What does the Morphus of your Characters represent?

[Razorwing]

I remember reading that in the setting, more than a few believe that there is some significance to the various features and forms that make up the Morphus of the Nightbane. With that in mind, I went through some of my old character ideas to see what I insights into the characters I might make based on their Morphus forms (both in which features they have and how I described the appearance of those features).

Now, I've decided to try a little experiment... I will describe the appearance of one of these characters and I would like others to see what they think of that character's psyche based on how the various features are presented. I am curious to see if others got the same impression from these forms as I did when I rolled them up. Of course, I am also willing to play along and make guesses as to the psyche of characters that others wish to share. We are not exchanging character write-ups (no actual stats or skills)... just the description of the Morphus forms of Nightbane characters (to explain how the various features fit together).

For example... here is the character I took my forum handle from:

Razorwing

When she takes on her Morhus, a pair of angelic wings burst from her back as the razors that replace the feathers cut through her flesh. Meanwhile, a circutry-like pattern begins to crawl across her arms and legs as her limbs transform into sleek, cybernetic limbs while her face takes on more elven features (pointed ears; almond-shaped eyes that are a little larger than normal; more pronounced, yet softer features... even her hair lengthens while both it and her eyes take on a more vibrant shade of their previous color [red and green, respectively]).

Just incase anyone wonders just what features Razorwing had, she was a Marred Beauty with the following features:
Unearthly Beauty- Elven Features.
Stigmata- Razor Blades.
Nightbane Characteristics (2)- Angelic: Angel Wings; Bio-Mechanical: Mechanical Limbs

So, based on these characteristics and the description above, what fears, loves and desires do you think this Morphus represents? Feel free to post the description of your own Nightbane (including which features they got and how you combined them) for others to analyze as well (yes, I will give it a shot too).

[Warwolf]

Here's my take: She feels pressured to be someone she is not (bio-mechanical limbs), but just wants others to notice what a beautiful person she is on the inside (Elven Features). She struggles against self-destructive impulses, and keeps others from getting too close for fear of being hurt again (Razor Blades). In spite of her personal torment and isolation, she longs to do good in the world and defend those she cares about (Angel Wings)... even if it is from a distance.

P.S.: This is exactly the kind of thought-process I hoped to inspire when I wrote those rules. Nice.

[Nightmartree]

hmm I see it as her being religious in her past or now with a touch of fancy (elvish/angelic), but with this new world as she's grown up real life, technology and so on have impacted and changed her (razor blades and biomechanical) with each one representing an aspect of her.

a corrupted angel, changed by world from a creature of myth and magic

[Razorwing]

To be honest... I am a little surprised and disappointed that this thread didn't take off like I thought it would. While it was nice to see a couple of people give their opinion as to what sort of personality Razorwing might have given the features of her Morphus... it is a little sad that neither of the two replies offered up another Nightbane to analyze.

The personality that I intended for Razorwing stemmed from a conservative Christian upbringing in the modern world that isn't as black and white as some people wish it were. She was raised to believe that she, like all people, was inherently evil and selfish and could only earn a place in heaven through sacrifice and penance... even though their God was benevolent and merciful (a contradiction that has manifested with her angelic wings having razor blades rather than feathers... and that they rip out of her back as a form of punishment even though they grant her the gift of flight). Her only release from this constant bombardment that she was unworthy of the Lord's mercy came from the modern world... specifically the technology that allowed her to escape her reality... such as computer and video games. She embraced technology as a means to earn her salvation... both from her repressive family and their religious beliefs and to make her own way in the world. This is reflected in the much less painful way her limbs take on a sleek bio-mechanical look and that her facial features shift to appear more elven (after some of her favorite fantasy computer games)... allowing her to finally become who she believes she was always meant to be (even though she can't escape what others tried to make her into).

Maybe now someone might add a new Nightbane for us to analyze what the features might mean for the character's personality.

[Nightmartree]

Maybe now someone might add a new Nightbane for us to analyze what the features might mean for the character's personality.

Most of my banes tend to be rather plain, the one before last had antenna (big fluffy moth ones) and was dessicated (which is a real word despite spell check saying it isn't) and my most current has unusual ears and tentacles. They're different but not a lot to go on. I'll see if I can get some from the other people I play with, they're the kind of folks who randomly roll 4 characteristics and then roll multiple times on the "roll twice" or "roll three times" options.

Not saying it will happen, gotta ask them and all but i'll see what I can do.

[Zer0 Kay]

Maybe now someone might add a new Nightbane for us to analyze what the features might mean for the character's personality.

Most of my banes tend to be rather plain, the one before last had antenna (big fluffy moth ones) and was dessicated (which is a real word despite spell check saying it isn't) and my most current has unusual ears and tentacles. They're different but not a lot to go on. I'll see if I can get some from the other people I play with, they're the kind of folks who randomly roll 4 characteristics and then roll multiple times on the "roll twice" or "roll three times" options.

Not saying it will happen, gotta ask them and all but i'll see what I can do.

Dessicated based on? desiccated from Latin desiccat- ‘made thoroughly dry,’ from the verb desiccare. Also used in desiccant a material used to make something thoroughly dry. As in "Don't eat that packet in your beef jerky ;it isn't extra seasoning; it is desiccant. It's not good for you, but contrary to popular mythology, it isn't enough to completely desiccate a human body. It's bad because, it would desiccate the lining of your stomach... mostly."

[eliakon]

As an interesting twist on this for some of my games I have the group roll up and build three Nightbane Morphus
We then number them and put the numbers on poker chips that go in a hat
Then, during their becoming they reach into the hat and find out what they just turned into.
I have found that so far everyone has been able to 'rationalize' their morphus in some way... often coming up with some very creative justifications and logic to do so.

Now days I just keep the hat and stack of Morphus already made and people just keep adding in more... there are dozens of them ready to go.
This works especially well for pick up gaming, or conventions and the like.

[Zer0 Kay]

Never written out her transformation but here are the morphus features

Were-scorpion (chitin plates, extra pincered arms, stinger tail), Bat Wings, Humanoid bovine (impala: horns, unguligrade fur covered legs with black cloven hooves), Razor blades (located on lips and in mouth, as well as on and in erogenous zones), Leathergirl (cupless,crotchless, leather/chitin teddy), Plasmoid (consistency), Crystaline (grows from the back of the arms, across the top of the fingers and the back of the hand, down the spine with a crown at the top of each shoulder and on the head), Metal EndoSkeleton(visible at the collar bone, forearm and shin), Skull (flaming, human), no-face, large horns (bighorn sheep), small horns(Topi), glowing eyes x2, Doll-Like Appearance (Plastic like apperance and height reduction)

[Zer0 Kay]

Bezerk, The Spirit of Destruction
You could pass for the classic Norse Berserker... You are very feral looking, have massive arms and hands smaller legs and feet and pronounced jagged fangs, even your body hair is more like fur and your eyes look like a wild animals. You stand head and shoulders above others in your height class and that's even with your hunched back. You wear nightmarish armor covered in spikes that seems to be made of the flesh and bone of "some" animal. Your skin is somehow a combination of stained glass and metal or glass like metal, it can't really be described, It is hard and tough but shatters when it does break and does so in sharp shards. The color of the metalglass is like that of a corpse a dull grey green and your limbs look like they were stiched to your body. Your weapon matches your armor in that it is made of parts, which other people don't want to know where you got it. Everything you touch decays or becomes worn. ...however, your only 5 inches tall.

Transformation:
A strong wind picks up and as debree begins to swirl around, your character is lost in the mess. The wind continues to get stronger and lightning strikes you rapidly as you change but all people see is "random" strikes around the twister. The wind becomes less chaotic and more concentrated. When the lightning stops the tornado is 4' 5" tall with a 10' diameter damage area. A voice booms over the wind, "Go forth for valhalla my mighty Beserk." You are somewhere within the tornado. Your clothes fly around within the storm and may become damaged from the environment or attacks. When you change back the tornado just dissipates leaving you kneeling there with whatever remains of your clothes on.

Attributes:

Force of Nature
Bear Humanoid
Brute
Hulking Brute
Oaf
Huge Neck
Very Small Head
Huge Arms
Huge Hands
Small Legs
Small Feet
Glass
Metal Statue
Corpse Like
Stitches
Profane Armor
Profane Weapon
Taint
Tiny

[Zer0 Kay]

Meggido, The Shadow of Death
And you thought it was just a saying, your fight with your inner demon has failed and now… you are one. Your cape of living flame unfurls from around you, you have the skeletal head of a wolf, not bleached white but the brown color caused from flesh rotting off. Blood still seems to flow from your eye sockets and occasionally stops and peels away from your skull as if it is alive. Your eyes have been replaced by two red gems that emit an intense light. Your head is wrapped with a crown of concertina wire that also goes through your eyesockets and wraps around your upper and lower jaw several times. Your gaze causes others to cower in fear and can hardly bring themselves to act against you instead of running. Four 20 foot lengths of what seems to be long spines extend from your back, two from each shoulder blade. The top chains criss-cross your back, come up over the shoulder, criss-cross your chest then wrap under your arms where each one descends and then wraps around your wrists looking like some sort of bracers. The other two stay beneath the cape and poke at the underside giving the appearance of something living under it trying to get out. You are covered in plates of the browned bone in strategic locations, the backs of your hand have a segmented set as does the top of your feet, your calfs and lower arms are completely wrapped, your knee cap and elbow are only capped with a piece that seems to hinge it to the upper part, your thigh and shoulders only have it on the outer part, your groin is covered and the front of your torso is covered, it appears that there is no plating on your backside under the cape and spine tentacles. Somehow with all that is horrible about you people and animals are still drawn to you. Everything else about you seems to be made of solidified shadows. Your bat like wings which are normally covered by the cape, when extended never seem to be obstructed by the cape or the spine tentacles. You have Ibex horns that grow from your brow, and a thin tail that ends in a blade or spike. So much detail can't be seen because it's all made of shadows. It isn't just people and animals that fear you... apparently all types of glass shatters in fear of you as well.

Transformation:
A fiery pit opens below you from which is heard the sounds of pain and anguish. You fall in, moments later your hand comes out and grabs ahold of the lip then chains shoot out of the hole and you launch yourself into the air and spread your wings and then descend back to the ground, that at some point filled in, licks of flame coming off of you coalesce forming your cape. Your clothes appear to be damaged on the morphus. When you change back the pit opens again your chains shoot back into the hole as your back arches and with a sharp tug the image of the demon seems to be pulled off you into the pit, only you are left standing, wearing what you had on before you fell to the demon's control, the pit shuts with a loud thunderous clap.

Attributes:

god
Death
Cape
Bone Chains
Bony Exoskeleton
Animal Magnetism
Concertina Wire
Blood Body Fluids
Living Blood (Reflexive)
Canine Head
Skull Face
Shadow Man
Bat Wings
Large Horns
Glowing Eyes
Glowing Eyes
Spiked Prehensile Tail
Shatter Glass

[Zer0 Kay]

Ra'fay'el, The Herald
You look like some sort of guardian angel dressed in full armor for the last battle carying the legendary Chrysaor. Your torso, thighs, shins, upper arm and fore arm are covered in shining platemail. Your face is covered by a multi-piece articulated platemail mask fastened to your head by a metal band. Light shines from your eye sockets. All of the armor pieces seem to be bolted or riveted directly onto you. All of your joints are capped and or wrapped with bone and spiked with crystal as well as the back of your hands, the top of your feet and the back of your head... come to think of it skin isn't seen anywhere, but most people just see you as their worst nightmare of death. You are always connected to the dragon, by a chain which without anyone noticing just seems to move to where it is convinient for you (it is never in the way). Their are chains wrapped around each forearm and each calf. Eight live cables writhe from the top of your head like hair blowing in the wind. In actuality your some sort of formless slime thing that wears and animates this body.

Transformation:
If you are on Earth: A lens splinters the fabric of reality over your head through wich the Nightlands can be seen. Many red eyes can be seen stareing out of the blackness. A chain shoots out of the portal and secures a shackle around your wrist as your armor flies out of the portal and attaches itself to you. You pull on the chain with all your might, pulling a dragon through. You immediately mount it and it takes to the air with a roar. At some point durring the transformation your clothes vanished. When you change back the portal reappears and as the dragon flies through it the chain seems to rip everything off so quickly that your turned into slime that seeps out the back of the armor, the wings popping off in a poof of feathers, then you just seem to pull youself out of the slime, fully clothed, the slime quicly dries and turns to dust.

Attributes:

Death
Full Platemail
Shield
Token of Esteem
Heroic Proportions
Physical Perfection
Chains
Wires
Universal Connection Port
Armorgraft
Winged Human
Legendary Weapon
Crystaline
Bony Exoskeleton
Nightmare
Plasmoid
Metal Endoskeleton
Glowing Eyes
Chained to Th'End

[Zer0 Kay]

Th'end, The Devouring Beast
You look like a demented cross between a European Dragon, a Basalisk, and something out of a Final Fantasy game. You are a giant dragon composed of shadow with six bat wings, and eight twenty foot long tentacles two are attached to the back of your head and one to each of the middle joints of your limbs (elbows, knees). Your eyes glow bright red actually emitting beams. Your mouth is large, even for a dragon and full of exceedingly sharp metalic teeth. Ninteen no wait twenty eyes on 8" long eyestalks are scattered around your body, six are on your face and when retracted have the appearance of spiders eyes with your two large eyes, there are two eyes on each weapon arm possitioned for aiming, there is an eye stalk on the back of each hand and one on each hip, then the last one is on the tip of your tail, man your grusome looking (blink, blink, stare) nope there is one more that kinda migrates but always seems to show up staring back at someone staring at you when your "not looking". Your claws are coated with metal and exceedingly sharp. All of your limbs seem to be supported by externally bolted organic metal armatures with metalic musculature. Your two middle arms have organic versions of miniguns jutting out of them from under the wrist along the pinky. Your bottom two arms have the organic version of howitzers replacing the lower arm. You are covered in heavy organic metal plating like your wearing some sort of barding.

Transformation:
If you are in the Nightlands: A lens splinters the fabric of reality above your head, through wich Earth can be seen. A Winged Knight in shining can be seen through the portal. A chain shoots from the portal securing a shackle around your kneck. As the shackle locks your flesh explodes to reveal your dragon form. You pull the knight through the portal and he jumps on your back and then you take to the air with a roar. At some point during the transformation your clothes dissapear. When you change back the portal reappears and the knight flies through it pulling on the chain the collar seems to pass through your neck without harm but as soon as it dissapears into the portal you explode leaving a fully clothed human covered in ash.

Attributes:

Supernatural Power
Ancient & Powerful: Full Dragon
Ancient & Powerful: Fiery Breath
Ancient & Powerful: Scaly Skin
Bone Chains
Bat Wings
Oversized Carniverous Mouth
Glowing Eyes
Eye Stalks
Shadow Man
Metal Teeth and Talons
Techno-organic
Heavy Plating
Metal Exoskeleton
Sharp Teeth
6 Arms
Gun Limbs
Chained to Ra'fey'el