Morgan le Fey just dropped in SMITE, and I’ve had worse excuses to build a character. However, I don’t want to boil her down to just one single source. Morgan has over 800 years of appearances in stories and media to pull from. So, for this build, we’re wanting to explore Morgan’s entire repertoire of appearances in media from her first appearances in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regem Britanniea to modern appearances in television, movies, and literature. I have not seen everything she’s ever been in, but we can extrapolate a lot from a cursory glance.

While Morgan is called Le Fey, I don’t believe it’s ever clearly stated which parent she inherits her fey ancestry from, though it may originate from her mother Igerna, as in the 14th century work of Huon de Bordeaux, King Arthur goes to war with Morgan’s son King Oberon over the realm of the faeries. Igerna being Arthur’s mother and Oberon’s grandmother would explain how both men could have a claim to the throne of Fairyland. It’s possible she’s a water faerie, known in Wales and Breton as Mari-Morgans, which drown men.

Morgan’s first education came from a nunnery where she studied necromancy of all things. Morgan later becomes the young pupil of Merlin, with a deep fascination with magic, and showing tremendous talent for it. She was very studious, exploring astronomy, astrology, and healing. However, she always favored dark powers and malicious intent. Under Merlin’s tutelage, she studied or furthered her knowledge of necromancy, illusions, shapeshifting, charms, enchantments, and hexes. Older good versions of Morgan’s character were far more benevolent, with powers of healing and protection. Malory paints Morgan as a queen among mages and villains, with other nobles seeking Morgan’s help at making other mages and villains fall in line under her authority. Morgan’s primary talent seems to fall into two primary camps: trickery and destructiveness. In older stories, she banks the entirety of her schemes on trickery through charms, illusions, and shapeshifting to mess with people. However, in more modern media, she has grown to favor raw power and destructive shows of force. Morgan is usually considered the greatest enchantress of all time, second only to Merlin in magical power. In some cases, she’s considered more powerful than Merlin, but less skilled than he is.

While modern pop culture makes Morgan out to be Arthur’s nemesis, and the plotting mother of Mordred, she’s actually Mordred’s Aunt by her sister Morgause, and her rivalry is more aimed at Guinevere, which started after she caught Morgan fooling around with Guinevere’s own cousin, Guiomar. Most of her evil schemes involved trying to reveal Lancelot and Guinevere’s adultery to Arthur, though she did also attempt to usurp the throne with her lover, Accolon, and murder her husband, Uriens.

Although Morgan’s mother Igerna might be part fey, possibly even part of the faerie royal family, Gorlois appears to be a normal human. As such, Morgan is a Half-Elf. She’ll get +2 CHA, +1 INT, +1 CON. We’ll give her Deception and Medicine for her free skills of choice, and Sylvan for her free language of choice.

For her background, we’ll make her a Noble for History and Intimidation. She also gets a free language, and we’ll give her Draconic.

Most iterations of Morgan le Fey makes her Chaotic Evil, as even before she becomes Guinevere’s sworn enemy, she rebels against society and defies her father.

WIZARD SCHOOL OF WAR MAGIC

I debated which Wizard school was best for Morgan. In her literary origins, she’s a trickster who mostly messes with people. It wasn’t until the pop culture version of her took center stage that she became more of a magical powerhouse. The School of Illusions is the best choice if you want to play up Morgan’s mythical origins as a trickster more, but ultimately nothing is lost by putting more faith in her War Magic. With this, she’s made for the battlefield, as appropriate for a witch who chose to study magic as a weapon. Evocation was a little alluring for increasing the damage of her spells and also causing her to harm herself while overpowering her spells, which feels very true to Morgan’s nature. However, while modern Morgan is power-hungry enough to be an Evocation wizard, it felt disingenuous with mythical Morgan who is far craftier and smart enough to not study a subclass where she could kill herself. Necromancy is being passed over because while it can be VERY good with its life-sustaining properties and empowered undead, it’s highly situational. Although it can provide Morgan with an army of undead thralls if set up right, I tried a level 20 necromancer against a Tarrasque. All of my undead thralls had mundane weapons, and were useless against the threat. Short of buying magical weapons for the entire army, there’s no way to really make Necromancy useful against high power enemies. If you have the patience and funds however to buy and carry around an army’s worth of magical weapons to arm your thralls with, then the Necromancy Wizard becomes a lot more viable, as a legion of skeletal archers can help Morgan slay a dragon, or any other foe that gets in her way.

BASIC INFORMATION

STATS STR 8 DEX 14 CON 18 INT 20 WIS 12 CHA 14

SAVING THROWS STR -1 DEX +2 CON +4 INT +11 WIS +7 CHA +2

COMBAT INFO HP: 162 AC: 12 Speed: 30 ft Initiative: +7 Darkvision: 60 ft Passive Perception: 11 Spell DC: 19 Spell Attack Mod: +11

SKILLS Arcana (+11) Deception (+8) History (+11) Intimidation (+8) Investigation (+11) Medicine (+7)

LANGUAGES Common Draconic Elvish Sylvan

FEATS Fey Touched +1 INT (Bonus Spells: Misty Step, Hex)

MORGAN LE FEY’S SPELLBOOK

C Fire Bolt, Mage Hand, Mind Sliver, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation 1 Charm Person, Detect Magic, Disguise Self, False Life, Hex, Silent Image, Shield 2 Blur, Darkness, Earthbind, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Misty Step, Nathair’s Mischief, Phantasmal Force, Silence, Suggestion 3 Animate Dead, Bestow Curse, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Major Image, Summon Undead, Vampiric Touch 4 Blight, Confusion, Dimension Door, Phantasmal Killer, Polymorph 5 Dominate Person, Enervation, Mislead, Modify Memory, Negative Energy Flood, Seeming 6 Create Undead, Disintegrate, Eyebite, Fizban’s Platinum Shield, Flesh to Stone, Mass Suggestion, Mental Prison 7 Finger of Death, Simulacrum 8 Feeblemind 9 Shapechange

FEATURES

REACTION Arcane Deflection: When you’re hit with an attack or fail a saving throw, add +2 AC or +4 Saving Throws. After, can only cast cantrips the following turn.

FEATURES Arcane Recovery: Recover up to 10 spell slots of 5th level or lower on a short rest Deflecting Shroud: When you use your Arcane Deflection, deal 10 Force damage to up to 3 creatures within 60 feet. Durable Magic: +2 AC and Saving Throws while concentrating on a spell Fey Touched: +1 INT. Gain the Misty Step spell and 1 Enchantment or Divination Spell. Each can be cast once without using a spell slot. Further castings require appropriate spell slots. Both are cast with Intelligence. Fey Ancestry: Resist Charms, Immune to magical sleep Power Surge: Add +10 Force Damage to spells by using a power surge. Can hold up to 5 Power Surges at a time. Gain Power Surges by interrupting magic with Counterspell and Dispel Magic. Resets to 1 on a short or long rest. Signature Spells: Cast two 3rd level spells without a spell slot once per short or long rest. Spell Mastery: Choose a 1st and 2nd level spell. These spells can be cast at 1st level without using any spell slots. Tactical Wit: Add your INT mod to your Initiative rolls.

arthurian books i’ve read:

Morgawse (Lavinia Collins)

♛ Morgan le Fay +  books  {3/ ∞}

daughter of tintagel - morgan le fay series (fay sampson)     

“Morgan uses her womanhood like a warrior who seizes the nearest weapon to her hand. She could have matched Arthur, strength for strength. Instead, she is the converse of his shape, the darkness to his light. She fills the space he cannot. Because he is a man, she is a woman”. - Taliesin’s telling [Morgan le fay series book 4] 

[author’s note] “In physics, Dark Matter forms an unseen world that is the inverse of the matter we observe. Matter and Antimatter were created to exist in equal proportions. Together they hold the universe in balance. But when they come into contact the result is mutual destruction. Morgan’s story is the Dark Matter of Britain”.

The Story of Merlin: 10. King Lot's Young Sons; Mordred's Parentage.