I was just curious about the story arc for Morganthe and how it feels like she is some ancient being that has been devastating worlds in the spiral for awhile, but she doesn't appear to be that old. A lot of the key figures in the different worlds say things like "long ago" this queen of shadows visited and upset the balance of their worlds. It just seems like the timing is off because it doesn't seem like it would have been more than just a few years ago in game time, but she is talked about like she has been around for a lot longer than her age. A lot of the problems some worlds are dealing with seem like they happened long before she would have even been around.
So, how old is Morganthe and how long has she been a problem?
According to memories/lore in Khrysalis and dungeons like Ghost Avalon, as well as the existence of Celestia, she is well over a hundred years old. One might speculate that she looks younger because she uses shadow magic to shift her appearance.
She becomes a problem for us in Celestia but has been a problem for the rest of the spiral well before. Spoiler warning below if you haven't completed arc three yet.
After helping her traitorous brother (Sir Malory/Nameless Knight in Avalon) and creating an unspecified disaster in Ravenwood following her attempt to learn/control Astral magic, she was expelled from Ravenwood by Ambrose. She then promised a young Taylor Coleridge (who we meet on the Crescent Beach in Khrysalis) treasure for he and his crew in exchange for help exploring Khrysalis. This resulted in her and Coleridge's crew being captured by the Arachna from the Hive, who go on to brutally test Morganthe to see if she is part of a prophecy that the Arachna believe in (and it's implied they tortured Coleridge and his crew, which is why his crew was dead and he is insane when we meet him)
From then, it's believed that Morganthe has spent decades learning and harnessing astral magic, eventually mastering it and corrupting/destroying the eclipse tower and solar arc out of frustration throughout her studies. She goes on to destroy Bastion and force the burrowers into the woods. In this time she also turns the Kondha desert (which used to be a giant forest apparently) into the desert it is now, and corrupts the broodmother.
Afterwards, she grew an army and attacked Celestia, the celestians tried to ally with the Storm Titan to protect Celestia, but the titan betrayed them and sent the world underwater, resulting in the death of the majority of both sides. This is why we see a lot of celestians and dark web soldiers as ghosts and stellar protectors as inactive or old. It's the dogs of Marleybone who rediscover Celestia and let us uncover what happened which is why we suddenly learn about Morganthe out of nowhere.
With all that said, she's been a problem for several decades but she hasn't been a problem for us wizards until recently. With her pledging to and following the prophecy that was embedded in her mind back in the hive, it makes sense that its taken several years for her to get this far into her plan.
Thank you for clearing that up for me. I have tried to follow the story in the game, but it isn't always easy when playing with others and feeling rushed and not always able to read all the dialogue. It would make sense that Morganthe is a lot older than she appears and that she has been around for a very long time.
I asked the same question in January of this year under the Lemuria thread. I believe she is well over a century! Headmaster Ambrose formed the Council of Light to destroy her deck of shadows, which was centuries prior, according to the lore of the Council of Light. - The lore of the COL is explained throughout many worlds/chapters in Wizard101.
So, if Morganthe is in her hundreds, and Merle formed the council to drive back the shadows she created, that would mean Merle, Lydia, Diego, Yoshihito, the order of the silver rose, and even Malistaire are in their hundreds. Also, I believe she was born in Zafaria! I think most of us forget that. You may have to double-check all of this. It's been a while since I went through the whole story. (Thank you AlyHeart for that refreshing read!)
Not to change characters, but I also wonder this about Alhazred! If he invented Balance magic, that would mean he is older than the ancient creatures/places that use or refer to Balance - even those we see in Khrysalis.
