Morghur the Shadowgave
- – Moghur, every fucking time he dies
Morghur, also known as Shadowgave in earlier days, and as Gor-Dum/Cyanathair the Corruptor to dwarfs and wood elves, is the closest Beastmen guys will ever get in terms of a leader. He's probably one of the weirdest and most dangerous Beastmen to ever live, revered by fellow beasts as an almost a God, and as a terrible threat by anyone else (especially Wood Elves). He also got the title of the only Beastmen character that survived into Age of Sigmar, along with rising to become a Chaos God in his own right.
In Fantasy[edit]
Morghur is old. Like, terribly old. He was born when most of men were either Chaos or non-Chaos tribes, with some exceptions like Cathay and an already ruined undead Nehekhara, in a small tribal Bretonni village to human parents. His birth killed his mother by ripping through her with his teeth and claws as his power mutated her. When the distraught father tried to strangle the newborn Morghur, he was hideously mutated upon touching him. Followed by all the people and livestock in the village; afterwards, humans crawled around like animals with twisted limbs, the animals walked on their hind legs as they talked to and devoured each other.
After that, he escaped into the forest, killing, corrupting, and probably raping everything he saw. Eventually he found a cave, his power warping it so the stone walls ran like water, forming skulls and showing visions of destruction. Burning hatred simmers within Morghur's heart, and he is consumed with the desire to make his waking dreams become reality - to rip down civilization in all its forms, to shatter order wherever it is found and to change the world constantly and randomly. As he walks, everything in his presence is irrevocably changed. Grass turns black and grows in strange patterns beneath his hooves, streams begin to flow backwards and animals mutate horribly. It was so catastrophic, that Ariel intervened and ordered his extermination (even though she never saw him yet), which, needless to say, did not succeed.
While eventually, Ariel managed to find him out and injured him with her fire magic, Morghur survived and eventually gathered the biggest warherd the world ever knew. Asrai, obviously, underestimated the power of the mutated goats and never even tried to stop him. So, when he finally attacked Athel Loren, the inhabitants weren't ready. The invasion lasted for a year, until Ariel finally killed Morghur with the help of Coeddil, who grabbed Morghur while Ariel struck him down... but he reincarnated. And by the way, the parts of the forest that Morghur invaded was either mutated into new forms or corrupted, the latter including Coeddil himself.
After the resurrection, Morghur led his forces to corrupt the Silverspire Mountains springs, which fed the trees in Athel Loren but was killed by Orion. He was reborn again but was unlucky enough to meet Gilles le Breton in battle. As Morghur was reborn again, he stopped the plans to invade Asrai heartland, and instead continued his efforts to destroy the springs and kill The Lady to weaken the will of the Bretonnians. While he failed all the times he tried, Morghur always returned nonetheless, and with even bigger warherds, turning every place he visits into a hellhole. The last time he reincarnated Wood Elves tried to kill him while he was still a child and failed miserably.
While Morghur indeed failed to conquer Athel Loren, he was pretty successful in the other forest - Arden, the biggest one in Bretonnia. It is now a dark place of horrors and thousands of dead bodies, where living trees devour anyone who doesn't pledge to Chaos. And while Ariel scouts managed to kill him again in there, he is returning. He always returns.
As a tabletop character, he has a bray-staff that turns enemy wizards to Chaos if they fail at spells, magic stones that destabilize the Winds of Magic themselves, an aura of mutation that can turn transform enemy projectiles into all sorts of harmless (to Morghur) things and unnerving chattering skulls in his fur (if you can name it fur anymore). Notorious for his great nerf in-between editions, that greatly restricted his magic and turned him into a Hero unit.
End Times[edit]
 This article is a stub. You can help 1d4chan by expanding it |
Age of Sigmar[edit]
Morghur was the only named Beastmen character to survive the destruction of the World-That-Was and... not manifest in the Mortal Realms yet. He is now a minor Chaos God that is worshipped by some Beasts of Chaos tribes, specifically the Gavespawn. He may have possibly manifested in the Mortal Realms, as the Cities of Sigmar White Dwarf update mentions Freeguild in Ghyran finding Beastmen summoning a "mutant god thing".
He may be set up to be a major villain in the future, as the Season of War: Thondia book heavily involves a Bray Shaman working for him called Ghorragan Khai. Morghur whispered into his mind, telling him of the Krondspine Incarnate of Beasts. Ghorragan seeks to spread the knowledge of the Incarnates to other Beastmen tribes, so that with their power they can reduce all the Mortal Realms into primordial wilderness and start a true Era of the Beast (not the fake one caused by that poser Kragnos) where the Shadowgave reigns above all.
Total War: WARHAMMER[edit]
He was added to the first game in Warherd and Shadowgrave DLC, a free update of sorts to the Beastmen. Morghur's presence is enough to increase Chaos corruption in whatever province he is. On top of this, Morghur is never wounded for more than one turn, he causes attrition to enemy armies in the same province as him whenever he raids, and deals constant damage to nearby enemies during battle. Morghur's army also has increased magic resistance and is immune to attrition from Athel Loren and other awakened forests.
| The Chaos Gods of Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy | |
|---|---|
| Four Main Chaos Gods: | Khorne - Nurgle - Slaanesh - Tzeentch |
| Other Gods of Chaos: | Archaon - Hashut - Horned Rat - Nuffle Malal - Morghur - Necoho - Zuvassin |
| Chaos Gods of Law: | Alluminas - Arianka - Solkan the Avenger |