Nephuman and have they figured in history before without us knowing?
I scribble hundreds of such questions and ideas down when laying out the map for AOD and now it’s finally time to answer some of them. Not all, but some.
What the fans and detractors care to make of it is entirely up to them.
From this point on it’s out of my hands.
I don't think I will be taking Lara, Kurtis, Karel or other AOD characters any further myself. Of course I’ve welcomed the chance to re-familiarise myself with them all and am still incredibly excited by how they took on a life of their own.
The continuing story potential with the AOD material is vast - the Cabal, the hopefully ‘regenerated’ Lux Veritatis and so on. So, if anyone wants to take these ideas further I wish them well and dedicate this final offering from my notebooks and thoughts of 16x years ago to the many fans who have kept the flame bright and unflagging over the years. The energy and enthusiasm of AOD fans is what makes it great.
Happy daze.
Murti."
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Morgau's physical make-up
[MORGAU'S PHYSICAL MAKE-UP summary-v3]
2017
"MORGAU’S PHYSICAL MAKE UP – A SUMMARY
What Morgau has become defies easy summation. It is certainly something other than human – possibly the name Lilith would have been appropriate after all. [in Game II someone makes the mistake of taunting Morgau with this name and pays the price.]
Her skin is albino pale. Her body slender. Her eyes milky blue, until something triggers her latent psychic powers when they become translucent. This is the time to beware as it is also the time when her tendency to erupt into frenzied Hulk-like violence is nearest the surface.
Physically Morgau is a mass of contradictions. It is almost as if her body is at war with itself, attempting to tear itself apart. Though immensely strong and fast she is at the same time incredibly vulnerable being dependent on the specialised elixirs that keep her functioning at such a high peak. Her torso is encased in an armoured corselet or cuirass, not entirely dissimilar to that worn by Eckhardt. Whereas the Black Alchemist’s chest plates and metallo-mesh bodice is to hold his physical form together after the ravages of his centuries long confinement Morgau’s is there to deliver the alchemically derived elixirs and bio-essences that maintain her life.
Beneath the corselet Morgau’s torso is semi transparent. Close examination would reveal her internal organs functioning as if viewed through a murky X-ray screen. Her spine is exposed along its length each vertebrae being welded to rows of bone, silver and ivory rods which in turn are interwoven with carbonite threads anchored to her entire skeletal structure. The corselet-prosthesis delivers the necessary life support through a network of fine tubing.
Despite inhabiting a physicality that is so flawed and at war with itself these augmentations mean that Morgau is incredibly fast, strong and preternaturally quick to heal. [for more details see: Morgau Vasiley Hope Or Peril.]
On one occasion she led an incursion team into an enemy LV base in Russia but in the heat of battle her unpredictable psycho-fury became triggered, possibly by proximity to an LV Adept. Whatever the cause she erupted into a maelstrom of slaughter, killing the Adept, the opposing forces, her own squad members and destroyed much of the surrounding building. When she returned to the Strahov with nothing to show Eckhardt was incandescent with fury and was only dissuaded from punishing her brutally by Karel. The Shape Shifter was delighted with the way this unique asset was shaping up and he convinced Eckhardt to send Gunderson out with her out on more missions to test the extent to which she might be controlled. Morgau and Gunderson were constantly at each others throats, which suited Eckhardt’s way of keeping the Cabal from engaging in plots to overthrow him. Divide and rule – a favourite strategy of another megalomaniac who threw Europe and the world into bloody conflict for six years in the 1940’s..."
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Morgau's Irregulars
[MORGAU_S IRREGULARS-Crypsis-v3]
2017
"MORGAU’S
IRREGULARS
Morgau
has her own network of ‘Irregulars’ built up when she was working as a
free lance in her early independent days. They are scattered throughout the
various countries that Morgau has found herself working in and they are all
drawn from the outcast layers of society; exiles, freak heads, rogue
personalities, rejects, wild cards, outsiders, unemployables and pariahs. They
are the unwanted and the derided.
Morgau’s
umbrella name for these various groups is : Crypsis, beings who camouflage
themselves. [Think Sherlock Holmes’ Baker Street Irregulars, urchins and
street gangs of orphans and the dispossessed, who go unseen by ‘normal’ society
but are everywhere. As a resource for information gathering, secret
communication and other subversive activities, such groups are invaluable.] - 2020 additional note: the ‘homeless’ off the
grid street gangs in John Wick.
[ Cryptic = hidden. Crypt = hidden burial chamber.
Cryptonym = secret name. Cryptocyph = hidden code. Cryptograph or cryptoglyph =
secret signs/glyphs]
Typical
Crypsis T-Shirt = “From Chaos, more Chaos”.
INDIVIDUALS
& GROUPS ARE NAMED VARIOUSLY AS:
Crypsis
Tourniquet,
Wilder
Kindt
Zoic
Jahrhundert,
Fixeurs,
Kudralis
Torque
Vixeurs
Retrievers
Stave
Cauchmaris
Vixarii
Roglyph
Chirogue
Parcourz
Luctatis
Chapter
Vambrace
Triage
Brass
Fist
Catafalque
Sistrum
(drum)
NB
extra #1 – crystograph = writing on glass.
NB
extra #2 - Morgau’s own Siglum, Cryptoglyph or Arcanum is an
esoteric symbol, a highly personalised glyph of power; an arcane signature. It
is also an identity anchor for an unstable individual struggling to
maintain a sense of who she is. The story of her getting this mark is detailed
in yet another document. Bestowed? Stolen? A memory from her father Vasiley?
Discovered? Bequeathed? Enforced? Self inflicted to offset the terrible
tortures she underwent from Eckhardt when he was bent on creating her as his
Lilith living weapon?."
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Notes on Morgau Vasiley
[MORGAU notes_summary-v9]
2019
"MORGAU notes & summary
VISUAL and STYLE REFERENCES:
- Pris in Blade Runner
- River Tam from Firefly
- Demented Harajuku-Goth masques
- Chiana in Farscape TV series (Gigi Edgley)
- Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa – Mad Max
- Lisbeth Salander from Girl withTattoo novels
- Nikita (original French outing)
- Geena Davis as Charly Baltimore from Long Kiss Goodnight
- Hit Girl from Kick Ass
- Harley Quinn - Batman
- Modesty Blaise
- Borg Queen from Star Trek, First Contact
- Helena Bonham Carter in Fight Club
- Scavengers TV series 1994, Anna Galvin bodice, cuirass
- Tank Girl
- Martha Washington Goes to War (comic Dave Gibbons & Frank Miller)
SPEAR FIGHTING STYLE REFERENCES:
- Prince Nuada spear weapon style in Hellboy II (Luke Goss)
- Hit Girl in Kick Ass
- 300 Spartans
- Achilles & Hector in TROY
PHYSICAL CONDITION:
- Beneath the protective Cuirass Morgau’s torso is semi transparent. Her internal organs are partially visible, a side effect of the alchymical vivisection she underwent under Eckhardt.
- Essentially her body is at war with itself.
- She is totally dependant on specialised elixirs and essences that maintain her incredibly enhanced life force.
- Though thin limbed and of a pallid white complexion her body is incredibly strong, in part due to the carbonite threading woven throughout her entire skeletal structure.
- She is fast, strong and quick to heal.
- Her arms are thin with semi-translucent skin showing blue veins.
- Morgau’s spine is welded to rows of wiring, bone & silver rods, an ugly arrangement which leaves the heads of rivets & tiny plates exposed along her spinal column.
- Her eyes are opaque milky blue until the irregular psychic abilities kick in when they become translucent.
- Periodically Morgau’s body displays an alarming tendency to erupt into grotesque semi-crystalline, metallic extrusions. [reference the growths on Bouchard’s badly injured man in Paris]. Only the Cuirass helps keep this in check.
- She is not strictly speaking a cyborg, in fact her reliance-relationship to her Cuirass is more that of a mutual parasitic dependency.
- Her need to ‘replenish’ is almost vampyric. Almost.
- The truth is that she has not been entirely human for a while [see notes on Eckhardt’s Nephuman Meta Progeny and Warrior Sentinels.] ..."
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Mathias Vasiley
[VASILEY_MORGAU-v1 2016]
2016
"MATHIAS VASILEY and MORGAU VASILEY
VASILEY AND THE OBSCURAS.
Vasiley has uncovered five Obscura Engravings from a hoard of damaged antiquities salvaged from an ancient monastery site in a mountainous region of Spain. When Mlle Carvier contacts him regarding the Obscuras he deals with her and then with Von Croy to sell four of the Engravings. He keeps the fifth and last one back, ostensibly to haggle for a higher price. But there are other parties closing in.
Vasiley has also uncovered one of the five Obscura Paintings themselves in Russia. His luck runs out before he can inform Von Croy or negotiate a deal. He gets brutally murdered by a member of the Cabal. Before his death however, he manages to hide the fifth Engraving somewhere on his premises.
VASILEY’S PAST.
The sinister truth behind Vasiley’s shadowy life is that he is a renegade Lux Veritatis who disappeared at the end of WWII. He evaded both Cabal forces and the Lux Veritatis by assuming new identities and being constantly on the move. The Cabal hunted him as part of their mission to eliminate all Lux Veritatis. The LV themselves were after him as a suspected traitor to the Order who played a part in Eckhardt’s escape from his prison pit.
Vasiley became invisible for decades. His daughter, Morgau, was raised in the ways of the Lux Veritatis, but with unique variations based on decades spent as a renegade hiding from both sides of the Shadow Wars. She became a dangerous and powerful individual like her father, with a wild card slew of unique characteristics of her own (insane Harajuku with weapons, Tank Girl or comics’ world Harlequin). At the time of her father’s murder she disappeared, much as Vasiley himself had done decades earlier...”
Morgau Vasiley
[MORGAU VASILEY HOPE or PERIL -v8]
2016
"MORGAU VASILEY
New Hope or Terrible Threat?
The path of young Morgau Nanuaat Madura Vasiley’s life was constrained by a destiny bequeathed to her by her father Mathias Vasiley. Mathias had been a member of the Lux Veritatis but he had to disappear at the end of WWII like many others with a history they did not want following them around. He and his imperilled family lived a shadow life hunted by both Cabal forces and the Lux Veritatis who regarded him as a treacherous renegade believing he had played a key role in Eckhardt’s escape from his prison pit beneath the Kriegler Fortress. There was never the opportunity for Mathias to answer these accusations properly and he was too wily to trust himself to an unproven system of appeal within the LV Order. The relentlessly merciless attacks by Cabal forces left no one with time to consider such niceties as a fair hearing or due process. And so Mathias vanished.
Morgau Vasiley was born in 1983 and spent her early years as a fugitive. She learned from her father how to become invisible. For decades they were continuously assuming new identities and being constantly on the move. Morgau was raised in the ways of the Lux Veritatis, or as much as Mathias could manage without access to true LV resources and personnel.
The decades spent as a fugitive had a powerfully formative effect on Morgau’s character as well as her abilities and she emerged as a dangerous and unpredictable individual with a wild card personality that was the despair of her father. Mathias knew she was a gifted pupil and he struggled to form and guide her innate gifts in ways that would allow her greater control of her considerable potential. But Morgau was wayward and strong minded and she rebelled.
Well before her father’s murder she had already taken to disappearing on her own and deliberately putting herself into perilous situations. She seemed drawn to dangerous individuals, semi-legal groups, and anything involving high level risk. Mathias himself was no stranger to risk but it had always been within Lux Veritatis guidelines and usually to protect something or someone of value. Morgau was different. She fretted at what she saw as the constraints of a conflict she felt no real identification with. [see other documents on Morgau’s early years]...”
Vasiley family timeline
[VASILEY family TIMELINE v6]
2016
"VASILEY family TIMELINE.
Mathias and daughter Morgau.
1915 - Mathias per Madura Vasiley born during WW I in the Sierra de Gredos mountains above Madrid. His family line is directly linked to the Knights Templar and one of his ancestors was amongst those slaughtered in the Montsegur extinction of the Cathars, in the Languedoc region of Southern France.
1921 – Age 6 Mathias is enrolled into the Lux Veritatis by an obscure relative who suddenly appears in his village and takes him away from his family. Mathias begins the exhaustive LV training programme that will enrol him into the elite ranks of el Protectivores. Over the next decades he proves a worthy and highly capable initiate and progresses steadily through the LV ranks.
1932 – Age 16 Mathias achieves full LV initiation and receives the honorary name Petral ser Vykanaur. He begins leading actions against the deadly Cabal of the Dark Alchemist Pieter van Eckhardt. This take him across Europe, the African continent and into the New World.
1939 – Age 23 Mathias runs anti Nazi resistance cells from within Germany. He uncovers evidence of ominous dark programmes being controlled by mysterious figures he intuitively feels to be Cabal or Cabal affiliated. Some terms and names reoccur time and again: Fleisch Materiums Konstrukt (Flesh Math Construct), Eiszeit Festung (Ice Era Fortress), Das Dunkle Welten Program (Dark Worlds Programme), Der Zweites Reich (The Second Domain). He suspects something ancient and sinister at the roots of the newly established Reich.
[For further details on the Dark Reich projects see doc: ALLACORD SIGLUM.]
1945 – In the concluding stages of WW II Vasiley is working as an undercover LV operative within the ranks of British Intelligence. He is entrusted with covert missions wiping out pockets of Cabal infestation throughout mid-Europe. One mission is to arrange for the bombardment of a Cabal stronghold on the fringes of the Reich fatherland. Unfortunately he has been misled by the Shape Changer Karel posing as another LV adept within British Intelligence. The coordinates given to Mathias have been doctored so that a diverted Allied bombing raid intended to wipe out a Cabal containment bunker is in fact the location of Schloss Kreigler. This is where the Dark Alchemist has been held prisoner by LV guardians for 400 years. The bombing raid succeeds in releasing Pieter van Eckhardt and unleashing a rein of horrors the Lux V have sought to protect the world from. They have invested the lives of generations of dedicated combatants and guardians to contain this slumbering evil and now it is loose again..."