#mort: haha i will burn your kingdom down :)

[cursedfortune]

Hunt in the garden of false opportunity I am the bug in this global community Ravage your conscience with total impunity I am the bug in this global community Seek and provoke degradation and lunacy I am the bug in this global community Go tell your new God to beware of my heresy I am the bug in this global community

Witches and fae, in Mortem's lore, are two sides of the same coin on an individual basis. That's because fae and witches are both purpose bound entities. The difference? Witches have souls, making them more mortal leaning. Fae are soulless, making them more spirit leaning. Witches can die like any mortal (lest they do something abnormal, like Mortem). Fae cannot truly die, but they can be temporarily dispersed. Together, they circle one another in an intimate dance that few others can understand. Many witches will never know of the fae they are most alike. This is not a witch and familiar relationship we see in media a lot, this is just two separate entities existing and performing their purposes. Many times, they are distant dance partners. If it's in their nature to, they will meet and work together.

For Mortem, she knows who hers is because it's precisely the fae that nearly ended her world. Referred to as the Patron of Bones by many, due to his name being enough to garner his attention no matter how far from the world (or this plane of existence) he is.

Among the fae, he is the most human-like because he deals with the same things Mortem does. However, due to the cosmic issues in her universe, her patron fae has swung off course. He once balanced the delicate push and pull of life and entropy, nurturing potential - the one who threaded the fine string of chaos through the needle of peace. Hated by most, even then.

Now, due to the shift in the cosmos, he has swung solely into entropy. Using deception and chaos to send worlds spiraling into death. It's a mercy, by comparison to what's out there and turned him into this.

The only reason Mortem hasn't fallen onto the same path (in all her usual verses, save for the one verse she does) is solely because she harbors a soul. As mortal-like as her patron can be, he isn't. He understands the nuances of people but he himself is an other. So close and yet so far away. And without a soul, he doesn't question his shift and adaptive nature.

Mortem, however, can question. Even when shifts happen, she can reflect and puzzle it out. She is a force of nature but the soul makes her a person enough to do that.

A very big motivation for Mortem is alleviating his spiraling madness as something far worse out there twists and contorts the nature of fae, spirits and all things without souls. As it drives some beings with souls mad due to their inability to comprehend what its doing.

A lot of what Mortem does has the long term goal of setting her patron fae back on course - which means dealing with the entity out there that is destroying the potential that exists within her universe.

That being said... Mortem is also quite pissed off at him after watching what he did to her world. In what he did to the world that came before hers. He is currently banned from her world, despite his attempts to evade that ban, and grows more insufferable each time they meet. Despite her caring so fucking much, whenever he puppeteers a grotesque bundle of mud and bones, she uses destroys it quickly to not have to listen to him.

Her own patron baits her by just showing up in her dreams, in the 'flesh' or if he just comes up in her thoughts/conversations. In death and in the afterlife (when he visits, that is), they absolutely throw hands. Until then, she just ignores the very thought of him as she works towards her goal and serves her purpose.

Despite him not at all being happy about the world ban or Mortem ignoring him often - he just bides his time. One foot still trapped in his prison and the other outside of it, trying to do what he needs to be fully free again.