Morgoroth the Black

Morgoroth the Black is the Darklord of Avonleigh, a Ghost trapped in Tergeron Manor. In life, he was in love with Aurora Shadowborn and killed Ferran Shadowborn and the knight Lambert. He was responsible for the destruction of the first Order of the Circle.

Morgoroth should not be confused with Morgoth, a similarly imprisoned and evil wizard but nonetheless a completely separate entity.

Before Morgoroth was drawn into the Land of Mists, he created The Headsman's Axe.

Background

Morgoroth came to The Great Kingdom of Avonleigh for redemption and atonement for past crimes on another world. There, he petitioned Lord Ferran Shadowborn for judgement. Ferran bid Morgoroth to swear fealty to him, and Morgoroth readily obliged. Granted land in return for his oath of loyalty. That same night, Morgoroth used mighty magic to construct Tergeron Manor within a single night in the nearby woods. Yet, the literal spirits of his past came followed him across the dimensional void, haunting not only him but the forest around. And thus Morgoroth's forest assumed the name of the Phantasmal Forest.

Morgoroth served for many years as a loyal adviser to Lord Ferran, such that the other paladins of the Circle came forget their doubts of him. Even the ghosts of the Phantasmal Forest were dismissed as merely lingering apparitions that naturally surround a wizard of sufficient power.

However, there were two forces Morgoroth could not escape. The first was his love for Ferran's sister, Aurora Shadowborn. Because she was to become the high priestess of the local faith and in doing so swear an vow of celibacy, Morgoroth withheld his feelings of love. Lady Aurora returned his love, but she dared not admit to it either due the conflict between her feelings and her faith. It wasn't until many years later, after Aurora had made her vows, that Morgoroth admitted to her. Aurora fled the scene in regret for not telling him, but Morgoroth mistook this for repulsion.

The second force from which Morgoroth could not escape was the lingering effects of the evils he had committed in his homeworld. Lambert, a paladin from Morgoroth's homeworld, had pursued him to Avonleigh, and laid out his transgressions. The other paladins of the Circle were taken by anger, but Ferran advised a steady hand.

As the Circle deliberated what to do, Lambert went to confront Morgoroth. Lambert attacked his foe on sight, and Morgoroth slew him with vile spells, thereby reanimating the knight as one of the undead. Ferran soon followed, not knowing of Lambert's fate, with a figurative flag of peace rather than war. However, the only greeting Ferran encountered was hostility, the reanimated corpse of Lambert. After Lambert was slain a second time by Ferran, the latter disappeared into Tergeron Manor and was subsequently presumed deceased.

Reawakened to the evil within his soul by Lambert's attack, Morgoroth appeared before Lady Aurora and her subordinates in her temple. He incapacitated Aurora and kidnapped her, vanishing too quickly for anyone to intervene. The Circle gathered together and traveled to Tergeron, determined to save Aurora and bring back his head.

All of the paladins who would lay siege to Morgoroth's manor perished or disappeared entirely. This act of mass murder, and the Dark Powers brought him, Tergeron, and the entire Phantasmal Forest to the Land of Mists. Aurora was placed in a a glass coffin. Morgoroth attempted to construct a magic mirror to escape the Demiplane of Dread, but the effort backfired with a blast of eldritch power. The blast destroyed the mirror, separating it into thirteen ethereal shards. In addition, the blast destroyed Morgoroth's physical form and dispersed his ethereal essence throughout Tergeron. Driven mad, his malign intelligence became one with the manor itself.

Current Sketch

Morgoroth still lurks as but a disembodied presence infesting Tergeron Manor. He watches over the eternally slumbering Aurora with a jealous eye. Even after over a hundred years so trapped, Morgoroth's hostility towards adventurers and other intruders unwittingly thwarts those who might have helped him by collecting the lost lost shards of his mirror.

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		A Light in the Belfry
		A Light in the Belfry - p3
		A Light in the Belfry - p3
		Secrets of the Dread Realms - p7 A Light in the Belfry - pp3-4, CD track 1-13