Morbius was the notorious head of the Imperator Presidency of the Great Houses. A member of House Dvora, his personality and ambition were a sharp contrast to the sedate and conservative traditions of the Great Houses. His career was the first in millennia to dramatically alter the Homeworld's relations with the wider universe. He broke the Homeworld's hands-off approach to the Spiral Politic in favour of an unprecedented and brutal restructuring of the universe to suit the Homeworld's interests. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
Biography[]
As Imperator[]
The Imperator was one of four "mutations" of his generation, members of the Great Houses whose character and personality were so at odds with the staid values of the Homeworld that they had a drastic effect on the Spiral Politic. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
The Imperator's ambition led him to become the head of the Presidency of the Great Houses. He declared himself God-Emperor and demanded that the Protocols of the Great Houses be redrawn to suit the Homeworld's needs (and specifically the needs of House Dvora).
As a child, he was friends with Thessalia, who was also a member of his house; he created the Order of the Weal for her to lead. (PROSE: The Return of the King)
While based on the Homeworld, the Imperator gathered members of the lesser species around him, encouraging them to regard him personally as a god. Though he made extravagant promises to his followers, he did not go so far as to bring them into his bloodline. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
In his search for immortality he used the time scoop and the Death Zone. He drew seven incarnations of Iris Wildthyme to play the Games of Rassilon in an effort to gain Rassilon's gift of immortality. This attempt was ultimately thwarted. (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress, Entertaining Mr. O)
When the ruling Houses, spurred by the Order of the Weal, finally denounced him, he and his followers abandoned the Homeworld and attacked hundreds of cultures in the outside universe. The Homeworld's stagnant society struggled to understand these inconceivable events. After a prolonged period of paralysis, the ruling Houses captured the Imperator, put him on trial, and executed him. This, the first deliberate killing of a member of the Great Houses since their society's foundation, was meant to show the universe at large that the Great Houses — widely regarded as gods by the lesser species — were at least just gods. However, on the Homeworld the death of the Imperator was almost as shocking as his violent campaign, as it suggested that members of the Great Houses could be part of history, as well as controlling it.
The long-term cultural changes brought about in the aftermath of the Imperator Presidency included the increased influence of the intervention groups and the founding of House Paradox, later known as Faction Paradox. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
Morbius' brain[]
Morbius escaped death because one of his human followers, Mehendri Solon, had secretly removed Morbius' brain. Solon went into hiding on the planet Karn, where he built a new body for Morbius using scavenged body parts. However, shortly after his resurrection, Morbius was defeated by the Doctor at a mind-bending contest, and he toppled off a cliff, presumably to his death. (TV: The Brain of Morbius)
However, after the Doctor left Karn, the Sisterhood of Karn went to the bottom of the cliff and recovered what was left of Morbius' "not entirely destroyed" brain. Ohica led the wounded Morbius to the Death Zone to use the remains of Rassilon to give Morbius immortality. Ohica discovered that Iris Wildthyme had infiltrated the Sisterhood, so she used the time scoop to bring seven of Iris' incarnations to Death Zone. The Irises were able to get past the Ice Warriors, Ogrons, Sea Devils, Zarbi, Mechanoids, and Quarks that Ohica time scooped to the Death Zone, and they defeated Morbius before he gained immortality. (PROSE: Verdigris)
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