MORDRED

Real Name: Medrawt (original spelling)

Occupation: Insurrectionist, former Knight of Camelot

Legal Status: Citizen of Fifth Century Britain

Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of Mordred’s existence except as a semi-historical figure.

Other Aliases: Modred, Mordret (name variations), Mordred of the Northern Isles, Mordred the Magnificent

Place of Birth: Traprain Law in Lothian (now part of modern Edinburgh, Scotland)

Place of Death: Camlann in Cornwall, England

Marital Status: Separated

Known Relatives: Arthur Pendragon (father); Morgause (mother, deceased); Lot (adoptive father, deceased); Gawain, Agravaine, Gaheris, Gareth (half-brothers, deceased); Cwyllog (wife, deceased); Melehen, Melou (sons, deceased); Uther Pendragon (paternal grandfather, deceased); Igraine (grandmother, deceased); Gorlois (maternal grandfather, deceased); Morgan Le Fay (aunt); Elaine (aunt, deceased); Lot (uncle, deceased); Anna (paternal aunt, deceased), Percival (cousin, deceased), Pellinore (paternal uncle, deceased), Aeneas, Bran, (ancestors, deceased), Zeus, Aphrodite, Llyr (ancestors);

Group Affiliations: ally of Morgan Le Fay, former member of the Knights of the Round Table,

Base of Operations: Mobile, formerly Camelot

First Appearance: (historical) The Annale Cambriae, (modern) Black Knight Comics #1

History: Mordred is the illegitimate son of King Arthur Pendragon and Morgause, the daughter of Igraine and her husband, Gorlois, the Duke of Tintagil. Gorlois was enemies with Uther Pendragon, the reigning king of Britain, and while Gorlois was away at war, Igraine was seduced by Uther Pendragon, who had taken the form of Gorlois with the help of spells by the magician, Merlin. Uther Pendragon wanted to produce an heir to the throne, but shortly after his son, Arthur, was born, Merlin adopted the infant to protect him and had him adopted by Ector, a knight, to rise as his own son. Gorlois, meanwhile, was slain in the Battle of Terrabil. As an adult, Morgause became the wife of King Lot of Lothian in modern Scotland.

Arthur meanwhile grew to adulthood and through Merlin’s guidance became King of Britain. While uniting the petty kings of Britain, Arthur was staying as a guest of King Lot when he seduced Morgause, little suspecting that she was his half-sister. That same night, Arthur had a dream of a serpent that sprang from his side, destroyed his land and people and fought him for its mutual destruction. The nightmare was so vivid that Arthur had it pictured in a painting at a cathedral in Camelot. Merlin translated the vision by claiming that Arthur would have a son born on May Day who would rise up to destroy both him and Camelot. This inspired Arthur to collect all the sons born on that day to noblemen, place them on a leaky boat, and send them out to sea. Mordred was one of those children, but after the sinking of the ship, Mordred washed up on a beach and was nursed to full health by a pious man. He grew to the age of fourteen and returned to his mother to be raised and educated. He was knighted at twenty and hated any knight deemed pure of heart.

For much of his life, Mordred believed his father was King Lot. He traveled for two years with Lancelot and visited Carteloise Forest. Long believing himself the son of King Lot of Lothian, husband of Morgause, Mordred encountered a priest praying at a magnificent tomb during a tournament at Peningue Castle. The priest referred to Lancelot and Mordred as two of the most unfortunate knights that ever lived. When pressed for details, the priest revealed to Mordred that he was the son of Arthur and that he was the serpent that Arthur had dreamed that would rise up and overthrow him. Mordred killed the priest, but Lancelot did nothing because it kept the priest from predicting his own dire future.

The incident was a turning point in Mordred’s life and he gave in to his instincts. On returning to court, Lancelot told Guinevere of the prophecy, but he omitted the fact that Mordred was Arthur’s son. Mordred fell in league with Morgan le Fay and lent his shield to a court jester to distract King Mark of Cornwall. He mocked Sir Alisander le Orphelin for nothing more than mere sport and may have been responsible in the scheme for the death of Morgause. Both Mordred and Morgause’s sons by Lot believed it was adding insult to injury that Morgause would take Lamorek, the son of Pellinore, the man who had had killed Lot in battle, as her lover and potential husband. Lamorek sought sanctuary with Arthur, who mourned his sister’s death, but Mordred killed Lamorek upon discovering him.

For much of his life, Mordred hated any knights of Camelot who he deemed good and chivalrous. He fell in league with his aunt, Morgan Le Fay, who sought to destroy Arthur and conquer Camelot on her own. Mordred often acted behind the scenes either on his own or carrying out Morgan’s wishes and schemes. After Morgan told him of the affair between Guinevere and Lancelot, Mordred used their relationship to further his plan to seize Arthur’s throne. Mordred and his half-brother, Agravaine, then schemed to reveal Lancelot’s affair with Queen Guinevere to Arthur, but Morgan le Fay had already revealed the affair. Arthur left Mordred as regent in Britain, unaware that he was his son by Morgause, and departed with Gawain to confront Lancelot. In Arthur’s absence, Mordred wrote counterfeit letters describing Arthur’s death in order to get himself named as the new King by parliament. Crowned at Canterbury, Mordred exiled the Archbishop of Canterbury for opposing him and then forced himself on Queen Guinevere who barricaded herself in the Tower of London for protection. His agents then informed him that Arthur was on the way back to Camelot. Given Arthur’s sword, Excalibur, by Morgan Le Fay, Mordred tried to prevent Arthur’s landing, but he was forced to retreat back to Canterbury. Wielding a false Excalibur, Arthur still carried the true Excalibur’s scabbard, which prevented him from losing blood in battle. Mordred's forces, backed by Saxon armies, sworn enemies to King Arthur, ambushed him near Camlann on the Salisbury Plain before he could reach Camelot. On the field, Mordred impaled his sire with his deadly lance, but Arthur pushed himself forward on the lance so that its bloodied point came out his back, allowing him to come within reach of Mordred and mortally wound his vile offspring. Wielding the true Excalibur, Mordred issued Arthur a fatal blow. Recognizing Excalibur, Arthur seized it, and rendered a much more fatal blow on Mordred, killing him in the process before dying himself. Sir Bedivere, who witnessed this sight, then returned Excalibur to the Lady of The Lake, and on his return to the dying Arthur, witnessed him being carried off to Avalon by the nine daughters of Arawn, the Celtic god of the dead.

However, according to one account, the dying Mordred had his men to take him to Castle Scandia, the residence of Sir Percy (not to be confused with Sir Percival) where he could ambush and kill Percy as the Black Knight. Guided by Merlin’s hand, Percy rendered a fatal blow to Mordred. However, upon sensing Mordred’s death, Morgan mystically summoned Mordred’s spirit to a phantom region of the astral plane to which Merlin had exiled her spirit after defeating her. From here, Mordred could return to England as a spirit and in the Twelfth Century, he affected events so that King Richard the Lion-Hearted of England was captured by the Muslims during the Crusades, thus placing Richard's brother, John, on the throne. Allied with Mordred, John was instead overthrown by Richard’s supporters lead by the outlaw, Robin of Locksley, better known as Robin Hood.

In Otherworld, the realm of the Celtic Gods, Mordred became involved with the Walkers, twelve men bound to Otherworld after departing the Earth’s dimension. Six of the men became corrupt and allied themselves with Necromon, a demon seeking to conquer Otherworld. Mordred became allies with these men while the six Walkers who were still pure in heart allied themselves with Dane Whitman, Percy’s descendant, as the Black Knight. Mordred continued his enmity with Whitman until Necromon grew tired of his failures and had him imprisoned.

Mordred was soon retrieved by Morgan Le Fay in an effort to return to Earth using the cornerstone of her castle in Cornwall used to build London Bridge, now after several years moved and rebuilt stone by stone in Lake Havashu, Arizona. Confronted by the Black Knight and Doctor Strange, Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme, Morgan and Mordred tried to revert Earth back to the medieval age, but Sir Percy awakened from within the Black Knight’s Ebony Blade and increased its power, enabling him to defeat Mordred and Morgan.

Without Mordred, Morgan Le Fay continued to battle the Avengers several times trying to return to Earth. Because of her alleged faerie blood, she used her semi-divine powers to exploit the power of the five Asgardian Norn Stones, but she still found herself unable to access the vast power of its Twilight Sword and did so by accessing the reality-warping powers of the Scarlet Witch of the Avengers, finally succeeding in restoring Earth back to the Dark Ages. Mordred returned to life as her general and lover with many of the Earth’s heroes as her army, but with Morgan’s power stretched so thin, the Avengers began regaining their memories of their real lives. Although Mordred feared keeping the Avengers alive to turn against them, Morgan falsely believed she could dispel any attack and recreate reality anytime she saw fit. The Scarlet Witch, however, using her reality-warping powers managed to bring to life Wonder Man, who was not around when Morgan created her spell and thenceforth was not controlled by it. As Morgan’s spells began collapsing and reality returned to normal, Mordred accused Morgan of madness for thinking she was ever in complete control. Out of anger, Morgan struck him down with an energy blast, apparently returning him back to the astral realm.

Mordred’s current activities are unrevealed.

Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 185 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black

Strength Level: Mordred possesses the normal human strength level of a man of his size, height and build who engages in extensive regular exercises.

Known Superhuman Powers: None

Abilities: Mordred is an expert swordsman, horseman and proficient jouster trained in rigorous forms of unarmed combat through tournaments held in Medieval England. He has limited knowledge of the dark arts, but he is not as adept in the arts of magic as Morgan Le Fay or Doctor Strange.

Weaponry/Paraphernalia: Mordred has sometimes worn battle armor and carried a sword, dagger or lance. His primary weapon was the Ebony Dagger, carved from the same meteor stone as the Black Knight's Ebony Blade. This dagger had the power to kill the one holding the Ebony Blade, who was otherwise immune to conventional injury.

Comments: This bio includes Mordred’s appearances in Marvel Comics.

Clarifications: Mordred has no known connection to:

 

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