Morph

Limstella, one of Nergal's favorite morphs.

“	Using quintessence, he made his “puppets,” the morphs. They’re bewitching in form, with intellects beyond human.	”	— Athos

Morphs (Japanese: モルフ Morph) are a type of human-like monster created through magic. Like Risen, morphs take the physical form of humans and primarily fight using the same forms of combat humans do. Morphs only appear in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, featuring as a common lategame enemy type in the service of Nergal, the game's arch-antagonist.

Overview

Characteristics

Generally, morphs are identical to ordinary humans aside from the fact that they possess four common traits: black hair, very pale skin, red lips, and golden irises. Morphs can also be specifically created in the image of a pre-existing person using that person's quintessence, and as demonstrated by several such morphs in the final chapter, morphs created for this purpose will look identical to the original person with the exception of having sickly pale skin. However, they are as soulless and emotion-less as any other morph. With the exception of Kishuna and his unique ability to fill the air with a malicious, magic-sealing aura, morphs participate in combat the exact same way humans do, using the same techniques and the same weapons. As indicated by Limstella, morphs can be imbued with immense magical power beyond what they or an ordinary human could otherwise handle, but this is destructive and will quickly decay the morph's body and kill them.

The main area in which morphs differ from their human counterparts is their mental and emotional range. By default, morphs are claimed to lack emotion, though as demonstrated by Kishuna they can be granted the ability to have emotions. They are also capable of emulating them, with Sonia tricking Brendan Reed into thinking she loved him. However, Renault speculates with Canas that all morphs have some unintentional emotional capability. The mental capacity of a morph seems to vary drastically depending on their purpose; the three morphs which Nergal used to develop his plans - Sonia, Limstella and Ephidel - are all intelligent and calculating, while other morphs such as Denning, who exist only to fight as part of an army, lack this; in Denning's case, it appears he was programmed only to pass on a single message to Eliwood's allies.

One other notable characteristic of morphs is that their bodies turn to dust upon their death.

Morphs are conceptually very similar to Idenn's war dragons, fabricated manaketes created only for battle, and both even originate from dragon research.

History

Template:Spoiler Morphs have a short recorded history. There are occasional mentions of morphs in other ancient texts, meaning they may have some other unmentioned historical origin. The research behind the creation of morphs mostly originates from the dragon village of Arcadia. There, Nergal and Athos studied within the dragon libraries. Nergal found the research into such creations and decided to use it for his own desires. Nergal is the common origin of all morphs in the series so far. Nergal's first experiments with morphs began a handful of centuries before the events of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. Nergal recruited a wayward mercenary, Renault, for his experiments; Renault was changed by Nergal's experiments, no longer being entirely human himself.

Nergal summoned Ninian and Nils through the Dragon's Gate two years before Eliwood's search for his father. Nergal's goal here was to use Ninian and Nils to lure more dragons through the Dragon's Gate to steal their quintessence. While not explicitly stated, Ninian and Nils were probably drawn to Nergal's voice due to them being his long lost children. After Ninian and Nils escaped, Nergal used his connections with the Black Fang, specifically, his morphs that were manipulating them behind the scenes to hunt down the siblings, bringing Lyn into conflict with the Fang, and causing her to meet Eliwood. After Lyn reclaimed Caelin she and the siblings parted ways for two years.

Two years later, after Eliwood and Hector assisted Lyn in warding off an attack by Laus, instigated by Ephidel's advice to Darin, they journeyed to the Dread Isle and found Ninian in a small boat on the way. After recovering Nils and encountering the dying Elbert, they departed the Dread Isle and return to mainland Elibe. After this, at Uther's recommendation, Eliwood journeyed to the Nabata desert, encountering the abandoned morph, Kishuna, just before he met Pent and Athos; after being told by Athos to seek the legendary weapons to combat Nergal and his forces, Eliwood's party journeyed through Bern on a mission to the Shrine of Seals. During the Black Fang's battles with Eliwood's party in Bern, the original Black Fang's numbers dwindled and the organization's ranks began to be comprised almost entirely of morphs provided by Nergal and Sonia. After the Black Fang was dismantled and the morph Sonia was killed, morphs became Nergal's primary servants to fight Eliwood and his allies directly, and he sent countless morphs to stop them from returning to Valor, including one of Nergal's most powerful morphs, Limstella. Most of them were wiped out in the final conflict with Nergal.

After the events of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, the conflict with Nergal and his morphs became a historical secret, and the existence of these morphs never entered public knowledge. The battle and the morphs were never mentioned again by the surviving participants, with Canas in particular wishing for this.

In gameplay

Morphs comprise the primary bulk of the enemy forces for most lategame chapters in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, with the lategame chapters going against Nergal himself. In terms of gameplay, morphs are identical to ordinary human units in terms of stats, weapons and appearance, differentiated only by name. The exception is Limstella, whose class is a unique Sage variant with different maximum stats, including a boosted 30 defense cap instead of the standard 25.

There is only one morph-exclusive class: the Magic Seal, represented only by Kishuna. Magic Seals have no combat abilities of their own, but project a silencing field which blocks the use of all magic.

Notable morphs

• Denning
• Ephidel
• Kishuna
• Limstella
• Sonia

Gallery

• 

  Limstella, Nergal's "masterpiece".

• 

  Ephidel, a morph whose primary purpose was to manipulate Darin.

• 

  Sonia, the morph responsible for manipulating the Black Fang.

Etymology and other languages

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	Morph	As a noun, the English word "morph" can be taken to mean a variety of a broader species which has distinct differences from other variants of the species as a result of its appearance (e.g. the distinct physical appearance of Nergal's morphs) or behavior (e.g. the soullessness of Nergal's morphs).
Spanish	Morph	Morph
French	Morphe	Morph
German	Morph	Morph
Italian	Creatura	Creature

See also

• Deadlords
• Monster
• Risen
• War Dragon