Morden

From The Babylon Project

Morden Race: Human Gender: Male Date of Birth: Monday, May 25th 2223 Date of Death: Sunday, January 26th 2261 Place of Birth: Summit, New Jersey, Earth Place of Death: Centauri Royal Palace, Centauri Prime Hair color: Black Eye color: Blue Relatives: Unnamed Wife Sarah Morden - Daughter (deceased) Affiliation: Earthforce New Technologies Division (on loan) IPX (up to 2257) Shadows (after 2257) Portrayed by: Ed Wasser

Mr. Morden was a Shadow agent. Originally from Earth, Morden was born on Monday, May 25th 2223 in Summit, New Jersey. ^[1]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early Life 1.2 The Icarus Mission 1.3 What Do You Want? 1.4 What Happened To The Icarus? 1.5 Agent Of Chaos 1.6 A Shadow Of His Former Self 1.7 From Beyond The Veil 2 Behind The Scenes 3 References

[edit] History

[edit] Early Life

After the deaths of his wife and daughter in the terrorist bombing of the Io jumpgate in May of 2256, he spent some time living on Station Prime. Possessing a PHD in archaeology, Morden had visited several worlds and dig sites including Anfran.^[2]

[edit] The Icarus Mission

Morden was working as an employee of Earthforce New Technologies Division when he was assigned to Dr. Chang's archaeological team aboard the Icarus in December of 2256.^[2] The Icarus was an Interplanetary Expeditions exploratory ship that set down on Z'ha'dum in 2257, in which the crew came into contact with the newly awakened Shadows.^[3][4] During the flight, he was befriended by Dr. Anna Sheridan who during the ship's new years party, gave him an Anfran love stone, an artefact from one of his previous expeditions which she had taken from his quarters the day before and had put on a necklace. Shocked that he failed to notice it was missing from his quarters, Morden puts it around his neck and decides to keep it with him, always.^[2]

[edit] What Do You Want?

Morden returned to civilization in 2258 on Babylon 5 with the purpose of asking each of the main races a single question, "What do you want?" Secretly working for the Shadows, they used this question to see whether or not the ambassadors and races fit their needs.^[5] Although at first Ambassador G'Kar showed promise, he had no great ambition beyond revenge, however he discovers that Londo Mollari is the perfect candidate for their needs and seizes an opportunity to put Londo in his debt and on the path his "associates" need him to be.^[6] With his help he convinces Londo to allow the Shadows to lend their support in the fight against the Narn, allowing them to sweep through to victory without the Centauri losing a single fighter.^[7]

[edit] What Happened To The Icarus?

When it is discovered who Morden is and where he came from John Sheridan tries to find out detailed information on why he's the lone survivor of the Icarus. Delenn and Kosh explain to Sheridan the truth about what happened, and that the Icarus was not actually destroyed but that when they arrived on Z'ha'dum they had awakened the Shadows who forced the humans to either serve them or be killed.^[3]

[edit] Agent Of Chaos

Evidence is later discovered that Morden had a hand in helping President Clark to assasinate President Santiago.

In 2260 he secretly caused the death of Adira Tyree to convince Londo Mollari to continue to work with the Shadows by causing him to become emotional and vulnerable and placing the blame solely on Lord Refa - his closest ally. He was also present when the Shadows killed Ambassador Kosh.^[8] Morden was present when John Sheridan destroyed the Shadow's main capital city.^[4] He was nearly killed, and suffered a great amount of damage to his skin, but quickly recovered.

[edit] A Shadow Of His Former Self

In early 2261 he was assigned to Centauri Prime to serve as the go-between for the Shadows and Emperor Cartagia as the small island of Selini was being used as a base of operations for Shadow forces.^[9] Soon after Cartagia is killed, Londo orders Morden killed to save Centauri Prime from being destroyed by the Vorlons. Morden's head is placed on a pike for which Vir Cotto gratefully acknowledges with a small wave.^[10]

[edit] From Beyond The Veil

In 2262, Morden would return during the Day of the Dead ceremony to tell Lennier that he would soon betray the Rangers and die shortly thereafter.^[11]

[edit] Behind The Scenes

• According to Jeanne Cavelos, J. Michael Straczynski had originally conceived Morden as "a low-level technician on the Icarus, who was jealous of Anna's education and success", though when she handed in her synopsis for "The Shadow Within", Straczynski "...never asked me to change Morden from the way I'd envisioned him." ^[12]

[edit] References