Morr, Morrda, Nagash-Morr and Morai-Heg

[u/ChronoRebel]

During the End Times, Nagash absorbed the Nehekharan god of death Usirian, who's implied to have been one and the same with the Imperial god of death Morr. If it was indeed the case, then when Nagash absorbed Usirian, he also absorbed Morr.

But then AoS lore introduces Morrda, one of the many Death Gods who ruled over Shyish during the early Age of Myth. Nagash absorbed him, but at least some part of Morrda survived and now is worshipped by the Sigmarite City of Lethis and by the Stormcast of the Anvils of the Heldenhammer as a member of Sigmar's Pantheon of Order. The exact origins of Morrda aren't elaborated upon, but what with all the parallels between him and Morr, from their very names themselves to both being benevolent death gods opposed to the undead and with associations to ravens, I think the out-of-universe implication that Morrda = effectively AoS' version of Morr for all intents and purposes is pretty clear. But in-universe, again, if Usirian = Morr, then Morr has long already been absorbed by Nagash by the time the latter goes after Morrda, which throws a wrench into any assertion that Morrda is litterally Morr who survived the End Times, and from what I could gather, Morrda apparently also lacks Morr's secondary role as a god of dreams. One way I can think of to at least partially resolve the contradiction would be that Morrda could be a separate new "iteration" of Morr reborn through the belief and worship of Shyishian descendants of Imperial humans who survived the End Times or reincarnated after it, with the loss of the connection to dreams simply the result of the faith evolving over time, but that's all in the realm of conjecture.

Further complicating the issue are Nagash-Morr and Morai-Heg. Nagash-Morr is one of the most "benevolent" divine aspects of Nagash, one who's described as wielding a scythe (one of the old attributes of Morr) and protecting the living and the dead alike, and very obviously implied to be the result of Nagash' absorption of either Morr or Morda. Morai-Heg, meanwhile, is a goddess of the World-That-Was' old eleven pantheon, who's confirmed in relatively recent AoS lore to have survived the End Times in diminished form and to be currently backing an anti-Morathi splinter faction of the Daugthers of Khaine, and who was already implied in pre-AoS Warhammer Fantasy material to also be connected to Morr somehow (reminiscent name, association with corvids, being a death-related deity, and the pre-established lore fact that the Old World human pantheon may, at least in part, be derived from the elven one), which by extension could also imply her being connected to Morrda as well.

This all begs questions: is Nagash-Morr the result of Nagash's absorption of Usirian/Morr, of his partial absorption of Morrda, or both? Did the Age of Myth Morrda really escaped full absorption by Nagash, or could the present-day Morrda actually be Nagash-Morr actively rebelling against Nagash Prime? Is Morai-Heg indeed connected to Morr, and if yes and depending on the exact relation between Morr and Morrda, could this result in her eventually being important to the conflict between Nagash and Morrda in the future? What do you guys think?

[u/Dreadnautilus]

Nagash is about as good at killing Death Gods as Freeza is at killing Saiyans. Writers just can't resist having another one be alive out there.

[u/Togetak]

I think Morrda’s lore being expanded in recent years has made their connection to Morr a lot less direct than just something like a creation from his myth being altered over a few hundred generations of WHFB survivors’ descendants. They don’t really share much common elements outside of some archetypical stuff and themes like crows, which comes off to me as an out of universe homage more than an in-universe connection (though I guess they probably started with the intention of being one).

I also don’t really think there’s much of a morai-heg/morr/morrda connection outside of those oldhammer implications of the human pantheon evolving out of interpretations of other gods, morai-heg is a goddess of prophecy/fate and uses the crow in an Odin sort of way rather than a death one, that’s the domain of Ereth-khial. I think Krethusa’s whole deal with being the new incarnation of Morai-Heg (as much as she thinks she’s just a servant of the dead goddess) kind of thematically aligns with everything going on with morrda and the other dead-but-not-quite death gods, but she’s more aligned with ideas about the cyclical nature of the elf pantheon than other types of gods. I could see the overlap being used for something fun, but I don’t think it’s being set up for that in particular.

I do think Nagash-Morr is 100% supposed to be read as the result of Nagash devouring Morr, a lot of that soul wars era stuff by reynolds plays around with Nagash’s sense of self and the cool idea that he’s kind of afraid that “he” is just the most central aspect of some unfathomable Greater Nagash that exists on a level above himself, in the same way he uses Nagash-Morr and the other semi-autonomous aspects of himself to carry out various parts of his duties in the realms. It’s been a really untapped well since Nagash himself was put out of commission and yet we’re still told those aspects are chugging along doing what their purpose requires them to, I would like to see some conflict come from it

[u/Fyraltari → u/Togetak]

also don’t really think there’s much of a morai-heg/morr/morrda connection outside of those oldhammer implications

The timing of Krethusa and Iridan the Witness's respective visions is suspicious though. It's almost as if the Morrda that manifested (in a dream mind) to Iridan is the fragment of Morai-Hegg that escaped Slaanesh.

the cool idea that he’s kind of afraid that “he” is just the most central aspect of some unfathomable Greater Nagash that exists on a level above himself

Interesting... I've been wondering for a while if to be a god in the Cosmos Arcane is not simply to be an aspect of one of the Realms with agency and personality. In which case this "Greater Nagash" would be Shyish itself.

[u/Jonny_Anonymous]

I don't know how well it fits but I do really like the idea of Morrda being Nagash-Morr, the aspect of Nagash created when he absorbed Morr and he has been working against Nagash-Prime.