Merlin is the former mentor and court mage to King Arthur.
History
Origins
Merlin is the son of the Devil and a human woman, granting him immense magical power. He served as a tutor to young Arthur Pendragon, and when the boy grew up to be King of Britain, Merlin became King Arthur's wizard and chief advisor. Camelot flourished under Arthur's leadership, and Merlin's sage counsel. However, Merlin was eventually betrayed by his apprentice and lover Nyneve, who bewitched him and left him imprisoned beneath Stonehenge. As such he was no longer able to assist Arthur, and Camelot fell in Arthur's wars against Lancelot and Modred. In the final battle, Arthur was left mortally wounded and put in a magical sleep so he could slowly heal throughout the centuries.
Camelot 3000
As centuries passed Stonehenge endured, protected by Merlin's magic. Any attempt to remove the stones or build on the land failed due to mysterious mechanical failures or rashes of disease among workers. In the year 3000, aliens lead by Arthur's half-sister and enemy Morgan LeFay invaded Earth. By this point Arthur had sufficiently healed that he could rise from his slumber and save the world, and so Merlin ensured that a young man named Tom Prentice would find Arthur's tomb under Glastonbury Tor and wake him. Arthur killed the aliens who were chasing after Tom and the two of them traveled to Stonehenge to free Merlin.
Arthur called out to Merlin to show himself, but Merlin was unable to break free of Nyneve's spell. He summoned up weather spirits to mock and torment Arthur and Arthur struck the central stone in rage, freeing Merlin from his prison. Merlin apologised to Arthur for baiting him and told him that he needed to unite the nations of Earth under his rule and once again fight off the aliens. Arthur enthusiastically accepted but said he would need Excalibur to do so. Merlin teleported the three of them to Salisbury Down, which was now a nuclear power plant. At Merlin's command, the Lady of the Lake raised Excalibur from within one of the cooling tanks and threw it towards Arthur. However, the sword disappeared before it reached him, as Merlin knew it would, and was sent to the United Nations Building in New York City, once again driven into the stone.
Merlin teleported them to New York and they entered the building, with Merlin magically sealing the doors behind them so they would not be disturbed. Arthur once again drew the sword from the stone, and declared to the watching people of Earth that he was their king and was there to save them. When Arthur drew the sword from the stone, seven bolts of energy were released which should have found the Knights of the Round Table reincarnated in the present and restored their memories. LeFay attempted to stop them, but Merlin sensed what she was attempting to do and repulsed her, although the spell was disrupted and so the reincarnated knights would not have their memories fully restored as they should have been; requiring them to go to each knight and individually awaken their past life memories.
Merlin took them to Commander Joan Acton, the reincarnation of Arthur's queen Guinevere. Guinevere did not recognise them, but Arthur was able to restore her memories with a kiss. Merlin told Arthur that they then needed to awaken the next knight: Sir Lancelot, who had been reborn as Jules Futrelle, the richest man on Earth. He teleported the four of them to Futrelle's "estate", a terraformed asteroid in low earth orbit which would serve as their new base. They were attacked by Futrelle's robotic security, as Merlin knew they would be, and he allowed Arthur to fight it off alone to test if he retained his skill of arms; a test which Arthur passed easily. Futrelle himself came out to confront them, and at the sight of Arthur his memories as Lancelot returned. Lancelot immediately dropped to his knee and swore fealty to Arthur once more.
The next day, Merlin told the others that they needed to awaken the memories of the remaining reincarnated knights. He gave them talismans which would restore a reincarnated knight's memories and teleported each of them to one of the knights' locations. Meanwhile, he himself went to Johannesburg to awaken Sir Gawain. In his new life, Gawain had a wife and son and initially refused to go with Merlin, but Merlin simply stared at him silently until Gawain reluctantly accepted his duty and returned with him to New Camelot.
On New Camelot, the Knights of the Round Table reunited, many of them significantly changed from their former selves. Merlin sensed an approach of fighter craft from Earth and warned the knights that they were about to be attacked. The knights fought off the attackers, who initially appeared to be United Nations troops but were revealed to be aliens in disguise. In reality the aliens had indeed been sent by the U.N. Security Director Jordan Matthew, who was working with LeFay. Following the knights' celebration of their victory Sir Percival, who in his new life was a mutant "Neo-Man"; and Sir Tristan, who had been reborn as a woman, asked Merlin to change them into their former selves with his magic, but he flatly refused.
Later, Arthur watched from Merlin's chamber as Lancelot and Guinevere met in a secluded garden and embraced. He complained that they were romancing as they had done before, but Merlin pointed out that technically Arthur and Guinevere were not married in this life, and so no adultery had taken place. He advised Arthur to remarry Guinevere, as that may stop her from pursuing a relationship with Lancelot. As such, Arthur announced that he would marry Guinevere only two days later. To everyone's surprise, Lancelot expressed enthusiastic support. Later, when they were speaking alone, Merlin informed Arthur that the leader of the aliens was in fact Morgan LeFay. He warned Arthur to keep his focus on LeFay and the invaders, not Lancelot and Guinevere.
Arthur married Guinevere in an elaborate ceremony at the U.N. Building, which Merlin did not attend. During the ceremony Guinevere was killed by an assassin, only to be restored to life by the power of Lancelot's love. As a result of the assassination, Arthur no longer trusted the governments of Earth who were his nominal allies and decided to free the political prisoners from the U.N.'s main prison camp in Australia. He asked for Merlin's advice on the plan and Merlin told him that he believed it would work, but also that he could not see into the future and therefore couldn't guarantee success. He declined to go with the knights on their mission to focus on finding LeFay's hiding place.
The knights' mission was a success, however that night Guinevere went to Lancelot's quarters and they made love. Arthur discovered them and banished them from New Camelot. The king fell into a deep depression, refusing to command the knights or even rise from his throne for days. Arthur's foster brother Sir Kay asked Merlin to try to draw Arthur out of his funk and he agreed, but told Kay it likely would not work. When Merlin left his quarters to speak with Arthur Kay destroyed the amulet Merlin used to keep Nyneve at bay, hoping that seeing Merlin in danger would reinvigorate Arthur. Merlin went to the throne room but Arthur simply asked him to leave. Suddenly Nyneve appeared in the throne room and Merlin was again unable to resist her enchantments. Nyneve teleported Merlin away to Castle LeFay on the planet Chiron at the furthest edge of the Solar System.
Arthur decided to launch a mission to Chiron to rescue Merlin and the knights stole the last rocket on Earth in order to reach the planet. Meanwhile on Earth Jordan Matthew regained his past life memories as Modred and managed to steal the Holy Grail, which he melted down into armour. On Chiron Arthur and his knights assaulted the castle and fought their way to the throne room, where Merlin was being held, guarded by Morgan and Modred. Arthur threw Modred at Merlin, and the holy power of the Grail reacted with Merlin's demonic magic to create a great explosion that killed Modred and freed Merlin. Freed from Nyneve's enchantment, Merlin strangled her to death with her own tongue. He then accelerated a degenerative disease that Morgan had contracted on Chiron, seemingly killing her.
Merlin needed time to regain his strength before he could teleport the knights back to Earth, and so the knights fought and killed the remaining monsters in Castle LeFay. Just when it seemed that victory was at hand Morgan, returned from the dead and now transformed into a spider-like creature, summoned her entire army to attack them. To destroy their enemies once and for all, Arthur had Merlin teleport the others back to Earth and used Excalibur to split the atoms of a rock, triggering a nuclear explosion and sacrificing himself and the Grail to kill Morgan and her army.
The surviving knights returned to Earth, where they erected a memorial for Arthur and all others who fell in their quest on New Camelot. The knights each returned to their lives and helped in the rebuilding of Earth but Merlin departed "until the cycle begins anew". Meanwhile, on an alien world, Excalibur appeared driven into a stone. An alien fleeing a group of attackers found the sword and drew it from the stone.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Magic: Merlin is the most powerful wizard in all the land.
Abilities
Notes
- This character or object is an adaptation of Merlin, a character or object in traditional stories. These include, but may not be limited to religious texts, myth, and/or folk lore. More information on the original can be found at Wikipedia.org.
Related
- 12 Appearances of Merlin (Camelot 3000)
- 4 Images featuring Merlin (Camelot 3000)
- Quotations by or about Merlin (Camelot 3000)
- Character Gallery: Merlin (Camelot 3000)
Footnotes