#And I think it’s interesting to acknowledge pitfalls that he’d be susceptible to falling into

[justagaycryptid]

I feel that regarding Morgott/Tarnished pairings there’s an untapped market regarding the transitional period that there would be between the start of the relationship and the point where it actually is healthy

Like it would take a lot of effort on the Tarnished’s part to actually get Morgott to simply just be amicable to them. Like it wouldn’t take too much divergence from canon to keep him alive, simply have him decide to concede to the Tarnished instead of choosing to keep going until he dies; he’d have to realize that he cannot win, but if he stays alive he can figure out some way to minimize the damage the Tarnished poses to the Golden Order/Leyndell, especially since they aren’t Elden Lord yet, so he’s got time to plan. It could be believable since while Morgott is prideful as hell, he’s also fully devoted to his role as Lord of Leyndell; yes it’s more likely he’d die protecting the Erdtree, as happens in canon, but posing a divergence from canon with his concession, depending mostly on the type of Tarnished he’s dealing with, wouldn’t be too out of character so long as you frame it as a long play on his part, which we know he’s capable of given his history as Veiled Monarch for the past few thousand years or so.

So given this kind of foundation, there’s no way in hell that there would be any sort of progress until after the Tarnished becomes Elden Lord. Morgott’s deal is very much ‘the devil that you know is better than the devil that you don’t’. He’s not stupid; he knows he suffers under the Golden Order, he knows other Omen suffer under the Golden Order, he knows the world had gone to shit. Yet still, this is all he has. He’s given himself to the Golden Order because it’s all he has. He holds a hope that yes, one day the Golden Order will fix everything, that it will hold true and restore sanity to The Lands Between. It is the only thing he has left to give his love to, and by every god above that’s what he’s going to do. And like I don’t 100% subscribe to the notion that the dude is just a self-loathing sad sack. Yes, he holds a disdain for his Omen heritage and views himself as lesser in that regard, but at the same time he deliberately escaped the Shunning Grounds during the Shattering and took the throne of Leyndell for himself. He explicitly refers to himself as ‘Last of All Kings’ during the cutscene for his boss battle. He’s an efficient warmonger and one of the orchestrators of one of the battle on Mount Gelmir, which is considered one of the most appalling battles in the entirety of the Shattering. Despite all his hang ups about being an Omen, he is prideful to a fault.

So then when it comes to the Tarnished, he doesn’t know what they are going to do. (Minor point of contention that I have is when people refer to Morgott as ‘racist’ because of his disdain for the Tarnished. First off, Tarnished aren’t a race, being Tarnished is an affiliation; warriors of Godfrey that were banished with him after they lost Grace in The Long March (pretty sure that’s what it was called) and their descendants. If you’re gonna call Morgott racist then criticize his beliefs about the Golden Order and how they treat lesser races, but not because he hates the player character. Stupid thing to bitch about but I digress) Morgott hates the Tarnished because he knows what they represent. He knows that means that they have been called to repair the Elden Ring and become the new reigning Elden Lord, which is an idea that terrifies Morgott. And honestly given some of the endings you can achieve, he’s right to be terrified. This is something that threatens the state of the Golden Order and the Lands Between as a whole, much less Morgott’s title as Lord of Leyndell. He stands to lose everything he’s desperately fought for, and watch the world fall apart before his very eyes. There would be no relationship between the Tarnished and Morgott unless they could prove to him that they aren’t going to essentially ruin everything. Given that they are able to achieve this, it would likely be slow going to improve their standing; hesitant allies evolving to a sort of comfortable ‘coworker’ (I suppose? There’s probably a better word for it but that’s all I’ve got at the moment) standing given that the Tarnished proves themselves competent in manners of state, or if they are willing to learn (preferably from Morgott since then he’d be more assured that they’re doing things the ‘right’ way). Of course Morgott would be very unlikely to initiate anything on his end. As it stands, once he’s sure the Tarnished won’t bring about the destruction of the Lands Between, he’d probably prefer to be left alone to keep serving as Lord of Leyndell. It’s not that he necessarily wants to be alone, it’s just more comfortable for him; it’s what he’s used to. But given that he’s almost certainly lonely, and if they are tolerable to be around, it would take less effort than one would think to get him to warm up to them.

If it did ever progress to something romantic however, the Tarnished would need to initiate. Firstly, it’s unlikely Morgott would recognize any romantic feelings he may harbor as being such; he’d likely take it as himself beginning to recognize the Tarnished as Elden Lord, which is a status akin to divinity, since for Morgott love and worship are intrinsically linked in his mind. Secondly, even if he did recognize himself as falling in love, he would not act on it unless he knew his affections were explicitly wanted. And even then it would take convincing. Just because he feels he deserves his position as Lord of Leyndell, doesn’t mean he feels like he would deserve to consort with the Elden Lord. He *is* still an Omen. He knows that is something that is undesirable, something that he himself considers undesirable. It would take a metric ton of coaxing and reassurances that yes, the Tarnished does in fact want him romantically.

And then it would very quickly get unhealthy.

As I said before, Morgott believes love and worship to be intrinsically linked to one another; his parents are gods and the only thing he has ever loved has been the religious system that oppressed him for thousands of years. He had likely never had any sort of healthy attachments modeled for him, and thus would not know how to express his newfound love for the Tarnished in a healthy manner. Like it wouldn’t get to ridiculous levels like ‘Alpha Male’ Morgott, but he would be incredibly jealous and possessive. This is his Love, his very God. He dedicates his very fucking soul to them and only them, and he’s constantly terrified of losing their favor just as he never held the favor of Grace. Because the Tarnished is a God he knows that other people worship and covet them as well. Depending on the Tarnished’s stance on the Golden Order it’s very likely he would at this point finally abandon it, especially if it’s been abolished by the Tarnished. How foolish of him to worship false idols that would never return his love! He’s finally found true divinity! Of course be still holds lingering shame about his blood considering that it takes more than a little while to undo thousands of years of hearing that you are a mistake and a blight on the world. But in this instance his shame would only push him to keep his hold tight on the Tarnished. He knows that he is Unworthy, and yet he still has the love of his God anyways, and there isn’t a single damn person that can take this away from him. It’s very likely he would also become paranoid to excessive levels that the Tarnished will find someone better. That there are worthier suitors than him, that they will decide that they no longer want him and have realized that they deserve better. Depending on if the Tarnished is able to catch this, it’s very likely that Morgott would spiral into something uncontrollable and that the relationship would become something toxic. Taking a more optimistic path, it would take a lot of honest discussion with Morgott before the relationship settles into something healthy, at least on Morgott’s side. He’d eventually calm the hell down and for the most part quell his more negative emotions.